Jerry de Gryse was a student at the UofM in Landscape Architecture when the ASLA-MN Legacy Project Founders were actively planting the seeds of the profession at the UofM and in Minnesota.  De Gryse attributes his current successes to their guidance early in his career. See the announcement for his award winning project below:

Inspiring Place, led by Jerry de Gryse (1979),  scooped the pool at the 2011 Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (Tasmania) biennial awards  taking out an Award for Planning for its Design Guidelines for Nature Based Tourism - Victoria, an Award of Excellence in Urban Design for its Urban Design Strategy for Kangaroo Bay near Hobart and the Medal for Landscape Architecture. 

For photos, the full citations and more information on the awards see http://www.aila.org.au/tasmania/AWARDS/2011/default.htm  

Go here to see the videos now!  There are three. One on his influences, one on service and one on the MN Zoo. Thank you for all that you have done, Roger!

By Roger Martin

 What are the essential skills of a good designer?  A few talented ones are able to come up with inspiring ideas with seemingly no effort.  We often marvel at the facility of professional designers who are able to quickly devise the most creative and appropriate response to a problem. How do they move to the inspiring idea with such quickness and grace?

Unless one carefully watches their approach it is often difficult to learn how they move to the solution.  Often asking them to tell you how they solve complex design problems so quickly and with quality is not effective, as they can not easily explain how it happens.  The solutions are just obvious to them.

Studies in Cognitive Psychology have suggested how the mind works which may shed light on how good designers think.  Studies suggest that our conscious mind functions much like a computer by devising programs to carry out activities in the conscious mind and then after practicing these programs to work out the inefficiencies, gradually places them in the subconscious mind to run automatically.  The skill of learning to drive a car is a good example of this practice.  Initially one is quite self conscious about the process and techniques, but gradually it becomes second nature and we accomplish the task with smoothness while keeping other activities in our conscious mind.  The actual process of driving is effectively stored in our sub conscious mind and need only be brought to the conscious mind when a special problem is encountered.  We are constantly reminded by authorities that it is not wise to keep other things in our conscious mind when driving, but we are constantly searching for new information and often move beyond the stored programs to other activities.

It is evident that some talented designers do not need to go through a learning process to exhibit skill in design.  We have all seen the young student who magically enters the beginning design studio with strong set of design skills and is a standout in the class.  It may be that these individuals are hardwired with design process programs functioning effectively in their subconscious mind or that they have obtained these skills in other contexts.  However, most of us who aspire to develop into designers of great skill need to work hard to develop these set of skills.

Beyond the the basic design skills of learning how to work with color, line, form and mass and how to creatively use the elements of composition such as contrast, balance, continuity and harmony, what does a designer need to master to exhibit professional idea making skills?  What are the skills of design that we need to learn to exhibit outstanding design ability, and how can these skills be developed to be stored in the sub conscious mind for activation as we need them?  

Initially, aspiring designers need to learn to be good observers.  If one can identify the key problems that must be solved, one will have moved a great distance toward finding an appropriate solution.  This skill is often assumed in design education, but needs to be carefully nurtured for those of us wanting to become effective problem solvers.  Exercises in identifying both visual and functional issues present within and environment are vital in building these skills.  Making notated sketches and notated diagrams helps crystalize observations in the mind and help on remember the key issues that need to be addressed in solving problems.  The act of summarizing observations with drawings and words fixes these observations in the mind's memory bank more effectively than the use of photos to achieve this end.  Photographs, however, are excellent devices to help us recall the actual conditions we observed after a period of time doing other activities.  Observation activities that include all of these tools are essential in preparing the mind for design.

Another related skill which needs careful refinement is the ability to dissect the problem into it's key components.  Building research skills to investigate the nature of the problem are vital towards getting at what has to be solved.  The ability to break apart the problem into key aspects can be generated by exercises which force defining the true nature of a problem.  Analysis skills in exploring a site's key problems for Landscape Architects, for example, will require require careful study of land qualities such as topography, hydrology, and subsurface conditions along with exploring the character of the air bath, vegetative patterns, and ecology not to mention the visual qualities of all these site features as well.  

As young designers break down the problem into its components for analysis they often the become enamored with the information and loose sight of the purpose of the investigation.  Analysis paralysis results when the investigator does not ask the why questions.  A designer must define clearly from each investigation how this information could influence the solution to the problem or one ends up with piles of useless information.  Good designers often are able to short cut the investigation by focusing on the key aspects of the problem rather than investigating each aspect equally.  This design skill comes with time as one approaches and refines one's process and is able to place it in the subconscious mind. 

Skills in analyzing potential uses or activities to accommodate in an environment are vital in understanding the human needs of a problem.  Potential activities need to clarified and analyzed to find potential commonalities and differences.  Linkages related to circulation patterns and service demands between various human activities need to be explored to determine compatible relationships.  Diagrams illustrating these relationships are often helpful in visualizing these relationships and are useful for showing others one's observations.  Professional designers often are able to visualize these relationships in their subconscious mind as they design and don't illustrate them graphically.

Even if the problem is clearly defined and well analyzed often no ideas seem to emerge.  Creative idea making skills may be needed to help release possible directions for solutions.  Role playing as potential users of the environment often clarifies what is needed.  Assuming the identity of the user and verbalizing their observations of a mythical place with drawings and notations can give clear direction to the solution.  Often applying action verbs such as expand, restrict or magnify may help loosen one's thinking.  Pushing the implications of these action verbs on the problem may help force potential directions for the design.  Writing and drawing the implications of these action verbs on the problem can lead to exciting new directions.   Forcing relationships between attributes of the problem defined in analysis may allow one to build alternative solutions as well.  Linking drainage patterns with the need for a gathering place, for example, may result in a dynamic, water filled, plaza experience and an exciting basis for a creative solution.  Professional designers seem to carry out these techniques in their subconscious mind and don't need to formally bring the techniques into their conscious mind.  The act of drawing and writing together, however, can be useful, again, in illustrating one's thinking to others you may wish to convince of the merits of the idea.

Probably the most significant design skill is the ability to search for alternative solutions.  Often young designers focus on a single direction and are unable to free themselves to imagine alternatives.  Focusing on one solution often means that key issues might be overlooked.  Too often the solution is conceived in the conscious mind before exploring a full range of ideas on paper.  The use of overlay drawings letting the idea emerge by extracting key elements from the process of adding transparent paper over one's initial idea lets ideas evolve and develop.  The use of overlays allows one to build ideas by extracting key features of designs below and expand or refine them on the new overlay.  Both plan and perspective exploration in this manner allow for three dimensional design thinking with spatial and experiential richness.  The build up of ideas on paper allows one to retrace the idea search process and helps identify thinking patterns.  Often good professional designers are able to visualize their thinking on paper to provide justification for their designs.  They become so effective in using these techniques that whatever they draw seems to be illustrated with minimum of line to strengthen the power of communication.

Today aspiring students of design might explore this building of design skills 15 times within the context of a typical 3 year professional design education.  It might be asked if this is enough repetitive design experience to build the full depth of design skills outlined here.  Educators often argue that they are exposing students to the basics and they must evolve these skills more fully after moving out into professional life.  Possibly many more short exercises could be used to refine each design skill in a more focused educational effort so that young designers might be able to store more skills in the time frame of design education.

Design educators need to review more carefully what specific design skills thy are building with the typical case study methods.  Often problem identification skills are not reinforced as the problems are defined by the instructor.  Often human needs are not fully explored as a detail program is given to the students.  Many times insufficient time is given to dissecting and analyzing the nature of the problem so that many solutions appear superficial.  Often restricted time periods requiring quick solutions can short circuit the process of exploring of alternatives as well.  Many time specific idea making skills are not explored.   Often too little time is focused on developing the overlay idea development process.

The goal for design educators should be to help each student develop these design process skills as fully as possible during the formal educational time frame so that young designers can develop a strong set of problem solving skills which they can be gradually refined and placed in their subconscious mind to help them become strong professional designers.  The goal is as the master Zen artist said, "develop an infallible technique and then place yourself at the mercy of inspiration".    

By Kent Worley

The proximity of a proposed freeway to Lake Superior represented one of the most

critical challenges of the entire Interstate 35 corridor within the City of Duluth. The

freeway's alignment between downtown and lakefront areas demanded unique

design solutions to protect environmental resources, link major downtown land use

areas and improve pedestrian access to the long neglected lakefront.

A three acre, ten million dollar park structure over the freeway was the Landscape

Architect's design concept to eliminate negative impacts identified during a long

public involvement process. The urban area impacts included the following:

1 The freeway and placement of protective walls along the lakeshore would have

created visual, as well as, physical barriers between commercial/residential areas

and Lake Superior.

2 Freeway alignment would have eliminated any significant potential for lakefront

open space in the vicinity.

3 Severe weather conditions off Lake Superior would cause hazardous roadway icing.

4 Proximity of the highway to downtown and the lakefront would have created

severely negative impacts of noise, lighting, air quality and accessibility.

5 Long range community goals to unify and strengthen the core downtown would

have been forfeited.

Because citizens of Duluth and State/Federal Departments of Transportation

recognized these potential impacts, lead role opportunity was well defined for the

Project Landscape Architect. The design team included MnDOT administration

and staff, the City of Duluth and several consultant civil, structural, mechanical and

electrical engineers. The Landscape Architect's role was Urban Design Lead, and

included Conceptual through Final Design Services for architectural and site

components of Lake Place.

Defining the needs, and programming the extent and levels of improvement for the

facility were the initial Landscape Architect's challenge. This early conceptual work

and extensive project justification became basis to obtain Federal, State and City

funding commitments involving a wide-range of design opportunities…all focusing

on design solutions to integrate the highway and city in linking the public with Lake

Superior.

Lake Place incorporates two major elements. First, a wall was constructed between

the roadway and the lake. A covering deck was then built over the highway to

provide protection from Lake Superior over-spray and wind-driven debris. Second,

and most important, the deck of the protective structure was planned as a multipleuse

outdoor area in conjunction with the development of lakefront trail systems.

These multiple-use concepts for Lake Place and the Urban Highway Corridor have

created harmonious transportation, recreation, open space, and quality

environment far-exceeding visions of client-city-citizen expectations. It also resulted

in community reinvestment and renewal of once marginal lakefront property. This

unique oasis for travelers and residents not only protects, but becomes a Gateway

for the most valuable natural resource of the region ... "Lake Superior."

Design concepts insure that the freeway will not visually or physically separate the

lakeshore from the City. The two block long Lake Place park structure forms one of

four highway tunnels within the corridor. Although a "tunnel" in name, Lake Place

was envisioned as a pedestrian "bridge" connecting people and places; acceptance

has been enthusiastic as citizens could finally see, and physically reach their Lake.

A 580 ft. long ceramic tile Image Wall mural on the outside highway wall faces lake

level use areas. Consistent with community waterfront themes, this depicts historic

marine images and provides additional highlight for lakefront trail visitors. Lake

Place is continuing to accomplish one of its goals with new adjacent improvements,

development and attractions; easily a dozen adjacent downtown blocks will see

eventual renewal as direct result of this multiple-use highway improvement.

A comprehensive MnDOT/FHWA program, the Urban Interstate 35 resulted in

several individual multiple-use improvements with Lake Place as the focus. These

were designed as a system, and share continuity of design philosophy, design

vocabulary of materials, colors, textures, native vegetation, site lighting and subtle

messages of environmental awareness. Public acceptance is best illustrated by

observing response through public use and enjoyment of these rediscovered

resources; a recent comment to the Landscape Architect was, "…with these

improvements, there is a NEW SPIRIT in Duluth !"

The Downtown Duluth Interstate issues with their 20-year environmental stalemate

illustrates the crucial importance for Landscape Architects to state their case and

initiate leadership to attain" something better". Lake Place, and other highway

corridor multiple-use improvements are living examples that a larger context of

human and community opportunities exist, and need to be identified through

established inventory, analysis and solution procedures.

The first segment of the transcriptions from the ASLA-MN Legacy Project interviews!  Enjoy some reflections on the Minnesota environment from Roger Martin discussing the history of the Minnesota Zoo.

Roger Martin:  It was such a great opportunity to have Peter Seitz, who went on to develop the graphic design program at the MCAD because everything we produced had to be quality in terms of visual illustration; and it was just a great lesson in how to communicate graphically. And I think he was crucial in getting us the job of the Minnesota Zoological Garden because we competed with a lot of very high quality firms. But we had a better package, I think, because of some of the images that he put together explaining how we would approach the project; illustrating the concepts we had, which, I think one has to do to get a job. You have to sort of begin the conceptual thinking and tease the client a bit with that thinking. So we illustrated some of the concepts of enclose the people, let the animals roam free; provide enclosed viewing all-weather, so we didn't have to shut down the zoo in the winter time; other concepts like that, which we had seen. We had spent time going around to different zoos; San Diego was always a big one around that time. [We] went to Milwaukee; the fact that they shut down in the winter was what we didn't want to see happen. So we were successful in getting that project; getting in the door; and then spending essentially nine years of my professional life on the zoo; developing the master plan and the first phases, redoing the master plan after we went to the legislature and we had to pare it down for funding. 

Legacy Project:  Because it was a state zoo, correct?

Roger Martin:  It was a state-owned zoo, yes.

Legacy Project:  So it was happening through the legislature.

Roger Martin:  Yes. But the exciting thing for me was that up front, we had to evaluate four sites and we did this through the computer, which in the early '70s was quite unique. We were using punch cards, but essentially, we listed all the attributes of these sites, and then the board; we would weight certain factors, you know, vehicular access or topography or whatever, and we would rate them as well. And it was interesting to see that the site in Apple Valley came up the strongest in all of these. It was our favorite site and it was a device by which we could clearly show well, if the computer says this, it must be right. That's what Dr. Stephen Kahn gave to us, so I'm forever thankful for that.

Legacy Project:  Were there influences of McHargh or, I mean, this is; how old is McHargh-esque analysis?

RM:  Well, we spent a lot of time as landscape architects analyzing the features of this farmstead, essentially 500 acres of land. It was next to Eaton's Ranch so we would rent horses and we'd ride over the terrain and talk about what we thought should happen where. But we looked at the vegetation carefully and we found a lot of oak wilt on the site at times, so we had to figure out a way to site structures within those areas that had to be cleaned out of the oak wilt. Other factors, like microclimate and so forth dictated where certain animals could be displayed because polar bears require different climate than the Siberian macaque, or something, I'm not sure. We added at that time, another architect to our team, Bob Lambert, who was a zoologist, so we helped develop the program for the zoo and the types of facilities that would be provided, so it was helpful to get that program squared away and help us decide. We came up with many alternative designs and through an evaluative process of weighting, again weighting certain factors, we were able to throw out schemes and ultimately come to the direction that we came to.

Legacy Project:  Was there any community input during that [process]?

 RM:  At that point we were just working with the board. So we had to relate, of course, to the fact that this site was within a regional park. And in fact, the conceptual idea was that then it would be surrounded by regional park on three sides; it's only really surrounded by regional park on the north, now, which is unfortunate because a lot of the housing and so forth has impinged on the site on the east, west, and south. But it was a great opportunity to lay out a large site system and organize the roads and parking, and access. We hired a special firm to come in and do an analysis of people, numbers, which began to dictate the size of the trails and size of plazas and so forth; the amount of parking we needed, and so forth. They overestimated the amount that we would need long term, and so it's never lived up to its numbers that this company had provided for us. So that's the only negative, I think, that I saw in the whole experience. But we spent nine years in putting together various construction packages; from peripheral fence, which you had to provide for zoological gardens; all the way down to the final plantings for the tropics building; special packages that landscape architects would be involved with. So it was just a tremendous opportunity to work on a project that large, for a young firm, and get the thing done right. I think of the people that I hired seven among our former graduates at the U here, including Damon Farber who was with me for seven years. And Harold Skjelbostad, and several others who worked; Jim Dustrude and Gail Elnicky, she was especially helpful when we did research in the tropics buildings in terms of what varieties of plants could be used that would simulate the climate of these; Malaysia and those areas that we were trying to illustrate. I guess I failed to mention the big concept that was rather unique for that time was the zoogeographic concept. That you illustrated the environment, not necessarily the animal. So you tried to illustrate various landscapes; tundra; inside we would try to do the southeastern tropics. And so we were quite thrilled in investigating what plants were available that would carry that feeling of the tropics in that portion of the world to give a context for the display of these various animals.

With traditional employment options for Landscape Architects severely limited due to financial problems worldwide, there is an opportunity for the practitioners in our field  to find employment in related sectors. I’ve started a list of options that utilize skill sets comparable to Landscape Architectural education, training and experience.  Examples follow - (please feel free to add to the list in the form of a comment below.)

1. Resource extraction or resource development companies dealing with restoration and multiple-use community needs or values [mining, logging, other].  Do not hesitate to approach owners with ideas that can benefit them and the community or region.

2. Water & land conservation districts, sanitary and landfill districts, i.e. facilities where multiple-value planning can produce cost, land use & life quality benefits.

3. Consulting with large corporate, university or large land owners to design maintenance, safety and site conditions with goals of short and long term cost savings and environmental compliance.

4. Working directly within large power companies [or other public utilities, who normally have large land holdings with desires to improve their public image through good land stewardship, environmental achievements and positive public relations.

5. Develop, and aggressively propose cost savings plans for public lands including city, county, regional, state and federal, and propose specific cost saving design services to targeted agencies.

6. Specialty systems and product design & promotion. Sales with larger established companies, such as

• Ÿ  Campus planning and management
• Ÿ  Golf course management
• Ÿ  Product rep: recreation equipment, site paving, retaining wall systems, site lighting, irrigation equipment, site drainage, site furnishings,  turf-related industry, computer software development and other related industries where L.A. education and experience can contribute 

7. Botanical arboretums or conservatories in management, planning and administration positions.

8. Specialized authorities dealing with people, land and management.  Direct employment with municipal authorities, such as shipping ports, airports, entertainment or recreational facilities. 

9. Indirect personal efforts: stay in the public eye.

• Ÿ  Write articles, get in local papers, write or edit for newspapers & journals
• Ÿ  Suggest community-wide improvements than can turn into projects
• Ÿ  Do anything related to education where relevant to our profession
• Ÿ  Get out and be seen. Don’t hibernate--volunteer where land planning issues are concerned
• Ÿ  Send related articles of interest to mayors, city councilors, heads of departments and other decision makers & design firms
• Ÿ  Attend city council and other governance meetings
• Ÿ  Write about local land use improvement needs & opportunities pointing out clear and simple solutions--get specific with public proposals showing a process and path to attain such benefits.

10. Before a school district or local public entity hires some non-local ‘management team’ for major building projects, suggest local in-house design teams [work directly for the district or public entity, or as consultant team] to handle complete project management services.  This can include:

• Ÿ  Design or design consultant selection
• Ÿ  Bidding/construction observation/project turn-over.

This can save owners millions, put local professionals to work and provide local responsibility and better quality control for end products.

Many memories were shared for the Founders event on March 3rd. Here are a few more. Feel free to add your own memories in the form of a comment!

"There are almost too many good memories of those days up in a loft over a pig barn.  Moving from LA it took me a long time to figure out that just because the sun was shining you might still need a coat.  These four men opened my eyes, my mind, my sences to a beautiful world.  Their projects were provocative and compelling which challenged me to anaylze and yet be daring.  I learned from my successes and equally from my failures.  The Studio experience, coupled with the 'let's get 'em out there' attitude provided a perfect blend of the practical, academic and creative experiences.  It was most rewarding.  I will always cherish my time there and rubbing elbows with these great mentors."  Sara White Grassi,  Class of 1981

"Grade Three design in the Meats building, St. Paul Campus. Dan Kiley visit. Earth Day. The Herb and Jim Show, our class had them more than others. Equal time for HALD. Sketching with Rick Forsythe." Jim Hagstrom, Class of 1978, BLA

"My best memories of my years at the U of M LA Department were the combined studio's with the Architecture department.  I tried to bring that enthusiasm and cross-disiplinary thinking to both my professional carreer and ultimately to my firm." James Lasher, Class of 1984, BLA

"My favorite memories of the LA Dept. almost always include North Hall, the run-down, practically condemned, former dormitory (on St. Paul Campus)with the most charm and character of any other building on campus.  The things most remembered:  the pink fridge, the 'Jumping Wall', the battered but comfy couches, the 32 cup percolator--always in use, looking through my window across the alcove & seeing that Grade 3 was also still working (well into the wee hours), sleep deprivation, and knowing I had made the right decision to be there."  Val Rivers, Class of 1988

Photos from the Founders event on March 3rd. What a great collection of people and memories present. Thanks to all who attended.  To download these images in high resolution, visit our flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/60395230@N02/ 

(download)

Click here to download:

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Photos courtesy of Matthew Traucht