On a leftover site in Punta Pite, landscape architect Teresa Moller’s house is a study in give and take.
By Jimena Martignoni/Photography by Cristóbal Palma
The terraced gardens behind the house showcase many different species that can now be appreciated as one composition.
Nestled into steep cliffs that face the Pacific Coast of Chile, the landscape architect Teresa Moller’s house combines a small-scale rewilding and a site for the study of seacoast plants. The experimental gardens at Moller’s house, in the residential development Punta Pite, are part of a 27-acre property that follows the contours of a bay between Zapallar and Papudo, two sea towns located about 100 miles north of Santiago. Started more than 15 years ago, the gardens seem to have realized their full potential, though they are also, fundamentally, an evolving work in progress.Continue reading A Certain Sacrifice→
No longer just for coastal areas, WEDG 3.0 adds inland waterfronts to its certification.
By Clare Jacobson
Funded through the Rebuild Illinois capital plan, each breakwater features new below- and above-water habitats. Image courtesy Living Habitats.
In October 2023, the New York–based nonprofit Waterfront Alliance launched version 3.0 of its Waterfront Edge Design Guidelines (WEDG) and revised its WEDG Professionals Course, which the group describes as “tools for sites building resilience, ecology, and access at the water’s edge.” WEDG was updated in part to maintain best practices and to surpass regulatory codes, says Joseph Sutkowi, the chief waterfront design officer at the Waterfront Alliance. He notes changes to benchmarks for community engagement, long-term maintenance planning, and protection for flooding beyond a site’s property line.Continue reading Coming To A Shoreline Near You→
Transforming a defunct monorail into an elevated trail was an exercise in creative friction.
By Timothy A. Schuler
TEN x TEN’s vision for the trail treats the former monorail as part of the cultural landscape. Photo by Corey Gaffer Photography LLC.
For some designers, a zoo may not have the same appeal or design potential as, say, a postindustrial site. But for the Minneapolis-based designers at TEN x TEN Landscape Architecture and Urbanism, a project to repurpose a former monorail at the Minnesota Zoo as a 1.25-mile-long elevated walking path was as rich as any historic site.Continue reading A View To The Zoo→
Firms are sharing project contracts and budgets more openly across teamsas a matter of staff engagement.
By Bradford McKee
Clockwise from top left: Paul Kissinger, FASLA, CEO, Kissinger Design, Dexter, Michigan, photo courtesy EDSA;Susannah Ross, ASLA, director, landscape architect, Agency Landscape + Planning, Cambridge, Massachusetts, photo courtesy Agency Landscape + Planning;Greg Tuzzolo, managing director, STIMSON, Cambridge, Massachusetts, photo by Garrett Stone;Jennifer Zell, ASLA, director of Los Angeles operations and director of Regenerative Design Studio, MIG, Los Angeles, photo by Evan Mather, FASLA.
Landscape architecture offices are competing for creative, productive talent in spheres much broader than their peer groups in other design offices. This means the stakes are higher to show commitment and earn it back among their staff and new recruits. Entrants to the profession these days show a desire, principals and practice consultants say, for genuine enrollment in their firms and to support the firm’s evolution. People want to know more and be able to ask more questions.Continue reading Who Needs To Know?→
Computer modeling puts a new species on the menu of edible fire breaks.
By Madeline Bodin
A team of scientists says it has found a plant that could help protect communities against wildfire while providing income and filling bellies at the same time: the banana.Continue reading A Buffer Buffet→
To meet the ambitious climate targets ahead, designers, developers, and construction firms need common standards. And soon.
By Timothy A. Schuler
Climate Positive Design, whose Pathfinder platform is another emissions calculator, is among the ECHO Project’s participants. Image courtesy Climate Positive Design.
As municipal governments, developers, universities, and corporations begin to collect emissions data, either voluntarily or to comply with local regulations, experts say that the building sector will need better standards for reporting embodied carbon data. “We need to be aligned at the highest levels of guidance and leadership, or else it’s going to lose its impact,” says Pamela Conrad, ASLA, the founder of Climate Positive Design and the creative force behind Pathfinder, a free carbon calculator designed for landscape architects (see “The Plus Side,” LAM, October 2020).Continue reading Fast Tracked→
A soapstone quarry with Indigenous roots is set to become an archaeological park.
By Kim O’Connell
Examples of previously excavated soapstone. Montgomery Parks says future archaeological excavations are likely. Courtesy Montgomery Parks.
Four thousand years ago, if you were working with a stone mallet, it would be steady but relatively quick work to carve a soapstone boulder into a medium-sized bowl. With stone chipping off with every strike, you could start the project in the morning, work into the afternoon, and be boiling water in the bowl by nightfall. Soapstone was ideal that way—easy enough to carve but dense enough to hold heat.Continue reading Dig Deep→
The Magazine of the American Society of Landscape Architects
