The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation has granted $10,000 to support three Chicago-area projects that are being documented through the 2013 CSI program: Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, Jackson Park and the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry’s Smart Home: Green + Wired.

For the second year in a row, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has supported the CSI program with a $25,000 Art Works grant. LAF is one of only 50 nonprofit organizations throughout the country recommended to receive an NEA Art Works grant in the Design category. The NEA received 1,547 eligible applications for this round of Art Works funding. Of those, 817 are recommended for grants totaling $26.3 million to 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.

“The decision to offer this track underscores the explosion in interest and number of proposals that CELA has seen in recent years on this topic,” said CELA President Sean Michael, PhD.

“Landscape performance should be fundamental knowledge in landscape architecture, though it is not highly developed yet,” said CELA Vice President of Research Ming-Han Li, PhD, PE, PLA. “The new track will help ensure that the latest research and thinking on landscape performance is a regular part of the dialogue at the CELA conference.”

Landscape Performance joins ten track categories used to organize the conference sessions and papers: Design Education & Pedagogy, Communication & Visualization, Design Implementation, Urban Design, Landscape Planning & Ecology, Research & Methods, Service Learning & Community Engagement, Sustainability, People-Environment Relationships, and History, Theory & Culture. Members of the academic community and others submit abstracts to each track for peer review which, when accepted, are presented at the annual conference and published in the proceedings.

LAF will co-chair the new Landscape Performance track along with a representative from CELA. The move is the latest step in an ongoing partnership between the two organizations. In 2011, the CELA Vice President of Research began serving on the LAF Research Committee, and last year, CELA and LAF leadership began serving on in an ex officio capacity on the other organization’s Board of Directors.

For more than 90 years, CELA has been concerned with the content and quality of professional education in landscape architecture and with generating high quality research. 

Executive Director Barbara Deutsch and Programs Manager Linda Ashby participated in four sessions, presenting alongside past CSI Research Fellows, student Research Assistants, and other colleagues. LAF’s sessions at CELA included panels on evaluating landscape performance for environmental, social, and economic benefits, as well as a panel on applying science to design for and evaluate performance. These sessions offered participants an introduction to both the LPS and CSI research programs, and a critical look at the research methods employed.

The first session introduced CSI and the concept of quantifying performance benefits. The session offered the opportunity for audience members to discuss the program’s approach, as well as participants’ strategies for quantifying specific social, environmental and economic benefits. Participants introduced their own experiences: for example, Jessica Canfield (Kansas State University) presented her CSI research evaluating the Frontier Project, a demonstration project in California which seeks to encourage visitors to incorporate energy efficient and water-wise practices in their homes. Canfield’s team studied the site’s rainwater infiltration, irrigation water needs and projected carbon emissions and analyzed attendance records and surveys with on-site employees. Canfield and others, including Mark Storie (University of Maryland), also discussed their strategies for obtaining data and the varying levels of data availability at different types of sites.

Many of landscape performance sessions focused on research methods. At the panel on environmental performance, Barry Lehrman (Cal Poly Pomona) described his experience “measuring the (not so) unmeasurable,” introducing the tools used by his CSI research team, including affordable temperature gauges and water quality meters. In response to presentations by Lehrman and his fellow panelists, moderator Kristina Hill, PhD (UC Berkeley) described the recent context for measuring landscape performance, noting that until recently many metrics were discipline-specific, leading to “very little synthesis.” She challenged those attending the session to “be critical in our reflection on these metrics” so researchers could continue to advance their strategies and obtain a holistic understanding of the benefits of landscape design.

Participants in CELA sessions also discussed means of communicating the concept of landscape performance benefits to policy makers, other design professionals, and the general public. Presenting in a panel on economic benefits, Dennis Jerke (Texas A&M) noted that “we have to be good communicators… and explain what the metrics mean and how the value has been generated.” Similarly, Mary Myers, PhD (Temple University) noted that comparing a project’s performance to its initial goals can be a helpful strategy for engaging clients and others in the discussion. To Myers, “the metrics should measure the extent to which goals were met” whether in terms of stormwater mitigation, improved biodiversity, economic development or public access.

LAF looks forward to continuing the dialogue started at CELA Conference and bringing the new insights to the 2013 CSI program and its participants.

The content analysis will be led by Principal Investigators Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University and Mary E. Myers, PhD, Temple University, who will review the Case Study Briefs, create a database of case study information, identify missing or under-investigated benefits, and conduct a literature review of empirical studies to uncover available methods/metrics/tools that could be used to quantify the missing benefits. Products include a database and illustrative guide to the LPS Case Study Briefs and their associated benefits.

The quality assessment will be led by Principal Investigators Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University, Jessica Canfield, Kansas State University, and Tim Keane, PhD, Kansas State University, who will evaluate the methods used to quantify performance benefits in the Case Study Briefs. The researchers will evaluate the methods for their technical merit, applicability in a professional context, and overall strengths and weaknesses. The team will also solicit practitioners’ input to better understand what types of data firms are capable of capturing, from what sources, and through what processes. Based on this information, the researchers will make recommendations to improve the rigor of the quantification of benefits and develop guidance on appropriate methods for future landscape performance assessments.

The research conducted as part of these cooperative agreements is expected to take about a year. The results will be published on the LAF website, presented at professional and academic conferences, and disseminated through other peer-reviewed venues.

Linda Ashby, ASLA will be leaving LAF at the end of the month, after 2.5 years with the organization. She began working on the Landscape Performance Series and various communication efforts, before taking on her primary role as manager of LAF’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) initiative. Linda was instrumental in the development of CSI and in taking it from concept to pilot to the signature program that it is today.  We are delighted that she will continue to stay involved as a member of the LAF Research Committee. We wish her all the best as she and her family relocate to the Seattle area and she looks for her next opportunity.

While we will miss Linda’s energy, we are pleased to announce that Katharine Burgess, AICP is already on board to manage the CSI program, bringing expertise in urban planning, research, and writing and an international perspective on landscape performance. Katharine joins LAF after seven years in private practice, where she managed projects ranging from university campus plans to large-scale, mixed-use developments to recovery planning charrettes on the post-Katrina Gulf Coast. Welcome Katharine!

LAF will participate in four panel sessions on various aspects of evaluating landscape performance. There are also a number of presentations from past LAF Research Fellows and student Research Assistants on their Case Study Investigation (CSI) program research and projects. In addition to these Concurrent Sessions, LAF will host a morning meet-and-greet for the 2013 CSI Research Fellows and give updates at the CELA Board Meeting and Administrators Meeting .

Research & Methods Track

Session 1- Wed 3:20-4:30pm (Room: AT&T 203)
Presentations Based on 2012 Case Study Investigation (CSI) Research

Presentations:   Do Social, Economic and Environmental Benefits Always Complement Each
                              Other? A Study of Landscape Performance
                              Yi Luo, Ming-Han Li, PhD Texas A&M University

                              On the Research Front: 2012 CSI and the Case of Streetscape
                              Bo Yang, PhD, Yue Zhang, Pamela Blackmore, Utah State University

                              Quantifiable Landscape Performance Benefits: The Case of Brent Elementary
                              Mark Storie, Byoung-Suk Kweon, PhD, Chris Ellis, PhD, University of Maryland

                              Strategies for Developing Landscape Performance Case Studies
                              Jessica Canfield, Kansas State University, Bo Yang, PhD Utah State University

Session 2 - Thurs, 8:30-9:40am (Room: AT&T 107)
Evaluating Landscape Performance: Economic Benefits

Panel with:          Barbara Deutsch, FASLA, Landscape Architecture Foundation
                              Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University
                              Yue Zhang, Utah State University
                              Dennis Jerke, Texas A&M University

Session 4 - Thurs, 1:30-2:40pm (Room: AT&T 108)
Evaluating Landscape Performance: Environmental Benefits

Panel with:          Kristina Hill, PhD, University of California - Berkeley
                              Mary Myers, PhD, Temple University
                              Barry Lehrman, Cal Poly Pomona
                              Ming-Han Li, PhD, Texas A&M University

Session 5 - Thurs, 3:10-4:30pm (Room: AT&T 107)
Applying Science to Design for and Evaluate Performance

Panel with:          Barbara Deutsch, FASLA, Landscape Architecture Foundation
                              Mark Simmons, PhD, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
                              Danielle Pieranunzi, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
                              Deb Mitchell, FASLA, SmithGroupJJR

Session 6 - Fri, 9:00-10:10am (Room: AT&T 203)
Evaluating Landscape Performance: Social Benefits

Panel with:          Linda Ashby, Landscape Architecture Foundation
                              Victoria Chanse, PhD, University of Maryland
                              Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University
                              Byoung-Suk Kweon, PhD, University of Maryland

Session 7 - Fri, 10:40-11:50am
Two sessions include presentations on 2012 CSI projects:

                             Perception of a Functional Wetland Landscape in a Senior Living Community
                             Mary Myers, PhD and Allison Arnold, Temple University (Room: AT&T 107)

                             Cross Creek Ranch Master Planned Community: Landscape Performance
                             Ming-Han Li, PhD, Bruce Dvorak, and Yi Luo, Texas A&M University and Matt
                             Baumgarten, SWA Group (Room: AT&T 202)



2013 CSI Research Fellows Meeting

Friday, 8:00-8:50am (Room: AT&T 104)
CSI Meet & Greet
Faculty members selected as 2013 LAF Research Fellows and any past CSI program participants are invited to this casual gathering to meet LAF staff, network with colleagues, and exchange information as the 2013 CSI program gets underway.

Please update your records with the new address:

Landscape Architecture Foundation
1129 20th Street NW, Suite 202
Washington, DC 20036

Phone (202.331.7070) and fax numbers (202.331.7079) are the same, though extensions have changed for Programs & Communications (Heather - x16) and Scholarships (Leslie - x14).

To download new vCards for the LAF staff, click on the links below. 

Barbara  |   Heather  |   Matt   |   Emily  |   Katharine

Participants from each firm will work with the 2013 Reseach Fellows to evaluate the performance of one or more built projects and produce Landscape Performance Series Case Study Briefs. Projects are selected based on design innovation, potential to produce comprehensive quantified benefits, availability of baseline information, and the firm’s commitment to the research collaboration.

The 2013 CSI program is just getting underway. You can expect to see new Case Study Briefs in the fall from these participating firms and projects:

• Alameda County Surplus Property AuthorityCDF's Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
  Tassajara Creek Restoration
• Conservation Design Forum
  Ann Arbor Municipal Center
  Advocate Lutheran General Hospital
• de la fleur LLC
  One Drop at a Time
• Design Workshop
  Capitol Valley Ranch
  Cascade Garden
  Riverside RanchStoss Landscape Urbanism's Erie St Plaza
• Fred Phillips Consulting
  Yuma East Wetlands
• Ground, Inc
  Parc Nouvelle: A Tapestry of Experiences and Planting
• Hitchcock Design Group
  Boneyard Creek Restoration: Scott Park and the Second Street Detention Basin
• Jacobs/Ryan
  Museum of Science and Industry Smart Home: Green + Wired
• Living Habitats
  Chicago Botanic Garden Lake Shoreline Enhancement Projects
• MIG
  Napa River Flood and Watershed ProtectionLiving Habitats' Chicago Botanic Garden Lake Shoreline Enhancement Projects
• The Office of James Burnett
  Klyde Warren Park
• OLIN
  Simon and Helen Director Park
• PWP Landscape Architecture
  UT at Dallas Landscape Improvements
• Richard Burck Associates
  Watch Factory
• SmithGroupJJR
  Carmel Clay Central Park
  Millikin State Park & Harbor
• Stoss Landscape UrbanismZGF Architects' Randall Children's Hospital
  Erie Street Plaza
• SWA Group
  Buffalo Bayou Promenade
• Terry Guen Design Associates
  63rd St Beach
  Jackson Park
• WRT
  Dutch Kills Green
• Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
  Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel

The built environment and building industry together account for about 50% of U.S carbon emissions and contribute to a web of significant, interconnected problems: climate change, persistent toxins in the environment, dwindling supplies of potable water, flooding, ocean acidification, habitat loss and more. Over the past decade, great strides have been made in terms of energy efficiency, water and waste consumption, and sustainable materials, and a critical mass of innovative professionals has emerged.

Yet a major barrier to the broad adoption of advanced green building practices is our 20th century real estate financial system. Current lending approaches, appraisal protocols, and valuation models do not reflect the true externalized costs of doing “business as usual” nor do they fully capture the additional environmental and social benefits created by building green. These barriers affect the perceived financial viability of environmentally sound projects and slow innovation and market growth. To fully realize true sustainability, a shift in assessing and evaluating real estate investment is urgently needed.

The Economics of Change is a groundbreaking effort to do just that.

The overarching goal of The Economics of Change is to shift mainstream real estate practices to document the full value of a built environment that is compatible with healthy, natural systems. Correcting real estate incentives and improving financial models will shift investment toward buildings and infrastructures that are financially rewarding, resilient, socially just and economically restorative.

A project's integrated value includes its traditional market value AND the environmental and social value it provides. This research seeks to shift the investment barrier to the right through recognition of integrated value, potentially unlocking a trillion dollars of investment towards restorative building.

In the first phase, The Economics of Change team created a prototype tool to demonstrate how the ecological and social benefits of green buildings can be monetized in real estate investment models. The Phase 1 report The Economics of Change: Catalyzing The Investment Shift for a Restorative Built Environment provides an overview of ecosystems services that can be applied to the built environment, an analysis of current and future real estate investment frameworks, and a description of the prototype tool.

Phase 2 will expand and pilot the tool in an interactive and open-source format while deepening ties to leading practitioners within the financial industry to leverage the shift from theory into action. Next steps include researching and assembling economic case studies of a select group of high-performing developments, including completed Living Building projects to identify cost data, economic models, environmental/cultural/social benefits realized and analyze costs/benefits.

With the real estate market on the verge of recreating itself, the time to align valuation models with energy policy and to integrate ecosystem services into the economic framework is now. This is a bold project, but we believe that the world needs more bold ideas, and an overhaul of what we value and how we value is at the heart of the paradigm shift we need to move towards a restorative future.

The multidisciplinary research team behind The Economics of Change comprises experts in the fields of ecosystem services, real estate finance, appraisal and sustainable design. The International Living Future Institute serves as the lead agency on this project. Jason Twill is the originator of The Economics of Change project and President of Systems Economics LLC. Stuart Cowan is a research team member and the co-founder of Autopoiesis LLC. For more information, contact Richard Graves, Executive Director of the International Living Future Institute at richard.graves@living-future.org.

Research Fellows lead the CSI collaboration, work with firms to identify performance benefits of select projects, develop evaluation methods, and oversee the case study production process. These select faculty members receive an honorarium and funding to support a student research assistant.

The selection process was highly competitive with applications received from over 20 researchers and 32 firms from across the U.S. The following LAF Research Fellows will lead the eight 2013 Case Study Investigation teams:

• Maria Bellalta, Boston Architectural College
• Aidan Acker, Boston Architectural College
• M. Elen Deming, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Jinki Kim, PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• G. Mathias Kondolf, PhD, University of California, Berkeley
• Mary Pat Mattson, Illinois Institute of Technology
• Taner R. Ozdil, PhD, University of Texas at Arlington
• Roxi Thoren, University of Oregon
• Bo Yang, PhD, Utah State University

Congratulations to this accomplished group! Stay tuned for an announcement of the projects and firms selected for participation.