Faculty News

Awards & Recognitions

Ole Sleipness

Assistant Professor Ole Sleipness, PLA has been appointedto serve as a member of the Landscape Architects Board ofthe Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing. TheBoard advises and assists the Division in regulation of theprofession, including prescribing professional qualifications,recommending rules, review of applicants, and makinglicensure recommendations. Ole looks forward to thisopportunity to serve the profession and the State of Utah.

Sean Michael

Sean Michael with Forster Ndubisi (left) and Stephanie Rolley (right), former and incoming Chairs of the CELA Academy of Fellows

LAEP Professor and Department Head Sean Michael was inducted as a Fellow of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) in March 2019. As one of five professors inducted this year, the honor recognizes those who have made great contributions to the education of future landscape architects. Congratulations to Sean on this wonderful recognition of his career. We are grateful for the leadership of such a devoted professional.

Sean was also appointed to the Outdoor Recreation Advisory Committee. This committee serves the Utah Office of Outdoor Recreation within the Governor’s Office of Economic Development and has the primary role of advising the office on current and future programs. Members of the committee support the office with its mission and purpose. The committee is made up of stakeholders in the outdoor recreation industry.

Caroline Lavoie

Caroline Lavoie with CELA President, Charlene LeBleu

Caroline Lavoie was promoted to the rank of Professor at Utah State University this year. As the longest standing member of our faculty, she has been part of the LAEP family for 24 years. Over that time, she has had a profound impact on many students and professors alike.

Additionally, Caroline received the 2019 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) Faculty Award of Excellence in Design Studio Teaching at the Senior Level. Received at the 2019 CELA Conference in California, this award recognizes her ability to lead design studio projects of outstanding quality and which provide opportunity for critical thinking and to utilize the creative process.

This award nods to projects completed in recent years with the City of Pocatello, Idaho and Hinckley Ranch-Mountain Ability Center/Conservation Strategy in Ogden Valley, both of which received awards of excellence.

New Faculty Hires

Todd Johnson

Todd Johnson, FASLA holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture degree from Utah State University and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. He also received a fellowship from Harvard in Jerusalem. Johnson has been an Associate Landscape Architect at Landplan Associates, Co-founder/Principal of Civitas, and Principal/Chief Design Officer for Design Workshop in Denver. He has been a Practitioner in Residence in LAEP since 2013.

Todd has focused his efforts in the planning and design of urban redevelopment and brownfield sites and has worked on redevelopment and urban design projects across the world. He will begin his position as Professional Practice Associate Professor this fall semester.

Daniella Hirschfeld

Daniella Hirschfeld holds a Bachelor of Arts from Dartmouth College and a Master of Environmental Management from the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. She recently completed her PhD in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California Berkeley.

Daniella’s research brings together the fields of urban ecology and environmental planning to investigate resilient systems. She uses spatial analysis, plan content analysis, and survey instruments to assess climate adaptation strategies at various different scales. Her current research is augmented by her experience as a sustainability and climate adaptation planner. Her position as Assistant Professor, begins fall semester and will focus on bioregional/environmental planning issues

Farewell Phil

Sean Michael and Phil Waite at the LAEP Awards Banquet

LAEP lost a great colleague this year as his roots drew him back to the Evergreen State. Since joining our faculty in 2011, Phil Waite brought a blend of quiet strength and core professional skills in design to our program.

If you ever stepped into Phil’s office or home, you could easily see his love for learning through the shelves filled with hundreds of books, all of which he had read. A tireless student of all subjects related to landscape architecture, philosophy, construction, and faith, Phil’s breadth of study was an inspiration, as well as a reminder for each of us to partake widely from the literature of fields both near and far to our interests.

During his eight years at USU, Phil taught courses focused on construction, materials, planting design, and sustainable practices. He led the development of LAEP’s Field Studio course, which provided a hands-on experience in construction and site design, and evolved the course to connect students with firms and active construction sites. His interests include sustainable design and development, landscapes as communication media, especially pertaining to marketing, and campus planning. It was the latter that made Phil a sought-after expert at Utah State for architectural reviews, facilities planning, and preserving the Logan campus’s arboretum collection.

Phil gives his last lecture while in Italy for the LAEP travel course

All who are acquainted with Phil know of his kind and caring nature. He lives grace in his actions and attitude toward others, students and coworkers alike. We are very fortunate to have him as a member of the LAEP family, his leadership having been instrumental in the department’s rebirth and expansion. Among the most visible reminders of Phil’s dedication is the landscape of the LAEP House. Designed and constructed through his Field Studio classes, the result stands a tangible reminder of the value of handson learning. Nonetheless, Phil’s instruction--formal and informal, scholastic and personal--will endure as the truly lasting impact of his time with us.

Although we will miss having Phil in our midst, we are excited for him as he and his wife embark on life’s next journey with their kids in the Pacific Northwest. We wish him the best in retirement, and look forward to the next time we hear his inimitable greeting of, “Duuude(s).”

Thank you, Phil!

Faculty Publications

Chamberlain, B., (2019). Konza Studio: A pedagogical retrospective. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture

Chen, S., Christensen, K.M., & Li, S. (2019) A Comparison of Park Access with Park Need for Children: Case Study in Cache County, Utah. Landscape and Urban Planning, 187(2019): 119-128.

Ewing, R., Tian, G., Park, K., Sabouri, S., Stinger, P. & Profitt, D. (2019). Comparative Case Studies: Trip and Parking Generation at Orenco Station TOD, Portland Region and Station Park TAD, Salt Lake City Region, Cities 87: 48-59.

Gaire, N., Song, Z., Christensen, K.M., Sharifi, M.S., & Chen, A. (2018 online ahead of print) Exit Choice Behavior of Pedestrians Involving Individuals with Disabilities During Building Evacuations. Transportation Research Record

Park, K. (2019). Park and neighborhood attributes associated with park use: An observational study using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), Environment & Behavior

Park, K., Choi, D., Tian, G., & Ewing, R. (2019). Not parking lots but parks: Joint association of parks and transit stations with travel behavior, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16(4): 547.

Park, K. & Ewing, R. (2019). The usability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for pedestrian observation, Journal of Planning Education and Research.

Park, K., Ewing, R. Sabouri, S., & Larsen, J. (2019). Street life and the built environment in an auto-oriented US region, Cities 88: 243-251.

Park, K., Sabouri, S., Lyons, T., Tian, G., Worthen, C., & Ewing, R. (2019). Intrazonal or Interzonal? Improving Intrazonal Travel Forecast in a Four-Step Travel Demand Model, Transportation. Physica A 514(2019): 244-258.

Sharifi, M.S., Christensen, K.M., Chen, A., & Song, Z. (in press) Exploring effects of environment density on heterogeneous populations’ level of service perceptions. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice.

Sleipness, O.R., Christensen, K.M., Chen, S. (2018) Research Methods within the MLA: Implications for Scholarly Inquiry in Landscape Architecture. Landscape Research Record, (7): 42-47.

Stevens, M., Park, K., Tian, G., Kim, K. & Ewing, R. (2019). Why Do Some Articles in Planning Journals Get Cited More than Others?, Journal of Planning Education and Research.

Stuart, D., Sharifi, M.S., Christensen, K.M., Chen, A., Kim, Y.S., & Chen, Y. (2018 online ahead of print) Crowds involving Individuals with Disabilities: Modeling Heterogeneity using Fractional Order Potential Fields and the Social Force Model.

Zandiatashbar, A., Hamidi, S., Foster. N., & Park, K. (2019) The missing link between place and productivity? The impact of Transit-Oriented Development on the knowledge and creativity economy, Journal of Planning Education and Research.