A landscape architect designs residential areas, parks, shopping centers, parkways, golf courses and school campuses to make them beautiful, as well as functional. He or she must also see to it that these facilities are compatible with the natural environment. A landscape architect may work with other professionals including civil engineers, hydrologists and architects.

A landscape architect must earn a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (BLA) or a Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture (BSLA). You will spend four to five years taking classes in design, construction techniques, art, history, and natural and social sciences to complete either degree. Whether or not you have an undergraduate degree in landscape architecture, you can earn a Master of Landscape Architecture (MLA). If you already have a BLA or BSLA, it will take you two years to complete your MLA but if you don't, you will spend three years in a master-level program.

This is a licensed occupation in all states in the U.S.While requirements vary, each state requires one to pass the Landscape Architect Registration Examination (L.A.R.E.) which is administered by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards (CLARB). Other requirements may include getting a degree from a program that has beenaccreditedby theLandscape Architecture Accreditation Boardof theAmerican Society of Landscape Architects.

CLARB maintains a listof all state licensing requirements.

You will receive your technical training in school, but you will not gain thesesoft skills, or personal qualities,that are essential to your success as a landscape architect in a classroom:

To find out what typical roles and responsibilities a landscape architect haswe looked at job announcements on Indeed.com:

What do employers look for when they hire landscape architects? Here are some requirements from actual job announcements found onIndeed.com:

$74,520

Sources:Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor,Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2016-17(visited February 15, 2016 ).Employment and Training Administration, U.S. Department of Labor,O*NET Online(visited February 15, 2016).Your Path to Landscape Architecture. American Society of Landscape Architects (visited February 12, 2016)

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Landscape Architect - Career Information - The Balance

August 24, 2017 by zachmortice

Improbable Botany. Illustrations by Jonathan Burton. Published/Curated by Wayward.

Wayward is a collective of landscape architects, architects, urban growers, artists, and other assorted creative types who design landscape installations for exploring new models for how green space can work in cities, says its founder, Heather Ring. The groups experimental and often temporary projects emphasize creating narrative environments that tell stories through the spaces. The projects have included chromatic explorations of algae growth and weaving slow-growth sculpture from living trees.

Its an outsiders perspective on landscape design that might have earned Rings London-based band of designers the high school graduation accolade of landscape architect most likely to commission a science fiction anthology, because thats just what Wayward has done.

Having raised nearly $16,000 during a successful Kickstarter campaign, Wayward will publish Improbable Botany, a collection of 11 short stories of sci-fi landscape futurism that extrapolate our current relationship with the planets flora into magical and terrible places. The book will ship in late October, in time for Halloween.

Illustrations by Jonathan Burton. Published/Curated by Wayward.

We see science fiction as a future forecasting, Ring says, an ability to creatively look at what sorts of developments are happening right now, and what could potentially happen in the future.

Edited by Gary Dalkin, the book includes full-color illustrations by Jonathan Burton that convey a warm and recognizable future, more playfully surreal than mercilessly technological. This sensibility is reflected in a number of the stories themselves. The most iconic sci-fi around plants has either been a fear of nature taking over the world, or a seed being the last hope, like Wall-E, Ring says. But Improbable Botany seems to suggest a middle third way, where nature is neither a vulnerable sacrament nor a devouring maw. Characters find small moments of charity and humanity amid tectonic shifts in their relationship to plants and their environment. The specter of climate change is an implicit undercurrent. This dynamic is expressed at an individual scale and at a global scale, often set in a near future thats just off-kilter enough for us to recognize. In Eric Browns The Ice Garden, a mysterious country manor reunion story is brought about by some astral horticulture. In The Bicycle-Frame Tree Plantation Managers Redundancy by Ken MacLeod, we see a world where plants work as factories, growing complex mechanical elements, and where nature can be co-opted to leap ahead of the relentless pace of unsustainable globalized industry for only so long.

Illustrations by Jonathan Burton. Published/Curated by Wayward.

Ring sees this project and Waywards entire body of self-initiated work as a counterpoint to the dominant corporate practice of landscape design. The groups members are the wayward ones who really want the autonomy and the creative freedom to explore different things, she says.

Illustrations by Jonathan Burton. Published/Curated by Wayward.

And thats an open-ended sort of freedom that landscape architecture could stand to embrace. Landscape architectures current well-established paradigm largely conceives of landscape as elements of functional infrastructure. Ring is excited by the prospect of her book opening up new disciplinary avenues that consider landscape architects as bioengineers and landscape as technology, the humanistic endeavor thats such a fundamental ingredient of sci-fi. As the profession casts about for a new lodestar, Ring may be tinkering with the spaceship that helps it get there.

Zach Mortice is a Chicago-based architecture and landscape architecture journalist. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram.

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A WAYWARD JOURNEY TO LANDSCAPE FUTURES | Landscape ... - Landscape Architecture Magazine

This landscape architects plans for the U.S.-Mexico border have nothing to do with walls.

The United States and Mexico have shared their current international border for nearly 170 years. Today they cooperate at multiple levels on issues that affect the border region, although you would not know it from the divisive rhetoric that we hear in both countries. President Trumps focus on building a border wall threatens to undermine many binational initiatives, as well as our shared natural environment.

As a scholar focusing on urban planning and design in the border region, I have worked with communities in both countries to restore deteriorated urban and natural environments. I see great potential for green infrastructureprojects that use live natural systems to deliver benefits to people and the local environment. This approach can help mitigate air and water pollution, restore soils and habitats, and regenerate plant, animal, and human communities.

I also see an opportunity for Mexico and the United States to work together on a much larger scale. Rather than spending billions of dollars on a border wall, here is an alternative vision: regenerating the Rio Grande, which forms more than half of the border, to form the core of a binational park that showcases our spectacular shared landscape.

Today the rivers volume is decreasing, thanks to climate change and water diversions for agriculture and municipal uses. It is polluted with fertilizers and sewage, and has lost at least seven native fish species. Restoring it would produce immense benefits for wildlife, agriculture, recreation and communities on both sides.

Mexico and the United States have signed numerous agreements regulating the border, starting with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. In 1944, they created the International Boundary and Water Commission to manage water supplies, water quality, and flood control in the border region.

Environmental issues that affect communities on the border include raw sewage dumping, agro-chemical pollution, and flooding. Loss of riparian habitatthe lush green zones along river bankshas reduced shade and natural cooling in the rivers urban stretches.

Recognizing these issues, the United States and Mexico established the Border Environment Cooperation Commission in a side pact to the North American Free Trade Agreement. This organization funds environmental programs proposed by local communities and governments within a 400-kilometer-wide strip along the border. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys Border 2020 program also provides grants focused on environmental issues in the United States and Mexico.

I have coordinated applied collaborative design studios, in which students work with local and state planning authorities to address problems such as flooding and lack of accessible, high-quality public space. These projects seek to improve urban infrastructure systems in ways that increase ecosystem services, such as improving water quality.

For example, as part of the Border 2012 (precedent to Border 2020) program, the EPA provided funding for a pilot program to build flood-prevention detention ponds in Nogales, Mexico, a sister city with Nogales, Arizona. City leaders wanted to assess whether the ponds could also serve as public space amenities. Working with students from Arizona State University, my colleague Francisco Lara Valencia and I produced a report for local planning authorities. In it we proposed creating a network of connected green spaces to absorb stormwater and provide park lands, bringing nature into the city. By doing so, EPA and Mexican authorities could have a positive environmental impact on both cities.

I also worked with students at the University of Texas at Austin to create a green corridor master plan for the city of Hermosillo, Sonora, in 2015. Green corridors typically run along natural or artificial waterways to soak up stormwater and provide places to play. The city is now launching a strategic plan that incorporates these concepts.

In 2015 and 2016, UT Austin developed an urban planning and design strategy for border towns in the state of Tamaulipas that are expected to be impacted by oil and gas production resulting from recent energy reforms in Mexico. Our case study city is Ciudad Miguel Aleman, a border sister city with Roma, Texas, separated only by the width of the Rio Grande.

The plan and designs propose to leverage construction of infrastructure for oil and gas production fields to include detention and filtration ponds and green corridors, which will serve as high-quality public spaces and mitigate flood risks. It also calls for creating natural preserves and recreation areas on the Mexican side of the river, mirroring existing areas on the American side.

A green vision for the border region would expand this sister-city-specific approach into a large-scale urban ecology and planning effort. This initiative could integrate streets, parks, industries, towns, cities, creeks and other tributaries, agriculture, and fracking fields throughout the Rio Grandes entire 182,000-square-mile watershed.

One possible starting point would be to restore riparian zones along the river through the binational metropolis of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas, redesigning the existing channel. Recreating natural habitat on both sides of the river would cool and clean the air and provide attractive public spaces.

But why stop there? As the Rio Grande advances to the Gulf of Mexico, it cuts through incredibly valuable, beautiful, and remote landscapes, including Big Bend National Park in Texas and the Caon de Santa Elena, Ocampo, and Maderas del Carmen reserves in Mexico. Traveling its length could become a trip comparable to hiking the Appalachian Trail, with opportunities to see recovering natural areas and wildlife and learn from two of the worlds richest cultures.

Together these areas form a vast, potentially binational natural park that could be managed cooperatively, much like Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park on the U.S.-Canadian border. In fact, advocates on both sides of the border have been pursuing this vision for more than 80 years. When Texas officials proposed creating Big Bend National Park in the 1930s, they envisioned an international park. In 1944, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to Mexican President Manuel Avila Camacho that:

I do not believe that this undertaking in the Big Bend [establishment of Big Bend National Park] will be complete until the entire park area in this region on both sides of the Rio Grande forms one great international park.

Discussions lapsed in the 1950s, then resumed in the 1980s at the grassroots level, but were drowned out by debates over border security and immigration after the attacks of September 11, 2001.

It is not clear whether Congress will provide the $1.6 billion that President Trump has requested for work on a border wall. In any case, building a wall on a wide, inhabited river corridor with flood risks is a dubious goal. As experts have pointed out, it is more effective to police the border with technology and human power than to build a barrier.

In fact, restoring river habitat could improve border security by fostering higher and more constant water flow. Making the Rio Grande healthier would also benefit farmers and energy producers on both sides of the border.

In his 1951 essay Chihuahua as We Might Have Been, the American cultural landscape scholar J.B. Jackson wrote that rivers are meant to bring men together, not to keep them apart, and that the border imposes an artificial division on a region that humans accepted as one unified entity for hundreds of yearsthe Spanish Southwest. This vast shared watershed should remind us that we are fragile in isolation, but powerful when we come together.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

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A Landscape Architect's Green Vision for the U.S.-Mexico Border ... - CityLab

HUBBARD, Ohio There will be a Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, August 31, 2017 at St. Boniface Catholic Church, 9367 Wattsburg Road in Erie, Pennsylvania for Joseph A. Jendrasiak, age 76, of Hubbard who passed away on Wednesday, August 23, 2017 at Hospice of the Valley Hospice House in Poland.

Joe was born August 8, 1941 in Erie, Pennsylvania a son of John and Erma Flinkman Jendrasiak.

After graduating from Penn State University with a Bachelors Degree in Landscape Architecture he took a position of Landscape Architect at Duncan Landscape and Associates. He received more than 30 civic improvement awards from the City of Youngstown and was a commissioned landscape architect for the U.S. Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand. In 1976 Joe was one of five businessmen selected by District 665 Rotary International to participate in the group study exchange program to tour Japan and learn the Japanese culture.

In 1977 Joe started his own business and was a co-owner of Lande-Con Landscape and Construction Company in Hubbard. In 1989 he became solely a design firm registering in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York doing various projects in and around the Youngstown area, parks and schools in Pennsylvania and Ohio including Hubbards new school and track complex.

Joe was a past member of Hubbard Rotary Club and had served as president in 1981-1982, a member of Youngstown Area Jaycees, Penn State Alumni Association, American Society of Landscape Architects, Hubbard Architectural Board and Harding Park Meeting House Committee.

He enjoyed woodworking, fishing and gardening.

He will be sadly missed by his family; his wife of 53 years, the former Judie L. Post whom he married June 27, 1964 and his son, Joseph P. Jendrasiak of Warrenton, Virginia. He also leaves his sisters, Virginia (Scott) Stanton of Erie, Pennsylvania and Linda (Bill) Palmer of Columbus, Ohio; his brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Patrick and Kathy Post of Erie, Pennsylvania and nieces and nephews.

His parents preceded him in death.

There will be calling hours on Tuesday, August 29, 2017 from 4:00 7:00 p.m. at Stewart-Kyle Funeral Home, 407 West Liberty Street, Hubbard, Ohio and Wednesday, August 30, 2017 from 4:00 7:00 p.m. at G.R. Bailey Funeral Home 4396 Iroquois Avenue Erie, Pennsylvania and prayers at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday, August 31, 2017 prior to the Mass at G.R. Bailey Funeral Home.

Joe will be laid to rest at Wintergreen Gorge Cemetery in Erie, Pennsylvania.

Memorial contributions may be made to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, P.O. Box 3704, Memphis, Tennessee 38173-0704.

Special thanks to Dr. Slemons and his staff and Dr. Consentino and his staff for their kind and compassionate care given to Joe over the years.

Family and friends are invited to visit the funeral homes website at http://www.stewart-kyle.com to share memories and condolences.

A television tribute will air Monday, August 28 at the following approximate times:6:41 a.m. WYTV and 8:41 a.m. MyYTV and 9:58 a.m. on FOX plus two additional spots throughout the day.

Continued here:
Joseph A. Jendrasiak Obituary - WKBN.com

It is hard to move through San Francisco without coming into contact with a [Lawrence] Halprin landscape, said Charles Birnbaum, president and chief executive of The Cultural Landscape Foundation(TCLF).

Born in New York, Halprin moved to the Bay Area in the mid-1940s and established his own practice in San Francisco in 1949. His initial work focused on residential properties, but by the 1950s, he was working on larger campuses and transitioning to the public realm.

Now, TCLF is hosting a photography exhibit on view at the Palace of Fine Arts that celebrates Halprin's life and legacy. The exhibition also highlights the risk of losing the landscapes Halprin created in San Francisco and beyond.

His work and design concepts broadly affected the infrastructure of the city during his lifetime, Birnbaum told Hoodline.

Some of Halprin's earliest urban designs include Ghirardelli Square (1962-1968). According to Birnbaum, the square was one of the first efforts to recycle a historic building.

While he was working on Ghirardelli Square, Halprin also spent a decade working on Embarcadero Plaza, since named after Justin Herman.

The landscape architect was also responsible for the design of United Nations Plaza, Levis Plaza, Washington Square, the Lucas Studio campus in the Presidio, and even the layout of Market Street between the Embarcadero and the Castro.

Plans for the three-mile stretch also included Hallidie Plaza around the Powell Street Muni/BART, down to the various sizes and shapes of brick pavers and decorative lamp posts, an homage to San Francisco's City Beautiful movement.

At the end of his life and career, Halprin designedStern Grove, which today hosts summer Sunday concerts in its one-of-a-kind amphitheater.

Halprin viewed cities as theaters and designed urban landscapes that directed how people should interact with his spaces, Birnbaum said. He wanted people to play in his fountains, and used a variety of surfaces and structures to change the pace of people moving through his landscapes.

But many of his works are at risk of disappearing, due to the lack of maintenance and neglect. For example, United Nations Plaza was at risk a few years ago, with a chain link fence erected around a dry fountain.

Although the fountain is working again, there are still challenges in the plaza, and going forward, it is not clear whether the city intends to maintain the design as Halprin intended, Birnbaum told us.

For the most part, Halprin was always looking forward to the next project, but he lived long enough to be saddened by the sight of his projects moving away from his original intent or coping with a lack of maintenance.

In many cases, his landscape design was blamed for the social challenges associated with that neglect, rather than the stewards. According to Birnbaum, Halprin once related his frustration with spending ten to 20 years trying to get a project built, only to spend the next two decades fighting to keep it from being torn down.

TCLF is trying to raise awareness of Halprins legacy to prevent such loss, through the photography exhibit and its ongoing Landslide program. The program and the photography exhibit were launched last year to celebrate what would have been Halprins 100th birthday.

Through September 4th, visitors can see the 56 newly-commissioned photos of his work and learn more about his legacy at the Palace of Fine Arts.

The Palace of Fine Arts is located at 3601 Lyon St. and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am-5pm.

More:
Exhibition Highlights Landscape Architect's Impact On San Francisco - Hoodline

Renowned landscape architect Hank White, founder of New York City-based HM White, has designed residential, civic and, commercial outdoor spaces, including the Madison Square Park public urban space, the garden court and sky garden at The New York Times building, and the courtyard and common roof gardens at the celebrity-heavy 443 Greenwich condo development.

We caught up with Mr. White to talk about the importance of architectural integrity, his grave concerns about climate change and why he thinks fringe areas surrounding urban cores offer the best real estate opportunities

Mansion Global: Describe your dream property.

Hank White: Anything that has access toand relentless views ofbeautiful landscapes. Thats what does it for me personally, but if you think about high-quality and high-value urban space in general, waterfront, park views and park visibility are all important. That applies to suburban and rural space as well.

More:For the Obamas Former White House Designer, Bigger Isnt Always Better

MG: Do you have a real estate property that got away?

HW: When we were looking to move out of the city because of our expanding family, in that classic cliche, we found an ideal Cotswalds cottage in the neighborhood we wanted to be in, but they wanted to close right away. And we just werent ready to pull the trigger.

And theres another house, that we looked at before we had children. I introduced my wife to a summer community in Rhode Island that I grew up in.

We saw a house on a knoll with amazing waterfront views that needed a lot of work and was 150 years old. I couldnt get the capital to buy it, but I was planning on putting about $300,000 into it to transform it and preserve it, and then flip it. We could have gotten it for about $700,000 in the latter part of the 90s. If the house was on the market in a fine condition now, it could ask $9 million.

MG: What does luxury mean to you?

HW: Primarily, its quality of space, quality of materials, abundance of natural light and refinement of architecture and detailed expressions. Its how materials are put together and how theyre crafted. Whether in a modernist palette or in an accurate historic palette, it has to have design integrity and intelligence.

More:Spains Market is Surprisingly Hot, Says Brokerage Co-Founder

MG: What area do you think is the next hub for luxury properties?

HW: Its about the overall demographic shift toward millennials, and how much technology is transforming our world. Over 75% of the world will be living in an urban area in the next five years or so. That number used to be much, much lower.

The next hubs are probably neighborhoods on the fringes of high-valued urban neighborhoods.

The big news is surrounding population growth as well as climate change. Sea level rising is a big issue. Places by the water need to be reinvented, and dealt with.

And I think places all need a form of public access. Youre likely going to see denser developments around train stations.

MG: Whats the biggest surprise in the luxury real estate market now?

HW: You see these over $10,000-per-square-foot apartments on the 80th floor of sliver towers. Those prices are driven by emotion not a quantitative, or realistic, economic model. These places are so ego driven, that its hard to price them.

Plus, they slap on the word luxury to everything, and you walk in and its a 500-square-feet one-bedroom. It may have a Miele appliance, but does that make it luxury?

More:Sothebys Executive Says Consumer Confidence Is Strong Across the Globe

MG: Where are the best luxury homes in the world and why?

HW: I just came back from Italy and Greece, and every time I travel, what Im drawn to are places where the architectural history and heritage has been preserved, valued and nurtured. Its not only about the built environment, but the surrounding open space, and natural-world qualities that give it so much of its character.

Those are the places I find to have the biggest impact, and thats what lifts my spirits, because of the awe of the antiquity. Its humbling to be in a place where so many other people have inhabited it before you, and so many generations have respected that history.

As you drive into these European towns you feel the difference. In America, a great deal of the country is sprawl. We have to go through the commercial crud to get through to something we see as charming or beautiful.

MG: Whats your favorite part of your home?

HW: My house is an 1874 Victorian. My favorite view is looking up the stairs. It has something of a spiral quality to it. When you stand on the bottom floor looking up, its the core of the house. It speaks to the quality of the architectural design.

Also, I love sitting outside on a terrace enclosed by vegetation, looking onto my gardens, and reading a book. As a landscape architect, Im in the business of creating outdoor rooms, and this is one of my outdoor rooms.

More:Treat Your Home Like a Crush, French Designer Says

MG: What best describes the theme to your home and why?

HW: Its warmth. A friend told us, whenever I come here, I feel very calm. Because its a Victorian, there are a lot of rooms, and its not loft-like, but we removed a lot of doors so the openings were maintained. The large openings between the rooms means that the flow is great, and it creates warmth, and a sense a movement.

Because theres a lot of historic millwork and casing around the moulding, and high ceilings, we literally stripped the interior clean of all clutter so you can see that. We introduced a lot of warm colors too.

My friend said its like being in a spa lounge. Lighting is a big part of that. Furniture selection and decluttering is really important too.

MG: Whats the most valuable thing in your home?

HW: The millwork. Otherwise, a collection of paintings. What we try to do when we travel is dig into as much of the local art scene as we can. We have a piece from a young artist in Barcelona, and one from Quebec City. The art acknowledges memorable occasions in our lives; we were captivated by the beauty and art and the representation of that special time.

More:Chicago-Based Interior Designer Says Nothing Beats a Killer View

MG: Whats the most valuable amenity to have in a home right now?

HW: Creating a nexus where people want to gather. Kitchens are now big social centers, but it didnt used to be that way at all.

MG: Whats your best piece of real estate advice?

HW: Look at the edges of high-valued districts and neighborhoods. And the other thing to look out for are access to beautiful, open space, conservation land or waterfront.

One warning: Being mindful of our global climate, trends, and the vulnerability of waterfront property at this point. Your real estate dreams may be wiped out.

Its alarming whats happening and the speed in which its occurring. I see it in the waterfront community I grew up inthe tides are higher.

More:Beautiful Homes Pop Up in Some of the Most Unexpected Places, Says Daniel Libeskind

MG: Whats going on in the news that will have the biggest impact on the luxury real estate market?

HW: Global warming, and a lot of developers are already pursuing low-carbon emission buildings. Hopefully more and more will start supporting that kind of thing. New York City is doing what it can with changes to building code. In part, the private sector may need to lead the way.

Our European colleagues are much more ahead of the game.

MG: What is the best area now for investing in luxury properties?

HW: Islands, like Manhattan. Any place that has sustainable value and resources but physical limitations in terms of space, is always where people will want to be.

The challenge will be how to accommodate more and more people in a confined area in a way that improves livability and increases the value. Thats part of our job, working with so many developers, were taking a sows ear and making it into a silk purse.

More:Click to Read More Luxury Real Estate Professionals Share Their Insights

MG: If you had a choice of living in a new development or a prime resale property, which would you choose and why?

HW: Im attracted to history, so it would always be resale. Im of the mind that while we need to respect our past, with technology theres an opportunity to reinvent the past and make it relevant to how we live today. Its important to do that without erasing that past, that heritage, and keeping an eye on the environment footprint.

MG: What area currently has the best resale value?

HW: Places that have architectural integrity, whether thats modern or historic. It has to be authentic to whatever period of architectural style or expression it is. And it helps when its in a place where neighbors have been concerned with preservation and care.

The same is true for the landscape as much as the building. When sprawl development is resisted and care is given to an open landscape, thats how you uphold resale value.

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It May Be Up to Private Sector to Confront Climate Change, Says Landscape Architect - Mansion Global

By MEGHAN PIERCEUnion Leader CorrespondentAugust 20. 2017 11:16PM

Judith Reeve and Kelly Dent of the Sustainable Hanover Committee have donated their services in designing the landscape for a new to park to showcase sustainable landscaping techniques.(Courtesy photo)

The School Street Park will be located on an empty town-owned lot between School Street and the municipal parking lot behind Hanover Town Hall.

The Sustainable Hanover Committee spearheaded the project as a way to inspire and educate the public on how to create sustainable landscapes, said committee member Larry Litten.

Fundraising for the project is underway, Litten said, but a recent a donation from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation of $50,000 has taken a big chunk out of the expected $88,400 overall cost of the project.

A landscape architect and a landscape designer sitting on the committee have donated their talents to the project, saving on costs. The city-owned land has been a vacant lot for many years, but once had a house on it used by the town as a community center Litten said.

We hope construction will start next spring, he said.

One of the bigger features to be highlighted in the park will be a rain garden that will capture stormwater runoff.

We hope to actually drain the stormwater out of a large section of a parking lot, preventing it from going straight back into the Connecticut River, Litten said.

The park will also feature the use of native plants, ways to reduce lawn space, a pollinator habitat and edible landscaping.

The park also will include play areas for children and a sitting area.

We also think that we just need to promote the concept of people slowing down and enjoying nature, Litten said.

A website will also be created as an accompanying resource for the public, he said.

EnvironmentLocal and County GovernmentHanover

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Proposed Hanover park receives $50000 donation - The Union Leader

Accounting

Dingus, Zarecor & Associates PLLC, a Spokane Valley accounting firm, has hired Molly Rupp and Kaylea Passmore. Rupp is a document production specialist. Passmore has been hired as a staff accountant.

Bernardo|Wills Architects has hired Licia LeGrant, architect; Philip Ward, landscape architect; and Saul Rip Hansen, BIM/CAD technician. LeGrant is working on the Catalyst Project in Spokanes University District and a manufacturing facility for Katerra Inc. in the Spokane Valley. She has 16 years experience in architecture. Ward is working on landscape and irrigation modifications for Mission Park as well as projects at Farragut State Park and The Club at Rock Creek near Coeur dAlene. He has 36 years of landscape architecture experience. Hansen is drafting, designing and providing construction support for improvements to the North Idaho Dermatology medical office building and a tenant improvement for Kootenai Healths medical office building.

Jeff Jurgensen has been promoted to regional director of OAC Eastern Washington. Jurgensen has 26 years of project and construction manager experience and will lead strategic development in the district, manage OACs Spokane office and contribute as a service provider to clients. OAC is a construction management, forensic architecture and engineering firm headquartered in Seattle with offices in Olympia, Spokane and Silicon Valley.

STCU has hired Jeff Stone as business banking manager. Stone has 25 years of banking experience and comes to STCU from US Bank. The credit union has also announced four promotions. Amy Butler has been promoted to manager of the Crossroads Branch in Coeur dAlene. Janell Pavlica, who has been with STCU for 20 years, has been promoted to manager of the Indian Trail branch. Tanya Yost has been promoted from assistant manager to manager of STCUs Silver Lake branch in Dalton Gardens. Brandy Stern has been promoted to manager of the U-District branch after serving as the assistant manager at the Cheney location.

The National League for Nursing has named the Washington State University College of Nursing a Center of Excellence. The college was given the honor under the category enhancing student learning and professional development and is one of 15 universities or health care organizations in the nation to receive the Center of Excellence award.

Washington State University chemistry professor Aurora Clark has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society. Clark received the award for her research and service in nuclear/inorganic and computational chemistry. With 157,000 members, the American Chemical Society is the worlds largest scientific society. Fellows make up less than 0.7 percent of the societys membership.

Selkirk Wealth Advisors LLC has hired Todd Koyama as a wealth adviser. He has worked in the industry in Spokane since 1999.

Dr. Richard Burt, DDS, will open a new Aspen Dental office in Coeur dAlene on Monday. The office is at 223 Ironwood Drive.

The Spokane County Public Works Department has hired Cathy Westby as training and performance manager. She will focus on employee development and performance measures.

Have an item for Business Beat? Send it to businessbeat

@spokesman.com.

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Business Beat - The Spokesman-Review

Paolo Pejrone remembers the moment when his life took an irrevocable turn. It was January 8, 1970, at around four oclock in the afternoon, and Pejronethen an architect in his late 20swas visiting the Turin home of Gianni and Marella Agnelli. The couple were family acquaintances, and though he didnt know them personally, the eager young aesthete had accepted a teatime invitation in the hope of being introduced to Marella and her houseguest, legendary British landscape designer Russell Page. I met them both at the same moment, recalls Pejrone, still pinching himself over having encountered his greatest patron and his greatest teacher in a single afternoon. That conversation changed my life.

Over the past half-century, Pejrone has done anything but squander his good fortune. Now 76 and an esteemed landscape designer himself, hes created some 800 gardens across Europe for clients ranging from the Agnellis to Valentino and Giancarlo Giammetti to Prince Sadruddin Aga Khaneven, he reveals, for the joy of Pope Benedict. His new book Private Italian Gardens (Mondadori Electa) highlights this illustrious past, but it can barely hint at the future: Pejrone is busier than ever, tending to a grand estate on Capri, a Renzo Pianodesigned hospital in Bologna, and a historic plot near Piazza San Marco in Venice.

Page remains a touchstone because Pejrone apprenticed alongside him for 18 fruitful months in England, Ireland, and Italy. Russell made me a gardener, Pejrone says by phone from Bramafam, his own Arcadian retreat in Piedmont. He was a huge school for mein simplicity most of all. I learned that little and big things can be at the same level of importance. How to arrange and grow plants, how to think about space. They are different languages, but the same story. Following his time under Page, Pejrone traveled to study gardens his mentor had admired and later collaborated with Marella Agnelli on the grounds of Alzipratu and Villar Perosa, her homes in Corsica and outside Turin. The latter was Pages masterwork. I believe he was the only real disciple Russell ever had, she told House & Garden in 2004.

The syllabus Page had prepared stopped short of South America, and in 1972 Pejrone decamped for Brazil to visit the landscapes of Roberto Burle Marx. For six formative months, he studied with Burle Marx and drank in the ecological precepts of Rio de Janeiros visionary artist/plantsman. Russell was the best of the past, he observes, but Roberto was the future. In 60 years of gardening, Ive moved from Page to Burle Marx. Gardening now is coming not from my eyes or hands but from the heart.

For all its diversity, Pejrones work is distinguished by a profound sensitivity to site. Many of his gardens hover on the edge of steep banks that he tames through skillful terracing; sun-drenched areas are often enlisted as olive groves because, as he explains, the superfluous alone will not bring harmony. And the designer is a true conjurer of shade, coaxing it into being in subtle and myriad ways that range from jewel-toned passages, where roses tumble over lofty pergolas, to penumbral glades that move across cool lawns like love notes slipped under a door.

Penelope roses cover an arbor at a hillside estate in Porano, Italy.

Dario Fusaro/Private Italian Gardens, by Paolo Pejrone, Mondadori electa, 2017

A pragmatist as well as a romantic, Pejrone sings the praises of happy landscapes arrived at through hard work and great effort, no doubt, but without making too much noise. A garden thats too elaborate, too sophisticated, too neat will eventually become a nightmare. Potagers are often the heart of his schemes, and clients enjoy their eggplants and strawberries knowing thatat Pejrones urginglukewarm water, heated by the sun, has been used to irrigate them. If that sounds a bit silver-spade, he doesnt think that way; hes simply invested the time to learn what plants need and what they dont. Too much peat and too much water in the garden can wreak more damage than one can even imagine, he warns, slipping into the tone he perfected as a longtime garden columnist for two of Italys biggest daily newspapers, La Repubblica and La Stampa.

His national popularity comes as no surprise. He tolerates weeds, shuns fertilizer, and turns a blind eye to the small creatures who, he insists, have as much right to the landscape as he does. (Perhaps the Italians have never met Pietro Rabbit?) A true child of the 1960s, Pejrone writes of his own garden, All the plants and I want is to be happy without any hang-ups.

These days, Pejrone is the mentor, turning out solidly trained graduates every year at a horticultural school outside Turin. We are making real gardeners, with their hands, hearts, and heads, the designer insists. Not dreaming, but really effective. Plants are in the heart and the heavens. The gardeners have to be in the middle. For Pejrone, the middle is no doubt a ravishing place.

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Walk Through Landscape Designer Paolo Pejrone's Happy Gardens - Architectural Digest

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Garden and landscaping books are a dime a dozen, but critics took special notice of Thomas Rainers 2015 book Planting in a Post-Wild World. The book, which he co-wrote with Claudia West, was called groundbreaking, masterful and as practical as it is poetic.

Rainer, a landscape architect who has designed plantings for the U.S. Capitol grounds and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, recently spoke at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Some listeners were moved almost to tears by his talk on the importance of creating ecologically responsible gardens that bring the wild back into an increasingly urban world.

Yet Rainer isnt a pedant. Theres room for fun in his landscapes, and his own yard in Virginia has old-fashioned annuals and a patch of lawn where he can toss a ball with his son. Our gardens should bring us pleasure, he says, and if we look to nature for guidance, we will have less work and enjoy our yards more.

Rainer, who blogs at thomasrainer.com, took a few minutes to talk about his work, the urgency of urban gardening and Americans obsession with mulch:

Q: You say wildness matters more now. Why?

A: Half of the worlds population lives in cities. Were urbanizing at a pace unprecedented in human history. That increases desire for experiences of the wild moments of sunset, moments of seeing grasses backlit, watching a caterpillar emerge from a chrysalis. All of these things are things our grandparents experienced on a daily basis. Now these are things I show my 6-year-old son on YouTube.

As we urbanize, having our memory of the wild tickled will be more pleasurable. I think this is why the High Line in Manhattan (an abandoned elevated rail line that is now a park with prairie plants) is the most visited site in all of New York City. What does it say that what urban dwellers want to see more than anything else is the imitation of a meadow?

Q: Yet you dont argue for using only native plants in landscapes.

A: Conservation and restoration dont make any sense on the highly disturbed urban sites I deal with every day. Theres pressure for them to be beautiful; theres pressure for them to be ecologically functional, and theres pressure to look good in four seasons. To combat environmental problems, we need to start looking at the places around us the parking-lot islands, the drainage ditches, the sides of the road, the backyards as places where nature can be.

Nature is not apart from us, nature is us. And it means working with some of the invasives we have that we wont be able to totally eradicate. The goal is to get as much native biodiversity as possible, but we have to make compromises when resources arent endless.

Q: What does that mean for gardeners?

A: There is a huge opportunity in looking at gardens and finding places to add more native biodiversity, and thats possible to do without having to rip out your foundation plants, without having to abolish your lawn.

We have this particular American habit of adding 2 to 4 inches of mulch in our yards, which you dont see in Europe or Asia. When you see their gardens, they are chock full of plants. What you see in our gardens are plants swimming in a sea of mulch.

So for us the big shift is to think of plants not as individual objects but as dynamic systems. Gardeners can look at their existing plantings, find the places where there is bare mulch, and add plants. Because if you look at how plants grow in the wild, plants cover soil. Plants want to be green mulch. As you replace mulch with native groundcovers, you can include lots of flowering plants. The labor goes way, way down, and biodiversity goes up. And I think the look is better, too.

Q: You speak of going from maintenance to management.

A: When you think about plants as individual objects, maintenance needs to be individualized. Certain plants need to be staked, need to be deadheaded; some need more water, others need less. When you start planting as a community, you do everything at once.

Plants are social creatures. Most of a plants shape and behavior is a reaction to growing among other plants. Butterfly weed is exactly the same height as surrounding grasses; it helps the pollinators find it. The fact that it has almost no leaves is a way for it to move through that matrix. It has a taproot to drill through the fibrous roots of grasses.

We understand a plant best when we understand how it has evolved to grow among its companions.

Q: Yet native plants are still underused in landscapes.

A: We think the aesthetics of natives have not been fully tapped. The best North American native plant gardens are in Europe. And thats because the Dutch and the Germans and the English are geeked out on our native flora, not because theyre good for bees and pollinators but because they think our flora is some of the most gorgeous flora anywhere in the world.

A state like Minnesota probably has five times the native plant diversity of the whole British Isles. Were spoiled for choice. But the nursery trade does not propagate enough of the right plants, and were not understanding how to combine them for the best aesthetic effect.

We believe in natives but you have to think about plant performance and maximizing bloom. A well-behaved exotic may increase ornamental value and can make plantings more acceptable.

Q: Is our idea of what makes a garden too rigid?

A: I think so. If you look at the American suburban yard, theyre not landscapes of pleasure, theyre landscapes of labor. The pruning, the lawns we do these things because we want things that are low-maintenance and we dont want to tick off our neighbors. We dont typically have gardens we love.

But for me, as a gardener, what I want to communicate is the pleasure. The most pleasurable part of the garden is to go out and watch not only seasonal change, but change day by day. Watch the pollinators, watch the plants. To watch life day by day.

Q: What about gardeners who love peonies or roses?

A: Keep those beloved garden plants. But intermingle them with beautiful salvias and low blue sedges or put them in combinations so their ornamental qualities are amplified. Layering compatible plants is really useful, just as we do in container arrangements.

The thing we want to do more than anything else is to encourage people to get pleasure out of their plantings. It is not about plants being good or bad. Were trying to talk about how to get more tools based on the way plants grow. Its a tool for lower maintenance, more biodiversity, more pleasure and squeezing more color out of small spaces.

Mary Jane Smetanka is a Minneapolis freelance writer, a Hennepin County master gardener and a tree care adviser.

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Call of the wild: Look to nature for garden guidance - Minneapolis Star Tribune