Landscape Architect's Economic Anxiety

From the fall of the sub-prime debacle to the tightening of credit, I would imagine many landscape architects and other designers of the built environment are reflecting on the foreseeable economic outlook with some anxiety. According to the AIA’s 2007 Component Survey of Business Conditions, the outlook in their words is “relatively strong”. Though the survey acknowledges that the conditions are weaker nationwide than they were a year ago. The best areas of the country were the Southwest and Texas. Michigan, Ohio, and Southern Florida were the worst regions that responded.

Based on the current outlook, I anticipate a sharp weakening in the 2008 business conditions. There are a number of serious issues that we will need to overcome if the economic picture is to improve. These issues include the highly probable continuing of defaults on home mortgage loans, deepening slide of the dollar against the Euro and other currencies, annual rise in health care and energy cost, and our nation’s dismal negative savings rate. Fundamentally, the economic system is out of balance. As always the economics has no compassion for anyone. Home builders, Home Depot, Lowes, and other related businesses have rightfully cut their outlook in 2008. Yesterday the Wall Street Journal reported a small drop in retail property values from September. Commercial, Office, and retail was suppose to balance out the losses in the housing sector, but it looks like they are weakening as well.

As a landscape architect, I feel powerless in affecting change within the economic system. Like most landscape architects, I will succumb to market forces. Reflecting on this, it made me wonder who will fair better than others. Three aspects of a firm will likely shape how they fair within an uncertain environment. These include financial planning, type, and market.

A firm’s financial planning and business practices are a critical characteristic that will determine the company’s success in trying times. Those that hire and fire based on their short term workload will quickly reduce their payrolls at the expense of their employees and future loyalty. Then there are the poor financial planners that assume all will be fine because it always has been. While they may want to hold the company together, their hands will be forced to lay off their staff as it becomes more difficult to keep them. Firms that have been through trying economic times (at least 15 years old) and learned from them have prepared for times like these. They are the ones that will benefit from an experienced loyal staff . When interviewing who ever ask about the financial characteristics of the firm? Besides rumors or interviewing other who have worked for the firm, you really can not learn a lot.

What you do know is the type of firm you work for and its market. It would seem those that specialize in aspects of the profession that are experiencing more of a downturn will have a tougher time and may be forced to adapt. While those that are more generalist are adaptable to a changing market. In addition, public work is probably more stable than private work which is more volatile because of a reliance on credit and consumer spending. The best situation is likely a general multi-disciplinary firm. The firm’s market base is important as well. Those that have an international base are likely to fair better than those that are more localized, particularly those who practice in emerging markets.

While it may seem that the economic outlook will dim for a time, it is important to remember that the industry is cyclical and that everyone needs a place to live, so development will continue. Maybe not at the breakneck pace of the last few years, but it will continue. Though with fewer jobs, competition will be more fierce. Firms will need to get more savvy.

Making Space on Your Balcony

I ran across this small planter called "On The Edge Pot" from Design Within Reach (link to DWR page). With the proliferation of small high-rise residential balconies across the country, there seems to be a great opportunity to design furniture for these small places. Surprisingly, it seems to be an underserved market. Products like this are a great start.

Toronto's Green Surface Parking Design Guidelines

A recent Toronto Star article titled “City approves new guidelines for eco-friendly parking lots” (link to article) reported on the release of Toronto’s new design guidelines for greening surface parking lots. (link to design guidelines). After reading the article, I was compelled to find them to see what they were all about. The lack of enforcement seems to be their biggest shortcoming. Most of the guides contents are an overview of policies and design suggestions for creating better parking lots. While I applaud the creation of the guidelines, their idea of being green seemed to have more to do with landscaping than anything else. They reminded me of your typical above average American suburb parking lot design guidelines with a touch of sustainable design practices thrown in for good measure. Stormwater management gets less than three pages out of the 40 page booklet and permeable pavement gets even less. The parking lot examples were helpful, but the designs were underwhelming. Since parking makes up a large percentage of the land uses in many cities and has a huge impact on storm water quality and quantity, not to mention its impact on the urban heat island effect, it is an important topic to address. So it is a step in the right direction, I just wanted and expected more.

While reading it, I was reminded of The Chicago Green Alley Handbook (link to document)which recently won ASLA’s 2007 Communications Honor Award (link to ASLA Awards summary page). The Toronto guidelines could have learned a lot from it user friendly and inspiring prototypical designs. It is a great introduction to creating more sustainable infrastructure.

Spacings also had a post on the guidelines, the author suggested incentivizing the guidelines by enacting a parking fee in some form that could then be reduced if the guidelines were followed. Other cities have enacted stormwater fees that could then be reduced if stormwater best management practices (BMPs) were implemented. In conjunction with other requirements like a landscape ordinance that requires trees and landscaping, they would go a long way in implementing the design guidelines. I would also like to see parking requirements addressed. I am not familiar with Toronto’s, but in many cases too much parking is required. In other cases tenants demand more parking than may be necessary. Reducing the number of parking spaces would eliminate the need for mitigating the impact of them all together. So we need to make sure we provide adequate parking, but not an excessive amount that is rarely if ever used. Shared parking, mixing uses, municipal garages, and/or on-street parking could also help reduce off –street parking requirements. A ran across a 2005 report from the University of Connecticut by Wesley E. Marshall, P.E. and Norman W. Garrick, Ph.D.titled Parking at Mixed-Use Centers in Small Cities (link to report, Ms Word Doc) that looks at parking demand. It is worth reading.

parckdesign Competition Results

Earlier this year, Pro Materia and Bruxelles-Environnement organized an open site furniture design competition for Jardins du Fleuriste Park in Brussels called parckdesign (Link: Competition Site). The competition was initiated by Evelyne Huytebroeck, Brussel’s minister of environment and energy. Of the 71 entries received, 5 were selected by a jury of 17 professionals. I could not find any information on their website as to the rules or awards for the competition. All of the entries were benches, so I assume creating a bench was a prerequisite. They definitely had a great response and receive a number of interesting solutions. I was disappointed with the winning solutions. They obviously were not concerned with the act of sitting. They seemed to be more concerned with form and were rather mundane and/or uncomfortable. Of the winning entries, the one I liked most was Breath. It offered users a means of getting an alternative vantage point in a public space.

Many of the designs that were not chosen offered more seating choices and comfort while still providing visually interesting designs. The five entries that I thought were more interesting included the following (Links are to the summary of each entry found on the competition website):

• Ntree: This solution created a striking sculptural element that could be used to frame views while providing a great place to sit and have a conversation.
• Bracelet d'arbre: At first, I thought this was ridiculous, but the more I thought about it, this solution is addresses those times that people would like to sit on the grass, but forgot their blanket. I realize the panels would likely kill the grass, but it could offer a unique pattern of use in the landscape.
• Treecuzzi: I like the versatility of this piece. The ability of sitting around a circle in a group in the interior or sitting individually on the outside edge was a good solution.
• Banc brut: I thought this bench looked comfortable. I also liked how the pieces could be arranged in different configurations.
• 2many: This piece offered various choices for sitting including laying on the grass. I love the integration with the landscape.

The competition site is worth checking out. You can see all of the submitted entries. They even include photos of the fabrication process of the winning entries (link to fabrication photos).

Indulging My Obsession

Joining the ranks of the plethora of bloggers covering every topic imaginable, I am now further indulging my obsession with landscape architecture. I have run across the occasional landscape architectural blog or those that touch on the many facets of landscape architecture, but none have spoken to me or offered a combination of content that I was seeking. So here it goes, if anyone is reading, I hope that you enjoy the content that will follow. My target is to at least start out updating once a week (I hope more). The content will include the occasional ramblings from myself, cool and helpful products that I like (I am afraid not all will be new for those that may keep up better than myself, but bear with me), and photos related to More Sitephocus’s parent site Sitephocus.com, the on-line image library of the built environment. If you have not been to the site, you need to check it out. It is a great resource for any landscape architect, urban designer, or anyone involved in shaping the outdoor built environment. It is also just another way to indulge my obsession with this great profession.