O R T F O L I O Kove
Janeski Master of Landscape Architecture Graduate
Hello! I am a recent graduate of the University of Washington’s Master of Landscape Architecture program. My undergraduate background is in political science, environmental studies, and mathematics. My professional background is in urban agriculture. I am passionate about hands-on design and maintenance, ecological restoration, and community stewardship.
Design Foundation Studio Fall ‘21
Capstone Work Fall ‘23-Spring ’24
Independent Studio + Professional Work Spring ‘22-Summer ’24
Organic Farming and Operations Lead, UW Farm, Seattle
• Design and maintain farm beds, crop rotation
• Communicate with Seattle community to determine planting plans
• Head the UW Farm vermiculture program and design/build projects
• Manage volunteers and teach organic farming practices
Landscaper, Korotkin & Associates, San Francisco
• Maintain a variety of accounts throughout the San Francisco Bay Area
• Communicate with account residents and visitors
• Troubleshoot irrigation systems
Intern, FOLK, Inc., Tokyo
• Create and edit graphics, informational materials for Shimokita Engei-bu
• Work closely with FOLK team, communicating in Japanese and English
• Translate landscape literature and presentation materials
• Hands-on work at multiple FOLK project sites, across Japan
ENVIRONMENTAL RESIDENTIAL COMMERCIAL
Fall 2021 - Present
Summer 2017, Fall 2020
Fall 2023
The final studio project of the fall term’s 1st year studio is a design intervention on an eroded slope in Ravenna Park, Seattle. This design proposes the use of fallen trees in the park to construct a series of terraced bioswales. This system could receive stormwater from the Ravenna Park pedestrian bridge, directly above the target site. A path through the middle of the design allows for access to the stream below.
Ravenna Park’s Creek originally flowed from Green Lake to Union Bay, but was piped underground as North Seattle developed. Thanks to a successful waterway daylighting campaign, 3,500ft of Ravenna Creek now flows through Ravenna Park.
Stormwater from the pedestrian bridge above the site would be directed into a terraced bio-retention system. Containing a highly seasonal planting palette of clematis vines, native berries, flowering bulbs, oregon ash and pacific willow, the terraces would provide a new pathway across Ravenna Creek and mitigate erosion.
A stained, composite plan and section helps to convey the site’s sense of enclosure, lushness, and moisture
Capstone Work - Fall ‘23-Spring ’24
Seattle’s rapid growth necessitates innovative urban development. In Northgate, one of Seattle’s fastest growing and most diverse neighborhoods, I proposed a land trust and workers’ cooperative that prioritizes green space creation and ecological restoration. Through a small zine, I show how a land trust could incentivize property owners to invest in public green space and reconnect a fractured neighborhood. Ultimately, this project is about finding new ways to empower communities that are shaping their own environments.
Dead ends, meant to limit thru-traffic in residential areas, are a common occurrence in Seattle’s Northgate neighborhood. However, Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development has found that Northgate’s dead ends and large block structure constricts all mobility - not just vehicles.
Although the prevalence of single-family zoning remains, the City government has steadily removed barriers to allow for the construction of ADUs on single-family lots. Today, up to two ADUs are allowed on any single-family zoned lot. towards more evenly distributed development across the city, but is also predicated on the resources and motivations of individual property owners. While wealthy homeowners may not be interested in dedicating a chunk of their property or home to construct an ADU, low and middle-income property owners may not have the capital to invest in an ADU: as of 2023, the median cost to build an ADU in Seattle was $200,000. In the city’s annual household income survey, respondents who were ADU residents reported a median home cost of $732,000 or a monthly rent of $1,650. These prices are just under median prices for the wider housing market, but are still too expensive for many Seattleites ‒ according to 2024 Zillow studies, a household income of $89,000 is necessary to comfortably afford Seattle’s average rent of $2,186. For buyers, a household income of $214,000 is
Let’s imagine that Washington no longer has one of the most regressive tax structures in the US.15
After a progressive wealth and property tax is finally adopted by the state, the ultra-wealthy begin to pay their fair share. In response to increasing calls for affordable housing and an unprecedented influx of climate refugees to Seattle, King County voters pass a ballot measure that diverts part of this tax revenue to fund a community development pilot project: the Northgate Land Trust & Worker Cooperative (NLTC).
4TH QUARTER, 2023 HOUSING
AFFORDABILITY INDEX Seattle buyers and renters
data from the Washington Center for Real Estate Research show that households earning a median income or 70% of a median income are largely overburdened by mortgage payments. However, rent costs are more affordable.
The Northgate Land Trust & Worker Cooperative, based in the diverse Northgate area, has two missions: to steward land put into trust and to empower immigrants, climate refugees, and displaced indigenous peoples.
The NLTC works with property owners to determine land value and purchase property to be put into trust. Land owners can sell outright to the NLTC, or receive rebates of greater value towards the development of a local business or additional housing on the seller’s property. Based on the median selling price of residential lots in Northgate from 2022-2024, land in this area has been selling at about $80/square foot. The NLTC works with the community to determine the programming of trust land. The NLTC does not directly develop housing ‒rather, it provides funding for community members to invest in their own local businesses or ADUs. The private land that becomes public trust land is stewarded by NLTC members and partners, who have a diversity of backgrounds and expertise.
Next to ‘Northgate Station’, a commercial-residential development, is the Northgate light rail station. It is important to improve access to transit hubs for all Northgate residents. Today, many residential areas are confined by large arterial roads with few street trees.
Let’s take a closer look at the potential impact of the NLTC on a specific section of urban neighborhood just east of the Northgate Regional Center ‒ within the Maple Leaf and Pinehurst neighborhoods, this residential area includes segments of Victory Creek and Thornton Creek. Bounded by NE 104th St, NE 117th St, Roosevelt Way NE, 15th Ave NE from west to east, these blocks sit within the OPCD’s ‘highest priority’ zone for future public space improvement. If we hope to...
• respond to the need for new and improved public space,
• prepare for the traffic that rapid development in the Regional Center will bring,
• retain the neighborhood’s socio-economic character while allowing for population density, and
• improve ecosystem services through stream rehabilitation and daylighting, then the NLTC will need to consider interventions in environmental, residential, and commercial contexts.
Thornton Creek runs through Northgate and feeds into Lake Washington to the east. Downstream of Northgate (below), the creek runs through the Kingfisher Natural Area - a rehabilitated riparian zone that is co-managed by the City of Seattle and non-profit organizations. Upstream in Northgate (above), where the riparian zone is largely privately owned, Thornton Creek struggles with invasive species, unmitigated erosion, and flooding events. A land trust and workers’ cooperative system could help to sustainably ameliorate these issues.
Design program will take shape through a participatory design framework. Working with the local community, the NLTC will focus on developing methods to efficiently install trails and pathways, develop new uses for parking lots, identify riparian zones for rehabilitation, and effectively provide social services.
Let’s imagine a new trail that follows Thornton Creek, extending from the Kingfisher Natural Area’s trail system in Lake City. Passing under the 15th Ave NE viaduct and through a riparian zone that used to be private property, travelers make their way north to Northgate Way. A new pedestrian crossing allows easy access the Pinehurst neighborhood and the newly establish LIHI tiny house village in the QFC Supermarket’s parking lot.
Restoration work means invasive species are removed, log jams are installed, earthwork is done, and native plants are planted to reestablish the stream’s hyporheic zone. Existing homes and new tiny houses, many built with funds that property owners received from the NLTC, overlook this activity along the Creek.
Water and road crossings allow for community members to easily access the trails and interact with the sights and sounds of the Creek.
A raised pedestrian crossing with a planted median on Northgate Way greets hikers emerging from the Thornton Creek floodplain. The NLTC collaborates with the Seattle Department of Transportation to install the crossing.
Let’s also imagine a northward walk within the site, beginning at a newly constructed pedestrian alleyway between 12th Ave NE and 14th Ave NE. Many of the homeowners that sold part of their property to allow for these pathways took advantage of incentives to construct ADUs or start a business. To develop and maintain the neighborhoods pathways, pocket parks, and multi-use spaces on trust land, the NLTC also makes sure to secure local sites for storage and staging.
New pedestrian alleyways that form new connections across large residential blocks also allow for more density. Here, a new alleyway connects 12th & 14th Ave NE. A property owner, who sold part of their land to allow for the alleyway, also constructed an ADU in their front yard.
New pedestrian alleyways that run in and along Victory Creek are opportunities for a more adventurous route from street to street.
A pocket ‘wetland’ park is constructed near the intersection of 12th Ave NE & NE 114th St. Expanding the stream’s hyporheic zone, creating public green space, and encouraging foot trafficwithout blocking any driveways.
A multi-use parking lot on a church’s property allows for pop-up food truck events on the weekdays. The space is easily accessible from Northgate Station on foot.
At the corner of NE 115th St & Pinehurst Way NE, this homeowner took advantage of small-business loan incentives after selling part of their property to the NLTC. The NLTC constructed a stream-side walkway and staging area in the driveway.
Studio Work - Spring ‘23
Professional Work - Spring ‘22-Summer ‘24
As an extension of the Intellectual House’s Native Garden, an aquaculture plot has taken shape at the University of Washington’s Farm’s site at the Center for Urban Horticulture. The clay-lined waterbody grows wapato (Sagittaria latifolia), a plant that is native to most of the Americas. I managed the construction of this project and raised over $15,000 in funding from multiple sources.
According to the Confluence Project, a non-profit that elevates Indigenous voices along the Columbia River, wapato was an especially important food source in the Pacific Northwest. Along the middle and lower Columbia River, for instance, families would harvest large patches of wapato in stream banks, sloughs, and marshes for a month or more out of the year. Because the aquaculture plot does not have a naturally occurring water source, a rainwater harvesting and storage system in a greenhouse that is planned to be sited nearby will be integral in the aquaculture plot’s long-term success. Although wapato is the aquaculture plot’s sole crop for now, a walking path bisects the plot and could allow for multiple planting zones in the future.
Background
The UW Farm aquaculture plot is the vision of Lisaaksiichaa Ross Braine, the former Director of the UW Intellectual House. The Intellectual House provides a multi-service learning and gathering space for American Indian and Alaska Native students, faculty, and staff at the University of Washington. Since 2018, the Intellectual House has grown culturally relevant food through the Native Garden at the UW Farm. The aquaculture plot builds on the Native Garden’s mission to feed food-insecure Native students, faculty, and staff by expanding the Garden’s growing space for wapato. Preceding, the plot’s construction, wapato was grown in metal stock tanks in the Garden.
The Native Garden is in the Union Bay Natural Area, east of the University campus. The triangular aquaculture plot is northeast of the main Native Garden location, which primarily grows three sisters (squash, maize, beans) on mounded beds. This plan and isometric diagram was used an early design iteration of the project and was used to speak to donors about the project. The pond overflows to the south and will irrigate a planned apple orchard. The UW Farm is also raising funds to construct a greenhouse north of the aquaculture plot. Rainwater stored in this structure will feed the aquaculture plot through the dry season.
The aquaculture plot is sited on the northeasternmost corner of the UW Farm. Originally cleared to become a wheat testing plot in the 1990s, the plot’s perimeter was also planted with native shrubs and trees. However, lack of maintenance allowed for blackberry, english ivy, and other invasives to take over the margins. I secured my first source of funding for the aquaculture plot in spring 2022. In the winter of 2022, I began to stake out the rough shape of the waterbody and led volunteer work parties to prep the site for grading.
Early in the design process, a triangular shape was chosen to minimize grading work, provide a clear overflow point on the plot’s southern corner, and allow for a seating area that has views across the plot and into the rest of the Native Garden downslope. As the site was being prepped for grading, my design iterations explored ways in which I could encourage interaction with the growing area and allow for secondary planting zones.
Grading began by hand in the early spring of 2023. A work order had been approved by the University’s heavy machinery crew to dig the aquaculture plot, but a water main break on main campus significantly meant they were unable to begin grading until the early summer of 2023. Leading volunteers through a cut and fill process, we began to shape the plot’s embankments with shovels and wheelbarrows. In the meantime, I poured concrete for a weir structure that determines the maximum water depth of the plot.
Although the soil’s high clay content already provided a good water seal for the plot, sodium bentonite clay was applied in the summer of 2023 to ensure that water seepage was minimized.
In the winter of 2024, the pond was nearly full with rainwater alone. The banks of the plot are positively graded in order to prevent polluted stormwater from entering the growing space. Below, I am staking out a potential pathway route through the aquaculture plot.
After a gravel ADA pathway was installed on the Farm, the displaced topsoil was tested for pollutants and dispersed into the aquaculture plot.
Using sustainably sourced, rot-resistant western juniper from Central Oregon, I designed and built a small seating shelter and solar canopy. Two photovoltaic panels, pitched on the roof at 35 degrees, power an aeration and circulation system in the pond.
Wapato transplantation into the plot took place in spring 2024. Camas (Camassia quamash) was also planted along banks of the plot. A moist meadow plant, the camas is expected to benefit from the seasonal variability in moisture along the plot’s edges.
Clean fill was used to form a pathway through the plot, allowing for easier harvest access and a more adventurous way of exploring the water’s edge. Cedar Planks, milled from fallen trees on the University campus, were used as ‘stepping stones’ leading to the plot’s viewing area. Along with the pond’s embankments, the mounds’ sides are heavily seeded with native grasses and wildflowers to prevent erosion. As of July 2024, planning is underway to construct a greenhouse north of the plot, which will include a rainwater retention system to sustain the wapato through Seattle’s dry months.
kove.janeski@gmail.com kjaneski@uw.edu
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kove-janeski/ @kove.janeski https://issuu.com/kjaneski/docs/