Hello FLASLA Members! Hard to believe that we are heading into summer already. Before we know it the kids are out of school and the steamy summer heat of Florida rolls in (depending on where you are in the State it is already here). And with summer comes our annual conference and expo, this year being held at the beautiful and tranquil Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo July 24th through the 26th. Online registration is now available at the State Chapter website www.flasla.org. Early bird prices are in effect until June 13th.

 

Welcome to the sixth piece of this report series, "Your ASLA Membership," telling you just a few notes from our national organization during the last month. Remind people who may have lapsed in their membership to rejoin and that payment options are available. Please feel free to contact me at Trustee@FLASLA.org if you have any questions or concerns about ASLA issues. If you and/or your section did an event for National Landscape Architecture Month, please let myself or President Jeff Brophy know. National is looking to compile all the events.

 

I've had a continuing dialogue with a contact at the National Park Service (NPS) over the past several months. This dialogue is regarding an opportunity for FLASLA chapter members to participate in a collaborative charrette (or, hopefully, more than one) for NPS initiatives in the state of Florida. Now we have a real opportunity to do so.

 

Take a look at your business card. How do you identify yourself as a landscape architect RLA? LLA? CLA? How about PLA? Last fall, ASLA approved the Universal Designation Policy, which encourages all licensed landscape architects to use the post nominal letters "PLA" after their names. As an abbreviation of the title "professional landscape architect," PLA allows potential clients and the general public to better identify licensed landscape architects.

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - A team of 20 University of Florida students has won first place in a national competition for a plan on how to dramatically reduce stormwater runoff on a 67.6-acre part of their campus. This is the second time UF has won the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Campus RainWorks Challenge. To compete in the master plan category this year, the students from four colleges chose a watershed in the northeast corner of campus.

 

 

 

In honor of April being National Landscape Architecture Month, Michael A. Gilkey, ASLA, BLA 1999, teamed up with Mariposa Nursery, in Bradenton, Fla., to lead Southside Elementary School's youngest students in the design and construction of their very own shoebox butterfly gardens. "Educating students about our profession is extremely important to me," says Gilkey. "I serve on the Advisory Council to the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Florida, and I see firsthand how few students entering their college years have an understanding of what landscape architects do, and how they shape our environment. I am excited to join with others throughout the state and nation to try and change that."

 

When the landscape architects first arrived for their initial interview, the landscape surrounding the historic residence was overgrown and outdated. The landscape architect worked closely with the architect, general contractor and client to develop a landscape program that would allow for family enjoyment and numerous house guests, yet be respectful to the Mediterranean revival styled architecture of the building. The landscape architect designed all of the outdoor spaces to accommodate entertaining and relaxation, yet left enough open green space for view and interest.

 

The Landscape Architect collaborated with the building Architect to conceive of a landscape design respectful of the sculptural quality of the house. The white solid massing of the house has a sculptural feel; its continuous, repetitive gabled facade follows the water's edge, with large expanses of glass to view the water from within. The Landscape Architect banned all notions of typical foundation plantings, which typically decorates residential buildings, in favor of a more purposeful Landscape design, which complements the waterfront views from within, while maintaining the modern needs of a low maintenance, sustainable property.

 

The Sky Garden is a model for traditionally underutilized rooftop space. The Architect and Landscape Architect created a balance of aesthetic vision and practical residential needs for this unprecedented home built on the roof of a structure that is part parking lot, part retail, part event space and part penthouse.

 

In hopes that some of you are planning to participate in AIA's Park(ing) Day Design Competition for Emerging Professionals, I have compiled a few ideas from the pop-up and tactical urbanism movements, as well as images from previously built Park(ing) Day parklets for inspiration.

 

The Ft. Lauderdale Historical Society will be hosting a free lecture by Dr. Steve Noll, a senior lecturer with the Department of History at the University of Florida on Monday, May 12th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the historical New River Inn, located at 231 SW 2nd Ave. The lecture is sponsored by the Florida Humanities Council.