Landscape architects spend their careers turning inspiration into reality. A group of West Virginia University landscape architecture students used their own campus to hone their skills in turning an idea into a setting.

Students in Peter Butler’s sophomore design studio were given a complex assignment: use one of the academic disciplines taught at WVU as the foundation of a design concept for WVU’s Evansdale Campus. WVU is embarking on an ambitious, $159.5 million building project that will remake the Evansdale campus with several new buildings and a more pedestrian-friendly layout.

“This project involved master planning and design of the property between the new Agricultural Sciences Building and the Engineering PRT station,” said Butler an assistant professor in the landscape architecture program. “Creating positive public space with multiple uses, and with the removal of automobile traffic, placing an emphasis on the pedestrian experience, was central to the design of the space.”

Butler asked his sophomore students to incorporate outdoor classrooms and event spaces, various planting zones including forest and orchard spaces, better pedestrian connectivity and circulation, and environmental art. He also asked them to choose an academic discipline to serve as their design inspiration.

Students were asked to research the history, traditions, values, research methods, and other aspects of their chosen disciplines, and to let the particular character, materials, methods, and forms of those disciplines influence the design of the space.

Danelle Howell of Harrisburg, Pa., looked to music. She felt that music, like landscape, is an omnipresent but sometimes overlooked aspect of everyone’s lives, so she let the rhythms of classical music and jazz inspire variety in her layouts, creating different spaces that inspire different moods.

Sound was also important for Margaret Blatt of Erie, Pa., who chose speech pathology and audiology as her starting point. She thought about the ways that plantings and sculptural sound walls could create different effects in various parts of the campus.

The idea of motion as it relates to dance inspired Alexis Halka of Millstone Township, N.J. The steps and rhythms of salsa dancing led her to consider different movement patterns in space planning.

“Bringing the outside in” is a common inspiration for interior designers, but Nathan Sweitzer of Youngstown, Ohio, decided to flip the equation by bringing the inside out. He created different rooms throughout his design and included the installation of empty picture frames to emphasize views of landscapes that surround the campus.

Rachel Rittler of Philadelphia drew inspiration from her roommate, a mechanical engineering major. “She joked that everything mechanical engineers do can be broken down into ‘circuits, gears, and Legos,’” Rittler explained. Rittler used the organized linearity of circuits, the movement of gears, and the textural elements of Lego blocks to define her design.

Even the mathematical discipline of fractal geometry made its presence known in the projects thanks to Justin Pitsenbarger of Franklin, W.Va. He contemplated the ways that fractal geometry occurs naturally, as in a crystal or a seashell, and in created objects like a city plan. His vision of Evansdale features central points that interconnect and spike off into varied spaces.

“While the projects are conceptually driven, I do hope that the student work has an impact on the transformation of Evansdale in the next few years,” Butler said. “They were very successful at creating innovative spaces and experiences that would add character and a strong ‘sense of place’ to campus.”

To view more of the students’ plans, visit the landscape architecture program’s Facebook page.

A group of West Virginia University students recently competed in the Professional Landcare Network Student Career Days event in Manhattan, Kan.

Hosted by Kansas State University, the three-day competition gives collegiate students pursuing majors like horticulture, landscape architecture and agribusiness management and rural development the chance to compete in events directly related to the skills necessary for careers in the green industry.

This year’s contest featured 700 students from 63 colleges and universities across the country.

According to David Davis, visiting assistant professor of horticulture in the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, students benefit from participating in events like this in a variety of ways.

“This is a great networking event for students,” he said. “Not only are they able to interact with their peers, but they have the chance to meet with industry representatives during the career fair.”

Sean Walters, a junior agribusiness management and rural development major from Hagerstown, Md., agrees, saying the PLANET event is “incomparable to most other opportunities.”

“It’s really the premier networking and recruitment event in the green industry where students can find real jobs and internships,” he said. “We are also able to compete in events that are directly related to our field that we may not be able to do in the normal school environment; it’s truly an out of class learning experience.”

WVU was represented by 18 students who competed in 28 events. The team finished 25th overall, the highest in the six years WVU has competed.

Students who placed the highest in individual events are: Patrick Lydon, a landscape architecture major from Bethel Park, Pa., third place in interior landscape design; Walters, eighth place in construction cost estimating; John Wagers, a horticulture student from Fairfield, Ohio, ninth place in sales presentation; Kevin Wesley, a horticulture student from Martinsburg, W.Va., 12th place in leadership skills; Ji Choi, a landscape architecture major from Glen Burnie, Md., 14th place in wood landscape plants; Lydon and Peter Boucher, a horticulture student from Robbinsville, N.J, 18th place in irrigation assembly; and Walters and Sam Lewis, a landscape architecture major from Enka, N.C., 21st place in wood construction.

Next year’s event will be held in Auburn, Ala., and hosted by Auburn University.

For more information on Student Career Days, visit http://www.studentcareerdays.org/.

Sophomore landscape architecture students will take part in a final review presentation from 9 a.m. to 12 noon Friday, April 27, in room 2069 of the Agricultural Sciences Building. The students have been working on a redesign of Evansdale Campus in response to proposed new buildings.

The project has involved the master planning and design of the property between the new Agricultural Sciences Building and the Engineering PRT station. New buildings have been proposed in the redevelopment of Evansdale Campus. Creating positive public space with multiple uses and considering the removal of automobile traffic, placing an emphasis on the pedestrian experience, have been central to the design of the space.

For more information, contact Peter Butler, assistant professor, at 304-293-5462 or peter.butler@mail.wvu.edu.

A recent gift from the West Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association will help ensure West Virginia University’s new greenhouse continues to grow.

Led by an alumna of WVU’s landscape architecture program, the association recently pledged $50,000 to finish an interior conference room inside the new facility.

“The West Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association has always had a relationship with WVU,” said WVNLA Executive Director Beth Loflin. “When the greenhouse opportunity presented itself, it seemed logical for our association to continue with this long-lasting bond.”

Rudolph P. Almasy, interim dean of the WVU Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, said it’s wonderful that the association continues to be interested in supporting the College’s students and faculty.

“The generosity and concern of this organization will help make great things happen in the university’s new greenhouse,” he added.

For the full story, please visit WVU Today.

The Society of Environmental Professionals is hosting a citywide litter clean-up on Saturday, April 14, and would really appreciate your help. The event will begin with a light breakfast, opening welcome statement, and group/street assignments. Each group of participants will be assigned a set of streets where they will remove the garbage and recycling.

The group’s goal is to increase Morgantown litter awareness, encourage student networking, and reduce litter impact on the environment.

Volunteers will gather at 10 a.m. Saturday at the South Agricultural Sciences Building on West Virginia University’s Evansdale Campus. For more information, contact Catherine Artis at ceartis@mix.wvu.edu.

The Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design will hold its 16th annual Graduate Student Research Conference from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in Rooms 101 AB and 125 AB of the National Research Center for Coal and Energy on West Virginia University’s Evansdale Campus.

Call for Papers and Posters

The Annual Davis College Graduate Student Research Conference is a unique opportunity to recognize the many research accomplishments of our talented graduate students and to enhance their professional development. The Conference also provides a forum for the entire Davis College to share information and showcase the breadth and diversity of research activities undertaken by the students and faculty.

Students may choose to present either a 15-minute oral research paper or a research poster. Ph.D. and M.S. students will be judged separately in the two categories (1) oral presentation and (2) poster presentation. For each contest, monetary awards of $250 and $150 and $100 will be awarded for first, second and third place respectively, in both the paper and poster categories. Refreshments will be provided for participants throughout the day.

Please plan to attend and participate in this event. Download these forms to submit a paper/poster title along with a short Abstract (≤400 words). Registration and abstract submission is open until the deadline of 5:00 pm Friday, March 30, 2012. Registration applications and abstracts should be submitted as an email attachment to the chair of the organizing committee, Robert C. Burns, at Robert.Burns@mail.wvu.edu.

Via WVU Today:

West Virginia University is hosting five environmental leaders from Kazakhstan on Wednesday (March 7) who will discuss grassroots involvement in environmental issues with WVU professors.

Kazakhstan visitors, organized through WVU’s Office of International Students and Scholars, includes Saltanat Kuatbekovna Baymurzanova, executive director of the EcoIDEA Foundation; Yuliya Nikolayevna Dushkina, standardization specialist at the Center for Kazakhstan’s Sustainable Development, LLC; Irina Olegovna Ignatovich, deputy director of the School Project on Application of Resources and Energy; Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Klimov, president of the Foundation for Integration of Ecological Culture; and Mariya Leonidovna Kurnikova, member of the Coordination Council of the Youth Ecological Network of Kazakhstan.

The visitors have been invited to the U.S. under the auspices of the Open World Leadership Center at the Library of Congress.

“Kazakhstan has a special place in our hearts at WVU,” said Tom Sloane, executive director of International and Global Relations at WVU. “We have recruited at college fairs in Almaty, Astana and Atrau, and we currently have three undergraduate students and one graduate student who are Kazakh. They have added so much to the diversity of our University, and we look forward to further future contacts and students from this great country.”

The leaders will meet with three professors from WVU’s Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design, Hodjat Ghadimi, Ph.D., assistant professor of design and landscape architecture; Peter Butler, M.L.A., assistant professor of landscape architecture; and Chris Haddox, visiting assistant professor of sustainable design; as well as Gerald Iwan, Ph.D., executive director of WVU National Environmental Services Center.

Click here for the full story.

Faculty from the Davis College will lead a 2012 summer program in Western Europe.

Students who participate in this program will explore the history, culture, landscapes, environment, and economy of Western Europe with a focus on its approach to organizing society and managing the environment. Students will attend a Floriade in Venlo along with many sightseeing activities throughout France and Germany.

For more information, visit the Office of International Programs or contact Peter Butler, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design, at Peter.Butler@mail.wvu.edu, or Sven Verlinden, associate professor of horticulture, at Sven.Verlinden@mail.wvu.edu.

Via WVU Today:

Whether we think of issues of governance, religion, race, the environment, economic development, education, or healthcare—the inability to communicate, cooperate or compromise weakens our ability to address common challenges.

“Designing for the Divide,” a conference on community action across lines of difference, will be held at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center, March 23-24.

To register for the conference, see the website at http://designingforthedivide.org.

“This will be a meeting that includes designers from across the United States, regular citizens from the local communities and the region, and various disciplines at WVU, to brainstorm ways to bring polarized groups together to accomplish goals in a climate of impasse,” said Graphic Design Professor Eve Faulkes, one of the co-chairs of the event.

Peter Butler, assistant professor of landscape architecture and environmental design in the Davis College, will be among the speakers at the conference. For the full story, click here.

WBOY reports on a project to breathe new life into a neglected corner of Shinnston.

At its “Extreme Makeover: Brownfields Edition” event in December 2011, the West Virginia Redevelopment Collaborative is a new initiative of West Virginia University’s Northern WV Brownfields Assistance Center, funded by the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, used a team approach to tackle obstacles involved in redeveloping brownfields. Brownfields are properties that sit undeveloped because of a variety of real or perceived environmental barriers.

Four brownfield redevelopment projects were selected at the event to receive $5,000 grants and continued assistance from their dream team. The Shinnston team will develop a plan for the highest and best recreational use of a former City Garage site with significant community engagement and input. WVU’s Ashley Kyber, assistant professor of landscape architecture, and Chris Haddox, visiting assistant professor of design studies, will team with Concord University’s Linwood Clayton, Emma Clarke of the City of Shinnston, and LaReta Lowther of WesBanco.