Celebrating Landscape Architecture Month!
What is Landscape Architecture.
Landscape architecture is a combination of design, strategy, and guidance. Practitioners must be skilled in the art of sculpting the land itself and have a deep understanding of the past, present, and desired future conditions of our environment. Due to their multidisciplinary training, landscape architects may be found in a wide range of roles such as planning and policymaking, traditional construction and development, or horticultural and botanical services.
Here are five key reasons to engage a landscape architect for work in planning or construction and development projects.
LA-Blog-Post-1The Best Outcomes
When you find yourself in a park, on a scenic drive, or wandering around a pleasant urban environment, take a look around. If it’s a comfortable space with great views and vegetation and site elements that fit seamlessly into the surroundings, chances are a landscape architect was involved in the project design.
Project Highlight: Tanana Chiefs Conference Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center.
The first project of its kind in Fairbanks, the Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center landscape is an ecologically sensitive approach that strategically addressed the client’s cultural, site climate, and stormwater concerns. Through close collaboration with Native Alaska stakeholders, the design team achieved the client’s goal of creating an environment that facilitates healing, reflects the natural history of the area, and provides a sense of home and community to Native Alaskans traveling from far remote communities for healthcare.
The landscape architecture team used various tools to achieve the client’s vision and goals including the installation of a green roof, preservation of existing native vegetation, salvaging and relocating native tundra mat, and highlighting natural ecological systems and native cultural elements. The use of native tundra mat and birch and aspen trees creates resilience within the site, ensuring that the vegetation will have a high survival rate, while also providing a familiar environment for users from more rural areas. The building appears as though it has grown out of the earth, emphasizing the natural and healing environment and creating a comforting scale to the building.
Out of this close connection between the landscape, interior, cultural and architectural designs, a more responsive building was born to meet the client’s goals. The Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center is a unique example of extending the healing environment, incorporating calming, warm spaces inside with natural native green spaces outside.
