American Society of Landscape Architects

Interviews

	Jose Alminana, ASLA, LEED AP, Principal, Andropogon, on Sustainable Landscape Architecture “Pollination, flood mitigation, clean water and nutrient recycling, just to name a few, are ecosystem services whose value needs to be quantified. To help understand these values, there is an immense body of work that has begun to measure these services. However, let’s not forget that a significant value of environmental processes to human beings is to enrich the human experience by fostering biophillic connections. Ecosystem services are another way of revealing the true value of nature to human beings. Quantification of 'services' does NOT replace the value of the aesthetics of a landscape.” Read more.
	Francesco Bandarin, Director, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, on Evolving Cultural Landscapes "What we aren't trying to do is freeze a landscape. We are completely aware that although our task is linked to conservation, the world evolves and the vision of heritage changes. It's very important that we include in our vision, practice, and statutory work, a concept that allows for the interpretation of modern needs, and the values that are involved in cultural landscapes. These values are something that can be preserved, but within an evolving society." Read more.
	Steven Bishop, Sustainability Lead, IDEO, on Sustainable Design “The definition of what good design is is changing– a good design now takes into consideration how it fits into larger systems, whether it’s social systems, how people relate; business systems, or how it fits into the industry; technical systems — what’s available out there in the technology world; or ecological systems. The best thing the designers can do today for the planet is to get to work and start putting good designs out in the world. Small problems, the big problems of the world–take them all on.” Read more.
	Earl Blumenauer, U.S. Representative, on the Cost of Making U.S. Communities Walkable and Bikeable "People always think that making communities bike and pedestrian accessible is some daunting, hugely expensive task. The fact is that my hometown of Portland, Oregon, has put in almost 200 miles of bike trails for the cost of one mile of urban freeway. This isn’t an issue of retrofitting; it is often just a matter of changing the way we think about our most valuable public space: our street network. For too long, we have assumed that streets, paid for by all taxpayers, belong only to cars, and that the rest of us -- bicyclists, pedestrians, sidewalk cafes, merchants, etc. -- should have to compete for a small slice of sidewalk space." Read more.
	Jeb Brugmann, Author of "Welcome to the Urban Revolution," on Urban Ecosystems "The only way they become real ecosystems is if they become places of primary energy and nutrient production. The eco-district or eco-city of the future could be a place that internalizes its energy and nutrient production. This is a big challenge in terms of planning, design, and technology, but I think it's possible to create real urban ecosystems." Read more.
	Majora Carter, MacArthur Grant Winner and Founder of Sustainable South Bronx, on Expanding Access to Parks and Green Roofs “At this point, green roof demonstration projects have about as much value as another study to see if intensive diesel and powerplant exhaust give kids asthma — none. We know fossil fuel emissions are bad and we know green roofs work. By continually calling for repetitive studies and “demonstrations”, we imply that there is uncertainty. Kind of like what the oil companies did with global warming. The very word “demonstration” implies untested; the “study” implies a surprise around the corner. We need change on a massive scale. We might not get it perfectly right immediately, but we certainly know that we have not been doing a good job with regard to our social or environmental future so far. If you know something works, do it — and do it big, bold, and beautifully and make an impact!” Read more.
	Andrea Cochran, FASLA, on Designing Landscapes that Enable Scientific Research "Research work can be isolating so the idea was to create spaces that encourage people to get together in small groups or larger groups and create opportunities for them to run across one another walking from place to place -- either coming to work, or going from building to building. Encouraging community and encouraging interaction was an important part of the design. This applies to a lot of different kinds of work. However, for research, in particular, it's really important." Read more.
	Kathy Dahlkemper, U.S. Representative, on Government Investment in Green Jobs “There is a lot of green technology that is going to create jobs. It’s going to expand what we envision when we think of green collar jobs. We’re going to have construction jobs focused on retro-fitting for energy efficiency. You call them green jobs. How far you can expand that definition out? I guess this is the question. We need to make sure our students coming out of school are ready for the jobs of the future. That’s going to be a big component to this. Are we teaching our students at the high school level, technical school level, and collegiate level what needs to be taught?” Read more.
	Dickson Despommier, Professor, Columbia University, on Vertical Farms “In fact, if you could take the high-tech greenhouse iteration that now exists in the Arizona desert or in places throughout England and the Netherlands and just stack them on top of each other, that’s the concept. Now, tell that to an engineer and they’ll just laugh at you because they realize that there’s a lot of integration of systems that needs to go on here in order to get this to actually work. So you have water use issues. You have waste energy issues. You have then germination issues of where do you get your seeds from; how do you choose your seeds; how do you make sure that you don’t introduce plant diseases indoors?" Read more.
	Herbert Dreiseitl, International ASLA, on Designing with Water "Cities and urban areas have to change their systems into waterscapes. Waterscapes are living systems that provide a living, cleansing process like nature. The value of what a river gives a wetlands through cleaning the water is enormous! If we take the intelligence of nature and bring it back to cities through very smart technology, we can re-create this. The water body in a city is like an organism. It has different ways of interacting. Water has to be decentralized, brought to the surface, and integrated into what we actually see. What we see is what we take care of." Read more.
	Anthony Flint, Author of "Wrestling with Moses" on Jane Jacob's Influence on Park Design "I’ve suggested some of the ways Jane Jacobs had a big impact on landscape architecture, public spaces, and park-making. It starts with the concept that parks are for people. But in some ways it’s been a tricky exercise. Jacobs didn’t believe in big plans, and valued the way that Washington Square Park in New York City brought people together on a more informal basis. For Jacobs, it was a perfect example of an unplanned and organic space." Read more.
	Kathryn Gustafson, ASLA, on Using Urban Parks to Fight Sprawl "What is important about urban parks is that they are the only way to stop urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is linked with the energy crisis. Sustainability means trying to live in harmony with the planet. This isn't possible if we don’t densify our cities to stop urban sprawl. The only way to densify a city is to have urban space." Read more.
	Kristina Hill, Affiliate ASLA, on Climate Change "This past year was a case in point – in winter, there were unusually large snowstorms in cities like Washington, D.C., and people claimed that “global warming” was a hoax. By summer, we found ourselves on track to experience the hottest year ever across the planet as a whole. The second-hottest year was 2005. People have a hard time understanding that the real problem is not a gradual warming trend; the real problem is that we’re facing an increase in climate extremes – from snowfall to heat and from floods to drought." Read more.
	Jie Hu, International ASLA, Beijing Olympic Park Designer, on Chinese Landscape Architecture Education "But one thing I feel we are missing in Chinese landscape education is an understanding of general ecological concepts. For example, as landscape architects, we should have knowledge about regional ecology. The climate, geography and the art is still called environmental quality. We are missing the big picture on ecological quality – this is missing in the traditional Chinese landscape education." Read more.
	Sandra James, International ASLA, City and Greenways Planner, on Vancouver's Green Streets "I can tell you apocryphally that I now get calls from real estate agents asking me if I know of any houses coming up for sale along greenways. Greenways and green streets go across the city. People who use the greenway near their homes are normally the folks in the neighborhood who use them to take out baby buggies or get groceries. They know it's a safe street that has plants and some visual interest. They will meet their neighbours on a green street." Read more.
	Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environment Officer, City of Chicago, on Green Roofs "We couldn't give stormwater mitigation credit to a new development for installing a green roof until we passed our stormwater ordinance a couple of years ago. Now, every new development is required to calculate stormwater runoff and figure out how they can keep at least a half-inch of that first rain onsite for utilization and bioswales, green roofs, or other green infrastructure like permeable pavements. Green roofs can play a significant role in stormwater plans for each site." Read more.
	Mia Lehrer, FASLA, on Community Participation in Design "I see community outreach as an opportunity to help people understand landscape architecture, understand the process, and what we're actually able to do. We can design, but we can't necessarily deliver a project if the funding isn't there. The politicians hold a lot of cards. As we start and educate people about choices, they need to understand that they have a choice between certain kinds of interventions." Read more.
	Paul Morris, FASLA, on Designing Healthy Communities "In examples around the country, what has been found is that where communities take the initiative to actually install the infrastructure, there is, in fact, a significant pent-up demand that has been unmet. It's kind of a 'if you build it, they will use it' situation. In different cities around the country, where they've done things like added bike lanes on streets, or built sidewalks where they didn't exist, they were surprised at the increase in usership by walkers and bicyclists in those kinds of facilities." Read more.
	Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability, Curtin University, on Resilient Cities "A resilient city is sustainable in its economy, environment, and community, but it has a deeper quality which enables it to quickly adapt to challenges and rebuild itself for any challenge it faces. This is a spiritual quality, which we can see in individuals, families, communities, and businesses, where they are able to face their problems honestly and reinvent themselves rather than live in denial. The reality of the peak oil and climate change crises is that most cities are in denial and not prepared for the big changes that are required." Read more.
	Laurie Olin, FASLA, on OLIN’s Award-winning Landscape Architecture “I had this simple idea. It is so elementary: that if you could just do this slight berm all the way around the outside that would be up above the wheels of the car. People standing could look over it. When you sat down you would be enclosed. It was just like those office partitions that are in all those open offices. You sit down and you’re in your cubicle. You stand up and you can see all around. I thought, “Well, if we just had a berm that size that would cut out a lot of the auto noise, and help isolate it.” And then if you just flip the water — it seemed so clear, Columbus was a mariner, right? It should be about water. You should have more water. The thing was he didn’t discover a continent — he discovered islands. This should be an island. You should walk out to an island. This monument to Columbus should be on an island in the water, very simple.” Read more.
	David Owen, Author of "Green Metropolis" on the Importance of Density "New York City has the smallest per-capita carbon footprint of any American community—just 7.1 metric tons of greenhouse gases per resident per year, compared with a national average of 24.5. (Manhattan’s is even smaller, and is about the same as Sweden’s.) The reason is population density. Shrinking the distance between people—and, especially, between people and their destinations—reduces energy use, carbon emission, and waste in all categories." Read more.
	Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Mexico’s Leading Landscape Architect, on Global Mega-Cities “Mexico City and surroundings is an enormous conglomerate, a megalopolis of many contrasts. There is the world class city with its great museums, a few great parks and its deep history, with many European, pre-Hispanic and North American influences. A city with a certain sophistication in the arts, music, cinema and architecture, and a center with many important universities. But it’s also a third world mega-city of contrasts and contradictions: chaotic traffic, rapid growth and development, including an informal sector of enormous dimensions which erupt in street markets and vendors, uncontrolled squatter settlements, sub-cultures, illegal taxis and air pollution. Parks and open space play an important role within this described context — not only as social spaces for people of poor and middle incomes, but as urban elements of order and reference, and ecological balance. Parks are spaces that make the city 'breath'.” Read more.
	Os Schmitz, Professor, Yale University, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, on Recovering Polluted Ecosystems "It isn't about fighting nature and getting rid of nature in favor of built environments. It's the idea that nature can be beneficial to us. The message of our paper is that if we want to think about nature that way, we need to restore. We can be successful in a lot of cases, and in a good many cases we can be quite successful within the time span of a human generation or less." Read more.
	Ken Smith, ASLA, Ken Smith Landscape Architecture, on Green Infrastructure "I think the policymakers are probably onboard. I mean my urban clients are all for these things. They may not know exactly how to do it. If the problem in the past was having a single profession make a single-purpose infrastructure, then I think the solution in the future is really a multidisciplinary team of people who bring multiple interests and multiple functions to that infrastructure. I think we’re starting to see that more and more — it’s engineers, architects, landscape architects, and ecologists working together on a piece of infrastructure. That’s how you bring the green to the infrastructure and incorporate it into the infrastructure." Read more.
	Jeff Speck, Honorary ASLA, Co-author of "The Smart Growth Manual," on Sustainable Communities "Just to elaborate slightly, you can change all the light bulbs in your house from incandescent to compact fluorescent, but if you can live with one less car because you live in a walkable urban environment -- or even a well- organized, walkable suburban environment -- that has 50 times the impact. It makes changing your light bulbs statistically insignificant." Read more.
	Daniel Tal, ASLA, RNL Design / Google SketchUp, on Technology for Landscape Architects "There is so much new technology it’s hard to keep up with. It used to be that you just had to know your lessons about how things come together in construction, how people design. I think every office now needs somebody that’s technologically savvy, and knows how computers work, how computer hardware works, what programs are out there, and how they can be integrated, if they want to be competitive. It’s about making sure that you’ve got the edge." Read more.
	Alexandros Washburn, Affiliate ASLA, Urban Design Chief, New York City, on PlaNYC "A city is a living entity itself. It’s the most complex living entity on earth, so I think I would take the point of view of saying a lot of what we do in urban design and infrastructure and the streetscape – what we try to do, is put down a trellis for growth. We could use a natural analogy in the sense that we have to provide the right substrate, the right structure to allow something as glorious and living as a city to grow around us, and grow healthily and well." Read more.
	Kongjian Yu, International ASLA, Designer of the Red Ribbon, Tang He River Park, on China’s Environmental Crisis “Landscape architecture is now a tool for social justice and environmental stewardship. The battle should now go to China. When Olmsted invented this word and this profession, the major issue was social justice and the recreational needs of the American people. At that time, America was in a process of urbanization. Now, the same thing is happening in China, but more seriously, more severely, because of the environmental issues.” Read more.