Features

Carducci Spotlight: Emily Adler

This is Emily Adler. She has been interning with Carducci Associates since May 2021. We hope she enjoyed her time with us working on interesting designs and 3D Models, attending project site visits and developing construction documents. We wish her the best for her final year at Pennsylvania State University.

Here’s our first Carducci Spotlight in series with many more to come. With that said, meet Emily!

Emily, what are some of your hobbies?

Hiking, art, knitting, traveling, cooking, and sports.

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Carmel Valley, California.

What’s your earliest landscape memory? Or, what early landscape memory is most important to you?

My earliest and most important landscape memory would be hiking Half Dome when I was 8 years old. This impacted me because prior to the hike my family spent months training and traveling to hiking areas in central California. So, I spent a lot of time in the outdoors and I have always really enjoyed being in nature.

Do you have a favorite landscape?

My favorite natural landscape is the Big Sur coastline because of its raw, natural beauty. Also, my favorite built landscape is Copenhagen because of its innovative and creative urban planning. The biking infrastructure, vibrant parks, and children’s playgrounds make it easy for people to enjoy the city.

What’s your favorite plant to work with and why?

Sedum because of its environmental resiliency and ecological benefits. It has many variations and is great for green roofs and storm water management.

If you could design a landscape and budget (and value engineering) weren’t an issue, what would it be?

I would design a temporary art installation that is pertinent to the area and excites the community. It would be something similar to Society’s Cage or Christo and Jeanne Claude’s work.

What are you drawing inspiration from right now?

Currently, I am drawing inspiration from exploring San Francisco. I have never lived in a city before so it has been exciting to discover new areas and be in a city with so many spirited outdoor spaces.

What potential for sustainability most excites you on one of your current projects?

I am not working on any projects currently… but projects that focus on ecological restoration and coastal resiliency excite me!

What made you want to become a landscape architect/landscape designer?

I have always been passionate about art and nature. I believe landscape architecture gives me the opportunity to be a steward of the land and engage the community.

Feature / People

Yi Jin Kim is Promoted to Principal

Carducci Associates is thrilled to announce the promotion of Yi Jin Kim (Jin) to Principal. Jin has helped lead the Carducci team as lead designer, and as an Associate Principal for the last five years she is ready to take on the leadership role of Principal. 
 

Jin has been an integral and energetic design professional of the Carducci team since 2002. With a passion for designing beautiful and sustainable outdoor spaces for the public and private realms, Jin’s portfolio of design work includes corporate workplaces, schools, parks, retail and hospitality properties. Her respect for the environment and sensitivity to budget and schedule is matched by her commitment to form and aesthetics. Her design talent, collaboration skills, polished graphics and strong technical background leads to a highly proficient communication of landscape design intent and clear construction documents.

She recently completed the conceptual design and construction documents of the new 30-acre Don Biddle Community Park in Dublin, California, which is about to begin construction. She is currently designing several major projects including the landscape for the new Performing Arts Center at Sonoma Academy, a 5-acre corporate outdoor workspace for a biotech company, and two public high school sports field complexes and tennis centers.

We are pleased to have her in a leadership role as she will be a valuable asset for the future of the Carducci team.

Illustrative Plan of Don Biddle Community Park

People

2020 ASLA Student Awards / Karishma Joshi & Xiaoyu (Nikki) Zheng

We are very excited to share that our very own Associate Karishma Joshi has been awarded the ASLA Student Honor Award in Analysis & Planning and our intern Xiaoyu (Nikki) Zheng has also been awarded the ASLA Student Award of Excellence in Urban Design. Below are some highlights of their projects and associated links to learn more about each of them.


 
2020 ASLA Student Award: Award of Excellence: Urban Design

Project Name: Rethinking a Fundamental Human Act: Landscape as a Solution for Open Defecation

Project Summary: In “Rethinking a Fundamental Human Act: Landscape as a Solution for Open Defecation” Kate and Nikki proposed design solutions based on a theoretical framework highlighting causes, conditions, and effects of open defecation. In the context of Raipur, India, there are few spaces of conscious design intervention that provide both practical and aesthetic value. The team came up with alternative built-environment solutions that respect local cultural behavior and human dignity to tackle this pressing world issue.

Contributors: Kate Noel, Xiaoyu (Nikki) Zheng

For more information about this award winning project, click here: https://www.asla.org/2020studentawards/1283.html


 
2020 ASLA Student Award: Honor Award: Analysis and Planning

Project Name: Tenacity—Integrating Sea Level Rise and Urban Growth Prediction Modelling in Design Scenarios in Tampa, Florida

Project Summary: Tampa, Florida is expected to grow considerably over the next decades, yet is one of the most vulnerable U.S. cities for flooding. Simply continuing on the present course,or even in line with current planned growth, will do little to mitigate flood risk, but informed development that incorporates resilient tactics will ensure long-term resilience in uncertain climate scenarios. This study analyzes three possible development strategies, and recommends one that could mitigate the impact of sea-level rise.

Contributors: Karishma Joshi & Jiali Liu For more information about this award winning project, click here: https://www.asla.org/2020studentawards/1185.html

Rethinking a Fundamental Human Act: Landscape as a Solution for Open Defecation (Images above)
Tenacity - Integrating Sea Level Rise and Urban Growth Prediction Modelling in Design Scenarios in Tampa, Florida (Images above)

Award / People / Press Release

Looking Ahead / Outdoor Learning

COVID-19 has accelerated the dialogue about leveraging outdoor learning environments for school districts in California. Carducci Associates, with our extensive DSA approved landscape experience, has been assisting clients to strategize and implement solutions quickly and easily to create safer spaces for the upcoming year, and also to envision the potential for maximizing outdoor learning (post-pandemic). California’s temperate and mild climate often provides ideal conditions for outdoor-education activities for much of the year. In light of the recent pandemic, which requires physical distancing and increased air-circulation to lessen the chance of transmission among students, the outdoor classroom has become an optimal setting and option to accommodate – and allow for a greater number of– students returning in the fall.


UTILIZING THE OUTDOORS AS AN ASSET:

Outdoor spaces offer an economical way to alleviate the spatial constraints of the pandemic on indoor classrooms while also providing: hands-on learning, fresh air, and opportunities for children to connect with the natural environment. Below are some of the lessons we have learned from educators and designers who have already brainstormed and navigated this process. Following these lessons are additional resources to guide community members to understand the strategies shared and also to re-imagine how to see these constraints as growth opportunities for the future of education in California.


LESSONS LEARNED:

1. Understand that enhancing the connection to nature improves student/faculty health and well-being

2. Engaging school grounds and local parks as outdoor classrooms to expand the capacity for students

3. Creating Cohorts to discuss (weekly) research

4. Provide flexibility and choice: Consider a variety of seating in varied layouts

5. Understand whether strategy/implementation is a short-term transition or a long-term investment

6. Take initiative, pilot, evaluate, implement

7. Engage students in the problem-solving process

8. Develop a phased approach to reopening

9. Create an outdoor, bookable meeting-space system (e.g. Stanchion off an area for reserved meetings on campus and provide signage that can be updated with the current user(s) name and duration of use)

10. Discern “higher-usage” areas on campus and provide supplemental outdoor structures to accommodate these densities

11. Improve micro-climate or consider climatic variables to lengthen (maximize) the usage of outdoor spaces in the shoulder seasons (e.g. equip shade structures with heating, cooling or lighting, provide windbreaks, consider acoustics and how to reduce noise to other outdoor classrooms, consider sun movement, temporary and/or permanent DSA-PC approved shade sails, sun umbrellas, etc.)

12. Address infrastructural needs: potential utilities and accessibility needs that will need to be considered when people congregate in different places on campus/school grounds (Wi-Fi, emergency systems, blue lights-visibility accessibility, power charging, increased hand washing stations, etc.)

13. Consider developing zones, especially on larger school campuses, that prioritize access to different user groups (students, faculty, visitors, other community members, etc.)

14. Develop toolkits and resources to educate the school community (provide adequate signage in a variety of sizes, distribute outdoor space guidelines for the diverse types of public spaces on campus, etc.)

15. Consider low-cost, temporary materials to create outdoor classroom spaces

16. Organize outdoor pop-up activities to support student life and foster community (outdoor games, dining, art, etc.)

17. Consider having areas and spaces for both formal (classes, seminars) and informal/casual activities (clubs)

18. Security is paramount, consider ways to restrict access to grounds to ensure safety

19. Consider funding from CARES ACT for educational work and American Association of Dermatology grants for shade

20. For equity make outdoor learning a priority and online learning a back up


RESOURCES:

1) National COVID 19 Outdoor Learning Initiative: Essential Assets for School District COVID-19 Response

2) The Outdoor Classroom Project: Characteristics of the outdoor classroom and information regarding the physical, cognitive, psychological benefits of outdoor learning

3) COVID-19 Planning Considerations: Guidance for School Reentry

4) Planning Outdoor Infrastructure at your School (Free Downloadable Resources)

5) San Francisco Children & Nature: a San Francisco collaborative dedicated to ensuring all youth growing up in the city have the same opportunities to PLAY, LEARN and GROW in NATURE.

6) Emergency Schoolyard Design Volunteers: a new program dedicated to match schools and districts with volunteer design teams to help plan and lay out outdoor classrooms. Click here to sign up for design assistance. Designers click here to sign up to assist schools.

7) Fast Company: “Inside the Quest to Reopen Schools—by Moving Classes Outside”

8)The Atlantic: “Why Can’t We Have Class Outside? It might be the answer to America’s school-reopening problem”

9) PBS Newshour Weekend: “A California Collective Makes the Case for Outdoor Learning” (video)

10) Adapting College and University Campus Outdoor Spaces in Response to COVID-19 (ASLA Professional Practice Webinar) (video)

Press Release