LARE Review Course

Freeman & Jewell Landscape Architecture is once again offering our popular series of preparatory courses for candidates taking the

Landscape Architect Registration Examination this Spring in Northern California.

Click here for information and registration materials

 [Back To Top]

April 14 Application Deadline for Current Grant Opportunities
from Robert Wood Johnson Active Living Research

Active Living Research currently has one open call for proposals. This call for proposals consists of grant opportunities for the annual call for proposals - Round 10 and New Connections Round 3 grants.

DOWNLOAD:  Call for Proposals - Round 10 and RWJF New Connections Round 3

Call for Proposals - Round 10 consists of grant opportunities for dissertation awards and the following specified research topics:
Topic 1: Evaluations of policy or environmental interventions and strategies for increasing physical activity or reducing sedentary behaviors among youth;
Topic 2: Economic analyses to assess feasibility and advisability of policy or environmental interventions that affect youth physical activity or sedentary behaviors;
Topic 3: Analyses of macro-level policies and environmental change strategies with strong potential to increase physical activity or reduce sedentary behaviors among youth;
Topic 4: Quantitative meta-analyses of the relationships between built environment or social environment variables and physical activity; built environment or social environment variables and sedentary behavior; or built environment or social environment variables and obesity;
Topic 5: Evaluations of youth advocacy efforts to support active living;
Topic 6: Case studies of active living policy changes in communities at high risk for childhood obesity.
RWJF New Connections Round 3 grants offered through Active Living Research are specifically available to new investigators from groups that have been historically underrepresented in the research activities supported by RWJF and consist of the following types of studies:

The due date for all Round 10 and New Connections grant applications is April 14, 2010 at 1:00 pm PT.  Apply Online

Applicant Teleconferences will be held for each of the above grant opportunities.  Participation is encouraged.

CFP Resources:

Policy Matrix: Active Living Research is interested in supporting studies that contribute to current policy debates. We have summarized in this grid some examples of policies with particular relevance to physical activity in young people and high-risk communities.
Read definitions for terminology used in the call for proposals.
Forthcoming Grant Opportunities

We anticipate releasing call for proposals annually. Join our postal or email mailing list for any updates on future grant opportunities. 

 [Back To Top]

	The AIA Philadelphia is proud to offer 2 Google SketchUp workshops on a monthly basis. The classes will be taught by Daniel Brown, former SketchUp trainer for Google, Inc. Classes are meant for anyone interested in learning how to 3D model.    Details: Date: March 22, 2010 9am - 12pm: Learn 3D Modeling using SketchUp! 1pm - 4pm: Advanced 3D Modeling using Sketchup! Cost:$150 general public, $100 Members AIA/CFA, $50 Students Location: Center for Architecture, 1218 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19107 Overview: These workshops provide an introduction and advanced exploration of Google's 3D modeling software, SketchUp. SketchUp is available for free online, the Pro version costs $495. See how this fun to use and easy to learn software can be implement throughout a project. SketchUp bridges the gap between 2D drawing and 3D modeling by enabling you to draw using familiar pencil and paper paradigm in a software context. Architects, Interior Designers, Kitchen Designers, Builders and Landscape Designers will benefit from these workshops. Requirements: You will need to bring a laptop with Google SketchUp 7 (free or pro version) installed as well as a three button scroll wheel mouse to use SketchUp efficiently. Promotional Code: Participants will be eligible to receive $100 off the Pro version of SketchUp.    Registration: To register for the beginner's workshop, click here. To register for the advanced workshop, click here.

 [Back To Top]

University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture and
UW Extension for Professional and Continuing Education

Certificate in Urban Green Infrastructure

A new online, distance-learning program for professionals and students developed by the University of Washington Department of Landscape Architecture and UW Extension for Professional & Continuing Education. Courses earn Continuing Education Units for license renewal through LA CES and the AIA as well as University credit.

Discover how strengthening a city's green infrastructure network increases community health and ecological resilience. Learn to recognize, quantify, and apply ecosystem services and amenities in an urban environment. Explore humanity's evolving relationship to nature as expressed in biophilia and emerging theories of landscape performance.  Develop integrated and elegant solutions to the complex infrastructural challenges facing growing cities and envision "high performance landscapes" that are multi-functional, yet culturally resonant. Experience the latest advances in urban landscape stewardship, and stay up-to-date with innovative, open source communication technologies, from wikis and social networking media to online collaboration and presentation tools.

The University of Washington’s new Certificate Program in Urban Green Infrastructure is a partnership of the College of Built Environment’s Landscape Architecture Department and UW Extension. It will be offered online starting in the spring quarter of 2010 and consists of two 5-credit lecture/studio hybrid courses:

L ARCH 481/581: Planning Urban Green Infrastructure Networks
L ARCH 482/582: Designing High Performance Landscapes

Please watch the following On-demand information session to learn more:
http://uweoconnect.extn.washington.edu/publicugi/

Register online by March 15th through UW Extension at: http://www.extension.washington.edu/ext/certificates/ugi/ugi_gen.asp

If you have questions about your eligibility for this program, please contact the UW Extension office at 888-469-6499.

 [Back To Top]

How to Expand Urban Agriculture

From ASLA DIRT 01/28/2010
Should landscape architects be concerned about agriculture?  NJASLA thinks so and encourages your input on this issue.
 New Jersey, likely to be the first State to reach “build out” and with a seriously small agricultural land base, will need to be innovative about mixed uses  integrating local food production and distribution. (NJASLA TODAY Editor).  

The National Building Museum’s well-known “For the Greener Good” series featured a panel on urban agriculture, including Josh Viertel, President, Slow Food USA, Liz Falk, Director and co-Founder, Washington D.C.-based Common Good City Farm, and Steve Cohen, food policy and programs, City of Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability. The panel was moderated by Allison Arieff, Food and Shelter Ambassador, GOOD and “By Design” columnist, The New York Times.  

Chase Rynd, Executive Director, National Building Museum, framed the discussion by saying how and where we produce food has an enormous ecological impact. ”How we produce, transport, and store food has a huge impact. Food is directly related to the built environment.” Because of industrial food systems, people are losing their connection with nature. Bringing vegetable gardens back to communities, shortening food transportation times (and lowering the environmental costs of food transportation), can help improve the urban environment and make communities more engaging and “aesthetically pleasing.”
Allison Arieff, the moderator, asked a set of questions:

Do we need farms in urban areas?
Josh Viertel, President, Slow Food U.S.A.: Yes, local urban food is more sustainable. It also helps create new connections to the land in cities – ”learning connections” that create better environmentalists who are stewards of the land.
Liz Falk, Director and co-Founder, Common Good City Farm: There are no downsides, except, possibly, rats. But if you plan well and compost, you won’t get rodents.
Steve Cohen, food policy and programs, Portland Oregon’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability: There is now a disconnect with food in urban areas. In many cities, you can’t grow food outside your door. Eating food you’ve grown yourself is a visceral experience. We need to look at government land for urban food production as well.

Is there a viable business model for urban agriculture?
Arieff noted that there are more than 100 urban farms throughout San Francisco, which have formed into neighborhood farm collectives. However, the business model failed. People have gotten invested, but there isn’t enough money in this. Does urban agriculture need to move towards a non-profit model?
Liz Falk: We need to connect the dots between schools, chefs, farmers, and local residents. We need to work collaboratively. There are lots of job opportunities. Non-profits can turn into businesses. Urban farmers can also produce higher value jams, tea, etc.
Steve Cohen: There are lots of models out there. Philadelphia’s SPIN farming is a great model that allows for 3-4 planting seasons. You can plant over and over again. In other cities, small backyard farmers are delivering produce by bicycle. Some organizations come into your garden and provide advice on what to plant (for a fee) or even farm your yard for you. For one organization, they add one employee for every 75 urban farms they work on.
Josh Viertel: Van Jones recently said urban farm jobs stink, so he was not going to promote a push for urban farming jobs on Capitol Hill. In Viertel’s own experience with an urban farm, he made some $11,000 per year working 90 hour weeks. The business model didn’t work for him.

How do we create more viable partnerships with businesses, government?
Liz Falk: Our food programs for low-income residents in Washington, D.C. require partnering with the communities. We get feedback from the community and see what works. Micro-credit to expand micro-enterprises, a model created by Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank, can work for moving low-income urban residents into farming.
Josh Viertel: Does urban farming have to create a profit? Parks don’t turn a profit but they provide valuable environmental services. Urban agriculture has a public health value, can provide a carbon sink, store waste water. These farming spaces can provide a range of hard-to-quantify services.

Q & A: What about green roofs and urban agriculture?
Liz Falk: Washington D.C. has an innovative green roof incentive program — turning existing roofs into green roofs will get you a $5-per square foot rebate. You can add vegetable gardens on these green roofs. There are lots of opportunities to put farming on roofs.
Steve Cohen: There are lots of successful examples. Green roofs have usually been used to capture stormwater runoff. They can be used for food production — these goals are complimentary.
Josh Viertel: Moving from impermeable to permeable and dark to green roofs is a good thing.

What about residual soil toxicity?
Josh Viertel: You need to test your site before you plant. If the soil is toxic, you can plant above the soil or truck in new soil. If the soil is really toxic, you can remove the soil and replace, which is expensive.
Liz Falk: Mushrooms are great at removing pollutants. There are other plants that can also decrease soil toxicity.

In many cities, urban agriculture breaks local zoning codes.What is the best way to reform zoning codes?
Liz Falk: In Montgomery country, Maryland, the council is currently reviewing zoning changes that will enable the use of yards for urban farming. However, there has been pushback – it’s a wealthy county. It’s important to find allies in government councils.
Allison Arieff: Home resale value is hugely important, and lawns are important for this. Many people don’t care about their lawns but think it’s important for increasing the resale value. Perhaps resale value has become less of an issue with housing prices falling? This may create new opportunities for urban farming.
Josh Viertel: There are now millions of people planting urban farms in the U.S.. The trend is up 35 percent over the past year. 15 percent of the U.S. now has a backyard garden. Out of a country of more than 300 million people, this is a huge trend.
The panelists made a range of other points:

More than 50 percent of food  is now wasted. Composting needs to be increased. The overall food system needs to incorporate and reuse food waste. “We are throwing away a huge resource.” In San Francisco, more than 70 percent of food waste is now composted. The local government has realized there is money in this. Additionally, yard waste — leaves, which are just raked into the street and end up clogging gutters, are a huge resource. Wood chips from felled trees can also be used for urban gardens.

To move from unsustainable lawn practices, which require toxic fertilizers and other products, to productive urban farming landscapes, localities can inhibit the purchase of lawn products that have negative environmental effects. “We can also vote with our dollars.”

The food system currently hurts the poor and people of color the most, but these people aren’t going to farmers’ markets and buying locally-produced food. The Slow Food movement needs to broaden its appeal. The selling points need to be: this food is good for your kids and doesn’t hurt the environment. We need to address food and security. Local solutions need to be bottom-up, not top-down, and not funded by some outside foundation.

Food is the “gateway drug” to sustainability. We can access these markets through kids in schools first, then parents. Local, healthy food creates positive externalities.

Detroit has so much open space and they’ve created networks of local community gardens.  There are two models at work in Detroit: huge farmers across many small plots and small independent farmers. Some smaller farmers resent the growth of large-scale farming in Detroit.

Urban agriculture may place pressure on urban water systems. Water is becoming the “next oil,” a resource hard to come by and expensive. We can collect rainwater through cisterns. Drip irrigation systems also improve water efficiency.

“Big dig”-type stormwater management infrastructure projects are expensive. Localized, decentralized stormwater approaches, including more green roofs and urban gardens, are a less expensive way to alleviate pressure on overstressed urban stormwater management systems. “Stormwater management is the new sexy area in sustainability.”

Through local organization and advocacy, communities can change zoning rules and create a national movement that makes urban farming acceptable. It needs to be bottom-up.

 [Back To Top]

 [Back To Top]

A Snowy Day at Cook Campus
On February 10th, Rutgers University landscape architecture students turned a lost day of classes into a day of learning, expression and building community.  Aside from simply being fun and gorgeous, it was a wonderful demonstration of the mix of creativity, spatial awareness, and constructive thinking that will empower these future landscape architects to shape the spaces and landscapes all around us. Featured on the front page of the Home News Tribune, the effort attracted positive comments from the school deans. 
An e-invitation by Ty Triplett (RULA 2010, triplett@eden.rutgers.edu) encouraged campus participation from both Cook and Douglass.   James Brosius (RULA 2010, brosius@eden.rutgers.edu) captured the ephemeral artistic statements.  More photos are available at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=389184&id=628975511&l=0e6e081c7e  

 [Back To Top]

 [Back To Top]

NJASLA Seeks Member Inputs on New Jersey Invasive Species Council Strategic Management Plan

Beginning with a Governor’s Executive Order in 2004 and continuing through the last state administration, the New Jersey Invasive Species Council has sponsored research and development of a Strategic Management Plan to address invasive non-native species in New Jersey. This effort is underway in several states, both in the continental US and Hawaii. The Mary Jasch article “Barberry: the War Continues” in this newsletter gives some general information on the status of this issue in the Northeast.    

The New Jersey effort has not been fully inclusive of landscape architects, yet.  We believe that there is still time for constructive input and assistance from the landscape architecture community. You can assist NJASLA to make the Council aware of landscape architecture concerns about invasive species controls by contacting Nicholas Tufaro, LLA, PP, RLA with your comments:

This SMP content has been carefully prepared by the authors and we must be on very solid ground in our review and comments. To begin, you must be informed.

Please review these documents: 
New Jersey Strategic Management Plan for Invasive Species

Overview of Non-indigenous Plant Species in New Jersey

And find related information and links at the New Jersey Invasive Species Council website:
http://www.nj.gov/dep/njisc/index.htm

USDA National Invasive Species Information Center :
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/laws/nj.shtml
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/plants/main.shtml
http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/unitedstates/nj.shtml

 [Back To Top]