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.

Continue Reading

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?

Continue Reading

Landscape Performance and Aesthetics: Lessons Learned from a Career

• Landscape performance research
• Post-occupancy evaluation

Ron Koudys, FASLA, FCSLA, is a landscape architect in London, Ontario and founder of Ron Koudys Landscape Architects, Inc., a practice with projects in southern Ontario and further afield in the United States, the Caribbean, and the United Kingdom. Ron is currently pursuing a Doctor of Design at the University of Calgary, which he sees as an opportunity to reflect on past projects and attempt to capture the essence of what has been accomplished over the course of his career.

Continue Reading

Performance of Forests: WRI’s Better Forests, Better Cities Report

• Landscape performance research

The Better Forests, Better Cities report developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) is a compelling compilation of the many benefits offered to cities by inner forests (within cities), nearby forests (in the watersheds surrounding cities), and faraway forests (remote and far outside city boundaries).

Continue Reading

Case Study Investigation (CSI): Apply Now for 2023

• 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

Sasaki’s Carbon Conscience App: Assessing Carbon Impact Early and at Multiple Scales

• Tools and calculators

Interdisciplinary design firm Sasaki has introduced the Carbon Conscience App to help designers assess carbon-related impacts from the early stages of planning and encourage them to think holistically about carbon in their projects. Most standard carbon assessment tools available to designers are appropriate for projects already in advanced design stages. After reviewing several internal projects, Sasaki found that key decisions early in the master planning process have significant impacts on the embodied carbon of a project.

Continue Reading

Measuring the Impact of a Landscape with LandDesign

• Post-occupancy evaluation

In LandDesign’s podcast Pragmatic Visions, Episode 24: Measuring the Impact of a Landscape, LandDesign’s Allison Peckett and Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) Program Manager Megan Barnes discuss the importance of landscape performance for practitioners and the Case Study Investigation (CSI) program as a way to test landscape performance evaluation methods and buil

Continue Reading

Evaluating Urban Trail Needs

by Kelly Mathiesen, SWA Group

• Landscape performance research

Each year, SWA Group awards the firm’s Patrick T. Curran Fellowship to employees who look to challenge thinking in the landscape architecture profession and provide tools and resources for the firm and industry. Landscape designer and 2021 Curran Fellow Kelly Mathiesen took a landscape performance approach, looking at which elements are important in creating successful urban trails for runners and cyclists and how the rise of these recreational communities will affect the future of trail design.

Continue Reading

Case Study Investigation (CSI): Apply Now for 2022

• 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. They produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series.

Continue Reading

PlanIt Impact: A Holistic Approach to Performance Modeling

• Tools and calculators

NOTE: As of June 2024, PlanIt Impact is no longer available. 

Architect Dominique Davison AIA, LEED AP, principal of DRAW Architecture + Urban Design, knows the value of landscape performance in achieving a sustainable, carbon-neutral built environment. That is why her collaborative performance assessment tool, PlanIT Impact, takes a holistic approach that models performance for both buildings and sites – unlike many of the building-centric modelling platforms available in today’s market.

Continue Reading