KG Upchurch Landscape Architecture Portfolio

KG Upchurch Landscape Designer Portfolio

KG Upchurch; katiegraceupchurch@gmail.com

PAUSE Give / Rest Artist’s Garden

Site-less Design

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Arts Corridor

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Atlanta Park Chain

Public Park Sequence

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West Broad School

Abandoned Site Reuse

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Small Site Intervention

PASS La Compressione

WANDER

THOUGHTS As a landscape designer and dancer, I like to think about landscapes in terms of syntax – the organization of the space a landscape both occupies and creates. In people, the proprioceptive sense is what interacts with these surroundings to orient us and help us understand how to feel in a space.

I am interested in this interaction as a design key: how can a landscape’s spatial organization and one’s sensory or intuitive reading of that affect its sense of place? I also like to explore how designing with many forms of human movement in mind can encourage playful and creative use of space.

This portfolio includes works fitting into three movement-defined typologies: spaces to pause in, pass through, and wander around. These typologies inform my design process and the way I aim to use elements like planting, paving surfaces, and vertical structures to form a spatial language to be understood instinctually by people as they interact with a space.

Thoughtful design can create landscapes that are not just universally accessible but universally engaging, comfortable, and intriguing.

Introduction

Studies:

“Serial Vision”

“Serial Vision” Monument observation

Small park features Performance, public space

Park amphitheater

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PAUSE Give / Rest

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Small Site Intervention

Location:

Stone Mountain, Georgia, U.S.A.

Motivations:

Collaborators:

reflection landscapes of exploitation material pathways Caleb Butcher Shea Peters Everett Wayman

GIVE / REST Stone Mountain Park is an ecologically sensitive landscape marked by the exploitation of natural resources and human life. On its north face is the largest confederate monument in America, which is surrounded above and below by trails used recreationally by four million visitors a year. The intervention “Give / Rest” at the quarry aims to provide a space to recognize this history, giving visitors a place to reconcile the park’s violent past with its future potential to heal. Located just outside the historic quarry, “Give / Rest” contends with the displacement of stone, used in the many construction projects including institutions of carceral punishment, under the monolithic face of Stone Mountain.

Photos by Everett Wayman

Pause

Mapping Material Movements:

1. Confederate Monument, New Orleans 2. Stone Mountain 3. Fulton County Courthouse 4. U.S. Postal Office, Atlanta 5. Granite blocks 6. U.S. Penitentiary, Atlanta

Stone Mountain granite has been exported worldwide. Notably, though, it constructed institutional buildings and Confederate monuments in the American Southeast.

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Field Notes

Lone on-site tree: Longleaf Pine

Existing “Bench” granite form Natural granite topography: shallow steps

We begin by researching the quarrying process. Plug and feather tools are used to break blocks of granite from the mountain.

Quarrying is the creation of material and the creation of void. The mountain bears markings of a deeply terrible social and industrial history next to markings of its every day use. The search for a site leads us around the mountain. We look for a site that shows signs of this exploitation and feels off-kilter, one that is challenging could be but physically comfortable. At the final site, we sit and listen, we debate, we document it and take samples.

Growing pile of pine, granite, and moss

Existing Site Conditions

We catalog the material features of our site. It contains many natural materials, its only artificial being steel wire wrapped around the site’s lone pine. We find granite stones, pine saplings, pine straw, broomsedge, many moss species, and a native cactus. There are marks from the removal of quarried blocks which formed this artificial topography.

There is one asymmetrical granite outcrop on the site. It only has one quarrying mark and is too small to form a valuable block. It is a comfortable height for sitting and provides a stunning and uninterrupted view of the mountain.

From this angle, viewers see the mountain relatively “untouched” - no sight of the monument to hate occupying its north face. We select this piece of granite as the center of our site intervention. The built bench holds the granite like a gem set in jewelry for display and protection.

The legs clasp the granite and the seat top displays its form through its slats.

Bench Concept:

Granite “Jewel” Display Stone setting as preservation

Pause

Site Plan

Threshold Installation: Welded plate with 24” threaded galvanized rods

Steps Installation: Hidden, minimal attachment points

Bench Installation: On-site leg leveling and seat attachment

PAUSE Artist’s Garden

Site-less Design

Location:

n/a

Motivations:

dance revelation garden as costume

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ARTIST’S GARDEN This project was based on the concept of creating a garden for an artist, not inspired by their art but inspired by their artistic process. Creating a space in which the artist can move freely, feel challenged, and gather inspiration. I chose the visual artist and dancer Nick Cave for his multi-disciplinary practice which incorporates movement and the alteration of movement through costume. This work began with natural materials such as gathered twigs and grasses which he used to construct his first sound suit. From there he moved onto artificial materials; often a suit is created from a collection of objects, plastic, ceramic, or fibrous. His sound suits are intended to reveal a truth about their wearer by disguising physical identity, allowing for a freer and more deeply true movement to be expressed in the absence of an audience’s typical first impression. The garden follows his process, leading the user through a series of materials (first natural plantings, then a sculptural installation of artificial materials) and finally culminating in a private space, which shelters the user-wearer.

At the center of the garden, there is a performance space surrounded by alternating hedges. The alternating hedge allows physical but not visual access to the space from the outside. One must enter it to participate. There is access from the private space, which mirrors the suit, and from a more public area, the transitional zone.

Finally, as the user-wearer unmasks by exiting the private space, they cross a reflecting pond, revealing their image back to themself.

Sound Suits by Nick Cave

Pause

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Natural Materials

Artificial Materials

Trees

Sculptural Tree

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5

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Corten Stepped Rings

Alternating Hedge Wall

Grassed Theater

Brick

Pause

4.

3. 3.

Weeping Willow Salix babylonica

Theater.

Leland Cypress Cupressus × leylandii Tall Fescue Fescuta arundinacea

beaded tree sculpture Serviceberry Amelanchier x grandifloria

beaded tree sculpture button stacks gramophones metal spinning tops

Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis texenis

Amsonia Amsonia hubrichtii

Horsetail Rush Equisetum hyemale, in containers

Columbine Aquilegia canadensis Whirling Butterflies Guara lindheimeri

Piedmont Azalea Rhododendron canescens

Japanese Garden Juniper Juniperus precumbens ‘Nana’

Prarie Dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis

Prarie Dropseed Sporobolus heterolepis

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1. 2.

Eastern Redbud Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’

Saucer Magnolia x sculpture Magnolia x soulangeana

Hyssop Agastache foeniculum ‘Black Adder’

beaded sculpture

Columbine Aquilegia barnebyi

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ceramic birds

Burrerfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa

Yarrow Achillea spp., pink & reds

Joe Pye Weed Eutrochium maculatum

Bottlebrush Buckeye Aesculus parvifolrum

Louisiana Iris Iris x louisiana ‘Red Velvet’

False Spirea Astilbe biternata

Japanese Garden Juniper Juniperus precumbens ‘Nana’

Bee Balm Monarda didyma ‘Jacob Cline’

Helleri Holly Ilex crenata ‘Holly’

Mazus Mazus reptans ‘Albus’

Blue-Eyed Grass Sisyrinchium angustifolium

Adam’s Needle Yucca Yucca filamentosa

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Natural

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Transitional

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Artificial

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Reflective

PASS La Compressione

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Arts Corridor

Location:

Cortona AR, Italy

Motivations:

surprise scavenger hunt viewshed manipulation

LA COMPRESSIONE Via della Santissima Trinità is an existing pedestrian path connecting Via Santa Margherita to the intersection of Via S. Marco and Via S. Nicolò.

Its high walls create a space that contrasts most of Cortona, a small, medieval hilltop town. This isolates the pedestrian from the wide, open-feeling views of the Val di Chiana below. This turn inward allows for one’s focus to shift to small-scale art and creates the opportunity for large-scale art to be effectively imposing, removed from the typical open views found throughout Cortona.

The corridor is pedestrian-only and has two access points - effectively a beginning and end. It begins with a set of stairs and has benches installed throughout. The corridor’s imposing walls and “pinch points” create a variable syntax in this space, closing and opening in a repetitive rhythm. Corners provide the opportunity for surpsise, as users are pinched in and taken into a new space.

Photos by KG Upchurch

Pass

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Sculptures and jewelry by Antonio Massarutto, ceramics by Shea Peters and Noah Brown

Existing Conditions: Pinch Points, Moments, Circulation, Plant Massing Design Responses: Spatial Rhythm, View + Installaion Moments, Circulation, Planting

Site Massing Context

Inspired by the jewelry and sculpture works of Antonio Massarutto and existing niches in the walls of the corridor, this site allows users to freely explore art at many scales. A series of spaces throughout are designed to interact with the existing conditions of the walls, revealing precious details and thoughtfully placed art.

Display structures and vertical planting structures extend the wall heights at moments, and cross overhead to mark thresholds. Select existing patterns and anomalies in the stone work are framed with wireframe structures.

Original hand-rendered poster, ceramics by Shea Peters and Noah Brown

Pass

Structure Details

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View from the corridor’s first turn

WANDER Atlanta Park Chain

Public Park Sequence

Location:

Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A.

Motivations:

depaving stacking functions commuter pathways

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ATLANTA PARK CHAIN This project tackles a former industrial site in the center of downtown Atlanta. The Gulch is currently used for event parking, though it contains a deeply buried history as the location of the city’s original springhead and home of the train lines that made Atlanta. It contains imposing parking structures, abandoned rail lines, great open space, and many strange nooks and crannies that are poorly documented and often occupied by the curious and the unhoused. This design makes efficient use of The Gulch’s multi-layered, 48 acre void, consolidating parking from across downtown and placing The Gulch as the center of an interlocking public park chain. Across the site are a series of networks: pedestrian circulation, cycling circulation, vehicular circulation, public transit, urban planting + agriculture, green infrastructure (the site contains downtown’s high point and low point), and onsite material reuse systems. An upper- and lowerlevel are defined, connecting the site’s strange and artificial topography with a focus on the pedestrian navigation experience.

Photos by Carley Rickles and KG Upchurch

Wander

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Stacking transportation systems: Rearranging Atlanta’s vehicular commuter population

Gulch Site Plan

Surface Lot Location

Centennial Olympic Park

The Gulch Woodruff Park Hurt Park

Atlanta Park Chain:

sq. ft.

Broad St 54,430 Centennial Olympic Dr 44,269 Centennial Olympic Dr 2 67,722 Chapel St 14,000 Chapel St 2 34,260 Fairlie St 45,739 Forsyth St 32,175 Forsyth St 3 66,939 Foundry St 52,478 Foundry St 2 99,482 Gary St 91,371 Gary St 2 136,756 Gary St 3 269,789 Garnett St 94,919 Garnett St 2 55,510 Haynes St 14,187 Ivan Allen Jr Blvd 54,604 Luckie St 97,655 Magnolia St 146,467 Magnum St 17,217 Marietta St 51,473

Marietta St 2 Marietta St 3 Marietta St 4 Mitchell St Mitchell St 2 MLK Jr Dr 2 MLK Jr Dr 4 Nelson St Nelson St 2 Northside Dr Northside Dr 2 Northside Dr 4 Peachtree St 2 Peachtree St 3 Peachtree St 5 Ted Turner Dr Ted Turner Dr 2 Ted Turner Dr 3 Ted Turner Dr 4 Ted Turner Dr 6

20,945 46,821 14,185 28,537 131,790 38,416 19,232 110,260 78,837 33,768 129,226 463,732 64,769 13,728 17,523 17,833 94,471 94,563 32,128 7,882

Total

3,000,088

Gulch Surface Space Deck Space Total Space Available

sq. ft.

2,093,025 1,335,945 3,438,970

25% of Atlanta is surface parking lots. This plan consolidates 90 acres of parking, replacing paved surfaces with a park “chain” network centered on the Gulch. An improved transit network shuttles commuters from the consolidated parking.

Wander

North-South Site Functions The north end of the site consists of upper level surfaces. It has a series of structures with different purposes: open structures, mixed residential and commercial buildings, and parking.

The surface is primarily pedestrian- and cyclist-focused, with open paths and accessible connections to the lower level.

The south end of the site is home to the multimodal transit center and connecting edges of the site. As The Gulch spills into downtown Atlanta, an improved sidewalk network and street trees plan softens its edges and creates cross-city connection points.

Material Reuse Structure Concept

Lightning Neighborhood Remembrance Garden On the northwest corner of the existing site is a dry, unused expanse of turf grass. This space is transformed into a garden in remembrance of the Lightning Neighborhood which used to occupy the acres north of the Gulch. A historically Black neighborhood, it was demolished to make room for business developments resulting in the loss of an incredibly important community from downtown Atlanta. This garden scales down the neighborhood, with walking paths as its street network and flower beds in the footprint of each home.

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Photos from Lightning, Struck; before and after.

Level 1: Raised surfaces Level 2: Upper ground level Level 3: Lower ground level

Green Infrastructure

Site Functions Material Reuse

Pedestrian Circulation

Urban Plants

Cycling Circulation

The center of this design is a multimodal transit center connecting users with parking, a regional train station, a streetcar, bus lines, pedestrian walkways, and a cycling network. The horizontal stratification of the site and the layered uses connect downtown locals, commuters, and people in the area for events to and from their destinations.

Pedestrian and cycling connections across site and between the upper- and lower-levels provide safer non-vehicular pathways through downtown Atlanta.

Wander

Shared Street Typology

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A redesigned street grid with Regional Access Corridor, Regional Transit Corridor, Cycling Street, Local Street, Shared Street, and Pedestrian Street typologies.

WANDER West Broad School

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Abandoned Site Reuse

Location:

Athens, Georgia, U.S.A.

Motivations:

children’s autonomy modular play

Collaborators:

Ana Madrid, Caleb Butcher, Lily Hollatz, Shea Peters, Everett Wayman

Competition:

Streetlife Design Competition, finalist

WEST BROAD SCHOOL The landscape surrounding the former West Broad School has a cyclical history of abandonment.

Recently, the state of Georgia has faced scrutiny for segregation and mistreatment within its educational system, with the school playing a significant role in that narrative. This project aims to leverage the abandoned site and the school’s history to address this social wound. By acknowledging the positive and negative aspects of its past, we aim to reclaim the site’s legacy as a community asset, addressing both social and environmental needs. Principally, we aimed to return to the site what had historically been taken away: the agency of the children who this school was supposed to serve.

After thorough research and site analysis, we found our design process centered around four design themes: Learn, Grow, Play, and Reflect. In our ideation phase, we explored the precedent work of landscape architects and playwork practitioners and collaborated with Ana Madrid, a trained early grades teacher and children’s aerial dance teacher.

This expertise helped us identify 24 “collectible” objectives which we created opportunities for users to engage within each of the four design themes, e.g. there are tools to find a grounding sensory experience within our reflective, playful, educational, and agricultural environments. We represented our design thinking graphically with the motifs of a game board - the themes and objectives organized as our deck of cards.

Wander

Project introduction Site selection

Site history: 1930s to today Existing conditions

Internal spaces External spaces

Play plan Planting plan

Illustrative plan Programming gradients

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West Broad School Site Plan This proposal uses food production, diverse play and education spaces, and areas of respite and reflection to enforce our design objectives. An added drop-off lane, setback circulation, and established entrances provide safe access to and throughout the site. Within, permaculture practices promote lowmaintenance diversity and resilience in food production. Areas of play, rest, and education offer young users options for activity and self-regulation. Collaborative play and exploration opportunities allow for self-guided “leveling up” of academic, social, and physical skills.

In the reflective play zone, a rig allows adult helpers to change out equipment, switching between hammocks, swings, and open space. Hammocks create deep pressure sensory input, a great tool for children seeking sensory and emotional regulation.

We organized our design process around four themes: Learn, Grow, Play, and Reflect. We looked to create opportunities for the following design objectives within each of these categories:

solitary space, sound, shade, expression, garden, building + crafting, touch, remembrance, socialemotional, comfort, grounding, taste, sight, agency, games, food, friendship, creativity, spatial awareness, quiet, learning, observation, smell, challenge

Wander

Play “Pieces” Reflective Play 1. Forest 2. Hammock rig 3. Push track with interchangeable pieces 4. The Cave 5. Sand play Investigative Play 1. Water pulley station 2. Water + sand play 3. Collaborative pulley stations 4. Lever mechanics: Seesaw with adjustable fulcrum Open Play 1. Monkey bars 2. Swings 3. Tight rope 4. The Mountain

Planting “Pieces” 1. Learning Rainbow Garden Acer sacharum Taxodium distichum Carpinus betulus ‘Fastigiata’ Ilex glabra Hydrangea quercifolia Itea virginica Aronia melanocarpa Heuchera Eryngium yuccifolia Gaura lindheimeri Aster ericoides Adiantum capillus-veneris Echinacea pallida ‘Hula Dancer’ Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’ 2. Community Garden Beds Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter 3. Food Forest Prunus persica ‘Julyprince’ Malus domestica ‘Rome Beauty’ Diospyros virginiana Asimina triloba Morus rubra

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KG Upchurch; katiegraceupchurch@gmail.com

Location:

Athens, Georgia, U.S.A.

Interests:

public spaces playscapes movement graphic representation furniture

I am a fourth-year BLA at UGA’s College of Environment + Design. Before beginning my degree I was an environmental engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology. That helped me understand my inclination for a design-focused and interdisciplinary field, and my landscape architecture education has led me to a range of interests from native planting to designing for physical and sensory needs. Outside of school, I teach aerial dance to children and adults at a studio where I have trained for 15 years. This informs my interest in the relationship between spatial syntax and the feeling of a body in space, and has led me to design for creative and exploratory use of space through movement.

Me

Technical Skills:

Education:

University of Georgia Bachelor of Landscape Architecture President’s Scholar, six semesters

Class of 2025

Experience:

Agency Landscape + Planning Landscape Design Intern

Summer 2024

Hand rendering Sketching Modeling AutoCAD Adobe Illustrator Adobe Indesign Adobe Photoshop Rhino SketchUp Lumion TwinMotion

Activities:

Awards:

Founder’s Memorial Garden, UGA Curator Assistant

Spring 2024

Cultural Landscape Lab, CED Research Assistant

Spring 2023

Stratford Hall Research Assistant

Summer 2022

Canopy Studio Aerial Dance Instructor

2016 - Present

Experience UGA, Group Leader engaged 10th graders in hand graphics and inventory/design processes

2023, 2024

A Sense of Place, Co-Director Canopy Studio’s repertory show tracing Georgia’s native and man-made ecologies from mountain stream to ocean

Spring 2024

Tree Dance Workshop, Attendee Led by Serenity Smith, Nimble Arts

Spring 2024

UGA Cortona Study Abroad, Student studied visual and movement arts in public spaces in Cortona, Italy

Summer 2023

Canopy Studio Repertory Company Member

2022 - Present

Finalist, Lost Sites Design Competition Landezine, Streetlife

2025

CURO Research Award Researching the effectiveness of Lawrence Halprin’s “Motations”

Fall 2024

Student Honor Award GA ASLA Zone 7 & 8 Awards for “Atlanta Park Chain”

2024

Shortlist, LILA 2024 Portfolio Award Landezine International Landscape Awards

2024

Daniel Zwier/Permaloc Innovation Scholarship Landscape Architecture Foundation

2024

Neel Reid Memorial Scholarship Peachtree Garden Club 13

2023, 2024

KG Upchurch Landscape Designer Portfolio