Barbara Deutsch, ASLA, Executive Director of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) hosted a panel [at 2010 ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo] on landscape performance, covering how to measure both the environmental benefits of sustainable sites and the cultural benefits of site aesthetics. Heather Withlow, LAF, Susan Olmsted, ASLA, Mithun, and Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, University of Virginia, discussed the connections between hard data and aesthetics.
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Mithun’s Focus on Math and Beauty
Mithun, a Seattle-based landscape architecture firm, is guided by a set of principles that form its integrated approach to sustainable design, says Susan Olmsted. One principle is “do the math”; another is “create beauty / spirit.” Olmsted said metrics and aesthetics were interdependent — it’s the mix that creates a “sense of purpose.”
As opposed to solely measuring maintenance, management, and monitoring data, Olmsted argued that there is a great opportunity to apply performance ideas in the beginning during the design and construction phases.
In an example of a high-performance landscape, Olmsted pointed to Mithun’s well-known High Point affordable community project in Seattle (see a case study). High Point features a range of sustainable landscape elements, including some 15,000 feet of bioswales, but Olmsted focused in on some benefits that had been quantified.
The overall “green” aspect of the project cost just three percent of the total, but yielded 20 of the annual utility savings for the residents, many of which have low-incomes. Additionally, the decentralized green infrastructure system used throughout the housing community enabled the designers to use a smaller detention pond, which freed up land that could be sold, expanding economic gains. In five years, the Seattle Housing Authority “broke even.” Through their work, there had also been a 433 percent increase in density in the community and a 300 percent increase in trees.
via dirt.asla.org
