Member Profiles 2011: Landscape Architecture and Transportation (Part 1)



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This article is the 13th in a series profiling members of ASLA’s Professional Practice Networks (PPNs), based on responses to the 2011 Annual PPN Survey. The members of this PPN work on a variety of transportation-related projects in the United States and abroad. Following are some details about their activities.

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Thomas Bennett, ASLA, is a senior urban designer at Otak International in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His primary design focus has been on transportation, with an emphasis on pedestrians, cyclists, and transit. The professional challenges and personal rewards of working in Abu Dhabi are recognizing design opportunities when the functional solutions of modern urban design are interwoven with the complex depth of Arabic culture and geometry. While a Western-inspired, high-rise city in the desert may not seem all that sustainable, this region is an ancient crossroads of civilization. Traditional Arabic heritage, culture, and religion are intricately tied to sustainability as a result of the environment, and Arabic hospitality stems in part from granting repose to early travelers passing through this place. Abu Dhabi is a city that works because its wide boulevards accommodate both cars and “Manhattanesque” volumes of pedestrians in a mixed-use environment that is still inconceivable in the United States.

From refining the city’s original Urban Street Design Manual, to designing infill development that adds an Arabic dimension to New Urbanism, to retrofitting a high-capacity arterial into a truly urban boulevard, Bennett is realizing the potential of transportation and landscape architecture in his first year in Abu Dhabi.

Vaughn Rinner, ASLA, is a principal at Vanasse Hangen Brustlin in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Recently, the firm completed a challenging and ultimately very successful downtown streetscape in Kilmarnock, Virginia, that won an award from the Virginia Downtown Development Association. Like many other towns, Main Street in Kilmarnock is the through highway, which presents a challenge to create a compatible traffic and pedestrian environment. Current work also includes preparing design standards and sign plans for communities using the Department of Transportation Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (DOT MUTCD) standards for individualized wayfinding. The firm’s landscape architects and transportation group are coordinating on a contract with VDOT to update the MUTCD standards for the Virginia DOT.

Peg Staeheli, ASLA, is a principal at SvR Design Company in Seattle. The firm is working with Public Health – Seattle & King County in Washington on a Center for Disease Control grant to examine health and the built environment. The study includes seven suburban communities and addresses walking, land use, cycling, and food access.

Jeffrey Grob, ASLA, is senior associate at Stantec Consulting in New York City. Grob was the principal urban designer for two major projects that were completed in the past year: the reconstruction of Route 18 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and the development of a series of highway aesthetic and urban design recommendations to guide the reconstruction of the Queensway/Highway 417 through Ottawa, Canada, for the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario.

Gus Drizos, ASLA, is a senior planner at KCI Technologies in Pittsburgh. A highlight in the past couple of years was developing the transportation and land use strategy plan for Harrisburg Pike in Pennsylvania.

Joel Stevens, ASLA, is the operations director at Storrow Kinsella Associates in Indianapolis. He attended the 2010 ASLA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., and especially appreciated the bike tour because it highlighted active transportation infrastructure, which is a focus of his studio. The tour confirmed that landscape architects are making a real difference in providing balanced transportation. Stevens noted that Washington, D.C., has broad facilities that provide realistic commuting options other than the car. The bike tour gave him new insights and a refreshed energy level for his daily work in the profession.

Linda Stein, ASLA, is a landscape architect in Muncy, Pennsylvania. She notes that the Marcellus Shale development in north central Pennsylvania is having impacts on local communities. Gas industry trucks now dominate local traffic. This presents difficulties for small boroughs, especially for their main streets and historic districts. There are ongoing traffic calming and streetscape design discussions, and it is hoped the gas companies will fund some of these improvements to preserve local neighborhoods. The current governor successfully ran on a pledge not to tax the gas industry, so it will be challenging to address environmental and local impacts.

Geoff Turnbull, International ASLA, is a project management professional and design manager at ALDAR Properties PJSC in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. His primary responsibility is overseeing ALDAR's large portfolio of projects. A particularly rewarding experience has been revising the master plan of Yas Island, the home of the Etihad Formula 1 Championship and Ferrari World theme park. Given the challenges facing development in the region, Yas Island needed a new master plan to reflect a changed financial era and to comply with the urban planning precepts of the Urban Planning Council of Abu Dhabi. Turnbull has worked closely with the Urban Planning Council and a number of world-class consultants including Broadway Maylan, AECOM, and RMJM. The conceptual plan has been completed for a number of large precincts in the detailed master plan phase.

Andrew Mullins, Student ASLA, is a landscape architecture student at the University of Georgia in Athens. He was involved in a service learning project at J. J. Harris Elementary School in Athens for which his team was asked to design a shade-tree plan for the school. The plan and concept, which focused on native shade trees, allow students and teachers both to enjoy and learn about the benefits of the trees. The project was approved and implemented with much success.

Visit the Landscape Architecture and Transportation PPN web page for more information about this group. To learn more about ASLA's other PPNs, go to the PPN home page or contact Rachel Shaw, ASLA's manager of Professional Practice, at rshaw@asla.org.

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