Landscape Performance Series: Demonstrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Value of Sustainable Landscapes

AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

COMMUNICATIONS

Landscape Architecture Foundation

PROJECT STATEMENT

The Landscape Performance Series is an online set of resources to build capacity and transform the way landscape is valued in the design and development process. It brings together information and innovations from research, industry, academia, and professional practice in the form of 100 Case Study Briefs, 120 Fast Facts, dozens of Benefits Toolkit calculators, and Collections curated by thought leaders. The sleek, intuitive, and resource-rich website includes a fully searchable database and sophisticated content discovery tools to help users locate relevant information. With over 700,000 pageviews, the Landscape Performance Series has become a go-to place to find design precedents, show value, and make the case for sustainable landscape solutions for 50,000 annual users. The website is an unparalleled resource and vehicle for research, information sharing, and dialogue, reaching an ever-broadening audience of those who design, deliver, construct, maintain, and advocate for sustainable, resilient, high-performing landscapes.

PROJECT NARRATIVE

The Landscape Performance Series (LPS) is an online interactive set of resources to help designers, agencies, and advocates evaluate performance, share best practices, and make the case for sustainable landscape solutions. Launched in 2010, this unparalleled platform showcases the measurable environmental, social, economic, and aesthetic benefits of landscape, sharing information and innovations from design research, academia, industry, and professional practice.

The Landscape Performance Series is designed to build capacity and transform the way landscape is considered in the design and development process. Today’s land development projects must serve multiple functions, and decision-makers, investors, and policymakers are increasingly seeking proof that projects perform and provide return on investment. Landscape performance is a way to provide this evidence for landscape solutions.

By compiling evidence-based benefits of sustainable landscapes and making them understandable and accessible to key decision-makers, the LPS website is bridging the knowledge gap in the design, development, and policy realms about the importance of landscape. By encouraging landscape architects to design for, measure, and communicate performance, the Landscape Performance Series is changing the way landscape architects practice and the way others understand and appreciate the value of landscape solutions. Target audiences are the range of players who influence land development practices and policies, including landscape architecture practitioners, faculty, and students; planners, engineers, and other allied design professionals; developers; federal and municipal agencies; nonprofits that advocate for sustainable development; and corporations with sustainability agendas.

The number of resources and use of the website has grown significantly since 2010, with 30% average annual growth in traffic. Recognizing this immense value and potential, in 2014 the Landscape Performance Series was redesigned and re-launched as a standalone website: LandscapePeformance.org. Based on feedback from users and key strategic audiences, the new site is intuitive and even more resource-rich, incorporating new modules, functionality, and ways to curate and showcase content. With sophisticated content discovery tools, from enhanced search capabilities to multi-layer content filters and related content recommendations, the Landscape Performance Series helps visitors discover pertinent information that they otherwise might not find.

The Landscape Performance Series synthesizes knowledge from a wide range of disciplines including landscape architecture, horticulture, civil engineering, urban economics, the social sciences, and public health. The primary components are:

1) CASE STUDY BRIEFS – Database of over 100 exemplary built landscape projects with quantified environmental, economic, and social benefits. The Case Study Briefs cover a wide range of project typologies, scales, and geographic locations. They are produced by teams of designers and academic researchers, who assess performance and document each project. Over 60 leading firms have participated in this process and contributed case studies to the series, including AECOM, Andropogon, Conservation Design Forum, Design Workshop, EDSA, Hargreaves Associates, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Mithun, the Office of James Burnett, OLIN, PWP Landscape Architecture, Raymond Jungles Inc, Reed Hilderbrand, Sasaki Associates, SmithGroupJJR, Stoss Landscape Urbanism, SWA, Turenscape, WRT, and ZGF. The database behind the case study library is downloadable for those looking to conduct research on landscape performance benefits across projects.

2) FAST FACT LIBRARY – Over 120 short summaries of the benefits of landscape derived from published research. Spanning decades of scientific research, each Fast Fact showcases one of landscape’s multiple and sometimes surprising benefits to help make the case for sustainable landscape solutions with clients, communities, or policymakers. Each includes a citation and links to the full published article when available.

3) BENEFITS TOOLKIT – Dozens of online calculators and tools to estimate landscape performance. The free tools range from simple calculators with nationwide applicability to geographically-specific worksheets used by regulatory agencies. Tools can be used to estimate specific landscape benefits for completed projects when actual measurements are not available, or they can be used in the design phase to compare projected benefits among various options. Many tools also allow the user to compare life-cycle costs for conventional and sustainable design features.

4) COLLECTIONS – Themed LPS highlights curated in-house and by leading thinkers. Collections are created around timely topics and provide thoughtful reflections on the featured content. With guest-curated Collections, readers gain insights from experts in areas such as living architecture, active living, and schoolyard greening.

Other sections of the new website include: a NEWS BLOG and WATCH LIST to stay abreast of landscape performance news, funding opportunities, and trending topics; TRAINING with landscape performance-related presentations and webinars; RESOURCES FOR EDUCATORS with university teaching materials, and GUIDE TO EVALUATE PERFORMANCE with over 100 metrics with assessment considerations and positioning information.

With over 700,000 pageviews, the Landscape Performance Series has become a go-to place to find design precedents, show value, and make the case for sustainable landscape solutions for 50,000 annual users. Landscape performance is rapidly emerging as a vital way for landscape architects to represent and articulate the value of their work, and to provide reliable and valid evidence to support design decisions. The website is an unparalleled resource and vehicle for research, information-sharing and dialogue, reaching an ever-broadening audience of those who design, deliver, construct, maintain, and advocate for sustainable, resilient, high-performing landscapes.

"It’s a living document essential to our profession. It pushes other professions to emulate the level of research it contains."

- 2015 Awards Jury

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