Landscape Architecture Winning Tradition Continues

The team who conceived, designed, and built K-State’s International Student Center Rain-Garden are the most recent recipients of a top award in the annual American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) National Student Design Competition.

The project received an Honor Award in the Community Service category of the 2009 ASLA competition. The award was given during a ceremony at the recent annual conference of the ASLA held in Chicago. Professor Lee R. Skabelund and Ph.D. student Jeremy Merrill received the national award on behalf of the K-State Team on September 21, 2009.

Located on the K-State campus, the International Student Center Rain-Garden educates students, faculty, staff, administrators, and campus visitors about low-impact stormwater management solutions by revealing how designed landscapes can elegantly capture and use rooftop and surface water runoff. This rain-garden strategically addresses a significant hurdle to integrating natural stormwater management systems within the urban fabric-namely, the lack of public knowledge of and appreciation for the function and design of these systems-by integrating landscape architecture, art, architecture, ecology, hydrology and people.

The project was the outcome of a collaborative Campus Creek stormwater planning/design charrette, related university coursework, and rain-garden design, implementation, monitoring and management involving more than 140 students, faculty, staff and professionals over the past three years. Collaborators included Landscape Architecture faculty and students, K-State Facilities personnel, K-State International Student Center faculty and staff, and students from the K-State Department of Art. Students and faculty from several other departments, including Biological and Agricultural Engineering, also contributed. Contributions of project materials and tools also came from many internal and external partners during rain-garden construction. The rain-garden is currently being monitored and maintained by Professor Skabelund with assistance from International Student Center faculty and staff and Facilities and Grounds personnel.

Key participants from K-State and their project roles were:

- Professor Lee Skabelund, landscape architecture, project coordinator and co-designer, awards submission advisor, rain-garden photographer and manager
- Cary Thomsen, co-designer and assistant project coordinator (MLA 2007)
- Professor Dennis Day, landscape architecture, construction advisor, level-spreader designer
- Mark Taussig, K-State Facilities, project approvals
- Jackie Toburen, K-State Facilities and Grounds, project support
- Donna Davis, K-State International Student Center, project support
- Professor Casey Westbrook, art/sculpture, rain-bowl construction and installation assistance
- Sloan Smith, art/sculpture student, rain-bowl design and relief construction
- Austin Kirschenbaum, art/sculpture student, rain-bowl pattern construction, molding, casting, finishing and installation (BFA 2008)
- Travis Clark, art/sculpture student, rain-bowl installation
- Tor Janson, landscape architecture student, volunteer and plant selection assistant
- Mark Ruzicka, landscape architecture student, volunteer and charrette coordinator (BLA 2007)
- Aarthi Padmanabhan, landscape architecture student, volunteer and awards submission co-designer (MLA 2009)
- Jeremy Merrill, landscape architecture student, awards submission co-designer (MLA 2009)

More information and images about the project can be viewed at:
http://www.asla.org/2009studentawards/264.html
and at
http://faculty.capd.ksu.edu/lskab/

For more information, contact:
Lee Skabelund, 785.532.2431
Stephanie Rolley, 785.532.5961