From the Ground Up
Landscape Architects at Work
The impact of the landscape architecture profession on Alabama continues to grow. More and more towns and cities, schools and other public or private clients are learning what many developers have long since discovered — landscape architects work wonders with settings.
Our survey of recent projects where landscape architects played a key role makes that point again and again:
- The before/after views of the main quad at Troy University show a hum-drum space transformed into an inviting new place and a great tool for recruiting students. A landscape architect did the job.
- Homewood Central Park went from bedraggled to beautiful at the hands of an architect and landscape architect working as a team.
- Two different landscape architecture firms and a golf course designer crafted an environmentally sensitive plan for The Ledges, a new golf community in a spectacular setting atop Green Mountain in Huntsville.
- To establish an inviting new main entry for the St. Vincent’s Hospital campus in Birmingham, a landscape architect worked with a fountain specialist to create a lively new multi-fountain plaza. It’s become a new landmark for the city.
- For the new Birmingham Children’s Zoo, landscape architects and architects teamed to create a model sustainable environment that displays plants and animals from the state’s five physiographic regions. It’s a place to play and learn.
- For a Covington County Veterans Memorial in Andalusia, a landscape architect and architect created a monumental tribute to personal sacrifice. Its classical grace is compelling.
- Planners and landscape architects worked together with residents on a plan to turn a part of Center Point near Birmingham from a moribund commercial strip into a real town. Implementation has begun.
- In Shelby County the same planner/landscape architect team developed a vision for fast-growing Chelsea to have a distinctive town center within view of U.S. 280. It would be a far cry from typical sprawl.
Each of these projects makes clear that it pays to engage landscape architects early on to take full benefit of their special skills in dealing with natural setting, storm water runoff, circulation and a host of other site issues. And, as a whole, the survey illustrates just how many different ways you will find landscape architects at work. And every time they do, Alabama looks a little better.
