School of Natural Resources and Environment

Landscape Architecture News & Highlights

Considering alternative research strategies in landscape architecture with M. Elen Deming

On Nov. 9, M. Elen Deming will deliver the Clarence Roy/JJR lecture, also part of the Dean's Speaker Series. "This talk is for anyone who is struggling with a thesis," she said. A few years ago, M. Elen Deming and Simon Swaffield, both professors of landscape architecture, found themselves editing two of only four English-language scholarly peer-reviewed journals in the field of landscape architecture. The two found themselves playing the role of gatekeeper for the discipline and, in working with a range of peer reviewers, found widely varying standards for evaluating research. Some reviewers championed deductive investigations, others inductive; some only accepted objective work, while others favored subjective artistic work.

Nassauer on the ability of Iowa farmers to adopt new methods

SNRE Professor Joan Nassauer's research on Iowa farmers suggests that they support goals of crop diversity and healthy production methods, but that many are unsure of how to change their practices, information that help inform policy. Professor Nassauer presented her work at the Iowa Environmental Council conference this week, and she was quoted by Public News Service reporter Deb Courson in "A New Vision for Iowa's Corn Belt--Research Unveiled This Week."

Students create participatory public art in Detroit

SNRE students working with Professor of Landscape Architecture Beth Diamond on a master's project held a public art event at a street festival in Detroit last Saturday. The group—Sarah Alward, Fai Foen, Dana Petit and Christian Runge—set up a tent where visitors could paint tiles that will be incorporated in a future art installation at the Heidelberg Project.

Professor Nassauer named Distinguished Landscape Ecologist

Joan Iverson Nassauer, a professor of Landscape Architecture in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, was named Distinguished Landscape Ecologist for her scientific contributions to the field by the U.S. Regional Association (national chapter) of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE). Professor Nassauer is the first person to be named both Distinguished Landscape Ecologist (2010) and Distinguished Practitioner of Landscape Ecology (1998) by the organization.

Nassauer named secretary to new national academy examining environmental design

Joan Iverson Nassauer, a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment, has been elected the first secretary of a new national organization of designers. The group, the National Academy of Environmental Design (NAED), is focused on reshaping national research priorities to more fully incorporate sustainable design as a means of responding to pressing global challenges including climate change, species extinction and a wide range of epidemics and toxins affecting human health.

SNRE Professor Nassauer honored for landscape ecology research contributions

Joan Iverson Nassauer, a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, has received a second consecutive award for published research from the U.S. International Association for Landscape Ecology (US-IALE). Nassauer has received honorable mentions for "Outstanding Paper in Landscape Ecology" the past two years. The latest award was given earlier this month for a paper in the September 2008 issue of Landscape Ecology, the journal of IALE. Last year, Nassauer and co-authors received an honorable mention for a paper in the December 2007 issue of the same journal.

Landscape Architecture scholarship awards

Fred and Helen Arbuckle Scholarship in Landscape
This scholarship was established in 2005 by Fred and Helen Arbuckle.  Fred, a 1978 MLA alum, established this scholarship in appreciation of the education he received at SNRE, and the start his UM degree gave to his career. 

Richard R. Bertoni Memorial Fund   
Established in honor of the memory of Richard R. Bertoni (BLA 1969 and MLA in 1973) who passed away suddenly while working at Sasaki Associates in Watertown, MA.

Landscape Architecture honors students at awards luncheon

The Landscape Architecture Program, which is ramping up to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2009, celebrated student achievement this week at its 2008 Scholarship Luncheon. "Our Landscape Architecture program has earned a national reputation because of the work of its students and faculty," said Rosina M. Bierbaum, dean of the School of Natural Resources and Environment, which is home to the Landscape Architecture Program. "More importantly, the program's presence helps differentiate our school nationally. It's an honor to recognize these students and their faculty mentors for continuing the program's legacy of excellence."

Berkeley's Walter Hood inserts difference Into hybrid landscapes

Sometimes messier is better. Walter Hood's ideal landscape is messy. Its essence comes from the land and the people who occupy it. He wants it to be the kind of place where people feel free: free to loiter, sleep, walk the dog or just be. Unconventional may be a good term to describe Hood, professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. As the Harlow O. Whittemore guest lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Hood pointed out that he doesn't have an office, but does maintain a studio. He doesn't tag his work with conventional labels, but uses a litany of descriptors to identify his projects.

Defiant Gardens' in Wartime Are Affirmation of Hope and Resilience

Bomb craters, vacant lots, refugee camps, trenches, wastelands, dumps, cracks in the sidewalk: these are the unlikely locales of what landscape architect Kenneth Helphand calls "defiant gardens."

"They are gardens created in extreme environmental, social, political, cultural or economic conditions," he told an audience filling the Michigan Theater screening room February 16. "They are acts of adaptation to their challenging circumstances, but they can also be viewed as affirmations of human resilience."

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