The Butterfly Effect: How a Colorado Development Became a Pollinator Performance Paradise

by Alex Bullock, PLA, Wenk Associates

• Landscape performance research

In 2019, a scientist in search of pollinators completed an audit of an ecologically unproductive, 1,000-acre site in Broomfield, Colorado. As an employee of Butterfly Pavilion, she and the team were disappointed to review the bee and butterfly observations on her clipboard: a single (quasi-invasive) cabbage white butterfly (Pieris rapae). Amy Yarger was partnered with McWhinney, the company planning to build the mixed-use development on the site.

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New Landscape Review Issue Highlights Landscape Performance

• Announcements
• Landscape performance research

The November 2024 issue of the open-access Oceania-based journal Landscape Review is devoted to the topic of landscape performance, with a special focus on the connection between academia and practice.

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Landscape Performance Case Studies on the World Stage

• Announcements
• Landscape performance research

LAF is pleased to share two new resources – developed and released for COP29 by friends and partners – that use examples and data from our collection of 200+ Landscape Performance Series case studies.

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Case Study Investigation (CSI): Apply Now for 2025

• Funding/program opportunities
• Post-occupancy evaluation

The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program is a unique research collaboration and training program. LAF-funded faculty-student research teams work with design firms to assess and document the environmental, social, and economic benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects.

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Teaching Landscape Performance in 2024

• Design education

The Landscape Performance Series offers resources for faculty to give landscape architecture students the awareness and skills they need to design for, evaluate, and communicate the impact of their work. When students have these skills, they are better equipped to design high-performance landscapes and to advocate for the value of landscape solutions upon entering the workforce.

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Nature, Quantified: New Tools for Measuring Nature Exposure for Human Health

• Data and technology
• Tools and calculators

A landscape performance approach focuses on quantifying the benefits of landscape, but how can something as multifaceted and relatively subjective as exposure to nature be quantified? NatureScore™ and NatureDose™ represent a new, technology-based approach to evaluating nature exposure for human health and well-being.

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National Study of Playgrounds: An Observational Study of Play and Design

• Landscape performance research
• Metrics and methods
• Post-occupancy evaluation

How does design influence the use of playgrounds and the benefits they offer children, adults, and communities? The National Study of Playgrounds is the first observational study to examine the influence of design on use and physical activity in 60 playgrounds in the United States. The study was conducted over the summer of 2021 by Meghan Talarowski and her team at Studio Ludo, Dr. Deborah Cohen of Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Thomas McKenzie, and other partners.

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Case Study Investigation (CSI): Apply Now for 2024

• Funding/program opportunities
• Post-occupancy evaluation

The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Case Study Investigation (CSI) program is a unique research collaboration and training program. LAF-funded faculty-student research teams work with design firms to assess and document the environmental, social, and economic benefits of exemplary high-performing landscape projects.

Continue Reading

Sustainable Urban Ecology and Landscape Performance at ASU

• Landscape performance research
• Post-occupancy evaluation

An Arizona State University (ASU) team made up of practitioners and researchers are using landscape performance metrics to support a new vision of Sustainable Urban Ecology as they plan for ASU’s future landscape management. ASU’s Sustainable Urban Ecology plan focuses on managing and incorporating natural systems, with particular attention to enhancing biodiversity, water conservation and extreme heat mitigation, with a particular focus on the Sonoran Desert Biome that is home to four ASU campuses.

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Zoos and Landscape Performance

• Landscape performance research

The role of zoos have evolved over the centuries to become complex spaces that blend natural and built landscapes, property operations, and institutional goals. As public institutions, they are redefining their purpose to focus less on entertainment and more on conservation, species protection, and education. How do zoo landscapes support the key roles and functions that zoos have within society and for the environment, and how does their design achieve their institutional goals?

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