We are really excited about the upcoming changes to our site. The economy is starting to revive itself and we are starting to see quite a bit of movement in the local construction industry. I hope this trend continues and that we will start to see our work pick up as well.  Stay tuned later this week, when I will introduce a new community park project we are volunteering our time to help design. It’s a local park in our neighborhood and we couldn’t be more excited to be part of the design team! I will save the rest of the details for the post later this week. In the meantime, be sure to stop by our Projects page and see our first installment, The Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity house.

If we can be of service to you, please feel free to let us know. Our contact information is located on the bottom right corner of every page. Thanks for stopping by!

That’s right! We can now be found on LinkedIn. Our web guru has been hard at work updating not only our website and blog, but he has also created our company LinkedIn business page! If you are a member of LinkedIn, please consider following us there to stay up to date and learn first hand about how we are connecting and engaging with other members in the Architecture / Engineering / Construction (AEC) industry.

While you are there, you can also connect with our President, Boyd Coleman, by clicking on this link as well.

We are also on Facebook and Twitter. We look forward to engaging with you if you will “like” and “follow” us there. Just let us know you found us here and we will gladly “like” and “follow” you back.

Join the Conversation in San Diego!

Thank you for visiting our site and we hope you will participate in our social media project for this year’s ASLA Annual Meeting in San Diego. The purpose of this page is to explain our project and to give a brief overview of the social media tools we will be utilizing. This year promises to be the most attended annual meeting in history and we are really excited to be a part of it. Jason Castillo (@JA_Castillo), Brian Phelps (@brian_phelps) and Boyd Coleman (@CDGLA) will be leading a panel discussion for the educational session entitled Social Media Strategies for Landscape Architects on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at 1:30 PM. We hope that you will join us as we discuss the results of this project and other exciting social media applications being utilized within the profession today.

THE EVENT:

#LandArchSD will encourage the more than 6,000 landscape architects descending upon San Diego to participate in sharing, via social media, their experiences and perspective of the City’s urban environment and public spaces. The event will provide an opportunity to create a useful database of information about the City while at the same time raising awareness of landscape architecture. By the end of the conference, it is anticipated that the data set from this event will provide valuable insight for the City of San Diego and its citizens about their urban environment.

The event will compile location based data about the City through posts, tweets, photos, videos, and more, using mobile devices such as a smartphone or tablet computer. Information documented could include your favorite spaces and/or details, observations about the how spaces are used and ways to improve the utilization of these spaces, and/or teach people about landscape architecture through examples. As landscape architects, we have a lot of information to offer. Let’s make it known to more people.

IMPORTANT: USING HASHTAGS 

The main tool for organizing the information during the event will be the use of the hashtag #LandArchSD. It should be included in all posts during the project.

For those of you not familiar with the use of the hashtag, it is simply a word or string of letters without spaces preceded by the “#” symbol. We will be using #LandArchSD during the event. The purpose of the hashtag is to provide a searchable keyword or identifier that will allow anyone searching on social networks to see everything posted that contains the #LandArchSD hashtag.

During and after the conference, anyone will be able to search Twitter with the #LandArchSD hashtag and see all information posted that includes the hashtag.

TWITTER:

If you are not a member of Twitter, we encourage you to join; it’s free and you can sign up for an account at twitter.com. The majority of the information compiled during the event will be on Twitter. For a brief tutorial on how to use Twitter, click here.

With Twitter, you can post comments up to 140 characters in length. You can include photos or videos in your post as well. It is important that you use the GPS features of your mobile device when posting during the event. This will help others see where the data was posted.

A few points to remember, if you use Twitter, please remember to use the hashtag #LandArchSD in all of your tweets and photos related to the event. Also, for those new to Twitter, use the “@” symbol in front of someone’s Twitter name to send them a tweet directly. If you see something someone else posted that would like to re-share, use the “retweet” function (RT). If you have any questions, please reach out to Brian, Jason, or Boyd and we’ll be happy to assist you.

INSTAGRAM:

Instagram is a separate, free photo sharing application for the iPhone and it can be downloaded to your iPhone through the iTunes app store. The application allows you to post photos to both Instagram and Twitter and includes many fun photo filters to add interest to your photos. Please make sure that if you use Instagram that you use the hashtag #LandArchSD and the “post to Twitter” feature in the application. This will assure your information is included in the information being collected. If you don’t have an iPhone or you use some other photo application, you can still upload your photos to Twitter and/or our Facebook page and tag them with the hashtag #LandArchSD

FACEBOOK:

We have created a Facebook page for this project and hope that you will click on the link below and “Like” our page. This will provide you with updates as we get closer to the conference and will also allow you to see some of the things happing around San Diego. We also invite you, once you’ve liked our page, to post comments, questions, and suggestions while you prepare for the conference.

While at the conference, you can continue to use the Facebook page to leave posts or to participate in on-going discussions. We encourage you to upload your photos to the Facebook page. The Facebook page can be found here.

FOR THOSE WITHOUT A MOBILE DEVICE:

We encourage those without a mobile device to participate from their desktop/laptop. It is important to remember you can still upload to the Facebook Page or Twitter without a smartphone. You can upload your photos taken with a digital camera, add your observations on the Facebook page or Twitter or simply join in on the conversation on the Facebook page. Just remember to use the hashtag #LandArchSD so your post can be seen.

FOLLOWING / FINDING THE INFORMATION WITHOUT A SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT:

If you would just like to follow the event as an observer, you can follow through various search tools without having an account with any social media platforms. You can follow the Facebook Page and/or you can use Topsy.com to search for the hashtag #LandArchSD. The following is a link directly to the search: #LandArchSD.

We hope that this gives you a brief overview of the project. If you have any questions please reach out to us and let us know. We look forward to seeing you in San Diego!

The Design Process

When I was first learning the art of landscape design, no one taught me the process of design. I learned about plants, I learned what bloomed when, and what color. I learned what did well in what microclimate. I learned to layer my plants according to texture and mature height. I learned about geometric shapes and how hardscape elements played off each other. I learned what looked good and I mastered layouts in AutoCAD. But I never learned the process of design and my early designs suffered for it.

I believe in the “8-step Design Process”:

1. Identify the problem. Describe the challenge to be solved.
2. Identify the criteria and constraints.
3. Develop possible solutions (Preliminary sketches).
4. Select the best possible solutions.
5. Create a preliminary model or Prototype (Conceptual plan).
6. Test and evaluate your solution (Did the design meet the criteria and solve the problem?).
7. Communicate the solution (Client presentation).
8. Refine the design.

Early in my career I struggled with starting larger jobs not knowing where to begin. Not only was it difficult starting a design, it was difficult knowing when I was finished. Not analyzing the site constraints in the beginning and having a clear picture in my mind of what problem I was trying to solve made it impossible to know when I was finished and if I had accomplished my goal. How sad is it that I gauged my success only on the happiness of the client when they wrote me a final check and not knowing if I had designed the best layout for the given site conditions?

I don’t remember exactly when I found this design process, but I am so grateful that I did. Once I truly understood and followed each step of the process, I noticed the quality of my designs improved, my clients seemed happier, and my confidence as a designer grew. I learned how to look at a site objectively and ask the right questions of my client to learn what was truly important to them from both a design and use point of view. I also found that I was able to better guide them through the design process and show them not only what they wanted in their design, but show them what they needed as well. I truly took on the role of the expert and found that I could tackle just about any design job that came my way.

I have to be honest and tell you that sometimes I get stuck when I’m in the middle of a design. This feeling is not unlike what a writer would call writer’s block. But when that happens, it is usually an indication that I need to revisit my design process, start at the beginning to make sure I haven’t overlooked something and that I’ve covered all my bases. It usually when I am going back through these steps that I find something I overlooked earlier and am able to revisit the design and develop an exceptional solution.

I know that people are different and that as designers we develop our own processes for solving challenging problems. We are all unique individuals and approach the process of design from different points of view. Do you have a process you follow that is different or similar to mine? If so, I’d love to hear about it. Feel free to leave a comment below, send me a tweet or even an email. Thanks for reading and I look forward to connecting with you.

Planting Bed and Supper

When we bought this townhouse, there was a hedge of oleanders between our and our neighbor’s driveway that always scratched my car as I pulled into the garage. After living in the home about a month I had the landscapers remove the oleanders and dig up as much of the roots as they could. As you can see, they did a nice job. The grey hose you see in this photo is a flexible “sleeve” that houses the cable feed to our townhouse.

Once the oleanders were removed it occurred to me that the scupper for the roof drain was located directly above this two-foot wide strip and I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to try a rainwater harvesting experiment. My first idea was to install a downspout to the scupper and attach a French drain underground to move water directly from the roof into the narrow planting bed. I even thought about digging a sump pit near the asphalt pavement just in case we got a heavy summer monsoon rainstorm. However, the HOA did not approve the gutter so I had to come up with a plan B.

The cable sleeve has been buried, the site rough graded and plants being spaced evenly.

My plan B was to plant a few arid plants (agave and cactus) that wouldn’t require much water in the planting bed, and then create a swale that would channel the runoff water from the roof, into the planting bed, and to each of the plants. Although it is difficult to see in the photo, I terraced the planting bed with small berms between the barrel cactus so that any larger water flows would back up and percolate into the ground and hopefully not wash the rock mulch into the street.

Plants planted and granite spread. Bring on the rain!

Once I finished laying out the plants, rough grading, planting, and fine grading, I spread 3/8” sized Madison Gold granite as a ground cover. I estimated that I would need a half a ton, however, the landscape company delivered more than a ton so I spread the granite extra thick so that the berms or the swales wouldn’t be seen. Once the granite was spread, everything was complete. Now I only had to wait for the next storm.

As you can see, a few months after the installation, we had a rainstorm in which we received 6/10” of rain. The scupper drained the rainwater into the swale, watered the plants, and the berms held the water and didn’t wash the decomposed granite into the street. We did have a little wind so I spent the next afternoon raking up the leaves and debris, but over all, my project was a success.

Result of our first storm and 6/10" rain.

I know this was a small project, but I was excited to see it work and can’t wait to try other techniques on future larger projects. If you’ve had experience with rainwater harvesting and would like to share your story, please leave a comment below or if you’re on twitter, send us a tweet.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Facebook page, please do so and if you’re so inclined, “Like” us there. We would greatly appreciate it!

We’ve received a couple of requests asking when we are going to host our inaugural Social Media Bootcamp.  We are looking at two dates right now, either Saturday, November 12^th or Saturday, November 19^th.  We still need to verify the availability of the host location and coordinate with the Arizona Chapter of ASLA to determine the date of their annual strategic planning meeting. Boyd is on the executive committee for the chapter and needs to attend that meeting as well.  They chapter is looking at one of these two dates and as soon as they finalize their date, we will finalize ours.  So stay tuned!

Finally, Boyd’s last two columns for Landscape Architect Business Magazine are available.  We forgot to provide the link last week, so you can read his column here.  Last week Boyd discussed the need for sometimes having to “get back to basics”.  In his column he shares the story of a colleague who was shortlisted for a park project and their team built a model for the interview.  We’re currently working on setting up an interview with them to discuss the project and share the process of building their model with you.

This week, Boyd reflects on growing up and planting a family garden and the values that he learned from doing so.  You can read this week’s column here and please leave us a comment and let us know if you have a similar experience.  We’d love to hear from you!

In other news, Boyd’s Friday column, The Week-Ender, for Landscape Architect Business magazine has been posted and you can read it here. This week Boyd discusses the importance of water as a natural resource and whether or not we should reconsider using water features in our landscape designs. After you read this article, please let us know what you think. We look forward to your comments!

Today is Friday, and that brings us to our latest column for Landscape Architect Business magazine.  This week Boyd reminisces about his college experience and reminds us that we all have something to contribute to our great profession.

Before we close, we’d like to wish everyone a safe and happy Labor Day holiday.  Please be safe and enjoy your time off. So without further delay, read the column here.

On another note, Boyd’s most recent column, The Week-ender, for Landscape Architect Business Magazine is now online.  This week, Boyd gives his thoughts on how improper maintenance can be detrimental to the success and sustainability of a landscape design.  Read it here.  We’d love to hear your opinion or thoughts on the matter here, so please comment below.

You can read Boyd’s latest column “Summer Blues” here.

Enjoy!