Events | 2004 Jury

• Kenneth Helphand, FASLA, Jury Chairman
• James Harrison
• Marcy McInelly, AIA
• James L. Sipes, ASLA
• Mark Hinshaw, FAIA, FAICP
• Tom Liptan
• Ketzel Levine
  
  
  

Kenneth Helphand is Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Oregon where he has taught courses in landscape history, theory and design since 1974. He is a graduate of Brandeis University (1968) and Harvard's Graduate School of Design (MLA 1972). He is the recipient of distinguished teaching awards from the University of Oregon (1993) and the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (1997). Helphand has guest lectured at dozens of universities and is a regular visiting professor at the Technion-the Israel Institute of Technology. He is the author of numerous articles and reviews on diverse topics such as "Landscape Films", "McUrbia", "Environmental Autobiography", "The Western City Park", "Agriculture's Art: The Garden", "Interpretive Interventions", "Learning from Linksland", "Battlefields & Dreamfields", "Magic Markers", and "The Bicycle Kodak". His works include the ASLA award winning books Colorado: Visions of an American Landscape.(1991), Yard Street Park: The Design of Suburban Open Space (with Cynthia Girling, 1994) and Dreaming Gardens: Landscape Architecture & the Making of the Israeli Landscape.(2002) He is currently at work on his latest book entitled Defiant Gardens Helphand served as editor of Landscape Journal from 1994 to 2002. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a recipient of the Bradford Williams Medal, a Graham Foundation Grant, and an Honorary Member of the Israel Association of Landscape Architects. Helphand grew up in New York City and its suburbs.

Juror Statement:
There were a few things that struck me in the entries.  The role of water in the Northwest is not surprising, but there appears to be a renewed sense of the civic possibilities of water in all its manifestations.  The critical role of the riverfront is to be expected, but that water treatment plants, storm water and runoff are celebrated through design is inspiring.  These places, along with other neglected landscapes, such as rooftops, can be conceived as gardens, and thus enriched by their association with the tradition, theory and craft of landscape architecture.  The broad concern in many projects for designs that both educate and communicate through both form and more didactic means is also promising.  Such work is impossible without the conjunction of designers with thoughtful and determined clients, who are to be commended for their ambition and sense of community concern.

[top]

James is well known for his work in producing public art, private commissions, consulting, and similar work that blurs the boundaries between architecture and sculpture. With a background in architecture, James Harrison is an artist that knows how to get things built. His work is currently focused in the public realm where art, architecture, urban planning and public policy meet. He has worked with Mayer/Reed on the Eastbank Esplanade in Portland, Oregon creating the Echo Gate, Ghost Ship, Stack Stalk and Alluvial Wall.

Juror Statement:
There is an emerging aesthetic to the sustainability movement - one that will mark out time when we look back a generation from now.  The best projects did more than preach the current gospel - they effectively moved it forward.  We were a tough jury - you could find merit in most every entry.  The projects that stood out in my mind made you realize the importance of the Landscape Architect's job.  It ain't just shrubbery!  Storm water runoff, Green Roofs, urban crowding, rural protection - Landscape Architects are discovering practical solutions that deal with these issues in a beautiful way.  The early idealisms of the Ecological and New Urbanist movements are a little more seasoned - Every time a Landscape Architect finds an innovative solution to our current problems, (such as green roofs) it adds to the transformation of 'Sustainability' from a movement to an economic industry that will benefit and distinguish our region.  Viva Cascadia!

[top]

In 1995, after 15 years of designing buildings, Marcy founded Urbsworks, a firm where she and her partner, both architects, have redirected their expertise to the often-neglected space between buildings. Her portfolio consists of community design, urban planning, zoning, planning policy, public involvement, education and the integration of transit and transportation facilities into communities. Specific projects include streetscapes, new and updated development ordinances, codes and review procedures, infill proposals and new community plans.

Marcy served as an appointed member of the Portland Planning Commission from 1997 until May of 2002 and she is a founding member of the Portland metropolitan region Coalition for a Livable Future. She enjoys the challenge of projects that have significant public involvement, regulatory and design components. She specializes in a design-focused approach to regulation and is able to bridge between the design vision and the requirements of land use and transportation requirements. A lifelong Northwesterner, Marcy is a graduate of the University of Oregon's Architecture and Allied Arts School, and a registered architect with more than 20 years of experience in the design and management of architectural and urban design projects in New York City and Washington State, Oregon, and California.

While on the Planning Commission, Marcy worked carefully with Bureau of Planning staff to refocus the Base Zone Design Standards (also known as the Anti-Snouthouse Ordinance) to the issue of preservation of the public realm. These development standards identify the essential elements that make healthy streets and neighborhoods.

Juror Statement:
The values embodies in projects entered under the Environmental/Sustainable Design category really demonstrate the leadership potential of the Landscape Architecture profession.  These are values that a majority of Landscape Architecture is beginning to address.  I would say, in fact, that collaborating professionals and the public expect the profession to promote green design and sustainable projects.  Not surprisingly, projects entered under this category all seemed to aspire to a higher level of integration and multi-disciplinary collaboration.  Only a few years from now every project will be expected to address the criteria of environmental and sustainable design.  The clean water/water treatment plant projects really seem to be pushing an aesthetic that we have no seen before: with architecture and landscape integrated.  The projects embody the best of the tradition of great infrastructure projects (think Baths of Caracalla) with grand, public scale, iconic forms, and civic spirit.  It will be interesting to see this approach mature in future years, with edgier urban forms that embody our goals for sustainability and technically still perform.  As another juror put it we are still in the "bulrush aesthetic" phase of the sustainable/green project movement.  My only disappointment was with the materials submitted to tell the story of each project.  We really to read between the lines to understand the compelling story of multi-disciplinary collaboration, design aspirations and values.  education was a stated mission of many projects, yet the submission entries did not help educate the jurors.

[top]

Jim is a landscape architect and the founding principal of Sand County Studios, a firm that believes that if we work in partnership with each other, our clients, and our communities, we can create a healthy and vibrant world, one place at a time. His work is broad-based and multi-faceted and includes environmental planning and design, environmentally based transportation design, park and recreation design, natural and cultural resource management, watershed management, and community based design. He has been involved with a variety of projects that integrate cultural and natural resources. He has been featured in Landscape Architecture Magazine's "Shared Wisdom" section, has been recognized as Outstanding Alumni at Iowa State University, and has received numerous planning, design, and communication awards over the years. He writes on design and technology issues for a number of national magazines. He is a contributing editor for Landscape Architecture Magazine and has written more than 100 articles on environmental and technology issues.

Jim received a Bachelors degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Kentucky and a Masters of Landscape Architecture from Iowa State University. Jim has more than 10 years teaching experience at major universities, including Washington State University, University of Idaho, Cornell University, the University of Oklahoma (OU), and Harvard.

Juror Statement:
The best thing about this year's Oregon Chapter ASLA Awards is that it gave us an opportunity to look back at the best work the profession of landscape architecture has to offer, and to recognize the best of the best.  What was most encouraging is the diversity and richness of the various projects, and that all seemed to address the concept of "sustainability" as an integral part of the design process.  A common complaint among landscape architects is that the public doesn't understand what we do, yet on several projects that may have been worth of an award, we the jurors had to guess at what was accomplished.  One thing that all the projects selected for awards had in common is that they all did a good job of clearly presenting process and approach, defining the role of the landscape architects, and telling the story of the project and it's connection to place.  On a personal note, I was disappointed that we didn't see more submittals in the "Communications" category.  After all, aren't landscape architects supposed to excel at graphic communications?

[top]

Mark Hinshaw is the Director of Urban Design for LMN Architects, a 120-person firm based in Seattle. For over twenty-five years, he has been responsible for a wide range of projects in large cities, suburban centers, and small towns including downtown development, public spaces and pedestrian facilities, design-oriented codes and guidelines, and master plans for public facilities. He has serves as President of the Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association and as President of the Seattle Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. In addition, he has served on the national Board of Directors for the American Institute of Certified Planners.

From 1982-1990, he was Principal Urban Designer for the City of Bellevue, WA, helping guide its transformation from a nondescript collection of strip centers to an intense, mixed use, transit-oriented urban center. A Seattle resident, he has serves on the Seattle Design Commission, which reviews all public projects, and he currently chairs the Downtown Design Review Board, which reviews private development in the core area of the city.

Hinshaw lectures widely on the subject of urban design at conferences and workshops. He has written for a number of professional design journals, including Landscape Architecture, Places, Planning, and Architecture. And he writes a regular column on architecture and urban design for The Seattle Times. Several years ago, he authored the Planning Advisory Service report entitled Design Review, which is still the only manual available to local governments on the subject. His recent book, Citistate Seattle: Shaping a Modern Metropolis is available through Amazon.com.

Juror Statement:
Landscape design work coming out of Oregon has consistently been superior to what is done elsewhere in the country.  That makes is especially difficult for a jury to find the "best of the best."  On the other hand, the desire is to hold up particularly commendable achievements.  As a jury, we tended to gravitate towards projects that seemed to accomplish multiple design objectives and especially those that exhibited a thoughtfulness towards a range of subjects from the "big idea" to the small details in execution.  Further, we tended to respond best to those submittals that demonstrated through both words and graphics how they were fitting into a larger program of community building, stewardship of natural resources, or place-making.

[top]

Tom Liptan is a registered landscape architect in Oregon and works as a stormwater specialist with the City of Portland, Bureau of Environmental Services, Sustainable Stormwater Management Program. He has been internationally recognized for his work on Ecoroofs, water-gardens and other sustainable site design techniques. For the past 11 years he has been involved in the development of new site and building design/ planning/ management approaches, ecoroof research and program development, implementation of demonstration projects with public and private partners, stormwater monitoring, city code modifications, and education and outreach. He is co-author of a chapter "Stormwater Gardens" in the Handbook of Water Sensitive Planning and Design, Robert France (Lewis Publishers, 2002).

Juror Statement:
Numerous projects reveal a heartening new trend of stewardship and sustainability.  Ian McHarg's call to 'Design with Nature' appears to be emerging in the work of these landscape architects, architects, there clients and others of related disciplines.  Perhaps this new trend reveals that our attitudes toward Mother Nature, are, maturing as we recognize the economic and ecological benefits of mothering nature.

[top]

NPR's Senior Correspondent Ketzel Levine is celebrating her 30th year in public radio. In that time, she has produced and reported on everything from the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid to the 100th anniversary of Madame Butterfly, and has told stories from places as diverse as Belfast, Northern Ireland and the flowering fields of South Africa.

Ketzel began her career immersed in classical music at an NPR affiliate in upstate New York. After moving to DC to work for NPR, she continued working in the arts on NPR's then-premier arts magazine, Voices in the Wind. Word soon got around that in addition to loving music, Ketzel loved the Yankees. To this day, she still marvels that with only a passion as her qualification, she became NPR's first sports director, producing daily sports coverage for the network's latest show, Morning Edition.

In 1982, after several years in the sports world, Ketzel moved to London and went from producing to reporting. She worked for BBC World Service, where she became the first American to broadcast sports. But proximity to London's cultural riches proved too tempting, and Ketzel was drawn back into the arts, as an overseas reporter for NPR.

Over the next few years, Ketzel's career as an arts reporter took her from London to New York and DC. But something happened in the late 80's that changed her life - she discovered horticulture. Ketzel left NPR to start a landscape design and installation business, and for the next five years, ate, slept and dreamt plants. During this time, she became a contributing editor for Horticulture Magazine, and wrote Plant This! Best Bets for Year-Round Gorgeous Gardens, published in 2000 by Sasquatch Books.

Back on the air as NPR's "Doyenne of Dirt", Ketzel paired up with Weekend Edition host Scott Simon for nearly a decade's worth of conversations about plants. In 2000, she returned to broadcasting full time. Today, as NPR's Senior Correspondent, she's able to combine her wide range of passions into a breadth of stories, with a decided prejudice towards music, dogs and plants.

Juror Statement:
Because I was the plant nerd on the panel, I will focus my comments on that which I know best.  In landscape design plants are much more than "material".  They are dynamic players in any landscape, and are integral to our sense of place.  Given that, I found it gratifying that a number of projects showcased the immense variety of plants that are native to our region.  I was particularly heartened by the few submissions that offered well-researched plant lists.  But on the whole, I was struck by the disconnect between the diversity of plants we can grow here, and the limited palette still used in landscape design.  Given the sophistication - and appetite! - of the Northwest gardener, it seems a logical next step for landscape designers to reflect the regions curiosity, respect and passion for plants.