Landscape Architecture Magazine - Vol 114 #1

JAN 2024 / VOL 114 NO 1
US $16 CAN $22 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN
SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
DERU
A small firm draws out Ohio’s
Underground Railroad story
LOOM HOUSE
Inspiration meets calculation
on Bainbridge Island
REFLECTING MLK
Kofi Boone on the monument
to the civil rights icon
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Experiments in generative AI
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LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
MAGAZINE
THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN
SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
16
JANUARY 2024
8 INSIDE
10 LETTERS
12 LAND MATTERS
122 ADVERTISER INDEX
123 ADVERTISERS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY
TEN EYCK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, TOP; ANNE JAMES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, BOTTOM
FOREGROUND
16 NOW Timothy A. Schuler, Editor
A taqueria by Ten Eyck Landscape Architects preserves
Austin’s vibe; new tools help better ID climate vulnerability;
a traffic circle temporarily ignites downtown Indianapolis;
forgotten brownfields are enlivened as a community space,
and more.
34 HOUSE CALL
Made to Mushroom by Timothy A. Schuler
The design team for an enchanting Bainbridge Island
renovation puzzled over how to meet a tricky sustainability
target until Anne James, ASLA, had a novel idea.
48 GOODS Kristen Mastroianni, Editor

Out and About 34
New design elements that add polish to public spaces.
4 / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2024

58
DAVID JOSEPH PHOTOGRAPHY, TOP; SAHAR COSTON-HARDY, AFFILIATE ASLA, CENTER; ERIC ARNESON AT TOPOPHYLA. IMAGE GENERATED BY CHATGPT-4, BOTTOM
FEATURES
58 Star Tracks by Zach Mortice
A tiny budget, a stormwater target, and a significant historic
site on the route of the Underground Railroad were all that
Cleveland’s DERU Landscape Architecture needed to turn a
bioswale into a wellspring for storytelling.
92
THE BACK
92 An Elegy in Granite by Kofi Boone, FASLA
Photography by Sahar Coston-Hardy, Affiliate ASLA
A decade after its opening, changing perspectives
cast new light on the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument
on the National Mall.
104 BOOKS Mimi Zeiger, Editor

Flux and Change by Fadi Masoud
A review of The Comprehensive Plan: Sustainable,
Resilient, and Equitable Communities for the 21st Century,
by David Rouse, ASLA, and Rocky Piro.
132 BACKSTORY
132 Visual experiments by @pangeaexpress
explore AI’s ever-expanding boundaries.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE JAN 2024 / 5

LANDSCAPE PUBLISHER
Michael O’Brien, Honorary ASLA /
ASLA BOARD OF TRUSTEES
PRESIDENT
ARCHITECTURE
SuLin Kotowicz, FASLA
mobrien@asla.org
PRESIDENT-ELECT
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND Kona Gray, FASLA
MAGAZINE STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS

Daniel Martin, Honorary ASLA /
dmartin@asla.org
IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Emily O’Mahoney, FASLA
THE MAGAZINE OF THE AMERICAN VICE PRESIDENTS

Monique Bassey, ASLA
ADVERTISING SALES
SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 202-216-2325
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Monica Barkley / barkley@asla.org April Westcott, FASLA
EDITOR
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COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETING
COPY CHIEF Benjamin Baker, ASLA
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ON THE COVER SUBSCRIPTIONS
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REPRESENTATIVE Matthew Copp, ASLA
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CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Geoff Evans, ASLA
landscape for the Brian Barth; Jared Brey; Jessica Bridger; Alexander Fenech, ASLA
Cozad-Bates House BACK ISSUES
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in Cleveland by 888-999-ASLA (2752) Lara Guldenpfennig, ASLA
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DERU Landscape Zach Mortice; Maci Nelson, Associate ASLA; Jonathan Hayes, ASLA
Architecture, page 58. Timothy A. Schuler; James R. Urban, FASLA; James Hencke, ASLA
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EDITORIAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE Landscape Architecture Magazine (ISSN 0023-8031) is Carl Kelemen, FASLA
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healthy planet through environmentally conscious pro- Barbara Santner, ASLA
EDITORIAL duction and distribution of the magazine. This magazine Todd Schoolcraft, ASLA
202-898-2444 is printed on certified paper using vegetable inks. You Tim Slazinik, ASLA
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can read more about the sustainability efforts of our
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publishing partners at bit.ly/lam-sustainability. Robert Tilson, FASLA
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The magazine is also available in digital format through William Bryce Ward, ASLA
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LAF REPRESENTATIVES
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NATIONAL ASSOCIATE REPRESENTATIVE

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AMBER N. FORD
NATIONAL STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

Madeline Kirschner, Associate ASLA
PARLIAMENTARIAN
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LAM /
INSIDE
CONTRIBUTORS
AMBER N. FORD (“Star Tracks,” page 58)

is an artist and freelance photographer
based in Cleveland who holds a bachelor
of fine arts degree in photography from
the Cleveland Institute of Art. You can
follow her on Instagram @ambern.ford.
“Landscape can still be so beautiful
in the late fall/early winter when
planted with intention.”
FADI MASOUD (“Flux and Change,”

page 104) is an associate professor of
landscape architecture and urbanism at
the University of Toronto and the director
of the Centre for Landscape Research.
You can follow the Centre on Instagram
@clr.daniels.utoronto.
“Even a century apart, the need for holistic
and integrated solutions to urban issues
continues to be rooted in environmental
and social justice, solutions that are
seemingly obvious and correlative.”
GOT A STORY?
At LAM, we don’t know what we don’t know.
If you have a story, project, obsession, or
simply an area of interest you’d like to see
VALAURIAN WALLER, TOP; YASMIN AL-SAMARRAI, BOTTOM

covered, tell us! Send it to lam@asla.org.
For more information, visit LAM online

at landscapearchitecturemagazine.org/
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LAM /
LETTERS
TAKE US UP
I am a licensed landscape architect.
I worked hard for this distinction
and I am proud of my profession.
In this effort, I found the Frame-
Works recommendations [Putting
People at the Center: Reframing Land-
However, nobody knows what I do scape Architecture for Maximum Im-
or what I am capable of doing. Sob. pact, available at asla.org], while slight-
ly unsettling for this tree hugger, to
I could complain about that to my be very useful. In developing these
landscape architect friends and feel pitches, I found ways to incorporate
sorry for myself, or, as I have now my true loves of nature and ecology
decided, I can develop three or four with a focus on humans. So c’mon,
“elevator pitches” and use them at my fellow landscape architects, let’s
every opportunity. I’ll tell them to promote and celebrate ourselves to
everyone, sprinkle them around in the outside world.
social media posts and in the tagline
of my email address, make bumper SUSAN KENZLE, ASLA
stickers and T-shirts—the options AUSTIN, TEXAS
are endless.
CORRECTION
In “The Outsiders Are In” in
the November issue, a statistic
attributed to Lesley Bertolotti on
page 61 was incorrect. Instead
of “residential uses account for
60 percent of all the freshwater
consumed in Florida,” it should
have said “On average, we’re
finding that up to 60 percent of
a new single-family home’s wa-
WRITE US
ter use in Central Florida goes
toward landscape irrigation.” LAM welcomes letters from readers.
We regret the error. Letters may be edited and condensed.
Please email comments to LAMletters
@asla.org or send via U.S. mail to:
AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
636 EYE STREET NW
WASHINGTON, DC 20001–3736

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LAND MATTERS
DESIGN
INTELLIGENCE
T his month, I interviewed Eric Arneson, one-
half of Topophyla Landscape Design, but bet-
ter known on social media as @pangeaexpress,
Phillip Fernberg, ASLA, and Eric Gilbey, ASLA,
two members of the network, told me that while
the PPN is working on guidance frameworks, it
about a few images he posted that jolted me was worth reading up on the work of allied pro-
awake when I scrolled through them (see Back- fessionals at the American Planning Association,
story, page 132). He had made them with the gen- where Fernberg pointed me to Thomas Sanchez,
erative AI chatbot ChatGPT-4, the latest OpenAI a planner and professor at Virginia Tech. He also
release that can interpret nontext file types—in sent me “Dezeen’s Policy on AI,” probably the most
this case, a planting plan. After uploading a plan, transparent policy I read for using AI, particularly
the bot generated a rendering via the DALL-E en- for designers and media.
gine. It took a bit of tinkering to get right, which
is something Arneson does with great deliberate- Gilbey, who is a product marketing manager for
ness. Arneson likes to find the edges of what the landscape at Vectorworks, says his firm is actively
AI tools can do, and he is one of the designers working on AI integrations that they expect to
OpenAI approached for feedback over the past release in the future, and in general, industry
two years. He emphasized how important it was is more excited and less worried about the un-
to be included in the conversations that help knowns of AI. They also observed that designers
shape these technologies, rather than “getting just don’t seem as anxious about recent technology
left behind,” or worse, left out completely. when it comes from an industry that they perceive
as partners, rather than competitors, and perhaps
Arneson said he doesn’t see generative AI as a that’s a way forward.
practical tool (yet) but thinks landscape architects
should jump in and learn how to use it now. “It’s Fernberg says a recent AI-focused webinar hosted
probably going to be an integral part of the design by the Landscape Architecture Foundation attracted
profession, whether we like it or not, so it’s good hundreds, and that he could see an online series
to get familiar with it so you don’t get taken advan- that moved beyond speculative hand-wringing and
tage of or blindsided by what’s coming.” walked designers through the value proposition of
AI, and explained how it could make their firms
While our conversation ranged around the ethics easier to run.
and the necessity of using AI, he also stressed the
need for landscape architects to have a framework As Gilbey points out, the potential of AI for sav-
for its responsible use, something that did not ing time and automating tasks, such as nursery
yet exist. I decided to poke around and see where searches for specific seeds, can only help the
we might find or develop something for land- profession, which is very much dominated by
scape architects, so I got in touch with the Digital small firms. For them, Gilbey says, “AI can be a
Technology Professional Practice Network (PPN) sole practitioner’s best friend.”
hosted by ASLA.
JENNIFER REUT
EDITOR

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FOREGROUND
ANNE JAMES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
BAINBRIDGE ISLAND,
WASHINGTON
A residence is a breeding
ground for foraging, in
HOUSE CALL, page 34.

FOREGROUND /
NOW
EDITED BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER
BELOW
Water plays an important
role in the outdoor spaces
at Austin’s Cosmic Saltillo,
which repurposes a pair
of historic Texaco depot
buildings (seen at bottom).
KEEPING IT IN THE LANDSCAPE FOR A NEW TAQUERIA,

TEN EYCK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS A ustin, Texas, has been the country’s
fastest-growing metropolitan
WEIRD PRESERVES A SLICE OF AUSTIN’S HISTORY. area for 12 years running. The steady
BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER growth, driven by a booming tech
ERIKA RICH, TOP; TEN EYCK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, BOTTOM

and venture capital sector, has utterly
changed the fabric of the city—and
not without consequences. According
to one news outlet’s analysis of city
data, at least 800 historic structures
have been demolished since 2000.
“I’ve seen, one by one, these beloved
places torn down,” says Christy Ten
Eyck, FASLA, the founding principal
of Austin’s Ten Eyck Landscape Ar-
chitects. “It makes these little jewels
that much more important and re-
warding to work on.”

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FOREGROUND /NOW
Cosmic Saltillo is an anomaly in the East Austin. First used by Texaco as a

city’s contemporary real estate gold storage depot and later by artists and
rush. Designed by Ten Eyck and the musicians as a venue, the property is intimate, vine-shrouded seating areas
architecture firm Clayton Korte, the among the last vestiges of the former separate from the main courtyard.
roughly 18,000-square-foot restau- railyard that is now the Saltillo mixed- Anything that could be was salvaged,
rant space is the second outpost of use development. says Paul Oveisi, the cofounder of
TEN EYCK LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
Cosmic Coffee, whose stylishly ram- Cosmic Coffee, including the build-
shackle South Austin location opened The shells of the existing Texaco ings’ concrete slabs, which were jack-
in 2019. The new space, accessible buildings were painstakingly pre- hammered out and repurposed as
from Austin’s Red Line commuter rail served, right down to the graffiti, massive, asymmetrical pavers for the
and the Red Line Trail that follows it, along with three towering elm trees entry. “Christy fought tooth and nail
revives a pair of graffiti-covered, his- and a collection of crumbling brick to make sure that we preserved all that
torically significant metal buildings in walls, which Ten Eyck used to create old concrete,” he says.

Each irregular piece of concrete the “funky, organic, creative part of ways been there, in part because
had to be placed by hand, says Billy Austin” set the tone for the entire the team has allowed the vegetation
ABOVE Spencer, the founder of Spencer project, he says. “It’s rare that you that previously enveloped the back
A limestone fountain in
Landscape Company, who person- have somebody that believes in this half of the site to resume its con-
the courtyard was built
out of salvaged oil pipe ally oversaw the creation of the entry idea,” he notes. “They could have quest. “We cut everything down
and a decommissioned and a custom fountain built out of saved money and built this in [a] because we had to, and [Christy]
gravel crusher. salvaged pipe and a gravel crusher. way where it would have taken a told me, ‘Paul, don’t worry, they’re
Spencer grew up in Marfa, Texas, fraction of the effort. But there was going to come back,” Oveisi says
OPPOSITE BOTTOM and worked with Ten Eyck Land- a lot of care taken to save this mate-of the existing vines. “And they in-
Old concrete slabs
were jackhammered
scape Architects on the landscape rial and reuse it.” deed came back. And I think that
for Marfa’s El Cosmico hotel (unre- adds to the [feeling that] this stuff
ERIKA RICH
out of the buildings and

stored on-site until lated to Cosmic Coffee). At Cosmic The result is the rare addition to has been around forever. Some of
they could be reused. Saltillo, the emphasis on preserving East Austin that feels as if it’s al- it has.”

FOREGROUND /NOW
NATIONAL VULNERABILITY PERCENTILE
WIDENING
THE LENS
ONLINE TOOLS FOR IDENTIFYING
CLIMATE VULNERABILITY
CONTINUE TO IMPROVE.
BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER
T he first thing Catherine Seavitt Nordenson, FASLA, did

when she learned about the Climate Vulnerability Index
(CVI), developed by the Environmental Defense Fund and Texas
It is meant for policymakers but also as a tool for
environmental justice communities themselves,
says Grace Tee Lewis, an epidemiologist who led
A&M University, was to check to see if it accounted for race. The the work on the CVI for the Environmental De-
newly appointed chair of the landscape architecture program fense Fund. The map, which is open access and
at the University of Pennsylvania had followed the controversy also can be overlaid with other datasets, makes
surrounding the Biden administration’s Climate and Economic sometimes invisible vulnerabilities clearly legible.
Justice Screening Tool, which upon its release in November 2022 And it is accompanied by a working list of every
had been called out for omitting race. “There’s a kind of gloss- federal climate- and environmental justice-focused
ing over of the racist spatial planning that has been part of our program or grant opportunity for which communi-
country forever,” Seavitt Nordenson says of the White House’s ties might apply.
methodology.
“If you recognize, ‘I’ve got a lot of vulnerability
The CVI (accessible at climatevulnerabilityindex.org) does indeed because of lead,’ or ‘I’ve got a lot of transportation
include race and ethnicity among its 184 indicators, along with issues,’ then it lists out government funds that have
data on mental and physical health, maternal mortality, air pol- already been allocated for that, or potential sources
lution, incarceration rates, sea-level rise, and extreme weather of funding that could match up with that specific
U.S. CLIMATE VULNERABILITY INDEX; MAPBOX/OPENSTREETMAP

events—more than three times the number of factors included indicator,” Tee Lewis says.
in the White House’s screening tool. “They’re really taking a
broad sweep of what this could be,” Seavitt Nordenson says of the Seavitt Nordenson envisions both practitioners
CVI. The indicators are aggregated to create an overall vulner- and students of landscape architecture using the
ability score and percentile ranking for every census tract in the tool. “It’s really powerful to see what’s going on in
United States, which is visualized in an interactive map. (While [a particular] district and what the triggers are in
ABOVE Hawaiʻi and Alaska are included, U.S. territories such as Guam terms of climate,” she says. At the same time, she
The Climate and Puerto Rico are not.) is drawn to the lighter parts of the map, the areas
Vulnerability Index that, for one reason or another, may be less at risk.
provides a fine-grained
look at which U.S.
Researchers at the Environmental Defense Fund say the CVI “I was looking for the blank spaces on the map,” she
communities are most— is intended to guide federal investments in climate resilience says. “Where are we seeing less impact, and how
and least—vulnerable and adaptation, 40 percent of which are to go to marginalized can we learn from those spaces to rethink how we
to climate threats. communities as part of President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative. can reduce vulnerability?”

FOREGROUND /NOW
BELOW
Merritt Chase’s scheme
leaned more on design
than programming
to draw people into
a previously car-
dominated space.
HANGING
AROUND
TOWN
A TEMPORARY DESIGN
FOR A TRAFFIC CIRCLE
SPARKS DOWNTOWN
INDIANAPOLIS.
BY JARED BREY
T he best place in Indiana to see

cars speeding around in circles
is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The second best might be the ring
of streets surrounding the 284-foot-
high Soldiers and Sailors Monument
in downtown Indianapolis. So it was
a big change of pace when, this past
summer, part of Monument Circle
was shut down to vehicles and filled
with synthetic turf parklets, potted
shade trees, umbrellas, ping-pong
tables, and a beer garden.
The project, SPARK on the Circle, was

the third in a series of interventions
on Monument Circle dating back to
2015, and by far the most intensive—a
six-month activation where previous
efforts had lasted about a week, says
Chris Merritt, ASLA, a principal at
Merritt Chase, which designed the
space. It was also a preview, down-
HADLEY FRUITS
town leaders hope, of how the neigh-

borhood could evolve as it moves on
from the COVID-19 pandemic.

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FOREGROUND /NOW
SPARK ON THE CIRCLE ILLUSTRATIVE SITE PLAN
WEST MARKET STREET RESTROOM TRAILERS
MOBILE BAR
EXISTING
STREET CLOSURE 21+ BEER GARDEN
WANDERING GROVE
PARKLET
LISTENING BOOTH
WAGON OF WONDERS
WELCOME TRAILER
LE
NT CIRC
UME
MON
ing to Taylor Schaffer, the president park, which drew on tactical urban-
and CEO of Downtown Indy, Inc. ist projects that Merritt Chase has
Though COVID-19 made the district experimented with in other cities,
emptier in many ways—as it did in brought in more than 45,000 visitors
most cities—for the past few years between July and October 2023, each
it’s also been the fastest-growing one staying for an average of 64 min-
residential neighborhood in the city. utes, according to Schaffer, whose
The addition of new housing marks group, like many other downtown
a welcome shift in the balance of resi- organizations, uses anonymized cell-
dents, workers, and visitors, Schaffer phone data to monitor visitation. It
“A big part of it was, how do we make says, and the next thing to do is unite was a thoroughly different type of
ABOVE
this a place where it’s not just the a string of distinct and disjointed traffic for downtown Indianapolis,
MERRITT CHASE, TOP; HADLEY FRUITS, BOTTOM

More than 45,000
people visited the programming and activation that’s downtown areas. Improving public she says. The city plans to bring it
park between July and bringing people here, but the physi- space is critical. back this spring.
October of last year. cal design of the space itself makes
it really attractive and desirable as a Merritt Chase designed the Monu- “It was always surprising to me,”
TOP RIGHT
place you want to be in?” Merritt says. ment Circle project with Big Car Col- Schaffer says, “without an event,
The project shut cars
out of one quadrant of
laborative, an Indianapolis art and without any distinct or time-specific
Monument Circle, which Downtown Indianapolis was “a design nonprofit, after working with programming, that you could walk
surrounds the Soldiers neighborhood in transition” long the city to develop a South Down- out there and just see people enjoying
and Sailors Monument. before the pandemic began, accord- town Connectivity Vision Plan. The the space.”

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FOREGROUND /NOW
POSTINDUSTRIAL
PASTORAL
ORGANIZED NEIGHBORS HELP
A NEGLECTED BROWNFIELD
IN THE CITY OF DENVER
STAY RURAL.
BY ZACH MORTICE
W hen the Globe Smelting and Refining Com-

pany set up shop north of Denver in the late
1880s, neighbors worked side by side in its found-
“They worked together, they knew how to
do that, and so they kept that vision going,”
says Cindy Chang, the executive director
TOP
Globeville’s landscape
before it was reimagined
as a community green
ries. One hundred years later, the company was the of Groundwork Denver, an environmental space.
subject of increasing criticism and action from those justice nonprofit that helped guide the
same neighbors because of environmental pollution. Globeville neighbors’ vision for the site. After BOTTOM
By the time the plants closed, the neighborhood of more than a decade of planning, the outcome Valerian’s design
Globeville was left with a Superfund site, the soil of that community organizing is the Platte maintains the rural
atmosphere of the
filled with arsenic and lead. But the communal Farm Open Space, a passive recreational
neighborhood, channeling
solidarity remained, though this time it would be landscape completed in 2020 that was meant it into a richly planted
harnessed to rehabilitate the five-and-a-half-acre for contemplative strolls in a rehabilitated native prairie.
brownfield site into a community green space. native prairie.
VALERIAN, TOP; SCOTT DRESSEL-MARTIN, BOTTOM

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FOREGROUND /NOW
PLATTE FARM
OPEN SPACE
1 NORTH POLLINATOR 1
GARDEN & ENTRY
2 EXISTING FEATURE
COTTONWOOD
3 CONCRETE TRAIL
4 DETENTION POND FOREBAY
5 DETENTION POND
6 DETENTION OVERLOOK 2
7 CRUSHER FINES TRAIL

8 BOULDER RETAINING WALL
9 POST AND DOWEL FENCE 3
10 SOUTH POLLINATOR
GARDEN & ENTRY
9
For years, the site was a dumping ground. “It was around two beloved cottonwood trees, keeping
a very popular area to joyride stolen cars,” says Jan them intact. It was “a special way of honoring
Ediger, a neighbor and member of the Platte Farm [the community’s] vision,” Chang says.
steering committee, which led the rehabilitation.
Environmental degradation took a steep toll on The project took 14 years to realize, during
Globeville, now a predominantly Hispanic/Latinx which Ediger and her neighbors enlisted
neighborhood, as the EPA found that, because of the the support of city council members
pollution, local children had elevated levels of lead and worked through easements with
in their bodies. “Everybody just wanted to make it the local power utility that owns
right,” says Stacey Stickler, an associate principal at power lines in the area. Though
Valerian, the landscape architecture firm that was it’s been a long journey, Ediger
hired to create a master plan for the site in 2017. says she can hardly believe her
luck or her neighbors’ com-
Certain elements on the site had to be altered mitment. She bikes the open
9
(contaminated soil was removed and replaced with space’s trail, and some-
a topsoil cap), but neighbors wanted many parts of times when she goes for
the landscape to remain, such as its quasi-rural at- a walk, she brings her
mosphere. Though it’s located in the city of Denver, cat. “It came to pass,”
the site is isolated due to interstate highways, rail she says, “and I can
lines, and industrial properties that seem to shut the hardly believe how
4
rest of the city away. “There’s still a barn there. It was beautiful it is.”
very important to keep that rural feel,” Stickler says.
SCOTT DRESSEL-MARTIN, TOP LEFT; VALERIAN, RIGHT

Ediger wanted Valerian’s intervention to be as 5
6
8
“simple and as natural as possible,” she says. The
planting plan relies heavily on forbs. A headliner N
is Indian blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), deployed

across the entire site and chosen for its ability to
7 TOP LEFT
attract pollinators and its phytoremediation ca- 3
The centerpiece of the
pabilities. A permeable Grasscrete forebay, filled
Platte Farm Open Space
with water-loving grasses such as Nebraska sedge, is an overlook with
channels stormwater into a basin and forms a seating that frames views
picturesque overlook. Valerian designed the basin 10 of the valley and city.

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FOREGROUND /NOW
A PLACE FOR
EVERY PERSON
A NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
IN ARKANSAS IS DESIGNED
FOR NEURODIVERSITY
AND COMMUNITY.
BY MACI NELSON, ASSOCIATE ASLA
T he ability to decide how to get from one place

to another is a choice that many people take
for granted. But for many neurodivergent indi-
Strategy + Design (OSD). Betts McCombs and
Ashton McCombs III created SLS in 2016 in re-
sponse to the limited options for housing, mean-
viduals, these small yet meaningful travels from ingful work, and socialization for their daughter
school or to work are a resource for a sense of self- Anna, a young adult on the autism spectrum. The
actualization, dignity, and independence, experts master plan envisions connections between the
say. At South Cato Springs, a 230-acre Ozarkian neurodiverse and broader communities, achieved
mixed-use, mixed-income development designed in part through pedestrian-friendliness and nodes
to serve neurodivergent individuals in Fayette- for social gathering throughout the site. The
ville, Arkansas, an emphasis on nature-immersed staff at SLS says they believe this project is the
mobility that promotes nonvehicular travel as start of a cultural shift that embraces living with
the norm could help the development become a differences of neurodiverse people rather than OFFICE OF STRATEGY + DESIGN
ABOVE model of inclusivity for the region. separating them.
Part of the
development’s plan are
The development, which broke ground in June “This is not a neurodivergent-only place. It is
microneighborhoods
that include spaces 2023, is being led by SLS Community, a Fayette- not exclusionary,” says Ashton McCombs IV, the
for urban farming ville nonprofit connecting neurodivergent adults executive director of SLS Community and Anna’s
and recreation. to resources, and the New York-based Office of older brother. Simon David, ASLA, the principal

FOREGROUND /NOW
SOUTH CATO SPRINGS SITE PLAN
of OSD, says he also is designing toward inclu- to this region that have been previously inacces- ABOVE
sion. “When we divide up and segregate from sible for many neurodiverse families. The master plan for
South Cato Springs
each other, it is such a huge loss for all of us,”
weaves nature and
he says. The development also plans to increase the em- active transportation
ployment of neurodivergent adults with vocational throughout the
OSD pulled inspiration from the surrounding training in urban agriculture and hospitality. The community.
forest environment, aiming to honor the way master plan calls for specialized housing near
natural systems bring us together. The walk- centrally located shops and an integrated urban
able spaces respond to the existing site’s sloping farm. This farm is referred to as the agrihood and
topography and will incorporate woodland plant- is designed as a part of a gathering space rather
ing. Canopied walkways and trails that link to the than a separate working space.
adjacent Kessler Mountain Regional Park and the OFFICE OF STRATEGY + DESIGN
Razorback Regional Greenway will create a com- “We believe that everybody has something that
fortable, shaded space for all. To support success they can do that would provide them with the
and independent living for neurodiverse adults, huge benefit of having a productive day,” Betts
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences McCombs says. “Every human has something
plans to house a research and care facility on the to give, a skill to develop, to help them feel like a
site. The facility will provide a variety of services useful participant in society.”

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FOREGROUND /
HOUSE CALL
LOOM HOUSE AGRICULTURAL STRATEGIES
MADE TO
MUSHROOM
A CREATIVE CROP HELPED ANNE JAMES LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE HIT A TRICKY SUSTAINABILITY TARGET.
BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER
A nne James, ASLA, pored over the wild berries, hazelnuts, raised beds Challenge, one of the most stringent

site plan one more time. In front for vegetables—but it wasn’t enough. building sustainability standards cur-
of her were concept sketches she had rently in practice. The existing house,
ABOVE made for a roughly half-acre residen- The project, known as Loom House, composed of two structures perched
The Living Building tial property on Bainbridge Island was a collaboration with the Miller on the edge of a bluff and joined by a
Challenge’s food
production requirement
across Puget Sound from Seattle. Hull Partnership, Biohabitats, and wooden deck, had been built in 1968,
helped inspire the The wedge-shaped site, in James’s other specialized consultants, and and designed by the noted Pacific
project’s adventurous reimagining, was already brim- the team was working to meet the Northwest modernist Hal Moldstad.
plant palette. ming with food-producing plants— lofty standards of the Living Building In 2016, Karen Hust and Todd Vogel

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FOREGROUND /HOUSE CALL
purchased the house, attracted to the of its own water, produce all of its the possibility of introducing a type
property by its proximity to Vogel’s own energy, and avoid materials con- of edible organism she’d never de-
sister and her family, who live just taining any one of nearly 20 harm- signed with before: mushrooms.
down the street, as well as the rugged ful chemical classes cataloged on the
beauty of Bainbridge Island. program’s Red List. One of the more “That was a great stroke of brilliance
unusual requirements of the chal- from Anne,” says Chris Hellstern, an
Hust and Vogel decided to pursue lenge is that projects must enhance architect at Miller Hull and the firm’s
Living Building certification after access to healthy, locally grown food Living Building Challenge services
a meeting with the design team at by devoting a part of the total project director.
which Miller Hull presented every area to agricultural production. In the
sustainability rating system on the case of the Loom House, the project’s James—who, prior to opening her
books. “We didn’t know much about floor-to-area ratio of 0.15 meant that office, Anne James Landscape Ar-

the Living Building Challenge, but the design team needed to include chitecture, spent a decade working
when we learned about it, we just more than 7,000 square feet of food alongside the acclaimed landscape
felt very inspired,” Hust recalls. “We production on-site. architect Richard Haag—proposed
ABOVE
wanted to do the hard thing.” creating a mycological foraging
Raised beds for herbs
and vegetables were
The house’s densely forested site forest of fungi native to the Pacific
possible only where To be certified under the Living Build- didn’t leave the design team many Northwest. The idea emerged or-
there was enough ing Challenge, a project must, among options. But after several days of con- ganically, she says, from memories
sunlight. many other imperatives, supply all templation, an idea struck James— of hiking in and around western

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MYCOLOGICAL
FORAGING FOREST
Washington. “I’ve worked a lot with ing Building Challenge’s

this plant pathologist named Dr. urban agricultural require-
Olaf Ribeiro, and walking through ment. Fortunately, it was also an
ABOVE the forest with him on projects, I idea embraced by the clients. “It was
Inoculated stumps learned a lot about mushrooms,” she really exciting,” Hust says. “I mean, it does, and James describes her ap-
and other fungi-growing
says. “So it was just by observation, who wouldn’t love to be able to grow proach at Loom House as one of
media are arranged
as part of a foraging really, and internalizing that observa- mushrooms and harvest them from careful editing, preserving a series

forest. tion [that the idea was born].” their own backyard?” of mature fir trees and charismatic
rhododendrons while enhancing
INSET Combined with the other planned For landscape architecture, the Liv- the garden’s ecological value by
Upturned logs will agricultural components, including Building Challenge is as much replacing a majority of ornamen-
eventually be colonized
by shiitake and blue
ing a berry bramble that would be about what a team doesn’t do— tal species with native plants. As
oyster mushrooms, as open and accessible to neighbors, the greenfield development is ineligible, with the mycological garden, James
stumps might be in an mycological foraging forest was for example, as is the use of many drew inspiration from the island’s
unmanaged forest. the last piece in satisfying the Liv- fertilizers and pesticides—as what ecology. “The thing to think about is,

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ABOVE what is the landscape around you?”

The incorporation of she says. “What can grow without
mushrooms required
supplemental water in the condi-
specialized drawings
and planting schedules. tions that you have?”
RIGHT Besides the agricultural requirement,

After inoculation, the toughest target to hit, James says,
some logs were was the water-use-reduction require-
assembled into loosely
ment. The Living Building Challenge
stacked structures
called ricks. prohibits the use of any potable water
for irrigation and requires that 100
percent of stormwater be treated on-
site. Existing buildings must also
reduce indoor water use by 30 per-
cent. Although the Cascadia region
is a famously wet place, the particu-
lar pattern in which precipitation
falls in Seattle and the surrounding
area created challenges for landscape residential projects, storing enough a good part of the way to the water
maintenance, James says. “People water for the irrigation demand often use target. But even with new native
don’t understand that in Seattle we isn’t feasible. “What you have to do is plantings and a 10,000-gallon cis-

have a lot of rain, but we don’t have just reduce your use as much as you tern under the former driveway, the
hardly any rain from, like, the first can,” she says. cost of meeting the requirement was
of July through the end of Septem- out of reach. “We could have provid-
ber. We’re talking about a Mediter- Replacing the property’s lawn and or- ed the water for the project, includ-
ranean climate: dry, dry, dry,” she namental plants—including a large ing the irrigation, but the cost of the
says. What that typically means is and enigmatic wisteria vine that was system that we would have needed to
that cisterns are oversized to make transformed into a chandelier for the build was perceived as nonsustain-
it through the dry season. But on dining room—propelled the team able because it was so expensive,”

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“WHO WOULDN’T LOVE

TO BE ABLE TO GROW
MUSHROOMS AND
HARVEST THEM
FROM THEIR
OWN BACKYARD?”
—KAREN HUST
ABOVE James says. resource)—James assembled a list material: dozens of fresh alder logs
King stropharia “We were try- of six “regionally appropriate” ed- (for inoculation), hundreds of packets
was among the ing to be a model ible mushroom varieties: shiitake, of mushroom plug spawn (the inocu-
first mushroom for small houses, renovated houses, lion’s mane, king stropharia, blue lant), and several pounds of beeswax
varieties to appear and it just seemed like a disconnect.” oyster, pearl oyster, and phoenix oys- (for sealing the plugs). As part of
following the project’s
completion.
The project ultimately received an ex- ter. These were chosen because they her drawing set, James developed
emption in the water category, based aligned with Bainbridge Island’s cli- a mycological inoculation schedule,
on an annual reduction in water use mate and also matched up with the which detailed the names, quantities,
of approximately 60,000 gallons, hardwood species available. Differ- inoculation types, and timing of the
or more than 50 percent compared ent tree species are better suited to various mushroom varieties. Some
to baseline. certain fungi, James explains, and fungi could be cultivated year-round;
the varieties selected reflected the others only in the spring or fall.
If large-scale water storage can be types of wood she could acquire
cost prohibitive for the average “fresh” from local arborists: alder To build the garden, workers from
homeowner, the creation of a my- and big-leaf maple. “You have to Ohashi Landscape Services stacked
cological garden is quite the oppo- have fresh logs so that they’re not the alder logs into a series of three-
site. “It’s pretty cheap,” James says. contaminated with other mycelium,” foot-high, Jenga-like towers called
“It’s not something a normal person James notes. “Types of wood avail- “ricks,” then inoculated them with
couldn’t do.” able would vary in different areas of mushroom spawn. They drilled
the country, and fungal selections holes 5/16 of an inch in diameter up

After some initial research and con- would likely reflect that.” and down the length of the logs, into
sultation with staff at Fungi Perfecti which they inserted the plug spawn
—an Olympia, Washington-based James’s unusual take on a food forest (small, myceliated wooden dowels).
mycological supply company found- —which, in addition to mushrooms, After the plugs were inserted, the
ed by the mushroom evangelist Paul included wild onions and edible workers melted the beeswax over
Stamets (whose book Mycelium ferns—did come with a steep learn- a small camp stove and used the
Running: How Mushrooms Can Help ing curve, however, as well as a hefty wax to seal the holes. For the same
Save the World was also a helpful amount of unconventional landscape reason “fresh” logs are necessary, the

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RIGHT ricks’ base logs are not inoculated,

When it was completed, forming a barrier that prevents the
the Loom House became rest of the structure from being in-
the first residential
fected by other soil-based mycelium.
renovation to achieve
Living Building In addition to the ricks, myceliated down, when in fact they were brought that exists in symbiosis with the ele-
certification. alder chips—nested between two in and inoculated with mushroom ments at play on the site—“the water
uninoculated layers—were spread mycorrhizae,” James says. and the sun and the wind and things
BELOW over a 32-square-foot area of the forest that grow naturally here. It feels like
Other strategies to floor, and several more alder stumps Building the mushroom garden was a our house is helping to root us into
meet the requirements
included reusing site
were inoculated and stood upright in novel experience for the entire design this place in a really honest way, and
materials such as the garden. “The thought was that it team. “These landscape guys, they Anne has been really instrumental
concrete. would look like old trees that got cut had never done this either, so I was in helping weave the house into the
BEN SCHAULAND, TOP RIGHT; ANNE JAMES LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, BOTTOM LEFT
trying to give them all the information landscape.” Hust and Vogel have
that I could,” she says. She made a even had the pleasure of seeing the
point to be on-site during the inocu- first few mushrooms emerge from
lation process, partially to ensure it the forest floor, though it will be a
went smoothly but also to observe the while yet before the ricks produce
process firsthand. “It was new to all of enough fungi for a harvest. (It can
us,” she says. take anywhere from six months to
five years for the fungi to fruit, de-
Completed in 2019, the house un- pending on the growing medium
derwent the requisite performance and the local conditions.) “We defi-
monitoring for one year. In 2021, nitely have seen a few,” Hust says,
the Loom House received certifica- “but they’re just getting going.”
tion under version 4.0 of the Living
Building Challenge—only the fourth TIMOTHY A. SCHULER’S WRITING ON THE BUILT
house, and the first renovation, to do ENVIRONMENT HAS APPEARED IN PLACES
JOURNAL, METROPOLIS, BLOOMBERG CITYLAB,
so. Hust, one of the owners, com- AND LAM, WHERE HE HAS BEEN A CONTRIBUT-
pares the house to a living organism ING EDITOR SINCE 2015.

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FOREGROUND /
GOODS EDITED BY KRISTEN MASTROIANNI
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FOREGROUND /GOODS
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FOREGROUND /GOODS
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BRICK IS
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FOREGROUND /GOODS
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CLEVELAND
A smattering of
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AMBER N. FORD
the Cozad-Bates
House is part of
the interpretive
scheme, page 58.

WESTERN RESERVE HISTORICAL SOCIETY, LEFT

CLEVELAND’S
DERU LANDSCAPE
ARCHITECTURE
SEES BIG STORIES
IN SMALL SPACES.
BY ZACH MORTICE
PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMBER N. FORD
nside the Cozad-Bates House, a hand-

some, red brick Italianate building on the
east side of Cleveland that’s the last pre-
Civil War house in the University Circle
neighborhood, is a small exhibit that tells
the history of Ohio and Cleveland’s role in LEFT
the Underground Railroad. A map of Ohio At the Cozad-Bates
House, a quote from
created in the late 19th century by the Ohio
Harriet Tubman is
State University history professor Wilbur Siebert placed to rise above
traces the clandestine network, with thin arteries the stormwaters.
arrayed south to north, reaching across almost
all its counties. Seven of these trails converge in OPPOSITE
Cleveland before crossing Lake Erie into Canada. A 19th-century map
of the Underground
It gives every impression of the loose town-to-
Railroad in Ohio.
town network of sympathetic families that would
open their homes to people escaping enslavement
that the railroad was—long on hope, short on
actual infrastructure.
According to the exhibit, 275 people fleeing slav-

ery passed through Cleveland over eight months
in 1854. Siebert’s 1898 book, The Underground
Railroad from Slavery to Freedom, asserts that

TOP LEFT
The Cozad-Bates House
DERU LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, TOP LEFT AND BOTTOM

landscape before
DERU’s design.
FUNCTIONAL BOTTOM LEFT
DIAGRAM The small site was
PEDESTRIAN crisscrossed with foot
DESIRE LINE traffic and needed
responsive circulation.
SITE BOUNDARY
OPPOSITE
A plaza with interpretive
N
signage attracts visitors
from the sidewalk.

Cleveland was one of the Underground Railroad’s Few enslaved people could write, and even if
most important hubs and that the route from they could, “Most of us don’t write down on
Kentucky to Ohio was likely the most traveled. paper, ‘I just broke a federal law today,’” says
“Ohio may lay claim to eight terminal stations, Kathryn Puckett, the board president of Restore
all comparatively important,” he wrote. Cleveland Hope, an advocacy organization that
led the restoration of the Cozad-Bates House to
The position of Ohio between slave-holding Ken- commemorate Cleveland’s role in the Under-
tucky and freedom in Canada, where slavery had ground Railroad. “There are very few places that
been illegal since 1834, made the Cozad-Bates can document that a fugitive was actually there.”
House an ideal location for the Underground
Railroad, though there are scant direct accounts When Puckett’s attention turned to the plot of
of people who made their way through Cleveland. lawn that surrounded the house in 2018, she

LEFT
The team at DERU
Landscape Architecture
in their Cleveland office.
From left are founder
Jayme Schwartzberg,
ASLA; Erin Laffay, ASLA;
Anna Enderle, Associate
ASLA, who is now with
SmithGroup; and Maci
Nelson, Associate ASLA.
began to wonder how a landscape could tell this

story. Puckett says she wanted a space that could
communicate “the intelligence and courage it
took to be a freedom-seeker and [an Underground
Railroad] conductor.”
“How do you make that journey?” she asks. “How

do you decide from the familiarity of the Ken-
tucky plantation to walk toward freedom; freedom
you’ve been told about but you haven’t read about.
You don’t have a map. [You] don’t know who will
help [you] or who will turn [you] in. How do you
feed yourself along the way? The plants were
sustenance to get from here to there. [You] don’t
even know where there is. They were walking
among the plants and hiding among the plants
and living among the plants.”
Interpreting this for the grounds of the Cozad-

DAVID JOSEPH PHOTOGRAPY
Bates House became the brief of DERU Landscape

Architecture, which was founded in 2014 by Jayme
Schwartzberg, ASLA, and now includes Erin Laf-
fay, ASLA, and Maci Nelson, Associate ASLA. After
the house served a long spell as a boarding house

PLAN
1 PLAZA WITH HERRINGBONE
PATTERN POINTING NORTH
8
2 OUTLINE OF CONSTELLATION
AND AFRICAN PAVING
PATTERN INSIDE THE
“DRINKING GOURD”
COZAD-BATES
HOUSE 3 FREEDOM-SEEKER PATH
4 BIORETENTION
5 ACCESSIBLE PATH TO
7 INTERPRETIVE CENTER
6 RESTING PLACE
6
7 NORTH STAR INLAY
8 PICNIC TABLE
9 EVENT LAWN
2
10 TONI MORRISON BENCH
5 11 HISTORICAL MARKER
EAST 115TH STREET
3
1
DERU LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
10
11 N
MAYFIELD ROAD
“HOW DO YOU MAKE
THAT JOURNEY?
HOW DO YOU DECIDE
TO WALK TOWARD
FREEDOM?”
—KATHRYN PUCKETT
and then sat vacant for about 20 years, DERU doing green infrastructure,” Schwartzberg says.
was hired by University Circle Inc., a community “They’re engineers, and they care about dollars
development nonprofit that has owned the house to gallons, and they don’t particularly care about
since 2006, to design an experience of “physical how you get there.” But DERU’s richer vision to
empathy” into the land, Schwartzberg says. focus attention on how people traveled through
the landscape and what they encountered along
The project began humbly, with a grant from the the way was able to hitch a ride on the sewer dis-
Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District for a bit trict funding. The majority of the project’s total
more than $200,000 to install a stormwater bio- budget of $300,000 was fulfilled by the grant,
swale on the property. The initial plan seemed bare which was satisfied by placing a richly planted,
bones and a bit clumsy: a squiggly permeable-paver crescent-shaped bioswale in the northwest corner
path to the house bordered by a loosely triangular of the house’s lot.
rain garden depression. Schwartzberg called it a
“hole in the ground and some plaques.” University The new design concept is organized around the
Circle brought DERU in “to develop what that was constellations of the Big Dipper, Little Dipper,
really going to be,” she says. and North Star, represented by brass stars affixed
to pavers and stones, some already showing the
Schwartzberg had worked with the sewer district teal patina of weathering. Stepping down into
before on green infrastructure demonstration the bioswale, there’s a quote by Harriet Tubman
gardens, prompted by a stringent Environmen- on pavers of alternating height: “There was one
tal Protection Agency consent decree that re- of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if
quired the city to capture and treat more than I could not have one, I would have the other.” As
98 percent of water heading into its combined stormwater levels rise, the last phrase above the
sewer system. “They were kind of pushed into water line will be “liberty or death.”

DERU LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE, TOP

And that’s not the only way this landscape will The plantings in the bioswale are largely medici-
change with the weather and seasons. As the nal and edible, documented for their utilitarian
bioswale grows in, it will get shaggy, denser, and uses during the 19th century, including by Indige-
the meticulously sited navigational star arrays nous people. There are persimmons, serviceberry,
and Tubman’s defiant words will get less visible. and currants to satiate hunger. There’s Echinacea
That’s part of the plan. to fortify the immune system before setting out
on a life-threatening journey, antiseptic yarrow
“We thought a lot about how, when you’re a to clean cuts and scrapes, and rose hips to ease
freedom-seeker, you’re not taking the main road,” joint pain, all labeled with wispy white line draw-
ABOVE Schwartzberg says. “You’re taking the backroads, ings by Schwartzberg’s mother, Ilynn Guldman.
A sketch of DERU’s untrodden paths. We wanted [to get] people off The labels also explain their medicinal uses. On
bioswale design for the the walkways and to dig through plants. You have the Underground Railroad, “the only things that
Cozad-Bates House.
to push your way through a little bit.” were constant were the stars and sometimes the
OPPOSITE plants,” says Matt Provolt, the associate director
The plantings in DERU’s landscape evokes this experience with of planning and design at University Circle Inc.
the bioswale are a soggy, sunken trough that might faintly call
dense and messy, to mind trekking through a marsh or crossing a Beyond the bioswale, DERU’s landscape is a se-
an interpretation of river. To deal with the more intensive than usual ries of interlocking, arcing paths and small plazas.
what former slaves
bioswale foot traffic, DERU selected hardy plant- Herringbone pavers highlight arrows pointing
seeking freedom might
have encountered as ings and used sandy soil that’s less subject to north, and the cup of the Big Dipper, detailed in a
they crept through compaction and also aids drainage for the water kente cloth pattern, comprises Joan Evelyn South-
marshland and that is collected from the roof of the house and gate Walk, named after the legendary founder of
across rivers. piped into the swale. Restore Cleveland Hope, Joan Southgate, who

PLANT LIST
TREES
Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’

(Autumn Brilliance serviceberry)
Nyssa sylvatica ‘Zydeco Twist’

(Zydeco Twist black gum)
Diospyros virginiana ‘Golden Delight’

(Golden Delight persimmon)
SHRUBS
Cephalanthus occidentalis ‘SMCOSS’

(Sugar Shack buttonbush)
Cornus sericea ‘Farrow’
(Arctic Fire red osier dogwood)
Lonicera caerulea var. kamtschatica
‘Cinderella’ (Cinderella honeyberry)
Lonicera caerulea ‘Borealis’
(Borealis honeyberry)
Rosa palustris
(Swamp rose)
PERENNIALS
Allium cernuum
(Nodding onion)
Symphyotrichum cordifolium ‘Avondale’
(Avondale blue wood aster)
Dennstaedtia punctilobula
(Eastern hay-scented fern)
Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’
(Magnus purple coneflower)
Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’
(Veitch’s Blue globe thistle)
Eryngium × zabelii ‘Big Blue’
(Big Blue sea holly)
Iris sibirica ‘Blue Moon’
(Blue Moon Siberian iris)
Achillea millefolium ‘Apfelblüte’
(Appleblossom yarrow)
GRASSES
Bouteloua gracilis
(Blue grama) DERU LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
Carex vulpinoidea
(Fox sedge)
Carex pensylvanica
(Pennsylvania sedge)
N
Panicum virgatum ‘Heavy Metal’
(Heavy Metal switchgrass)

ABOVE walked from Ripley, Ohio, to St. Catharines, On- hood defined by the Cleveland Clinic and Case
The medicinal and tario, along one route of the Underground Rail- Western Reserve University. The owner, Justus
edible plants in road while in her 70s. From the black, gray, and Cozad, was an engineer for the railroad, and his
the bioswale are
highlighted with
earthy ochered red-brick pavers here, an axial, work often took him across the Midwest, but he
illustrations by narrow line of pavers leads toward the North Star, lived at the house on and off for the next several
Schwartzberg’s on the handle of the Little Dipper. Separated by decades, expanding it with an Italianate addition
mother, Ilynn Guldman. the bioswale, another small plaza is bordered by in 1872. It was listed on the National Register of
sandstone reclaimed from the site and arranged Historic Places in 1974 and proclaimed a Cleve-
in terraced stair seating that matches the sand- land landmark in 2006.
stone foundations of the house—room enough
for a small outdoor classroom. One of the historical quotes, attributed to Jus-
tus Cozad, on the ground next to a picnic table
The Cozad-Bates House was completed in 1853 in near the rear of the house, reads: “I myself have
what was then East Cleveland Township, a rural worked many a day in the field with runaway
farming area, but which is now a busy neighbor- slaves and always sat at the table to eat with

“ WE WANTED [TO GET] PEOPLE
OFF THE WALKWAYS AND TO
DIG THROUGH PLANTS.”
—JAYME SCHWARTZBERG, ASLA
them.” Despite this sentiment, there’s no defini- pulled from the archives of the Western Re-
tive proof that the Cozad-Bates House was a stop serve Historical Society and Restore Cleveland
on the Underground Railroad, though some Hope. Many of the materials came from personal
members of the Cozad family (like Justus’s uncle, diaries and journals of the Cozads’ neighbors.
father, and grandfather) were documented aiding “We’re pretty dense in here,” says Elise Yablonsky,
escaped slaves. University Circle’s vice president of community
development. The landscape offers “literal and
Navigating by the stars, trusting strangers with figurative breathing room to connect with the
your life, foraging for food and medicine, stalking emotional and first-person sides of the story,”
through wild country: Visitors to the Cozad-Bates she says.
OPPOSITE House will experience small pieces of all of this.
DERU’s Erin Laffay When Schwartzberg talks about the landscape “You’re surrounded by parking garages and hospi-
and her son at that she and the team at DERU (which at the tals, so to save that plot of land and put your back
the Cozad-Bates
House.
time included Laffay and Anna Enderle, Associate to Mayfield Road, and just be in that moment—
ASLA) designed, there’s the sense that she recog- you can be transported in time even without go-
nizes that this project does something that she’s ing through those doors,” says Angie Lowrie, the
MACI NELSON, ASSOCIATE ASLA, OPPOSITE
likely never done before and that many designers director of the Cleveland History Center, a part of
never get to do. “You could tell the story in a way the Western Reserve Historical Society and a key
that helps people put themselves in this,” she says. partner providing historical research for DERU
“[It’s] so visceral.” and University Circle Inc.
This story is told in a small interpretive center During her research, Schwartzberg visited the
on the first floor of the house by photos, maps, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
historical illustrations, and especially documents, in Cincinnati, and saw what she didn’t want. After

a tired exhale, she whispers, “It’s boring. It’s a lot enslaved to grow and process, a nod toward the eco-
of text. You’re only getting secondhand, thirdhand nomics of slave labor. On the signage is written in-
stories about people after they’ve died. It’s a sur- terpretive text developed by researchers that doesn’t
prisingly hard story to tell.” hedge: “There was always someone in pursuit—
someone claiming ownership or someone seek-
But some landscape exposition at the house was ing a reward for capture. There were sounds of
unavoidable. For this, the team turned to the graph- dogs and horses, and shouts in the night. Failing
ic designers at Agnes Studio, who designed two meant brutal punishment. It meant continuing a
double-sided displays with gold lettering and star life of endless hard labor in which they were not
patterns at their base. They selected a deep indigo considered human.” And of the conductors: “They
hue to reference the cash crop that Black people were chose to break the law. But many more did not.”

RIGHT
Interpretive signage
designed by Agnes
Studio is deep indigo,
the color of a cash crop
that enslaved people
produced.
OPPOSITE
A bench at the Cozad-
Bates House was
established by the
Toni Morrison Society
as part of its Bench
by the Road Project.
Schwartzberg says that roses signify the (poten- track and field star, whose four Olympic gold
tial) joyful resolution of the freedom-seeker’s medals earned in 1936 in Berlin rebuked the
journey; they reside with “a little river of irises” Nazi myth of white supremacy. Each of Owens’s
that flows through the bottom of the bioswale. gold medals came with an oak tree seedling, and
“It’s easy to make flowers pretty,” she says, but they made their way to Ohio when he returned.
“we wanted things that weren’t just friendly, pretty The last confirmed living tree from this group
plants, because it can’t just be a success story. was planted at a local high school where Owens
There are too many people who never escaped.” trained. In 2017, it was cloned and propagated at
As such, a gnarled Zydeco Twist black gum sap- Cleveland’s Holden Arboretum.
ling at the southern edge ends the landscape
with a grim totem. “We felt like it was a good That clone is now planted at the center of the
tree to represent what slavery does to humanity,” Olympic Oak Plaza. Four concrete markers,
Schwartzberg says. sloped and rounded rectangles given a shape
that’s a hybrid between an oak leaf and a tendril
Not far from the Cozad-Bates House, DERU is of Olympic flame, are placed along a narrow
helping to tell another nuanced story of persever- reddish-brown running track, 200 meters long—
ance and victory at Rockefeller Park, again with the length of one of Owens’s gold-medal-winning
University Circle as the client. Working with the races. The mile markers remind visitors that
Cleveland artist Angelica Pozo, DERU’s design Owens’s legacy was based on “traversing space
for Jesse Owens Olympic Oak Plaza celebrates and distance,” says Pozo, and her tile mosaics
the legacy of Jesse Owens, the Cleveland-native installed last summer are lined in glass tile the

RECONCILING CIVIL RIGHTS
INEQUALITIES MEANS
“MAKING SIGNIFICANT MARKS
IN THE LANDSCAPE.”
—JAYME SCHWARTZBERG, ASLA
color of flame along their narrow edges, while Reconciling civil rights inequalities means “making
their broad faces are covered in green ceramic significant marks in the landscape,” she says. As one
tile. One face of each marker will have written of the most racially segregated cities in the country,
accounts of Owens’s life before, during, and after “Cleveland has more to reconcile with than most.”
the 1936 Olympics, narrating his triumphs as
well as his disappointments, including when he The Cozad-Bates House landscape is grounded in
was denied the traditional White House visit by sensory experiences of plants and space that are pow-
President Franklin Roosevelt. On the opposite erfully elemental and intensely individual. “When
side will be drawings on ceramic tile that Pozo you put a berry in your mouth, and experience that
sketched from photos of Owens. sharp, sweet taste, that’s so evocative, that’s such
a strong sense-memory,” Schwartzberg says. “We
DERU’s design surrounds the thin and wispy oak wanted people to experience that moment.”
tree with St. John’s wort ground cover. Schwartz-
berg wanted the planting contributions to be “un- ZACH MORTICE IS A CHICAGO-BASED DESIGN JOURNALIST WHO
derstated because [Pozo’s] art is very colorful and FOCUSES ON ARCHITECTURE AND LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE.
strong and vibrant,” she says. In front of the tree
will be a concrete podium with a bench on each Project Credits
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT DERU LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE,
side, each the length of his medal-winning long CLEVELAND. CLIENT UNIVERSITY CIRCLE INC., CLEVELAND. GREEN
jump, all covered in Olympic-medal-colored glass INFRASTRUCTURE NORTHEAST OHIO REGIONAL SEWER DISTRICT,
tile: gold on the tallest (center) podium, silver CLEVELAND. COMMUNITY PARTNER RESTORE CLEVELAND HOPE,
and bronze on the others. Like the Cozad-Bates CLEVELAND. INTERPRETIVE PARTNER WESTERN RESERVE HIS-
TORICAL SOCIETY, CLEVELAND. GRAPHIC DESIGN AGNES STUDIO,
House landscape, it’s an act of remembrance. CLEVELAND. STORMWATER ENGINEERING NEFF & ASSOCIATES,
Schwartzberg says she wanted the tree to be front CLEVELAND. CONTRACTOR R. J. PLATTEN CONTRACTING COMPANY,
and center “so it doesn’t get lost again.” NORTH ROYALTON, OHIO.

LEFT
Brass stars outline
the constellations
that freedom-seekers
used to navigate
northward.

The ASLA Fund and Founders Club
thanks our members for their
continued support.
Their contributions to the ASLA Fund and the Founders Club support the ASLA Climate Action
Plan, Career Discovery, MineCraft Camps and Dream Big with Design, Women of Color
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PHOTOGRAPHY
Lisa Hu Chen

DAVID RUBIN Land
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SHORELINE
CHANGE
THE BACK
OVER TIME
1850
1938
1985 Two-thirds of land has been lost since
1994 Tangier was first mapped in 1850,
primarily on once-inhabited Uppards
2007
2013
2020
2023
Repeated breakthrough of Mailboat Harbor is first dredged

seawater into Toms Gut in 1922, then again through
the west in 1967
Mile-long rock barrier

built in 1989 slows
western erosion
Littoral drift of southern

sand spit caused by
northwestern wave action
2023 HALS CHALLENGE WINNER:

Working Landscapes
As interest in labor movements and the cultural
role of work has increased over the past several
years, the Historic American Landscapes Survey is
right on trend with its 14th annual challenge. Titled
THE HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY, NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE, WILLIAM A. PACKWOOD AND LINCOLN L. LEWIS, 2023
Working Landscapes, the challenge asked for new

documentation of historic landscapes that concerned
agriculture, flood control, industry, or other interpre-
tations of the theme. Three winners were announced
in October, with first place awarded to Tangier Island
Watermen Working Landscape (shown here) in
Tangier, Virginia, by Lincoln L. Lewis and William A.
Packwood of the University of Virginia. The drawings
and historical reports will be archived at the Library
of Congress, where they will be freely available online
(www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/hh).

AN ELEGY
IN GRANITE
THE ALLEGORICAL ASSEMBLAGES OF THE

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. MONUMENT.
BY KOFI BOONE, FASLA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY SAHAR COSTON-HARDY, AFFILIATE ASLA

I
’ve been to the Martin Luther
King Jr. Memorial in Washing-
ton, D.C., many times: day and
night, individually and in groups.
I’ve sat and watched groups as
they moved through the Mountain
of Despair sculpture, touched the
walls of quotes, and took selfies in
front of the Stone of Hope. I have
many friends and family who love the
memorial. The site works as a linear
narrative experience, and it does, in
scale, material, and level of detail, mir-
ror other memorials that share the
National Mall. Based upon how you
remember King, or how you want to
remember King, the memorial can
inspire or frustrate you. The King Me-
morial symbolizes the challenges that
come from the decision to either be a
part of a whole symbolic landscape
fabric or to be apart from it. Should a
memorial to a civil rights leader blend
in with memorials to people that in
some cases represent the opposite of
their interests and values?
The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

opened in 2011 and almost immedi-
ately sparked controversies including
site selection and the transformation

of the original design into its final form. The me- This was intended to leverage the
morial’s development was rife with the challenges popularity of Martin Luther King
of reconciling competing visions of how to honor Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, de-
the contributions of one of the most famous lead- livered on the steps of the Lincoln
ers of the modern civil rights movement. Now, Memorial in 1963. However, NCPC’s
more than a decade later, and in the midst of a recommendation was countered by
disciplinary rethinking of memorialization, the the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts,
King Memorial may offer insights to those facing an independent federal agency that
the challenge of interpreting contested memories advises on issues of design. Presum-
through public landscapes. ably the commission was concerned
with the potential scale of the King
The site, on the northwest corner of the Tidal Memorial and its visual impact on
Basin, was not the site originally proposed. The the experience of the Lincoln Me-
federal government’s planning entity for the D.C. morial. Instead, the Commission of
region, the National Capital Planning Commis- Fine Arts recommended the Tidal
sion (NCPC), proposed a location near Constitu- Basin site. Home to hundreds of
tion Gardens and closer to the Lincoln Memorial. cherry blossoms (which bloom in

“THIS IS OUR HOPE. THIS IS THE FAITH THAT I GO
BACK TO THE SOUTH WITH. WITH THIS FAITH,
WE WILL BE ABLE TO HEW OUT OF THE
MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR A STONE OF HOPE.”
—MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
early spring, near the date of King’s site] is the back of the bus again.” However, the
assassination), the Tidal Basin site site was eventually accepted.
could borrow the broader reflective
quality of the basin. It also had an The memorial visualizes key factors we associ-
implied connection to the National ate with Martin Luther King Jr. but also makes
Mall based on a line of sight between vague references to others. What is well-known
the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. and reflected most prominently in the aesthetic
But siting a memorial to a civil rights of the memorial is King’s legacy as one of Amer-
leader between someone who owned ica’s greatest mobilizers through public oratory.
enslaved African people (Jefferson) King’s excellence in deploying the Black theologi-
and someone who primarily signed cal tradition of allegory and metaphor as a means
the Emancipation Proclamation to of clarifying social injustice informed ROMA
destabilize the Confederacy (Lincoln) Design Group, the competition-winning team
was problematic. Arrington Dixon, that produced the original memorial design. The
an NCPC member at the time, said, team, which eventually included the Black-led
“There are too many things here that architectural firm McKissack and McKissack, de-
make me feel that [the Tidal Basin rived two of its most important conceptual design

cues from King’s “I Have a Dream”
speech: his metaphor describing the
legacy of America’s Jim Crow policies
as “the mountain of despair” and the
promise of a commitment to civil
rights as “a stone of hope.” The two
sculptures are carved from granite
and form the most massive and vis-
ible elements of the memorial. The
Mountain of Despair is split with an
opening that visually connects the
Lincoln Memorial to the Tidal Basin
and the Jefferson Memorial beyond
and to the procession through this
memorial site. The Stone of Hope,
from which a towering and scowling
figure of King emerges, sits slightly
off-center from the opening in the
Mountain of Despair. The position-
ing implies that the stone was moved
with effort from the mountain.
The memorial’s landscape plan is

based on the symmetrical layout of the
site plan. The diagonal line of sight
connecting the memorial to the Lin-
coln Memorial and the Jefferson Me-
morial features a tapered broad plaza,
paved in granite, which narrows to
the Mountain of Despair. A retain-
ing wall filled with layered plantings

rises as you move to the threshold, There appear to be traces in the final landscape
the cut through the mountain. After that are reminiscent of the allegory of rolling
proceeding through the narrow pas- streams. Arching granite retaining walls that
sage, the space opens to reveal the extend from the ground to seat-wall height
Stone of Hope and the expansive view on the north and south sides of the memorial
of the Tidal Basin beyond. An arched frame the memorial’s relationship to the Tidal
perpendicular space is revealed at this Basin edge. Two undulating islands between
point with two densely planted islands the basin edge and the wall form a variety of
framed by curved seat walls. Masses seating arrangements either facing the curv-
of grasses, shrubs, and flowering trees ing wall or located along narrower walkways
amplify the basic structure of the over-shaded by flowering trees. Oehme, van Sweden
all monument. The entire memorial and Associates Inc., the landscape architect
space is accessible, with no ramps, of record, did extensive work with the soil to
rails, or steps. support the growth of more than 180 newly
planted Yoshino cherry trees. The new plant-
While King’s contributions have ing adds to the memorial’s powerful visual
been well-documented, what is less and contextual connection to the Tidal Basin’s
celebrated is that the modern civil historic cherry trees.
rights movement included the work
of thousands of people—it was not The dark polished surfaces and sinuous forms
the work of one man. An original of the wall mimic waterways. The thick and
feature of the design concept was layered plantings on the memorial’s northern
the creation of garden seating areas side emulate rolling surfaces, perhaps rolling
to commemorate activists who were waters or hills that form the watersheds that
killed in the struggle for civil rights feed streams. The plantings’ mounded forms
freedom. These gardens were to be offer stark contrast to the straight walls leading
connected by water that would have to the Mountain of Despair. This experiential
collected and poured over a wall of interpretation of the design is strictly conjecture
quotes by King, visualizing a refer- on my part, and the lack of actual interpretation
ence to justice rolling down “like a for visitors is disappointing. ↘
mighty stream.”

“WE WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL
JUSTICE ROLLS DOWN LIKE WATERS,
AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE
A MIGHTY STREAM.”

“WE SHALL OVERCOME
BECAUSE THE ARC OF
THE MORAL UNIVERSE
IS LONG, BUT IT BENDS
TOWARD JUSTICE.”
→ The final elements of the memorial for the National Mall and Monument Lab recently
are a selection of King’s quotes pre- held an ideas competition with invited propos-
sented on the Stone of Hope as well als that speculate on the potential future of the
as two arching granite retaining walls. Tidal Basin. One theme that was pursued in all
The shape of the walls responds to the proposals was the impacts of climate change
another allegory used by King in his and the inevitable sinking of the National Mall.
“Remaining Awake Through a Great The National Mall, as we know it today, was built
Revolution” speech: “We shall over- on a floodplain and is slowly being reclaimed
come because the arc of the moral through settling, erosion, and flooding as ecologi-
universe is long, but it bends toward cal systems add dynamics to a currently statically
justice.” The wall includes selected designed landscape.
quotes from King’s speeches and is
illuminated at night. There are small Another recent effort was the Beyond Granite pilot
seating nooks facing the quotes in- project sponsored by the Trust for the National
tegrated into the retaining walls to Mall with support from the NCPC in 2022. This
enable groups to sit and reflect on effort invited artists to implement short-term
the words. Over multiple visits to monuments that challenged the typical narratives,
the site, I’ve observed that people domaterials, aesthetics, and visitor interactions we
pause and read the quotes. However, experience on the National Mall today. In a sense,
the quotes included in the memorial this initiative presents the possibilities of integrat-
are decidedly less critical than King’s
ing layers of cultural dynamics and change in a
most famous speeches, with only a setting that has been intentionally designed to be
few references to his “Three Evils of perceived as intransigent. For the King Memorial,
Society” speech from 1967. facing near-term climate-related risks, and lack-
ing explicit connections to the modern civil rights
Two recent efforts call into question movement, there may be opportunities to adapt
not only the future of this memorial and engage a broader range of public memory.
but our attitude about the nature
of the National Mall landscape as a KOFI BOONE, FASLA, IS THE JOSEPH D. MOORE DISTINGUISHED
PROFESSOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMEN-
permanent setting for holding our TAL PLANNING AND A UNIVERSITY FACULTY SCHOLAR AT NORTH
national public memory. The Trust CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY.

THE BACK /
BOOKS EDITED BY MIMI ZEIGER
FLUX AND
CHANGE
THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN:

SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT,
AND EQUITABLE COMMUNITIES
FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
BY DAVID ROUSE AND ROCKY PIRO; LONDON AND NEW YORK:
ROUTLEDGE, 2022; 288 PAGES, $42.95.
REVIEWED BY FADI MASOUD
C omprehensive planning practice’s foundations and the

legal underpinnings of the planning profession are in-
separably linked to landscape architecture in North America.
munities for the 21st Century underscores this contemporary
relevancy, and the authors David Rouse, ASLA, and Rocky Piro
remind us of the significance of comprehensive planning in
At the turn of the last century, the social and environmental addressing today’s urban challenges.
fallouts brought on by the rapid expansion of cities across the
industrialized world necessitated the invention of legal and Straightforward, even clinical, The Comprehensive Plan reads like
spatial mechanisms to design and plan this unprecedented a resource manual for practitioners, bureaucrats, and academics.
urban growth. Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Jr., Charles Eliot, Broken into three large sections, its 17 chapters center issues of
John Nolen, and others took on the challenge of large-scale socioeconomic equity and climate change (including adaptation,
metropolitan park and parkway planning, suburban expansion, resilience, and mitigation) as cross-sectoral parameters for com-
and the complex foundations of urban governance. prehensive planning. “Sustainability, resilience, and equity—the
overarching themes of this book—are distinct but interrelated
In 1912, the American Society of Landscape Architects identi- concepts,” write Rouse and Piro. The authors push further on
fied 28 ongoing large-scale comprehensive plans in “A Brief these interdependencies as critically generative of schematic vi-
Survey of Recent City Planning Reports in the United States,” sions that are focused on “systems thinking,” something that has
which cemented the significance of landscape architects as long been relevant to the work of landscape architects. Unlike
the “comprehensive planners” of that era. More than a century rigid and static conceptions of urban form, a comprehensive plan
later, a drive toward holistic approaches to planning reasserts rooted in “systems” is aligned with how landscape architects prac-
the agency of landscape architects to take on that charge. The tice if their work is to be successfully integrated with dynamic,
Comprehensive Plan: Sustainable, Resilient, and Equitable Com- and often indeterminate, natural systems.

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THE BACK /BOOKS
RIGHT
Locations of 21st-century
comprehensive plans.
North America’s vast
and heterogeneous
geography offers
opportunities and
challenges.
Landscape architects played ings address themes that include “Natural

critical roles in shaping plan- Systems,” “Built Environment Systems: Mo-
ning in the early part of the 20th bility and Infrastructure,” “Social Systems,”
century, and they should now. For exam- and “Regional Connections.” Each presents a
ple, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.’s influence on land use zoning list of carefully selected case studies; examples of best practices,
was undeniable. He was part of an advisory committee appointed tables, charts, and summaries; and guides on policy directions
by Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover in 1921 that drafted and applications.
A Zoning Primer, and he was the only member listed under the
professional designation of landscape architect. The document The authors put forward a multifaceted yet concise survey
defined the role of zoning in cities, its benefits, and how it should while focusing on the conditions, concerns, and opportunities
be applied. When advocating for a role for landscape architects that make up the substance of a contemporary comprehensive
in an era of a possible Green New Deal, Billy Fleming, in a 2019 plan. In line with their appeal to blend systems thinking into
essay for Places Journal, reminds us that in the early 20th century, the progression of 21st-century comprehensive planning,
urbanists and designers “entered public service, fighting for they assert that each of the chapters “incorporate a systems
housing justice, land conservation, and environmental resource approach as an alternative to the 20th-century practice of orga-
management at all levels of government.” nizing the comprehensive.” For example, the chapter “Natural
Systems” posits that “the built and natural environments are
Olmsted Jr. understood the value of ecological land use comple- not separate and discrete” but instead are interconnected with
mentation, promoting the synergistic interaction between “intersecting subsystems.” They press on the need to design
natural features, green space, and land use zoning. In his and plan the built environment by aligning it with the condi-
view, planning and its tools should not result in a centralized tions and capacities of its underlying environment. “Natural
“end-state vision” but a continually evolving process. In reports features such as slopes, soils, watersheds, and vegetation
written between 1905 and 1915, he urged professionals and continue to exist, even if altered or degraded by urban devel-
policymakers to understand the city plan not as a rigid set of opment,” they write. “Healthy, functioning natural systems
DAVID ROUSE, ASLA, AND ROCKY PIRO
instructions to be followed by successive generations but as integrated with the built environment are essential to support
an “organic, flexible document capable of responding to new healthy, sustainable communities.”
conditions and evolving over time.”
The book is filled with planning definitions, descriptions, and
The Comprehensive Plan echoes this premise in the second sec- language, and noticeably evident are the American Planning
tion, “The Substance of the Plan,” which makes up the bulk of Association (APA) national standards for guiding the creation
the book and is the longest and most detailed. The chapter head- and implementation of comprehensive plans. While this lends

THE BACK /BOOKS
PROFESSIONAL STANDARDIZATION
OF DEFINITIONS CAN FLATTEN DIVERSE
SOCIAL, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND
PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHIES.
the book an accessible, clear, and universal tone, it also renders Zoning Enabling Act (SZEA) and in 1928 with the Standard
the text rather monotonous. For example, when the definition City Planning Enabling Act (SCPEA). The SCPEA called for
of low-density residential zoning or open space provisions is zoning codes to conform to a larger, and more holistic, com-
invoked, a more replicable model is envisioned by the authors. prehensive plan. Yet the landmark 1926 Village of Euclid v.
Such universal planning language makes it difficult to de- Ambler Realty Co. Supreme Court case and the passing of the
scribe, for example, how open space for housing varies in the SZEA effectively enshrined land use separation and zoning,
arid Southwest versus the temperate Northeast, or an equity- not comprehensive planning, as the first act of planning. This
deserving community versus a wealthier established one. Even allowed states to enact laws permitting cities to establish a zon-
though the book cites comprehensive plans from across the ing commission before devising long-range comprehensive
United States, its aspirational national reach makes it difficult plans. The lag between the legislations resulted in planning
to emphasize the varying particularities of local geographies, commissions resorting to zoning as the primary device for
voices, and places across this vast and heterogeneous continent. drawing up plans. Thus zoning, not comprehensive planning,
Professional standardization of descriptions and definitions of- became the immediate legislative spatial blueprint for the
ten lends itself to the flattening of diverse social, environmental, development of cities.
and physical geographies.
Climate change has rendered visible the shortcomings of such
Governments often produce rigorous studies, reports, and overly deterministic and static plans, zoning codes, and devel-
plans with limited pathways to implementation. This is often opment models. Contemporary urban adaptation and resilient
due to a lack of robust and broad partnerships, community design strategies favor scenario-driven design schemes that
engagement, and investments. To that end, “While contem- account for multiple possible futures and a range of uncertain-
porary plans have more robust implementation sections, they ties. For example, the design and allocation of open space buf-
often consist of lists of unprioritized actions,” note the authors. fers should accommodate a range of inundation levels while
“Effective plans are comprehensive and visionary in their scope allowing multiple programmatic activities to take place at the
and reach, as well as strategic, focused, and adaptable in their same time. Such spatial and programmatic flexibility is often
approach to implementation.” at odds with the overly deterministic, reductive, and restrictive
nature of land use zoning codes.
A glaring omission in the book is a critical discussion on the
legislative power of land use zoning codes in shaping the ur- Rouse and Piro explore how comprehensive planning should
ban fabric. In many ways, zoning is a much more formidable accommodate scenario planning to “generate and evaluate
force toward implementation than comprehensive planning. possible futures to frame choices and inform community
The legal mechanisms that continue to underpin planning decision-making...given the uncertainty of future change
today were established in 1926 through the Standard State over the long-range time horizon of the plan, which suggests

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THE BACK /BOOKS
WHILE ARDUOUS TO CONCEIVE

AND IMPLEMENT, IT
IS ESSENTIAL THAT
WE FOREGROUND
HOLISTIC AND
COMPREHENSIVE
APPROACHES TO
URBAN PLANNING.
that communities should er varies, the scope of their

prepare for and adapt to application must expand or
a range of possible future contract to meet the new and
outcomes.” A section titled different conditions which
“Accounting for Uncertainty” are constantly coming within
RIGHT presents this critical approach the field of their operation. In a
Nonlinear systems to dynamic, nonlinear scenario changing world, it is impossible
essential for the design planning as a prerequisite for that it should be otherwise.”
of landscapes are
climate adaptation and resilience
equally critical when
applied to planning. planning and design. Here, the au- Rouse and Piro attempt to exhaus-
thors discuss a “Cone of Uncertainty” tively and thoroughly uncover the pa-
that plots time against short-, medium-, and rameters and interdependencies needed to
long-term decisions, tactics, strategies, and visions comprehensively “plan” sustainable, resilient, and
that are interrupted by unforeseen “drivers of change.” equitable communities. Although the book relies on case stud-
ies to highlight local specificities, an approach rooted in the
Scenario planning and accounting for some degree of uncer- environmental and social particularities of a place is crucial.
tainty are consistent with how Olmsted Jr. saw comprehensive While it might seem arduous to conceive, and even harder to
planning, much like he did landscape architecture, as a “dy- implement, large-scale visions in the 21st century, it is essential
namic and continuous process.” He was interested in tactical and that we foreground holistic and comprehensive approaches to
strategic approaches to shaping the city in relation to its social, urban planning. Designers and educators must advocate for
environmental, and governance contexts. His approach was also a role for landscape architects in outlining climate adaptation
in line with critiques of modern-era top-down comprehensive and resilience planning frameworks through enduring legisla-
planning. “The nature of the city was flux and change,” writes tive structures. This agency is only possible if we expand and
the anthropologist and political scientist James Scott in his 1999 strengthen our direct engagement and collaboration with the
book, Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the planning profession and the public agencies of communities at
DAVID ROUSE, ASLA, AND ROCKY PIRO
Human Condition Have Failed. “The best a planner can hope the forefront of the climate crisis. This book serves as a timely
for is to modestly enhance rather than impede the development reminder, reaffirming our capacity and urging us to advance
of urban complexity,” he continues. The ability to plan compre- the discourse on comprehensive planning.
hensively while proactively anticipating flexibility in writing up
zoning ordinances is consistent with what Supreme Court Justice FADI MASOUD IS AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE
George Sutherland wrote in the majority opinion for Euclid v. AND URBANISM AND DIRECTOR OF THE CENTRE FOR LANDSCAPE RESEARCH AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO.
Ambler: “[W]hile the meaning of constitutional guaranties nev-

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THE BACK /BOOKS
BOOKS
OF INTEREST
LESSONS IN RESILIENCE FROM

OLD TREES, NEW PARKS, AND
FUTURE INFRASTRUCTURES.
OLMSTED TREES HOW INFRASTRUCTURE WORKS:

BY STANLEY GREENBERG; MUNICH: INSIDE THE SYSTEMS THAT
HIRMER PUBLISHERS, 2022; 160 SHAPE OUR WORLD
PAGES, $40.
BY DEB CHACHRA; NEW YORK:
RIVERHEAD BOOKS, 2023;
320 PAGES, $29.
The photographer Stanley Greenberg
takes pictures of old trees. Specifi-
cally, the magnificent elms, beech- MERGING CITY AND NATURE: A materials scientist and engineer
es, and maples planted more than 30 COMMITMENTS TO COMBAT digs into the complex technologi-
a century ago in parks designed by CLIMATE CHANGE cal services that make up the built
Frederick Law Olmsted. For Olmsted BY BATLLEIROIG; BARCELONA: ACTAR environment—roads, electricity,
Trees, he traveled across the country PUBLISHERS, 2023; 358 PAGES, $44.95. reservoirs—and finds that these ev-
to take what he calls “portraits” of eryday systems are as much social
their wrinkled, gnarled, and weath- The Spanish firm Batlleiroig works as they are technological. They are
ered trunks. He captures the play of across urbanism, landscape architec- shared utilities, after all. While How
time on civic landscapes: in Chero- ture, and architecture, traversing and Infrastructure Works isn’t explicit in
kee Park in Louisville, Kentucky, a combining disciplines on each project. addressing landscape architecture,
sycamore fused with a brick wall; Its new book is part monograph and Deb Chachra’s chapter “Infrastruc-
lovers’ carvings tattoo a beech in Cad- part battle cry in the face of climate ture and Climate Instability” outlines
walader Park in Trenton, New Jersey. emergency. Each of the 30 case studies case studies where climatic condi-
The black-and-white images evoke addresses a different approach, includ- tions such as rising sea levels, storm
empathy for these stoic beings. As ing “Biodiversity,” “Green Life Cycle,” surges, and hotter temperatures are
the journalist Kevin Baker writes in “Recycling,” and “Self-Sufficiency.” undermining existing systems. These
one of the three essays in the book, These are prefaced by a trio of conver- are places where the collective tools
“[T]hrough Greenberg’s lens we react sations with experts and academics, in- of landscape architecture could steer
to them almost as though they were cluding landscape architecture faculty visions away from the postapocalyptic
human, or animals.” Clara Olóriz Sanjuán (Architectural and toward resilience.
Association School of Architecture)
and Joan Batlle (Universitat Politècnica
de Catalunya), whose dialogue situ-
ates landscape as a mediator between
people and nature.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation ®
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Claude Cormier
Oral History
View an excerpt and learn more

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Oral History featuring the late
Canadian designer of Sugar Beach,
Love Park, The Ring, and other
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tclf.org/cormier-oral-history
Photo @ Will Lew, courtesy CCxA.
Julie Bargmann Oral History

More than two dozen video segments cover
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this enigmatic practitioner and inaugural
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tclf.org/bargmann-oral-history
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THE BACK /ADVERTISER INDEX
ADVERTISER WEBSITE PHONE PAGE #
ADVERTISING SALES APE Studio c/o Richter Spielgeräte apeoriginal.com 212-213-6694 56
636 Eye Street NW Archatrak, Inc. archatrak.com 406-551-7482 107
Washington, DC 20001-3736 ASLA Corporate Membership advertise.asla.org/CM 202-216-2326 114-115
202-216-2363 ASLA EXPO Promotion advertise.asla.org/expo 202-216-2326 130-131
202-478-2190 Fax
ASLA Fund aslafund.org 202-216-2366 76
sales@asla.org
Atomizing Systems, Inc. coldfog.com 888-265-3364 118
SENIOR PRODUCTION Axis Lighting axislighting.com 514-948-6272 119
MANAGER BCI Burke Co. Inc. bciburke.com 920-921-9220 25, 128
Laura L. Iverson Berliner berliner-playequipment.com 864-627-1092 33, 125
202-216-2341 Campania International, Inc. campaniainternational.com 215-541-4627 C2-1, 124
liverson@asla.org
Cell-Tek Geosynthetics, LLC celltekdirect.com 410-721-4844 128
Columbia Cascade Company timberform.com 800-547-1940 125, 127, 129, C4
DeepStream Designs deepstreamdesigns.com 305-857-0466 117
Dogipot, a PlayCore company dogipot.com 800-364-7681 120
Doty & Sons Concrete Products dotyconcrete.com 800-233-3907 126
DuMor, Inc. dumor.com 800-598-4018 31, 128
Earthscape earthscapeplay.com 877-269-2972 51, 126
Ernst Conservation Seeds ernstseed.com 800-873-3321 124
Form and Fiber formandfiber.com 888-314-8852 116, 127
Forms+Surfaces forms-surfaces.com 800-451-0410 7, 124
Freenotes Harmony Park freenotesharmonypark.com 833-262-1569 14
Gothic Arch Greenhouses gothicarchgreenhouses.com 251-471-5238 118
Green Theory Design Inc. greentheorydesign.com 604-475-7002 124
Gyms For Dogs - Natural Dog Park Products gymsfordogs.com 800-931-1462 127
Hanover Architectural Products, Inc. hanoverpavers.com 717-637-0500 47
Huntco Supply, LLC huntco.com 503-224-8700 39
Iron Age Designs ironagegates.com 206-276-0925 105, 126
Ironsmith, Inc. ironsmith.biz 800-338-4766 37, 129
Landscape Forms landscapeforms.com 800-430-6205 11, 23
Landscape Structures, Inc. playlsi.com 888-438-6574 17, 127
Madrax madrax.com 800-448-7931 128
Maglin Site Furniture Inc. maglin.com 800-716-5506 35
mmcité street furniture mmcite.com 704-576-2224 2-3
Most Dependable Fountains mostdependable.com 800-552-6331 121
Nitterhouse Masonry Products, LLC nitterhouse.com 717-267-4500 41
Paloform paloform.com 888-823-8883 9
Permaloc Aluminum Edging permaloc.com 800-356-9660 55, 128
Petersen Concrete Leisure Products petersenmfg.com 800-832-7383 121
Pine Hall Brick Co., Inc. americaspremierpaver.com 800-334-8689 53, 128
Proven Winners® ColorChoice® provenwinners.com 800-633-8859 43
Public Restroom Company publicrestroomcompany.com 888-888-2060 116
Riverside Plastics, Inc. riverside-plastics.com 800-493-4945 129
Salsbury Industries mailboxes.com 800-624-5269 119, 129
Shade Systems, Inc. shadesystemsinc.com 800-609-6066 13
Sitecraft site-craft.com 800-221-1448 27
Sitescapes, Inc. sitescapesonline.com 402-421-9464 125
Soil Retention Products soilretention.com 760-966-6090 120
Solistone solistone.com 800-758-2119 129
Streetlife streetlife.nl 646-583-2937 45
Sure-Loc Aluminum Edging surelocedging.com 800-787-3562 128
The Belden Brick Co. beldenbrick.com 330-456-0031 81, 125
The Chandler Company thechandlercompany.com 714-979-4212 117
The Cultural Landscape Foundation tclf.org 202-483-0553 113
Thomas Steele thomas-steele.com 800-448-7931 46
Tournesol Siteworks tournesolsiteworks.com 800-542-2282 21, 128
Uline uline.com 800-295-5571 121
Unilock, Ltd. unilock.com 416-646-3452 29
U.S. Green Building Council usgbc.org 202-552-1369 111
Victor Stanley, Inc. victorstanley.com 301-855-8300 126, C3

THE BACK /ADVERTISERS BY PRODUCT CATEGORY
ASSOCIATION/FOUNDATION PARKS AND RECREATION PLANTS/SOILS/PLANTING MATERIALS
ASLA Corporate Membership 202-216-2326 114-115 APE Studio c/o Richter Spielgeräte 212-213-6694 56 Archatrak, Inc. 406-551-7482 107
ASLA EXPO Promotion 202-216-2326 130-131 BCI Burke Co. Inc. 920-921-9220 25, 128 Ernst Conservation Seeds 800-873-3321 124
ASLA Fund 202-216-2366 76 Berliner 864-627-1092 33, 125 Proven Winners® ColorChoice® 800-633-8859 43
The Cultural Landscape Foundation 202-483-0553 113 Dogipot, a PlayCore company 800-364-7681 120
U.S. Green Building Council 202-552-1369 111 Earthscape 877-269-2972 51, 126 STREET FURNISHINGS
Freenotes Harmony Park 833-262-1569 14 Columbia Cascade Company 800-547-1940 125, 127,
BUSINESS SERVICES Gyms For Dogs - 800-931-1462 127 129, C4
Uline 800-295-5571 121 Natural Dog Park Products Doty & Sons Concrete Products 800-233-3907 126
Landscape Structures, Inc. 888-438-6574 17, 127 DuMor, Inc. 800-598-4018 31, 128
DRAINAGE AND EROSION Public Restroom Company 888-888-2060 116 Forms+Surfaces 800-451-0410 7, 124
Cell-Tek Geosynthetics, LLC 410-721-4844 128 Huntco Supply, LLC 503-224-8700 39
Iron Age Designs 206-276-0925 105, 126 PAVING/SURFACING/MASONRY STONE/METALS Landscape Forms 800-430-6205 11, 23
Ironsmith, Inc. 800-338-4766 37, 129 Hanover Architectural Products, Inc. 717-637-0500 47 Madrax 800-448-7931 128
Nitterhouse Masonry Products, LLC 717-267-4500 41 Maglin Site Furniture Inc. 800-716-5506 35
GREEN ROOFS/LIVING WALLS Pine Hall Brick Co., Inc. 800-334-8689 53, 128 mmcité street furniture 704-576-2224 2-3
greenscreen 800-450-3494 41, 208 Soil Retention Products 760-966-6090 120 Petersen Concrete Leisure Products 800-832-7383 121
Solistone 800-758-2119 129 Salsbury Industries 800-624-5269 119, 129
LIGHTING The Belden Brick Co. 330-456-0031 81, 125 Sitecraft 800-221-1448 27
Axis Lighting 514-948-6272 119 Unilock, Ltd. 416-646-3452 29 Sitescapes, Inc. 402-421-9464 125
Streetlife 646-583-2937 45
LUMBER/DECKING/EDGING PLANTERS/SCULPTURES/GARDEN ACCESSORIES Thomas Steele 800-448-7931 46

Permaloc Aluminum Edging 800-356-9660 55, 128 Campania International, Inc. 215-541-4627 C2-1, 124 Victor Stanley, Inc. 301-855-8300 126, C3
Sure-Loc Aluminum Edging 800-787-3562 128 DeepStream Designs 305-857-0466 117
Form and Fiber 888-314-8852 116, 127 STRUCTURES
OUTDOOR FIRE AND WATER FEATURES Green Theory Design Inc. 604-475-7002 124 Gothic Arch Greenhouses 251-471-5238 118
Most Dependable Fountains 800-552-6331 121 Riverside Plastics, Inc. 800-493-4945 129 Shade Systems, Inc. 800-609-6066 13
Paloform 888-823-8883 9 The Chandler Company 714-979-4212 117
Tournesol Siteworks 800-542-2282 21, 128 WATER MANAGEMENT AND AMENITIES
Atomizing Systems, Inc. 888-265-3364 118

ASLA SPONSORED CONTENT
MINNEAPOLIS
CONFERENCE AND EXPO
A SHOW OF PROGRESS
AND TRENDS
The strong attendance and large showing of
exhibitors at the 2023 ASLA Conference and
EXPO are good signs for 2024—with technology
and fitness making noteworthy gains.
BY RUSS K LET TKE
Executive Summary
▶ Landscape architecture The EXPO is a two-way street, with attendees

achieves elevated stature and learning from exhibitors and vice versa.
Photo by ASLA
increased demand.
▶ Climate action advances with help

from industry partners.
ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen shared in Carter-Conneen also credited the ASLA Climate
his keynote address that landscape architecture Action Committee for achieving measurable
▶ Technology and fitness is now recognized by the federal government progress toward its goals, “advancing this work
exhibitors offer new tools for as a STEM discipline. This acknowledges the by increasing its collaboration with vendors and
profession’s long-standing expertise in hydrology, product manufacturers through the newly formed
landscape architects.
drainage, grading, environmental science, ASLA Corporate Member Committee,” he said.
horticulture, and site design—disciplines that “Industry partners are key players to reducing
I
f the 2023 ASLA Conference on Landscape can fight climate change, increase demand for the embodied emissions from landscape architecture
Architecture and EXPO in Minneapolis is profession, and bolster compensation. He cited projects and helping scale up sequestration.”
any indicator, 2024 is going to be a time research coming out of landscape architecture
for rapid discovery and growth in the industry p r o g r a m s a t Au b u r n U n ive r s i t y, P u r d u e Technology increasingly important in landscape
and profession. University, Michigan State University, and architecture
Texas A&M—plus academic leaders working with
The numbers tell part of the story. There were grants from the ASLA Fund— that contribute to At least two categories of exhibitors—technology
more than 5,200 registered attendees and 250 progress in what landscape architecture can do. and outdoor fitness—increased their numbers on
exhibitors, defying notions that an autumn meeting It includes such things as using AI and machine the EXPO floor in 2023.
in the upper Midwest might fail to attract strong learning, and ways to address the biodiversity
participation. Exhibitors tell us their interactions crisis and urban disaster resilience. This will Chris Landau, principal at LANDAU Design+
with landscape architects provided fruitful dialog continue to elevate the profession and its work Technology, which provides tools (e.g., Land
on what’s possible now and where new ideas and with policymakers, community groups, allied Kit) to landscape architects using computation
products might be welcome in the future. professionals, and the public. in their design work, found it beneficial to meet
ASLA SPONSORED CONTENT
in person is a real pleasure,” says Gronquist. Her

observation was that sessions and events on the
EXPO floor enhanced the experience. “I was able to
attend more sessions and see friends on the design
side frequently during the day. There’s no substitute
for coming together in the same place.”
Outdoor fitness a growing industry
The pandemic drove a surge of installations of

outdoor fitness equipment, a trend that continues
according to Recreation Management magazine.
“Some communities tout the ability for adults to
use the fitness zones adjacent to the playgrounds so
they can keep their kids in sight,” says one article,
which also reports the American Society of Sports
Medicine’s market research shows outdoor exercise
as their number 6 trend in 2023, up from number
17 in 2019.
Present in Minneapolis on the EXPO floor were

seven purveyors of this kind of equipment and
playing surfaces—including Gyms for Dogs, a
crowd pleaser—the most ever at an ASLA event.
Jenny Lewis, vice president of sales and marketing
for Outdoor-Fit Exercise Systems, notes they
returned for their second year with ASLA because
the conference broadens their exposure to markets.
“Landscape architects grow our awareness of new
applications,” she says. “That includes multifamily
with landscape architects at their booth and other Longtime exhibitor Vectorworks promotes housing, senior centers, and high-rise rooftops.
exhibitors. “The folks who attend are very serious the benefits of working with BIM for landscape Attendees tell me new product information on
about their work,” he observed. “There were so solutions, particularly in how it “fosters the EXPO floor adds a lot to what they learn in
many great sessions and things to do and see, and collaboration across multiple disciplines,” says educational sessions.”
not enough time to see them all. It really is an Laura Bucci, marketing specialist. “Our biggest
embarrassment of riches.” takeaway from Minneapolis was attendees’ insights Other companies with exhibits in this niche
into how landscape architects and other site design were Greenfields Outdoor Fitness, Trekfit,
Representatives f rom another technology professionals benefit from technologies that include Agorespace SAS, Envirotech Outdoor, and Target
exhibitor, Environment for Revit, talked AI, AR/VR, and drone scanning in their day-to- Technologies. Several of the children’s playground
about the growing importance of landscape day design workflows. They can be proactive in suppliers (Landscape Structures, PlayCore, BCI
architects being technologically in sync with their projects as they combat climate change and Burke, Kompan, etc.) have divisions or partners
project partners. “It’s gratifying to witness this
remarkable discipline embrace BIM technology,
advocate for better landscape performance with
intelligent design and analysis tools.”
in adult outdoor fitness as well. ■
closing the technological gap with the rest of the
AEC industry,” says Yotam Ashkenazi, chief Making a first-time appearance at the ASLA EXPO
marketing officer for the firm. “The enthusiasm was SGLA Technical Training and chief instructor
for adopting innovative solutions was truly Sarah Gronquist, CA PLA. An educational entity,
inspiring.” Based in Israel, it was the company’s SGLA prepares budding landscape architects for
second year with ASLA. “The event allowed us to the Landscape Architect Registration Examination
gather invaluable feedback and insights directly (LARE). “Most of our work takes place through No endorsement of products or suppliers mentioned is
from our American clientele.” remote Zoom meetings so getting to meet people intended or implied.
THE BACK /
BACKSTORY
TOPOPHYLA’S EXPLORATIONS IN AI
HEAD DOWN THE GARDEN PATH.
The fascinating thing about this one is that it kind of does look like the finished project,
and the layering of the plants is pretty appropriate. The context trees are actually fairly
accurate. I don’t know how it got that there were conifers in the background, but it did.
—ERIC ARNESON
ERIC ARNESON AT TOPOPHYLA. IMAGE GENERATED BY CHATGPT-4.
E ric Arneson likes to play with new technol-

ogy. Along with Nahal Sohbati, Arneson
is one-half of Topophyla Landscape Design, a
where he shares the firm’s design
process through a mix of rapid-fire
tutorials, memes, and AI-generated
playing around with planting plans.
He uploaded a screenshot of a plan
from a finished project, and after a
California-based design firm, but he’s probably images. The recent addition of a mul- few tries, he got the image above—
better known online as @pangeaexpress, the timodal feature to OpenAI’s chatbot, hypervivid, but not too far off from the
95K-followers-and-counting Instagram account ChatGPT, prompted Arneson to start real thing.

US Patent D904,712 S.
Connecting since 1962.

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JAN 2024 / VOL 114 NO 1

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