Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA P R E PA R E T O C H A N G E T HE W O R L D

FROM THE DEPARTMENT HEAD: THE ENGAGED MLA SETTING AND CONTEXT

4

PROGRAM OF STUDY

9

STUDIO WORKS

10

CAPSTONE STUDIO/STUDENT WORK

22

AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS

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FACULTY 74 NEWS 78

The Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Minnesota is in the College of Design— o n e of th e m o s t c o m p re h e n s i ve a n d e n g a g e d design colleges in the country. Our focus is to design sustainable, collaborative, and artful solutions to the complex challenges of the 21st century. Our Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) program expands landscape architecture into an activist practice to create innovative approaches to the pressing issues of our time.

Change defines our landscape—drought and flood, freeze and thaw, population explosions and declines, economic booms and crashes. As designers and managers of change, landscape architects shape resilient futures by designing new places and systems that integrate art, ecology, and community.

This collection of student work shows the breadth and depth of our studio sequence. Over the course of five design studios, students explore sites from the local to the international on increasingly larger scales and apply new technical skills and knowledge to their design solutions. In their second year of study, students have the option of studying abroad in our Cities on Water program that addresses issues of global climate change in the Netherlands and Venice. In the final capstone studio, students pursue independent design projects, driven by their values and passion.

Faculty bring their research into the collaborative studio environment to deepen studio work, to engage students in a broad range of landscape research inquiry, and to share their own vision of how landscape architectural practice can change the world for the better. They ask compelling and relevant questions like how can cities and

2 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT MINNESOTA

towns plan for increasing floods and droughts? What can be made of open pit mines and piles of spoils when the extraction is over? How can temporary art installations spur ongoing community building? What does big data have to do with making livable neighborhoods?

Our students learn as much outside the classroom as inside the classroom and take advantage of our location in a vital design-rich urban region. They work as research assistants in practice in Twin Cities agencies, firms, and nonprofits like the Trust for Public Land, or as interns in firms like Oslund Associates, Tom Leader Studios, Coen Partners, and HGA. Our students also lead design initiatives of their own making, such as Students for Design Activism and Greenlight, or in professional organizations like the student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Our college also has one of the largest studentpractitioner mentoring programs of any North American design school, which underscores the strong ties between the college and talented local practitioners— many of whom teach as adjunct faculty.

We invite you to visit our program and we look forward to hearing about the kind of change you want to make in the world.

Sincerely, Kristine F. Miller Professor Department Head

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 3

PENN & PLYMOUTH AVENUE NORTH DESIGN

SETTING AND CONTEXT In Minneapolis The University of Minnesota’s graduate program in landscape architecture takes advantage of its Twin Cities setting to provide high quality student-focused education within a vibrant and diverse urban environment. Because the University is one of the country’s only land-grant institutions in a large metropolitan region, our students and faculty can take an active role in imagining and building more sustainable, equitable, and artful places.

More than 100 years ago, the visionary landscape architect H. W. S. Cleveland created the MinneapolisSt. Paul park system—known today as one of the biggest and best urban park systems in the world, with the Mississippi River as its centerpiece.

Permeable Paving

Raingarden

Public Art - History

Public Art - History

Bus Shelter

Today the Twin Cities are known for design innovation.

Our students have access to a wealth of area firms, nonprofits, and government agencies for internships, mentoring, and collaboration. Our students are active in the art and design scene, too. In the summer of 2012 they co-led a course on food and the city at the Walker Art Center and in 2013 installed Lower Course, a site specific art and sound exhibit at the Northern Spark Art Festival.

Lowry Ave

The Twin Cities consistently rank among the top 10 most livable regions with the biggest and best used bike network and nationally and internationally known cultural resources including the Walker Art Center, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Guthrie Theater, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, as well as a vibrant local art, theater, and music scene.

Penn Ave

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Community Banner

Mixed Use Building

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 5

SETTING AND CONTEXT Around the World Students also travel every semester—either through studio field trips or for study abroad. Studios have traveled to Seattle, Portland, New York, Duluth, Toronto, and Chicago; and our foreign studies program, Cities on Water, takes students to the Netherlands and Italy.

Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport is a 30 minute light rail trip away from campus with flights facilitating travel within the United States and abroad.

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PROGRAM OF STUDY The Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA) is a first professional degree required for students who wish to become licensed landscape architects. The program introduces students to the practice and discipline of landscape architecture, providing them with the artistic, technical, cognitive, and communication skills, as well as the scientific and aesthetic knowledge necessary to practice in the profession and in related environmental fields.

Course work for the MLA degree exposes students to the broad field of landscape architecture as both a discipline and a profession. Classes are collaborative in nature and challenge students to delve into landscape issues that cut across multiple systems and scales.

Our curriculum integrates across subjects. For instance, a student will learn about issues of water and landform in the technology sequence, or how to combine hand and computer drawing in their representation course, and immediately apply that information in the studio that same semester.

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LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 9

STUDIO WORKS

TOURISTIC POTENTIAL

Cities on Water

MUSLIMS

Mosque Library

NATIONALISTS Memorial Radio | TV

Zi ya gun park

Kitchen Infirmary Radio

Yedikule fortress museum

International Castle

FOOTBALLERS

ANARCHISTS KURDISH

FOOTBALLERS

Kitchen Taksim Solidarity Headquarters Stage

LGBT

Commons Cafe

COMMUNISTS

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Warehouse

ENVIRONMENTALISTS

For the past two years, students have been working in the Netherlands to design 10,000 hectares of new land in the Markermeer, a fresh-water lake created by the completion of the North Sea Afsluitdijk (Closure Dike) in 1932, and the Houtribdijk in 1976. Students were asked to create islands from the lake silt that is degrading the aquatic and avian ecology of the Markermeer. The new islands will form the underwater structure necessary to improve the water quality of the Markermeer and also provide avian and aquatic habitat and human recreation. The students’ work has been featured in the Dutch media and has been used by the project client, the Natuurmonumenten, to model engineering and programming as the project moves toward realization.

ANARCHISTS

Garden

SOCIALISTS

In each location, students will study unique responses to water-based issues and investigate how these inform the built environment. Students study the issues and relationships as design informants, and then apply them through project designs in real places. Critics in both the Netherlands and Turkey provide the students with background and expertise in a number of areas, including ecology, hydrology, urban design, sociology, and water management.

Gate of rhegium

Gezi Republic | Sub-Communities

NATIONALISTS

Cities on Water is a spring semester study abroad option. The program includes three weeks of preparation time in Minneapolis, three and one-half weeks of study in the Netherlands, and eight weeks of study in Istanbul, Turkey. The program focuses on issues around water, including infrastructure, sustainability and resiliency, cultural response and adaptation, urban planning, urban morphology, and ecology.

Gezi Republic | De Facto Settlements

MUSLIMS

Livestreaming

Sahil Park

Boat launch of Sahil Park

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STUDIO WORKS LA 5201: Making Landscape Spaces and Types This beginning studio introduces the basic principles of design, creative design processes, and the means of examining and reflecting on landscape in a variety of ways. The course sequence builds with each design project, exposing students to the concepts and means of structuring landscape architectural space. It also facilitates the development of a personal vision and design methodology. Students learn to tie analytical thought to personal insight. Using design projects, site visits, readings, and presentations, students explore the physical and evocative properties of landscape architectural design and how it is recorded and communicated.

Students begin by making a series of conceptual models to learn how to shape spaces to create specific landscape experiences. They draw inspiration from key theoretical readings, like Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, and rework their designs based on individualized feedback from their instructors and guest critics. Next, students build their knowledge of landscape architecture by creating hand and digital analysis drawings of iconic designs. Finally, students apply what they have learned in “real-world” settings and transform a major city parkway into a new neighborhood resource, and an industrial urban waterfront site into a new set of public spaces that link the city, the river, and the University of Minnesota campus.

808 x x 807

811 x 814 816 x

x

812 x

x 810

814 818 834

824 x

x

824 834

1”= 30’

wild: upland trees and shrubs

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v

804

wild: trees, shrubs, wetland plantings

LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

wild: wetland plantings

urban: wooden boardwalk

urban: wooden boardwalk

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STUDIO WORKS LA 5203: Ecological Dimensions of SpaceMaking This studio explores issues, concepts, and design techniques critical to understanding multifunctional landscapes. Ranging across multiple scales, students seek to understand ways in which design can augment social and ecological performance through understanding a site’s historic and existing contex t, as well as speculating about its future. The studio is process-driven and iterative, using multifaceted and layered methods of seeing, recording, and analyzing sites over multiple and overlapping time frames and scales. The projects explore the design and function of landscape spaces from the medium site to small regions (neighborhoods, cities, townships), focusing on how the existing ecological systems of a site inform the spatial, aesthetic, and functional qualities of a designed landscape.

The first project explores precedent examples, exposing students to a broad range of ecologically focused work. The second project builds on these examples by asking students to re-imagine the organization of the University of Minnesota’s Itasca Biological Field Station site through the lens of ecology and sustainability. Next ,students created recreational access systems and plant restoration strategies along an urban reach of Minnehaha Creek, located west of Minneapolis.

In the final project, students explore the Minnesota River Valley just south of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Each student chooses their own location to explore their interests and passions, conducts a careful ecological analysis, and creates a new vision for this urban wild landscape.

50-100% cover Canopy Silver Maple Cottonwood American Elm Green Ash

quiet Silver Maple Green Ash American Elm Hackberry

Sub-Canopy/Shrub Layer up to 25% cover

Loud

Nettles Ontario Aster Poison Ivy Grape Vine Virginia Wild Rye Cut Grasses Hop Umbrella Sedge Cattail Sedge

variable % cover Groundcover 0 250 500 1000

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iMountain Bike Trails

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 15

STUDIO WORKS Studio 8201: Paradigm Change for the Blue Heron Mill, Oregon City, OR This collaborative studio explores a future model for landscape architectural practice. This model is in response to emerging issues of “massive change� in our rapidly changing, post-industrial world and speculations upon new futures for contaminated, former riverfront industrial sites . These issues provided the socio-cultural context to envision alternative futures for an abandoned paper mill adjacent to the Willamette Falls in Oregon.

As the terminus of the Oregon Trail, the Falls (and paper mill site) play an important role in the history of settlement in the region. The Falls are also historically significant site for many of the Native American tribes in the Willamette Valley. Working with the City of Oregon City and local stakeholders and operating through the lens of paradigm change and design advocacy, the project team generated innovative and speculative design proposals that bridged these historic conflicts of land use and access and contemplated new ways to celebrate the heritage of the site, provide access to the Falls, and stimulate reinvestment in the former mill property.

The studio included research into emerging paradigms and long range scenario plans. This work led to a visit to Portland and Oregon City, field study of precedent projects, meetings with local leaders and direct student participation in a visioning workshop with over 200 individuals. The work that arose from the site visit and workshop resulted in five award winning design proposals, including the University-wide U-Spatial Mapping Prize and the Minnesota ASLA Award of Merit.

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 17

STUDIO WORKS LA 8205: Urban Form Options

AVE N ACTIVE SPORTS

KAYAK LAUNCH

MORGAN AVE N

PENN AVE

D EWOO

INGL

COMMUNITYCOMMERCIAL REDEVELOPMENT

URBAN CAMPSITES N 2ND AVE

WOODLAND WALK

1ST 1/2 AVE

B

FISHING BRIDGE TREE CLIMB

C MARSH WALK CANOPY SWINGS

RECLAIM

Utilize the site as node to create a public network of safe access and diversified transportation to the surrounding community amenities and park systems.

Bassett Creek can serve as a destination space for community gathering and an icon for neighborhood identity.

Develop distinguished pathways, edges, and programming to better value the community asset that is Basset Creek. Optimize opportunities for engagement in and around the space to better foster communal stewardship of this site.

Support essential ecological services of the creek through restored habitat for urban wildlife, resilient stormwater infrastructure, and a continuous seam of vegetation to enhance the urban fabric as well as buffer the shoreline to improve water quality.

Ecology

BOULDER PLAYGROUND

OVERLOOK SWIMMING AREA

EXISTING TENNIS COURTS

Edges

BUTTERFLY & BUG HUNT

D

MUT TRAIL

CHESTNUT AVE W

A

ER

BOULDER PLAYGROUND

REDEFINE

Neighborhoods

CANOPY SLIDE

ELEVATED OVERLOOK

LA K

WATER PLAYGROUND

RECONNECT

CE DA R

This studio is part of ReMix, a long-term, awardwinning partnership between our department and Juxtaposition Arts. Juxtaposition Arts is an arts, youth, and social enterprise-based community organization in Nor th Minneapolis. Each year we examine projects that are important to our community partners. Students decide the scale and location of their final projects based on community goals and their own individual interests. North Minneapolis offers a broad range of possible projects at varying scales: parks and parkways on the Mississippi River, brownfields in the industrial areas, in-fill and streets in commercial shopping districts or residential areas, and vacant lots.

PARKING

VINCENT AVE N

Urban design is a way of representing ideas and information, imagining futures, and transforming systems and places. Urban designers shape physical spaces, creating settings that produce aesthetic experiences for those who move through and occupy them. They reconfigure infrastructure systems that connect communities to resources. They support public decision-making processes by creating methods for community engagement.

QUEEN AVE N

GLENWOOD AVE

This studio is based on the idea that landscape architecture and urban design can build equitable, healthy, and sustainable communities by linking the social, human, and cultural assets of a community with the development of its physical and economic capital.

VEGETATED SOFT CREEK EDGE OAK SAVANNA

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NEWTON AVE S

OLIVER AVE S

QUEEN AVE S

RUSSEL AVE S

SHERIDAN AVE S

MIXED DECIDUOUS FOREST

LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

MESIC PRAIRIE RIPARIAN EDGE: WET MEADOW TO FLOODPLAIN FOREST

FORMAL WATER ACCESS HIGH-DIVERSITY RESTORATION

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 19

P2

STUDIO WORKS Project 2: Duluth Perspectives

LA 8206: Design Duluth

200’ 100’ 0

18

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

13

8

18

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

8

13

time spent at the site 400’

water other earth

Sky

300’ 200’

18

1754: Ojibwe trade with the French for guns and force the Dakota out of the region completely.

1783: land east of the Mississippi River was granted to the United States by the Second Treaty of Paris

1756-1763: French and Indian War

1775-1783: American Revolution

1792: North West Company established several posts on Minnesota rivers and lakes.

1854: the Treaty of La Point was signed at Fond du Lac by which the Grand Portage & Fond du Lac Indians gave up their rights to mineral tracts in the region.

1812-1815: War of 1812

1803: Most of the state was purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase

1855: rumors of immense copper deposits along the North Shore & of iron ore at Lake Vermilion sparked a boom in the area.

1808: American Fur Company was organized

by Austrian-born John Jacob Astor. The Company began trading at the Head of the Lakes.

1855: Sault Ste Marie locks open allowing large ships into Lake Superior 1855: Treaty of 1855 was signed, setting aside 61,000 acres of land for the Ojibwe people 1858: Minnesota joins the Union 1861-1865: U.S. Civil War

1871: Col. J. B. Culver was elected the first mayor of Duluth. The canal through Minnesota Point, now bridged by the Aerial Lift Bridge, was dug.

1879: US retracts the Treaty of 1864 that gave land to native people and sells the land to timber companies.

1881: the first street railway franchise was granted

1912: development of elevators, docks, railroads, and sawmills gave impetus to the population numbers 1889: Nelson Act is signed and all Ojibwe are forced to move into reservations.

1914-1918: World War I

1916: iron, steel, and Portland cement plants for large scale production open

1939-1945: World War II

1950-1953: Korean War 1960-1975: Vietnam War 1961: Bay of Pigs Invasion

1929: peak year of total net tonnage shipped of 60.39 million -- of this iron made up 50%; the balance was limestone, coal, grain, and misc. products; value exceeded $485 million.

Historic Perspectives Timeline

13

Mapping our Perspectives

8

1650: Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers are credited with exploring present-day Duluth area.

latitude: 46 46’19.1” N longitude: 92 5’15” W

300’

Key

18

400’

latitude: 46 50’7.22” N longitude: 92 2’37.3” W

0

13

latitude: 46 50’20.6” N longitude: 91 59’55.5” W

100’

8

latitude: 46 48’55.3” N longitude: 92 5’18.6” W

300’

latitude: 46 50’49.3” N longitude: 92 1’53.3” W

18

400’

4 - North Ridge Road Project

3 - Brighton Beach

2 - Skyline

1 - UMD

13

1662: Ojibwe forced out the Dakota Sioux and Fox and won a victory against the Iroquois west of Sault Ste. Marie.

early 1950’s - beyond

early 1900’s

1800’s

12 - Marina

11 - Enger Tower

10 - Central High

9 - Group Boat Trip

8 - Park Point

7 - Class Boat Trip

6 - Hawks Boots

5 - Salmela House

4 - North Ridge Road Project

3 - Brighton Beach

2 - Skyline

Earth Water Sky Other/blurred boundary

Dissected Perspectives

1 - UMD

8

200’

elevation

100’ 0

4B

4A

8 - Park Point

7 - Class Boat Trip 18

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

8

8

13

18

8

13

18

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

11 - Enger Tower

10 - Central High

9 - Group Boat Trip

0

13

13

18

8

8

13

18

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

13

18

8

13

Thursday

Saturday

Friday

366’

350’

389’

316’

346’

350’

UMD

Opportunities

100’

5A

8

Our Perspectives Timesline

200’

latitude: 46 46’19.1” N longitude: 92 5’15” W

300’

12 - Marina

18

400’

latitude: 46 46’50.6” N longitude: 92 5’58.6” W

13

latitude: 46 44’57.5” N longitude: 92 10’22.2” W

8

5B

latitude: 46 46’57.6” N longitude: 92 6’37.7” W

P4

6 - Hawks Boots

5 - Salmela House

P3

?

Enger Tower

270’’

260’

Skyline Road

Park Point

18

0

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

400’ 300’ 200’ 100’ 0

latitude: 46 46’19.1” N longitude: 92 5’15” W

100’

latitude: 46 46’33.2” N longitude: 92 7’27.8” W

200’

latitude: 46 47’52.2” N longitude: 92 6’51.6” W

300’

latitude: 46 45’6.3” N longitude: 92 6’5.53” W

Salmela House 400’

6B

6A

connect the bluff and the shore Central High School

Brighton Beach 183’

Hawk’s Boots

Bluff

187’ St. Louis River

P5

7B

7A

?

Lake Superior

1950’s - beyond

early 1900’s

1800’s

Marina

Industrial

Maintain industrial legacy while claiming the trail capitol of the world

P6

8A

8B

Natural Sound / Direct

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1640: first documented contact with European settlers

3B

Our Perspectives Image Slices

3A

Historic Perspectives Image Slices

Design Duluth 2013 involved four College of Design faculty members; 33 graduate students in the MArch and MLA programs; 24 guest critics; 720 linear feet of Vellum; 60+ models; over $1,000 in cardboard, wax, plexiglass, cloth, and string; several dozen plotter-cartridges; at least two trips to Duluth and the Iron Range; and the active participation of over 30 Duluth based experts, locals, and professionals—including the EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, two local engineering firms, and one marine ecologist from New York via phone.

2B

Bluff to Lake Experience

Design Duluth is an interdisciplinary multi-year initiative that is organized loosely around Mayor Ness’s 90,000 by 2020 initiative, which calls for establishing economic and cultural conditions to attract 4,000 new residents to Duluth by 2020. Now entering its second year, Design Duluth works with Duluth public agencies, nonprofits, and private parties to develop responses to critical problems, including massive infrastructure development, climate change, public health issues, food security, and recreational development. Last fall, with assistance from the mayor’s office, planning division, public works, port of Duluth, EPA, and numerous NGOs involved in recreational development, studio participants developed 16 projects that reimagined a resilient future for Duluth.

This work was presented to residents of Duluth at Clyde Iron Works at an exhibition that was attended by over 100 people including Mayor Ness and the Duluth print and television media.

Kaylyn Kirby Stephanie Erwin Jordan Barlow

2A

0’

20’

40’

Manufactured Sound / Indirect

80’

160’

LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 21

1985: Duluth was second to New York in the United States in total net tonnage, even with only eight months of navigation.

CAPSTONE STUDIO Stefano Ascari

[S]Treet Fresh Greens

Pedestrian Friendly

Bike Lane Growing Structures

This is a 42 wide street lane that has ate several traffic calming devices while ount of pedestrian activity.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // UNIVERSITY OF MN // LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND PLANNING

ed

Grow

ed

Grow

Play See . ange

Play See

ed Grow rience

Car Access

Today, many communities across the United States are facing critical challenges related to health. While the days when premature deaths from infectious disease are behind us, today hundreds of thousands of Americans die each year from preventable diseases. Current research on health-promoting behavior has shifted from examining demographic and psychosocial influences to a broader focus that also includes the role of the built environment on health outcomes (Sallis et all 2008).

Americans across all demographics have been spending less time in nature over the past three decades. Two patterns stand out as indicators of propensity for participation in outdoor activities: infrastructure and peer connections. A report by Charles and Wheeler indicates that among youth there is still a preference for unstructured mobile activities such as biking and running over structured types (Wheeler et al 2009). The report revealed that youth with “nearby walking and biking routes� engaged more frequently in outdoor activities.

When juxtaposed with neighborhoods that already facilitate certain means of transportation, individuals are more exposed alternative means of transportation.

[S]TREET

37

Infrastructure and the way our cities are designed ultimately affects the quality of the physical activities we engage in. This project explores the potential of harnessing community networks (undeclared social contracts between peers) and pedestrian favored environments as tools for shaping an urban landscape that promotes healthy living.

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LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 23

Ne ig hb o r hood value s

welcome to cochran

Elissa Brown UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // CARLETON COLLEGE // STUDIO ARTS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MINOR

RACE

to create equitable access for all our neighbors to the public resources necessary to live a safe, productive, and joyful life.

innovation-creativity

sustainability-placemaking

to lead in creative programming and innovative neighborhood solutions.

to develop and promote sustainable living options to create a more resilient neighborhood.

oUtrEacH

25.1%

of residents are under 18

lAnd aCceSS

food services + accommodation health care and social assistance administration + support miscellaneous services professional, scientific, and technical services

aVg. Monthly earnings mpls orcora

n

of households are renter-occupied

s

s

age

42.3%

corcor a mpl

english only language other than english english spoken less than “very well”

n

corcor a mpl

n

white hispanic / latino black / african american american indian + alaskan native two or more races asian or pacific islander other race

home ownership

pOliCY

Top job sectors

language

corcor a mpl

s

Approximately 39% of Twin Cities families are food insecure. This is almost 4 times the Minnesota average and more than 2.5 times the national average. Families that are food insecure lack convenient and affordable access to fresh, high-quality fruits and vegetables, making them less likely to include healthy foods in daily meals. The Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board (MPRB) is passing a new Urban Agriculture Activity Plan, which would provide public education, economic support for the local food system, renew and develop park facilities that foster urban agriculture activities, and ensure parklands benefit residents, park visitors and the environment.

equity - diversity

to empower residents to advocate for their neighbors and invest in the future of the neighborhood where they live, work and recreate.

Ne ig hb or ho o d d em o g r ap hic s

n

This Capstone integrates food foraging, production, and culture into the design of a neighborhood park and environs in Minneapolis. While urban gathering is just beginning to be explored in academic literature, it is a widespread activity practiced by people from a diversity of sociocultural backgrounds and provides multiple benefits. Though urban gathering takes advantage of perennially productive systems, it still requires support to thrive.

empowerment

c

CAPSTONE STUDIO

EDiBLE wOodLAND / autumn

$1250 or less

pRodUcTioN

$1250 - $3333

more than $3333

dIstRiButIoN

Due to the threat from emerald ash borer (EAB) a number of Minneapolis public trees will need to be replaced. MPRB developed a proactive approach which will utilize a canopy replacement plan that provides for the scheduled replacement of ash trees with a mix of diverse species. Replacements will occur within the next 10 years, before the widespread damage caused by EAB infestation makes keeping up with maintenance, removal, and replacement impossible.

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LANDARCH.DESIGN.UMN.EDU

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 25

Circulation

CAPSTONE STUDIO

Figure ground

Surface parking

Public space

Stephanie Erwin UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // UNIVERSITY OF IA // SCIENCE, COMMUNITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING Adaptive Street a

Collaborative Cove

Key

c 05

04

Woodland Through

b

07

02

Together designers, and citizens should designate land as public with the social, cultural, and political goals of the community. Establishing these initial conditions would encourage local start-ups and cultural events, provide shared spaces for interaction, facilitate engagement in the built environment, and brand the neighborhood with contextual interventions.

Although there is a shift in planning policy and increased citizen interest in bottom-up urbanism, it seems nearly impossible to facilitate this phenomenon in Zuidoost or in Amstel III because the transient nature of the uses.

Bottom-up initiatives need citizens and community members that are economically and emotionally invested in their neighborhood. The investment is formed over time and slowly generates social capital.

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02

06

Pergola

02

Patio

03

Movable furniture

04

Bike path forest

05

Co-working tables

06

Parking

07

Woodland

08

Pedestrian crossing

Circulation

01

Colorful forest Polder Sportpark 08

**Master plan + sections are not to scale

2 New streets + Obvious pedestrian connections

Woodland path Turf + stone path

Movable furniture

Pergola

Collaborative Cove

Proposed

Uses

03 01

Existing

1120 Parking stalls 16,800 Sqm

280 Parking stalls 4,200 Sqm

1 Public place

5 Public places joined by a corridor

Figure ground

STAY explores the adaptive reuse of a monofunctional landscape to create a network of public space that infuses community assets in the business park of Amstel III in Zuidoost Amsterdam, Netherlands. by restablishing initial conditions that foster bottom-up urbanism.

Bottom-up urbanism is a viable way for cities to realize projects that would otherwise be unrealized. Citizeninitiated urban interventions are a self-perpetuating force that empowers community members to engage their built environment by nontraditional means. The creation of public space at this level means more social and cultural relevancy for the users. The relevancy of spaces created through bottom-up urbanism encourages previously disenfranchised populations to become attached and invested in their neighborhoods — creating safer, more appealing communities.

Collaborative Cove This area shall serve as a breeding ground for creative ideas. Co-working spaces inside and outside foster an atmosphere conducive to collaboration. Colorful trees and pergolas bring the 7 story buildings down to human scale. Movable seating elements + collaborative tables encourage interaction within the community. The existing bike path is enhanced with interesting lighting elements peppered through the colorful forest that continues along it. A woodland planting mitigates the angularity posed by the buildings.

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Semi-public plaza

Angular Through

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CAPSTONE STUDIO solange Guillaume UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY // DOUBLE MAJOR IN MUSIC AND THEATER The view of Newtown Creek from the Empire State Building reveals a formerly flourishing estuary – flat, tidal – and a prime location for industry. Over time the creek’s edges were hardened, creating an ossified system of waterways branching inland. The air smells like the bay at times, when it doesn’t smell like gasoline, but the site and sound of water is rarely present even a few streets inland.

Newtown Creek is a relatively unknown space. Industrial zoning and lack of access points have prevented people from getting close to the creek and its reputation as a polluted space has also kept it out of the public mind.

Neighborhood soils are embedded with pollutants including an oil plume that sits under people’s homes and in the bed of the creek. Hurricane Sandy caused a storm surge that flooded a broad swath of the estuary.

Buildings and streets within the 100-year flood zone were inundated. While the water levels themselves were enough to wreak havoc, Newtown Creek’s brownfields and combined sewer overflows made handling the cleanup more dangerous.

With current fears about greater frequency of storms due to climate change, initiatives to protect areas vulnerable to flooding are underway. This project proposes a phased approach to creating a new riverfront park along the creek to address projected sea level rise, handle stormwater and combined sewer overflows, and connects the creek to surrounding neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Queens. The project also includes a phased bioremediation program to deal with site pollution.

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CAPSTONE STUDIO

SEASONAL HIGH

25 YEAR FLOOD

50 YEAR FLOOD

100 YEAR FLOOD

500 YEAR FLOOD

EXISTING RIVER’S EDGE + USACE LEVEE

Amber Hill UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // UNIVERSITY OF IA // SOCIOLOGY WITH SPANISH MINOR When waters rise they leave their mark. Some paint dark lines on buildings that show how far flood waters reached. People must paint those lines for many reasons, but primarily those lines and other similar gestures serve to develop a collective memory of disaster.

Severe disasters must be remembered if people are to learn from them, to safeguard against their recurrence (Pfister 2011). In Cedar Rapids, the words “high water” were painted in red on a family restaurant affected by the flood. When you walk down that street you can re-imagine what that space must have been like, and how people had to deal with such a disaster. At another restaurant just along the river there’s a plaque marking the high water line inside the cafe. Patrons walk under a doorway to see it.

WINTER/FALL TYP. LEVEL (703’) 3

4

CEDAR RIVER

5 7 6

SUMMER/SPRING TYP. LEVEL (707’) 8

9

The high water marks don’t only serve to remember the floods, but also become “expressions of institutional risk memory,” (Pfister 2011) an understanding of how risky a place is to live, and yet despite this type of remembering of a disaster such as that in 2008 in Cedar Rapids, people still feel determined to live in the flood zone.

“Disaster gap” is a term to describe the long period of time between disasters in a region that can lead to a loss of a cultural memory of disaster (Pfister 2011). This project examines ways of preserving the cultural memory of disaster by coupling memorialization and resilience to flooding.

10

11

100 YEAR FLOOD (724.4’) 12

14 13

2008 FLOOD (731.12’)

HUBBARD ICE COMPLEX

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CAPSTONE STUDIO stephen himmerich UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // UNIVERSITY OF MANITOBA // BACHELOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN Currently only about 5 percent of adults say they have the right daily work/play balance in their lives. Networks of movement throughout our cities have developed towards a simple set of exchangeable pieces that are designed for ubiquity. Places where we spend much of are lives are lifeless and uninspiring. We have become complacent in our engagement with urban spaces and have not stopped to question if there might be potential for them to be anything more than just corridors of transit or pathways of movement. Our environment holds possibility for achieving play we must simply unlock its potential.

PLAY

Potentials IMPROVES PHYSICAL HEALTH Can help provide us with the physical fitness required to manage our overall health.

With over 1/3 of the US population being categorized as obese by the CDC (Center for Disease Control) large scale movement towards physical play can diminish major health complications linked to inactivity.

GOOD FOR YOUNG AND OLD

ENGAGES OUR IMAGINATION Play helps develops the mind and body promoting good health through life.

Well into old age play can promote a sharp mind and physical health benefits.

Northrop Auditorium

The act of play can be crucial to the health of our mind we are in a constant need of creating balance in our life and play is a major means of doing just that. Through play we are refreshed and are able to further press towards our goals. In the broad view play helps alleviate stress and move us towards a healthy lifestyle.

Coffman Memorial Union

STRENGTHENS PROBLEM SOLVING

Exploring play as a mode of inquiry into the character of the urban form is not merely about designing for a specific play type, but rather about crafting affordances for individuals to engage in their own forms of play. Play points to the potential to enliven urban fabric, and should not be limited to its current site-based form but should rather intertwine itself into the everyday landscape of the city. Play’s multi-faceted nature pushes the boundaries of the urban form.

In play we are called to explore a variety of ideas and potentials that desire a solution . in play there is a potential to test various concepts and develop skills that will allow for increased possibility in identifying solutions

IMPROVES SOCIAL SKILLS

The proposed system becomes an ex tension of and addition to current amenities. It offers localized oppor tunities for communit y interaction, social engagement, and a wide range of health benefits connected to physical, mental, social, and environmental wellbeing. It transforms uninspired one size fits all interstitial spaces into something working to benefit the quality of life for local inhabitants.

Through the act of play social interaction can be greatly benefited. It helps us the understand and adopt a mentality of cooperation and fair play while also softening us to the potential of congenial relationships opening us up to greater possibilities of developing strong friendships.

ENGAGES OUR CREATIVITY Play has the potential to allow for thinking outside the box. Play operates in a space where ideas can be tested and freely exchanged.

We can throw around any number of ideas and examine potentials. This pushes forward thew knack for idea development and opens up our creative potentials.

STIMULATES NERVE GROWTH

BOOST IN PHYSICAL POTENTIAL

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Ralph Rapson Hall

IMPROVES MENTAL HEALTH

Play helps develops the mind and body promoting good health through life.

Well into old age play can promote a sharp mind and physical health benefits.

Within the brain play provides stimulation to the nerves which help an individual process emotion and executive function.

Williams Arena

Play provides opportunities to improve our motor functions with the improvement in balance and agility being pushed through various modes of physical play . It also serves to boost the our overall endurance and stamina.

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10%

CAPSTONE STUDIO Matthew Kessler

Festuca ssp.

10%

Helianthus ssp.

Trifolium pratense

Medicago sativa

Propylene Glycol Remediants

Nitrogen Fixers

Lift is the component of force that is perpendicular to the direction of oncoming flow in a fluid. It is a cutting force; a force which enacts change. And it contrasts the parallel force, known as drag. If the fluid is air, it’s called aerodynamics. If the fluid is water, hydrodynamics.

But could the fluid be a system? Policy? State of mind?

Could drag be the status quo? The “Good Enough”. And the force, Lift; could it be a landscape?

60%

Panicum virgatum

Typha latifolia

Populus ssp.

Biomass Producers Alternative Feedstocks

E

18” Seating Edge

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10%

v

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // UNIVERSITY OF MN // LANDSCAPE DESIGN AND PLANNING WITH URBAN STUDIES MINOR

Lift is the very essence of the aviation industry, a force without which flight would be impossible. This Lift, this force comes at a price. The aviation industry is the #2 worldwide consumer of fossil fuels, a resource which is rapidly depleting. In response to evolving ethics towards sustainable solutions across the globe, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has begun issuing grants to individual airports to research place specific solutions to move the industry towards a more manageable carbon footprint. In November of 2013 The Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport (MSP) under the governing body of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) received just such a grant for $750,000, to begin their own sitespecific sustainability solutions study. It is under this pretext that the concept of Lift is proposed. The charge of this project is to reconnect the airport landscape with its greater context of ecological systems, develop a more self-sufficient supply of energy, and redefine the human experience while seeking to improve the general safety of aviation operations.

10%

Secondary Traipseway

First Date

Mixed Prairie Testing Plots

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CAPSTONE STUDIO David Kowen UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE // AMERICAN STUDIES WITH RELIGIOUS STUDIES MINOR The Ala Wai Canal, situated in urban Honolulu on the Island of Oahu, is an engineering marvel of the twentieth century that facilitated the drainage of hundreds of acres of wetlands for the construction of what is now the world famous tourist destination of Waikiki. Today, however, despite the State of Hawaii continuing to reap the benefits of global tourism, the Canal has become extremely polluted and is currently operating over capacity. The rapid urbanization of Honolulu and the dramatic increase in impervious surface area has greatly contributed to the decay of this essential piece of ecoinfrastructure. With detrimental health impacts to local residents, the ecological consequences stemming from intense pollution, increasing flood risks, multifaceted economic externalities, and the inevitable consequences of global climate change and sea level rise, the problems facing the Ala Wai Canal must be addressed.

This project proposes rerouting the path of the Manoa and Palolo Stream to connect with the AlaWai Canal at the Canal’s dead end, instead of at its midpoint, to dramatically improve flow rates, encourage increased oceanic interchange, and allow for additional residence time for water prior to entering the Ala Wai. The addition of Makiki Stream Park at the site of the old Hard Rock Cafe site, and the redesign of the existing Ala Wai Park and Arbor Walk, would rejuvenate the area and improve Waikiki’s hydrologic resilience.

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North River Neighborhood

Ma

CAPSTONE STUDIO Emily Osthus

ip

Sh

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ne

an

ch

Great Lakes Museum (existing)

Marina (existing)

Park (existing)

Downtown City Center

Dredge delivery boat access Dredge storage Research center

Greenhouse Wetland test plots i

9

1

d

Dredge/soil storage

7 10

Community garden plots

h

f 2

12

e

11

j

c

b

Dredge/soil mixing

6

g

Re-establish hydrological edge/riparian condition

Agricultural test plots

8

5

Central plaza

a

Lawn 4

Botanical gardens

3

Parking New development “Small boats” launch (existing) East Toledo Neighborhood

Ch

et

er ry

i

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Fif t y years ago, scientists were not cer tain that phosphorus caused algae blooms. The nutrient was suspected but evidence was not definitive. Today there’s a need for long-term experimentation in order to interrogate optimal ecological design of best management practices.

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Museum ship (existing)

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // ST. OLAF COLLEGE // BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES M u r k y Wa te r p r o p o s e s a n e w m u l t i f u n c t i o n a l phosphorus, dredge, and water quality research center and public space hybrid; a research site and a park, on the Maumee River near downtown Toledo. Phosphorus use in fertilizer leads to phosphorus mitigation strategies: best management practices that are implemented nationally and around the world in order to reduce the affects of phosphorus on waterbodies that are downstream of these agricultural systems. Current scientific research says that these strategies aren’t yielding the expected results in these particular regions.

Researchers of these places describe the challenges facing nutrient management and eutrophication of lakes as one where uncertainties are still large, management intervention is urgently required, and decision stakes are high (Sharpley et. al, 2013).

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International park (existing)

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Linked with landscape architecture, this might become a place of greater public involvement and awareness.

There might be a unique ripple effect as information spreads outward from the site. And this incorporation of research into public space might create a new type of riverfront park, where people can come and find their own new primary images and interpretations of river, and river edge.

38 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AT MINNESOTA

g h

i

j

1’

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CAPSTONE STUDIO

RESTRICTIONS

Michael richardson UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // COLBY COLLEGE // DOUBLE MAJOR IN ART AND MUSIC Sustainability is a complicated and often ambiguous subject that can be difficult to understand beyond its most basic tenet of meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Bruntland, 1987). Generally, sustainability can be thought of as multi-scalar and multi-systemic multiple systems. Urban metabolism likens the processes that occur within and through an urban region to those of a living organism. Humans, for example, require inputs of food and water to fuel and maintain processes essential to life. Of the materials that we intake, we use some, we store some, and we eliminate some as waste.

Urban metabolism can provides insights into how a city and region operate and where issues exist at systematic and site scales. The California Center for Sustainable Communities characterizes the relationship this way: “Urban metabolism is a systems approach for assessing sustainability by measuring the total energy, materials, and waste that flow into and out of an urban area.”

This project focuses on environmental sustainability and the physical resources necessar y to sustain communities. In order to quantify performance of potential development, I developed a model that allowed me to calculate different metrics of resource consumption and waste production. Based on an understanding of the theory and information gathered from the model, I propose a design that addresses the results found therein to meet the needs of the community while reducing the negative resource impacts on a per capita basis.

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RESOURCE IMPACT Greater Impact

RESIDENTS SERVED Residents (x100)

Employees (x100)

In order to establish a “baseline” land-use mix upon which to base future development, I identified this scenario because of its low impact-resident ratio.

43

Potable Water

Energy

Solid Waste Wastewater

Carbon

Stormwater

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CAPSTONE STUDIO The City of Mankato’s flood protection system has dramatically reduced physical and visual connections to the Minnesota River. Over the past century, river cities have undertaken major transitions in form and function due to the evolution of industry and technology, growth of urban sprawl, and construction of flood management systems. What was once a harmonious - albeit, risky - relationship between river and city has now evolved into a controlled and mitigating stance towards keeping the natural force - the water - at bay. The constriction and control of the natural river system has brought about environmental concerns felt hundreds of miles downstream. River and urban systems once inextricably connected have become isolated and independent, leading to worries that river-based communities are forging ahead without their founding asset - the river.

I am proposing an alternative approach in which the river and urban systems can coexist in a resilient and mutually-beneficial fashion.

The intersection of the river and the city is the epitome of constant change. The balance between these two systems is crucial, yet it seems that we have yet to fully acknowledge the river’s current role in urban resilience. This project aims to reconnect Mankato with the Minnesota River, rejuvenate habitat and riverine conditions, and bring about the historic district’s economic revitalization. With more resilient infrastructure design, the city can protect itself from flooding events without compromising beneficial public riverfront space and access.

Mankato’s reliance on static and outdated on the city’s adaptation to more resilient

is pushed further into the urban context, allowing a more natural and interactive Trail, at an elevation of 785 feet, provides a continual line of defense from a 500 year

The economic development, social awareness, and commercial importance of Mankato’s historic Old Town district has remained stagnant over the past two decades.

The banks of the Minnesota River in downtown Mankato are devoid of any viable riparian habitat.

An interactive and programmed riverfront, highlighted by the newly-relocated Blue Earth County Historical Society and Hubbard Plaza will aid in attracting residents and visitors to Old Town. Mankato should take advantage of this new riverfront development to showcase the Hubbard Mill, Cargill grain elevators, and railroad to communicate its industrial legacy and growth as a city over time.

vegetation has limited the number of native aquatic and avian species that would

Riv

,

calls for a restoration of the river’s edge, construction of wing dams to provide a more natural riverbed and aquatic habitat, and an - all within a larger scheme to reconnect the missing habitat corridor from Riverfront Park to Sibley Park.

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RIVER ACCESS + CONNECTIONS

dramatically reduced pedestrian access between Mankato and the Minnesota River.

When physical and visual access is taken away, the city loses a piece of its heritage and pedestrian appeal. The Elm Street Gateway highlights an essential access procession to the river, with ample room for recreation and passive activity. The Kasota Riverwalk connects Riverfront Park with downtown Mankato through an enhanced and exciting trail system that allows residents and visitors a unique and seasonally-varied experience on the banks of the Minnesota River.

Old Town

Riverfront Park

Downtown

Hwy 169

R |R

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HABITAT RESTORATION

St

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE // MN STATE UNIVERSITY MANKATO // SCIENCE OF URBAN AND REGIONAL STUDIES

OLD TOWN RENEWAL

Elm

Michael Schiebe

FLOOD PROTECTION

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R |R

85

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 43

AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS 2014–2015 In addition to teaching assistantships and research assistantships, many of our students receive merit-based departmental fellowships and external awards.

FELLOWSHIPS AGER FELLOWSHIP Hang Su

STEVEN ANDREWS FELLOWSHIP

KOPISCHKE–WESTWOOD FELLOWSHIP Michael Schiebe

EDMUND J. PHELPS Elissa Brown and Stephen Himmerich

JO TUSHIE FELLOWSHIP Erin Garnaas-Holmes and Emily Osthus

Spencer Bauer

AWARDS

CHAPMAN FORESTRY FOUNDATION

ASLA-MN 2014 ASLA HONOR AWARDS

Joseph Nowak III, Jodi Refsland, and Stephanie Erwin

CLEVELAND FELLOWSHIP Austin Evert, Alexander Hill, and Grace Larson

FOUNDERS FUND Rachel Burand and Lindsay Hawks

FELLOWSHIP IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Steven Foss, Rachel Kerber, and Kelly Watters

GIRARD K. GRAY FELLOWSHIP Hang Su

CLINT HEWITT PRIZE Solange Guillaume, Amber Hill, Karen Crailes Escobar, Sarah Hayosh, and Jodi Rader

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Erin Garnass-Holames and Amber Hill

2014 ASLA MERIT AWARDS Michael Richardson and Michael Schiebe,

STUDENT WORK AWARD

ACCOMPLISHMENTS ROSS ALTHEIMER NAMED 2014–2015 H.W.S. CLEVELAND FELLOW

Emily Osthus A large vacant parcel on the Maumee River near downtown Toledo is designed as a research center to study water quality and dredge.

Ross Altheimer, Director of Landscape Architecture of the Minneapolis Office of HGA, is our 2014–2015 Cleveland Fellow and is co-teaching our introductory graduate-level design studio course with faculty member Rebecca Krinke.

Michael Schiebe Reconnecting the City of Mankato to the Minnesota River with new resilient landscape spaces.

COLLEGE OF DESIGN STUDENT DESIGN AND SCHOLARSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARD GRADUATE INDIVIDUAL

As Director of HGA’s landscape architecture practice, Ross has been recognized by ASLA National, ASLA Minnesota and the GSA Design Awards. His portfolio includes significant urban design and planning projects, cultural institutions, campuses, memorials, parks and interpretive sites. Ross graduated with master’s degrees in both Architecture and Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. Ross was winner of the 2012–2013 Rome Prize Fellowship in Landscape Architecture from the American Academy of Rome. At the academy Ross undertook a series of process-based investigations on decoding, revealing and reconstructing the contemporary city. His projects were rooted in questions about meaning and the phenomenal, and based on themes of movement, myth, and ritual infrastructure. Ross engaged various modes of representation to test the limits of a variety of mediums and processes.

Hang Su

COLLEGE OF DESIGN STUDENT DESIGN AND SCHOLARSHIP EXCELLENCE AWARD GRADUATE TEAM Michael Schiebe, MLA Patrick Triggs, M.Arch Brianna Turgeon-Schramm, M.Arch

Hang Su

CAPSTONE Erin Garnass Holmes By strategically intervening in a superfund landfill site, environmental and social justice is facilitated.

Amber Hill Remaking the public riverfront of Cedar Rapids, Iowa to be “floodable.”

U-SPATIAL MAPPING PRIZE Spencer Bauer and Shannon Sawyer

WOMEN IN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MN STUDENT LEADERSHIP AWARD

Named for the designer of the Minneapolis Grand Rounds park system, the H.W.S. Cleveland Fund attracts leading landscape designers and teachers who will not only enrich the curriculum for students and faculty, but will ensure the continued prominence and leadership of the Landscape Architecture program within the local and national landscape community.

Solange Guillaume

Matthew Kessler Retrofitting the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport landscape for biofuel production.

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STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS Students for design activism host watershed event at mill city museum Over 200 people gathered at the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis on April 11, 2014 to par ticipate in the Watershed Event put on by Students for Design Activism in partnership with Floodplain Collective and the University of Minnesota. Attendees included landscape architects, state agency employees, planners, academics, activists, students and citizens, all gathered to continue and start conversations about how Minnesota relates to its water.

Bill Wenk of Wenk Landscape Architecture and Planning gave the keynote address, comparing Minnesota’s water issues to those of the American west. While the demands for water and the policies that shape its distribution are different Minnesota than in Colorado or the arid Southwest, both geographies face a challenging future as populations rise, climate changes, groundwater supplies dwindle and rivers’ flows change.

Brian Hicks of the Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition, John Linc Stine of the MN Pollution Control Agency and Dave Peters of Minnesota Public Radio’s Ground Level discussed how Minnesota is beginning to address its water problems, ranging from farms run by smart technology and monitoring systems that control tile systems to state-wide comprehensive policy shifts. After the screening of the film, Dorene Day of the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, Matthew Tucker of the University of Minnesota, and Deborah Swackhamer of the University’s Water Resource Center shared their reactions to the film and thoughts about our water future.

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FACULTY PROFESSOR KRISTINE MILLER DEPARTMENT HEAD BA, University of Toronto, Trinity College MLA, Cornell University PhD, Edinburgh College of Art Kristine Miller’s research addresses public space and its role in public life. Her books, Designs on the Public: the Private Lives of New York’s Public Spaces (2007) and Almost Home, the Public Work of Gertrude Jekyll (2012) map the relationships among design, identity, politics, and places.

Miller examines the potential of landscape architecture to create more equitable cities through ReMix, a longterm, place-based, award-winning community/University partnership with Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA). JXTA is an arts, youth, and social enterprise-based community organization in Nor th Minneapolis. Since 20 05, students, faculty, staff, and alumni from the University’s Department of Landscape Architecture and College of Design and JXTA have collaborated on teaching, research, design, and outreach projects integrating design education with local community-building efforts.

JXTA helps students develop their skills in art and design as pathways to accomplishing their individual educational and professional goals, and to provide hands-on experiences that show the ways that art and design can build community assets. University of Minnesota prepares the next generation of public interest designers while supporting and strengthening the real-world work of locally determined asset-based community building.

In 2013, ReMix received funding from the National Endowment for the Arts to expand their programming, and Miller was one of two University of Minnesota Faculty to receive the Outstanding Community Service Award. In 2012, she received a Leadership Fellowship

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from the Bush Foundation. She advises graduate research assistants interested in environmental design and social change, like Amber Hill and Coal Dorius’s 2012 collaboration with the Cleveland Neighborhood to reimagine its main community park.

RECOGNITION Bush Foundation Fellowship for work on design and equity, 2012 Council for Educators in Landscape Architecture Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service, 2005 Dumbarton Oaks Fellowship in Landscape Architecture, 2003–04

JOE FAVOUR DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE ADMISSIONS BLA, University of Minnesota MLA, Harvard Graduate School of Design Joseph Favour is a professor in landscape architecture at the University of Minnesota’s College of Design.

He is a registered landscape architect, with 18 years of experience in his field. His teaching and practice interests are focused on the intersection of current practice, evolving graphic technology (2D drawing, 3D rendering, and data-based modeling programs like GIS and BIM), the implementation process of built work, and cost/material/performance implications of design.

Another interest area is the rapidly evolving methods of professional practice in response to emerging technologies in materials, computer applications, and revised cost models. He is interested in how this has affected the structure of offices, how projects are completed, the method they are delivered, and the

business models of practice. He continues to practice and bring those experiences into his teaching and academic work.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE oslund.and.associates, Minneapolis Sanders, Wacker, Bergly, St. Paul Habiger, Kretman, Shaffer, St. Paul

RECOGNITION 2011. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Honor Award. Target Plaza at Target Field, Minneapolis.

2010. American Institute of Architects Honor Award.

MacArthur Park Connections Master Plan, Little Rock, Arkansas.

2009. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. MacArthur Park Connections Master Plan, Little Rock, Arkansas.

2010. American Institute of Architects Honor Award.

St. John’s Abbey and Monastery Guesthouse, Collegeville, Minnesota.

2008. American Society of Landscape Architects, Colorado Chapter Honor Award. Bloomington Central Station Park, Bloomington, Minnesota.

2007. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Gold Medal Park, Minneapolis.

2007. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. St. Paul Central Library Courtyard, St. Paul.

2007. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Private Residence, Minnetonka, Minnesota.

JOHN KOEPKE

REBECCA KRINKE

PROFESSOR

DIRECTOR OF GRADUATE STUDIES

BLA, University of Minnesota MLA, University of Washington John Koepke’s strong interest in environmental science led him to collaborate with other College of Design faculty on the Ecological Design Education Project, which studied how to incorporate ecological literacy and thinking into the design curriculum of the College.

This project led to the College of Design Living Labs Consortium and Project, with the mission to investigate and promote ecological innovation in the teaching, research, and practice of landscape architecture, architecture, and interior design.

BLA, University of Minnesota MFA, Massachussetts College of Art Rebecca Krinke is a multimedia artist and designer working in sculpture, installations, public art, and site art/design. In broad terms, her creative practice and research deals with issues related to trauma and recovery—moving from body to space, from object to landscape—exploring trauma as it moves from individuals to societies to ecosystems and back again.

Krinke’s sculpture has focused on embodying trauma— using the body as a starting point—while her installations and site works have often focused on ideas of recovery through contemplative, transformative environments.

Krinke disseminates her work through gallery shows, temporary public works, and permanent works. She has shown her work at national and international venues such as the Walker Art Center, Franconia Sculpture Park, and BV Gallery, Bristol, England. She is represented by Rosalux Gallery, Minneapolis. Krinke is a frequent guest lecturer and critic, and has given invited presentations in the last year at the National University of Ireland/ Maynooth, the University of the West of England in Bristol, Catholic University in Washington, DC, and at Virginia Tech, among others. She has been a visiting artist at the Art Institute of San Francisco, the University of Southern Colorado, and St. John’s University. Krinke is co-convener of the international artist-academic network Mapping Spectral Traces and a member of the UK-based group PLaCE, an artist-academic collective for placebased practice and research.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Jones and Jones, Seattle. Washington Charles Tooker, City and Town Planning, Minneapolis.

James Robin and Bob Close Landscape Architects, Minneapolis.

Trossen/Wright Architects, St. Paul.

RECOGNITION Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture Outstanding Administrator Award Illinois State Historical Society’s Book of the Year Award.

Envisioning Cahokia: A Landscape Interpretation (with Rinita Dalan, George Holley, Harold Watters and William Woods).

American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Cannon Valley Trail Master Plan.

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TEACHING EXPERIENCE University of Minnesota Harvard University, Graduate School of Design Rhode Island School of Design Boston Architectural Center

RECOGNITION Imagine Fund Individual Faculty Award, 2012, 2011, 2010 Institute for Advanced Study Symposium Award College of Design Teaching Award CELA (Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture) Award of Recognition (for innovation in teaching and research) Faculty Fellowship Award, Metropolitan Design Center

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FACULTY LAURA MUSACCHIO ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR BL A (magna cum laude) and ML A , State University New York Syracuse Ph.D., Urban and Regional Science. Texas A&M University Laura Musacchio works at the intersection of design and science in her teaching and research activities. She collaborates with students from a variety of disciplines in her interdisciplinary courses including landscape architecture, architecture, urban design, conservation biology, natural resources, urban and regional planning, public policy, humanities, and arts. Her research projects are inspiration for her courses in urban landscape ecology, regreening cities and regions, ecological design and planning, and urban biodiversity. For example, she is part of an interdisciplinary research team that has been recently funded by NASA and investigates how city size and shape influence severe weather, urban pollution, and canopy transition patterns in the Great Plains. In addition, she is an editorial board member of Landscape Ecology and Landscape and Urban Planning and has been a guest editor of special issues for Landscape Ecology, Landscape Journal, and Urban Ecosystems.

RECOGNITION Resident Fellowship, Institute on the Environment College of Design Outstanding Research Award Planetizen’s 2006 Top 10 Books. Designing Small Parks: A Manual Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns Designing Small Parks (by Ann Forsyth and Laura Musacchio) Roy Jones Award for Outstanding Research

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RECENT PUBLICATIONS

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Musacchio Laura. 2013. Key concepts and research priorities for landscape sustainability. Landscape Ecology 28:995–998 Musacchio Laura. 2013. Cultivating deep care: Integrating landscape ecological research into the cultural dimension of ecosystem services.

Landscape Ecology 28:1025–1038 Musacchio Laura. 2011. The grand challenge to operationalize landscape sustainability and the design-in-science paradigm. Landscape Ecology 26:1–5 Musac c hio L aura. 2011. The world’s matrix of vegetation: Hunting the hidden dimension of landscape sustainability. Landscape and Urban Planning 100:356–360

University of Minnesota Iowa State University University of Illinois

DAVID PITT PROFESSOR

MLA, University of Massachussetts Ph.D., University of Arizona David Pitt has worked with the Metropolitan Council, the McKnight Foundation, and the Universit y of Minnesota Center for Urban and Regional Affairs to develop a landscape assessment process that local governments can use to facilitate smart growth in an environmentally responsible way. With several University colleagues, Pitt is developing a systemic approach to GeoDesign, which integrates spatiotemporal modeling of landscape performance. A recent grant from the USDA-Conservation Innovation Grant program facilitates application of this work to the collaborative design of multifunctional landscapes in the Minnesota River valley.

With internal University funding, Pitt and his colleagues

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Hargreaves Associates, Senior Associate Conservation Design Forum, Principal Land and Community Associates, Cultural Landscape Planner Edward Durell Stone Associates, Designer Dallas County Conservation Board, Iowa

are constructing a GeoDesign decision lab to examine the ways in which the presentation of information, group dynamics, and social and individual learning affect outcomes of landscape planning decision making.

Pitt holds adjunct appointments in urban and regional planning and forest resources, and is a member of the graduate faculty in water resources science.

RECOGNITION Coeditor, Landscape Journal 2012. Fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners.

20 03. Outstanding Educator Award. Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture 1989. ASLA Merit Award for production of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service videotape entitled “A Management Plan for Hamden Slough National Wildlife Refuge.”

MATTHEW TUCKER ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MLA, Harvard University Native to the Loess Hills bioregion of western Iowa, Matthew has a sustained interest in the diverse landscape patterns and processes of place. He is a designer with a strong background in ecologically and culturally sensitive site design and planning. With nearly two decades of experience on complex projects, his work focuses on damaged, postindustrial urban sites, urban ecology and hydrology, and the application of sustainable design and construction principles. His work has been noted for its symbiosis between theory and practice. He was the former director of design and principal at Conservation Design Forum and was a senior associate at the Cambridge, Massachusetts office of Hargreaves Associates. He has taught and lectured at numerous universities.

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RECOGNITION 2009. American Institute of Architects Honor Award of Excellence, Florida Chapter. South Pointe Park (with Hargreaves Associates) 2009. American Society of Landscape Architects, Illinois Chapter Merit Award. Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Administration Center (with CDF) 2008. American Institute of Architects Committee on the Environment Top Ten Green Projects Award.

Queens Botanic Garden (with CDF) 2008. American Institute of Architects New York Award of Excellence. Queens Botanic Garden (with CDF0 2008. Illinois Lieutenant Governor Environmental Hero Award. Sylvan Slough Natural Area (with CDF) 2004. US EPA and New York City Green Building Design Award. Queens Botanic Garden (with CDF) 2004. US EPA Urban Conservation Award. Humboldt Park Prairie Streams. (with CDF) 2004. Urban Land Institute Contribution to Built

Environment Award. Kansas City Library Green Roof (with CDF) 2003. American Society of Landscape Architects, Illinois Chapter Merit Award. Queens Botanic Garden (with CDF) 2003. American Society of Landscape Architects, Illinois Chapter President’s Award. Chicago River Master Plan (with CDF) 2001. Boston Society of Landscape Architects Merit Planning Award, Detroit Riverfront (with Harvard Graduate School of Design) 2001. American Society of Landscape Architects Certificate of Merit. Harvard University 2001. Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship, Finalist. Harvard University

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FACULTY BRAD AGEE

RECOGNITION

LECTURER Director, Undergraduate Studies MLA, University of Minnesota Bradley Agee is the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Landscape Architecture, adjunct faculty member, and a design/build professional.

Alternating between his 20-year design build practice and a 15-year teaching relationship with the College of Design, Agee continues to find great satisfaction in his dual roles in academic and professional practice. “I think at best the passion I have for design, the enthusiasm I bring to the classroom, and the accessibility I offer my students to consider broadly connected ideas independently have contributed to the larger goals of the college.” Agee interacts with undergraduate students at multiple points in their academic careers and directly affects the direction, values, development, and interests of a new generation of young designers.

He is particularly interested in graphic representation, landscape architectural history, spatial perception, and the evolving definition of public and private space.

RECOGNITION Ralph Rapson Award for Distinguished Teaching

VINCENT DEBRITTO LECTURER B.Arch, California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo MLA, Cornell University Mr. deBritto has worked as a graphic designer and modelbuilder in California and London, England. As a professional landscape architect, he has received a national honor award from the American Society of Landscape Architects, citations from the Government Services Administration, and numerous awards from the Minnesota Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects for his design work. He teaches graduate design studios, guides the thesis preparation course and thesis studio for master of landscape Architecture students, and is managing editor of the Landscape Journal.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Coen+Partners, Minneapolis Freelance graphic designer, San Francisco and Minneapolis (Pentagram SF, KTDA, Bohannon Eberts Design, Debra Nichols Design, Bright and Associates) Freelance architectural modelmaker, San Francisco Intern architect, Hornberger Worstell, San Francisco

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2012. College of Design Outstanding Teaching Award 2011. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Honor Award. United States Land Port of Entry, Warroad, Minnesota (with Coen+partners) 2011. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Private residence on Lake Calhoun (with Coen+partners) 2010. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Private residence on Lake of the Isles (with Coen+partners) 2010. Government Services Administration Citation in landscape architecture. United States Land Port of Entry, Warroad, Minnesota (with Coen+partners) 2009. American Society of Landscape Architects Honor Award and American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award.

Westminster Presbyterian Church Courtyard (with Coen+partners) 2009. American Institute of Architects Education Award.

Remediation as Catalyst: A Collaborative Reworking of Post-Industrial Landscapes (with John Comazzi and Lance Neckar) 2008. Government Services Administration Citation in unbuilt work. United States Land Port of Entry, Warroad, Minnesota (with Coen+partners) 2006. American Society of Landscape Architects, Minnesota Chapter Merit Award. Minneapolis Central Library (with Coen+partners) 2004. Finalist Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture.

Cellular technologies and their effect on the use of public spaces in Rome.

American Institute of Graphic Arts National Award and British Art Directors Club National Award. San Francisco International Airport Environmental Graphics (with KTDA, SOM)

PATRICK NUNNALLY ADJUNCT PROFESSOR MA English, Vanderbilt University MA American Studies, University of Iowa Ph.D. American Studies, University of Iowa MSLA, University of Minnesota For over t wo decades, Patrick Nunnally’s work has focused on understanding and enhancing the connections that people and communities have with places they value. As a teacher, program designer, researcher, and practitioner, Nunnally has integrated knowledge drawn from social and natural sciences with artistic forms of community expression. His work at the University of Minnesota has emphasized community engagement in teaching and program development, and emerging use of social media to share knowledge across disparate academic disciplines and professional practices. More information about the program can be found at riverdesign.umn.edu.

1998 –20 01. Se nior staf f me mbe r, Unive rsit y of Minnesota, at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs under a grant from the McKnight Foundation to facilitate communication among cities on the Upper Mississippi.

2001–03. Research historian and interpretive planner, Interpretive Plan development, Skyline Parkway (Duluth, MN).

2002. Study leader, Fall Foliage Along the Upper Mississippi, excursion sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution.

2001. Researcher, Great River Road Interpretive Plan Development.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE Coordinator, River Life (formerly Mississippi River Initiative), an interdisciplinar y, multicollegiate program that strengthens the connections between the University of Minnesota and communities engaged in river sustainability 2001–05. Executive director, Mississippi River Trail, Inc. a 10-state nonprofit organization that coordinates bicycle trail development and promotion along the Mississippi River.

1998–2005. Project director, regional communication and interpretive projects that develop partnerships with communities and organizations throughout the Upper Mississippi River region.

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UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 53

WORDS FROM ALUMNI Q. What do you do when you are not working?

Travel. Prior to landing at Kuala Lumpur International Airport this January, I had never been to Asia. Living in Kuala Lumpur, I am a few hours flight from truly incredible locations. So far this year I have climbed the tallest volcano in Indonesia, spent a weekend on Bali, snorkeled all over the east coast of Thailand, toured ancient temples in Chiang Mai, visited Singapore and Jakarta (for work, but still), and eaten my way through Peninsular Malaysia.

KAMMERON HUGHES Q. Where are you living and working now?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Working for AECOM Malaysia as a Landscape Architect.

Q. How was your transition from graduate school to the work?

My transition from grad school to work can be looked at two ways — very smooth and very bumpy. I got my job in a really straightforward fashion, applying online to AECOM’s website, phone interviewing with the director of Southeast Asia, then receiving a job offer one month later. After the contract was signed things become more difficult, as I spent four and a half months applying and waiting for my Malaysian work permit. Solid information about Malaysian work permits is basically non-existent or incorrect (including approval times — they tell you two to three weeks), and finding good information from across the globe was impossible. Those four months were spent haplessly emailing and calling trying to find out my visa status, with no information past the standard “application pending.” I had interviewed on June 29th, finally on Christmas Eve I was notified that the visa had been approved and I could book my one way flight to Kuala Lumpur.

Q. How did your education lead you to your current position?

The combination of my degrees is what set me apart for this specific position. AECOM Malaysia was in the midst of creating a Landscape Design Guidelines document for the city of Kuala Lumpur as part of the River of Life project. River of Life is a river cleaning and beautification project along 10.7km of the Klang River.

With a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and my shiny

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Q. Any advice for students going through the MLA program?

Work hard on those construction drawings. As much fun as concept design is, the real excitement comes from seeing a detail design package become a physical reality in the public realm. Oh, and apply for jobs outside the US, it is worth triple the terrible exchange rate between Malaysian Ringgit and US Dollars. new MLA, I was ready to work on a design guidelines document, written in English, that ended up being over 1000 pages long.

Q. What are you doing at work?

I currently work on three major projects. A handful of bungalow designs in a community southeast of Kuala Lumpur, the aforementioned River of Life Landscape Design Guidelines, and also under the River of Life scope, I am the resident Landscape Architect for the initial design precinct that is currently under construction in the Kuala Lumpur historical center.

Q. What is your favorite current project?

Far and away, my favorite project is the River of Life initial precinct design. I spend a quarter of my week on site in client meetings, technical meetings, and various

presentations. The remainder is spent either proofing things on the ground, supporting my design team in updating and amending construction drawings, or reworking designs that must be changed because of some issue we have discovered on site. This precinct is located at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers, essentially where Kuala Lumpur began. The major landmark is Masjid Jamek, one of the oldest Mosques in the city. The first bit of construction that is currently underway unearthed the original staircase of R|R the mosque, built around 1903. The staircase had been buried over the years during monsoon floods, eventually being completely covered with a forest of coconut palms. This find led to an amendment of the design, and is a positive example of the random things buried underground all over Malaysia.

MATTHEW TRAUCHT Q. Where are you living and working now?

I live in Washington DC and work as the Project Manager of The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s What’s Out There documentation program, which is focused on raising the visibility of historic and designed landscapes.

Q. How was your transition from graduate school to the work?

The transition was fairly easy. Upon graduation, I received the Garden Club of Virginia Research Fellowship which provided a small stipend to live at and document a historic landscape. I was selected to study the Reynolds Homestead near the Blue Ridge Mountains, the boyhood home of the founders of Reynolds Tobacco and Reynolds

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Aluminum. I spent three months conducting fieldwork and archival studies resulting in the production of a Cultural Landscape Report to guide future development of that National Historic Landmark property. I had met Charles Birnbaum (president of TCLF) when he visited the University of Minnesota College of Design in 2013 and contacted him from my base in Virginia. We met in DC and discussed an opportunity to explore working with TCLF and, upon completion of the GCV fellowship, I moved to the District and began work. Though I started out as an intern, a vacancy about four months into my work at TCLF resulted in my accelerated advancement to my current role.

Q. How did your education lead you to your current position?

I first learned about TCLF as a graduate student from one of my peers and often utilized its content while I was conducting research at UMN. As a student, I enjoyed studying the history and theory of landscape architecture and so I found TCLF’s material useful and thought provoking. In my third year, I had approached TCLF regarding questions I had about my capstone and was inspired by the interest in my project that was demonstrated. TCLF appreciated my study of multilayered site histories and the wide range of research I had done while a student. On a daily basis, I employ the research skills I developed while a student. Because we are focused on landscape architecture, the history, theory, and design education I received at UMN are tools I call on every day.

and ethnographic development of historic sites. I lead a university partnership program which allows me to work with faculty and students on regionallyfocused research of landscapes and designers. As the research is developed, I post photos and narratives to our online What’s Out There database. I organize city-focused excursions that raise the visibility of landscape architecture. I also curate our social media outreach, am liaising with the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), and am working on the development of a symposium in Toronto.

Q. What is your favorite current project?

TCLF is engaged in a diverse assemblage of projects and I have the opportunity to dabble in all of them. My current research into the development of site-specific installations and environmental art has been very enjoyable. The university partnerships are also inspiring as I get to remain active with students and help them discover the breadth of landscape architecture. My recent trip to Newport, Rhode Island to participate in a symposium and charrette gave me the opportunity to both conduct research and follow that research with design.

Q. What do you do when you are not working — now that you have all this free time?

Washington DC is an amazing city and I spend a lot of time seeking out cultural activities, concerts, museum exhibitions, and other various explorations. I do a lot of cycling in and around the District.

Q. What are you doing at work?

I conduct research of the cultural history of landscape design. Mostly I am focused on the work of landscape architects but also enjoy learning about vernacular

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WORDS FROM ALUMNI JEN KRAVA

LAURA RISSEEUW

Q. Where are you living and working now?

I am in Boston; living in Somerville and attending school at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD).

Q. Where are you living and working now?

A. I’m living in London and working at the AECOM London office in the landscape architecture studio.

Q. How was your transition from graduate school to the work?

I had some insight as I went straight from the MLA program to the GSD. My current program (Master of Design Studies with a focus on Art, Design and the Public Domain) and the U of M MLA program are quite different. Not only in topic and content, but in project scope and scale. Here I must actually build the public interventions that I conceptualize. The limits on the projects are different, and it was difficult at first to scale a project and determine realistic goals based on my skill set and concept generation. However, I have been learning a lot, and very quickly, and I am able to use things that I learned in the MLA program every day, on every project.

Q. How was your transition from graduate school to the work?

In school you work on your own projects and have a certain amount of blissful autonomy as well as working without budgets or too much respect for reality. The

Q. How did your education lead you to your current position?

I realized through the MLA program that I was interested in public art but that it was much broader than I had been exposed to and consisted of many definitions. I wanted to explore the idea that art within the public realm can take many forms, follow various theories, and address people and sites in ways that landscape architecture can’t necessarily reach. I ultimately would like to practice a combination of these two design professions, and in order to do so I needed further education that focuses specifically on the concepts and theories behind art and design within the public realm.

Q. What are you doing at work?

All of it! Concept generation, design, physical build, presentation, and reflection/writing about projects.

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“

Q. What is your favorite current project?

Last year for the Harvard Arts Festival, a classmate and I created two confessionals that were placed on opposite ends of campus. They contained voice recorders and allowed people inhabiting them to converse with one another. Because the people in the confessionals were anonymous to one another, they felt uninhibited in their communication and could discuss any topic of their choosing, practicing true parrhesia, or free speech.

Q. What do you do when you are not working?

As I am still in grad school, I don’t really have much free time. However, I am only considered part time this year, so have more “free” time than I did last year.

I am spending a lot of time on my thesis; a teaching assistant for Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Art, Design and the Public Domain seminar; a Co-Curator of the GSD Student Gallery; on a Digital Problem Solving Initiative team focused on advocating for sexual assault survivors

and making assault data accessible and easily leveraged by the Harvard Community; the GSD representative for HarvardSDR, a university wide group that is involved in Harvard’s sexual assault policy reform; hosted a talk/ game show for the Worldwide Storefront competition winners Circus for Construction; taking a meditation class and a dance class, and doing some contract work.

Q. Any advice for students going through the MLA program?

Have a strong concept for each of your projects and make sure that you can talk through them clearly. Set realistic goals for yourself, and try to keep things in perspective. Remember all of the skills and knowledge you are gaining with each project. The field is broad; find your interest and work toward being an expert.

Work hard on those construction drawings. As much fun as concept design is, the real excitement comes from seeing a detail design package become a physical reality in the public realm.

”

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switch to a job where you have a client and three people above you making decisions can be extreme. The transition would have been tougher if I hadn’t been so fortunate with a great first project manager and a resort project in the schematic design stage.

Q. How did your education lead you to your current position?

My education at UMN gave me the tools and knowledge to succeed at the Bar tlett School of Architecture for fur ther education. Being in another academic environment allowed me to appreciate just how much I learned in my time at the U; both in terms of factual knowledge and critical design skills as well as the ability to think for myself and how to work with other personalities. The contacts from UMN were invaluable for finding the position I currently have. Without the alumni network and the generosity and help of another alum I wouldn’t be where I am now.

coordination for a high profile stadium project are offset by how much fun the team has during late nights at the studio working towards deadlines.

Q. What do you do when you are not working — now that you have all this free time?

In my free time I do the usual London thing: find hip spots on the Eastside, look for events outside for the few months of sunshine, spend copious amounts of time on the underground, etc. The group I work with are a great bunch so there are frequently after-work drinks. London is such an interesting and complex city, it’s still fun to just explore it on foot.

Q. Any advice for students going through the MLA program?

Learn to realize when your own designs are lacking and when they have value regardless of outside praise or critique.

Q. What are you doing at work?

One of the best parts of working such a large office is the variety of work and responsibilities. I have the opportunity to work on large international projects like a World Cup stadium in the Middle East, a high-end resort in the Mediterranean, and also small residential projects near the London office. I chose materials and plants for some projects and on others I simply draw the line work in CAD and Rhino. As a less experienced person in the office I work on everything from conceptual design to details as needed.

Q. What is your favorite current project?

I’ve enjoyed most of the projects I’ve worked on for various reasons and it would be hard to choose a favorite. I think the challenges in the massive amount of

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WORDS FROM ALUMNI ERIC OLSON Q. Where are you living and working now?

I currently live in New York City. I work as a project manager and landscape architect for the office of Ken Smith Landscape Architect (KSLA) in Manhattan.

Q. How was your transition from graduate school to the work?

After finishing up my MLA at UMN in spring of 2013, I took a couple of months off and spent time with family and friends, and during that time I was keeping up with my networking and job search efforts. I was considering and open to a number of different employment options, but ultimately I knew that I wanted to move to NYC and find a position at a design firm there. After spending the prior year thoroughly enjoying my capstone work, which was based around a site in Brooklyn, I had made the decision it was a place I’d really like to end up. Four months after I graduated I packed one suitcase, grabbed a couple hard copies of my portfolio, and boarded a plane with a one way ticket to NYC. I had done double duty with my capstone site, first using it for my thesis work, and secondly using it as an excuse to get out to NYC as many times as I could during my final year at UMN to network. When I got to NYC I was constantly perusing firm websites for openings, and keeping my ear open. Most importantly, I was attending any type of event in the city where landscape architects might be present. I worked on my network every chance I got and had a few leads in the first month I was in the city. I had interviews at a couple firms that ended up not working out.

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“

TCLF appreciated my study of multilayered site histories and the wide range of research I had done while a student. On a daily basis, I employ the research skills I developed while a student.

”

Just as I was about to get a bit discouraged, two months after I moved to NYC, one of my landscape architect friends mentioned he knew KSLA was looking for help and that they’d probably be interested in hiring an entry level person. He put me in touch with the firm, I went in for an interview, and shortly thereafter they emailed me and offered me a position.

Q. How did your education lead you to your current position?

Well, if I hadn’t done my MLA at UMN and chosen a capstone site out in NYC, I never would have gotten this job. In addition to the great education I received at UMN, which showed in my portfolio and the way I presented my work at interviews, I was able to attain an invaluable professional network during my time in school, especially during my capstone semester.

Q. What are you doing at work?

I’m currently involved in a number of different projects with varying roles at KSLA. It’s a small office, so I get to dip my hand into a number of different pots, which allows me to learn a lot. It also allows for a great mix of individual and team-oriented work. We often partner with other firms, artists, designers, etc. on large and complex projects so collaboration across and between diverse fields is a plus that I’ve enjoyed since being here at KSLA. I am splitting my time these days between a number of different projects. One as a part of a small team where my role is to help facilitate and complete drawing sets for various stages of the project with other firms and invested parties. I also serve as Project Manager for two other ongoing projects in the office.

Q. What is your favorite current project?

I’m working as a part of a team here at the office that is developing plans for the landscape components of the The World Towers project in Mumbai, India in partnership with Pei Cobb Freed. Very cool project, and a blast to work with some brilliant people from the amazing PCF. A trip here and there to India for team/client meetings is nothing to turn my nose up at either I suppose. I’m

working on. And don’t forget to stay in touch! Shoot people an email or a text every once in a while to see how they are doing and what they’ve got cooking. Even if it doesn’t elicit much of a response, at least when you come needing a job they won’t have forgotten who you are. Also, use school to your advantage. Many people will find time out of their busy schedule to meet with a student. Use projects you’re working on in studio as an excuse to go meet people working on those projects in the real world, and keep in touch with those people, even after your studio/capstone/plants classes are over.

also currently acting as Project Manager on two projects KSLA is doing. The first is in Virginia and is a design for a new downtown park, the second is a very interesting streetscape project in Louisville, KY rooted in social spaces and interaction in the pedestrian realm.

Q. What do you do when you are not working?

Whoever tells you that you’ll have more free time after you graduate is full of it. That said, living here in NYC does have its perks. It’s an amazing city and there are always too many things to be doing at any given time. I like to keep up with ongoing community driven initiatives at my old capstone site in Brooklyn, the Gowanus Canal, and am a part of the Gowanus Canal Conservancy Volunteer Committee. I also try to stay as involved as I am able in the discussions in NYC revolving around resiliency and how our world’s cities are going to move into a new age of experiencing the impacts of climate change and sea level rise. I got involved with a group called Operation Resilient Long Island who’s main goals are to raise awareness about community resiliency both

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locally and on an international scale, so that is a blast to be a part of as well. And when I’ve got extra time away from work and “designy things” I like to take full advantage of all this city offers. Summer brings with it days at the beach, evenings in the parks, and trips upstate to the Catskills to unwind on the weekends. Of course, I can never turn down an opportunity for a great brunch, a great beer, or a great show.

Other advice, enjoy your time in school. Now is the time to learn things, improve your skills, and to be daring.

Travel, see new things, try new things, and make some good friends that you can reminisce with about that killer studio from second year over beers 10 years after you’ve graduated and all have amazing jobs. Work hard, challenge the way you think about the world, spend a weekend and a few all-nighters in studio with your classmates, and don’t forget that the Kitty Cat Klub is just down the block for when you get out of studio early on a Friday.

Q. Any advice for students going through the MLA program?

Network! The best way to network in my opinion is to get involved, go places, and do things. Volunteer for causes that would naturally attract other designers to volunteer for, and that you have a passion for. Make office visits.

It can be a bit tough to break the ice, but I think you’ll find if you come with some great questions and previous knowledge of a firm’s projects that everyone likes to talk about the work they’ve done. See if you or your professors know anyone who works there and meet them for a beer or coffee to talk about what they’re

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DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 89 Church Street SE 144 Rapson Hall Minneapolis, MN 55455 p 612 625 6860 f 612 625 0710 landarch.design.umn.edu http://on.fb.me/1x8WK4q twitter.com/uofmdesign instagram.com/umndesign The best way to learn about our program is to visit, meet our faculty and students, or get in touch with our alums.

For information on our graduate program, please contact Professor Rebecca Krinke, Director of Graduate Studies, at rjkrinke@umn.edu. If you have questions about the application process or if you would like to schedule a visit, please contact Joe Favour, Director of Graduate Admissions, at favou001@umn.edu.

We host on-campus information sessions each semester.

You can find out more information about our information sessions at landarch.design.umn.edu/.