TDDA Conference, Murfreesboro, TN (04.28.15)

I recently attended (and presented at) the TDDA Conference in Murfreesboro, TN for the Smart Communities Initiative. As I have very limited experience with development districts, it was eye-opening to see some of the initiatives, challenges, and practices that the development districts were working on and how advances in technology for storm water and infrastructural developments could have far-reaching potentials. Some of the initiatives they have been working on and planning were very interesting and informative in terms of articulating regional programs and implementing them into rural areas.

From a professional standpoint, the conferences I have attended for working with the SCI and my involvement in SCI programs has been incredibly beneficial. Meeting with local officials, professionals, and citizens has given me a chance to learn more about the region as a whole and build a network of people that have access to a wide variety of resources. The relationship has been mutually beneficial, as I feel more confident in the ability to help engage them with students and faculty and attempt to connect them to courses or ideas that may benefit their local programs.

The conference itself was more like a round-table discussion. Although we did not receive very many questions from the audience, I felt that the questions we did receive were valuable and thought-provoking. I am looking forward to working with the development districts in the coming years and feel this is an incredibly valuable experience to work with municipal partners and have to operate on both political and social levels in practice.

Creating Vibrant Cities: Talk with Gil Penalosa at the TN Bike Summit (04.24.15)

I was fortunate to be able to take part in some of the events of the Bike Summit this year and found Gil Penalosa’s speech both passionate and thought-provoking. His colorful use of language and real-world examples was well-received by the crowd and spoke of implementing positive change in communities and raising awareness about cyclists and pedestrians. He articulated several case studies and examples of data that fundamentally spoke to the lack of clarity about bicycle rights in an urban environment and outlined ways to alter this to be more inclusive and functional. He promoted the idea of making public spaces that could accommodate everyone (from age 8 to 80) and provided a wealth of information for how cities like Knoxville could benefit from very simple changes to how they design for cyclists.

As someone who once biked on streets in North Knoxville and downtown, I can testify that there was a lack of awareness and general annoyance with cyclists from those driving automobiles. I had several friends be seriously injured from bicycle accidents with drivers and have had things thrown at me from vehicles or have been yelled at. I am very excited about the implications of establishing a more open dialogue for discussion about how to improve this situation. As far as the environment is concerned, the improvements to public transit he mentioned and the many benefits of bicycles could be very transformative for a city like Knoxville.  I felt like his speaking engaged a wide variety of people and rallied the troops-- the passion he felt for revolution very clearly left all of us with a new sense of purpose and a great amount of information at our disposal. I hope to see some of his suggestions being utilized by the City of Knoxville, as I believe it will have far-reaching effects on our transportation and reliance on fuels in the future.

LAR 560 Conference Call with Kevin Burke, PLA + PM with Atlanta Beltline, Inc (04.22.15)

I really can’t express enough how enjoyable Burke’s conference with us was. He gave us an incredible amount of information, from his fledgling experiences in the profession to what he has learned as a result of a quite impressive career. His list of companies, from Innocenti to CRJA, all had a variety of projects that take a very unique and diverse skillset. I really enjoyed also what he had to say about his work on the Beltline and how he desired to work on projects like that which fundamentally change the fabric of an urban city. What struck me the most was his advice that he gave us near the end of the conference call.

Some highlights from this included:

“You really have no idea what you’re doing.”
“Seek out people who know more than you and learn from them (drop the ego).”
“Do not mimic-- you can learn from bad habits also.”
“Keep detailed records-- no detail is too small when you need to support a decision you made two years ago.”
“Make no little plans-- go big or go home.”
“What are they going to say? Yes, No, Maybe.”

And, most especially: “Be very careful of burning any bridges-- the person you may tick off today may be someone you need five years from now.”

I recently had a moral dilemma about this last statement, involving a classmate who is graduating this year. He is a very drive, headstrong individual who is incredibly talented but also a bit willful in terms of dealing with people on a social level. He posted publicly to his Facebook, basically saying that he was tired of being “polite” to “superficial classmates” that he would never see again and that now he was graduating and didn’t need any of them anymore. This really struck a chord with me when Burke mentioned to not burn bridges, as I felt that the classmate had burned a bridge with most of the students. While I have a lot of respect for him, I felt this was entirely unprofessional and wonder if, in five years, he will need the aid of one of these people that he burned a bridge with. 

LAR 560 Conference Call with Stephen Stimson Associates (04.08.15)

This week we were able to take a look at Stephen Stimson Associates and learned about some of their projects. Although the talk itself didn’t particularly leave me with any burning questions, I found it very interesting that the firm had such a wide variety of scales and typologies for their projects. Whether it was a campus (Yale) or a residential project (such as Clyde Street), the projects all seemed to carry unique design strategies and investigations that outlined the complexities of landform and meeting a client’s unique needs.

As I am still relatively new to the profession, perusing their web site and seeing the amount of variety in their projects was comforting to me. Coming from a background in architecture, our scope of landscape design was very limited in terms of the projects we were exposed to. It is incredibly valuable to speak with these professionals and see so many applications of design principles in various mediums and forms. Some of my favorite projects (though not in the presentation mostly) include Savage Harbor, Arkell Art Center, and Harvard Science Center. I did very much enjoy his description of the process behind Cove House and how collaborative projects can become a lifeform unto themselves. As a person who is standing on the line between multiple disciplines, I am very open to collaborating with other groups in my work in the future. I hope to gain experience in multiple practices throughout the course of my career, as I feel there are definitely many things we can learn and contribute to multidisciplinary projects. 

LAR 560 Meeting with Drew Wensley of M+T (04.01.15)

This semester we have had the wonderful experience of working with Drew Wensley, Executive Vice President of Moriyama & Teshima. He began speaking with us from a professional practice standpoint while giving us a brief background into how he became fascinated with integrating built form into the landscape under the tutelage of Shimeya Misuno.

Some pearls of wisdom:
“When you’re job hunting, interview them as much as they are interviewing you.”
“Be a sponge. Be aware.”
“Understand a firm’s ethos-- Why do they do what they do and how did they start their practice?”
“Less information= Best information.”

He spoke to us at length about the challenges and opportunities present within the Wadi Hanifah Comprehensive Development Project in Saudi Arabia. The idea of restoring a 120 kilometer oasis is daunting, yet he fearlessly and passionately believed in the social and environmental impacts of the project and took great pains to work towards developing a sustainable future for the site.

From talking with us, I gained valuable insight into the professional world and complications one can face when working remotely. As he spoke at length about humanitarian efforts with his projects, I felt very inspired to somehow attempt to implement this form of work into my projects and future planning. The idea of doing something that is greater than yourself and has far-reaching impacts on the quality of life of people is far more important to me than anything I could do in my career singularly. I hope to take this inspiration and further develop humanitarian projects through the course of my career. Having such a distinguished person for our Governor’s Chair has been incredibly beneficial for us. 

Nina-Marie Lister lecture (03.30.15)-- “Ecological Design: Resilience Beyond Rhetoric”

This week we had the pleasure of hearing from Nina-Marie Lister as she informed us about the nature of resiliency in projective ecologies. Her work with Plandform is very interesting and although I have not read her book, I am looking forward to investigating her ideas further in the future. As she spoke about policy changes in response to natural disasters, such as flooding and other major environmental issues, resiliency was a paradigm shift in establishing a new set of design strategies to combat these major events.

I find the idea of a resilient and adaptable landscape very intriguing. Because we cannot entirely project significant change over a long period of time, we have to focus on the transformative capacity of the landforms and design them for diversity in the face of unpredictable circumstances. I completely agree with her argument that while science is fundamentally important to aid in this design process, we must look at other aspects of the environment from psychological and physiological standpoints. The dynamic ecosystem is one that is diverse and has the ability to adapt to these changing circumstances while maintaining a high quality of integration into the socio-ecological system it inhabits.
 
As I have a vested interest in scientific studies of biological ecosystems and remediation strategies, I feel Lister’s lecture offered a wide range of projects and concepts that will benefit us in our profession. Engineering resilience in landforms and finding ways to mitigate floodzones in a multimodal format that has longterm feasibility in forming an innovative and responsive system are of particular interest to me. I look forward to reading more about projective ecologies in her book!

LAR 560 Washington DC Field Trip (03.26.15-03.29.15)

Although I have only visited Washington, DC a handful of times, it has always been a fascinating experience and holds both history and intrigue within its borders. As I begin a career in Landscape Architecture, the exposure to a variety of firms and projects aided in building a knowledge-base for me to begin working from. As we begin building our portfolios and structuring our careers, having this firsthand knowledge as well as feedback from professionals will greatly enhance our experiences in the real world and give us valuable knowledge of the types of firms in existence before we begin searching for occupations with them.

Coming back to DC after a few years, I was able to engage with the city and community in ways that I had not in prior years. Staying at an Airbnb in Alexandria (just an Uber drive away from the rest of the class) provided an interesting dynamic and allowed me to see more of the city from a new lens. As I had spent the last trip (an architecture field trip) focusing on the built environment, it was completely different to spend this trip looking at materials, details, and the landscape. It felt like we were operating at a more human scale as we rode the metro and went to places like the Navy Yard, where details were plentiful. 

Because this trip was so well-planned, we were treated to a plethora of firms and experiences that helped us to gauge the very different ideologies of LA firms. Of the firms we visited, each had its strengths and setbacks.  LandDesign seemed like a decent firm to work for, but I felt like they were a bit too reliant on 3D imaging. I felt like  GGN has a firm grasp on using multiple styles to translate ideas, especially when it came to modeling.  MVLA was impressive in their attention to detail and their hand-renderings. I really enjoyed their presentation on the Disabled Veterans Memorial and felt the attention to detail and scale of their projects was monumental.

Of all of the firms, HOK actually stood out to me as a firm I would feel comfortable working for. I was impressed by their scale, the variety of projects they worked on, and the resources (such as the materials library) they had at their disposal. I really appreciate the idea of interdisciplinary firms that can give clients a one-stop shop (so to speak) for their needs. The building itself was unique and had been renovated in a very articulate way. I was a bit put off by the mostly female staff at first (and the architects being hidden in the basement), but the amount of experimentation and different modes of expression is certainly appealing.  Being someone who enjoys to travel, the international element of their business seemed very intriguing and I could see many benefits in working for a firm with multiple offices around the world. 

There were many highlights from the trip. I enjoyed exploring Georgetown and Alexandria. I had never been on U-Street or visited Chinatown so these were very exciting experiences in terms of texture. The city has a lavish amount of texture and color that seems to be underrepresented in media. The people were also incredibly friendly. It seemed like everywhere we went people were buying us drinks and filling us in on great things in the city. It was refreshing to be in a city that size and meet so many wonderful people. It made us feel very at home and there was a spirit of exploration that I hadn’t felt in previous visits. 

One of my favorite moments was when Julie Beckman spoke about designing the Pentagon Memorial (with Keith Kaseman.) Despite it being freezing cold that day, I was enamored with her descriptions of their process and the many opportunities and challenges they faced in designing such a prominent memorial. Watching visitors interact with the space was particularly interesting. I think it is a beautiful and meaningful project and the mood it created was both refined and proper.

Visiting ASLA was also a very unique experience. I have seen photos of their green roof in magazines before and found it particularly impressive. It was great to learn about the process in renovating the space and how challenging the climate was in reference to planting and maintaining the green roof. As a person with a background in media, it was also wonderful to hear about how the magazine began and details about their process. I found their aesthetic very interesting and look forward to seeing how the magazine and ASLA transform in the coming years. 

My favorite moment was visiting the Kogod Courtyard (GGN) of the National Portrait Gallery. My classmate and I spent hours just in the courtyard: drinking espresso, taking naps on large marble platforms,  analyzing the space, and watching people. It was a space I had visited before but never fully appreciated. The sound is dampened, the moving water has a comforting tone, and the quality of light changed throughout our time there quite beautifully. The scale of the project is mesmerizing, as well as the structure. It was a warm, bustling oasis in contrast to rather stoic galleries. We spent hours just trying to figure out what was muffling the sound (was it the floor?) and admiring how successful the space was for encompassing a large number of people.

The trip was successful. It really aided us in gaining new perspectives in the operation and maintaining of firms, different typologies, and how they handled day-to-day operations and administrative tasks.  The experiential qualities of the trip, however, were the main takeaways for me. There was a sense of camaraderie and purpose in the visit and I feel that for me personally it was a rewarding experience in furthering my education and knowledge of professional practices in the future. I spent way too much money at times, but the lessons we received on this trip were clearly invaluable.