The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced today that the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) is one 38 national, regional, state, and local nonprofit organizations to receive an NEA Art Works grant in the Design category.

LAF is recommended for a $25,000 grant to support the Summer 2012 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. CSI is a unique research collaboration that matches LAF-funded student-faculty research teams with leading practitioners to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects. Ten research teams will participate in the Summer 2012, and the NEA grant will fund half of the $5,000 stipend paid to the student Research Assistant on each team.

“We are thrilled that NEA is investing in this research to show the environmental, economic, and social value of exemplary design,” said LAF Executive Director Barbara Deutsch, ASLA.

The NEA received 1,624 eligible applications for this round of Art Works funding. The 788 Art Works grants total $24.81 million and support the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts. Visit the NEA website for a complete listing of projects recommended for Art Works grant support.

Over 20 design firms and 30 projects have been selected for LAF’s 2012 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. This unique research collaboration matches LAF-funded faculty-student research teams with leading practitioners to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects as Landscape Performance Series Case Study Briefs.

Participating firms were selected based on the the quality of projects submitted, potential to produce comprehensive quantified benefits, availability of baseline information, and commitment to the research collaboration. Practitioners provide the background information and narrative for projects, help identify potential performance benefits and information to quantify them, and provide the faculty-student research teams with access to key project personnel, photos, documents, clients, and other stakeholders.

The collaborations are now underway — look for updates throughout the summer and new Case Study Briefs in the fall from these participating firms and projects:

• AECOM's Stuyvesant Cove Waterfront Open SpaceAECOM
  Stuyvesant Cove Waterfront Open Space
• Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning & Design Institute
  Beijing Olympic Forest Park
  Tangshan Nanhu Eco-city Central Park
• The Berger Partnership
  Magnuson Park Wetlands
• CDF, Inc.
  Queens Botanical Garden Visitor Center
  Charles City Permeable Streetscape
• Design Workshop
  EDSA's Castigilon del BoscoCherry Creek North & Fillmore Plaza
  South Grand Boulevard Great Streets Initiative
  Park Avenue/ Highway 50
• Ecological Landscape Design & Restoration
  Stone Mill at the New York Botanical Garden
• EDSA
  Castiglion del Bosco
• EPT Design
  Frontier Project
  Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academies
• Jones and Jones
  Cedar Lake Park and Trail
• KMS Design Group
  Black Rock Sanctuary
• Mia Lehrer + Associates
  Vista Hermosa Natural Park
• MIG, Inc.
  Reed Hilderbrand's Central Wharf PlazaWest San Gabriel River Parkway Nature Trail
• Mithun
  Eden Hall Campus at Chatham University
  High Point
  Hubbard Homestead Park
• Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority
  Tunjunga Wash Greenway
• OLIN
  Celebrezze Federal Building Plaza
• Frederick Law Olmsted
  Back Bay Fens
• Reed Hilderbrand
  SWA Group's Cross Creek RanchCentral Wharf Plaza
• Sasaki
  The Avenue
• SWA Group
  Cross Creek Ranch
• TBG
  Park Seventeen
• UW Campus Sustainability Fund
  Biodiversity Green Wall & Water Harvesting System
• Wells Appel
  Pennswood Village Regional Storm Water Quality and Management System

Twelve faculty Research Fellows have been selected for LAF’s Summer 2012 Case Study Investigation (CSI) program. This unique research collaboration matches LAF-funded faculty and student research teams with design firms to document the benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects as Landscape Performance Series Case Study Briefs.

Research Fellows lead the case study preparation, work with firms to identify performance benefits of select projects, and develop methods for data collection. They also receive an honorarium and funding to support a student research assistant. These select faculty members provide expertise in quantifying landscape benefits, and the academic rigor that is needed to support designers, policy-makers, and advocates who are making the case for sustainable landscape solutions.

The following LAF Research Fellows will lead the ten Summer 2012 Case Study Investigation teams:

• Barry Lehrman, Cal Poly Pomona
• Molly Mehling, PhD, Chatham University
• Jessica Canfield, Kansas State University
• Claudia Goetz Phillips, PhD, Philadelphia University
• Mary Myers, PhD, Temple University
• Ming Han Li, PhD, Texas A&M University
  Bruce Dvorak, Texas A&M University
• Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University
• Victoria Chanse, PhD, University of Maryland

• Chris Ellis, PhD, University of Maryland
  Byoung-Suk Kweon, PhD, University of Maryland

• Nancy Rottle, University of Washington

The selection process was highly competitive, with the number of proposals indicating the strong level of enthusiasm for the CSI program. CSI provides a unique opportunity for faculty to sharpen research skills, build relationships with top landscape architecture firms, collaborate with peers, and gain national exposure as thought leaders.

Projects and firms selected for participation in the Summer 2012 CSI program will be announced in April.

by Nancy Rottle, 2011 LAF Research Fellow | Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Washington | Director, Green Futures Research and Design Lab

How is landscape performance best incorporated into the LA curriculum? How might LAF’s Landscape Performance Series (LPS) contribute to landscape architecture education and the future practice of our current students?

These are questions that underlay incorporation of the LPS and Case Study Investigation (CSI) model into the graduate curriculum at the University of Washington during the 2011 autumn term. Collaborating with LAF, my Landscape Performance seminar tackled the production of a dozen case studies for projects that ranged from parks to schools to zoo exhibits, in the Pacific Northwest and in China.

The case study work replaced the usual term paper for my Sustainable Urban Landscapes course, which has focused on landscape performance for the last two years. The seminar readings and discussions examine concepts and practices related to the design of sustainable urban landscapes, engaging such theories as green infrastructure, green and sustainable urbanism, landscape urbanism, regenerative and closed-loop design and landscape metrics. The twist of working within the CSI collaborative model immersed students into a more interactive approach to studying performing landscapes.

Preparation for the class began over the summer, as LAF Research Assistant Pam Emerson and I met with several firms to identify and vet candidate projects for case studies. A primary qualification was the existence of performance data to adequately quantify benefits of a built project. We narrowed our list of applicable projects to the most promising, and collected as much data in advance as the firms could supply. Pam also learned the processes, resources, and issues the students would face by developing two case studies of her own.

During the autumn seminar, students worked in pairs, assisting one another in gathering data and learning the various landscape evaluation tools. They received regular feedback from me, our Teaching Assistant Delia Lacson (also a LAF Research Assistant), from each other, and from LAF. An invited guest panel of experts described various tools, resources and metrics systems, including Mithun/LBJ Wildflower Center’s carbon calculator, valuation of ecosystem services from Earth Economics, components in the i-tree suite, Seattle parks maintenance data, and Sustainable Sites program resources, especially those related to human health and well-being. The case studies went through three phases of review, including a penultimate review by the sponsoring design firm, before students submitted their final versions to LAF.

Our learning from tackling these case studies underscored, yet transcended, student awareness of the value of incorporating landscape performance goals in the design process. Students in the seminar expressed that it was valuable to learn about the tools and parameters used to design and evaluate high-performing landscapes, to gain in-depth knowledge about a particular designed landscape and its actual benefits, and to learn lessons not only from successes but also from the failures that are unfortunately so common in built landscapes (such as from soil compaction or introduction of weed seeds). The process was also a first-hand lesson in how critical it is to have adequate baseline data and inside knowledge from those involved in the design process.

Measuring and documenting the performance of landscapes is required to reshape the teaching and practice of landscape architecture so that our built landscapes actually provide the desired benefits we hope to achieve. Such measurement and communication are critical to the acceptance and culture of new landscape aesthetics, within the profession and in value formation and demands from our public and private clients. We found the pilot of this model, though still evolving, to be a critical first step in introducing students to this discussion.

LAF appreciates the dedicated work of all those involved with the 2011 UW LARCH 561 course: 2011 LAF Research Fellow Nancy Rottle, Research Assistants Pam Emerson and Delia Lacson, Ximena Bustamante, Sue Costa, Peter Cromwell, Dafer Haddadin , Chen Hai, Taj Hanson, Manami Iwamija, Jo Ming Lau, Audrey Maloney, Jessica Michalak, Haruna Nemoto, Roma Shah, Karin Strelioff, Tao Xu, Xiaobing Wang, Virginia Werner, Ying-Ju Yeh.

The Landscape Architecture Foundation is known for its scholarships and support of education that multiplies the effectiveness of landscape architects. Now LAF is helping to introduce landscape performance into design education. This fall marks LAF’s first coordinated effort to bring the concept of landscape performance into the classroom as we work with faculty at the University of Washington and the University of Virginia to educate landscape architecture students on the importance of quantifying landscape’s ecological, economic, and social benefits.

In today’s climate of downsizing, budget reductions and program cuts, providing proof of performance to the decision-makers who impact policies, programs, investments, and land development must be a critical part of design education. Students need the skills and knowledge to quantify and communicate objective data in order for landscape solutions to compete in this burgeoning evidence-based market. 

That is why LAF has teamed with Associate Professor and Director of the Green Futures Research and Design Lab Nancy Rottle at University of Washington, and Associate Professor Kristina Hill, PhD at University of Virginia to pilot methods to integrate landscape performance in university curricula.

UW’s Sustainable Urban Landscapes: Landscape Performance graduate seminar incorporates a classroom-based pilot of LAF’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) initiative. With the assistance of two Summer CSI Research Assistants, Pam Emerson and Delia Lacson, students in the course will work with local firms to develop methods to quantify benefits and document high performing landscape projects to produce LPS Case Study Briefs. Potential projects include Hubbard Homestead, North 40 at Brightwater, Washington State University LID Center, Tacoma Chinese Reconciliation Park, Red Ribbon Park, and Magnuson Park. Watch for these case studies and more later this year.

At the University of Virginia, Professor Hill teaches that landscape performance is crucial to pursuing and evaluating successful design. In her Sites and Systems course, students will use the LPS this fall to review metrics that can be used to predict and/or determine levels of performance in designed public spaces. Students will also evaluate and propose other metrics based on their ability to measure diverse variables, such as aesthetic experience or walkability. Watch for new tools and calculators in the Benefits Toolkit in December.

LAF shares a vision with these talented professors of enhancing landscape design education, and ultimately leading the profession to routinely set and design for specific performance objectives, collect performance data, and document work. We thank Nancy and Kristina for taking the lead in this important movement, and for joining us in helping to prepare students to adapt to the future environment.

Contact LAF if you are interested in working with us to integrate landscape performance into your coursework. For more on this topic, look for LAF, Nancy Rottle, Kristina Hill and other CSI Fellows at the LAF Benefit, October 30 in San Diego, and the CELA Conference, March 28-31 at the University of Illinois.