Boston Flora

Tag: Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates

  • Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Center House Entry Garden Competition

    The Berkshire Botanical Garden (BBG) is launching a call for proposals to select a designer or design team to help create a new entry garden on its 15-acre property. This call for proposals is open to all students currently enrolled in an accredited landscape architecture program in the United States and Canada. Entrants can be individuals or teams of students.

    BBG is seeking an innovative proposal that will complement the design of its newly restored and expanded Center House building and surrounding established garden areas. The c. 4,000 sq.ft. Entry Garden area will become the new gateway for tens of thousands of annual visitors touring the Garden, attending special events on BBG grounds and inside the Center House, and participating in BBG’s varied horticultural and educational programs that take place year-round.

    The deadline to submit proposals electronically is May 19, 2017 at 5pm EDT. (A preliminary Registration Form and a $50 registration fee must first be submitted by April 17, 2017 at 5pm EDT.)

    Any applications submitted after the May 19, 2017 deadline will not be accepted.

    For further information, please contact:

    Michael Beck
    Executive Director
    Berkshire Botanical Garden
    P.O. Box 826
    Stockbridge, MA 01262
    competition@berkshirebotanical.org

    The winning design will be selected by a five-member jury made up of independent designers, horticulturalists, and landscape architects, on the basis of the creative response to the design brief as well as originality and clarity of the concept and the creative approach. The winning submission must take into consideration the specifics of the site, the challenges of the location, BBG’s estimated project implementation budget and timeline, the demands on ongoing maintenance, and the programming envisioned by BBG for the garden area and the adjoining Center House building.

    The winning design and two runners up will be announced on June 2, 2017 on the competition website and through local and regional news media. All participants will receive the results of the competition via email.

    The winning design proposal will be used as the basis for the new Center House Entry Garden that will be built beginning in the fall of 2017. BBG’s staff and design consultants will provide feedback on the concept described in the winning submission, and will work with the winning designer(s) towards a final design and construction drawings, which must be finalized by July 7, 2017.

    April 3, 2017— Registration Opens
    April 17, 2017— Online registration and fee payment deadline
    Interested designers submit contact information and nonrefundable processing fee of $50 to BBG
    April 24, 2017— Deadline for questions to BBG
    Registered designers are invited to submit questions to BBG at any point from time of registration until 5pm EDT. BBG’s answers to all questions will be posted on the competition site on a rolling basis, but no later than April 28, 2017
    May 19, 2017— Deadline for competition submission (electronic)
    Registrants submit design materials electronically
    June 2, 2017— Announcement of winner and runners-up
    June 2-July 7, 2017— Development period for winning project
    Winning designer or team to work with BBG and BBG’s design consultants on details of design. BBG has engaged Landscape Architects Okerstrom Lang Ltd. to draft all construction documents.
    July 7, 2017— Construction drawings for winning project finalized by Okerstrom Lang Ltd.
    August, 2017— Dedication of Center House Building and presentation of winning Entry Garden design to the public
    Winning designer or representative of winning design team will be invited to attend. Exact date will be dependent on building construction schedule.
    September, 2017— Construction begins for Entry Garden
    May 6, 2018— Dedication of new entry garden on first day of 2018 visiting season at BBG

    The Jury:

    Page Dickey, Writer and Garden Designer (Falls Village, CT)
    Fergus Garrett, Head Gardener at Great Dixter Garden and CEO, The Great Dixter Charitable Trust (East Sussex, United Kingdom)
    Renny Reynolds, Landscape Architect and Co-Owner of Hortulus Farm (Bucks County, PA)
    Mark E. Strieter, Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects (New York, NY and Charlottesville, VA)
    Matthew Urbanski, Principal, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates Inc., (New York, NY)

    The winning designer will be awarded an honorarium of $1,500. Two runners-up will each receive $750. These three designs will be exhibited at BBG during the summer of 2017, and BBG will seek to publicize the designs through local, regional and national media channels.

    BBG plans to have a design development and construction budget of $100,000 available to implement the Center House Entry Garden. However, we reserve the right not to implement the design based on unforeseen future funding constraints or for any other reason.

  • Wednesday, September 18, 7:30 pm – Brooklyn Bridge Park: Promoting Diversity in the Concrete Jungle

    Join Rebecca McMackin, Director of Horticulture for Brooklyn Bridge Park, at the Polly Hill Arboretum in West Tisbury on Wednesday, September 18 at 7:30 to learn about a park purposely created with ecology in mind. This 85-acre post-industrial waterfront site stretches 1.3 miles along Brooklyn’s East River edge, built in-part on old commercial piers. The park’s award winning piers include top notch recreation, from opera to outdoor films, expansive organic lawns, and fantastic food, all of it beautifully designed. But the piers also contain native woodlands, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes, and numerous meadows. These areas closely mimic native ecosystems and are managed with an emphasis on wildlife habitat.

    McMackin will discuss the many ecological strategies employed by the park’s designers, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, as well as the management techniques currently in use to cultivate biodiverse parkland. Pragmatic strategies for encouraging ecologically beneficial landscapes will be enumerated.  $10/$5 for PHA members.

    http://www.mvvainc.com/media/files/d95e43369a17ff4397983f2c294a9d70.jpg

  • Thursday, March 14, 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park

    Brooklyn’s Resilient Edge: The Transformation of Industrial Waterfront into Brooklyn Bridge Park, is a lecture by Nate Trevethan, Senior Associate at Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates and senior design team member for Brooklyn Bridge Park, sponsored by the Friends of Fairsted, to take place March 14, 2013, with reception at 6:00 pm, lecture at 7:00 pm, at Wheelock College, 43 Hawes Street, Brookline. Free and open to the public. Seating is limited. Reservations are requested: e-mail friendsoffairsted@gmail.com or leave a message at 617-566-1689, ext. 265.

    Ambitious and visionary goals guide the creative team in their transformation of Brooklyn’s former industrial waterfront into a new public landscape of diverse recreational, economic, ecological and social possibilities: to preserve the historic urban context and the way it is experienced in this dramatic waterfront site. The award-winning design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates gives voice to physical history, geography, industry, urbanity and evolving recreational needs as it transforms a challenging waterfront into a sustainable public park of monumental vistas and diverse landscape experiences.

    Friends of Fairsted gratefully acknowledges the support of the following co-sponsors: National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site; Wheelock College; Arnold Arboretum; Boston Society of Landscape Architects; Brookline GreenSpace Alliance; Brookline Historical Society; Charles River Conservancy; Emerald Necklace Conservancy; The Fenway Alliance; Friends of Mount Auburn Cemetery; Friends of the Muddy River; Friends of the Public Garden; High Street Hill Association; Historic New England; The Landscape Institute of the Boston Architectural College; Library of American Landscape History; Massachusetts Historical Society; Muddy River Restoration Project Maintenance and Management Oversight Committee; National Association for Olmsted Parks; New England Landscape Design and History Association; Society of Architectural Historians, New England Chapter; The Trustees of Reservations.

    http://brooklynbridgepark.com/wp/media/2010/05/brooklyn-bridge-park-600x400.jpg

  • Monday, November 8, 8:00 am – 4:30 pm – Season’s End Summit: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

    Join Ecological Landscaping Association on Monday, November 8, from 8 am – 4 pm for a full day of “Taking Stock and Looking Forward.” The day will include morning and afternoon panel discussions with industry leaders in sustainable landscaping practices. Lunch is included and will feature Keynote speaker Laura Solano, from Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, with over twenty years of designing, building, and restoring award-winning landscapes for for public, private, and corporate clients.  The seminar will be held at the Habitat Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Road, Belmont (sumac field pictured below,)  and you may register for $55 if an ELA member, or $75 if a non-member.  For more information, log on to www.ecolandscaping.org.