{"id":15262,"date":"2018-11-15T17:18:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T22:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/?p=15262"},"modified":"2018-11-15T17:18:11","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T22:18:11","slug":"setting-their-sites-high","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/2018\/11\/15\/setting-their-sites-high\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting their SITES High: The Value of Landscape Architecture Interventions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Emily<\/a><\/p>\n

Five years ago, when the leadership of Andropogon Associates, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture and ecological planning firm, experienced a transition due to retirements, Emily McCoy [MLA \u201908] stepped up and suggested that they do something with the shelves upon shelves of research they had kept but left largely unexplored. This included specifications from the \u201980s on New York\u2019s Fresh Kills Landfill, standards and drawings from the \u201980s and \u201990s in Central Park, Prospect Park, and other sites throughout the country. \u201cThere was all this institutional knowledge that I feared was going to be lost,\u201d says McCoy. She took the lead on formalizing, archiving, and digitizing the information that had been collected. Later, the process evolved into the creation of the Integrative Research group within the firm, which seeks to \u201cembed information learned from our 40 years of past work into our process moving forward, and then making those lessons learned open source within the profession, which was at first hard to swallow for some folks, but we decided at the end of the day this was part of our mission.\u201d<\/p>\n

The firm hired researchers and is committed to partnering with clients in education who will support this mission of opening their findings to the public. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, for example, members of the firm were working across the street from researchers in the field. \u201cWe said, \u2018let\u2019s work together to understand and learn from our project and then use this information to advocate for more green infrastructure in the city.\u2019 Now in every project, we look for these research opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCoy serves as an Associate Principal and the Director of Integrative Research for Andropogon, which in addition to being a research-based firm promotes building for long-term sustainability. McCoy researches \u201chigh-performing landscapes\u201d to foster sustainable best practices in landscape architecture. She didn\u2019t originally set out in the direction of landscape design but discovered after college that it complemented her other skills.<\/p>\n

McCoy completed a bachelor\u2019s degree in ecology from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. After graduation, research positions were scarce, and she ended up working in a nursery outside of Blacksburg, VA, for three-and-a-half years. As a horticulturist there, she met a number of landscape architects and was drawn to the field. \u201cI was exposed to landscape architects. I talked to them and grew for them and realized that there was a lot of improvement to be made with regards to planting species and types, to where they could be improved upon from an ecological perspective. There were a lot of missed opportunities.\u201d She returned to school at night and took drafting and landscape architecture (LAR) classes. \u201cI decided LAR was something that I felt passionate about, and it fulfilled the other side of my brain that I hadn\u2019t been able to engage since I was an adolescent, looking at a more artistic way to express myself.\u201d NC State\u2019s College of Design (COD) caught her eye, especially for its service to the community. \u201cThey have gone to great strides to expose those in secondary education to the design disciplines with Design Camp<\/a> and other programs, and promote the power of design thinking. It\u2019s very awesome for the state of NC.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It fulfilled the other side of my brain that I hadn\u2019t been able to engage since I was an adolescent, looking at a more artistic way to express myself.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

McCoy completed a master\u2019s degree in LAR<\/a> and a GIS (geographic information systems) Certificate. Andropogon\u2019s mission spoke to her. Among other things, it is \u201ccommitted to the principle of \u2018designing with nature,\u2019 creating beautiful and evocative landscapes inspired by the careful observation of natural processes and informed by the best environmental science.\u201d Andropogon was a contributor to the creation of the SITES rating system and uses its framework in their projects, focusing on ecologically balanced and socially responsible landscapes. It is becoming more widely-used and respected. SITES is like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, only \u201cmore comprehensive for sites,\u201d McCoy explains. The two certifications are integrated now, but \u201cSITES addresses predesign and planning, design, construction, and post-occupancy. There are steps and performance aspirations for each of the stages of the design process, starting at the beginning credential for site assessment all the way through to, are you going back to the site to see if it is still performing to those goals set early on in the project? It is a step-by-step framework through the design process to help you as a designer and, with the client, you are pushing the sustainable goals in all aspects in a built piece of work.\u201d<\/p>\n

In most building projects, only five to ten percent of the budget is allocated for the site. \u201cCommunicating the value of what landscapes can do if they are done well is still a huge challenge,\u201d she says. \u201cLandscape interventions are undervalued or overlooked as opportunities to do a lot.\u201d Nevertheless, she is a firm advocate of building for environmental and social resiliency and extends this philosophy to work with the federal government. Andropogon has been commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration to write a white paper recommending approaches to renovations and new construction of government buildings such as courthouses, offices, and ports of entry. The recommendations state that \u201cbuilding and site commissioning don\u2019t start when the project is done\u2014they start during pre-design and planning as a part of this process. Having SITES credentials and\/or being well-versed in a landscape commissioning process will give any design professional an edge on these federal government projects that now require SITES.\u201d As a result, a commissioned building and landscape will be more affordable, with operational costs decreasing by about 20 percent over the life of a typical project. Not only is this a tax-payer incentive, but it would allow the government to reduce operating costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me personally, [SITES is] about proving that you have a high-performance system. There are so many folks in the industry who really throw around the words \u2018sustainability\u2019 and \u2018regenerative design\u2019 when, in fact, if you went back to assess this work from an objective standpoint, perhaps it wouldn\u2019t meet that standard. But the great thing about SITES is that it does set a minimum standard,\u201d McCoy affirms.<\/p>\n

Andropogon remains a small firm, with a Raleigh branch established in 2014 that McCoy leads. While she would like to see more projects in the Southeast that support Andropogon\u2019s mission, she\u2019s had the opportunity to work on several exciting assignments like the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Shoemaker Green, the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Wellesley College\u2019s Global Flora Greenhouse, and the Phipps Conservatory for Sustainable Landscapes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSustainability is different for every project. Our best clients are those with a shared mission, that have a very positive look to the future, that the future can be in design and it can be regenerative,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

“Our best clients are those with a shared mission, that have a very positive look to the future, that the future can be in design and it can be regenerative.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

More recently, she became involved with Georgia Tech\u2019s Living Building, which utilizes an \u201cintegrated approach to thinking about the built environment\u201d that requires a building to produce its own energy on-site and collect and reuse water so there is no runoff. \u201cWe have five Living Building projects right now either under construction, completed, or in documentation. We have become known as specialist landscape architects in the Living Building Challenge and achieving that accreditation.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all of Andropogon\u2019s research and aims for accountable and sustainable buildings, the future looks beautifully curated.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we do is the blending of art and science. You always have to balance environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability performance metrics with the qualitative aspects of design like inspiration and beauty, the things we adore as designers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\"Emily<\/a>\n\nFive years ago, when the leadership of Andropogon Associates, a Philadelphia-based landscape architecture and ecological planning firm, experienced a transition due to retirements, Emily McCoy [MLA \u201908] stepped up and suggested that they do something with the shelves upon shelves of research they had kept but left largely unexplored. This included specifications from the \u201980s on New York\u2019s Fresh Kills Landfill, standards and drawings from the \u201980s and \u201990s in Central Park, Prospect Park, and other sites throughout the country. \u201cThere was all this institutional knowledge that I feared was going to be lost,\u201d says McCoy. She took the lead on formalizing, archiving, and digitizing the information that had been collected. Later, the process evolved into the creation of the Integrative Research group within the firm, which seeks to \u201cembed information learned from our 40 years of past work into our process moving forward, and then making those lessons learned open source within the profession, which was at first hard to swallow for some folks, but we decided at the end of the day this was part of our mission.\u201d\n\nThe firm hired researchers and is committed to partnering with clients in education who will support this mission of opening their findings to the public. At the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, for example, members of the firm were working across the street from researchers in the field. \u201cWe said, \u2018let\u2019s work together to understand and learn from our project and then use this information to advocate for more green infrastructure in the city.\u2019 Now in every project, we look for these research opportunities.\u201d\n\nMcCoy serves as an Associate Principal and the Director of Integrative Research for Andropogon, which in addition to being a research-based firm promotes building for long-term sustainability. McCoy researches \u201chigh-performing landscapes\u201d to foster sustainable best practices in landscape architecture. She didn\u2019t originally set out in the direction of landscape design but discovered after college that it complemented her other skills.\n\nMcCoy completed a bachelor\u2019s degree in ecology from Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. After graduation, research positions were scarce, and she ended up working in a nursery outside of Blacksburg, VA, for three-and-a-half years. As a horticulturist there, she met a number of landscape architects and was drawn to the field. \u201cI was exposed to landscape architects. I talked to them and grew for them and realized that there was a lot of improvement to be made with regards to planting species and types, to where they could be improved upon from an ecological perspective. There were a lot of missed opportunities.\u201d She returned to school at night and took drafting and landscape architecture (LAR) classes. \u201cI decided LAR was something that I felt passionate about, and it fulfilled the other side of my brain that I hadn\u2019t been able to engage since I was an adolescent, looking at a more artistic way to express myself.\u201d NC State\u2019s College of Design (COD) caught her eye, especially for its service to the community. \u201cThey have gone to great strides to expose those in secondary education to the design disciplines with Design Camp<\/a> and other programs, and promote the power of design thinking. It\u2019s very awesome for the state of NC.\u201d\n

\"It fulfilled the other side of my brain that I hadn\u2019t been able to engage since I was an adolescent, looking at a more artistic way to express myself.\"<\/blockquote>\nMcCoy completed a master\u2019s degree in LAR<\/a> and a GIS (geographic information systems) Certificate. Andropogon\u2019s mission spoke to her. Among other things, it is \u201ccommitted to the principle of \u2018designing with nature,\u2019 creating beautiful and evocative landscapes inspired by the careful observation of natural processes and informed by the best environmental science.\u201d Andropogon was a contributor to the creation of the SITES rating system and uses its framework in their projects, focusing on ecologically balanced and socially responsible landscapes. It is becoming more widely-used and respected. SITES is like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, only \u201cmore comprehensive for sites,\u201d McCoy explains. The two certifications are integrated now, but \u201cSITES addresses predesign and planning, design, construction, and post-occupancy. There are steps and performance aspirations for each of the stages of the design process, starting at the beginning credential for site assessment all the way through to, are you going back to the site to see if it is still performing to those goals set early on in the project? It is a step-by-step framework through the design process to help you as a designer and, with the client, you are pushing the sustainable goals in all aspects in a built piece of work.\u201d\n\nIn most building projects, only five to ten percent of the budget is allocated for the site. \u201cCommunicating the value of what landscapes can do if they are done well is still a huge challenge,\u201d she says. \u201cLandscape interventions are undervalued or overlooked as opportunities to do a lot.\u201d Nevertheless, she is a firm advocate of building for environmental and social resiliency and extends this philosophy to work with the federal government. Andropogon has been commissioned by the U.S. General Services Administration to write a white paper recommending approaches to renovations and new construction of government buildings such as courthouses, offices, and ports of entry. The recommendations state that \u201cbuilding and site commissioning don\u2019t start when the project is done\u2014they start during pre-design and planning as a part of this process. Having SITES credentials and\/or being well-versed in a landscape commissioning process will give any design professional an edge on these federal government projects that now require SITES.\u201d As a result, a commissioned building and landscape will be more affordable, with operational costs decreasing by about 20 percent over the life of a typical project. Not only is this a tax-payer incentive, but it would allow the government to reduce operating costs.\n\n\u201cFor me personally, [SITES is] about proving that you have a high-performance system. There are so many folks in the industry who really throw around the words \u2018sustainability\u2019 and \u2018regenerative design\u2019 when, in fact, if you went back to assess this work from an objective standpoint, perhaps it wouldn\u2019t meet that standard. But the great thing about SITES is that it does set a minimum standard,\u201d McCoy affirms.\n\nAndropogon remains a small firm, with a Raleigh branch established in 2014 that McCoy leads. While she would like to see more projects in the Southeast that support Andropogon\u2019s mission, she\u2019s had the opportunity to work on several exciting assignments like the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Shoemaker Green, the U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Wellesley College\u2019s Global Flora Greenhouse, and the Phipps Conservatory for Sustainable Landscapes.\n\n\u201cSustainability is different for every project. Our best clients are those with a shared mission, that have a very positive look to the future, that the future can be in design and it can be regenerative,\u201d she says.\n
\"Our best clients are those with a shared mission, that have a very positive look to the future, that the future can be in design and it can be regenerative.\"<\/blockquote>\nMore recently, she became involved with Georgia Tech\u2019s Living Building, which utilizes an \u201cintegrated approach to thinking about the built environment\u201d that requires a building to produce its own energy on-site and collect and reuse water so there is no runoff. \u201cWe have five Living Building projects right now either under construction, completed, or in documentation. We have become known as specialist landscape architects in the Living Building Challenge and achieving that accreditation.\u201d\n\nWith all of Andropogon\u2019s research and aims for accountable and sustainable buildings, the future looks beautifully curated.\n\n\u201cWhat we do is the blending of art and science. You always have to balance environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability performance metrics with the qualitative aspects of design like inspiration and beauty, the things we adore as designers.\u201d"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alumna Emily McCoy [MLA ’08] researches the best practices for sustainable landscapes that are designed with nature in mind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":15263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-15262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-experience","category-uncategorized","tag-landscape-architecture"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/design.ncsu.edu\/architecture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}