Click here to view the course syllabus.
Project Briefs
Sculpting Landscape Experience at Campus Lake
Interpretive Ecologies at DeSoto Park
Interactive Playscape at Knock Knock Children’s Museum
Lectures & Workshops
An Introduction to the Design Process: Site Inventory and Analysis
Concept I: Developing the Big Idea
Perspective Sketching: Understanding the Framework, Capturing the Moment
Quick and Expressive Plan and Section Hand Graphics
Description
Landscape Design I - Reading the Landscape - Concept, Process, Space is the first design studio for second-year students at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at LSU. In collaboration with Joni Hammons, I helped develop the class syllabus, lectures, workshops, reading assignments, and project briefs.
This course develops students’ understanding of basic concepts, elements, and processes in landscape spatial design, using physical sites as a basis for qualitative observation, quantitative analysis/measure and creative manipulation/abstraction. Through a combination of lecture, reading, discussion, field observation, exercises, and critique, students are introduced to fundamental principles of landscape design—ordering systems, compositional elements, spatial vocabulary, site response—as applied to focused explorations.
Projects and exercises explore a broad range of conceptual bases for design: response to landform/physical (ecological) processes, aesthetic principles of composition, historical precedents (human geometry, vernacular expression), gesture (metaphor, symbolism), and rudimentary social/behavioral theory (program).
Throughout the semester, students engaged in reading assignments, workshops, and lectures that introduced them to key stages of the design process: site inventory, site analysis, diagrammatic coordination, concept development, and schematic design. I also led graphic workshops focused on analog hand graphics and sketching to capture the essence of place.
The first project, Sculpting Landscape Experience at Campus Lake, was centered within the context of Louisiana State University. As the primary designers, students learned about the design process to create a green space adjacent to Highland Road and South Stadium Drive. Our project jurors were Nick Musso, LCASLA president and owner of GroundWorks, and Justin Lemoine, executive director of the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area.
Our second project titled Interpretive Ecologies at DeSoto Park focused on an undeveloped urban greenspace west of the Louisiana State Capitol. Completed in collaboration with the Downtown Development District, this project gave students the opportunity to work with a real-world client. They began in groups, conducting a site inventory, before moving on to individual work for analysis and schematic design. The students presented their ideas, sketches, and plans to Casey Tate, assistant director for the Downtown Development District.
In the third and final project, Interactive Playscape at Knock Knock Children’s Museum, we asked students to create a memorable play space for children and families. The project emphasized qualities like stewardship, inclusion, safety, and flexibility. Similar to the second project, students completed site inventory as a group and analysis and design individually. The final designs were presented to the staff of the Knock Knock Museum, including executive director Christina Melton.
Further student work examples and full projects are available upon request.
Click here to view the course syllabus.
Project Briefs
Micro Farm at Burden Museum and Gardens
Denham Springs Conservation Area
Lectures & Workshops
Concept: The Search for Form - Conceptual Thinking with Mid-Century Landscape Architects
Expressive Drawing: Plan and Section Graphics
Description
Landscape Design II - Site Design, is the second design studio for second-year students at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture at LSU. In collaboration with Fabiana Trindade da Silva, I helped develop the class syllabus, lectures, workshops, reading assignments, and project briefs. This course is underway, and project examples will be available at major project milestones. At the time of this writing, the first project presentations are scheduled within the next two weeks.
This studio focuses on the structure, scale, proportion and materiality of discrete site/garden/plaza-scaled landscapes. Project briefs will require representation and measured drawings as a tool for design and exploration, more intensive research and design analysis, and more specific program requirements. The studio explores landscape design materiality and process using site-specific projects, investigates more complex issues of landscape architecture interrelationships, and introduces approaches to research design development.
Throughout the semester, students engaged in precedent research, graphic workshops, and lectures that further prepare them for site design. Students have also learned from a collective as they are in the process of completing their first project that is partially required as group work.
The first project, Micro Farm at Burden Museum and Gardens, challenges students to create a model micro farm and demonstration gardens for the Burden facility. Located in southeast Baton Rouge adjacent to Essen Lane and Interstate 10, the Burden Museum and Gardens is comprised of two main entities- the Rural Life Museum, and the LSU AgCenter Botanic Gardens. The site contains an expansive collection of specialty gardens, woodlands, wetlands, arboreta and university research facilities located in the heart of the city. The facility features "Trees and Trails," three miles of serene walking paths through the Burden Woods, as well as the Rose Garden, Children’s Garden, All-America Selections Garden, Stone Camellia Collection, Crowder Camellia Collection, Herb Garden, Tropical Garden, Memory Garden, Barton Arboretum, Oak Grove, StoryWalk loop, and the historic Windrush Gardens.
Additionally, the facility plays an important role in the LSU AgCenter extension and research programs, which support coastal restoration of Louisiana's wetlands as well as the state’s nursery, landscape, farming and forestry industries. Their overarching mission is to showcase the natural beauty of Louisiana while providing educational opportunities for all.
Keith Lewis and Bridget Laborde with the LSU AgCenter, led the students on a hayride to understand the site and the layout created by famed landscape designer Steele Burden. The group also toured historic Windrush Gardens, also designed by Burden.
Our second project titled Denham Springs Conservation Area focused on an area that was devastated in the historic 2016 floods. This project poses design challenges within a small-town urban setting, rich in history and culture. Located 15 miles east of the capital city of Baton Rouge, and 80 miles northwest of New Orleans, Denham Springs has served as a place of respite for over 200 years. The city is well-known for their Main Street Program, anchored by a burgeoning antiques district.
Additionally, the flood of 2016 spurred the Spring Park Buyout Program, which was initiated by the Louisiana Watershed Initiative in 2021. This voluntary program offers property owners 100 percent of the appraised value of their dwelling, in addition to the cost of demolition. As a result, the property is then reverted to green space, which consequently offers an immense opportunity for the city to use the reclaimed land to both function as park space and to increase capacity for stormwater detention.
Students will explore questions: How can Denham Springs capitalize on their successful Main Street Program? What amenities can be developed upon the green space that has reverted from private ownership to conservation lands? As lands are reserved for conservation, what program items can be added that will endure in times of inundation? Are there relatable precedent case studies that can be reviewed for inspiration?
At the time of writing, this project will begin within the next two weeks. Further student work examples and full projects are available upon request.
As the faculty advisor for RRSLA 5th-year students Joseph Kaczmarek and Nasry Gonzales, I provide guidance and support for their senior capstone projects.
Throughout the fall semester, Kaczmarek’s capstone evolved in terms of both subject matter and site. In the spring, I helped him narrow his focus to the concept of residential permaculture and advised him to select a hypothetical site near the LSU campus. He has since completed a site inventory and analysis of a street and vacant lot in Old South Baton Rouge. Going forward, he will develop a schematic design and detailed plans for his street and garden site, incorporating permaculture best practices.
Gonzales’ project is located in Baker, Louisiana, within Greenwood Park. A blend of cultural research and site design, the project highlights the sports and games of underrepresented populations, both historical and contemporary. It begins with an analysis of the various cultures that have inhabited Louisiana, from pre-colonial tribes through colonial transitions, up to the present-day communities. Census data provides additional insight into the current racial composition of East Baton Rouge Parish. Gonzales further investigates green spaces and their amenities, comparing them to the activities outlined in the recently completed Greenwood Park master plan.
His research culminates in a review of the cultural sports and games historically played by Native American tribes, including the Choctaw and Bayougoula. The documentation of game rules, equipment, and field sizes will inform the upcoming schematic design phase of his project.
