Gauging the Needs for Security Design

It is perhaps inevitable, given the growing security bureaucracy in Washington, that security concerns and issues are trickling down to professional groups working with public spaces. Landscape architects designing with public venues have long added safety and security elements, whether it be gating and fencing or bollards to block traffic from pedestrian areas. Designing for terrorism, however, has not been in the curriculum, until now. The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), which hosted the ?EUR??,,????'??Safe Spaces: Designing for Security and Civic Values?EUR??,,????'?? symposium in July in Chicago, has just released the abstracts from that symposium (visit www.asla.org).Some of the abstracts were written by a mix of government officials involved in security, such as Michael Chipley, PhD, identified a bit cryptically as the ?EUR??,,????'??senior program manager for Homeland Security and Geospatial Solutions PBS&J.?EUR??,,????'?? Chipley, the program notes state in part, has ?EUR??,,????'??over 27 years of federal experience in threat, vulnerability, and risk assessments,?EUR??,,????'?? and ?EUR??,,????'??has extensive experience in war planning.?EUR??,,????'??

Not all the speakers, of course, were war strategists. The landscape architects presenting at the symposium were:

Kathleen John-Alder, ASLA, associate partner, Olin Partnership; Susannah Drake, ASLA, associate AIA, associate (?EUR??,,????'??Security and Urban Design: a Comprehensive Plan and Two Case Studies?EUR??,,????'??); Troy Brown, ASLA, principal, Sitebrown, LLC (?EUR??,,????'??Force Protection Design-Andrews Air Force Base: A Case Study?EUR??,,????'??); Martha Droge, associate ASLA, Landscape Architecture/Master Planning Studios, Ayers, Saint, Gross; Leonard Hopper, FASLA, chief landscape architect, New York City Housing Authority (?EUR??,,????'??Security Design Two Years After 9/11?EUR??,,????'??); Astrid Sri Haryati, ASLA, CLARB, principal, Teng & Associates (?EUR??,,????'??Two Case Studies: Secured Landscape for the Mies van der Rohe Designed Federal Complex?EUR??,,????'??); Mary Ann Lasch, FASLA, strategic planner, Change Management Facilitator Gensler; Sean Michael, PhD, associate professor of landscape architecture, Washington State University (?EUR??,,????'??Preserving Pleasure Grounds: Security in Public Parks?EUR??,,????'??); Laurie Olin, FASLA, founding partner of Olin Partnership; and Ted Wolff, ASLA, principal, Wolff Clements and Associates, Ltd.