April 30, 2003

Design Detailings: Holl to speak May 8

Stephen Holl pointed out design elements at Bellevue Art Museum

Steven Holl, designer of the Bellevue Art Museum and Seattle University's St. Ignatius Chapel, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 8, in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Room of Benaroya Hall. The Hermann Pundt Memorial Lecture is sponsored by Praxis and Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects.

For information, contact the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington at (206) 543-7679.

Chinese Garden work party

The monthly Seattle Chinese Garden Work Party is at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Song Mei Pavilion and Demonstration garden. Volunteers meet at the garden site at South Seattle Community College, 6000 16th Ave. S.W. The event is held the first Saturday of each month. For more information call Renee Visich at (206) 282-8040, extension 100.

Honoring the Olmsteds

Photo by Sean Michael Gathered in Victor Steinbrueck Park were: Douglas Jackson, president of the Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks; Richard Haag, landscape architect; Peter Steinbrueck, City Council President; Brooks Kolb, president of WASLA; and Don Benson, immediate-past-president of WASLA.

Seattle City Council President Peter Steinbrueck met with landscape architects Friday at Victor Steinbrueck Park to commemorate last week's Landscape Architecture Week, and to read a City Council proclamation officially recognizing the Olmsted Centennial. The group also called attention to a new guide to Seattle's downtown urban parks published by the Washington Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and honored civic activist and landscape architect Richard Haag.

With activist architect Victor Steinbrueck, Richard Haag designed Victor Steinbrueck Park (formerly Market Park), which was built in 1981. Haag also designed Gas Works Park and collaborated in the design of Seattle Center. He played a role in preservation of Pike Place Market in the 1960s. A professor emeritus, Haag founded the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington and taught there for 40 years. He has been nominated for the American Society of Landscape Architects medal, the highest honor bestowed upon a landscape architect by the ASLA.

WASLA is a supporter of the National Olmsted Conference, today through Sunday, at South Lake Union Center. The conference commemorates this year’s Olmsted Centennial in Seattle. The Olmsted brothers, Frederick Law Jr. and John Charles Olmsted, designed Seattle's original park system in 1903 and are sons of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. Their father designed New York's Central Park and is considered the founder of the profession of landscape architecture in the U.S. For more information about the Olmsted conference, call (206) 332-9915.

May 8: How to handle the press

The May 8 program and luncheon meeting of Marketing Associates of Spokane will be presented by Skip Bonuccelli of the Central Valley School District. Bonuccelli will address how to handle internal communication as well as the press and public when a business is facing a crisis situation.

The meeting will take place at noon at the Red Lion River Inn, 700 N. Division St., in Spokane. The cost is $15 for members and $25 for non-members. The reservation deadline is Monday. For membership information or to make a reservation, contact MAS Vice President David Dowers at (509) 536-3853 or see the MAS Web site at http://www.maspokane.org.

Green roof conference in Chicago

Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities, the first North American green roof infrastructure conference, awards and trade show, will be held May 29 and May 30 in Chicago, at the Congress Plaza Hotel.

Co-hosted by Green Roofs for Healthy Cities and the city of Chicago, the show features 45 speakers and presenters from nine countries. Presenters will discuss papers on supportive policies and programs from 10 cities, including Portland, Chicago, Toronto, New York, Berlin and Mexico City.

How-to sessions and case studies from over 10 projects, such as the Ford Rouge Center in Dearborn, the GAP's 910 Cherry project and Chicago City Hall will be presented. Research papers on subjects such as urban heat island reduction, energy efficiency, smart growth, plant survival and stormwater management will also be presented. Speaker bios as well as a short description of the presentations are available at http://www.greenroofs.ca/grhcc/agenda.htm.

Register online at http://www.greenroofs.ca/grhcc/register.htm. For more information, contact call Steven Peck, executive director, Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, at (416) 971-4494.