Susan Goltsman FASLA

A founding principal of MIG, Susan Goltsman, FASLA, is an internationally recognized expert in the design and programming of environments for children, youth and families. By conducting original research and approaching design through inclusivity, she has established new paradigms regarding healthy human development and the environment in a range of settings, including parks, community facilities, schools, museums, zoos, childcare centers and natural environments.

Her projects have won awards from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; Center for Universal Design; American Institute of Architects; American Planning Association; ASLA; National Endowment for the Arts; the United Cerebral Palsy Association; California Department of Rehabilitation; and the California Park and Recreation Society. Susan has taught at numerous universities and colleges and serves as an adviser to a number of landscape architecture programs, children's museums and governmental committees. She is co-author of the PLAY FOR ALL Guidelines, an internationally adopted reference on the planning, design, and management of outdoor play settings for all children, and most recently, The Inclusive City, proposing a more inclusive approach to planning that promotes social and economic equity and community development, with full interaction and accessibility for all residents.

Firms
MIG, Berkeley, Calif.

Education
BA, Environmental Design, Parson's School of Design and New School of Social Research; MLA, North Carolina State University; MS, Environmental Psychology, University of Surrey, England

Honors
ASLA Fellow (2000)

Professional Affiliations
ASLA Member
US Access Board, Play Areas and Children's Environments, 1994-2004
ASTM Playground Committee, 2000-2005
Landscape Architecture Foundation, 2005-2007

Selected Publications and Lectures
Play for All Guidelines: Planning, Design and Management of Outdoor Play Settings for All Children (with R. Moore and D. Iacofano, 1987); Safety First Checklist for Play Areas (with S. McIntyre, 1997); Free-Range Kids (Green Technology, 2009); Children and the City (2007-2008); Accessible Design (2006); Connecting Children to Nature (2009)

Teaching
Current Distinguished Farrand Faculty, UC Berkeley School of Design. Previously, CLARB online faculty (2000-2002); Public Broadcasting Station online faculty (1997-1998); San Francisco State University, Home Economics (1992-1993); Stanford University Department of Urban Studies (1980-1984)

Koret Children's Quarter, San Francisco, California

Working closely with the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department, MIG redesigned the Children's Playground in Golden Gate Park. Believed to be the first public playground in America, the playground opened in 1887 and was last renovated in 1977. The new Koret Children's Quarter was designed to bring adventure and discovery into play by creating a framework for children to use their imaginations and be able to alter their environment. MIG created the design program with the input of city staff, residents and children. Existing elements like the historic carousel and popular cement slides were incorporated into the design, which reflects the natural landscape of San Francisco as it transitions from forested hills to the edge of the sea. A boulder-lined stream bubbles along in the midst of hillside lookouts and meanders through a tree house village. Children can dig for artifacts in a large sand zone while others can sway on oversized cattails in the wetland zone. Families can relax and picnic on a central grassy berm. Across a plaza of trees and curving seat walls is the seaside environment, where aquatic forms created by artists Vicki Saulls and Scott Peterson inspire active and imaginative play. Sea caves enclose another sand area with climbable creatures like hermit crabs and sea turtles. Tactile tide pools and playful water jets erupt from sculpted sea lions. Two large climbing walls in the form of cresting waves provide a physical challenge that is safe for children of all ages and abilities.

Nature's Neighborhood, Toledo, Ohio

MIG worked with the Toledo Zoo's Education and Interpretive Services departments and animal curators to develop plans for flexible play environments to support specific activities that meet multiple learning objectives. The process was informed by programming research and exhibit prototyping by staff at the College of Education and Human Development at Bowling Green State University. The result was a design program that focuses on exploring animal environments and considering what it might be like to live and play in them. The final site plan designed by MIG features a range of local natural settings, from an Ohio backyard to forests and hills, highlighting habitats for animals and insects found in those settings. MIG led a team of architects, exhibit designers and engineers in the preparation of final design and construction documents and provided construction support services. Each of the six interconnected exhibit areas includes opportunities or play that are child-directed, adult-facilitated, interactive experiences with animals. The exhibit elements were also created to be scientifically accurate, yet artful and playful, using color, materials and textures to encourage imaginative play. All exhibit areas are designed to be accessible to children with and without disabilities

Beijing International School Outdoor Learning Environment, Beijing, China

MIG designed a 2.5 acre Outdoor Learning Environment (OLE), based on the layout and geometry of the Forbidden City, for the International School Beijing (ISB). The OLE provides a rich variety of spaces for students to play, explore, and learn in a safe yet challenging environment. The OLE is made up of a series of courtyards with unique focuses-math, geography, archaeology, physical education, science, performance, games and arts. Character and symbology is expressed in elements such as entry gates, walls, play areas, and distinctive planting. These spaces provide children with formal and informal learning opportunities, as well as spaces for active play and quiet or solitary activities. The diversity of the courtyards meets children's broad range of play and learning needs, and provides teachers with a wide range of curricular options. Throughout the OLE, the aesthetic character reflects the unique diversity of ISB students and also integrates the rich cultural heritage of China. This aesthetic is seen first at the OLE's main entrance, where the dragon, an important symbol of Chinese culture, greets students and visitors in the form of a large, colorful metal sculpture, undulating along the top of a richly colored wall that continues along the OLE's east border. Within the wall, a plaza with planting areas and comfortable benches sits adjacent to a modern adaptation of a Chinese pavilion, which serves as the gateway to learning and play.

Tamarack Destinations for Discovery, Ramsey County, Minnesota

The first phase of the Destination for Discovery at the Tamarack Nature Center in Ramsey County, Minn., was completed in 2011. The second phase is being designed. The project has transformed the Nature Center's traditional, passive facilities into a highly attractive regional destination that integrates personal explorations of nature with art, play and active investigation. The master plan includes a multi-acre nature play area designed for self-directed play. The area encourages direct contact and interaction with a variety of natural features, including tree stumps and trunks, hills and hollows, digging places, and hiding and climbing places. The plan also includes a Woodland Play Stream featuring a natural-looking channel of water pools, cascades, and meandering sections that cater to dam-building, bridge-making and rock-hopping. Water from the stream is collected into a pond then pumped via windmill to a water tower for storage and reused for watering the garden. Overflow from the pond feeds a rain garden created just outside the enclosed garden area. A large hill was created to provide an overlook area, climbing among rockscape and planting and for sledding during winter months. A new Children's Garden consists of a fully interactive "neighborhood" of working gardens that provide planting, harvesting, mud play, water pumping and irrigation activities. The Children's Garden also includes a garden center building for seed starting, apple cider and maple syrup making, compost bins, cistern, pumpkin and squash patch, and a sensory garden.

California Condor Rescue Zone At The Los Angeles Zoo And Botanical Gardens, Los Angeles, California

California Condor Rescue Zone (CCRZ) is a fun, facilitated play space designed for elementary school-age children. In an exciting immersive environment, children discover what it takes to protect California condors and the important role the Los Angeles Zoo plays in the survival of this amazing species. MIG collaborated with the zoo's education staff and condor keepers to develop this exhibit from concept through construction. MIG designed the concept, settings and play props, and trained staff and docents in play leadership. The CCRZ is designed as a stage with settings that reflect the life of the California condor in the wild, its rescue from extinction, and the Los Angeles Zoo "back of house" facilities that help in the Condor Recovery Program. Children control their experience during each visit as they role-play as a condor, a zoo vet or a biologist/keeper while they explore the exhibit.

Q&A

1. What was the pivotal or motivating factor(s) that made you choose a career in landscape architecture?
My background is multidisciplinary: architecture, landscape architecture and environmental psychology. I see myself as an environmental designer in the broadest sense, as opposed to working within a specific discipline. I am a designer of human habitats and the disciplines are the tools to do my job better. The outdoors have been of particular interest to me because of my focus on human development, specifically children's environments and their interaction with nature.

2. What in particular do you attribute your success to?
The people I have worked with, learned from and partner with - they have supported this work and helped build and challenge ideas. We have been creating innovative solutions over 30 years.

3. What career advice would you give to a recently graduated landscape architectural student?
My best advice would be to look at the problems you are trying to solve, not just the environments you are trying to create. Look at all the other disciplines that will impact your ability to create an exceptional place, not an average one. Don't be afraid to take on challenges you may not have answers to because if you reach out to enough people around you, you will discover something you did not expect!