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EVENTSCAPE [SPRING
2009]
Department
of Landscape Architecture | Quarterly Newsletter
DEPARTMENT NEWS
Spring Quarter
Another academic year is coming to a close. We would like to take this opportunity to celebrate our students (and two alumni). Please read below to see the exciting programs in which our students are engaging as well as the awards they have been honored with.
 We are pleased to announce that Caroline Barnes was awarded the top prize in the MLA Landscape Art Studio Competition headed up by Daniel Winterbottom. Claire Beyer's design was selected for second place.
To the right is the first place submission by Carrie Barnes in the Fall 2008 Landscape Art Competition Studio
Annual ASLA Awards
We are honored to announce the National ASLA Student Awards selected by the Washington Chapter of the ASLA. Thank you to the excellent jury members: Carrie Culp, Juliet Vong, Dean Koontz, Jerry Coburn, and Melissa Cate Christ.
National ASLA Award Winners
MLA Candidates:
Honor - Claire Beyer
Merit - Karen Kennedy
BLA Candidates:
Honor - Victor Velarde
Merit - Hye Young Nam
WASLA Awards
LARCH 303
Honor - Nicole Simon - Bringing the Best Together
LARCH 571
Merit - Erin Berg, Michael Lewis, Sarah Fetterer, Heide Martin - Shelter Art - Direct Action Project
LARCH 302
Honor - Jenny Hampton - Sounding Board: Starting the Conversation on Transit
Merit - Jimmy Mounivong - Site Design in Urban Context
LARCH 303
Honor - Jason Medeiros - Revival Field
Merit - Michael Lewis - Back on the E.Rode Again
LARCH 303
Merit - Carlos Camara, Hugh Hedin, Nicole Simon - Shaping the Duwamish
Merit - Jimmy Mounivong, Deanna Goldy, Lea Anne Burke, Mackenzie Waller -
Balancing the Burden: The Challenge of the Duwamish River
LARCH 332
Merit - Heide Martin - Model of Lit Stair Bench
LARCH 433
Honor - Patrick Keegan and Victor Velarde - Connecting La Conner: Benton Street End
Honor - Carrie Barnes and Danielle Pierce - Cadence
LARCH 474
Honor - Eric Streeby - Concord Elementary: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Merit - Brian Gregory - Enriching Edge
LARCH 503
Honor - AJ Jang, Erica Huang, Yosuke Oi - Chinatown / King Street: Enhancing Vibrant Pedestrian Experience
LARCH 403
Merit - Meng Cai - Vine Street and Denny Way Triangle Design
LARCH 504
Merit - Rochelle Hohlfeld - Alleys: A New Main Street
Merit - Boting Zhang –
BE LAB ’09: Taoping, China
The 2009 BELab (Built Environment Laboratory) is an interdepartmental sequence of courses offered by the College of Built Environments, at the University of Washington, Seattle, on the topic of earthquake recovery in Sichuan, China. In this inaugural BE Lab, UW students and faculty will collaborate with partners at Sichuan University, the design and planning firm Werkhart International, and the people and government of Taoping Village and Li County, Sichuan, to address challenges that include: resilient building reconstruction; ecologically sensitive site design and watershed management; cultural heritage preservation; and sustainable tourism development. Led by Associate Professors Jeff Hou and Dan Abramson, the interdisciplinary team of students include Rachel Miller, Daniel Jeon, David Bramer, and Wan Fong Wu (incoming BLA) from landscape architecture, and others from architecture, civil and environmental engineering, and urban design and planning. More information -- http://courses.washington.edu/belab09/
MLA Students Participate in WASLA Bremerton Charette
Five MLA students from all three years of the program went to Bremerton April 24-25 to participate in the state chapter of ASLA's annual collaborative charette with the National Park Service. A vibrant group of scientists, planners, and landscape architects were assembled by a local community group to develop conceptual plans for two miles of shoreline trail system along Sinclair Inlet. The two-day process consisted of site tours, presentations of regional studies by various experts, brainstorming sessions, hand graphics development, and finished with a
public presentation of the design work. Four teams, focused on trails, restoration, stormwater, and interpretation were led by professional landscape architects. Students assisted with every phase of the conceptual and graphic development.
"As this was the first charette I have ever attended, I had no I idea of what to expect. The format of the days' events provided an incredibly intense educational environment, a fantastic opportunity to try to resolve a real world design problem. I also thought it was a fantastic chance to meet professionals and experts in fields other than landscape architecture who are moved to help resolve these issues. I can't say enough about the experience and hope we have more students participating the next time an event like this comes around." -- David Bramer
"This was a great chance to work closely with the professional community and see first-hand how the practice of landscape architecture can facilitate ecological community development." -- Josho Somine
"The commitment and collaboration from biologists, geologists, and community members was remarkable . . . and particularly crucial for such a difficult site." -- Bradley Pavlik
"Sharing our work with the public and hearing their input on our concepts made this weekend effort a great experience and very meaningful. I can't wait to see where these ideas will lead." -- Leslie Batten
"The charette experience was a great reminder that insightful designs can be produced in a short amount of time and that hand drawing is an invaluable skill that should be constantly practiced." -- Margaret Chang
Studio selected for Architecture Biennale Rotterdam
The work of 503 Community Design Studio in Winter 2009 has been selected for the Parallel Cases exhibition as part of the 4th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam -- http://www.iabr.nl/EN/open_city/program/exhibitions/Parallel_Cases.php. Led by Associate Professor Jeff Hou, in partnership with ID2030 Design and Resource Center and InterIm Community Design Association, the studio provided strategies and tactics for revitalizing the King Street corridor of the International District, connecting Chinatown and Little Saigon. The work will be among 43 other projects on the theme of Open City selected from 160 entries from different design schools around the world. The exhibition is open from September 24, 2009 to January 10, 2010.
Re-vegetation for Natural Areas
Judy Blanco designed, managed, and installed three re-vegetation prescriptions for Natural Areas along the Green River through the King County DNRP in December 2008. This project entailed making site visits to ongoing riparian re-forestation projects, assessing conditions of established restoration plantings, and making prescriptions for subsequent planting plans. Judy designed planting plans based on the prescriptions as well as managed the plant orders with growers, met with contractors in the field, readjusted planting plans and corrected planting techniques in the field, and provided documentation materials for the Restoration Coordinator. A total of over 8,400 native trees and shrubs were planted. She looks forward to finishing her thesis so that she can visit these sites again, but in the meantime she has heard that the plants are doing great.
BLA Neighborhood Studio in the Elementary School
The winter quarter BLA neighborhood design studio worked with 5th graders from Ms. Haas' class at McCarver elementary school in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood to develop ideas for turning a portion of the school's grounds into a neighborhood park memorializing Zina Linnik. Stacey Reding organized an afternoon charrette in which small groups of school and UW students developed models showing the children's ideas for the park. The end of quarter presentation took a novel form--a short charrette with the class modifying and explaining their designs and the studio class presenting ours in a poster session. This event was attended by a large number of community leaders: neighborhood community leaders, Tacoma's Mayor and several city councilors, representatives from city planning and park agencies, a representative from the Governor's office, local philanthropists and foundation leaders, board members and staff from the MetroParks Foundation and the UW Tacoma Chancellor and head of the urban design program--among others.
The 5th grade class made presentations to Tacoma city council and to legislators in Olympia. The city set aside $100,000 for the project and the state budget included $750,000 for it bringing the total to over $1 million for the first phase of the park and memorial.
 Following the studio Stacey Reding and Meng Cai worked with Iain Robertson to develop a poster describing the studio for exhibition at the UW's Teaching and Learning Symposium. The poster took the form of George Washington, complete with cape composed of studio drawings. George, escorted by Will MacDonald, Stacey Reding and Iain Robertson attended a Parks Commission Board meeting early in Spring Quarter during which 5th graders and their teachers were presented with certificates for their efforts to make the park and memorial a reality.
The contributions of BLA students in the studio to helping the project become a reality cannot be overestimated. Interesting design ideas for the park explored and developed and sent to the parks department for consideration. In a more subtle but pervasive way the class acted as a transformative catalyst--an important role for designers working with communities. Working together with 5th graders our students opened their eyes to possibilities for their park and for their education at UW and made the local community value the contributions of UW to the neighborhood.
MLA Thesis on the Russian City of Krasnaoyarsk is presented at professional conferences
On June 2nd, Maria Taylor will present her thesis research at a conference on "Historical Landscapes in the Modern Era" held in St. Petersburg, Russia. The conference is organized in part by sometimes visitor to CAUP, Prof. Maria Ignatieva of Lincoln University. Maria's thesis focuses on the professional discourse of design professionals in the Russian city of Krasnoyarsk, where she studied during the fall of 2007. She has also presented this research in March at a UW conference on ecological, cultural and political change in Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and looks forward to presenting it at the 2009 national conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in November.
Fulbright Awarded to Second Year MLA student
Bo Zhang has been awarded a Fullbright to spend a year in the town of Munsyari, state of Uttarakhand, in India to study the effects of road development on a rural community's income distribution, and to participate in the community's planning process in response to future infrastructure development. She leaves for India in August.
MLA student might become a historian after all…
Karen Kennedy has been awarded the 2009 Garden Club of Virginia Fellowship and will spend the summer researching and documenting the cultural and natural history of Morven Park. Located in Leesburg, VA, Morven Park is a 1000-acre site just west of Washington, D.C. with roots tracing back to 1781. Her work, consisting of a written report, photo documentation, drawings, and detailed CAD documentation, will be added to the comprehensive archives of the state’s important historic landscapes. She will be working under the supervision of William D. Rieley, of Rieley & Associates, Charlottesville, Virginia. As part of her work, Karen will also have the opportunity to visit other significant landscapes within the Commonwealth of Virginia.
MLA thesis projects cover a range of design practices
Judy Blanco is creating a design report for King County DNRP that synthesizes all restoration activities occurring at Chinook Bend Natural Area, a large-scale floodplain restoration project in the Snoqualmie Valley.
Carrie Barnes is focused on the design process with a thesis titled,. A Walk in the Park: Articulating strategies for engaging embodied perception in design process and practice,.
Maria C. Taylor examines the discourse of urban design professionals in the city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, focusing on their articulation of the relationship between design practice and 'Nature'/natural landscapes.
Claire Beyer worked with San Francisco non profit Nature in the City to develop a framework for designing a habitat and recreation corridor across San Francisco, CA.
Karen Kennedy is looking carefully at the Sustainable Sites Initiative and it's potential to enrich landscape design practice in the Pacific Northwest.
Leslie Gia Clark has focused her thesis on a project begun with Iain Robertson in the summer of 2008 when they participated in a charette in Hawaii. The thesis project is titled Designing at the interface: Culture, Ecology, and Tourism Sustainable Design Recommendations for the Kahalu'u Ahupua'a, Hawai'i Island.
Danielle L. Pierce, is using the Seattle Waterfront proposals to consider the role of design graphics and communication.
Scholarships Awarded
- Judy Blanco was awarded a $1,500 scholarship by Anchor Environmental this year
- Kristi Park was co-awarded the Steven G King Play Environments Scholarship by the Landscape Architecture Foundation.
- Stacey Reding was awarded a scholarship from the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs
Our Alumni Shine as Well
Liz Birkholz, ASLA, is chair of the Society’s Public Relations and Communications Advisory Committee, and is a licensed landscape architect in Washington State. She started her career in landscape architecture at Richard Haag Associates where she worked on high-end residential projects. She served on the board of the Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation in Shoreline, Washington, guiding efforts towards transitioning an esteemed private residential garden into a public garden by way of a conservation easement. At Hewitt Architect’s landscape architecture group in Seattle, she worked on light rail stations, mixed-use tourism development, and downtown office sites. Most recently, at NBBJ, she worked on corporate, commercial, civic, and higher education campus projects. She is a LEED® Accredited Professional and served as an advisor toward the City of Seattle’s LEED-ND pilot phase certification effort for its South Lake Union neighborhood. She received her MLA with a certificate in historic preservation and planning from the University of Washington in 2004. Her thesis focused on ecological guidelines for rehabilitating landscapes and managing change in coastal zones
Barbara Deutsch, ASLA, has been selected as the new executive director of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF), beginning April 27, 2009. The announcement was made by LAF President Dennis Carmichael, FASLA, LEED AP, who chaired the transition committee to find a suitable replacement for the position that’s been held by Susan Everett, FASLA, since 1998. She earned a B.S. in commerce from the University of Virginia and spent a decade as a marketing rep for IBM before returning to school to study landscape architecture. With a masters in landscape architecture from the University of Washington, she worked on new town planning and infrastructure in Hong Kong for a landscape architecture firm. She then returned to the U.S. to teach for two years in the University of Washington’s landscape architecture department. She became a senior director of the Casey Trees Endowment Fund, where she secured $350,000 in grant funding for strategic projects and led the 2002 Street Tree Inventory. She was also active in helping develop the D.C. Urban Forest Preservation Act of 2002. She has testified at hearings in D.C. on land use, stormwater management, tree cover and green infrastructure. Ms. Deutsch left Casey Trees in 2006 after receiving a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. In 2007, she won an ASLA Professional Research award for the EPA grant, “The Green Build-Out Model: Quantifying Stormwater Benefits of Trees and Green Roofs in Washington, D.C.” Most recently, she has been associate director at BioRegional for its One Planet Communities program in Washington, D.C., working on sustainability plans and strategies for a variety of international projects.
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