Palouse Prairie Charter School

I love children and I love seeing my own children play outside experiencing nature. For this reason I chose to study Outward Bound Expeditionary Learning for my senior thesis. Fortunately for me I have a local application for my design thesis; the Palouse Prairie Charter School. I have an interest in this as a parent and designer, there is a plethora of evidence that access to nature is at least as important to children as math and language arts. In fact, exposure to nature helps children with these subjects! I highly suggest reading, Last Child in the Woods, and doing your own research. Expeditionary Learning is gaining attention all over the United States and I am thrilled that my children have an opportunity to be involved and that I have an opportunity to be involved in the design of the play area.

The site for Palouse Prairie Charter School offers challenges and opportunities. The building which previously housed Brown's Furniture Store, offers a wide open feeling with plenty of space for children to play and learn. The challenge however is how to provide outdoor play opportunities for children at a location next to US 95 and a gas station. Additionally, the city has allocated the best possible play space for parking. As a student of landscape architecture I am taking into consideration the needs of the children vs. the utilitarian needs of parking. This is one of the largest challenges for designers in the United States, how do we move the focus from the automobile onto people. American's have embraced the car culture and we see evidence of this everywhere from unnecessarily wide suburban roads to acres of parking lots.

Parking is just one of the challenges onsite...I am also taking into consideration the northern aspect of the building which initially was assumed to be the play space. This location faces the gas station and abuts the highway. This is concerning to me as a parent AND land designer, how do we weigh the need for children to play outside and keep them safe from traffic, air pollution from passing vehicles and the nearby gas station. On top of this the location is very shady much of the year, leaving serious concerns about winter use of the play ground. Also this would limit the school's ability to use planting opportunities as part of the children's learning experience.

The design of the play area is still in the works. We are constantly bouncing new ideas off of each other, trying to think outside of the box. Ultimately the city will determine where parking will go, and the school will be left to work with whatever is left over. Hopefully, using the skills I have learned as a student of landscape architecture we can convince them that we can balance the needs for parking and access, with the needs of the Palouse Prairie Charter School students.

Check out the Palouse Prairie Charter School website and a blogspot: http://palouseprairieschool.org/

http://whypalouseprairie.blogspot.com/

Here is the Expeditionary Learning website: http://www.elschools.org/

Beyond Beauty Article

This article highlights the importance of Landscape Architecture in site planning and design.
http://www.constructionweekonline.com/article-4426-beyond_beauty/1/

Look for us in the Moscow Water Department Newsletter!

We were pretty excited to be given the opportunity to design a Water-Wise demonstration garden for the City of Moscow Water Department. Jonathan spent hours carefully researching plants that would offer a three season appeal, while also using a limited amount of water. The design is meant to encourage Moscow residents to plant their gardens and yards with plants that are drought tolerant and beautiful. I know that he has begun writing more about his plant selection and how he went about deciding which plants should go where based on site inventory and analysis. We'll be sure to take pictures when the planting begins and post them.

The Importance of thoughtful Landscape Design

www.sunset.com

Through my experiences at the City of Moscow and my studies as a student of Landscape Architecture at the University of Idaho I continually find myself excited by the possibilities that Landscape Architecture offers to municipalities, residences, and businesses. Thoughtful Landscape Design takes what would be considered a handicap and turns it into a strength.

Common challenges on the Palouse include storm water management and soil erosion control. The very characteristics we love about this region, rolling hills and ambling creeks, also provide the greatest challenges to homeowners and municipalities. How do we develop properties in a sustainable way? What can homeowners do when their backyard starts sloughing off from rain and wind? What needs to be done to create outdoor living areas that extend from indoor living spaces?

Residents of the Palouse are thoughtful, forward thinking people who strive to make positive changes in the world. One way we can do this is by designing with nature, not forcing it. We often see the repercussions of ignoring natures way when we develop in flood plains, fill in wetlands, and ignore important factors such as solar aspect and slope.

An example of thoughtful design would be incorporation of stormwater as a design feature. For many years stormwater has been managed by canaling and piping it away as quickly and efficiently as possible. Instead we are finding that a better idea might be to utilize it onsite for plant irrigation, and water features. Rainwater Harvesting offers beautiful ways to celebrate water and its importance in our daily lives. Additionally we often see runoff from parking lots run straight into storm drains that make their way into Paradise Creek. These issues could be dealt with through swales and other mitigation areas that would provide beautification and filtration of toxic substances as the water percolates back into our aquifer.

These are just a few of the ways that Landscape Architecture points to a brighter, more sustainable future. These are not new ideas, but rather we have forgotten much of the wisdom from past generations. Often these challenges have simple solutions that force us to think outside of the box. We are here to help you with that!

Waterwise Plantings for the Palouse

Before completing my very first landscape planting design four years ago for a class at the University of Idaho, I figured the process would be fairly straight forward: group plants in an attractive manner to achieve a desired effect. What I didn't realize at the time and what I've come to realize since is that it takes a considerable amount of analysis of the site and the attributes of the selected plants to make sure they thrive once they are put in the ground. Though selection of plants for their color, texture, size or form is the first step, additional steps must be taken to ensure the sustained beauty of the landscape you are creating.

I've recently been involved in a landscape project for the City of Moscow's Water Department where all this has come back to me. This project entailed designing a planting display for the Water Department building on the corner of A Street and Main that follows Moscow's Waterwise landscaping principles:

• Appropriate plant selection
• Planning and design
• Soil preparation
• Practical turf areas
• Efficient irrigation
• Use of mulches
• Appropriate maintenance

Our hope was that residents of the Palouse would see the display and recognise that efficient use of water in residential settings doesn't mean you have to plant yucca and Utah junipers around your house. Instead, this project demonstrates that outdoor water use can be reduced dramatically without sacrificing the beauty of landscape.

More on this later.