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Belvedere rain garden
Verdant Design and Diane Secor have been working with MSD to develop sustainable stormwater features to the Louisville Belvedere. Currently, the rain water from the elevator building has been redirected to a rain barrel (called a Raintainer) and out to a rain garden made up of local, native plants. A public meeting on May 10th at 7pm at KY Center for the Arts will showcase the upcoming project phases. The city’s website will have updates and more information on the meeting. There is more to come.
Old Brownsboro Crossing, Low Impact Development Plaza
A 100 acre regional marketplace lays out a pattern of development fixed on activity centers, focal points, and multi-modal traffic connections. The Low Impact Development Plaza encompasses 8 of the lots: the parking lots and buildings are joined to reduce their size, the parking lots are used by the banks during the day and the restaurants at night, and the parking lot drainage is filtered and infiltrated through a series of bio-detention swales, or depressed water corridors. The rain water is filtered through native trees, shrubs, and perennials like Bald Cypress, dogwoods, hibiscus, butterflyweed, and Northern Sea Oats among others. The limestone rock allow the water from the parking lot to cascade down to the vegetated swales. The bottom of the swales are lined with river rock to take away some of the scouring power of the water. In dry times, the rock looks like a dry creek bed.
Williams Residence
The Williams Residence had many challenges to overcome: creating a large enough flat rear yard while minimizing stairs, creating enclosure without encasing the property, and providing plants with a minimalist, modern feel. A retaining wall flattens the grade for most of the back yard. The front yard uses a series of plantings on slope for low maintenance. The enclosure (for pets and children’s sake) was accomplished with a metal picket fence. The plantings inside create a large volume while still providing openness to the street. The grade difference between the street and the home’s first floor used two earthen ramps to minimize the steps needed to enter the home. And finally the plantings chosen was a simple palette of native bamboo, upright evergreens, and native grasses that are planted in a minimalist manner.
Click into the image to pan and view the backyard.
Smith Residence
The Smith’s residence had an erosion problem at the bottom of a very steep yard. They were making improvements to the house with a deck but all it overlooked was exposed tree roots. After diagramming the site’s needs and strategies to solve the problems, the Smiths needed to see the problem. A 3D flyover of the property showed where the improvements would be made to solve the erosion problems and how to create flat portions of the yard to access the walkout lower level. The solution gave the couple what they both wanted: an improved view of new plantings, reduced erosion, and less mowing.
Arby’s Landscape
Even Arby’s needs a easy to maintain landscape. With their general maintenance in mind, some hardy perennials and shorter shrubs were used to create long-lasting beauty in leaf and bloom colors. Lawn area was minimized to reduce mowing and water usage. (Work completed while at Gresham Smith and Partners)
Rain Garden through the seasons
Many people find rain gardens to be interesting. They take excess water from roofs or other hard surfaces and infiltrate and filter the water. The plants are well-equiped to deal with a lack of rain and wet conditions as well. But what does a rain garden look like through the seasons? Click on the video to see
Richardson Residence
The Richardson Residence had a great patio space and a water feature. But the supporting landscape was disappointing. With great suggestions from the homeowners, Verdant Design brought about the materials, plants, and arrangement needed for their landscape contractor to install the work. Rather than a traditional plan, both the homeowners and contractor found the images much more important in discussing the landscape improvements.
Nursery Rain Garden Design
The owners of nearby nursery asked for a rain garden that could assist them in a drainage problem and deal with rain water coming off a garage. The space for the rain garden was in shady, prominent location that could showcase some of the plants available at the nursery while creating a new focus near the parking. The best way to explain the layout and workings of the garden were to use something other than construction drawings to show how the garden would fit into the landscape and where the plants would be located. Below is the video:
Park(ing) Day
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PARK(ING) DAY calls attention to the need for parks and open space in our cities. In Louisville, the Kentucky Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects installed a park for 12 hours in two parking spaces. We “rented” the space to show the dramatic difference in air temperature between asphalt and our created park. The amount of urban pavement creates a “heat island” or a spot where the air temperature is hotter. Park offer us a great way to lower that temperature. It’s shows that parks, open space and vegetation are not just beautiful, but needed.
John Pacyga was on the design, implementation, and photography team. He also authored the video.
For more information on PARK(ING) DAY, go to The Trust for Public Land
Architect Online: Park(ing) Day Celebrates, Promotes City Parks
Minneapolis Tudor
A couple with a house on Lake of the Isles in Minneapolis desired to update their landscape with a smaller lawn, an easy to maintain landscape, better drainage away from the house and garage, and outdoor entertainment space. The post and beam form of the Tudor-styled house became the motif for the yard. The various portions of the yard were made into “panels” with a thick brick border edge doubling as a walking surface. The wide edging made it easier to mow as did the orthogonal shape. Some of the panels become a deck, a brick patio, and a lawn. Plantings near the street form a double hedge creating more privacy. The deck at the rear of the house was reconstructed to emphasize the French doors with a pergola entry from the alley.
Historic Second Street
The purpose of the innovative, joint effort between the City of Menomonie and UW-Stout was to decrease pedestrian and vehicular conflicts, while revitalizing the historic quality of the corridor. Funding was supplied by an ISTEA grant in conjunction with university and city funds. The character of the project changed several times – first from a streetscape that added a bike lane and street trees, to an expanded plaza, then a campus pathway, and finally a campus commons. Monuments along the corridor describe the historic buildings and key individuals involved in the forming of the city and the campus. Employer:Cedar Corporation
Highland Baptist Church Landscape Master Plan
Through 2007, Highland Baptist Church worked on a Landscape Master Plan. The planning effort arose out of a need to look at the larger picture of the whole grounds, a desire to deepen the care of the exterior of the facility, to create a greater focus on work days, and to develop a lasting vision for outdoor sacred space. The plan will be implemented in small manageable portions. The master plan is not to be static, but to remain active and moldable as the plan is implemented.
The planning began by looking at other sacred buildings: English Gothic churches. Through that research, it became apparent that landscaping around the older portions of our structure did not live up to the pastoral character that brings out its historical qualities. The landscape committee also toured other sacred spaces in our community such as Christ Church Cathedral. The group learned about how they made their changes and how the grounds have been maintained. From there the committee took an inventory and analysis of the property looking at lighting, parking, tree conditions, and current maintenance among other things. This led Verdant to create landscape zones consolidating areas of similar character.
The master plan’s leading principles are listed below. The plan’s steps, drawings, master plan, and enlargements follow.
Restoring Landscapes
- Historical
- Ecological
- Meaningful
Creating Sacred Spaces
- Prayer Garden
- Courtyard
- Labyrinth
Installing New Plantings
- Tree plantings
- Lawn alternatives
- Sign/street landscaping
Highland Baptist Church Proposed Master Plan Video
The video below shows the improvements in a three dimensional manner. It travels around the site showing how the improvements match the zone and potential opportunities. To run the video, double-click on the image. Patience is needed to allow it time to download and run.
Eastpoint Office
As a Landscape Architect with Gresham, Smith and Partners, John Pacyga designed the landscape for 2701 Easpoint Parkway in Louisville, KY. The client requested an aesthetic that included ornamental grasses, perennials, shrubs, and trees. The design used Kentucky limestone as a repeating element to create a natural look in the landscape. The client recently asked Verdant Design to come back to evaluate the landscape installation to see if it fulfilled the intent of the landscape design. The inspection included meeting with the client and the landscape contractor, reviewing the plantings, recommending some immediate changes, and supplying the client with a report of the inspection. Due to the need for a quick review, the on-site meeting, inspection, and report were done in less than 24 hours so the client and contractor could finish their work.
Riverview Boat Club
Two illustrations for a proposed boatclub including boat canopy and brick column details were based on cad, aerial photography, and sketches. The work was completed in a short amount of time and inside of its budget.
Condo atrium
The project overcame an eight foot high concrete wall, a limestone rock, minimal topsoil and three air conditioners in a 140 square feet. This was condo that was stepped into hill and required a large retaining wall. A trellis with vines created a new backdrop while planters were used to add greenery to the rock outcropping. The remaining space used interesting ground covers with great plant leaf textures to maximize the variety in a small space. Overall, the place became more hospitable and inviting throughout the seasons.
Jane House
A sloped front lawn became the basis of this garden. Serious runoff and erosion problems needed to be solved due to the road being higher than the house. The design redirects runoff from the road by using curved, shallow ditches or swales. The planting beds emphasize the spiral, reshaped ground. Trees, shrubs, perennials, vegetables, herbs and annuals are mixed together in new ways to create interest.
