EVENTSCAPE [SPRING 2008]
Department of Landscape Architecture | Quarterly Newsletter

DEPARTMENT NEWS

We are delighted to announce that two new assistant professors will join us in the fall. Kenneth P. Yocom comes to our faculty with professional and academic experience in field-based ecological research, ecological restoration, and watershed planning in the Pacific Northwest. He graduated from our very own MLA program in 2002 and completed his PhD in the Built Environment in 2007. Ken has worked professionally for ESA Adolfson as well as Seattle Public Utilities bringing diverse experience to his teaching. He will be leading studios and seminars focusing on ecological system-based approaches to landscape design within a larger framework of sustainable urban ecological design. His enthusiasm and experience will enrich our program and we look forward to working with him.

Ben Spencer will be our Assistant Professor of Construction and Computing. He holds Masters degrees in Landscape Architecture (2004) and Architecture (2004) from the University of Virginia. He has a background in building and landscape construction and has worked in firms including The Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, William McDonough and Partners and Hybrid Architects. He served as a Peace Corps Community Development Volunteer in East Timor and is the current Vice President of the Seattle Chapter of Architects w/o Borders. His designs have been published internationally and selected for exhibition in national and international competitions. Most recently, he was selected as the winner of the Rice Design Alliance’s 99k House Competition (2008) as a member of the Hybrid/ORA design team. Ben's teaching and scholarship will consider urbanization in developing countries and design activism as a means of improving living conditions and environmental health in urban squatter communities.

Students in UWASLA hosted a welcome open house for incoming students entering in the fall. About 15 students joined current students to tour the studios, Gould Hall, and see the thesis exhibit on display by graduating MLA Eric Berg. It was a terrific opportunity for incoming students to meet our current students and each other.

FACULTY NEWS

Associate Professor Jeff Hou presented a paper titled "Erasing Boundaries, Confronting Differences: the WILD-UW Partnership in Seattle" at the Erasing Boundaries, Supporting Communities Symposium on April 4 in New York, hosted by the City College. He also moderated a panel titled “Youth Engaging Communities in Planning Issues: Alleyways, Radio Waves, and an Intergenerational Buffet” at PLANet YOUTH: the Inaugural Meeting of the Young Planners Network, in Brooklyn, New York, on April 5. In June, he is invited to lead the Big Tree Studio, a participatory action design studio at the Chung Yuan University in Taiwan. This summer Jeff will lead an Exploration Seminar in Tokyo and Seoul examining streetscapes and hybrid urbanism of the two mega-cities. Jeff will be on Sabbatical leave in autumn 2008.

On 15 May Iain Robertson and Ted Holden, a senior landscape architect with Seattle's Department of Parks and Recreation, presented a replanting plan for Freeway Park to the Seattle Design Commission. The Commission approved of the plan's goal of restoring the park's vegetation. The plan was developed following a discussion with Lawrence Halprin and two of his former associates Dye Williams, who worked on the original plan in the early 1970s, and Steven Koch, who is currently restoring Halprin parks in Portland. Implementation of the plan will take place over 3-4 years. The first phase on the Piggott corridor was installed this spring in conjunction with repair of the corridor's waterfalls and rills. The next phase will be implemented this fall; it includes entrances to the park at 8th and Seneca and 6th and University and the north end of the large lawn adjacent to the American Legion Fountain.

STUDENT NEWS: 2008 MLA THESIS PRESENTATIONS

Thursday, June 12
1-6:00 pm
Gould 100

1:00 Welcome

1:05 Aaron Luoma
Research Thesis: Ecological And Cultural Landscape Preservation: An Applique Quilt Of Allentown, Washington
Committee: Thaisa Way, Iain Robertson, Manish Chalana

1:30 Ashley Thorner
Design Thesis: High Octane: Super-Natural Aesthetics For Re-Servicing The Service Station
Committee: Iain Robertson, Lynne Manzo

1:55 Yuko Ono
Design Thesis: Therapeutic Environments In A Hospice: Enhancing Beneficial Emotional Interactions Between Humans And Their Surroundings
Committee: Lynne Manzo, Iain Robertson

2:20 Noriko Marshall
Design / Professional Thesis: How To Make An Urban Zoo Water Neutral - Woodland Park Zoo Water Analysis And Conceptual Plan
Committee: Nancy Rottle, Iain Robertson, Richard Horner

2:45 Shikha Chauhan
Design Thesis: Engaging Urban Flows: Designing And Interpreting Bellevue’s Proposed Meydenbauer Bay Waterfront Park As An Urban Ecosystem
Committee: Nancy Rottle , Jeff Hou

3:10 Break

3:25 Mayu Shintaku
Design Thesis: Urban Transit Plaza As An Opportunity For Sustainable Design Strategies At Multiple Layers
Committee: Jeff Hou, Julie Johnson

3:50 David Minnery
Design/Professional Thesis: Collect, Convey, Capture, Cultivate: Integrating Curriculum And Stormwater Mitigation At Adams Elementary
Committee: Julie Johnson, Iain Robertson

4:15 Justin Martin
Design Thesis: Small-Scale Agriculture On The College Campus: Models For Productive Landscapes At The University Of Washington
Committee: Julie Johnson, Thaisa Way

4:40 Amanda Bell
Research Thesis: Chititu Creek: the landscape history of a remote Alaskan mining district
Committee: Iain Robertson, David Streatfield, Manish Chalana

5:05 Eric Berg`
Research Thesis: From Hole To Whole: Interpreting The Concrete Landscape
Committee: Thaisa Way, Daniel Winterbottom, John Stamets

5:30 Reception Hosted by 2nd year MLA students

STUDENT NEWS: LOCAL WASLA AWARDS 2008

LARC 301 Studio:
Honor: Aaron White-Wiegand, ”College of the Environment: Long Term Research Satellite”

LARC 302 Studio:
Honor: Katherine Wimble, ”SCO-evolution: A Park of People Who Like Dogs"
Merit: Jason Medeiros, ”Urban Reclamation”
Merit: Linda Pham, “Ebb and Flow”
Merit: Josho Somine, “Deposition”

LARC 303 Studio:
Honor: Hye Young Nam, “Echo”
Merit: Annika McIntosh, “Center Ground”

LARC 403 Studio:
Honor: Patrick Keegan, Victor Velarde, Tom Walker, “Dragon Park at Seattle’s International District”

LARC 501 Studio:
Honor: Eric Berg, “Village in the Woods”
Merit: Mayu Shintaku, “Sustainable Living + Roof Garden + Microhydroelectricity + Geothermal Heat Pumps”

LARC 503 Studio:
Merit: Szu-Yu Huang, Maria Taylor, “Iris/Brooklyn: Improving the Compatibility of Residential + Industrial Areas”

LARCH 504 Studio:
Honor: Carrie Barnes, Jim Ellingboe, Karen Kennedy, Annika McIntosh, Emily Miller, “A Sustainable Campus Landscape Plan for UW Tacoma”

LARCH 700 Studio:
Merit: Eric Berg, “Welcome to Concrete: Interpreting the Concrete Landscape”
Merit: Noriko Marshall, “An Urban Zoo and Water: What Should Be Done and How Does It Get Done”

LARC 475 Studio:
Merit: Savannah Hines-Elzinga, Tehia Kalebaugh, Kayla Lowber, Michael Michalek, Nicole Mikesh, Peter Nelson, Terry Shaver, Timothy Shuck, Zachary Smith, Kent Straub-Jones, Dylan Yamashita, “White Center Heights Park”

Theses:
Honor: Melissa Martin, "Green Roofs in the Pacific Northwest: Region-specific considerations for an urban park"
Merit: Elizabeth Umbanhowar, "Reel to Real: Film and Landscape, Image and Experience"

Group Reports:
Honor: Larch 504, "Re-Imagining Seattle Streets: planting strips and street edge treatments for urban green infrastructure"
Merit: URBDP 508, "Envisioning a Gateway Park for Bainbridge Island: Pritchard Park Planning Report"

Individual Reports:
Honor: Karen Kennedy, "A Critical Look at the Sustainable Sites Initiative"
Merit: Carrie Barnes, "Seeing Beyond Sedum: Designing Green Roofs for Habitat and Biodiversity"
Merit: Spencer Drown, "Babur En Charrette or The Emperor Babur Designs a Garden"

STUDENT NEWS: NATIONAL ASLA AWARDS 2008

BLA Candidates:
Honor: Matthew Martenson
Merit: Brett Connelly

MLA Candidates:
Honor: Eric Berg
Merit: Shikha Chauhan

ALUMNI NEWS

Thomas Oles has accepted an offer to serve as an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon. His PhD., to be finished very soon, will be in Urban Studies and Planning (CDD) at MIT where Anne Whiston Spirn is serving as his chair.

Greg Butler (BLA 2001) is teaching at Edmonds Community College where he leads courses in landscape renovation (a combination of design and maintenance). He is a speaker in Natural Yard Care Program for King County. On top of this he also does residential design work ranging from work with developers to home consulting as a garden coach. He is still working with the Highline SeaTac Botanical Garden as a consultant.

Allison Osborne was featured in the April issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, in which she talks about her experience landing her first professional job. She serves as both a landscape architect and a CAD manager for The Portico Group in Seattle.

Stephanie Hurley and Megan Wilson Stromberg's chapter "Residential Street Design with Watersheds in Mind: Towards Ecological Streets" was just published in the Handbook of Regenerative Landscape Design:Integrative Studies in Water Management & Land Development by Robert France. Their chapter is built on the co-thesis that they wrote together in our MLA program. Stephanie has gone on to pursue a Doctorate in Design at the GSD, and Megan is a freelance designer in the Bay Area. Stephanie also co-wrote a second chapter in the above book with Mark Rasmussen: "Coastal Ecosystem Restoration with a Stormwater Wetland: A Decade of Success, Reviving Shellfish Beds in Marion, Massachusetts."

Barbara Deutsch started a new position with BioRegional leading up its One Planet Communities program in Washington, DC. Ms. Deutsch is a landscape architect who has worked on re-greening cities from Hong Kong to Washington, DC. Since arriving to the District in 2001, Deutsch served as Senior Director at the Casey Trees Endowment Fund since its founding in 2001 until 2007 where she was noted for her innovative and award-winning research and program development, community outreach, and education Ms. Deutsch also led research for EPA last year which won a 2007 Professional Research. She was awarded by ASLA for "The Green Build-out Model: Quantifying Stormwater Benefits of Trees and Greenroofs in Washington, DC."