Bald Rock Heritage Maintain is properly regarded to Upstate locals for two issues: spectacular views and rampant graffiti.
“While hiking, images and wildlife viewing are compatible employs of the house, the community at present engages with it in damaging methods this kind of as graffiti, litter, reducing down trees for firewood and trampling patches of vegetation on the rock outcrop,” stated Austen Attaway, a heritage protect biologist for the South Carolina Department of Pure Means (SCDNR).
SCDNR acquired the home in 2001 to protect its significant geographic functions and rare plant lifetime, Attaway explained. Now the agency is developing a grasp strategy to handle the mismatch amongst the preserve’s meant reason and the way it is presently handled.
It’s a challenge that requires a design option, one particular which the landscape architecture college in Clemson University’s University of Architecture are educated to address.
This is an prospect for us to contribute, collaborate and give again to South Carolina in a way that is exceptional to our discipline.
Paul Russell, Affiliate Professor of LAndscape Architecture
“We’re on the lookout at how do we alter Bald Rock from getting a vacation spot for graffiti to getting a destination for currently being outside with your loved ones and pals,” claimed Paul Russell, associate professor of landscape architecture at Clemson. He is primary a staff of landscape architects—including faculty associates Matthew Nicoletti and Lara Browning as effectively as graduate student Annie Steele—to seek the advice of with SCDNR on the learn program.
“As component of the land-grant mission of Clemson, this is an opportunity for us to add, collaborate and give again to South Carolina in a way that is one of a kind to our discipline,” Russell famous.
In wanting for answers to boost Bald Rock, the landscape architecture group will overview the watershed scale of the property and evaluate the space to equivalent houses such as Caesar’s Head State Park and Sassafras Mountain. Their target will be to propose the ways in which structure choices such as obtain points, trails and signage can change the ways guests engage with the land.
In addition to input from Clemson’s faculty, the learn program review will engage Good friends of Bald Rock Heritage Perserve, a nonprofit volunteer services corporation committed to guarding and maximizing the web page. The group’s volunteers consistently approach gatherings for litter select-up and force washing to remove spray paint from the acres of uncovered rock on the web-site.
“This settlement signifies the to start with stage towards resourceful and sustainable remedies for the lots of issues that challenge SCDNR’s mission,” explained Susan Jordan, president of Close friends of Bald Rock Heritage preserve. “We are assured that the review will offer created answers to deter vandalism, minimize routine maintenance, empower restoration of plant and animal habitats, enrich the safe community use of the assets and shield and preserve the normal sources.”
The master strategy research is the commencing of a lengthier course of action, and Russell claims the intention for his staff is to be in a position to educate SCDNR as a design client, so that when the time is proper to make modifications at Bald Rock, the agency has the best info feasible.
Users of the group interested in studying much more about programs for Bald Rock or offering responses to the analyze are invited to call Attaway at AttawayA@dnr.sc.gov or (864) 986-6242. People fascinated in supporting Pals of Bald Rock Heritage Preserve’s volunteer attempts can get hold of them at friendsofbaldrock@gmail.com.
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The Meadows, sitting directly on top of the Highway 101 tunnels, is a place to gather and enjoy the views. Photo by Rachel Styer.
An unexpected amount of rain fell on the Presidio Tunnel Tops construction site this past October. The rain was a mixed blessing; though welcomed by parched San Francisco Bay Area residents, it had damaged parts of the job site. Kerry Huang, ASLA, a senior associate at James Corner Field Operations (JCFO), the project’s design partner and landscape architect, said that layers of soil and plants were torn out of one of the embankments, despite the recent installation of erosion control blankets. Huang is a construction manager for Tunnel Tops, one of an unusual number of women who are project managers on this high-profile project.
Managing the daily occurrence of unpredictable events defines the construction phase of any project, and effective problem-solving is the coin of the realm. Project managers representing the client, the design team, and the general contractor are responsible for moving construction forward, one day at a time. A project manager who works with adversity, communicates clearly, and draws from a deep wealth of skills and expertise cultivates trust on the team. And trust keeps everyone moving toward the finish line.
Kerry Huang, ASLA, James Corner Field Operations. Photo by Rania Rayes.
Tunnel Tops opened to much fanfare in July. Designed by JCFO for the Partnership for the Presidio, Tunnel Tops is the long-term vision of the late Michael Painter, the founder of the landscape architecture firm MPA Design: a series of parks along and on top of tunnels built over a regraded section of Highway 101, known as Presidio Parkway, which runs along the northern edge of a historic former army base. The suite of diverse projects—Quartermaster Reach marsh, Battery Bluff, and Tunnel Tops—creates a connected park sequence with Crissy Field. The project was highly complex and required coordinating with the California Department of Transportation to design and construct extensive soil improvements below the tunnels and embankment to mitigate the compressible bay muds. Coordinating the input of multiple participants, including the National Park Service, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, the Presidio Trust (those collectively making up the Partnership for the Presidio), as well as the City and County of San Francisco and community organizations, has also been central to this project.
The number of women in leadership roles on Tunnel Tops, especially in construction-related positions, is still uncommon. The situation is viewed as a rare triumph, although the deeper reasons for that are unexplored.
Women in construction management have varying stories, come to the profession through different paths, and experience different successes and barriers. “Good project managers are able, when things go wrong, to keep the fingers from flying around and pointing at each other,” explains Lily Siu, then a civil engineer for Magnusson Klemencic Associates, the civil site and structural engineer for the project. She says the project managers for the Presidio Trust “all have the skills to really bring people together and keep things calm.”
“Relationships are really the thing that makes this whole thing work,” says Paula Cabot, a senior project manager for Tunnel Tops. Cabot has been with the trust since 2016. Previously, she worked on notable projects such as the J. Paul Getty Trust’s renovation of the Getty Villa, for which she also served as a senior project manager.
Rania Rayes is a senior project manager for the trust and Tunnel Tops and worked on both the design development and construction side of Tunnel Tops. “The experience on the project’s been very challenging, but it’s been extremely rewarding in so many ways because of the relationships with the other team members on all sides of the project,” she says. Rayes came to the trust 17 years ago from private practice as a landscape architect in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Lauren Connolly, the senior project manager of construction for Tunnel Tops, says her job is all about getting everybody behind a common goal by finding a balance between respecting people’s knowledge and making sure they do their jobs correctly. “I won’t tell you how to do your job, but I will tell you that you have to follow the documents,” says Connolly, who worked on heavy civil engineering projects before she came to the client side.
Lauren Connolly, The Presidio Trust. Photo by Ryan Curran White, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy.
A theme persisted across conversations about the project: The managers are excellent communicators and support collaboration across the team. Are women inherently better at this? There are mixed opinions about this idea among the women involved; behind the excellent communication skills demonstrated by the team is the amount of experience and expertise each manager brings with her.
Cabot attributes success to managers who can help “different personalities [become] united in their view of what needs to happen on a construction site.” She wonders how much gender is tied to collaboration. She looks more to skill, experience, and cooperation for moving a project forward. Huang concurs. It’s not the gender that makes the managers on this project unique, she says, it’s that “the group of people on this project are all so talented and dedicated and smart.” With that, she says, “you’re going to have a successful project.”
Rayes believes that women more generally bring valuable qualities to this experience. “We’ve all worked so harmoniously together,” she says. “Having many women on the team may make that possible. We’re very patient, we have some great communication skills…. I just think that these are attributes that a lot of women have, and they want to be team players.”
Rania Rayes, The Presidio Trust. Photo by Kerry Huang, ASLA, James Corner Field Operations.
Connolly believes the idea of women being good collaborators cuts both ways. “As a woman, it helps because we’re a little more empathetic, we’re a little more likely to try to make everybody get along and figure it out. [But] sometimes that works to our detriment,” because women can spend too much time making sure everyone is getting along and not taking care of themselves.
Is there a hesitancy to make too much of some acculturated differences between how women and men communicate or work together? Siu says it’s complicated to tie certain traits to a particular gender. “It’s hard to dismantle the dynamics; you have to approach what makes it this way. To celebrate the difference, you have to call out difference.” There is a desire to both embrace and describe traits that are more strongly tied to women, such as effective communication and cooperation, and also a desire to uncouple those associations, because sometimes they bind or keep the stereotypes alive. Many of the sources interviewed pointed to men they have worked with in construction who are excellent communicators, and some women who have been obstructive to a problem-solving process. I thought about my experiences on-site as well, and it was easy to see how all of us had stories about how anyone, of any gender, could unite or divide people on a project.
Examining expectations of leadership is a different tack into this complex discussion. The default characterization of leadership still leans toward loud, outgoing, and talkative—having all the answers and dominating the conversation. Genevieve Bantle, the associate director of landscape rehabilitation at the trust, who managed the Quartermaster Reach marsh project, questions this stereotype. “I’m very conscious that leadership doesn’t look one way and doesn’t act one way, and that there are different ways to lead. Just because the person isn’t how you think they should be for that role doesn’t mean they aren’t good at it.”
Rayes has grappled with the prevailing definition of leadership as well. “If you’re not by nature very self-confident and strong, it’s more challenging when there is such a strong stereotype. You have to find your space and fight for people to acknowledge your strengths.”
Paula Cabot, The Presidio Trust. Photo by Felipe Romero.
For Siu, working with this team has been different than past experiences. “People were much more willing to listen to other people—no one dominated the conversation.” The typical large meetings were seldom forums for one or two people to tell everyone else what was going to happen. Instead, questions could be raised by all parties as a way to explore solutions for any of the problems on the table. This method supports Bantle’s observation about what makes a good project manager: “A lot of listening and not assuming that you know what’s right going into the conversation.” As a project comes close to an ending, Cabot and Connolly say it’s about keeping people motivated to do the work well, to feel good about what they have accomplished, and, as the reward, to eventually go home.
Perhaps things are shifting in terms of how companies identify qualities of leadership. Lori Dunn-Guion, a vice president and division manager for Swinerton, the general contractor for Tunnel Tops, says the COVID-19 pandemic helped her reevaluate what constitutes valuable traits in a manager. “How do we put value in our leaders around the quality, not quantity, of hours put in?” She connects this to the idea that working long hours, 10 to 14 hours a day, automatically makes a person a good leader. Redefining what makes good leadership combined with building more flexibility into the day are ways Dunn-Guion thinks Swinerton supports women. For example, Dunn-Guion’s pickup time for her daughter is part of the shared schedule, so everyone is clear, and more realistic, about when she is available. “They say to me, ‘Hey, Lori, we are ending this meeting now, because you need to go pick up your child.’”
Construction is grueling and demanding. As a project nears its end, the days often become longer and longer. Cabot explains that “a lot of life has to get really pared down and get very streamlined” at this phase. “You prioritize those things that are really important to you.”
Genevieve Bantle, The Presidio Trust. Photo courtesy Presidio Trust.
There is burnout. The need for work–life balance often drives career-changing choices familiar to many women in the workforce. During this project, a female project manager for Swinerton left, in part because she found the work–life balance was too exhausting, especially with her four-hour commute from the South Bay. Connolly observes, “Others said she wants to spend more time with her kids, and I’m like, ‘She also doesn’t want to spend her entire life in the car.’”
With such a high-visibility, decades-in-the-making project, there is far more to manage than construction. As the senior project manager, Cabot represents the Presidio Trust long after the construction fencing is locked for the day by giving interviews, participating in tours, meeting with donors, and attending events. During our second Zoom interview, the finish line for the project kept stretching further and further into the future. Still suited up from another day on-site, she adjusted her chair, ran her fingers through her hard hat–flattened hair, and rested her elbows on the desk. Talking with me was just one more thing on her endless list of tasks.
Cabot and Bantle talked about the difficulty in taking a breather after a long project finishes. “There’s no break between; you go from one [project] to the next, and there is not much time to recover,” Cabot says. This circumstance creates a situation in which women go from job to job, employer to employer, to create space between those large projects. Cabot did this earlier in her career and took a longer break after finishing her work at the Getty. Bantle also feels the crunch after an intense project ends. “I wish we would get to some point where there was an ability to take a larger chunk of time off,” she says.
Tunnel Tops connects and completes a multipark cultural and ecological system: Crissy Field (lower left), the Presidio (lower right), and Quartermaster Reach marsh (middle above the Meadows). Photo courtesy James Corner Field Operations.
Working in construction management is clearly an intentional career path these women have chosen. The demands are extensive. Sexism is still a sensitive topic—some women I interviewed shared stories off the record about past situations that have influenced how they navigate work now. When it comes to the number of women managing construction, the Presidio Tunnel Tops project is still an anomaly. The women interviewed told me that it is the first project they have worked on that includes many other women in leadership roles, on all sides: client, designer, and contractor.
Different generations have had different experiences. Cabot, Rayes, and Bantle have all worked in construction for more than 20 years and were often outliers. When Rayes first came to the Presidio Trust, she was the only woman on her team. Bantle has never reported to a woman. Connolly, in her forties, has worked with more women during the course of her career and attended the California Polytechnic State University’s construction management program with other women. Huang and Siu, both in their thirties, work in environments where many women hold leadership roles. Siu now works at the woman-owned firm LPD Engineering. JCFO had seven women leading construction administration at press time.
Yet, some basic things still haven’t changed much. Many safety equipment items are made for men and then retrofitted for women. Safety harnesses are generally not designed for women’s bodies. Hard hats don’t accommodate braids, buns, ponytails, dreadlocks, or other volume hairstyles. Sufficient steel-toed work boots do exist for women, but items like vests, eye protection, and gloves are still harder to find when smaller sizes are required. Simple things like porta-potties designated for women or a place to change clothing are sometimes forgotten, requiring women to ask for them on the job site.
Still, for many women, construction management is their calling. “You know there’s been some hard days when you’re standing in a ditch filling up with water and you don’t even know it’s Friday at 5:00. That’s when you know you’re in construction,” Connolly says. “You’re the only one there. You’re like, ‘I guess I’m gonna have to deal with this.’ You’re dragging around fence panels” to cordon off the area, “and you’re [thinking] I wish I did something else.” She adds quickly and emphatically, “and then I’m like, I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”
Anne C Godfrey is an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
Barbara Peterson, ASLA, is a night time owl. All through the 16 many years she labored as a part-time landscape architect, she normally used the hrs of 9:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. sending email messages, doing work on styles, and stamping strategies. When her son, Eric, obtained a little older, she would pack a lunch and depart it in the fridge for him to consider on his way to the bus in the morning. She put in much of her working day carting him again and forth to sporting events and skateparks.
It was a reasonably excellent equilibrium for a experienced and mom, she states, but in 2019, when Peterson made the decision to start doing work total-time all over again, she located the occupation-lookup approach frustrating in new ways. She reported a few companies “ghosted” her immediately after the job interview method, and at minimum one particular interviewer’s demeanor improved radically after she recognized Peterson had been performing element-time for so long. Peterson preferred to create about it on LinkedIn and Facebook, but “didn’t want it to be, oh, here’s me whining and complaining,” she says. So she despatched about an casual study to gather tales from other women of all ages in landscape architecture about “off-ramping,” “down-ramping,” and “on-ramping”—taking time off from a occupation or lessening hrs and then reentering the full-time workforce.
Peterson obtained responses from roughly 50 designers, which she summarized in an write-up that she shared on social media. In it, she tried using to dispel what she claims are some of the myths about folks who acquire time absent from a style job: that they will not be passionate about the get the job done when they return, won’t be in a position to multitask, will have overlooked certain techniques or will not be equipped to learn new kinds, and so on. People beliefs replicate biases against persons who comply with “nonlinear” job paths, Peterson states. Some respondents to Peterson’s study stated they’d been asked interview queries that confirmed these biases explicitly, this sort of as how a lot of small children they were anticipating to have, or no matter if they would prioritize their families in excess of their get the job done, regardless of it being unlawful to make hiring selections based on this kind of things.
Considerably from currently being a detriment, time put in on other pursuits—like seeing how young young ones use parks, streetscapes, public spaces, or, in Peterson’s son Eric’s situation, design career sites—can give designers essential insights, Peterson believes. (Eric is in faculty now, researching architecture.)
For Jeanne Lukenda, ASLA, the vice president of communications for ASLA and the chair of ASLA’s Activity Power on Girls in the Landscape Architecture Career, studying about Peterson’s expertise was depressingly acquainted. A lot of of the problems Peterson mentioned are those people that have been talked about in professional circles for yrs and are a aim of the activity force’s operate. “Many of us [on the task force] are mid- to senior-profession individuals, and we haven’t observed enough alter in our own professions,” she claims.
Barbara Peterson, ASLA, highlights the troubles faced by these with nonlinear vocation paths. Image courtesy LPCI.
Corporations that really don’t give distinct pathways for men and women to start or broaden their family members drop out on best expertise, she suggests. Gals exclusively depart those people companies, normally which means that males who are not getting time absent to raise little ones are remaining to fill leadership roles, which perpetuates the cycle. Lukenda says the ASLA job pressure and other teams, like WxLA and the Ladies in Landscape Architecture Skilled Observe Community, are endeavoring to make expert lifestyle far better for women. “Our collective objective is to be chatting about staying the place we require to be,” Lukenda suggests.
Very last summertime, Variety x Landscape Architecture (DxLA), a group shaped by ASLA California Sierra members, held a panel dialogue on parenting and landscape architecture. 1 of the panelists, Melissa Ruth, ASLA, a principal of Callander Associates in Gold River, California, talked about the give-and-consider she had to negotiate as she lifted her sons, Eli and Leo, and labored to develop into a partner and operator of the organization. Ruth afterwards came across Peterson’s survey on LinkedIn and shared a number of activities with her.
For Ruth, it is vital that companies converse obviously to their workers what flexibility is accessible in conditions of component-time function, distant get the job done, and go away. It is tough for anticipating or aspiring parents to handle their expert lives—especially if they want to go into leadership roles—if they really do not have superior fork out, benefits, and childcare possibilities lined up. “If individuals all align, then I think it is probable,” Ruth says. “But it is absolutely [an issue] that is not solved.”
Jared Brey is a freelance reporter in Philadelphia and a contributing editor to LAM.
3 college students focus on landscape architecture programs at UD: youtube.com/look at?v=T7i3GwhKm8M
Write-up and movie by Kate Zincone
Photographs by Monica Moriak August 15, 2022
UD programs and investigation experiences assistance landscape architecture majors hone post-graduation options
As caps ended up tossed and tassels turned in late Could, a few College of Delaware seniors officially concluded their extremely busy, but really satisfying last semester in UD’s unique bachelor of landscape architecture plan.
Just after shelling out quite a few hours in Townsend Hall’s senior design and style studio, Leigh Muldrow, Christopher Fettke von Koeckritz and DJ Bromley’s walked across the convocation phase was a big step in their youthful occupations in landscape architecture, a fascinating industry at the intersection of artwork, plants, ecosystems and web site style. The undergraduate expertise of these recently minted UD alumni led to thrilling graduate faculty designs in Philadelphia, Oslo and Newark.
All three Blue Hens interned at UD’s Coastal Resilience Structure Studio (CRDS), which focuses on evolving coastlines in Delaware. The investigation team performs with cities and towns to adapt to environmental transform. The encounter showed them the exclusive, significant position that landscape architects can engage in in a group.
In the classroom, Office of Plant and Soil Sciences faculty requested each individual senior to pick out a website throughout the globe for their capstone undertaking. Muldrow was drawn to Seattle, Washington, and Fettke von Koeckritz landed on Kotzebue, Alaska Bromley envisioned a broader matter, considering theoretically about landscape architecture at large. Their activities and primary techniques to structure led to three very different proposals.
Landscape architecture major Leigh Muldrow’s “Landscape of Decency” task focused on the impacts of air pollution in Georgetown, a community in Seattle.
The achiever
As a university student returning to school to go after a career improve, Muldrow’s qualifications in enterprise and economics helped form her choice to go after landscape architecture. In her senior undertaking, she targeted on soil toxicity and its effects on surrounding communities. Muldrow questioned the delicate conversations of telling folks living in poisonous environments the real truth about their situation.
“In my case, it’s going to be designing this community-huge soil sampling function in conjunction with the state of Washington and their toxicology division,” described Muldrow. “We would provide soil data for their complete neighborhood so that we can detect hotspots, and then that will lead to design and style implementation.”
Muldrow is conducting ongoing research in the Georgetown community of Seattle, undertaking community science knowledge collection as a system for environmental justice. Georgetown faces a tough fight with air pollution, which Muldrow and her analysis workforce review with assistance from the American Geophysical Union (AGU) Thriving Earth Trade. She is centered on the outcomes of air pollution on the local community and close by Duwamish River as a outcome of area things like a massive interstate rail property and, most importantly, a neighboring airport.
“The reality that piston-engine airplanes are nevertheless utilizing leaded fuel, even nevertheless leaded gas has been banned in every other way, is actually positioning an unfair, each day stress of exposing this group to airborne direct particles,” explained Muldrow, who is from Milford, Delaware.
Muldrow was not too long ago named the receiver of the Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Olmsted Scholar Award for her perform the honor is given to college students who show a motivation to landscape architecture, leadership and advancing sustainable style.
In the drop, Muldrow will continue being at UD to pursue a doctorate in Plant and Soil Sciences.
Christopher Fettke von Koeckritz (correct), pictured right here with Professor Eric Bardenhagen, concentrated on the issues faced by Kotzebue, Alaska, brought on by local weather improve in his “Gateway into the Arctic” job.
The adventurer
Like Muldrow, Fettke von Koeckritz investigated the affect of landscape architecture on a neighborhood. He established his sights north, 26 miles higher than the Arctic Circle, exactly where he searched for answers to environmental issues faced by Kotzebue, Alaska.
“Kotzebue is experiencing issues exacerbated by local weather alter,” Fettke von Koeckritz reported. “Alaska is the only coastal state in the U.S. that does not have an structured coastal administration software.”
This challenge took into account equally the environmental impacts of these difficulties and the affect on the inhabitants of the group. Fettke von Koeckritz investigated these challenges he desired methods that honored the local community, its traditions and its persons in a respectful fashion. He labored to tread lightly on the real landscape whilst aiding to remedy erosion complications introduced on barrier islands created out of dredge material.
The task led him to a different chilly-temperature spot — graduate faculty at The Oslo School of Architecture and Layout in Norway, in which he’ll receive fingers-on encounter researching arctic environments.
Fettke von Koeckritz is champing at the little bit to go to the Arctic in-individual with his Oslo professors and graduate cohort.
DJ Bromley (correct), pictured in this article with former UD professor Jules Bruck, focused on education and inequities inside the area of landscape architecture in his “Reevaluating Olmstead” undertaking.
The theorist
Though Muldrow and Fette von Koeckritz were being working together with distinct communities, Bromley was curious about the large picture. How can landscape architects use their unique training to impact communities as a complete?
He noticed designs ingrained inside the industry that marginalize teams of people and perpetuate inequities in society. The conclusion outcome was a re-evaluation of the instructional system for landscape architects. Bromley urged the job to continue on evolving its instruction.
Bromley’s technological adviser was Zachery Hammaker, a UD teacher and College of Pennsylvania graduate. Hammaker encouraged Bromley to use for the Penn/Delaware Graduate Fellowship, an esteemed prospect for landscape architecture majors to implement to Penn’s Grasp of Landscape Architecture software.
Bromley’s potent resume and portfolio gained him admission and a scholarship to the school’s prestigious, a few-12 months system.
“There are a great deal of procedures and techniques and methods in the industry that have originated [at Penn], so I’m actually thrilled to be ready to head up there and examine,” mentioned Bromley, who is from Wilmington, Delaware.
Like the relaxation of their cohort, these UD Class of 2022 landscape architecture majors capitalized on the palms-on investigate and style experiences during their time in Newark.
“There is one thing extremely special about acquiring a landscape architecture method in a plant and soil sciences office in a college or university of agriculture for the reason that we’re extremely shut to the land,” mentioned Jules Bruck, former UD professor and founding director of the bachelor of landscape architecture application. “Our pupils extremely value the land they have an understanding of the landscape at a deep degree when they graduate simply because they get a truly excellent schooling on it.”
Text description provided by the architects. Being the need of the day, a minimalist near net zero living, this is an effort to inspire people to readapt to sustainable living practices influenced by the past….. Essence – The Earth house demonstrates the built environment’s opportunities for addressing the global climate crisis. We have taken a conscientious decision to weave in nature through its effort to construct a net positive home comprised of Rammed Earth along with other natural materials excavated from the site.
Location – Located amidst expansive farmlands, the Earth house aims to blend seamlessly among its habitat and natural environment. The 3000 square foot construction has a building skin, thick with Earth walls that reduce solar heat gain and maintain a temperate 7 to 10 degrees cooler than the outside in the Tropical climate of Gujarat.
Layout – The layout is a simple one of three bedrooms and living space separated on either side with the leisure space of a pool and a Gazebo. The building size is optimum and leaves a minimal footprint on the site area. The sustainable country house also has an inclined roof targeted at capturing maximum solar energy to replenish and produce electricity for the space.
Energy – Along with being an active Sustainable design, the Earth House also adopts passive sustainable strategies such as considering sun orientation and sitting the house to face North for optimum daylight and natural ventilation that reduces energy requirements for the house in the long run.
Landscape – Landscaping choices were native to the area, carefully selecting plants local to the place, which inevitably reduces irrigation needs, adding to the passive energy strategy. This net zero home also surrounds itself with Miyawaki forest, Organic farm and Mango orchard with impressive foliage that shades the roof, reducing solar heat gain inside the building. The Earth house produces its own food, electricity and harvested water from the abundant rainfall.
Materiality – To up the ante on sustainability, we made sure to purchase all materials for furniture and finishes from companies that use environmentally responsible manufacturing techniques and recycled materials. Rocks in Gabion walls are local rocks readily available that are used to secure the house providing it sufficient privacy as well as be a sculpture in itself.
Sustainability – As climate change takes effect, it becomes more and more vital to concert our efforts toward minimizing our carbon footprint and promote the greening of our cities. A conscious effort to not only balance form with function, but to most importantly be environmentally responsible and sustainable was the crux of this design.
While Virginia Tech’s influence in architecture and design dates back to the founding of the university, it wasn’t until 1964 — when leading architectural educator Charles Burchard was tapped to organize and head a new College of Architecture — that the university firmly established its place as a global leader in visual and built environments.
“The new organizational structure will provide greater visibility for arts, design, and architecture programs by grouping them together and locating all studio and performance-based instruction related to arts and design classes in one college,” said Rosemary Blieszner, Alumni Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech and interim dean of the newly named college.
The realignment will transfer the School of Performing Arts, with its programs in theatre arts, cinema, and music, from its current home in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences (CLAHS) to the reshaped college, joining the School of Architecture, the School of Visual Arts, and the School of Design.
“This reorganization would not have been possible without the collaborative efforts of college and academic program leaders and administrative staff from many areas of our campus,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Cyril Clarke. “Their hard work and the engagement of faculty and staff in guiding this process have positioned the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design for further success. The transfer of the Myers-Lawson School of Construction to the College of Engineering and the School of Public and International Affairs to the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences will allow each program to partner more closely with like-minded disciplines and enhance their national visibility.”
According to Blieszner, the decision-making process involved input from school directors, faculty, staff, advisory board members, and deans across the affected colleges and departments, as well as the provost and the president.
“This is an exciting and rare opportunity for faculty and staff to have input on reformulating a college, creating a new vision for its schools, and searching for a new dean,” she said.
Virginia Tech associate professor of practice Martha Sullivan, program chair for industrial design, is among faculty who contributed to the plan to form the new school of design.
“The faculty in industrial design, interior design, and landscape architecture are committed to design excellence and inclusive practices that generate experiential learning strategies, professionally relevant research, internationally recognized creative achievement, funded projects, and external partnerships that extend into communities beyond Virginia Tech,” Sullivan said. “We anticipate that the school will attract faculty and students who identify with our shared responsibility to be stewards of a healthy culture and ecosystem. We value transformative design and strive to be at the forefront of technological development and ethical responsibility in our profession.”
Sullivan noted that the new college name is more representative of the programs in the college. “College of Architecture, Arts, and Design is a more inclusive name that accurately represents the college’s disciplines and practice moving forward.”
Blieszner agreed.
“The proposed changes contribute to the university’s ongoing focus on transdisciplinary scholarship and education. Faculty recruitment will be enhanced because the college will be coherent and aptly named. Faculty will perceive a fit between their college home and their discipline. Prospective students will find it easier to locate information about the majors they want to pursue. Degrees will be conferred from a college with a name that clearly reflects the programs housed in it. And it will be easier for nonmajors to find elective courses, Pathways courses, and minors to complement their major studies or expand their personal appreciation of various art forms, industrial design, theatre, cinema, music, interior design, landscape architecture, and architecture,” Blieszner said.
Of equal importance, noted Blieszner, will be what is not changing. In general, courses will be taught in the same spaces, pending coordination with the registrar on enrollment, course requests, and other details that sometimes require adjustments in classroom assignments.
“No changes are proposed for degree requirements, courses, faculty appointments or rank, advisors, or staff as a result of the reorganization, although of course, changes occur routinely when we hire new colleagues or say farewell to those who retire or decide to work elsewhere,” she said. “Schools and degree programs will be transferred as intact units.
Although the transition will include relocating the university’s civilian marching band, The Marching Virginians, from CLAHS to AAD, Blieszner said that the leadership, operations, and alumni chapter of the band will not change. Since their creation in 1974, The Marching Virginians have performed for hundreds of nationally televised football games and appeared in numerous parades. The band includes more than 350 student musicians from majors across the university.
Recent graduate Kensley Bullins supports the proposed changes. Bullins earned a degree in graphic design from the college this year. During her senior year, she served as president of the School of Visual Art’s student mentors and ambassadors. Also, Bullins participated in the Marching Virginians throughout her time at Virginia Tech.
“I am hopeful the changes will allow us to gain more recognition as well as awareness of our visual arts program at VT,” Bullins said. “I hope the changes allow the college to expand our faculty, facilities, and student acceptance rate – both for freshmen and internal transfers.”
Bullins cited the college’s alumni network as one of the keys to both personal and professional success for graduates. “I anticipate that the recommended changes will strengthen that network. Bringing additional creative fields into the college will not only generate new possibilities for creative interactions for current and future students, but also will influence how the alumni system will grow,” she said.
The proposal was approved by a vote of the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors this spring.
