EVENTSCAPE [AUTUMN
2008] DEPARTMENT NEWS LARCH 403 - ‘urban insight @ denny way + vine street: exploring diverse cultures, intersecting grids, and urban ecological design', instructor, Luanne Smith
FACULTY NEWS Joining us this fall are Ben Spencer and Ken Yocom.
Ben Spencer is an Assistant Professor of Construction and Computing. He holds Masters Ben's work explores the intersection of architecture and landscape architecture at multiple scales. It engages materials and their assembly and the role of the computer and digital fabrication in the design process. Ben's research addresses infrastructural systems and participatory, regenerative design in developing communities. He places particular emphasis on urbanization in developing countries and design activism as a means of improving living conditions and environmental health in urban squatter communities. Also joining the faculty this fall is Ken Yocom who holds a MLA (2002) from our very own program, and graduated in 2007 with a PhD in the Built Environment from the University of Washington. As a practitioner in the field Ken has worked locally as a watershed planner with Seattle Public Utilities and as a project manager for ESA Adolfson, an environmental consulting firm that focuses on the design, application, and study of restoration projects and practices in the Pacific Northwest and around the U.S. He recently traveled to Nepal with a UN-sponsored delegation to facilitate a workshop with local planners and policymakers examining the applicability of EcoCity development strategies and practices in the urban and urbanizing areas of the region.
Associate Professor Jeff Hou is on Sabbatical leave this fall. He is working on the manuscript for a new book, titled “Insurgent Public Space.” Jeff is a contributor to “Expanding Architecture: Design as Activism,” a new book edited by Bryan Bell and Kate Wakeford of Design Corp (Metropolis Books 2008). In October, Jeff joined a panel titled “ Moving Beyond Academic Assumptions about Public Engagement: Addressing Racial, Cultural, and Class Differences between Academia and Community” at the Imaging America conference in Los Angeles. In the coming year, he will be serving as the advisory committee co-chair for the newly founded ID 2030 Design & Resource Center in Seattle's Chinatown-International District. Associate Professor Lynne Manzo is currently starting a multi-year funded research project for the Bremerton Housing Authority that will evaluate the redevelopment of the Westpark public housing community into a new, mixed-income development. This interdisciplinary project has been awarded $362,000 and aims to understand residents service and housing needs, along with their relocation This fall Associate Professor Nancy Rottle led a group of interdisciplinary students on the ScanlDesign Travel-Study tour to Denmark and Sweden, exploring pedestrian space and sustainable design for the public realm. Professor Rottle is co-teaching the interdisciplinary ScanlDesign Master Studio, working with Gehl Architects of Copenhagen. This past summer she and students from her Green Futures Lab assisted Gehl Architects in documenting the qualities and uses of Seattle's downtown public realm, data that Gehl is using in their urban quality recommendations for the City. Professor Rottle served on a panel at this year's ASLA conference in Philadelphia, where she presented her students' green infrastructure framework plans for the new, urban UW Tacoma campus. Prof. Rottle and Prof. Alberti (Urban Planning) have co-edited the latest publication of the journal Places , a special theme issue featuring essays on Climate Change and Place. Nancy has been awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to New Zealand, to study green infrastructure for climate protection and adaptation in four New Zealand cities. In a newly published book, "A New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene and Greene", Edward R. Bosley and Anne Mallek (eds.) (2008), London and New York: Merrell, CAUP Landscape Architecture Professor David Streatfield's essay Divergent Threads in the Gardens of Greene and Greene is featured. This is a chapter for the book published in connection with a major exhibition on Greene and Greene held at the Huntington Library and Museum in San Marino, California. |
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With an emphasis on
cultural awareness + the application of ecological processes to urban sites + an awareness of the
individual design process, the Deny Way Corridor has been the focus of the second-year BLA studio. A major
thoroughfare, this arterial is bordered by neighborhoods and commercial activities that are rapidly transforming Seattle,
as well as City icons such as the monorail and the Pacific Science Center. The class began with a thorough site analysis phase,
followed by a large-scale urban design concept study of the corridor, culminating with a site design at the juncture of Vine
Street and Denny Way. This triangular site is considered by some to be the ‘head-waters' of the Vine Street /Green Street water
collection and demonstration site. The class, led by Senior Lecturer, Luanne Smith, has been fortunate to have exposure to City
personnel and local experts: Lyle Bicknell, Marshall Foster, Carolyn Geise, Rich Horner, and Ron Turner, to name a few. Please
join the final review on December 3, at noon, to view the student's creative ideas.
Rich Haag guided
the LARCH 341 Site Planning students through his work at Gas Works Park. He began with a wonderful slide show of the
history of the site and the design process. We then embarked on a walk through the grounds talking about the design, the
past, present, and future of the place and ideas for how it might continue to gather meaning. Having just read Catherine
Dee's book and learned from her drawings of Gas Works Park, it was a great opportunity for students to see and sketch the place
and hear from the designer. Two memorable lessons were that the design process is never over, Rich has many plans for the future of the park, and that there is a lot of fun and learning to be had from taking risks. Gas Works Park is one of the many reasons that it is so exciting to be learning to design places at UW and in Seattle. Thank you to Rich for being so generous with his time. 
Iain Robertson took a group of MLA students to Hawaii to work on a master plan for the kahalu'u Beach Park.
The charrette was a magical moment; a blur of palm trees, meetings, coral sand,
meetings, azure sea, and design, design, design. For those of us fortunate enough to participate, it was inspiring and
humbling to work with community leader Cindi Punihaloe and local landscape architect Brad Kurokawa on a site in the heart
of one of Hawaii's most important cultural and historic regions. Our master plan report provided the Kohala Center with
visionary drawings that they are using to garner support for continued coral reef restoration, to initiate beech reconstruction,
and to spearhead park and community revitalization. A charrette in paradise was indeed work but joyful, thrilling and inspiring
work, as all design work should be. 
degrees in Landscape Architecture
(2004) and Architecture(2004) from the University of Virginia where he was awarded both the Alpha Rho Chi Bronze Medal and the
ASLA Honor Citation. 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 commendation and exhibition in numerous national and international competitions. 
Ken's work examines the crossroads between the ecological sciences and design practices. His research ranges from a focus on community participatory action in ecological restoration at the neighborhood scale to developing quantitative methods and models in watershed planning. His work hinges on exploring the connections between human actions and environmental processes. Ken will be leading studios and seminars focusing on ecological design and planning in urban environments. His enthusiasm and diverse experience will surely enrich our program, and we look forward to incorporating him into the fold. 
concerns and preferences. The study will also track original residents over a 5-year period to ascertain how residents are faring over time. Lynne is conducting this research with Rachel Kleit, Associate Professor in the UW Evans School of Public Affairs. Associate Professor Manzo was invited to talk about mixed income strategies at the AIA conference on Innovations and Collaborations in Affordable Housing in Phoenix, Arizona in early October. The conference was a joint effort of the American Association of Architects and the Association of Community Design. Her new book with Robert Mugerauer entitled, "Environmental Dilemmas/Ethical Decision-making" was recently released by Lexington Press. Lynne also has a chapter in a new book that was just released, entitled "Sense of Place, Health and Quality of Life"' from Ashgate Publishing. Her chapter is entitled, "The Experience of Displacement on Sense of Place and Well-Being."