LSA 220 Introduction to Landscape Architecture: Setting an Example in California by Mia Lehrer

To: Profs. R. Hawks and I. Fernandez From: Christopher Peretti 12/3/13 LA Memo

For twenty five years landscape architect, Mia Lehrer, has worked in the state of California. Her work embodies a different side of landscape architecture where she uses the profession to enhance the environment and lives for the people in the greater Los Angeles, California area. The projects that she talked about fit into five categories which are watersheds, airsheds, foodsheds, community, and a new infrastructure. Since Los Angeless population has become so large, numerous problems have arisen from those categories. One of her projects she described was about the watersheds of LA. Mia Lehrer was selected to do a revitalization master plan for the thirty two mile long LA River. The plan was to restore neighborhoods around the river, making them greener and more accessible to the river. While doing that however, she and two other partners had to account for flood storage, water quality, and keeping the river natural looking. The projects that Mia Lehrer described in her lecture really captured the impacts that landscape architecture can have on an entire city. By implementing green infrastructure and using smarter ways to take on design problems such as getting water from one end of the state to the other, cities can become economically and environmentally better than what they once were. Mia Lehrer understands that designing for city problems can be done by combining both practical and social designing methods. Lehrers projects show how landscape architecture can be the solution to such complex urban problems.