Having a green thumb isn’t always enough for landscape architecture students. It also takes high-tech, portable equipment.
Elizabeth Mossop, director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, said her department is in the process of acquiring $130,000 worth of high-end equipment to be used for community outreach programs.
“The plan is to get students out of the classroom and into the community where they’re working,” Mossop said. “We can [now] go and set up a full-on, state-of-the-art design studio anywhere. We can take our studio groups out on the road.”
Funding for the equipment comes from a grant approved by the Louisiana Board of Regents. The money comes from the Louisiana Educational Quality Support Fund that supports educational and research programs in schools across the state.
“This grant is all about providing equipment, supplies and infrastructure to assist departments in improving the quality of their [programs],” said Kevin Hardy, Louisiana Board of Regents communication director.
Hardy said numerous projects are proposed to be funded under the support fund, but only those approved through external evaluations are ultimately funded. He said the merit of the project is typically a determining factor.
Hardy said the Board approved the grant in April, but the University is just now beginning to see the full extent of the money.
Mossop said the equipment is completely portable and will first be used by students in spring 2008. She said there is enough equipment for one studio class to use.
Mossop said the bulk of the equipment is high-end Macintosh laptops, printers, computer screens activated by touch and other technical equipment. She said the equipment allows students to create detailed renderings of projects.
“It allows us to communicate very much more directly with the people we work with,” Mossop said. “Rather than showing them conventional drawings that nobody really has any clue what they mean.”
Mossop said she hopes the equipment will one day be installed into a mobile van or unit that can house the equipment and simply be driven on site. She said right now the equipment has to be transported separately. She said some design schools have similar operations, but the University is ahead of the curve compared to most.
“I think what is more innovative about it is the way we are going to use this new technology in enhancing our design and communication processes,” Mossop said.
Mossop said the equipment will be used on projects the school selects. She said most current projects are related to post-Katrina New Orleans. She said the Urban Landscape Lab project has been working since the storm in the Lower 9th Ward area to rebuild public space and infrastructure.
Mossop said one of their most successful projects has been the New Orleans school yard project. She said the school has worked with four other programs to help redesign their campuses and create proposals to get funding to rebuild outdoor facilities.
“We want to sort of contribute to the rebuilding of New Orleans and to serving the needs of these communities,” Mossop said. “But our primary aim is to educate [our] students to produce innovative, interesting [and] successful landscape design.”
Design Intelligence, a leading journal of the design professions, released a 2007 survey ranking the University’s undergraduate landscape architecture program as first in the nation. The school’s graduate program was also ranked fifth in the nation by the publication.
“I think the experience of being much more directly connected to the places and the people the students are working with will give them a very different kind of educational experience,” Mossop said. “They’ll be able to have more – and different quality – interactions.”
—Contact Nicholas Persac at [email protected]