LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & REGIONAL PLANNING

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE & REGIONAL PLANNING
(FA) {LARP}

Core Courses

501. Studio I. (A) Faculty.

The focus of this foundation studio is to explore ways of recording and representing landscape - with an emphasis on material, space, rhythm and measure - through a range of drawings and constructions. The studio attempts to create a sensibility toward landscape where the act of surveying a site is as much an imaginative endeavor as is the crafting of an artifact or the construction of a path in a landscape. Emphasis is placed on visual and manual skills in two dimensional and three dimensional constructions (drawing, fabrications, model-making, etc.), while developing ways to "see" landscape. The studio is structured around the themes of wetness/dryness and enclosure/disclosure, and works with one or more sites in the Philadelphia region. In the past, the studio has focused on a territory around Martha's Furnace in the Pine Barrens, N.J.; a part of the Meadowlands in northern N.J.; an anthracite strip-mine in part of Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains; Great Falls in Paterson, N.J.; and the Wissahickon Creek in Philadelphia. Projects involve the making of pathways, platforms, and arkings in these otherwise undesigned environments.

502. Studio II. (B) Faculty.

This foundation design studio explores the relationship between sites, drawings, and the making of landscape architectural projects. The sites are typically urban, complex, and large in scale. Students begin with a series of site interpretations (ranging from photographic recordings and sketches to measured surveys and documentation). They are then asked to build a large model of the site, emphasizing its topographical form. The first design project is for an enclosure, "a civic garden," where the emphasis is upon the relationship of "inside" to "outside" and the architecture of spatial fabrication. The second project is for a large urban park that is to accommodate a diverse series of urban events and gatherings. Students work with a wide-range of conceptual, graphic, and projective techniques. At the end of the studio, each student is asked to graft each of their individual projects into a large plan of the existing precinct, presenting the urban landscape as an interactive field of accretive forces and entities. Past studios have proposed new urban gardens and parks for the Schuylkill Waterfront surrounding the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Camden Waterfront, N.J.; the derelict Venice Island territory of Manayunk, PA; and the North Delaware Riverfront in Philadelphia; and Bergen Point in Bayonne, N.J.

511. Workshop I: Ecology and Materials (Module 1 and 2). (A) Willig and Falck.

Module 1: Land, Water and Vegetation Systems; This workshop examines particular sites within the major physiographic regions in the vicinity of Philadelphia (inner and outer coastal plains, piedmont plateau, etc.) where the inter-connections between the underlying geology, hydrology, vegetation, and human interventions are discussed. Field trips to both natural and constructed sites introduce students to the substance and ecology of these places; there are trips to bogs, forests, flood plains, dunes, and uplands, etc. A vocabulary (recognition, identification and nomenclature) of the materials of landscape, its substance, its ecology, and its changing nature owing to place and time is developed.

Module 2: Transformation of Materials; This workshop examines the transformation and production of materials used in the construction of landscapes. The relationship between rock type, landform assemblages and stone extraction and manufacturing; the production of plants, their modes of cultivation, propagation, and plant management (coppice, polarding, etc.); and the transformation of wood from forest plantations to standard size lumber are examined both in their sites of production and in built landscapes. Field trips to nurseries, quarries, lumber yards, as well as to urban sites where the students observe those materials, seen in Module 1 in their natural state, now transformed to comply with the aesthetic and functional requirements of urban landscapes.

L/L 512. Workshop II: Landform and Planting Design (Module 1 and 2). (B) Olgyay. Corequisite(s): Summer Field Ecology Laboratory/Willig.

Module 1: Landform; This foundation workshop focuses on the means by which landscapes are shaped by earthwork grading. Lectures and exercises develop the student's sensibility toward three-dimensional form given by ground-plane manipulation. Students explore the formal, textural, and scalar differences between naturally-occurring landform types, such as eskers, drumlins, etc., and human scaled landform types, such as stairs, ramps, and terraces. Related environmental considerations, such as drainage, aspect, growth, and the relationship between planting and landform are also covered in this workshop. Teaching in Workshop II emphasizes hands-on work with modeling and drawing, and field trips to sites that are especially appropriate for observing, measuring, and experiencing the sculptural qualities and capabilities of landform.

Module 2: Planting Design; This workshop focuses on both the cultural and the technical aspects of planting design. Through a series of short design projects students investigate the characteristics of basic plant typologies, such as bosque, grove, glade, allee, hedgerow, etc., their origins in productive landscapes, and their application to contemporary landscape architecture. Students also learn technical aspects of planting such as basic horticulture, hardiness zones, and soil requirements. Planting details, planting plans and plant lists, specifications, plant inspection and selection criteria, and site inspections are also covered at this time. During the first week of May, a five-day field course focuses on techniques of urban revitalization, sustainable land use, reclamation, and restoration. The field trips offer insight into the diversity of approaches to using plants to promote positive environmental change.

533. Media I: Drawing and Visualization. (A) Faculty.

Drawing is the ability to experience deeply things we see and envision. It allows us, not only to represent things or images seen, but, to discover and construct space and depth on the two dimensions of drawing surface. Expanding the tools of drawing, this course presents inquiries into applied media providing a basis for envisioning the speculative and developing an economy of expression. Work will be closely related to work in Studio I. Students will be introduced to the formal syntax of drawing (line, contour, structure, texture, chiaroscuro), graphic grammar (orthographic, oblique, perspective projection drawings and free-hand sketching) alongside exercises in material expression (collage, assemblage).

535. Theory I: Case Studies in Landscape Architecture. (A) Hunt.

Reading and Writing the Site: A Historical Survey - The objectives of the course are to allow the students to acquire familiarity with some major episodes of (largely western) landscape architecture through a study of selected key sites and their designers, and to understand the historical contexts for their creation and continuing interpretation; and to advance the profession of landscape design by a critical understanding of built works from different times and cultures. By "critical understanding" is meant the ability to research a site on the ground, in libraries and in archives, to "read" it fully, to grasp the different ways in which it has been or can be represented, to isolate some of its significant aspects, and to be able to communicate that understanding verbally and visually. The students are expected to acquire a sufficient knowledge of the key moments or milestones in landscape architectural history to undertake the conceptual and synchronic enquiries of visually and verbally an understanding and assessment of a given site and its cultural production.

540. Theory II: Topics in Contemporary Landscape Architecture. (B) Hunt.

This course builds upon the historical survey of Theory I by focusing upon recent, contemporary built works, their designers, and the issues that these raise for professional theory and practice today. It also addresses the topic of how we talk about - how we criticize - recent built work: what criteria do we invoke, what modes of description can we adopt, and what kind of commentary or conclusions are we concerned to elaborate as a result? The agenda is a mixed one, and the structure of the semester mirrors that: there are presentations by visitors as well as by other Penn faculty, and these focus both on built work and on topics arising there from. Students begin the course by brain-storming about the issues, topics, designs and designers that should be at the center of the discussions.

542. Media II: Digital Visualization: AutoCAD. (B) Faculty.

Continuing the sequence of Landscape Architecture Media classes, this course will develop the student's aptitude for working with digital media in creative and effective ways. While the course will devote time to learning the necessary techniques and skills to work with a variety of visualization software, the primary focus throughout will be on the development of a critical eye - that is, the capacity to discern between visual economies of means (saying much with little) and visual noise (or imprecise excess). Just as in a drawing class, one must learn not only the techniques of rendering but also the skill of visual judgement and discernment.

The course will begin by introducing 2-D digital presentation techniques, primarily as afforded by AutoCAD and the more fluid Adobe Illustrator. Students will then progress to working with some advanced imaging techniques inAdobe Photoshop. The final section of the course will concentrate on working fluently and in an integrated way amongst each of these three programs, developing imaginative potentials within each.

543. Media III: Digital Modeling. (A) Faculty.

This course is the third in the media sequence and is required of all MLA students at the 600 level. Commanding the ability to seamlessly utilize a vast array of virtual applications and design media provides incredible potential to develop, test, produce and communicate spatial ideas with great clarity. This course is geared to fine-tune the fundamental skills and cultivate the necessary tools required to productively work in a 3-dimensional modeling environment, and extract data for communication purposes. Demonstrations of essential tools and techniques will be made at the outset of each session and the corresponding weekly exercises will be presented in class. Exemplary and relevant precedents will be presented and discussed in the lab, along with the content of assigned readings. Most time this semester, however, will be spent rigorously sharpening essential tools and skills through hands-on practice - ultimately, it will become second nature to work in an inter-operable, 3-dimensionally driven environment.

601. Studio III. (A) Sanders/Faculty.

This studio brings together both two-year and three-year MLA students for a term-long studio problem that emphasizes a wide range of fundamental and traditional landscape architectural issues and professional skills ranging from site analysis and site planning, to the siting of structures (buildings, paths, drives, walls, pavements) grading and storm water management, the creation of spaces for human use, vegetation and planting for environmental and cultural purposes, and their design development and realization in form and construction. The studio introduces students to issues of collaboration with clients and other professionals and of the realization of program and ideas in physical construction. The students work in a variety of scales and media, with a sequence of exercises and products. Instruction includes conventional desk critiques with group pin-up presentations and discussions approximately every three weeks and several field trips to the site and other related locations.

Past studios have proposed new urban landscapes for the Mill Creek community neighborhood in West Philadelphia; grounds for a new school in Philadelphia; the reclamation of a large brownfield and waste-land-fill site in Pennsbury, PA; the redesign of Woodstock, NY as a performing arts park; the transformation of the Philadelphia Naval Base and Shipyard to civilian use; the Delaware Riverfront in Bensalem, PA; and the former steel mill site of Roebling, N.J.; The Camden, N.J. Waterfront North; and sites in Baltimore, M.D.

602. Studio IV. (B) Olin/faculty.

This elective option studio is designed for work at an advanced level, introducing students to advanced problems in landscape architectural design. Typically sites and programs tend to be large in scale, entailing the design of urban parks, waterfront developments, residential/community developments, urban renewal projects that also address territories in transition. Models are also typically emphasized in this studio. Students develop design strategies through the processes of mapping and fieldwork as well as specific proposals and projects that emerge from these. They are also expected to develop their design work through a series of construction documents (grading, planting, details) and to present these alongside strategic and conceptual drawings/models at the end of the semester.

Past studios have included the design of new urban landscapes for the Naval Shipyard in South Philadelphia; the suburban fringes of Philadelphia; the lower Mississippi floodplains; and low income housing and community development in Camden, NJ; the Valles Caldera in New Mexico; the Beijing Yuan-Ming Yuan District revitalization study; a park in East Stroudsburg, PA; urban design strategies for Chengde, China; Children's Island in Prague; U.S. and Mexican borderlands; and Jones Pont in Alexandria, VA.

611. Workshop III: Site Engineering and Water Management (Module 1 and 2). (A) Olgyay.

Module 1: Site Engineering: Landform and grading. This intermediate workshop continues the study of landform manipulation with particular emphasis on the design of infrastructure. Students explore more complex exercises of contour manipulation, vehicular and pedestrian circulation systems, road and path alignment, and drainage and utility planning.

Module 2: Water Management: This workshop focuses on the study of water in the landscape, with particular emphasis on the role it plays as a determining factor on the functioning and viability of landscapes. Students learn to assess the drainage characteristics of a site as a basic tool for understanding landscapes. Direction and expression of water flow, storm water management, swales, retention and detention basins, riparian plantings, and wetlands restorations are addressed in this workshop.

Teaching in both of these workshops includes illustrated lectures, case studies, and field trips. Students are asked to develop grading and circulation schemes as well as water management solutions for their projects in design studio, thus incorporating the workshop into the design activities of the curriculum.

612. Workshop IV: Advanced Landscape Construction (Module 1 and 2). (B) Falck/Berrizbeitia.

Module 1: The Art and Craft of Detailing: This first module of Workshop IV introduces students to the design and construction of a used by landscape designers in the creation of the man- made environment. The course focuses on the various materials available for these designs, their physical characteristics, their modes of production, sequences of assembly, their life-in-use, maintenance needs, and ultimate re-cyclability where appropriate. Some of the topics covered in this module are the various materials employed in the design of the ground plane and its conditions of change: surfaces, transitions, accessibility and the laws of ADA, joints, seams, edges, etc.; free standing and retaining walls; decks and overhead structures; and understanding and developing specifications. Construction techniques covered in this course include: reinforced concrete and "in-earth" retaining wall systems, reinforced concrete superstructures, wood frame superstructures, steel frame superstructures, glass superstructures, and tensile membrane or cable-net superstructures and ETFE type air-inflated superstructures.

Module 2: Urban Landscapes and Manufactured Sites Topics; This advanced workshoppresents innovative techniques associated with current professional practice inlandscape architectural construction, engineering, and planting design with special emphasis on urban landscapes. A number of special topics and case studies such as site remediation, landfill sites, structural soils and urban plantings are introduced by specialists.

The teaching in Workshop IV includes detailed studies of construction documentation, project design, material and horticultural technology, and new building techniques. These studies are facilitated through case studies and visits to selected built works and professional offices.

701. Studio V. (A) Faculty.

These advanced elective studios provide opportunities for focused exploration of particular themes in contemporary landscape architecture. Important emerging and accomplished designers, often from divergent points-of-view, interests and backgrounds, are invited to run these studios. Collaborative options (between Landscape and the Departments of Architecture or City Planning) are sometimes offered across the School. In addition to our own faculty who offer some of these studios (Berrizbeitia, Corner, Latz, Mathur, Olin, Sanders, Tomlin), visitors have included Bernard Lassus (Paris), Paolo B_rgi (Switzerland), Margie Ruddick (Philadelphia), Peter Beard (London), Nicholas Quennell (New York), Ken Smith (New York), Raymond Gastil (New York), Alessandro Tagliolini (Italy), Ignacio Bunster (Philadelphia), Perry Kulper (Los Angeles), James Wines (New York), Lee Weintraub (New York), Charles Waldheim (Chicago), Stanislaus Fung (Australia), Dennis Wedlick (New York), Sandro Marpillero (New York), Peter Connolly (Australia), Catherine Mosbach (Paris), Nanako Umemoto (New York), Chris Reed (Boston), Valerio Morabito (Italy), David Gouverneur (Venezuela), and Carol and Colin Franklin (Philadelphia).

702. Studio VI. (B) Faculty.

Elective Courses

674. (ARCH674) Curricular Practical Training. (L)

This course will allow international MLA students to work an internship with a landscape architecture firm in the United States without shortening their limited OPT time. Eligible students must work a minimum of 35 hours per week for a licensed professional for 10 consecutive weeks. The course is offered for 0.20 CUs during the summer, and configured on a flexible schedule, allowing grades to be submitted at the beginning of the Fall semester. The course may be taken twice, over two summers.

SM 720. Topics in Representation. (B) Faculty. Prerequisite(s): LARP501,LARP533, LARP601, ARCH501, ARCH532 OR ARCH601.

In these advanced representation courses the work extends to new ways of documenting and seeing landscape. These courses are open to all interested School of Design students who have previous drawing experience or have taken foundation studios. Recent topics have been: Seeing & Imagining Landscapes (fall 2007), instructors: Valerio Morabito and Paolo B_rgi; Landscape Drawing (spring 2007), instructors: Laurie Olin and Trevor Lee; Shifting Landscapes: A Workshop in Representation (spring 2005, 2004), instructor: Anuradha Mathur; and The Agile Pencil and Its Constructs (spring 2004), instructor: Mei Wu.

730. Topics in Professional Practice. (B) Sanders.

These seminar courses explore ideas and methods in current landscape architectural practice. They include instruction in professional procedures, office management, project development, contracts, and collaborative ventures. They include visits to construction sites, professional offices and archives. These courses are open to all interested PennDesign students. Recent topics havebeen: Office Practice (spring 2006, 2005, 2004), instructor: Lucinda Sanders.

740. Topics in Digital Media. (C) Faculty.

These courses offer advanced instruction in the uses and applications of various digital media, including Geographical Information Systems, 3-D modeling, digital fabrication, video, animation, and web-design. These courses are open to all interested School of Design students who already have a working knowledge of basic digital graphic techniques and with permission of the instructor. Recent topics have been: Digital Fabrication (spring annually), instructor: Keith Kaseman; Geometry Clouds, Fluid Landscapes (fall 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002), instructor: David Ruy; and Tactical Surfaces / Topographic Modeling (fall 2002), instructor: Charles McGloughlin.

741. Modeling Geographic Space. (A) Tomlin.

The major objective of this course is to explore the nature and use of image-based (as opposed to drawing-based) geographic information systems (GIS) for the analysis and synthesis of spatial patterns and processes. This course is open to all. Previous experience in GIS is not required. Offered in spring annually.

SM 743. Cartographic Modeling. (A) Tomlin.

This course offers students an opportunity to work closely with faculty, staff, local practitioners, and each other in conducting independent projects that involve the development and/or application of geographic information system (GIS) technology. These projects often take advantage of resources made available through Penn's Cartographic Modeling Lab [http://www.cml.upenn.edu]. This course is open to all students who can demonstrate sufficient experience, expertise, or initiative to purse a successful term project. Offered in fall annually.

750. Topics in Horticulture and Planting Design. (C) Faculty.

These courses explore relevant topics in horticulture and planting design as they relate to contemporary landscape architecture. The aim is to supplement fundamental skills and ideas explored in the core curriculum workshops with more advanced, cutting-edge research, technology and case studies. The teaching faculty are leading practitioners and researchers in the field. These courses are open to all interested School of Design students.

Recent topics have been: Advance Design with Plants (fall 2006), instructor: Dennis McGlade; Urban Horticulture: Designing and Managing Landscape Plantings in Stressful Environments (fall even years), instructor: Paul Meyer; Advanced Planting Design (spring annually), instructor: Rodney Robinson, (fall 2004) instructor: Sheila Brady; and Sustainable Large Scale Planting of Trees, Shrubs, Perennials and Grasses (fall 2001), instructor: Wolfgang Oehme.

755. Issues in Arboretum Management I (internship). (A) Arboretum Staff.

The Morris Arboretum of the University of Pennsylvania provides a case study in public garden management. Aspects of horticulture, landscape design, education, conservation, history, preservation, and management are considered. Work often includes seminars followed by outdoor practical sessions. For more information contact Jan McFarlan at the Arboretum, 215-247-5777, ext. 156. (This course is an internship that meets at the Morris Arboretum in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia on Thursday afternoons during the Fall term.)

756. Issues in Arboretum Management II (internship). (B) Arboretum Staff.

A continuation of LARP 755. Students research, design, complete and present a project as part of their work. For more information contact Jan McFarlan at the Arboretum, 215-247-5777, ext. 156. (This course is an internship that meets on Thursday afternoons during the Spring term.)

760. Topics in Ecological Design. (C) Faculty.

These elective courses explore relevant topics in ecological design and new technologies as they relate to contemporary landscape architecture. The course explores topics such as ecology, sustainability, habitat restoration, hydrology, green roof and green architecture technology, soil technology, and other techniques pertinent to the construction of ecologically dynamic, functioning landscapes. The teaching faculty are leading practitioners and researchers in the field. These courses are open to all interested PennDesign students.

Recent topics have been: Large-Scale Land Reclamation Projects (spring 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005) instructor: William Young, (spring 2004) instructor: James Ludwig; Restoration Ecology (fall 2006, 2004), instructor: David Robertson; Sustainable Landscape Design for Watershed Protection (fall 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002), instructor: Katrin Scholz- Barth; and Ecological Restoration in the Urban Context (spring 2002, 2001), instructor: Deborah Marton.

770. (COML776) Topics in Landscape Architecture History and Theory. (C) Hunt.

This advanced seminar explores central issues in the history and theory of landscape architecture from the Renaissance to the present day. The focus will be upon the cultural context of built works, their relation to conceptual writings (contemporary with the designs as well as modern) and the dialogue between modern professional practice and historical example and method. These courses fulfill the Landscape Architecture Theory III requirement and are open to all interested students in the PennDesign and elsewhere in the University. These courses are cross-listed with Comparative Literature 776-401.

Recent Topics have been: Six Landscape Architects & What We Say About Them (spring 2007); Open Spaces & Open Places: The Design and Use of American Landscapes (spring 2006), co-taught with Emily Cooperman; Reception, or the After Life of Landscapes (Spring 2005), Land Art and Ian Hamilton Finlay (fall 2004), Lawrence Halprin: Theory, Practice, Context & the Archival record (spring 2004) co-taught with Emily Cooperman; Franch Landscape Architecture: Case Studies (spring 2003); Picturesque as Modernism (spring 2002).

780. (ARCH411) Topics in Theory and Design. (C) Faculty.

These advanced seminars explore advanced ideas in contemporary landscape architectural design and theory. A special link is made between the analysis of built work and text to design practice and the making of projects. Topics include the intersections of art, nature and creativity; practices of analysis and criticism; ideas of urbanism and infrastructure; collaborative ventures and cross-disciplinarity; vision and visuality; and representational structures, both verbal and visual. These courses fulfill the Landscape Architecture Theory III requirement and are open to all interested PennDesign students.

Recent topics have been: Concepts & Theories in Contemporary Landscape Architecture (fall 2007, 2006, 2004, 2003), instructor: Anita Berrizbeitia; Environment Regimes (spring 2007, 2006), instructor: Dilip da Cunha; Case Studies in Urban Design (fall 2007, 2006, 2005, spring 2004), instructor: David Gouverneur; Contemporary European Landscape Architecture (fall 2007), instructor: Joseph Disponzio; Max Ernst's Liminal Nature (spring 2005), instructors: Linda Pollak and Sandro Marpillero; Active Time in Cinema and Landscape (fall 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003), instructor: Ed Keller; Metropolitan Landscapes: Design, Leisure, and Regeneration (spring 2004), instructor: Ray Gastil; Nature, Society and Cities (spring 2003), instructor: Neil Smith; Land, Art and Criticism (fall 2003), instructor: S_bastien Marot; Landscape Architecture and the Art of Hope (fall 2002), instructor: S_bastien Marot; Organizational Ecologies: Emergent Forms and Practices in Complex Landscapes (fall 2002) instructor: James Corner; Surrealism and Nature: Liminality (spring 2002), instructors: Linda Pollak and Sandro Marpillero; and One Two Paradox: Strategies for Building City Landscape (spring 2001), instructors: Linda Pollak and Sandro Marpillero.

796. Independent Studio. (B) Faculty.

An independent studio may be undertaken in the final semester but is not required. The independent studio is intended to provide highly motivated students who have demonstrated their ability to work independently with the opportunity to pursue topics that extend the boundaries of the profession. For permission, students must prepare a written proposal in the preceding semester and apply for approval from the faculty. Details available in Landscape Architecture department office.

999. Independent Study. (C) Faculty.

And independent study may be taken for elective credit at any point during the degree program, for a letter grade. For permission, students must prepare a written proposal in the preceding semester and obtain a Landscape Architecture faculty advisor to oversee their work. Details are available in the Landscape Architecture department office.