Landscape Architecture Students Win Awards for Designs, Research

In activities Friday, May 9, the Utah Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects recognized several students and professors of the Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning department at Utah State University’s for excellent work in their field.

The Utah ASLA awards aim to increase awareness of the role of landscape architects and to recognize individuals in the field who display distinguished skill in their work. Three projects submitted by USU students and professors of the department won awards, recognition that validates the LAEP’s goal of providing students with applicable experience for their future careers, LAEP assistant professor Carlos Licon noted.

“We’re always interested in getting students involved in real projects with real stakeholders and issues,” he said. “I think we’re doing a great deal to provide students with visions of the future. We’re always linking the content of our courses to the Utah context.”

Graduate student and ASLA award recipient Michael Pace agreed.

“By being involved in a real-life project, it allowed us, as students, to expand our horizons beyond the classroom walls and look at issues not sterilized by the educational environment,” he said.

The first of the projects submitted, titled Regional Planning in Southeast Utah: A Network of Opportunities for Residents and Visitors, won a Merit Award. Graduate students Kim Cloward-Drown, Michael Pace, Zach Maughan, Aaron Smith and Marleny Santana worked on and submitted the project as a group project for their regional planning class taught by Licon.

The project addressed communities in San Juan County, including Bluff, Blanding and Monticello, Pace said.

“They have been attempting to deal with the transition of their community from a rural setting to a more seasonally populated center of tourist activity,” he said. “What they are attempting to achieve is striking a balance between maintaining the small-town atmosphere they are accustomed to and managing for future growth.”

The second project submitted was an individual thesis by graduate student Marleny Santana, who worked on the Regional Planning in Southeast Utah project as well.

Santana’s project, titled Recovering the Moca River: An Exploration Through Sustainable Strategies for Developing Countries, focused on river restoration strategies in her native country, the Dominican Republic. It was given the Honor Award.

“My thesis project reveals the advantages of integrating ecological concepts and social concerns into river restoration planning for developing countries,” she said. “As increasing population continues affecting natural resources, river restoration is becoming a more integral part of the movement on environmental planning and its success.”

The third project submitted was a research project by LAEP assistant professor Keith Christensen and co-authored by Betsy Byrne, an LAEP graduate student. It received a Merit Award in the research category and was also previously published in the Journal of Disability Policy Studies.

“We reviewed state Olmstead Plans,” Christensen said. “These plans are required from every state due to a Supreme Court decision, and describe how states will support the participation of individuals with disabilities in the community.”

Christensen and Byrne found that a majority of states’ Olmstead Plans did not clearly address the role of the built environment and recommended that disability advocates and policymakers work with city and transportation planners and landscape architects to better support the full participation of individuals with disabilities in their communities.

USU College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Contact: Carlos Licon, 435-797-3978, carlos.licon@usu.edu

Writer: Allie Jeppson Jurkatis, 435-797-7406, allie.jeppson3@gmail.com