Five Landscape Performance Education Grants Available for Fall 2017
Last year the Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) included “landscape performance” and many measurement-related requirements in its revised LAAB Accreditation Standards for all bachelor’s and master’s level landscape architecture programs. The revised standards take effect starting with landscape architecture programs scheduled for accreditation reviews in fall 2017.
To help programs integrate landscape performance into their curriculum, LAF’s Landscape Performance Education Grants allow select university faculty to develop and test models for courses, such as research and methods, site planning and analysis, design studios, and other lecture or seminar courses.
The next round of grants will be offered for the Fall 2017 term/semester with applications due June 15, 2017. Each application is to include a teaching proposal, which will be evaluated for quality and feasibility by LAF and an independent committee of educators. Grant recipients will be announced in early July.
Grant recipients will work closely with LAF and its Education Committee to finalize the teaching proposals, which will then be implemented during the Fall 2017 semester/term. Formal course evaluations will be used to determine the success and replicability of the teaching models tested, including whether specific landscape performance learning objectives are met.
Course materials developed through the Landscape Performance Education Grants are added to the Resources for Educators section of LandscapePerformance.org. This library of teaching tools includes syllabi, reading lists, and sample student assignments, as well as faculty reflections on their pedagogical approaches and experiences teaching landscape performance.
LAF has awarded five Landscape Performance Education Grants each year for the last three years. This fourth round will bring the total in mini-grants awarded to educators to $50,000.
100 Resilient Cities Infrastructure Project Competition
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APA NY Metro Chapter and the APA LGBTQ in Planning Division Receive Grant to Advance Healthy Communities
APA NY Metro Chapter and the APA LGBTQ in Planning Division have received a $45,000 grant to help build local capacity for integrating planning and public health. The Planners4Health initiative is part of APA’s Plan4Health three-year, $9 million program to help communities combat determinants of chronic disease – lack of physical activity and lack of access to nutritious foods. Funding for the initiative is provided through a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Through the initiative, a Task Force will work to identify additional stakeholders interested in creating healthy communities within the NY Metro Chapter region from other Divisions, the public health sector and other professions, elected officials and citizens to participate in the program. The Task Force will use the grant funding to broadly share knowledge and resources on building coalitions in the NY Metro region with public health professionals and more strongly integrate their practices with those of the allied professions. More information can be found at www.planning.org/nationalcenters/health/planners4health.
NY Metro Planners4Health Update:
The New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA-NY) currently supports the Planners4Health (P4H) Task Force, whose mission is to explore and connect the New York Metro region’s intersections of health and planning, and to create a toolkit for local decision makers to enable them to create healthier communities that serve all members of the community. This task force of allied professions and local constituents continues to:
- Collaborate – P4H Task Force (P4H TF) members have been working diligently on furthering the P4H Initiative through extensive outreach to regional partners with shared interests. As planning, health and the built environment continue to intersect and influence each other, we seek to engage interested parties to ensure the robustness of our goals, gain new perspectives and fresh ideas.
- Collect – P4H TF members are gathering, analyzing, and evaluating existing research and data in order to assemble those data sets and develop tools that shed light on the who, what, where, when, and why of planning for health.
- Create – P4H TF members will be moving beyond research and collaboration, taking steps towards developing a toolkit to help inform decision makers in any community throughout the NY Metro region in making policy, legislative, budgeting, and other changes affecting our shared physical environment.
P4H TF members are aware others have information that will help guide their work and seek to solicit input from our Landscape Architect colleagues. Please look through the developing Planners4Health NY Metro website and provide your expertise and knowledge to help shape this exciting initiative.
Wait Until Next Winter to Prune Your Oak Trees
Many people prune their trees in spring and summer. DEC recommends holding off on pruning oak trees until winter to protect them from oak wilt, a deadly tree disease.
The video, ‘Winter Pruning For Oak Wilt Prevention’ (2 minutes) highlights why it’s important to prune oak trees from October – February instead of during the spring and summer, if pruning is needed. Pruning during the winter can protect oaks from becoming infected because the beetles that spread the disease are dormant. These beetles are active in spring and summer and are attracted to freshly cut or injured healthy trees. Pruning in the spring and summer puts oaks at risk of contracting oak wilt. Oak wilt can kill trees in as little as 4-6 weeks and is one of the most destructive tree diseases.
What can I do to protect my oak trees?
- Prune oaks between October and February – NOT during the growing season.
- Follow existing regulations and quarantines meant to protect our trees and forests.
- Don’t move firewood. Firewood can transport oak wilt and other deadly pests and diseases to new areas.
- Learn to identify the symptoms of oak wilt which include discoloration around the entire leaf edge and sudden loss of a substantial portion of leaves during the summer.
For questions, contact the DEC Forest Health Office at 1-866-640-0652 or email us your photosof tree symptoms.
Visit the DEC website for more information on oak wilt.
2017 ASLA-NY Designing in the Public Realm Scholarship Recipient
2017 ASLA-NY Designing in the Public Realm Scholarship Recipient
Rivka Weinstock
University of Pennsylvania
MLA Candidate
Rivka Weinstock is a first-generation American artist and designer. She’s an MLA candidate in her second year at the University of Pennsylvania. Rivka holds a BA in Psychology and Fine Arts, with a concentration in painting, from Macaulay Honors College at Brooklyn College. She approaches her design work through a poetic and ethical lens, weaving aesthetics, history and process, as well as pressing socio-political concerns into her designs. Rivka draws from a wide variety of experiences in her praxis, which prioritizes community-centered, flexible and equitable spaces within our complex, contemporary urban landscapes.
Previous winners:
Ruth Nervig (2016)
Memorial for Bradford M. Greene, FASLA on April 22
Bradford M. Greene, FASLA, noted landscape architect with Clarke & Rapuano‑—and inveterate advocate for open space, historic preservation and land use planning—passed away on December 25, 2016. He was 96. He was active for many years on the Boards of the Municipal Art Society, Metropolitan Museum and Staten Island Museum and served on the Art Commission, the City’s design review panel and was an active member of the NY Chapter of ASLA for many years, including as President.
Brad was a leader in the successful efforts to save the Staten Island Greenbelt, the historic Dutch Revival home of pioneer photographer Alice Austen, the buildings and grounds of Sailor Sailors Snug Harbor and the establishment there of the Staten Island Botanical Garden.
A memorial service will take place on April 22, (Earth Day) at noon at the Unitarian Church of Staten Island. Immediately after the service, we will gather outside the Church in the Memorial Garden that Brad designed, where his ashes will be placed in the ground near his beloved Mary.
12:00 pm Service
Unitarian Church of Staten Island
312 Fillmore St
Staten Island, NY 10301
All are welcome to join us after the service for a catered reception that will begin at 2:30 pm at the Greenbelt Nature Center in the heart of the Staten Island’s Greenbelt. It’s a fitting location to celebrate the man known as the “Father of the Greenbelt.” If weather cooperates we hope to take an easy stroll through the Greenbelt to see the Gretta Moulton Gates that Brad designed. (If you would like to join us for this walk, you might want to bring good walking shoes!)
2:30 pm Reception & walk
Greenbelt Conservancy Nature Center
700 Rockland Ave
Staten Island, NY 10314
Please pass this invitation along to anyone you think would like to know
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