2024 WASLA Conference Session Descriptions

FEATURED PRESENTATION
Session Title: High Wind Applications for Roof Top Pavers
Session Presenters: Michael McVey
LA CES Credits: 1

FEATURED PRESENTATION
Session Title: Designing an Ethnobotanical Garden
Session Presenters: Greg Gordon
LA CES Credits: 1

In this interactive charrette, participants will become familiar with traditional models conceptualizing the relationship between indigenous peoples and native plants. Participants will gain expertise in landscape design that incorporates both indigenous cultural values and public educational opportunities in community-engaged garden design. After learning about the various rewards and challenges of developing culturally sensitive and community-driven native plant gardens, participants will have an opportunity for practical application and collegial collaboration workshopping initial designs for a proposed ethnobotanical “discovery” garden in Spokane’s Wild Horse Park. Organizers will provide a detailed overview of the proposed garden site, preliminary draft of the garden, and overall goals and criteria of community constituents invested in the project, and a plant list approved by the Spokane Tribe. In small groups, participants will then engage in discussion and drafting to explore design ideas and potential organizing themes. Small group work may also include decision-making exercises to help deepen cultural competencies and provide hands-on application of traditional ecological knowledge.

FEATURED PRESENTATION
Session Title: Climate Change, Heat Islands, and Cooling Stations: A Comprehensive Approach to Heat Management
Session Presenters: Michelle Lynn
LA CES Credits: 1

In the face of our rapidly changing climate, understanding the interconnected issues of global warming, urban heat islands (UHIs), and the imperative need for municipal heat management strategies is paramount. This presentation aims to equip you with the knowledge to navigate the everchanging realities of climate change, recognize the localized challenges of cities posed by heat islands in urban environments, and explore innovative solutions such as cooling stations.

Session Title: Get the Skinny on the Selection Process for a Mountain Bike Park
Session Presenters: Drew Coombs
LA CES Credits: 1

We will share a unique project where the design team could not only design a park but was also integral in facilitating a site selection process. How do you find the best site for recreation to maximize the benefit to the community?

Creating a good place for mountain biking, hiking, camping, and day-use starts with a great program. What recreational activities were considered?

The team created a sound process that led to selecting the best possible sites for two mountain bike parks and trail systems. The selection was facilitated with:

a) Criteria-based process where we identified measurable attributes that would lead to success.

b) Screening of alternative sites based on the criteria and team-developed site selection decision matrix.

c) A transparent process that makes it easy for decision-makers.

d) A charrette was held that brought users and decision-makers together to quickly lay out the designs in an intense one-day process.

Ensuring success in crafting sustainable landscape solutions relies on building the foundation of a great business rooted in ecological integrity. A focus on process harmonizes all aspects of human needs by helping you and those around you to succeed at home, in the community, and at work now and well into the future.

As Founder of Nussbaum Group (NG), Dale Nussbaum will share NG’s core principles and processes that build people to be great family and community members which then enables them to bring their best to their sustainable landscape work. Dale will also share the research and process involved in the choice to become a100% Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) company.

We will explore: • The resources that helped form the business foundation of NG. • Our simple core principles and The Nussbaum Way • The resources that help us empower great family and community members which ultimately creates better managers. • The research into possible succession options to ensure NG endures as envisioned. • The process of forming and launching a 100% ESOP company. • Resources for exploring ESOP formation.

Session Title: Benefits of Outsourcing Irrigation Design
Session Presenters: Jon Peters
LA CES Credits: 1

This panel session explores how urban agriculture in public landscapes may advance community and ecological resilience. For context, we introduce urban agriculture practices in Seattle as sustainable public landscape design and management. We focus on the UW Farm to illustrate diverse models and systems for cultivating resilience.

The UW Farm, at the University of Washington Seattle campus, is an urban agriculture learning laboratory for students and the broader community. The Farm occupies three urban sites: a capped landfill, a rooftop, and 1-acre of connected courtyard terraces. Students and community members cultivate, harvest, and distribute food across the campus community.

The Farm’s production process centers regenerative agroecological methods and community partnerships. A vermicompost system converts food scraps into worm castings as a compost on the Farm. Recent initiatives include an aquaculture plot that is an extension of the wǝɫǝbʔaltxʷ (Intellectual House) Native Garden, as a growing space for Wapato. Future potentials include indoor and hydroponic farming. The Farm’s biodiverse habitats and embedded place- and community-based learning provide robust design lessons for intertwined ecological and social resilience.

Addressing diversity in outdoor play and recreation destinations demonstrates how a community respects and values all forms of inherent differences we possess as individuals. Disability is a natural part of the human experience that should not diminish an individual’s right to fully participate in healthy recreation. Thoughtfully designed parks can foster a deep sense of belonging and ensure that people of all abilities and ages can participate in inclusive, intergenerational play. Discover the latest research findings and data collected from hundreds of sites that demonstrate the positive impact environmental design has on the whole child, whole environment, and whole community. A comprehensive checklist and evidence-based design best practices will support the creation of outdoor play and recreation destinations designed to support both physical and social inclusion.

This training program focuses on aligning landscape architects' specifications and warranties with the architect’s roofing requirements, ensuring compatibility with the roof system and single source warranty (removal and replacement if a leak for anything touching waterproofing on any level of the building).

Increasingly, discrepancies between roofing specifications and vegetative specifications and details are leading to failures above the structure and recent lawsuits. For instance, using soil instead of growing media, which is the global and national standard, can result in soil shrinkage and weight issues and membranes separating and leaks.

Attendees will learn best practices for designing green infrastructure systems compatible with roofing systems and addressing potential conflicts related to leak protection, weight load, water drainage, and fire resistance.

The program also covers common mistakes in specification writing and offers strategies to avoid them. Through hands-on exercises, real-world examples, and problem-solving scenarios, participants will develop practical skills in drafting accurate and comprehensive specifications.

This panel presentation will explore the relationship between the work of landscape architects, the value, meaning, and perception of what defines a “native” plant, and the imperative to adapt to a changing climate. It will assemble a variety of perspectives to shed light on the complexity of this topic and the need for further cross pollination between relevant actors. Framed as such, this conversation aims to illuminate directions for innovative thinking and design at the intersection between “native” planting, culturally relevant planting, cultivation of biodiversity, and climate adaptation. It supports the ASLA Climate Action Plan’s initiative to deepen the profession’s influence on climate resilience via practices related to biodiversity, land management and ecological services.