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“Studio Slavonice,” a landscape architecture workshop led by OLIN Partners Laurie Olin and Hallie Boyce at the University of Pennsylvania, explores sustainable development of the Green Belt, an area of the former Iron Curtain containing some of the most significant habitats for biodiversity in Europe. Olin and Boyce, along with 15 of their students, travelled to Slavonice to present the results of the workshop with the local community at the Centre for the Future, an organization that promotes research directed toward a sustainable, just and diverse future.
OLIN Partner Susan Weiler is lead-author of Green Roof Systems: A Guide to the Planning, Design, and Construction of Landscapes over Structure, the definitive new book on the environmental, social, and economic benefits associated with transforming roofs into floors. The OLIN studio has championed the benefits of roof as floor in sustainable design since the 1970s, inventing new construction and planting technologies for dozens of projects. Merging landscape and architecture, these projects create valuable social space while replenishing our world’s diminishing resources.
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a beloved city landmark drawing over one million visitors each year. OLIN has designed a vibrant sculpture garden on the roof of a new underground parking facility, designed by Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, seamlessly integrating the structure into the existing landscape. Seen as an outdoor extension of the museum’s vast art collection, the garden will serve to further connect the institution to the city. The garden is designed to be versatile, creating a variety of spaces for art pieces, while maintaining an open, park-like experience. Native plantings will create additional attraction and provide a sustaining habitat for local wildlife. The relocated surface parking lot adjacent to the garden will employ permeable paving to absorb stormwater, as well as to filter excess into a bio-swale for use on-site.
With the redevelopment of an entire city block - a former parking lot - a significant urban plaza, built entirely over structure, will be introduced into the heart of Portland this fall. OLIN’s design creates new open spaces with a range of microclimates, amenities, and places for activity that will become a unique destination and landmark for residents and visitors. A key feature of Director Park will be an open, glass and wood canopy, accessible from the adjacent sidewalk and sitting high along the street’s edge, offering views over the plaza. The canopy will incorporate innovative stormwater techniques to capture and reuse runoff on-site to support the irrigation of plants during the dry months.
OLIN’s Susan Weiler is co-author of Green Roof Systems: A Guide to the Planning, Design, and Construction of Landscapes over Structure, the definitive new book on green roofs. The book offers substantive and technical information on living green roofs, going beyond a mere overview of the green roof movement by providing reliable advice on building ecologically practical, accessible, and useful open spaces over structures. From planning and collaboration to successfully handling the technical aspects of green roof systems, components, and applications, the book explains the environmental, social and economic benefits of turning the underutilized surfaces of roofs into multifunctional systems, and deals with issues surrounding urban design and planning, engineering, architectural and landscape architectural considerations, and stormwater management. OLIN began working on projects responding to the need and opportunity to build landscape over structure in the 1970s. After 30 years, we have successfully invented green roof construction and planting technologies for dozens of projects where landsacpe and architecture have been merged to create usable, comfortable urban space. Susan’s co-author, Katrin Scholz-Barth is currently working to help establish green roofs in the Middle East. Green Roof Systems: A guide to the Planning, Design and Construction of Landscapes over Structure is published by Wiley and available at Amazon.
Stormwater management at Yale University, Science Hill
Skip Graffam, OLIN Partner/Director of Research and Judith Nitsch, President of Nitsch Engineering, will present sustainable approaches to stormwater management at the 2009 AIA Conference in San Francisco. OLIN and Nitsch Engineering have worked together for ten years on projects around the world to implement sustainable stormwater management solutions. Their presentation will feature case studies of stormwater management best practices that successfully balance design concept, effective engineering solutions, regulatory requirements and project budget.
