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PROFESSIONAL INTEREST GROUP FUNCTIONS

Thursday, October 30

Tickets will be collected for all ticketed events. Anyone not presenting a ticket will be asked to purchase one at the door; any resulting double payments will be refunded after the meeting. Only those individuals presenting a badge will be permitted to purchase tickets at the door.

Unless otherwise indicated, all functions depart from the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, Hall H entrance, promptly at the time indicated for each function.

Reclamation and Restoration P.I. Group: Gulf Coast Restoration Tour
7:00am-10:00pm

Level of Walking: Moderate

*Note: Attendees on this tour must pick up registration materials and tour tickets Wednesday, October 29, from 4:00pm-7:00pm at the ASLA registration area located at the Hall H entrance of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Registration does not open again until 7:30am on Thursday, October 30.

Join two employees of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources for a firsthand look at the NRCS Plants Materials Center (PMC), Golden Meadow. The PMC is a federal plant research facility with an emphasis on coastal plants. The PMC has released five cultivars of coastal grasses and one coastal tree used by agencies and growers on coastal restoration projects.

Next stop, Port Fourchon, a dredge disposal site, and the Black Mangroves. As one of the largest commercial ports in the United States, this port is the hub for several large oil companies. The beach and marsh are vital in protecting the port and several projects have been constructed to protect them. Project results will be assessed. The Black Mangrove, the only tree that grows in the intertidal zone of Louisiana, can be observed near Port Fourchon. Followed by a visit to a site near the center of Grand Isle, there are several coastal restoration features. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ activities will be discussed along with the effects of Tropical Storm Isidore and Hurricane Lili. LaDNR dune plantings will also be observed and assessed while seeing examples of beach plantings, groins, and breakwaters.

The tour will now visit the Nature Conservancy Board Walk, which has begun planting hardwood seedlings in the Grand Isle area for habitat and is a resting place for migrating neotropical birds. Finally, the group will stop at Grand Isle State Park to conclude the day by discussing the dynamics of this ever-changing coastal landscape over a good old-fashioned, mouth watering shrimp boil on the Grand Isle Fishing Pier. There will be a limited number of vegetarian items on the menu.

$105 per person. Fee includes transportation, morning and afternoon breaks, shrimp boil dinner, and handout materials. Tour led by Kenneth Bahlinger and Greg Grandy of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Coastal Restoration Division.

Water Conservation P.I. Group: Crosby Arboretum Mobile Workshop
8:00am-5:00pm

Level of Walking: Low

The workshop will be held at the Crosby Arboretum located near Picayune, Mississippi, about an hour northeast of New Orleans and will be split into two parts. The morning segment will include a series of 20-30 minute presentations that will allow participants to share examples of innovative projects from around the country showcasing sustainable water resource management practices. The selected case studies will represent various types and scales of sustainable land use development strategies that are based, in part, on an increased awareness of the historical context unique to each and every site. Such an approach mandates an intimate understanding of site and regional patterns of hydrology, soils, geology, flora, fauna, and the cultural processes that were involved in their evolution.

The afternoon session will include a tour of the Arboretum’s facilities and restored habitats. The Crosby Arboretum is the premier native plant conservatory in the southeastern United States and is one of the finest examples in the country of an institution that embraces and interprets the native habitats and wildlife systems that are unique to its region, as well as the cultural processes that help shape them. The Arboretum will serve as a powerful educational tool for demonstrating the integrated ecological planning and design strategies discussed in the morning sessions.

$80 per person. Fee includes transportation, morning and afternoon breaks, admission fees, lunch, and handout materials. Tour led by Edward L. Blake, Jr., ASLA, former director of the Arboretum and current founder and principal of The Landscape Studio in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Gerould S. Wilhelm, PhD, a noted botanist and ecologist who is a recognized authority on the flora of the gulf coastal region, will join Blake in the field.

Residential Landscape Design P.I. Group: New Orleans Garden District Tour - Sold Out
8:30am-3:00pm

Level of Walking: High

Lake Douglas, nationally known garden historian, and Steve Coenen, successful New Orleans designer of gardens, will lead an extraordinary study of private historic house gardens in the New Orleans Garden District. The tour begins with a streetcar ride from the Morial Convention Center to the Cornstalk Fence House, one of Coenen’s own garden designs. Participants will enjoy a leisurely epicurean continental breakfast with Douglas and Coenen in the gardens of this historic installation.

The Garden District of New Orleans was one of the first “streetcar suburbs” of New Orleans. Its urban fabric reflects characteristically American street and residential patterns in this international city. The Garden District has always been home to the city’s elite. Structures reflect the architectural exuberance and extravagant lifestyles of the past. Gardens overflow with live oak, azaleas, camellias, crepe myrtles, and tropical exotics. The group will visit several private historic house gardens with commentary by Douglas and Coenen. The old St. Louis Cemetery within the Garden District is also included.

The tour ends by dining at one of the great restaurants of New Orleans, Commanders Palace. Luncheon will consist of a private three-course meal featuring specialties of the house. A relaxed dress code has been arranged so please dress accordingly: tennis shoes but no shorts or T-shirts.

Insider tip: Order Douglas’ splendid new book, Gardens of New Orleans: Exquisite Excess (Chronicle, 2001) from Garden District Books (504-895-2266) at a 10% discount to prepare for the tour. Look for Steve Coenen's house and garden in the book.

$80 per person. Fee includes streetcar pass, morning break, lunch at Commanders Palace, and handout materials. Tour coordinated by Madeline Sutter, ASLA, principal, Madeline Sutter ASLA-Landscape Architect; Cynthia Rood, ASLA, principal, Cynthia Rood ASLA-Landscape Architect; and Gilbert B. Wheless, Jr., ASLA, principal, Environmental Design Associates, PC.

Therapeutic Garden Design P.I. Group: Creating Appropriate Spatial Environments to Support and Encourage Successful Aging Forum
9:00am-3:30pm
Hampton Inn and Suites

The concept of retirement and the form and content of retirement communities are about to change radically. In the next 25 years over 50 million healthy, active, and highly motivated older people are going to be looking for ways to live out the last third of their lives. Landscape architects have an opportunity to be leaders in shaping the inevitable changes. This workshop is designed to facilitate that preparation.

Four inescapable, converging demographic trends that will change society will be introduced. The social and landscape potentials held in the trends will be described. A handout containing findings on successful aging from 25 years of national surveys will be provided. Smaller groups will be created to interpret the survey findings and convert them into designed environments that best facilitate people’s ongoing successful and productive daily lives; then the results will be shared with the entire group.

During lunch a guest speaker will address the potential held by older people and why society will need them, presenting examples of multigenerational environments in which the residents prosper and grow as they build the social capital of their community.

Once again the group will break into small groups and identify the kinds of knowledge and expertise that will position landscape architects as leaders as well as list recommendations on how to prepare to market and practice that expertise. Finally the groups will summarize their work. The workshop concludes with an open discussion on participants’ experiences, ways to operationalize marketing strategies, and how to approach other professions with which collaborative projects should be initiated.

$70 per person. Fee includes morning and afternoon breaks, lunch, and handout materials. Workshop led by; Robert Scarfo, PhD, ASLA, associate professor at the Washington State University; Mark Epstein, ASLA, landscape architect, Parametrix, Inc; and John Paul Carman, ASLA, landscape architect with Design for Generations, LLC.

Historic Preservation P.I. Group: New Orleans Cultural Landscape Preservation Mobile Workshop
9:30am-4:30pm

Level of Walking: Moderate

Participants will visit four important cultural landscapes demonstrating a range of issues and preservation treatments. Each stop will discuss relevant preservation issues. The first stop, St. Louis Cemetery, is an example of an aboveground graveyard that forms a “street” and together a “district” of structures, which was involved a multidimensional conservation project. The project explored the history, inventoried the condition and conservation issues of graves, and indicated the importance of the historic character of this cemetery. The layout, paths, greenspaces, trees, views, etc., as well as the documentation and conservation issues and current use pressures from daily tours will be discussed.

Next visit Longue Vue House & Gardens, the last “Country Place Estate” developed in the United States. Designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman, George and William Platt (sons of Charles Platt), and Caroline Dorman, Louisiana naturalist and conservationist, for Edith and Edgar Stern, the property was opened to the public in 1972. By the late 1990s a series of changes altered the character, quality, and authenticity of the property, which incited a property master plan and a historic landscape report to be prepared addressing deterioration, change, use pressures, and preservation issues. During lunch participants will discuss the history and preservation issues of the site followed by a visit to the new Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden, adjacent to the Museum in City Park. The garden is an addition to the cultural landscape of New Orleans. Issues of expansion, development, and compatibility will be explored.

Next is a stop at the Notarial Archives, visiting plat books and a walk to Jackson Square with a city planner. Jackson Square, the heart of the French Quarter, has a long history as a focal point of urban life and experiences heavy daily use. The iconic nature of the square, its landscape, and frame of privately owned historic building facades makes preservation of fabric and character a challenge. Participants will explore urban historic preservation issues in a heavy tourist and commercial use milieu in relation to the connections to the Riverwalk and the recent development with city staff. Buses are not permitted in the French Quarter, leaving participants to walk or cab back to the nearby meeting hotels.

$70 per person. Fee includes admission fees, box lunch, morning and afternoon breaks, and handout materials. Workshop led by landscape architects Mary Palmer Dargan, ASLA, Dargan Landscape Architects, and Patricia M. O’Donnell, FASLA, LANDSCAPES - Landscape Architecture Planning - Historic Preservation.