2019 Annual WASLA Conference

Greater Tacoma Convention Center, March 22, 2019

4:15 - 5:15 PM
But will it look good? Visual impact assessment and landscape architecture.

Session Presentation

Description:

Designers of the built environment can have a decades-long influence: people will look at our design decisions for 20, 30, even 100 years. Will they like what they see? Federal, state, and local policies promote the preservation of aesthetically pleasing scenic resources for the public; to that end, various agencies have developed procedures to consider visual resources in environmental decision-making. Through visual impact assessments, landscape architects play a key role in informing the visual quality of landscape. In this presentation, using select case studies, we'll explore the purpose, methods, and limitations of visual impact assessments, and explore how aspects of this systematic approach can be applied to the broader landscape design process.

Speaker Bios:

Betsy Severtsen, Senior Landscape Architect, Anchor QEA

Betsy Severtsen is a Senior Landscape Architect at Anchor QEA, a multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm. Her visual resource assessment work has supported design-alternative analyses and public engagement activities for projects such as the Alcatraz ferry site in San Francisco, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area near Leavenworth, and the Seattle waterfront, among others. Informed by a background in geography and natural resources, Betsy also focuses on habitat restoration and expanding public waterfront access.

Kim Marcotte, Senior Managing Planner, Anchor QEA

Kim Marcotte is a Senior Managing Planner at Anchor QEA, a multidisciplinary environmental consulting firm. Kim has managed environmental review processes requiring visual analyses for a variety of clients, ranging from local, state and federal agencies to private organizations. This has included overseeing the assessment of visual and viewshed analyses in the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area near Leavenworth, and for different land use development projects along the West Coast.

Learning Objectives:

  • Learn what is a visual resource impact assessment, when are they used, and why they are important
  • Learn the general process of visual resource impact assessments
  • Explore visual assessment guidelines that can inform landscape design processes
  • Apply lessons learned from presented case studies