LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS MAY 2024 / VOL 114 NO 5 US $16 CAN $22 FLOOD PRINTS Small towns manage big water with Coastal Dynamics Design Lab STUDIO LUDO + OJB Thrills to spare at Arches Playground LIFE AND LAND LOSS New views on South Louisiana from Virginia Hanusik MORE WOONERFS! Philadelphia streets made for people
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4 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 MCNEIL PHOTOGRAPHY, TOP; DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, BOTTOM LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS MAY 2024 12 INSIDE 14 COMMENT 16 LAND MATTERS 132 ADVERTISER INDEX 133 ADVERTISERS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY FOREGROUND 20 NOW Timothy A. Schuler, Editor Toronto flips the script for urban cooling; asking where the landscape architects are in disaster planning; making cities safer for skateboarders; an innovative new dual-degree program at Tulane; and more. 42 PLANNING A Ready Road Map by Sarah Chase Shaw Damon Farber Landscape Architects helps smooth the way for a $25 million federal grant earmarked for the streetscape of a struggling neighborhood. 54 GOODS Kristen Mastroianni, Editor Get Going Street fixtures that ease the transit experience. 20 42 Front-Contents FIN.indd 4 4/3/24
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 / 5 DAN SCHWALM © 2023 HDR, TOP; COASTAL DYNAMICS DESIGN LAB, CENTER; VIRGINIA HANUSIK, BOTTOM FEATURES 64 Free for All by Daniel Jost, ASLA The transformation of the 72-acre Gene Leahy Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, by OJB includes a new playground by Studio Ludo that expands children’s play, and confidence, in every dimension. 82 Call It a Comeback by Irina Zhorov North Carolina State University’s Coastal Dynamics Design Lab was an academic research hub until three hurricanes and billions of dollars in damages convinced the team to head inland where their expertise was needed most. THE BACK 104 Indeterminate Landscapes Text and Photography by Virginia Hanusik An excerpt from Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana. 114 BOOKS Mimi Zeiger, Editor Reality Check by Danika Cooper A review of Speculative Futures: Design Approaches to Navigate Change, Foster Resilience, and Co-Create the Cities We Need, by Johanna Hoffman. 144 BACKSTORY Woonerfs make space for people and cars, right in downtown Philadelphia. 82 104 64
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8 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 ON THE COVER Pollocksville, North Carolina, floodprint, by Coastal Dynamics Design Lab, page 82. COASTAL DYNAMICS DESIGN LAB LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS EDITOR Jennifer Reut / [email protected] MANAGING EDITOR Leah Ghazarian / [email protected] ART DIRECTOR Christopher McGee / [email protected] SENIOR GRAPHIC DESIGNER Kristen Mastroianni / [email protected] COPY CHIEF Lisa Schultz / [email protected] CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Brian Barth; Jared Brey; Jessica Bridger; Sahar Coston-Hardy, Affiliate ASLA; Lydia Lee; Jonathan Lerner; Jane Margolies; Zach Mortice; Maci Nelson, Associate ASLA; Timothy A. Schuler; James R. Urban, FASLA; Lisa Owens Viani; Mimi Zeiger EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Dennis R. Nola, FASLA / Chair Monique Bassey, ASLA / Vice President, Communications Diana Boric, Associate ASLA Nathaniel Byro, ASLA Sara Hadavi, ASLA Jiali Liu, Associate ASLA Graciela Martin, Associate ASLA Daniel McElmurray, ASLA Andrew Sargeant, ASLA Matthew Sickle, ASLA David Toda, ASLA Bo Zhang, ASLA EDITORIAL 202-898-2444 PUBLISHER Michael O’Brien, Honorary ASLA / [email protected] MANAGING DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT Daniel Martin, Honorary ASLA / [email protected] ADVERTISING SALES 202-216-2363 SALES MANAGER Monica Barkley / [email protected] SALES MANAGER Kathleen Thomas / [email protected] PRODUCTION SENIOR PRODUCTION MANAGER Laura Iverson / [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS REPRESENTATIVE [email protected] BACK ISSUES 888-999-ASLA (2752) Landscape Architecture Magazine (ISSN 0023-8031) is published monthly by the American Society of Landscape Architects, 636 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20001- 3736. Periodical postage paid at Washington, D.C., and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Landscape Architecture Magazine, 636 Eye Street NW, Washington, DC 20001-3736. Publications Mail Agreement No. 41024518. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 503 RPO, West Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill, ON L4B 4R6. Copyright 2024 ASLA. Subscriptions: $79/year; international: $119/ year; digital: $68/year; single copies: $10. Landscape Architecture Magazine seeks to support a healthy planet through environmentally conscious production and distribution of the magazine. This magazine is printed on certified paper using vegetable inks. You can read more about the sustainability efforts of our publishing partners at bit.ly/lam-sustainability. The magazine is also available in digital format through bit.ly/lam-zinio or by calling 1-888-999-ASLA. ASLA BOARD OF TRUSTEES PRESIDENT SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA PRESIDENT-ELECT Kona Gray, FASLA IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Emily O’Mahoney, FASLA VICE PRESIDENTS Monique Bassey, ASLA Chris Della Vedova, ASLA Joy Kuebler, FASLA Ebru Ozer, FASLA Jean Senechal Biggs, ASLA April Westcott, FASLA CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Torey Carter-Conneen SECRETARY Curtis Millay, ASLA TREASURER Michael O’Brien, Honorary ASLA TRUSTEES Benjamin Baker, ASLA Chad Bostick, ASLA Elizabeth Boults, ASLA Jonathan Bronk, ASLA Kenneth Brooks, FASLA Katie Clark, FASLA Matthew Copp, ASLA Jitka Dekojova, ASLA Geoff Evans, ASLA Alexander Fenech, ASLA Jay Gibbons, ASLA Lara Guldenpfennig, ASLA William Hall, ASLA Jonathan Hayes, ASLA James Hencke, ASLA Gail Henderson-King, ASLA Todd Hill, ASLA Allen Jones, ASLA Carl Kelemen, FASLA Omprakash Khurjekar, ASLA Randy Knowles, ASLA Chad Kucker, ASLA Chris Laster, ASLA Justin Lemoine, ASLA Evan Mather, FASLA Christopher Moon, ASLA Elizabeth Moskalenko, ASLA Amin Omidy, ASLA Holley Bloss Owings, ASLA Michele Palmer, ASLA Vaughn Eric Perez, ASLA Zachary Pierce, ASLA Matthew Rentsch, ASLA Brian Roth, ASLA Thomas Ryan, FASLA Jan Saltiel-Rafel, ASLA Barbara Santner, ASLA Todd Schoolcraft, ASLA Tim Slazinik, ASLA Dustin Smith, ASLA Nathan Socha, ASLA Robert Tilson, FASLA Patricia Trauth, ASLA William Bryce Ward, ASLA Alan Watkins, ASLA Andrew Wickham, ASLA Gretchen Wilson, ASLA Barbara Yaeger, ASLA Dana Anne Yee, FASLA LAF REPRESENTATIVES Barbara Deutsch, FASLA Roberto Rovira, ASLA NATIONAL ASSOCIATE REPRESENTATIVE Nicole Beard, Associate ASLA NATIONAL STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Lexi Banks, Student ASLA PARLIAMENTARIAN Susan Jacobson, FASLA Front-Masthead FIN.indd 8 4/3/24
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12 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 LAM / INSIDE DANIKA COOPER (“Reality Check,” page 114) is an associate professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley. You can follow her on Instagram @dry_matters. “Johanna Hoffman included an extensive set of examples of speculative futures projects, and I wish I could have included more of them in my review.” DANIEL JOST, ASLA, (“Free for All,” page 64) is a PhD candidate at North Carolina State University, where he works with the Natural Learning Initiative. You can reach him at [email protected]. “I’m excited to see how the risk management strategies explored in Arches Playground might encourage more targeted use of protective surfacing and more natural and playable settings under and alongside playground equipment.” SARAH CHASE SHAW (“A Ready Road Map,” page 42) is a Colorado-based freelance writer and landscape designer. You can follow her on Instagram @sary_chase. “Who knew that Duluth is a hot spot for winter surfing?” CONTRIBUTORS ASHWIN KUMAR, TOP; DANIEL JOST, ASLA, CENTER; RICHARD W. SHAW, BOTTOM At LAM, we don’t know what we don’t know. If you have a story, project, obsession, or simply an area of interest you’d like to see covered, tell us! Send it to [email protected]. For more information, visit LAM online at landscapearchitecturemagazine.org/ contribute-to-lam. Follow us on X and Instagram @landarchmag and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ landscapearchitecturemagazine. LAM is available in digital format through landscapearchitecturemagazine.org/ subscribe or by calling 1-888-999-ASLA. GOT A STORY? Front-Inside FIN.indd 12 4/2/24
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14 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 LAM / COMMENT PRICKLY DESIRES A Review of The Cactus Hunters Not a word about ecosystem services and the biodiversity in regions hostile to humans which are nurtured by cacti. Why is @landarchmag considering this book?! Only because cactus is a plant? Plants and landscape is LA’s green obsession. LA is not about “green.” That’s an outcome. When cactus collectors study and provide the ecosystems for a cactus species, they would spend less on their greenhouse. Just mimicking the cactus xerophytic landscape is cosmetic; introduce providers and participants of the energy/nutrient cycle. Nature should never be a pet dog. Sridevi Rao @sitahyderabadi Readers weigh in on stories from our January and February issues. A PLACE FOR EVERY PERSON Housing for neurodiversity by Office of Strategy + Design The benefits of the design are innumerable; most receptive is the opportunity to connect and bond with like-minded individuals in a community setting. The challenge, as I see it, is maintaining the integrity of the community as it ages. As such, how will the design evolve as all communities do, as residents’ needs change? It is in our nature to modify our environments to suit our existing needs, regardless of how well planned. Does this allow for such changes over time? Rob Parker, Livingston, Texas This takes building sustainable and equitable communities to a new level. Please share its progress. Stephen Walsh Kinvarra County Galway, Ireland Every time I encounter projects like this, I’m thrilled by the collaboration of experts from diverse fields on interdisciplinary projects that enrich lives. It’s especially exciting when I envision myself as a potential member of such an expert team. Aida Yahyavi Rahimi, Miami ALWAYS OPEN Speed Outdoors by Reed Hilderbrand Thank you for this informative article about a new development right in the backyard of where I’ve spent my career—Louisville’s parks and parkways. I was especially amazed with the graphic—right out of the documentation produced to highlight the Olmsted influences here. John A. Swintosky, ASLA Louisville, Kentucky A RIVER REMEMBERED Ghost Rivers by Public Mechanics More of this, please! Carter Craft, New Jersey @cartercraft Many cities have streams buried in pipes and have built on the natural floodplains. Public art is a great way to try to connect people back to the natural landscape! Shirley Clark, Middletown, Pennsylvania KEEPING IT WEIRD Cosmic Saltillo by Ten Eyck Landscape Architects This is just a stunning example of adaptive reuse that planners should be encouraging through the redevelopment of outdated zoning regulations! Kaley Arboleda South Lake Tahoe, California Love the feel of this! Conner Landscape Architects Tampa, Florida @connerlandarch That’s how you repurpose a building! Well done! Mateo Sanz Pedemonte, Buenos Aires Love the thought that went into this design. STACH PLLC, Asheville, North Carolina @stachpllc Front-Comment FIN.indd 14 4/3/24
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16 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 A few days before I visited Joshua Tree National Park this spring, I picked up a book, as I am wont to do, about the cultural history of the park. Preserving the Desert: A History of Joshua Tree National Park, by the historical geographer Lary M. Dilsaver, is primarily concerned with how the park came to be—who championed it, who fought it, and the compromises that resulted. What snagged in my mind as I wound through the park was Dilsaver’s introductory essay (called, interestingly, “Coping with the Desert”), where he argued that part of the challenge of establishing the park in the early years was that the desert region did not fit into culturally established notions of landscape beauty. It was seen as desolate and dangerous, relatively empty of life, and best suited to mining and sporadic ranching. In essence, a bleak landscape for working, not preserving. This allegedly barren and unlovely place is now considered one of the country’s top destination parks, home to some 800 species of plants, 57 mammals, and dozens of reptiles. Pinto culture stretches back 8,000 years, and the Serrano, Cahuilla, Mojave, and Chemehuevi peoples all lived in the area that is now the park before the arrival of Europeans. The park’s situation at a meeting of the Mojave and Colorado (Sonoran) deserts surrounded by six mountain ranges creates two distinct desert environments—a northwestern elevation that is more vegetated and cooler and a southeastern one that is more arid—and about 85 percent of the park is managed as wilderness. Despite these facts, Dilsaver says the belief that the desert is empty and unchanging continues to be a factor in threats to the park today, which include the encroachment of housing, wind and solar energy plants, and legacy mines. JENNIFER REUT EDITOR BEAUTY IS A BEAST LAND MATTERS LAM / In the introduction to her new book Into the Quiet and the Light: Water, Life, and Land Loss in South Louisiana, excerpted this month, along with a handful of her photographs, Virginia Hanusik argues a similar point for the landscapes of southern Louisiana. Often described as swamps—dark places to get lost and overwhelmed, or to flee and never be found—they are excised from depictions of American landscape beauty. By threading together histories of North American landscape painting and colonial expansion with the work of Vittoria Di Palma on wastelands, Hanusik argues that southern Louisiana’s differences from newly formed ideals of American landscape beauty made it vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation, resulting in gas and oil industrialization and the impositions of massive water infrastructure, all of which continue. Landscape architects are trained to see diverse and dynamic landscapes such as these as inherently beautiful. But aesthetic values change, and landscape beauty that is placeless or tied only to the visual is easily dismissed or worse, devalued. I turn back to a more expansive definition by Anne Whiston Spirn, FASLA, quoted in the landmark “Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance,” by Elizabeth K. Meyer, FASLA, for a clearer view: “This aesthetic engages all the senses, not just sight, but sound, smell, touch, and taste, as well. This aesthetic includes both the making of things and places and the sensing, using, and contemplating of them.” U.S. NATIONAL PARK SERVICE/PUBLIC DOMAIN Front-Land Matters FIN.indd 16 4/3/24
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LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 / 19 KLAMATH RIVER, CALIFORNIA The recent removal of the Copco 2 dam makes space for habitat, in NOW, ANDREW HOLDER page 20. FOREGROUND Fore-Divider FIN.indd 19 4/3/24
KEEPING THEIR COOL TORONTO’S COLD-SAVVY PLANNERS ADAPT THE CITY TO HOTTER SUMMERS. BY SAM BLOCH ILLUSTRATION BY MEG STUDER When cities plan to mitigate ex- treme heat, many draw from a now-familiar playbook—more trees, more reflective surfaces, and more air-conditioning. In Toronto, city officials are exploring a different strategy: changing the orientation, massing, and materials of new buildings to improve the habitability of public space. The project, currently billed as a “thermal comfort study,” represents a new frontier in urban adaptation. “We can’t change the climate,” says Dorsa Jalalian, an urban designer at Dialog, a design firm retained for the study. “We are just trying to extend the number of hours that we can be comfortable.” EDITED BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER FOREGROUND / NOW 20 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 Fore-Now FIN.indd 20 4/2/24
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The idea that cities might shelter people from heat has a long, mostly pre-air-conditioned history, but in North America, new buildings are typically required to enhance outdoor warmth, not dispel it. In the early 1990s, when urban designers created “pedestrian comfort” guidelines for downtown Toronto, the focus was on limiting shadows and gusty winds to improve winter conditions. Back then, the city suffered an average of just 10 very hot days per year, with scant mention in the city plan. By the 2050s, that number could rise as high as 55 days. In 2022—as the city prepared a broader heat relief strategy—the planning department began working with Dialog and the engineering firm Buro Happold to review those policies and update them for a climate-changed world. In the future, when a largescale development or neighborhood plan is built, new thermal comfort requirements could encourage it to positively affect streets, parks, and other spaces by shading them at key times of the day, funneling cool breezes on summer days, or offering more vegetation. Although the city’s website foregrounds “respite during extreme heat days,” the study team also stressed the continued importance of winter comfort in an interview, for mental health and general well-being. As an example, the project team showed LAM an analysis of a proposed buildup of towers slated for Flemingdon Park. According to Buro Happold’s in-house models, the skyscrapers would dramatically increase the comfort of the surrounding lawns and footpaths in summer but have the opposite effect in winter. For that reason, it could be rejected. “We want to be able to strike a balance so that we can maximize comfort year-round,” explains Kristina Reinders, an urban design program manager in the City of Toronto’s planning department. In this instance, potential mitigation strategies include stepping back the towers to dampen downwash or planting more deciduous trees on the ground. Architects and academics have modeled the thermal effects of urban form for decades, but only recently has the research informed local climate policy; London, Athens, and Singapore are other global cities making the leap. If it passes, Toronto’s four-seasons approach could have its critics, including Brent Toderian, the former chief planner of Calgary and Vancouver. Once a “champion of urban light,” he says British Columbia’s fatal heat dome of 2021 forced him to rethink that assumption, and he encourages other designers to do the same. “It is more important that we address lifeand-death scenarios in our summers, moving forward, than [have] ideal comfort, by the definition of urban designers, in the winter,” he says. “We’re not in a winter shadow emergency. We’re in a climate emergency.” A FOUR-SEASON APPROACH TO BALANCE WINTER COMFORT AND SUMMER’S DEADLY HEAT. 22 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 22 4/3/24
NEW RESEARCH MAKES THE CASE FOR GREATER COORDINATION BETWEEN DISASTER PLANNING AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER I n a time of mounting climate threats, landscape architects are increasingly concerned with disaster mitigation, implementing strategies that can protect communities from flooding or wildfire. This would make them natural allies of emergency managers and federal, state, and local disasterplanning agencies, and yet, according to a recent study, landscape architects’ “collaborative input into the emergency management ecosystem… appears to be close to nonexistent.” The study, published in the journal Natural Hazards in December 2023, was authored by Erik Xavier Wood, a licensed landscape architect who teaches emergency and disaster management at Georgetown University. Wood compiled a good deal of evidence to make his point, noting that the last time a FEMA policy document mentioned landscape architecture was in 2007 in the context of anti-terrorism strategies. Meanwhile, FEMA’s 2023 Nature-Based Solutions guide lists “combat climate change, reduce flood risk, improve water quality, protect coastal property, restore and protect wetlands, stabilize shorelines, reduce urban heat, and add recreational space” among its objectives but neglects to mention landscape architects as potential privatesector partners. There are historical and cultural reasons for this siloing. For instance, it wasn’t until 2000 that FEMA began funding predisaster planning. “Within the cycle of emergency management, mitigation is the part of the cycle that is least developed, and that has to do with the fact that this is a relatively new part of that job,” says Matthijs NATURAL ALLIES Bouw, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and the founding principal of One Architecture & Urbanism in New York and Amsterdam. Wood says the lack of coordination leaves millions of dollars on the table for climate adaptation work, but he thinks there is a path to greater involvement between the professions. He envisions a future in which landscape architects engage not only as private-sector consultants but as civil servants, integrated into state and federal emergency management bureaucracies. Such integration is not without precedent. In 2007, a National Research Council report formally recommended that GIS be included in emergency management policies and procedures and that academic institutions place more emphasis on GIS training. “Within five years, you had major integration of GIS into the planning process,” Wood says. It's beginning to happen in higher education. When North Dakota State University (NDSU) needed a new home for its emergency management degree program, the leadership saw landscape architecture as a potential fit. Now, the programs have been merged into a single Department of Landscape Architecture, Disaster Resilience, and Emergency Management, with a focus on designing and planning for resilience. For Dominic Fischer, ASLA, the chair of NDSU’s landscape architecture program, the increased emphasis on data, GIS, and climate adaptation in landscape architecture made emergency management a natural addition. “The more we talk about it,” he says, “the more we see the overlaps.”
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GREENWORKS, TOP; ANDREW HOLDER, INSET L ast year was a historic year for the removal of dams along American rivers. According to American Rivers’s national dam removal database, 80 dams were removed in 2023, including 15 in Pennsylvania alone. The year 2023 also marked the beginning of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history: the demolition of four dams along the Klamath River in California and Oregon. Following years of advocacy by tribes and environmental groups and led by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a private, independent nonprofit created out of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, the project will open up more than 400 miles of habitat for salmon, steelhead TOP As part of the dam removal project, five recreation areas are being reconfigured for more active uses. INSET California's Copco 2 dam was demolished in 2023. trout, and other threatened species. The removal of the first dam—Copco 2—was completed last fall, with the other three slated to come down this year. As part of the $450 million project, which includes restoration of the areas adjacent to the dams, as well as those previously submerged by the dam-created lakes, five new or improved recreation areas are being designed to enhance human access to the river. The effort is a small but important piece of the larger infrastructural puzzle, as the river is A RIVER RETURNS DAM REMOVALS ALONG THE KLAMATH RIVER BRING SUBMERGED HISTORIES TO THE SURFACE. BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER PIONEER PARK WEST MOONSHINE FALLS K’΄IKA.C’E΄.KI FALL CREEK K’U΄Č’ASČAS IRON GATE OREGON CALIFORNIA W΄ A. SUR ΄ AKA. (KLAMATH RIVER) N KLAMATH RIVER RECREATION SITES HIGHWAY 66 J.C. BOYLE DAM IRON GATE DAM COPCO 1&2 DAMS 26 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 26 4/3/24
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ANDREW HOLDER LEFT Members of the design team survey what was Copco Lake following a scheduled drawdown in early 2024. expected to see increased use both by kayakers and white-water rafters and by members of tribes with cultural ties to the river. Designed by GreenWorks of Portland, Oregon, the new recreation areas align with the project’s larger goals of river restoration as well as the realities of an altered climate. Planting palettes are being drawn exclusively from naturally occurring native plant communities in coordination with the larger landscape restoration effort. Shade is prioritized through the preservation of existing canopy trees. And concrete picnic tables are being salvaged from existing recreation areas to reduce the project’s carbon footprint and to increase wildfire resilience. The team describes a design process that has been unlike any other. Because of the importance of the river to the Klamath, Shasta, Modoc, Hoopa, Karuk, and Yurok tribes, the team spent hours learning about their languages and traditional lifeways, as well as several days hiking through the backcountry of the Klamath River watershed. Perhaps most unusually, they are designing around a vast array of unknowns. “Our existing conditions are ever-evolving,” says the GreenWorks landscape designer Anya Moucha. “Access varies; some of it is private property, some of it is still under PacifiCorp or is being used for construction. In some cases, it’s been underwater, and not [knowing] what exactly things would look like with the drawdown has been interesting.” Bathymetry and cultural resources surveys have revealed some of what lies beneath: former roads, bridges, fences, homesteads, barns, orchards, gardens, and at least one cemetery. Among the most important of these long-submerged sites is a former Shasta village known as K’íka-c’é-ki, which is the fifth planned recreation area. GreenWorks is currently collaborating with the Shasta Indian Nation on plans for the K’íka-c’é-ki site, which will have additional cultural and interpretive elements. James Sarmento, a member of the Shasta Indian Nation, says the project will affect generations of Indigenous people through the kinds of landscape connections that are being restored. “Looking at an area that you’ve only ever seen one way, and then to see it start to return back to the way that it was is mind-blowing,” he says. “I took my wife and my son up there, and the fact that he will never know it the same way that I knew it is just kind of amazing.” 28 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 28 4/3/24
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VAN DER ZALM + ASSOCIATES There’s no question that skateboarding gets a bad rap. The National Safety Council ranks it safer than baseball—not to mention hockey and football—but it’s perceived as risky. Noise from skate wheels is negligible at 50 feet, but it’s perceived as noisy. And although skaters comprise a wide demographic, they’re stereotyped as teenage boys with a predilection for delinquency. Misperceptions like these often lead to public spaces that are designed to thwart the sport. In Vancouver, Canada, however, where skateboarding has deep roots, a paradigm-shifting new strategic plan embraces skateboarding as a valid use of the city and is expanding the opportunities to enjoy it. Developed by van der Zalm + associates for the municipal park board, Vancouver’s CitySkate envisions an interconnected, citywide network of skate amenities. Beyond parks, the 20-year plan, which won a 2023 Canadian Society of Landscape Architects Award of Excellence, aims to integrate small-wheeled sports like skateboarding, scootering, and BMX into the wider fabric of the city’s streets and public spaces. “Our skateparks can’t satisfy the growing number of skateboarders,” says Michelle Larigakis, a planner with the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. “In the right place and at the right time, street and city skating is a legitimate form of skateboarding that we encourage.” Developed during a yearlong process that engaged some 3,300 respondents, CitySkate’s strategies for meeting public demand for smallwheel opportunities envision new and renovated skateparks at both FOREGROUND /NOW N PRIORITY AREAS FOR VANCOUVER SKATE AMENITIES 30 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 SKATE THE CITY A NEW STRATEGY FOR PUBLIC SPACE PLANNING TAKES THE STOPS OFF SMALL-WHEELED SPORTS. BY KATHARINE LOGAN Priority 1 Areas Urban Focus Area + Gaps in Existing Skate Amenities + Demand for Low Barrier Access Priority 2 Areas Urban Focus Area + (Gaps in Existing Skate Amenities OR Demand for Low Barrier Access) “Where I Want To Skate” Public Engagement Feedback (the larger the pin mark, the more participants identified this location) Fore-Now FIN.indd 30 4/2/24
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32 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 8m - Typical Approach 6m - Compact Approach (Acceptable with Turnaround) 10m - Ideal Approach Between Features 2m - Space VAN DER ZALM + ASSOCIATES FOREGROUND /NOW the network and neighborhood scales, including opportunities for DIY installations. In addition to those big moves, skate “dots” and skate “spots” will be developed in existing parks and play areas, as well as in collaboration with the school board’s renovation of school grounds, and as an option for private developers as part of their contribution to public amenities. (The plan defines “dots” as less than 1,600 square feet—maybe just a skateable rail—and “spots” as 1,600 to 6,500 square feet—say, a rail and a couple of ramps, or more.) “What we learned was it doesn’t have to be a full-blown park,” Larigakis says. “Maybe it’s just a skateable seating ledge next to the basketball courts and playground, so then you get multiple age groups all hanging out together.” The strategy also calls for making greenways more skatefriendly, for example, by integrating dots and spots, improving connections between skate amenities, and providing the smooth surfaces small wheels need. Travis Martin, a landscape architect with VDZ+A, says the social benefits of skateboarding are legion. For participants, it can improve physical fitness, reduce stress, and build confidence and community. For the public realm, the sport can activate parks, plazas, and underused urban spaces, improving their safety with increased use and offering spectators a great show. “One of the things that excites me most about CitySkate is that it will inject fun into the city,” he says. “It’s started conversations about what our city can be and how we can make better use of the limited space that we have.” A number of initiatives have already begun. “Having a policy document has really helped us move some projects forward,” Larigakis says. “It’s building momentum, which I don’t think would have been possible without the skateboard strategy.” SPATIAL REQUIREMENTS DIAGRAM Types of features Approaches and landings Edges Seating and rest area Fore-Now FIN.indd 32 4/2/24
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34 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 NICHOLAS LICAUSI BELOW A new dual graduate degree in landscape architecture and engineering at Tulane will focus on climate adaptation in Gulf Coast landscapes. STRONGER TOGETHER TULANE UNIVERSITY LAUNCHES A DUAL GRADUATE DEGREE IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND RIVER AND COASTAL ENGINEERING. BY JARED BREY Global sea levels will rise by as little as eight inches or as much as five feet by the end of the century. Greenhouse gas emissions might continue to grow; they might flatten or shrink. No one knows exactly how the environment is changing. But coastal communities will be among the first to find out. This year, Tulane University in New Orleans announced a new dual master’s degree program in landscape architecture and engineering aimed at training students to work on the next generation of coastal adaptation projects. The program, launching in 2025, will be focused on the sinking, migrating, or otherwise disappearing landscapes of the Gulf Coast. It’s meant to build on budding partnerships between landscape architects and civil engineers, and on the Department of Homeland Security’s designation of landscape architecture as a STEM discipline last year. The program’s founders say they hope it can build a shared language between landscape architects and engineers to the benefit of both disciplines. Landscape architecture is new to Tulane. Margarita Jover, a cofounder of Aldayjover Architecture & Landscape in Barcelona, Spain, and a codirector of the new Landscape + Engineering program at FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 34 4/2/24
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ENDALE BEKELE THE NEW DUAL DEGREE PROGRAM WILL PREPARE STUDENTS TO BUILD BETTER INFRASTRUCTURE. ABOVE The program is designed to increase collaboration among designers and engineers, who are increasingly working on large-scale coastal projects together. Tulane, is one of three landscape architecture faculty members in the program, along with Wes Michaels, ASLA, a principal at Spackman Mossop Michaels in New Orleans, and Liz Camuti, a former designer at SCAPE. The new program is a collaboration between that group and Tulane’s Department of RiverCoastal Science and Engineering, which was established in 2017. The curriculum is spread over three and a half years. The first year, the “blue year,” is built around riverine and coastal landscapes. During the second year, the “green year,” students will study forests and urban spaces. The third year is dedicated to research. The curriculum will be submitted to the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board by August of this year. The goal is to prepare students to build better infrastructure—protective spaces that anticipate natural shifts and expand people’s interactions with the landscape. “Engineers have traditionally been isolated from many other disciplines, and that has created a lot of issues in our communities,” says Ehab Meselhe, a professor of river-coastal science and engineering at Tulane. “Integrating engineering with other disciplines— whether it’s landscape architecture, socioeconomics, biology—helps quite a bit with growing that awareness of the implications of what we do.” Landscape architecture is often seen as a supplement to other practices, such as architecture and city planning. But by joining with engineers, Tulane’s faculty say they hope they’ll build opportunities for landscape architects to make a case for their approach in new fields and shape projects with broad social value. “I think it’s a needed step for our discipline,” says Rob Holmes, ASLA, an associate professor of landscape architecture at Auburn University, who has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as well as on interdisciplinary studios with some of the new faculty at Tulane. “I’m excited to watch them try to pull it off.” 36 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 36 4/3/24
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MCNEIL PHOTOGRAPHY Waterloo Park was established in 1893 in Waterloo, Ontario, to serve as a pastoral retreat from city life, but in the intervening century, much of the city infiltrated the park. Located near the central business district and adjacent to two universities, the park was increasingly being taken over by extraneous service buildings and parking lots, especially surrounding one of its signature attractions: the nine-acre Silver Lake, a stormwater retention pond that once hosted swimmers leaping off diving platforms and anglers casting for speckled trout. Brad Smith, ASLA, a senior landscape architect at Seferian Design Group (SDG), called the park’s previous state “cold and sterile,” and in 2018 it fell to his firm, alongside engineers at WalterFedy, to develop a plan to deurbanize the park and reestablish its sylvan experience. Getting to the most accessible sections of the lakefront required crossing broad swaths of concrete and hardscape. “The spaces were very segregated, like an old house,” says Caroline Amyot, a senior project engineer for the City of Waterloo, who worked on the project. From the lakefront northward, a 3,600-square-foot splash pad at the water’s edge dominated the site. A large washroom and mechanical building, as well as a park shelter building, blocked views to the lake, culminating in a parking lot. SDG’s plan removed four buildings and radically shrunk the splash pad to fit within a narrow strip of water features. An oval promenade leading to the lake is divided into four lawns, with three water features leading to Silver Lake on a gradually sloping, DECLUTTERING THE PARK SEFERIAN DESIGN GROUP UNDOES YEARS OF ADDITIONS AND URBAN ENCROACHMENT AT A HISTORIC GREEN SPACE. BY ZACH MORTICE ABOVE Waterloo Park's new approach to Silver Lake brings visitors to the water with a terraced fountain and a sloping, accessible path. 38 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 FOREGROUND /NOW Fore-Now FIN.indd 38 4/3/24
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SEFERIAN DESIGN GROUP N CONCEPT PLAN accessible path. The water features terminate in a sculptural tree-shaped fountain with misting nozzles and ground jets. Dramatically reducing the splash pad was a way to “give that space back to the public for four seasons of the year,” says Anna lee Sangster, the manager of parkland, capital projects, and stewardship for the city. Smith says there’s approximately 25 percent less hardscape than previously. A thin line of bioswales on the southern edge of the new parking lot, planted with red oak, aster, and milkweed, further softens the remaining hardscape. Another part of deurbanizing the park was clearing the lake itself of the city’s detritus. The park restoration added a sediment forebay to filter out accumulated matter and removed piles of sediment that were peeking above the surface. To balance active uses on the lake’s north end, the southern edge is more naturalized, planted with dogwood, serviceberry, and sumac and lined with a riprap shore and boardwalk. The park restoration was completed in June 2023, and since then, it’s regained some of the pastoral calm that expanses of concrete had formerly blotted out. “It really doesn’t matter how busy it is or what time of day it is,” Sangster says. “There’s a sense of peace that comes over you when you’re visiting the shoreline.” RIGHT Seferian Design Group's plan called for naturalized bioswales lining the edge of Silver Lake. BELOW Before the redesign, the park was dominated by a parking lot and a splash pad, and the lake was clogged with sediment. FOREGROUND /NOW 40 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 Fore-Now FIN.indd 40 4/2/24
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42 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS FOREGROUND / PLANNING From outer space, few North American features stand out more prominently than the Great Lakes. Of the five, Superior is by far the wildest and certainly the largest. Roughly the size of Maine, it dominates the steep water-to-hilltop landscape of Duluth, Minnesota, a city of approximately 85,000 people located at the westernmost tip of Superior. With one of the largest inland harbors in the world, Duluth’s industrial shoreline today is a maze of rail lines and highways, their sprawling latticework a significant contributor to the city’s disconnection from its waterfront. Interstate 35, a north– south corridor connecting Laredo, Texas, to Duluth reaches its terminus here, but not before it creates a distinct barrier between downtown and the waterfront. When it was nearing completion in the 1970s, a decadelong pause resulted in an overhaul of the highway as it passes through sections of downtown. In a design noted for its progressive approach, tunnels and decks were installed— the result of citizen input that began in 1959—creating new urban green ABOVE Community input informed design priorities for Lincoln Park’s Craft District. A READY ROAD MAP DULUTH’S LINCOLN PARK PREPS FOR A $25 MILLION RAISE GRANT, WITH HELP FROM DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS. BY SARAH CHASE SHAW Fore-Planning FIN.indd 42 4/3/24
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44 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS spaces connecting downtown to the Cross City Trail, the Lakewalk, and Canal Park. It was a great idea at the time that, some say, didn’t live up to the expectations of a major waterfront redevelopment. While the interstate kick-started Duluth’s burgeoning tourism economy— a status that received a recent boost from the Harvard Graduate School of Design lecturer Jesse Keenan, who coined the slogan “climate-proof Duluth” as part of an economic development study—its new alignment effectively separated communities once connected by the original highway. One of those neighborhoods is Lincoln Park, a historically workingclass, racially diverse area that sits adjacent to the St. Louis River and relies on vehicle traffic for its commercial success. Located a mile west of downtown Duluth, Lincoln Park’s boundaries have been identified as “from rocks to docks, skyline to shoreline—port inclusive.” And, while it’s technically separated from the waterfront by I-35, railway infrastructure, and industrial uses, it’s an underdeveloped identity that’s ripe for renewal, says Jodi Slick, the founder and CEO of Ecolibrium3, a nonprofit neighborhood convening organization focused on sustainable revitalization in Lincoln Park. A vocal proponent of human-scale investment, Slick has been collaborating with Lincoln Park business owners since 2011 to develop methodologies for investment and revitalization of Superior Street, a former urban highway and a primary thoroughfare for this neighborhood with perpetual and pervasive poverty and health disparities. FOREGROUND /PLANNING ABOVE Corridor analysis included an evaluation of comfort levels based on surrounding land uses, connectivity, and safety. N SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS LEGEND Overall Social Environment Quality UNPLEASANT ENJOYABLE DETRACTORS ATTRACTORS POOR QUALITY BUILT ENVIRONMENT HIGH QUALITY BUILT ENVIRONMENT DANGEROUS INTERSECTION RESTAURANT AGGRESSIVE DRIVING SHOPPING UNFRIENDLY INFRASTRUCTURE BAR/BREWERY MUSEUM PUBLIC ART Fore-Planning FIN.indd 44 4/3/24
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46 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS A quick drive along the corridor paints a picture of a district in distress: Disintegrating sidewalks are interrupted by curb cuts, there’s nary a tree in sight, and street amenities, if they exist, are broken or vandalized. These days, too, the neighborhood floods regularly during rainstorms as large volumes of water converge in uphill areas before ripping down the hillside in oftenviolent flows, inundating decades-old infrastructure, inhibiting travel, and flooding businesses. At the center of the neighborhood is a three-block district of entrepreneurial businesses and commercial enterprises called the Lincoln Park Craft District. It’s the foundation of Lincoln Park’s economy, serving as a vital public space for residents and tourists. With its wider sidewalks, meandering roadway, and pedestrian gathering areas, the Craft District is now home to an amalgam of mixed-use commercial, including small-batch art galleries, shops, restaurants, and an emerging craft beverage scene. These ventures have spawned a housing renaissance, too, with affordable housing, apartments, and mixed retail–residential projects sprouting up throughout the neighborhood. Ten years ago, the business district invited the urban strategist Michele Reeves, a principal at CIVILIS Consultants, to help business owners create a unique brand identity. High on her list of improvements was the science of social dynamics, aka the view from the street. Simply restriping, she says, isn’t enough to turn a highway into a street. Attractive amenities—benches, uniform signage, seasonal flowers and landscaping, and window displays— get people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks. “People are the indicator species,” she emphasizes. “People want to be with other people.” In 2022, the City of Duluth was awarded a $25 million federal grant to rebuild a 1.65-mile stretch of West Superior Street through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) program. A reboot of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s discretionary road, rail, transit, and port funding program, RAISE makes federal funding available on a competitive basis to infrastructure projects that promote FOREGROUND /PLANNING ABOVE Streetscape improvements aim to improve accessibility along the corridor. TOP RIGHT On-street bicycle lanes will be replaced with detached bike paths. Fore-Planning FIN.indd 46 4/3/24
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48 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE MAY 2024 DAMON FARBER LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS national objectives but are more difficult to support with formula programs. Unlike its predecessors— Obama’s TIGER program and Trump’s BUILD program—RAISE prioritizes the current administration’s focus on climate change and racial equity. Because Duluth is a small metro area with fewer than 200,000 people, $25 million was the most it could apply for. Slick says the low-income neighborhood was a natural pick, given the targeted nature of a federal program that is designed to lift up disadvantaged people. Included in the grant were congruent mass transit improvements, an overhaul to 140-yearold underground infrastructure, expanding sustainability, and creating a vibrant new streetscape throughout the Craft District. Duluth’s senior transportation planner, James Gittemeier, collaborated with Slick on the grant and says that Lincoln Park ticked many of the boxes as a neighborhood in need of reinvestment. Health disparities and relative poverty on top of aging infrastructure made it a higher priority for federal funding. Gittemeier credits the business owners with encouraging the city to apply for the grant and to prioritize the pedestrian experience. Like Reeves, Gittemeier believes that human activity kick-starts a street’s vibrancy. “When we design streets, all our energy goes into thinking about how to make it easy for drivers. We need to make it a place that humans want to be first, and then figure out how the trucks will work,” he says. Gittemeier relied almost exclusively on NACTO (National Association of City Transportation Officials) guidelines for designing urban street systems that the city could support. “We knew what kind of street we wanted, and then we looked at the guide. They’ve done the research and had the debates about stormwater management, mixing bikes, pedestrians, cars, and transit. Their guidelines are why cities are making substantial changes to their street network,” he says. With NACTO as an authoritative reference fully supported by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and federal transportation authorities, Gittemeier felt confident putting real numbers and a timeline to the project. Just after the grant was awarded, the city selected a Minnesota-based engineering company, SEH, as the lead FOREGROUND /PLANNING ABOVE The improvements propose separating pedestrian uses from bikeways. Fore-Planning FIN.indd 48 4/2/24