Photo credit Linda Oyama Bryan

Gardens

Creating gardens within the quad introduced new diversity into the campus landscape as a way to make it more distinctive to prospective students. The projects kicked off the University’s major landscape initiative to designate the entire campus as an official botanic garden. Often campuses rely on master plans with soldierly rows of trees and monocultures that do not resonate on an individual level throughout the seasons. In contrast, Botany Pond Garden and Hull Court Garden, which are located on either side of a busy corridor in the Main Quad, are intense moments of horticulture with a level of detail designed to resonate on an individual level, such as weeping conifers and the exfoliating bark on a Paperbark Maple.

Botany Pond (photo credit: Linda Oyama Bryan)

Hull Court (photo credit Linda Oyama Bryan)

See more on the University of Chicago’s landscape initiative here.

Both gardens were originally created a century ago by the first chair of the Botany Department as display and teaching resources but no longer functioned as gardens. We drew on historic references frequently as we began restoration and redesign.

Historic photos of Botany Pond (left) and Hull Court Garden from the University of Chicago Archives

The design of both gardens involved significant collaboration with the University’s department of Ecology and Evolution. Nearly 90 percent of plantings in Hull Court are native prairie and savanna plants consisting of a matrix of grasses, forbs (broad-leaf prairie plants), and perennials. Professors in the department of Ecology and Evolution, who were deeply involved in selecting plant communities for both gardens, utilize it as a teaching resource.  The native planting theme responds to a complex pattern of light and shade across a small space. Bloom and color times coincide with key events on campus such as recruiting and convocation.

Hull Court Garden (photo, Linda Oyama Bryan)

Walkways

The Walkways project removes vehicles from the quad to make it a more safe and pleasant environment for pedestrians and to restore the original intent of Henry Ives Cobb. To be successful, the project needed to improve the pedestrian experience while enhancing the Quad’s historic and cultural image.

Harper Quad (photo Linda Oyama Bryan)

Given the University’s focus on sustainability, we took the opportunity to incorporate pervious concrete into the new walkways for sustainable treatment of stormwater. To do this we combined natural stone pavers, which reference historic materials in the architecture with panels of a special pervious concrete mix that help with stormwater retention while being suitable for everyday pedestrian traffic.  See more about this part of the project on earlier posts about using sustainable materials in historic areas and  using the pathways to visually realign one of the historic buildings.

This is the third award from SCUP for our work. In 2008, a landscape redesign of the core campus at North Park University demonstrated the power of strong horticultural design and new pathways to revitalizing a 100-year-old campus. In 2009, the University of North Carolina Historic Landscape Preservation Plan was recognized for its innovative approach to historic and culturally significant landscapes on campuses.

This portion of the site sits within a 6-acre landscape originally designed by Jens Jensen. As Peter Schaudt commented, this landscape is every landscape architect’s dream – it consists of a ravine, creek, two bridges, ridge and bluff to the shores of Lake Michigan. The architect beautifully framed a vista to the lake with two houses on the high point of the bluff. Here are before/after views of it looking to the lake:

It was important to keep this central view to the horizon line of the lake open, so plantings along the sides of the house and the central path frame the view. Low, horizontal elements like limestone slab steps and cedar-capped retaining walls offer no distraction as the eye looks through the space. The overall effect is subtle, not overpowering.

From below looking back, the effect and the intent is different. Here are ‘before’  and ‘after’ views:

The homes were built for siblings and their families and the terraced garden between them is designed to knit the entire space into a common area. Gently-stepped retaining walls connect the houses and visually reinforce their relationship. The result is a space that follows the natural grade and feels like a terraced courtyard.

Peter says that conceptually, he thinks of the houses like two boats at a dock: “The central path visually anchors the buildings while the wood-capped retaining walls act as tethers, keeping the two structures together. The zipper path honors the central circulation but softens the space and makes it less formal, allowing plantings to come in to the space in a more naturalistic way.”

At the base of the stair, a sculptural fire ring is cut out of the slope.  When walking down the steps from above, or looking through the space to the lake, the ring is not immediately visible. It is a surprise element, something to be discovered.  The ring is a deliberate re-interpretation of Jens Jensen’s frequent use of council rings, which were simple circular stone benches:

Jens Jensen council ring in Columbus Park, Chicago

In this circle, the ring itself is created out of negative space, carved out of the slope that descends toward the lake. Minimal and modern, this reinterpretation is sympathetic to the architecture while honoring Jensen’s intent for a council ring to be a place for people to gather with others in nature.

Jens Jensen favored a naturalistic planting design and the use of materials that are native to the area and much of the site is in this style.  Within the courtyard, however, it was appropriate to combine natives with ornamentals to create a garden environment that is featured in views from inside the two houses. The design of the terraced stair brings the contrasting styles of naturalistic and modern together cohesively, distinguishing the area as a homestead within the larger context of the native southern Michigan landscape. “I think Jensen would have probably run a sweep of natives right between the houses,” says Doug Hoerr,  “this design lets the landscape run through the space, but controls it to some degree in response to the architecture of the homes.”

So when Steve Gierke sent this time-lapse film of Chicago by Chris Pritchard, which has been making its way around this week quite a bit, I was mezmerized. It takes a few minutes to load, but it’s worth the wait. See more about the project, called Places in Time, on Pritchard’s blog.

Along the same lines, but with a very different feel, are the brief, artsy time-lapse glimpses into Provence, France on the visitprovence.com website. It’s worth the second or two to orient yourself to the site’s whimsical navigation. At the bottom of the page, move the button over to ‘videos’ to see time-lapse views of the kind of places that make me wish I was French.
 

Don’t miss the sound on either of these!

Have a favorite time-lapse landscape to share?

photo Matt Boelman

photo Jack Coyier

photo Jack Coyier

photo Jack Coyier

The Hall of Laureates, which underwent an extensive renovation, is due to open to the public for tours beginning in May 2012.  See more about the building on the World Food Prize site.

When landscape architects and architects are designing in an urban context, we are designing an experience people will have while moving through the space.  People very rarely experience a space from a plan view or from a single vantage point, but instead as a series of perspectives while moving through or around it. The amount of detail you’re able to perceive is related to the speed at which you’re moving.  The slower your speed, the more detail you have time to notice.This can be a bit of a problem when you’re on vacation and time is of-the-essence and you want to take in as much of the city as possible. Most people walk around a city they’re visiting to experience the sites and scenes. This can be limiting because it takes most people about 20 minutes to leisurely walk a mile, whereas on a bicycle, you can easily cover that distance in 5 minutes. It is also very easy to hop off your bike from time to time to get a better look.

I first experienced a new city by bike while visiting Amsterdam, the unofficial capital of urban biking in the western hemisphere. Everyone from small children to businessmen in suits to grandmas regularly bike to wherever they need to go. The city was very bike friendly and had plenty of bike lanes that wind through the city and along the canals. I was able to bike through many different neighborhoods and see all of the different conditions along the historic canals.

I also rented a bike with a friend while visiting Montreal. It was a short trip and I had a long list of sites to see, so renting a bike worked out perfectly.  We were able to bike from old Montreal across the Jacques Cartier Bridge where I stopped to take a few pictures looking back toward the city (image 1). We then quickly made it to Buckminster Fuller’s Biosphère (image 2) and Habitat ’67, designed by Moshe Safdie (image 3). From there we biked over the harbor and along the St. Lawrence River to a well known market (image 4) for a fresh baguette, cheese, meat and fruit and a picnic in the park.  Later, we continued biking along the Lachine Canal. Being on a bicycle gave us unusual views of the infrastructure of the waterways (image 5) as well as the crossing elevated highways (image 6) . We experienced more of the city in one afternoon than most people see while visiting for a whole weekend.

While I was living in Toronto, I would experience the city regularly on bike, as biking was my main form of transportation. The city had just partnered with Bixi bike-sharing, so when a few friends came to visit me we were able to easily rent bikes.  We toured the whole waterfront redevelopment and stopped periodically to have a better look at some of the more exciting sites, like these wavedecks by West8. Located at the terminus of several streets along the water’s edge, they create dynamic public space where people can experience waterfront at varying levels.

Chicago is already a relatively bike-friendly city but is working to be even more so. We will soon have the largest bike-share program in the United States, with 3,000 bikes in 300 stations in June of 2012 and expand to 500 stations and 5,000 bikes in 2013. The bikesharing system will serve a dense network of stations to be located in a 30 square mile area centered on the loop. The system is designed to allow users to pick up and drop off a bicycle at any location. There is also a push from Mayor Rahm Emanuel to increase the overall amount of bike lanes as well as increase the amount of protected bike lanes. These changes will make it easier for locals as well as tourists to experience the city’s urban design in new ways.

A new bikeshare program in Chicago similar to this one in Toronto will be up and running by June.

Today, one year later, Steve Gierke took some photos of the medians further north, which typically bloom a little later than those on the south. (Side note: Steve is a great photographer – please ‘like’ these photos I posted on our facebook page if you agree so he has something to smile about!)

While the agreeable temperatures have me wavering between feeling delighted and unnerved, landscape designers, nurseries and landscape maintenance crews are responding like a bride whose wedding has just been moved up a month. Nurseries can only dig plants to be replanted in your landscape before their leaves and flowers have emerged. Designers have lists pages and pages long of things that need to be dug for projects going in the ground this year and the early, sustained warmth means that nurseries have had their window of time to complete these digs drastically shortened.  More than one nursery has been up all night trying to get things out of the ground in time.

Landscape architects need this time, too, to identify or ‘tag’ what’s needed for various projects. To illustrate, this is a photo from early-April last year of John Evans and Mike Ciccarelli in their Wellies tagging redbuds for a project that was to be planted that summer.

And here is John and a nursery rep in front of a redbud exactly one year later. No Wellies.

I’ve written before about the importance we place on emphasizing seasonal change in our design and as I prepare to have several of our projects photographed, I’ve been bewildered by the way that bloom times are out of whack. The sudden warmth means that the progressive sequence in bloom times that make Spring a season of measured unfolding didn’t happen. Instead, snowdrops, crocuses, daffodils, and tulips are all clamoring for the spotlight at once.

And in honor of the spotlight, one last photo from Steve. Every tulip deserves its own glamor shot!

Earlier, I posted on Caren Alpert’s photographs, which reveal a rich world of surface patterns by magnifying the surfaces of foods. Her photos are reminiscent of landscapes as seen from above and in a twist on that idea, here are two artists that do the reverse.  Sonja Hinrichsen and Andres Amador, both featured on Colossal recently, have used temporal landscape surfaces – snow and sand – as a canvas to create patterns that are so large in scale that distance is the only way to fully see them.

In Hinrichsen’s photographs of her snow drawing piece, created at Rabbit Ears Pass, Colorado, dozens of connected spirals look both organic and ordered.  I also like the relationships between the trees (permanent) and the spirals (temporary).

Andreas Amador, an artist based in San Fransciso, waits for the lowest tides to execute a design. His work lasts only as long as the encroaching waves of the rising tide allow. My favorites are those with shapes that relate directly to the more permanent features of the site.

Both artists have many more images and some great video on their sites.

– Henry David Thoreau, American Poet and Philosopher (1817-1862)

Like all designers, I am always looking for new sources of creative inspiration and while reliable mainstays continue to be film, photography, travel and fashion, I particularly enjoy finding examples of creative expression that involve innovative takes on classic conventions. As such, a visual stand-out for me this season has been one trend within the Spring 2012 fashion forecasts featuring bold, photo-realistic landscape images writ large across garments as though they were literal canvases. Here it seems Life is truly imitating Art…or at the very least we’re wearing it!

New York fashion designer, Julian Louie, took his architectural background and filtered it through photographic images taken while on a trip to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to inspire his designs for the runway.

Sarah Ball’s photograph as applied to Anthropologie’s Kudzu Skirt – oh how beautifully this invasive vine native to southern Japan and Southeast China is rendered here.

Not only do I find these examples aesthetically cool, I like the fact that these clothes were realized with the use of Photoshop and state-of-the-art textile printing techniques that give new life and expression to the common floral print. These are not your standard garden-variety floral chintzes!

Landscape architects use Photoshop often to help clients visualize what is and what can be in your world-view. Here are a few that we completed recently for an expansive property on the east coast.

I find this way of presenting a design intent to be the most persuasive.  I think of it as a makeover for your landscape…but one that lasts much longer than a fashion trend and one that can be enjoyed by many more including friends, family, flora and fauna!

Much like the fashion industry, the practice of landscape architecture involves planning now for the seasons ahead. To us and for many, spring is extra special, following a long dormancy period filled with more subdued vistas. We anticipate this particular season months in advance since so much pre-planning is required on our part to seamlessly synchronize the real-time efforts involved in creating a living landscape.

Check back in the coming weeks as we document one of our tree-tagging trips and look at all the factors that we consider when designing with living materials.  As seen in our earlier post on tagging , we trek off the beaten path, over hill and dale, to find the perfect plant specimens, though our definition of ‘perfect’ is often a little different from everyone elses!

Urban agriculture is generally painted with one of two brushes. It is either the most amazing thing that will save the world or it is a health risk that is detrimental to our urban areas and needs policy enacted to keep it out of our cities. I think both sides are a bit extreme. I am a strong supporter of urban agriculture because it has so many social and ecological benefits and provides interesting design challenges by taking so many forms. I do, however, think that large scale agricultural systems need to be more critically examined before determining if urban ag can in fact save the world. I also think that a few of the concerns from the other side might have a bit of merit and warrant some thought.

Health Risks

Most risks from engaging in urban agriculture are related to health and environmental factors. They most often arise from a lack of knowledge or planning that results it being done in the wrong places or in the wrong way. To avoid this, research what you’re doing and be aware that your actions will ripple out and affect other natural and urban systems.

The first group of health risks are not very common in the United States, but can be more of a problem in developing countries. There is a risk of contamination of crops with pathogenic organisms (bacteria) if the crops are being irrigated with insufficiently treated wastewater. There can also be a potential risk of diseases if there was an infestation, such as rats.  There is a small risk of some livestock passing diseases to humans, but not from the types of livestock that would be kept in North America, such as chickens.

The second group of potential health risks does require more attention in the United States. This health risk is associated with the possibility that it might be taking place on contaminated land. Due to the fact that urban agriculture often occupies vacant or derelict land that is undesirable to other development, there is a very real possibility that it could be taking place on a brownfield site. Heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, chromium, zinc, copper, nickel, mercury, manganese, selenium, mercury or arsenic could contaminate crops. Many plants can absorb these metals into their roots and bioaccumulate in the plant, leaving them to ingested after they are harvested. Air pollution from nearby highways or roads is another concern. One needs to also keep in mind that these risks can also affect large scale traditional agriculture.

However, these concerns don’t mean that urban agriculture is too risky. Knowing the possible risks allows practitioners to take steps to create a safe and healthy environment. Simple steps such as avoiding areas of known contamination, growing crops in raised beds, importing topsoil, or using soil amendments to immobilize heavy those heavy metals will alleviate the risks. A phytoremediation strategy (the use of plants to decontaminate soil and/or water) could also be put in place to prep the site and mitigate the risks.

Risks to the Environment

Urban agriculture is generally really positive for the urban ecosystem. It is good to have any vegetation, but especially something as productive as food, growing where there was previously nothing or just lawn. There is also increased biodiversity, increased evapotranspiration for cooling urban heat island and increased stormwater management. The only potential risks to the environment would be that pesticides and fertilizers could get into and contaminate the water system. However, most urban agriculturalists prefer not to use them or use them sparingly. Traditional agriculture is a much greater offender when it comes to fertilizers and pesticides.

Deeper Study

In my first post on urban ag, I listed its benefits and the drawbacks of traditional farming. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence for the benefits of urban agriculture over traditional industrial farming but why is there is a lack of statistical evidence to back up these claims? This is most likely because urban agriculture is too varied and decentralized to be able to accurately measure the inputs of resources, energy and costs.

In my third post I discussed different categories of urban agriculture (vertical vs. horizontal and both large and small scales of both). Small scale implementation is much more common and yields great results. However, large scale implementation is where problems begin to arise. The increase in scale seems to exponentially increase the required inputs of resources, energy and cost. For example, someone growing their own produce in a small plot in a park or on a wall requires low input of initial resources or cost. This is far more efficient than growing that same produce with large machines hundreds of miles away and shipping it to the store. On the other end of the spectrum, a skyscraper full of agriculture would be cool, but the initial costs to build it, plus the high amounts of energy and water it would require to maintain the hydroponic systems would most likely have a resulting higher carbon footprint than traditional agriculture.

Final Thoughts

Althought there are some risks to health and environment when engaging in urban ag, they can be easily mitigated with effective planning, management and training. Even though today’s larger scale urban agriculture might have high resource and energy inputs, that isn’t to say that urban agriculture can’t still save our environment and food supply.

The next step is crucial to understanding if it is possible to amplify the benefits that urban agriculture currently provides to a small population to a larger constituency. Despite some difficulties and risks involved in urban agriculture, there is definitely a place for it in our cities.

I really believe urban agriculture is an area in which landscape architects can play a strong role by cultivating innovative practices and expanding its presence in our cities. The book Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture has some examples of how designers have interfaced with this movement in powerful ways.

Looking back at the competition I entered with Fadi Masoud, Karen May, Denise Pinto, and Drew Adams, we had a larger objective to propose a reframing of the aesthetics and prodcutivity of ‘the landscape’ and our relationship to it.  We created a series of new organizations and piggybacked existing infrastructure to create a new form of urban agriculture that could have large-scale fiscal, ecological and social benefits. Suggesting these types of innovative, big-impact yet ecologically-grounded proposals are where our profession can take a leading role in in furthering the discussion.

Photo: Scott Shigley

A sunken lawn to the south of the house is a serene counterpoint to the Victorian façade and when viewed from the street, it emphasizes the home’s vertical proportions. Part of this is to create the illusion of a “house on a hill.” When purchasing the house, the homeowner said, “There was something so gracious yet powerful about the way the house sat on the lot and presided over the block. They were clearly paying homage to the idea of a Tuscan villa on a rolling hill when they built it.”  In response, our early design discussions with the homeowners were influenced by images of Tuscan landscapes like these:

Early inspiration for the garden feature arborvitae and varying levels of planting.

Although the house is historic, a new addition at the back of the house by Vinci/Hamp Architects is contemporary. The landscape design responds to this juxtaposition: the structure of the overall garden is formal—you can see this in the sunken lawn, simple but dramatic lines of pathways, and the hedge of pear trees in the gravel garden—but much of the planting is designed to soften the rigidness of this formality.

Photo: Scott Shigley

Though the setting for the coach house is formal, landscape beds around the coach house are irregularly shaped to allow the plantings to spill out onto the paving in a more free-form style.

Photo: Scott Shigley

Photo: Scott Shigley

This blurring of formal and informal styles is especially evident in the back of the property, where private areas for entertaining and dining are tucked away in a secluded gravel garden that is adjacent to the contemporary coach house addition. This mix of contemporary and historic is consistent in the home’s interior which is exactingly restored but filled with exquisite modern furnishings and designed by Julia Buckingham Edelmann.

Gravel garden

For the record, several of the IL ASLA jury members didn’t like how open the garden is from the street and in fact, we began the design process with a number of design concepts that created more privacy.

Early concepts screened the side garden areas from the street.

In the end, though, the client decided that a critical feature of their garden needed to be to “make the garden a neighborhood space for all to enjoy.” So as a result, views of the garden from the street are showcased, not blocked, contributing to an experience of the garden as a generous space.

Photo: Scott Shigley