2008
Class Agents: Doug Guey-Lee (gueylee08@csld.edu), Amy Livingston (livingston08@csld.edu), Theresa Sprague (sprague08@csld.edu) Sarah Bray writes from NY, where she is project coordinator for New York Restoration Project, “NYRP is a non-profit started 13 years ago by Bette Midler to beautify the city. Two years ago, NYRP received funding from Mayor Bloomberg to start the million trees program, which is where I come in. My job is to find spaces throughout the city (not already under the NYC Parks and Rec. domain) to plant trees. It’s mostly off-the-cuff site assessment— not exactly the Conway way—but we visit a site, meet with the owners or managers, agree to a certain number of trees, and bring them trees based on what is safe to grow in the city, and what will hopefully provide the most benefits for the site. Everything goes very quickly. We aim to plant 14,000 trees per year (Parks plants the rest)— an ambitious goal. The most interest-
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ing parts of my day are meeting with clients, realizing how much has to do with nursery availability, working with contractors, and communicating with the other members of my million trees team. Clear, concise communication, as learned at Conway, can never be over-emphasized.” n Adrian Laine is working for Jones and Jones Architects and Landscape Architects in Seattle, WA, and writes, “The firm is an ecologically/sustainably minded firm that has been in the Northwest for over 30 years and has done some pretty cool stuff. The project that I was brought on to help with is an enormous desert zoo in Abu Dhabi, UAE, called the Al Ain Wildlife Park and Resort. Waylon is still living the dream of becoming a brewer and has found work at a very wellrespected local brewery called Elysian Brewing. We miss the New England fall, what with the maple leaves and all, but are enjoying ourselves here as well. I have joined an awesome dance troupe and will be performing dances from the central Asian region of the world.” n Amy Livingston reports, “Dillon Sussman, Andrew Weir and I are trying to drum up design work in the Northampton area and have met with several clients. I’m still interested in local food production and am trying to be creative in merging my design experience with building gardens. Hopefully before the snow falls, my partner and I will have finished our ‘second home’— our yurt!—and we’ll invite everyone in the area for tea.” Dillon and Andrew recently completed a pro bono project for a day care center in Leverett, MA. Developed in only four days from the initial meeting to the client’s deadline, their schematic plan will be used to apply for a grant for installation funds. The client is also including them on a proposal for a larger EEC (Department of Early Education and Care) grant. n
Amy Livingston ‘08, with boyfriend Reed, completed building a Mongolian yurt on Thanksgiving day 2008.
Conservancy in Jamaica Plain, MA, and reports, “I think it is a really great fit.” n Theresa Sprague recently attended a workshop hosted by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and writes, “The topic was resolving land use disputes and the focus was on mediation and facilitation. While there I met two Conway alums, Angela Seaborg ’03 and Lesya Struz ’00. It was very exciting to meet other Conway grads and we had some wonderful conversation.” Theresa nows works for the Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District n Joey Weidle writes, “I have been building a permaculture garden at the house I am couch surfing at, and have been averaging at least one book a week. I can recommend anything by Euell Gibbons (I have read three), who is a forager from Pennsylvania who used to have his own TV show about finding things to eat in the wild. His descriptions of plants, uses, and former uses by native peoples are cheery and informative. I also found a lot on growing food in small spaces, keeping with my urban renewal interests. All of that from Berkeley. Lastly, I just picked up the book Radical Agriculture. It is a conglomeration of essays by the likes of Wendell Berry, etc. Very, very, very great read. It outlines how agribusiness and big oil set up the tax-loss farming system askew to favor ever-larger, ever-more fossil-fuel-guzzling, monocrop megafarms. Thankfully, it also touches on labor movements, reform, and directions that small, organic farms and coops can take. This was written in 1976, which is scary, because just now are these things coming around.” Joey also reports, “I found and identified my first edible chanterelle mushrooms on a recent forage!”
Courtesy Seth Pearsoll
Annie Scott.
The class of 2009 visited with Faith Ingulsrud ’82 and Nicko Rubin ’07 in Vermont this fall
Paul Cawood Hellmund
integrated with curriculum and feeding the food system in a closed loop. My design firm, Regenerative Intentions, focuses on cultivating community through the development of sustainable food systems. We work with local land trusts to put conserved land into active regenerative agricultural use. We design regenerative farms that increase the health of the land while providing an abundance of human needs such as vegetables, grass-fed meat, and fruit. Local green collar jobs are created in the process. As a small start-up we are always looking for work and have a passion for food and nourishing local economies through nourishing positive flows and the currencies which enable them.” n ■ The class of 2009 visited with Nicko Rubin in Vermont on their fall road trip. For more on Nicko, see p. 7. ■ n Victoria Schroth is teaching right now at a school in Fairfield County, CT. She writes, “During the spring and summer I did about 15 residential designs around the area. I found that teaching and design work could be quite a great combination for me. I get to influence young students toward environmental appreciation and at the same time get to supplement my income and fulfill my own creative desires with my landscape design work.” n See class of ’08 for more about
Courtesy photo
News from Alums
Seth Pearsoll, Jesse Froehlich, Michael Lance met up with Annie Scott ’07 and Sandy Ross ’05 at the
2008 ASLA Annual Meeting & EXPO in Philadelphia. n Catherine Pedemonti recently started a new job as project manager at the Emerald Necklace
Seth Pearsoll ’08, Jesse Froehlich ’08, Michael Lance ’08, Sandy Ross ’05 and Annie Scott ’07 catch up at the ASLA conference in Philadelphia.