The document discusses several contemporary landscape projects from around the world: 1) Crissy Field in San Francisco restored natural wetlands while integrating recreational uses. 2) The Herman Miller factory landscape in Georgia treated stormwater runoff to protect local ecosystems. 3) Lurie Garden in Chicago's Millennium Park references the Midwest prairie with native plants. 4) Al-Azhar Park in Cairo transformed a garbage dump into an oasis and stimulated neighborhood revitalization.

1. CONTEMPORARY LANDSCAPE PRACTICES
Everything depends on an unforeseeable historic continuity. But if we succeed in developing our culture while continuing to respect our past, we
have a chance of preserving it.
—Stephen Jay Gould (2000)

2. • Cultural trends have become linked to the marketplace; 21st-century culture is mobile,
networked, and instantly available. The fashionable trend at the moment is “green”,
what started as a countercultural movement has now become mainstream. Everything is green.
Sustainability is a buzzword. One hopes that this trend will be permanently instilled into
the global consciousness and become the origin of all design.
• The early modernists were optimistic about the potential for industrial materials and methods to
offer promise for the future. Designers are again hopeful that technology can help reestablish a
harmonic balance with nature. The projects demonstrates that art and science can combine to
create beautiful and ecologically responsible design.

3. Hargreaves Associates
Crissy Field
San Francisco, California
The conversion of the U.S. Sixth Army’s military
installation at the Presidio into a 100-acre
national park encompasses the restoration and
rehabilitation of the natural landscape of
wetlands, dune fields and beach along the San
Francisco Bay waterfront. The design for Crissy
Field reintroduces and amplifies the natural and
cultural features of the site while integrating a
diversity of recreational uses on this enduring
historical landmark. By superimposing many
historical layers, the design is not a simple act of
restoration to a particular period, but rather an
interpretation of its past that establishes a
platform for its future. Since its opening in 2001,
Crissy Field has hosted millions of visitors, school
children and residents as one of the most
popular destinations of the Bay Area. Adaptive
re-use of the historic hangars and enhanced
public visitation and educational facilities has
increased active use around the park, while at
the center of this activity Crissy Field remains a
powerful landscape, connected to the
environment and natural systems of the Bay,
both exhilarating and a respite for all who visit

7. HERMAN MILLER FACTORY LANDSCAPE, CHEROKEE COUNTY, GEORGIA (2001)
Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc.
The Herman Miller furniture manufacturing
and assembly plant is situated on a 70-acre
site in rural Georgia. The project’s modest
building and site budget included no
provision for landscape architecture before
the architects invited MVVA to join the
design team. The client required parking for
550 cars and 120 semi-trailers, a total area
of 10 acres. Runoff from the parking
surfaces, the roadway, and the roof of the
330,000 square-foot facility would have had
a devastating impact on the surrounding
fragile creek ecosystems. MVVA determined
that treating and slowly releasing the
massive runoff in the landscape must
become an essential priority for the project.

11. • By integrating ecology into acres of hardscape in an honest, elegant
manner, this project creates a new model for low-cost, low-
maintenance, environmentally sound factory landscapes. This model
could be applied with equal success in suburban and urban areas and
demonstrates how landscape architects can take a lead in linking
effective hydrological management with good design.

12. LURIE GARDEN,
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
(2004)
Gustafson Guthrie
Nichol Ltd., Piet Oudolf
and Robert Israel
Built atop an underground parking
structure and former rail line in Chicago,
the Lurie Garden is the focal point of
Millennium Park, the open space that
connects the city’s downtown to Lake
Michigan. Gustafson tapped into
Chicago’s ecological history, using native
plants and local stones to reference the
Midwestern prairie in a grouping of
geometric gardens. A boardwalk runs
beside a stylized stream where
pedestrians can sit with their feet in the
water—a new promenade for the tourists
and businesspeople, who crowd into the
park during the humid summer months.

16. • http://thefutureschannel.com/videogallery/landscape-architects/
• http://landscapevoice.com/millennium-park-the-lurie-garden/

17. SHENYANG ARCHITECTURAL
UNIVERSITY CAMPUS, SHENYANG
CITY, LIAONING PROVINCE, CHINA
(2004) Kongjian Yu and Lin Shihong
With China’s stunningly quick turn
toward urbanization in the 20th
century, food production
landscapes in the country have
come under increasing pressure.
In response, landscape architect
Kongjian Yu combined rice fields
and native vegetation to frame
spaces for outdoor education,
helping make clear the connection
between productive agriculture
and urban existence.

19. TANNER SPRINGS PARK,
PORTLAND,OREGON (2005)
Atelier Dreiseitl
In a city widely noted for its
sustainable water practices, Tanner
Springs Park stands out for its
combination of smart hydrology
and thoughtful aesthetics.
Rainwater is collected and purified
through a wetland system. An
orthogonal boardwalk floats over
the wetlands, bringing urban
dwellers in close contact with these
natural hydrological processes.

20. What the Residents Wanted
Residents expressed an interest in a
quiet, contemplative space, as
opposed to the adjacent and more
active Jamison Square two blocks
away. Residents wanted a place that
felt natural, quiet, and restorative.
Tanner Springs effectively meets the
wants and needs of the community
which is why it is well loved and has
been embraced by locals and visitors.
Referencing the Past Tanner Springs
Park aims at modeling the local
ecology and habitats prior to the
1850’s. In the late 1800’s, the
modern day Pearl District was
wetland with a natural tributary of
the Willamette River flowing
through. Around 1890, the wetlands
were drained and natural ecology
was erased to make way for the
surge in industry and rail
development

22. A Garden in Cairo – Urban Regeneration
• Once the site of a garbage
dump, Al-Azhar Park is a
verdant haven in the heart
of one of the world’s most
densely populated cities.
The development project,
led by the Aga Khan Trust
for Culture, achieved a
grand urban vision for
revitalizing center-city
neighborhoods, restoring
Islamic historical sites and
reviving ancient crafts.

23. • The site had been a rubbish
dump since the late Mamluk
period; indeed, over hundreds
of years, the accumulation of
garbage and building debris
was nearly forty meters deep
in some areas. After six years
of work, Al-Azhar Park opened
in 2004 to international as well
as local acclaim. The initiative
includes not only a vast green
space for the people of Cairo,
but the restoration of Islamic
historical sites, revival of
ancient crafts and
revitalization of adjacent
neighborhoods.

24. • The context served as a challenge to revitalize the heritage of Islamic
Cairo and use it as a catalyst for cultural, social and economic
development. In other words, it was clear that the construction of the
park should act as a stimulus for the rehabilitation of the Al-Darb Al-
Ahmar neighboring district and its 200,000 residents. The Aga Khan
Trust for Culture (AKTC) initiated projects that would uplift the living
conditions in the vicinity of the park.
• Construction of The Al-Azhar Park Cairo, Egypt
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAAWClQFHk8

27. Is it Self
Sustaining?
• The Al-Azhar Park
project, Cairo, Egypt
• https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=kquXtKynAC
U
• https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=FCH69a58w
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