2008 ASLA Central States Conference Speakers

Cindy Sanders is a Principal at Olin Partnership, the internationally-acclaimed landscape architecture and urban design studio responsible for creating some of the world�s most artful and innovative public spaces. She has been a landscape architect with the studio since 1980 and was named CEO in 2007.

The rapidly evolving nature of the urban environment has resulted in Lucinda�s keen interest in contemporary design centered around issues of paramount significance to the 21^st century city. Her generative work features dynamic and bold design notable for its responsiveness to locale with an emphasis on achieving positive change toward social, environmental, and economic sustainability.

Lucinda�s portfolio of work encompasses urban plazas, institutions, master planning, public parks, academic and corporate. Recent projects include Presidio Main Parade and Rincon Park in San Francisco, California; Robert F. Wagner Park, Hudson Yards, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City; Fountain Square in Cincinnati, Ohio; and Comcast Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Since 1995, Lucinda has been on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, PennDesign. Currently an adjunct associate professor, she teaches graduate design studios and a seminar on professional practice. She lectures frequently, is a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and has received awards from both the AIA and ASLA.

Olin Partnership was recipient of the 2006 Landscape Architecture Firm Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Presentation Overview:

Title - Revealing Intersections

Enhanced awareness of the present global reality surrounding population statistics, fossil fuels, carbon levels and the distribution of wealth has given society a loud wake-up call � a call that sounded in the 1970s but the nation did not answer. Society is finally beginning to possess an understanding of these statistics and how they intersect, and landscape architects are no longer able to think of issues in isolation when creating spaces. For the past three decades we have brought research of social scientists, natural scientists, horticulturalists and engineers to our designs. Our holistic approach to solving problems has been effective but sometimes naive. How will the landscape architecture profession continue to effectively and timely address global problems as our sensibilities are often ahead of available technology?

Bruce K. Ferguson is a landscape architect who has specialized in environmental management of urban watersheds for 25 years. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and a past president of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture. Ferguson is a Professor of Landscape Architecture and Director of the School of Environmental Design at the University of Georgia. He obtained a B.A. degree at Dartmouth College and a M.L.A. under Ian McHarg at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a licensed landscape architect in Georgia and Pennsylvania. He lectures at major universities nationwide and conducts continuing education courses for design practitioners at the University of Georgia and Harvard.

Ferguson is considered one of the world's leading experts in stormwater infiltration. His 1994 book Stormwater Infiltration was considered a landmark in the integration of urban watersheds. Introduction to Stormwater, published in 1998 is the most frequently referenced book in the field. He has authored more than 130 scientific and professional papers on environmental management of urban watersheds. His latest book, Porous Pavements, published in 2005, is a comprehensive review of porous pavements of all types and includes information on landscape architecture, engineering and hydrology. The book represents years of research and review and includes a large number of technical details, case studies, photographs, tables and figures. Each type of porous pavement is given its own chapter and is thoroughly examined, including application information and maintenance issues.

Katrin Scholz-Barth is a nationally recognized expert in Green Roof technology, which she has helped to establish in the United States. Her work demonstrates that Green Roofs are an integral and functional building element that protects watersheds while increasing biodiversity and quality of life in urban areas. She taught �Green Roofs and Sustainable Landscape Design for Watershed Protection� at Harvard Graduate School of Design and at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ms. Scholz-Barth is trained as a mason and bricklayer. She received her Master�s of Science in civil and environmental engineering from the University of Rostock, Germany in 1992.

Prior to starting her own business, she was Director of Sustainable Design for the HOK Planning Group, a business unit of Hellmuth, Obata, and Kassabaum (HOK). Ms. Scholz-Barth practiced civil and environmental engineering in Minneapolis, Minnesota, for seven years, where she gained design expertise in constructed wetlands and in bio-remediation.

Jim Sipes is a senior associate with EDAW and the founding principal of Sand County Studios. He is an award-winning landscape architect with more than twenty-five years of experience encompassing a wide range of planning, design, research, and communication projects. His work is broad-based and multi-faceted and includes environmental planning and design, environmental restoration, watershed management, park and recreation design, urban design, natural and cultural resource management, and community based design. Jim�s design philosophy follows the spirit of Thoreau, Muir, and Leopold, and he fosters a land community ethic through the vehicle of eco-cultural design and planning. His design solutions evolve out of a deep understanding of landscapes and the processes that sustain life across temporal and spatial scales. The idea is to promote the physical, social, and spiritual health and well-being of a place and its inhabitants, and to create an ecologically-healthy and vibrant world, one place at a time.

Jim has received national recognition for his writing and ability to make even the most complex concepts and ideas understandable. He has written more than 300 articles for a variety of magazines, published �Digital Land,� has been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine�s �Shared Wisdom� section, has been recognized as Outstanding Alumni at Iowa State University, and has received numerous planning, design, and communication awards over the years. Jim also works with PBS on a variety of projects, including television documentaries that focus on environmental issues and the conflicts between development and natural systems.

Jim received a Bachelors Degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Kentucky and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University. Jim has taught courses in ornamental horticulture, planting design, site design, planning, and computer graphics at the university level for more than 12 years.

Patrick Curran is an Associate with SWA Group, an urban design and landscape architecture firm in Los Angeles, California. Over his 10 year career, he has worked on a wide range of project scales with a rigorous focus on sustainability and the operative nature that landscape contributes to the development of urban plazas to regional development plans. His practice concentrates on the urban-wild land interface, the collaboration of design with science and the opportunities to use landscape as a means for sensitive solutions to contemporary infrastructure problems. His project portfolio includes hydrology reclamation strategies, large scale landscape restoration, urban parks and infill development project in the US, New Zealand, Mexico and Asia.

Most recently, Patrick served as the project manager for Mountain House Creek- a three mile, 500 foot wide urban infrastructure for a new town in San Francisco�s East Bay. Accommodating 15,000 new residents, the restoration project facilitates stormwater management runoff, wildlife habitat and community recreation. Currently, Patrick is overseeing the design and planning of a new open space restoration development in the upper watershed of Kunming, China. He directed the initial Master Plan in 2002 and has seen the project through to its current construction of over 150,000 square meters of mixed-used development and the restoration of over 200 hectares of open space.

Patrick earned a Masters in Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and a Bachelors of Landscape Architecture from The University of Oregon. He is an Executive Officer for the ASLA Sustainable Sites Initiative, a Founding Member of the Kounkey Design Initiative and a LEED Accredited Professional since 2001. Over the past four years, Patrick has presented extensively at universities and professional organizations, both domestically and international, about the emerging paradigms of sustainability and infrastructure-based landscapes.

Marsha Littell began her career teaching Communication at the University of Missouri - St. Louis. Her responsibilities included serving on the university�s curriculum development committee and developing extracurricular student involvement programs. From teaching and writing, Marsha worked for 10+ years as a management consultant working with Fortune 500 companies to improve staff performance through custom-designed mentoring, training, communication and measurement systems.

Marsha serves HOK as Director of Training and Organizational Development. After joining HOK in 1998, Marsha reorganized its internal training function to recreate HOK University. HOKU earned the AIA award for Excellence in Education in 1999 for its structure, systems and program requirements. Marsha has been studying HOK�s diversity and leading initiatives for change since 1999 with special focus on generations at work. You can read her latest AIArchitect article here: Generations at Work: Why They Won�t Just Grow Out of it.

For over twenty four years, Pat Caughey has successfully balanced his practice of landscape architecture with his commitment to ASLA. A graduate of Arizona State University (Cum Laude), he is a licensed landscape architect in four states. Pat began working for the award-winning firm that now bears his name in their Phoenix office in 1985. He transferred to San Diego in 1987, became principal in 1990 and subsequently partner and owner in 1995. Today he oversees the daily practice of Wimmer Yamada and Caughey and enjoys his involvement in its many varied design projects. He is proud to have been recognized as an innovative leader in landscape design practices in the southwestern region of the U.S. with an emphasis in sustainable and water conserving landscapes.

Pat�s long history of involvement with the American Society of Landscape Architects began in 1984 when he co-founded the first ASLA student chapter at ASU. In 1989 he served as Chair of the San Diego Chapter Professional Awareness Committee, was Chapter Vice President in 1990 and became Chapter President in 1993. From 1995-1998 he served as a member of the Board of Trustees and in 1998 was elected ASLA National Vice President for Professional Practice. This position afforded him tremendous opportunity to meet other members and to contribute his expertise to numerous committees and task forces. He assisted in the planning of the centennial meeting in Boston and was Co-Chair of the annual meeting in San Jose. Pat was inducted into the Class of Fellows in 2004. Pat served as National President to ASLA for 2006-2007 and led the society to its largest attended annual meeting in San Francisco in October. As Immediate Past President Pat will continue to mentor others to take an active role in the society and encourage those interested in Landscape Architecture to join the profession.

Despite the many opportunities he has had over the years to promote the profession, Pat�s greatest achievements have been inspiring his staff to take an active role in ASLA and in attracting national and international students to the profession through internships. As a National Board Member with ACE (Architecture Construction and Engineering mentoring program), he looks forward to being involved in attracting young people to the profession from his interaction with high school students.