COMMUNICATIONS EXCELLENCE AWARD SUBSURFACE Magazine Joshua Llaneza, Student ASLA, Jennifer Rueda, Student ASLA, Courtney Embrey, Student ASLA, Mitch Howard, Student ASLA, Lancelot Hunter, Student ASLA, Joel Carrasco, Student ASLA, Bahar Mahgerefteh, Student ASLA, Judy Lee, Student ASLA and Kimberley Kearney, Student ASLA California State Polytechnic University, Pomona, Pomona, California Faculty Advisors: Andrew Wilcox; James Becerra

	"Bravo--very powerful. The stories were varied and from across the country, unusual for a student publication. The presentation and design were imaginative and provocative." — 2008 Student Awards Jury Comments

Project Statement:

SUBSURFACE is a collective body of student work from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Department of Landscape Architecture.

SUBSURFACE magazine provides the initial link in a network of thought. It is a showcase of images and words, addressing the issues that concern students, academics, and professionals within our chosen field.

SUBSURFACE begins to scratch the surface of current and future issues that affect the field of landscape architecture.

Project Narrative:

This all started in the spring quarter of my senior year. The studio project was based on the United States Green Building Council (US¬GBC) competition; with goals of reintegrating underused structures into the community, based on the Los Angeles City Master Plan goals that align themselves closely with the skills and talents that are most familiar to landscape architects. Although this was an architecture based competition, it provided an opportunity for landscape architecture students to engage larger issues in community-based design.

The project site was the old Lincoln-Heights Jail, uniquely situated at the confluence of the Arroyo Seco and the Los Angeles River, in Los Angeles, California. After some research and a site visit, I had some rough conceptual design ideas. Next I set off to find some case studies, which could offer guidance from successful projects of similar intent, site challenges, and structure. Landscape Architecture Magazine is the most accessible resource for built projects in our field, so that was a logical place to begin my search for case studies. After searching three year’s worth of publications, all I could find were a mere three articles that related to my project. Although these were helpful to a degree, I was looking for more substantial and in depth coverage of contemporary projects.

A classmate pointed out the discrepancy between the amount of magazine publications that architects have compared to landscape architects. There are numerous titles including Dwell, Praxis, Architecture Review, Architectural Record, and Architectural Digest. Our college library subscribed to these architecture magazines, but I also began to notice a number of publications from schools from all over the country that were showcasing student work as well as scholarly articles. These publications not only served as another resource for students to find current projects, themes, styles, ideas, and theories in our field, but also as an explicit form of propaganda for that particular institution.

All of a sudden fireworks started going off in my brain.
Where’s our magazine? Where’s our resource? Where is our voice?
And, as they say, the rest is history…

I n t e n t

As a “going away present” to our university, the landscape architecture undergraduate class of 2008 has published this magazine, SUBSURFACE. It is our intention that every year the senior undergraduate class will create an issue of SUBSURFACE that reflects current and future concerns, opinions, and theories of landscape architecture.

SUBSURFACE would become an archived publication that could be readily available for student reference from our design library. This archive will become a testament of the skills, knowledge, diversity of topics covered, and creativity of our university’s landscape architecture student body.

A u d i e n c e + D i s t r i b u t i o n

SUBSURFACE is primarily geared towards landscape architecture students, yet, can appeal to a broad range of design students, design professionals, and the general public because the language of design should be universal.

SUBSURFACE will be available in one of two ways. For a marginal subscription, individuals can enjoy the traditional magazine format, or a paperless online version, where the individual can access the current issue.

F u t u r e

As an annual publication, SUBSURFACE has the ability to be a time capsule, where each issue is a glimpse into the field of landscape architecture at a given point in time. Every issue will be a collection of current trends and ideas in the field of landscape architecture. The energy will be coming from the front lines - the senior undergraduate class. The graduating students will have the freedom to write about pressing issues of their time. Twenty years from now, it will be humbling, yet inspiring to examine the archive of SUBSURFACE, and see the pattern of interest shift and evolve within the field of landscape architecture. Just as the natural landscape is dynamic and in a constant state of flux, SUBSURFACE is poised to be an enduring and relevant voice in the field of landscape architecture.