Public Practice Engagement

Political Bodies, Stakeholders, Owners, Community Interest Groups, Programming, Inter-Organizational Relations

ASLA 2021 Professional Urban Design Honor Award. Market + Georgia Public Space. Chattanooga, Tennessee. WMWA Landscape Architects. Genesis the Greykid. Client: City of Chattanooga C/O Chattanooga Design Studio.

WMWA Landscape Architects & Chattanooga Design Studio

Engagement is the tool utilized to effectively listen to and receive input from community members, stakeholders, political bodies, and interest groups regarding amenities and improvements for spaces that are built, managed, and/or maintained by public agencies. The public practice landscape architect has the responsibility and authority to represent the agency and to effectively align the feedback with the project goals. Examples of engagement include:

  • Formal community meetings, whether in person or online
  • Outreach through surveys and questionnaires
  • Attendance at community events and stakeholder meetings
  • Inter-agency coordination
  • Private development coordination
  • Social media posts
  • Dedicated websites

ASLA 2019 Professional Analysis and Planning Award of Excellence. TOcore: Downtown Parks and Public Realm Plan. Toronto, Canada. PUBLIC WORK Office for Urban Design & Landscape Architecture. Client: City of Toronto.

PUBLIC WORK

The role of the public practice landscape architect is one of facilitator, collaborator, and participant and data collector. As the face of the public agency or the project, the responsibilities and results of engagement includes the following:

  • Invite engagement through the use of community-led planning.
  • Utilize feedback for informing and impacting policies related to environmental, social, and economic values.
  • Strengthen inter-organizational relationships with open communication and inclusivity. Good relationships help to avoid duplicity in project planning.
  • Provide information/feedback updates to political bodies as justification for project’s, long term investments, and the value of assets to the public, i.e. value of mature trees, value of open park.
  • Engage with those who program the sites being designed. The dialogue and interaction with the programming staff is imperative during design to gain a better understanding of how the site will operate upon completion. Programming staff should be involved during the course of the project.
  • Seek out external stakeholders that are located within the general vicinity of the project, or those that could be impacted by the project.

ASLA 2021 Professional Urban Design Award of Excellence. Repairing the Rift: Ricardo Lara Linear Park. Lynwood, California. SWA Group. Client: City of Lynwood.

SWA Group

I have consistently used community engagement to teach students various ways to work with communities in response to requests that come into our Landscape Architecture Program. Each year the program organizes two or three design studio projects that help individual communities envision new futures for their shared property. It’s amazing how the students can generate excitement of possibilities that community members had not thought possible or even thought of.

Terry Clements, FASLA Professor and Program Chair of the Virginia Tech Landscape Architecture Program

Keep Exploring Public Practice Landscape Architecture

Aerial drawing of the reimagined brownfield site known as the Lafitte Greenway

Guide to Public Practice Landscape Architecture

What is public practice landscape architecture? The not-for-profit enterprise whose mission is to design, implement, and manage functional, liveable, safe, and attractive places for the public, often developed with a larger social objective in mind—community gathering, preservation/acknowledgement of history/place, environmental resilience, and economic vitality.

Engagement facilitated conversation among residents and community members through sketching

Public Communications

Initiatives, Presentations, Media Relations, Progress Reporting, Public Education

Contract Administration

Procurement Proposals, Bid Documents, Advertising, Negotiations, Grants/Funding, Scope-of-work Refinement, Budgets, Billing

Data Collection & Analysis

GIS - Mapping, Surveys, Record Reviews, Site Condition Assessment (Grading and Drainage, Erosion, Circulation, Climatic Conditions)

Design

Drive design vision, advocate for landscape architecture components, create design standards, direct design processes

Project Management

Synthesize project components, Resolve project-wide issues, Quality Assurance, Construction document review, Budget and project expenditure monitoring, Process and permit administration

Aerial View of the Eastern End of Orange Mall

Public Asset Management

Inspections, Maintenance, Stewardship, Health & Safety, Inventories, Acquisitions & Agreements

Enhanced pathways traverse the Penn and Fountain Landfills, which rise 130 feet above Jamaica Bay.

Regulation & Compliance

Public Policy Development, Ordinances, Development Standards & Guidelines, Zoning Review, Permitting, Specifications

Representation

Coordination, Collaboration, Team Leadership, Subject Matter Expertise, Agency Liaison, Task Force Member, Public Guardian

Academic researchers meet with a firm liaison to discuss a research project

Research & Documentation

Precedent/Benchmark/Case Studies, Historical Record Review, Preservation Studies, Informational Resources