Landscape Architect Articles

LASN News April 200404-01-04 | News

Professional Landscape Designers Announce 2004 Leadership

Patricia Ouderkirk, the 2004 president of the Association of Professional Landscape Designers.

Patricia Ouderkirk of Ouderkirk Landscape Design in Bridgehampton, New York, is the new president of the Association of Professional swiss replica watches Landscape Designers (APLD). Last year, Ouderkirk served as president-elect and association development chairperson.

The other 2004 APLD officers are:

President-elect: Bobbie Schwartz, owner of Bobbie?EUR??,,????'???s Green Thumb in Shaker Heights, Ohio;

Secretary: Judy DePue, owner and designer of New Vistas Landscaping in Goshen, Indiana;

Treasurer: Rosalind Reed, president, Rosalind Reed Associates in Oak Park, Illinois; and

Past President: Linda Engstrom, owner of Garden Aesthetics in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Other leadership positions are:

Awards: W. James Coile, founder of Coile and Associates of Pegram, Tennessee;

Certification: Judy Nauseef, landscape designer, Judy Nauseef Landscape Design, Iowa City, Iowa;

Chapter and regional coordinator: Patrick Bones, designer, Brighton Design of Tulsa, Oklahoma;

Communications chairperson: Daniel Lowery, owner and designer, Queen Anne Gardens, Seattle, Washington;

Communications vice chairperson: Nicolien van Schouwen, co-owner of European Garden Design, Takoma Park, Maryland;

Education: Duane Morris, training and sales, Garden Graphics, San Luis Obispo, California;

Environment: Susan Weber, owner of Urban Wild Ltd., Columbus, Ohio.

For more information go to www.apld.com

The APLD has a certification program for professional recognition of landscape designers. Certification is available for associate APLD members in good standing who have been practicing landscape design for at least two years. Certified members are required to take 30 CEUs every three years.

Beatrix Farrand Society Purchases Historic Garland Farm

Begun in 1920, the Dumbarton Oaks garden was designed by Beatrix Farrand. Farrand was an expert in the handling of steps, walks and planting. She admired the Arts and Crafts style of Gertrude Jekyll, but there is a fresh spirit to the 16-acre Dumbarton Oaks Garden.

In 1899 Beatrix Farrand, age 27, was a founder of the American Society of Landscape Architects. By the end of her career, she had designed 200 gardens, often at grand estates. In January, the Beatrix Farrand Society purchased historic Garland Farm, where Farrand lived until her death, in February 1959.

This is a milestone for the Beatrix Farrand Society, formed in June 2003, as they continue to raise funds to begin needed repairs to the house and to commission a cultural landscape report for the restoration of the gardens at Garland Farm.

Farrand and her husband, Max Farrand, incorporated the garden they had built at Reef Point as an educational center in 1939. Her collection included a 1,800-specimen herbarium, hundreds of garden plans and 2,700 books, but in the 1940s visiting students were scarce.

After Max died in 1945, Farrand laboriously attempted to get a tax exemption for Reef Point from the town of Bar Harbor but was denied. In 1955, rather than allow the garden?EUR??,,????'???her life?EUR??,,????'???s work?EUR??,,????'???to deteriorate unmanaged, she designated the tear down of the house and packed up many of her plants?EUR??,,????'??+offering them to friends. Charles Savage, artist and innkeeper, took many of the plants, using them to build what became two public gardens, the Asticou Azalea Garden and Thuya Garden in Northeast Harbor, Maine.

Farrand?EUR??,,????'???s library and herbarium were donated to the University of California, Berkeley. Farrand?EUR??,,????'???s favorite plants?EUR??,,????'???including the metasequoia, Sargent cherry, heathers, heaths and herbaceous perennials?EUR??,,????'???were relocated at Garland Farm. That her grand learning garden at Reef Point could be refined into a small quarter-acre residential garden is an example for urban growers attempting to define their own petite gardens.

Diane K. Maguire, a landscape architect and expert on on Farrand?EUR??,,????'???s work at Dumbarton Oaks, has said that:

?EUR??,,????'??She had a great sense of proportion and strength in her designs. But because she was a woman, she didn?EUR??,,????'???t have the opportunities that men had. They were designing public parks; her work was in the private realm.?EUR??,,????'??

For more information on Beatrix Farrand?EUR??,,????'???s gardens and the Beatrix Farrand Society log onto www.members.aol.com/SaveGarlandFarm.

Moment of Silence . . .
Daniel Urban Kiley
(1912 ?EUR??,,????'??? 2004)

Daniel Urban Kiley

Daniel Urban Kiley, a landscape architect known for his gardens and work with modernistic architects, passed on at the age of 91, February 21, 2004.

Jane Brown, author of The Modern Garden, describes Kiley as the ?EUR??,,????'??supreme master of the modern garden.?EUR??,,????'??

Kiley, born in Roxbury Highlands in Boston, Massachusetts in 1912 began his formal training in landscape design as an apprentice from 1932 to 1936 in the office of Warren Manning in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He did drafting, some design, supervised selection and transplanting of plant materials from nurseries, and developed his love for creative plant selection.

Kiley matriculated into the landscape architectural program at Harvard University in 1936, where he began to be influenced by what was happening in architecture and looking to incorporate those modern influences into landscape design. Kiley and fellow students Rose and Eckbo published a series of articles between 1939 and 1940 describing their modernistic views in the Architectural Record.

Kiley abandoned his studies at Harvard in 1938 and went to work for a time with the National Park Service in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., and for the United States Public Housing Authority, where he met architect Louis Kahn.

In 1942 he married Anne Sturges and opened his own office in Franconia, New Hampshire, a local ideal for the couple?EUR??,,????'???s love of skiing.

Kiley served in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in the Office of Strategic Services from 1943 to 1945, and was promoted to direct the design staff. After Germany?EUR??,,????'???s fall, Kiley had the curious assignment of laying out the courtroom for the Nuremberg trials. While in Europe, he took the opportunity to visit the large formal gardens in German and France, which left a lasting impression on him.

On his return to the states, Kiley kept company with a number of American modern architects, including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei and Louis Kahn, continuing to aspire to incorporate their modern ideas into his practice in New Hampshire and later in Vermont.

He collaborated with Saarinen on the St. Louis Arch project, the J. Irwin Miller Garden in Columbus, Indiana, and the gardens for Dulles Airport. Other notable projects included: the gardens at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs with Walter Netch of SOM; the roof-top gardens at the Oakland Museum in Calif., with Saarinen?EUR??,,????'???s surviving partner, Kevin Roche; a series of urban plans for Columbus, Indiana, and other projects in the area; the Dallas Museum of Art Sculpture Garden; the Fountain Place in Dallas, Texas; Nations Bank Plaza in Tampa, Florida with Harry Wolf; the Henry Moore Sculpture Garden at the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri; the John F. Kennedy Library in Boston; and the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C.

Powers & Merritt is Now Powers Design?EUR??,,????'??+
Shifts Focus to High Design and Architectural Theming

?EUR??,,????'??Will be looking to expand and hire additional theming artists, planners and landscape architects in the coming months,?EUR??,,????'?? noted John Powers, company president.

Jacksonville, Fla.?EUR??,,????'??? Powers & Merritt, Inc., a leading architectural and planning firm founded in 1980 in Ponte Vedra Beach, northeast Florida?EUR??,,????'?? has changed its name to Powers Design?EUR??,,????'???Powers Mackey Reidenbach & Lanehart, Inc. The new name reflects the company focus on high design projects and architectural theming and planning, while crediting the firm?EUR??,,????'???s key associates.

Powers Design will continue to provide traditional architectural services and construction documents, along with landscape architecture, but will emphasize John Powers?EUR??,,????'??? vision as company president to expand into the new high design trend in architectural planning.

?EUR??,,????'??We discovered that there is quite a niche for architectural theming experts for resorts, attractions and major amenities from $1 billion theme parks to smaller projects such as neighborhood shopping centers,?EUR??,,????'?? Powers explained.

In recent years, the company has hired Tom Reidenbach as director of architectural theming. Reidenbach is an award-winning architect who has provided design work for such resort and entertainment venues as Disney Studios, Silver Dollar City, Rosie O?EUR??,,????'???Grady?EUR??,,????'???s Good Time Emporium, the Mirage Hotel and Casino and Shanghai Number One department store. Reidenbach?EUR??,,????'???s design efforts can also be seen in attractions and resort projects in including Japan, China, Russia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.

?EUR??,,????'??We are really excited about our new high design philosophy,?EUR??,,????'?? Powers said. ?EUR??,,????'??Our goal is to allow art and architecture to come together.?EUR??,,????'??

Reidenbach, along with Steve Mackey, the firm?EUR??,,????'???s vice president of architecture and design visualization, worked on the Jaws attraction at Universal Studios Florida. Mackey, who has a master?EUR??,,????'???s in architecture from Clemson University and studied at the Daniel Center for Urban Design and Building Studies in Italy, developed and directs the company?EUR??,,????'???s Design Visualization Studio, which uses digital imaging to create photorealistic renderings and illustrations.

Another key associate is Erik Lanehart,MLA, vice president of landscape architecture. Lanehart has a strong background in town planning, residential and commercial landscape design and installation, and environmental landscape design for recreational uses.

Landscape Design of Maui Homes,
Parks Have Crime in Mind

This photo, taken from the streets adjacent to Waiale Neighborhood Park in Wailuku, Maui, emphasizes the visibility from outside the park to monitor park activities. Photo courtesy of Russell Gushi.

MAUI, Hawaii?EUR??,,????'??? Door-to-door sales people and friends who drop by unannounced sometimes don?EUR??,,????'???t find their way these days into some Maui neighborhoods. Security guards or gates keep them out.

Both are signs of how the threat of crime and a desire for personal security are changing the look of upscale Maui neighborhoods. Residences and buildings are no longer being designed strictly to withstand fires and major storms. Landscape architectural design is taking crime into account.

From the big gates in neighborhoods like the Kaanapali Golf Estates, where homeowners need a card or remote for access, to the cul-de-sacs at Pineapple Hill, which limit ?EUR??,,????'??escape?EUR??,,????'?? routes, design has crime in mind.

Even public parks are paying attention to these concerns and are no longer built as secluded refuges, observed Russell Gushi, a Maui landscape architect. Designers are removing nooks and crannies and making activity rather than nature the focus.

?EUR??,,????'??We haven?EUR??,,????'???t made a conscious effort to do crime prevention, but pick up where other projects left off,?EUR??,,????'?? Gushi told LASN. ?EUR??,,????'??In my situation we deal with public facilities like parks, schools and playgrounds. We try to make them more visible to the outside so those driving by can monitor for crime.?EUR??,,????'??

Gushi said homeowners don?EUR??,,????'???t ask for crime prevention in their landscapes, but are usually more concerned with privacy. Still, Gushi often works with architects in conjunction with a residence?EUR??,,????'???s security system.

Walls and fences tend to suppress criminal trespass, but Gushi notes that the invisible barriers of security beams are the most common security measure. The landscape architect has to take that into consideration. ?EUR??,,????'??We have to make sure our landscapes don?EUR??,,????'???t obstruct the beams,?EUR??,,????'?? Gushi confirmed.

When it comes to designing parks, Gushi said there?EUR??,,????'???s always been the need to design these landscapes for the safety of the users. One means to that end is minimizing shrubs and designing an open, highly visible park.

?EUR??,,????'??Landscape lighting is also emphasized in parks,?EUR??,,????'?? Gushi added. ?EUR??,,????'??Waiale Neighborhood Park and Waiehu Terrace Park in Wailuku were designed to minimize visual obstructions for neighbors,?EUR??,,????'?? Gushi explained. ?EUR??,,????'??By-passers and patrolling police officers can readily monitor the park activities from outside the park day or night.?EUR??,,????'??

Maine Readies for Historic Site at Hallowell

Paul Plumer?EUR??,,????'???s painting of old Hallowell, Maine, on the Kennebec River. The city was named for Benjamin Hallowell, a Boston merchant and one of the Kennebec Proprietors, holders of land originally granted to the Plymouth Company by the British monarchy in the 1620s.

HALLOWELL, Maine?EUR??,,????'??? The first scenic turnout in the southern half of the international corridor between Maine and Quebec will be built next spring along U.S. Route 201 and could cost up to $250,000.

Bret Poi, landscape architect with the Maine Department of Transportation and project manager for the Kennebec-Chaudi????+re International Heritage Corridor, said a combination of state and federal funds will pay for the project. The turnout will be constructed next to the Hallowell Public Works Building.

?EUR??,,????'??There have already been a few challenges with flood and sight distance issues,?EUR??,,????'?? said Poi. ?EUR??,,????'??The Department of Transportation already owns the informal turnout. But for the most part, it?EUR??,,????'???s been smooth sailing.?EUR??,,????'??

?EUR??,,????'??The corridor recognizes the strong cultural and historical links between Quebec and Maine,?EUR??,,????'?? Poi explained. Some existing sites in the southern end of the corridor include the L.C. Bates Museum at Goodwill-Hinckley School, Old Fort Western in Augusta, Pownalborough Courthouse in Dresden and Colburn House in Pittston.

Three interpretative panels have been drafted so far and will be in English and French. Poi said site construction should start in the spring with the signs completed this fall.

?EUR??,,????'??We?EUR??,,????'???ve coordinated route marker signs for consistency in color,?EUR??,,????'?? said Poi. ?EUR??,,????'??The group in Quebec has reviewed the signs for the French translation, although the Canadian DOT hasn?EUR??,,????'???t been involved in this project.?EUR??,,????'??

Poi said plans are in place for rest area development and geological and cultural information signs along the northern section of the corridor from Solon to Quebec City, the Old Canada Road National Scenic Byway. Much of the corridor in Maine runs along U.S. Route 201.

Quebec has focused more on promotion and not so much on educating the public, said Poi. Maine?EUR??,,????'???s nonprofit group for the Kennebec-Chaudi????+re International Heritage Corridor has focused on education, as most of the infrastructure is ready to go.

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Coqui Croaking Not the Only Cause for Consternation

Eleutherodactylus coqui, a Caribbean native that leap frogged from Puerto Rico to Hawaii, is said to be threatening the nursery industry.

Perhaps you?EUR??,,????'???ve never had the pleasure of listening to hundreds of frogs croaking in unison during a mating frenzy on a Hawaiian isle. This scribe has. Strolling by a pond at dusk in the presence of a female of the homo sapian variety, we heard a few frogs croaking, then dozens, then hundreds. Taken aback by the sheer volume of noise, then bemused, then laughing, then pleased to have shared this experience on a warm, tropical evening.

That memory was dredged up from 1976. Today in Hawaii, the islanders are hearing a different frog song, this from the Eleutherodactylus coqui, a Caribbean native that apparently leap frogged from Puerto Rico to Hawaii via nursery plants in transport. The coqu??, as it is called in Puerto Rico, is a cute little frog that comes in a variety of colors (green, brown, yellowish) and sometimes with dorsal stripes. It?EUR??,,????'???s one to three inches in length, has suckers on its toes but no webbing between the toes or fingers, a biological adaptation, as it is doesn?EUR??,,????'???t pass through the tadpole stage. The coqui emerges from the egg fully formed, although about the size of a pencil point. This adaptation is critical, because the coqui doesn?EUR??,,????'???t need a pool of water to lay its eggs, which limits the spread of normal frogs. The female lays about 100 eggs a year, which develop within 17-26 days. The Smithsonian magazine reports that in some Hawaiian locals there are more than 6,000 coqui per acre, five times the yield in Puerto Rico, where snake and spiders keep the coqui population in equilibrium. Environmentalist are concerned that the coqui will wipe out some insect populations that some birds rely on, and may promote the growth of such invasive species as rats and snakes.

Some people are fans of the coqui, but many are disturbed or irritated by the shrill mating calls of the male, whose amorous screeching rates between 70-90 decibels, a noise described by many as ?EUR??,,????'??unbelievable.?EUR??,,????'??

The decibel scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel increase represents a tenfold increase in noise.

The Columbia Encyclopedia explains that a 10-decibel increase is perceived as doubling the loudness; 30 decibels is 10 times more intense than 20 decibels and sounds twice as loud; 40 decibels is 100 times more intense than 20 and sounds four times as loud; 80 decibels is one million times more intense than 20 and sounds 64 times as loud; 45 decibels of noise keeps most people from sleeping; traffic noise is about 70 decibels to a pedestrian on the sidewalk. Hearing damage begins at about 85 decibels.

Rita Beamish reported in the Smithsonian that one nursery owner ?EUR??,,????'??nearly lost his business, despite spraying,?EUR??,,????'?? due to the frogs on his plants. Also quoted was Jamie Runnells, vice president of the Big Island Association of Nurserymen, who categorized the situation as the ?EUR??,,????'??biggest single problem facing the nursery industry on the Big Island.?EUR??,,????'??

Realtors are urging clients to spray their properties, and the state is looking into pest control options (caffeine spray induces coqui heart attacks). As with all pest control efforts, there are concerns about damaging the plants and other wildlife. Many at this point are thinking in terms of containment, not eradication.