注重绩效的设计：实践中的可持续发展模式

作者：保狄夫・兰巴

“通过使设计和开发实践与健康生态系统的功能相一致，可持续场所倡议TM（SITES™）认为，设计师、开发商、业主和其他人都能够保护甚至改进场所提供生态系统服务的初始价值。SITES™花了数年的时间来制定景观设计、施工与维护的指南和基准，这些指南和基准以严谨的科学依据为基础，且可应用于每一个场所。SITES™工具承认，在全美（或全世界）的不同区域内设计要求以及计划目标各不相同，因此，应把绩效水平包括在内，才能实现灵活性和创新性。”

—可持续场所倡议总监丹尼尔・皮拉努奇

可持续发展的变革

可持续发展概念主张平衡发展所带来的环境、经济和社会的影响，以满足当代人和后代的需求和愿望。联合国世界环境与发展委员会在《我们的共同未来》（1987年）中首次阐明，鉴于环境退化已经危及到许多物种（包括人类）的生命，可持续发展概念可视为应对全球对环境退化问题的一种途径。继1992年里约热内卢地球高峰会议之后，可持续发展的概念顺势而上，引发了当前全面发展的全球可持续发展运动，令人不禁回想起20世纪60年代的环境运动。来自于可持续发展概念的相关压力和政治活动正重新界定我们社会和文化生活的方方面面。不过，对可持续发展的追求一直都是支离破碎的，因为对于如何定义、实现或衡量“可持续性”尚未达成真正的共识。随着对可持续发展实践在许多不同行方面的需求日益增多，设计实践的方式正在改变，更重要的是，设计绩效衡量的方式也正发生改变。

对已经过验证的景观绩效日益增加的关注度已经逐渐成为当今景观建筑行业面临的最大挑战。这种模式的转变要求提升景观建筑实践的技术能力和研究能力。关于景观建筑行业如何定义把行业的艺术性与科学性融为一体的可持续发展的概念，目前尚有争议。这可以看作我们以环境管理关系为行业根基的一种进化过程，这种将生态、社会和文化价值引入景观设计的环境管理关系可以追溯到该行业在美国的创始人弗雷德里克・奥姆斯特德所奠定的设计哲学。现在，我们必须以某种方式对这些价值予以衡量。

可持续发展的指标、测量和评级

设计师们正面临着挑战，他们既要遵循1990年欧洲建筑研究所环境评估法（BREAM）制定的建筑可持续发展指标和措施，还必须达到各项绩效评估标准。美国绿色建筑委员会（USGBC）于2000年开发的能源与环境设计先导（LEED®）绿色建筑评级系统提供了环境可持续发展设计、施工和维护的标准，且该标准已成为最被广泛认可并使用的绿色建筑评估工具。由于在经济发展方面取得的巨大成就以及建筑项目的持续增加，中华人民共和国正利用LEED®认证来证明其致力于可持续发展的决心并吸引多国的住户。例如，斯蒂文・霍尔建筑事务所设计的北京联接复合体获得了LEED®黄金认证。LEED®引发了地域、区域和全球层面的的机构和市政对可持续发展评级系统和标准的大探索。评级系统目前正朝着以目标为导向的设计结果发展，将在建筑、景观、社区，区域甚至更大的层面上解决都市农业、扩张控制、生态水流和净零能源等问题。

在美国景观建筑师协会、德州大学奥斯汀分校的伯德・约翰逊夫人野花中心和美国植物园的引领下，可持续场所倡议TM（SITES™）评级系统用来为那些有或者没有建筑物的景观项目提供解决场地现状的处理方法和和机会。SITES™评级系统于2009年正式推出，并在一项两年试点计划中予以检验，代表着景观建筑实践与研究实现卓越基准的生态学和自然科学的基本一致性。DesignWorkshop在德克萨斯州奥斯汀设计的BlueHole区域公园就是SITESTM试点项目的参与者，这个项目在2013年八月获得了SITESTM的认证。SITES™、LEED®、BREAM、生存建筑挑战等评价系统重新定义了设计与开发的过程，把对资料记录的把详尽和而周密提升到了前所未有的高度，这些系统在改变着与设计相关的信息生成、保存和记录的方式。

景观建筑基金会（LAF）启动的景观绩效系列（LPS）计划旨在开发网络资源交互集成，以促进、衡量和评估设计出来的景观绩效。该计划以案例研究、有益工具包、信息速查系统和学术著作的形式将研究活动、专业实践和学生作品的信息与创新融合在一起，作为数据和知识资源，为专业人士提供可促进景观可持续发展的工具。

实践研究二分法

评级系统、监管机构和强制性法规实施要求设计方案可预测而且站得住脚。把度量指标和可靠数据纳入景观评估日益成为景观建筑师、规划师和建筑师的设计过程中一个不可或缺的部分。21世纪随着设计价值观和设计敏感度的日新月异，不切实际的创意和未经证实而提出的概念已无法吸引客户和公众的关注并满足其价值观。随着设计行业从猜测设计产生的环境和社会影响转变为预测和量化此类影响，设计过程的直观性和艺术性必须尽最大的可能以自然科学和社会科学的结构和原理为基础。虽然制定能量流和水流的定量措施已取得了很大的进展，但是，许多从业者仍然密切关注的是，关于衡量景观建筑的难以切实测量但同样重要的质量上、视觉上以及生理和社会效益上的研究依然缺乏。这些有点模棱两可的经验鼓励使用者尊重和关注文化景观，以提高关键公众对长期可持续发展的公众支持。虽然要应对这些挑战要求增强能力的同时增加生成研究证据的资源量以支持设计判断，但是，我们还是面临着研究与设计之间长期存在且不断深化的分歧，引申开来，这种分歧其实是作为研究生产者的学者与作为研究成果的初级消费层的实践者之间的分歧。然而，在过去30年里开展的大部分学术研究几乎都与实践无关，因此，在很大程度上，从业者并没有把学术界视为专业应用型研究的可用来源。从20世纪50年代至今，受人尊敬的学者（包括：欧文・茱比、罗伯特・莱利和伊丽莎白・迈耶）和实践引领者（包括：加勒特・埃克博、佐佐木英夫、肯・史密斯、OLIN事务所、安德罗伯根、米撒恩和DesignWorkshop）一直都在实行并倡导实践与研究一体化，以使我们这个行业具有重大意义、具备强大竞争力且不断发展。虽然尚未全面实现，但是，当可持续性的衡量指标需求出现时，这一概念感受到了全新的时代紧迫感。

了解并超越艺术领域与科学领域之间（引申开来，是设计人员与研究人员之间、从业者与学者之间）的历史张力和二分法思维方式，对于解决21世纪与建成环境有关的日益复杂的环境和社会问题的整体方法是至关重要的。

实践文化

一直以来，从奥姆斯特德开始的从业者的作品都在成为提高和生成设计行业知识的主要来源。在职业道德和环境道德的驱动下，设计师再次出现在寻找将设计敏感度带进当代可持续发展概念中的创意和创新方式的最前沿。

在与行业实践的领先者进行的交流中显示出他们越来越领悟到研究型实践的重要性。在客户对以研究为基础的可量化成果有更大需求的情况下，从业者必须履行其专业职责。专业服务的费用结构通常不需要像可持续发展评级系统那样严格的、耗时的文件资料。在经济紧缩和专业人士之间的竞争日益剧烈的情况下，一旦涉及到附加费用（也许是计划外的开支），所谓对环境负责任的开发和保护如果仅能预见到感知上的利益和价值对客户而言是很难推广的。此外，从业者还面临着普遍缺乏可用及适用研究来支持他们的设计决策的难题。尽管真心希望可以提升探索的水平，但是，研究相比“实际工作”而言通常被看做是次要的，因为在大多数情况下，研究工作需要花费的时间和资金需要较长的时间才会有回报，因此许多从业者都表示这使得他们很难将其划入项目预算中。

实践领域，被视为以项目为中心的应用实践，包含大量原始的但具有潜在价值的且多半未开发的宝贵创新方法和知识，这些创新和知识的意义远远不只是为项目开发应用而已。从业者基本上每日都在从事研究，因为他们在不断地测试，从不同的项目学到不同的知识。但是，此类研究以及实践生成的知识往往是插曲式的，缺乏学术研究方案；此外，此类研究和知识缺乏详细的记录，也很少被保存下来共享或发表。从业者也关注来源于其工作的专有资料的分享，这些资料被客户视为保密资料。有时，专项研究可以为公司提供竞争优势。即使有许多限制条件，实践还是创造了很多知识，这些知识可以也应当被管理起来用以造福整个行业。一些有高度积极性的从业者意识到实践与研究之间桥接的重要性，尤其对在可持续发展度量指标的新需求方面，他们通过发表文章和演说的形式为所设计出来的景观项目的设计、记录、施工和监控的重新界定做出了重大的贡献。

DesignWorkshop——反思性实践模式

DesignWorkshop一直在探索一条研究与设计之间更具包容性、综合性和协作性的道路，这主要体现在其设计理念、组织结构和工作体系中。由于其学术根底，DesignWorkshop的文化包括通过批判性地检验其实践工作的方方面面来不断进行学习。如斯肯所言，这种定义为“反思性从业者”的典型特征将这类实践定位为设计行业的主要影响因素。公司把每个项目视为一项实验，以便获得更深刻的见解、有创意的学问以及非传统的思维方式，为未来开拓新视觉和新方向。此外，DesignWorkshop致力于与学术界进行长期会话，这实际上重新定义了景观建筑师的作用和工作范围，使DesignWorkshop在多学科交叉的团队中居于领导地位。此类实践模式应该用于服务下一代的客户，并采用以指标和绩效为基础的理念体系，提供设计专业人士的科学责任心。

在探索前瞻性和创造性方法来应对围绕可持续发展主题以及传统设计范式向绩效型转变所面临的挑战中，DesignWorkshop起到了重要的作用。直觉与推理、自然科学与社会科学、从业者与学者、教学与实践以及知识与行动的紧密及系统性合成渗透到公司组织结构的每一个层面。DesignWorkshop对可持续发展的整体理解体现在公司把环境、经济、艺术和社区这四大范畴整合到每一个项目的设计理念中。由于意识到使用经济论证来支持设计决策的至关重要性，DesignWorkshop为客户创建了开发服务小组，开展与土地开发与规划有关的市场研究和分析。

社区、环境和艺术/审美主题也是设计会话的一部分，公司的设计过程和项目目标的设定（在该出版物的另一个部分提及）表明公司旨在确保员工认识到并仔细考虑可持续发展的四大范畴的重要性。通过可持续发展的四大范畴对每个项目进行检验，以了解现有的状况，设定清晰、可衡量的目标，制定明确的度量指标并监控项目结果，从而判定项目的绩效。

已被广泛认可的LEED®方法以及新近的SITES™景观建筑评级系统力求提升其在可持续实践和产品中的领导地位。评级系统作为当前充分的可靠标准被专业人员广泛的认可及应用，但是其仍必须改进并不断接受评估，才能为未来可持续发展目标提供更为全面的措施。通过内部教学和学习，在这些评级系统的基础之上，DesignWorkshop开发出了自己独有的一套模型指标和方法论，可建立并追踪其可持续发展目标，制定项目的研究议程，并可将结果在公司内部甚至外部进行共享。这一进化形成了专业的挑战，在对捕捉、组织、分析和记录定量和定性结果的系统方式方法更加关注的前提下，要求对设计过程中的每一个方面进行重新审核和构建。DesignWorkshop的设计过程超越了传统的设计到施工的范围，他们的设计过程往往还包括方案后的反思，并通过写作、出版和演讲以及为未来研究确定主题等形式表现出来。

与学术机构的持续对话是DesignWorkshop实践中的一个不可或缺的部分。这种投入包括在全国各大学术机构开展公司著名的跨学科“设计周”，指导学生论文、提供实习机会并进行辅助教学。DesignWorkshop最近因其“设计周”的倡议而被美国景观建筑师协会（ASLA）授予2012年“景观建筑卓越奖”。与学术界的合作还包括在DesignWorkshop举办驻院老师计划，使员工可以接触到该领域的学术专家，同时也可使学者熟悉现行实践项目的学术进展，从而为随后的学术指导提供基础。与学术界的联系形成了一种更为严谨的研究方法方法论，可用以支持该领域的创新工作，并通过出版使其广为人知。

DesignWorkshop也还一直积极参与最近推出的由景观建筑基金会（LAF）发起的“案例研究调查（CSI）”计划。这是一项由师生团队与领先从业者合作进行的独特研究，以记录整理一些示范性的高绩效景观项目可带来的实际效益。团队制定了量化环境效益、经济效益和社会效益的方法，并为LAF景观绩效系列提供“案例研究摘要”。DesignWorkshop早期参与这项倡议时进行的工作包括由同行评议的案例研究和方法论，以及试验阶段的项目参与，随后，公司有10个项目被选入该计划。这种与学术界同事的合作涉及方法论和基准线条件方面更深入、更稳健的研究，为未来的工作提供了批判性的反馈信息。LAF网站上有关于案例研究的专题，以便其他相关行业和公众进行详细的了解。

尽管DesignWorkshop的研究建立在某一个特定项目背景的基础上，但并非每个项目都必须从零开始。将集体知识在公司内部门户网路上共享，这就把DesignWorkshop的六大办事处连接在了一起，使每个办事处的员工无论在哪儿都能够像在一个公司里一样工作。公司中的众多类似项目通过多次应用为项目提供了比较研究的机会，其中所学到的理论和经验要么是受到挑战的，要么是得到肯定的。此类知识还可以通过邀请外部专家作为计划和活动的特邀发言人来进行补充。受邀的专家还会被邀请在全公司范围内对不同办事处类似项目开展的设计评议活动上提供反馈信息和新鲜观点。此外，DesignWorkshop还与私营企业客户建立了合作关系，对于一些与客户相关的重要课题，这些客户愿意承担相关学术研究的费用，从而开发了与学术界进行合作的额外机会。这代表着景观建筑行业的较新发展，即为研究提供了迫切需要的资源。

DesignWorkshop起源于学术界，其知识共享的公司文化在其出版的四大书籍中得到了进一步的强化：《美国西部的新园林》（2003年）、《面对遗产》（2007年）、《园林遗产》（2010年）和《品质恒久的景观》（2013年）。这些书籍充满了关于思维，构思和设计理念进化演变的激励人心的故事。知识传播也包括在专业杂志上发表的大量文章、会议演讲、成功登上同行评议杂志及努力追求达到与高标准的的实践并行的学术研究的最高标准。

DesignWorkshop的创造性工作获得了包括美国景观建筑师协会（ASLA）、美国规划协会和城市用地学会在内的各大机构授予的250多项奖项，充分证明了其项目所涉及的范围之广泛以及质量之卓越。“卓越街道倡议”是公司在密苏里州圣路易斯规划的一项街道景观复兴计划，最近获得了ASLA的“分析与规划范畴的专业奖”，以奖励其严谨的研究和测量所带动的卓越的规划和设计过程。该计划制定了40多项指标（包括步行出行、就业、城市野生动植物和财政回报率等），用于评估设计的成败。这个项目中用于量化街道景观设计效益的方法可以应用于类似的其他项目中。

随着当代对为文化景观提供明确的绩效测量的需求日益增加，在朝着此方向进化演变的过程中，这些倡议在DesignWorkshop中占据中心位置。公司的设计过程既有利于自然，也有利于社会，这一过程一直在反复强调并推动着自我们行业建立之初便确定的经久不衰的愿景。在关于研究者与从业者如何共同合作以更好地推动设计行业的进步与发展，并扩展其知识体系和提升景观建筑行业在未来的影响范围方面，公司提供了很多切实的案例。

案例研究——路易斯安那州新奥尔良拉斐特绿道+廊道复兴项目

应用研究实践

在理想的实践中，以往用于创造性和艺术性设计的经验型智慧要与科学知识和理论相一致，从而能够以可靠、可检验的方式支持设计。设计过程涉及理性推测和直觉推测，基于可靠的基准数据和进一步研究资料的特性这两者的可用性，这两种推测在“提出”和“处理”替代方案之间交互作用，从而将推测转变为可以被证明的绩效。而要想为全面的可持续性标准生成可靠的基准数据则需要在项目建成后进行绩效测量，这使得实践面临着艰巨的挑战。

在拉斐特绿道项目中，DesignWorkshop的团队检验了景观建筑以及大量的各种相关学科的知识体系，以便指导设计过程并预测和衡量该项目的绩效指标。基于证据的设计方法论涉及到30多种测量指标包括环境问题、社区问题、经济问题和艺术问题。该项目以LEED®和SITESTM的标准为基准，但实际上比这些框架走得更远，其实际确定的可持续设计标准更为全面。被纳入考虑的因素如下：雨洪管理；城市热岛效应；城市野生动植物；原生植物的利用；循环回收材料；公共卫生；就业；税收；房产价值；犯罪率以及安全上学路线。该项目探索的问题、使用的方法和预测的结果有助于重新定义设计景观的设计、施工和监控，以应对为项目制定的可持续发展目标所带来的挑战。

项目概况

拉斐特廊道位于路易斯安那州新奥尔良的中心，廊道面积为1375英亩，长度为3.1英里，包括65英亩拉斐特绿道，集居住、商业和轻工业于一体。拉斐特绿道先前是一条浅运河，也是把庞恰特雷恩湖和圣约翰河连接到VieuxCarré的铁路通道用地。拉斐特廊道从新奥尔良著名的法国区开始，穿过城市的九大历史社区，横穿整个城市，囊括了200年以来的包括从VieuxCarré殖民时代到20世纪中期Lakeview城郊的各种社区形态（参看图1和2）。在20世纪早期，运河被填平，而毗邻运河的CarondeletWalk则成为拉斐特大街。沿着这个位址有一条铁路线一直运营到20世纪50年代，时至今日，仍然有一部分还在使用中。在20世纪前半叶，沿着拉斐特廊道建造了不少公共住房和工业厂房，重新形成了居民区的城市肌理。20世纪80年代末，由于商业活动缺乏、土地用途变更、工业用途被遗弃，导致拉斐特廊道的商业活动大幅减少。近年来，尽管沿着拉斐特廊道仍有一些还未被利用的工业厂房，但是有一些空置的工业厂房已经开始被重建为住宅与商业投资混合用地。目前有13,583名居民居住在拉斐特廊道，这里的社会经济条件和人种构成差异很大，这意味着创造社区的互动将极具挑战性。其中一些居民区的犯罪率很高，因此必须对安全防范和犯罪预防具有敏感度并给予特别关注。

图2 (fig.2)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopTheLafitteGreenwayisa3.1mile-longright-of-waythatwasonceusedforthetransportationofgoodsalongarailcorridor.Itiscurrentlyenvisionedasamulti-modaltransportationcorridorlinkingresidentstotheheartoftheFrenchQuarter.拉斐特绿道是一条3.1英里长的公路用地，先前是一条用于运送货物的铁路走廊，现在作为一条多模式的交通走廊，将居民与法国区的中心联系在一起。

图3 (fig.3)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopTheLafitteCorridortraversesninehistoricNewOrleansneighborhoodsthatmakeupdiverseculturalandsocioeconomicbackgrounds.拉菲特走廊穿过新奥尔良的九大历史社区，囊括了各种文化和社会经济背景。

拉斐特绿道和廊道的历史展示了其在连接各大居民区和商业枢纽以及为社区娱乐提供开放空间方面起到的重要作用。长期以来周围的社区就想把这条通道用地转换为一条方便公众进入的集开放空间、娱乐场所和其它便利设施于一体的绿道。

项目范围和目标

拉斐特廊道之友（FOLC）是一个倡导邻里关系的组织，其主张把拉斐特廊道变成带状公园并在“愿景计划”中首先提出了该项目的概念。这项愿景计划是由当地一家景观建筑事务所——布朗・达诺思土地设计有限公司——通过ASLA与国家公园管理局之间签订的合作协议无偿完成的，该文件在社区建设中起到至关重要的作用，它将当选官员、代理商和绿道赞助商连接到了一起。受绿道互助组的委任，瓦戈纳・波尔建筑师有限公司（瓦戈纳+波尔，“拉斐特绿道：可持续水景设计”）开展了第二项研究，提出了一项绿道雨洪管理策略。

DesignWorkshop被新奥尔良市选中成为一个多学科团队的领导，该团队既有建筑师、土木工程师、生态学家和经济学家，也有公园管理和运营专家以及通过环境设计预防犯罪的专家。DesignWorkshop之所以被选中，是由于他们提出了拉斐特廊道建造的可靠方案以及综合型规划和设计的可持续发展方法，融合了可持续发展范畴的“四重盈余”，即环境、社区、艺术和经济（称之为DWLegacyDesign®）。该项目于2009年春季启动，于2013年8月份开始施工。

拉斐特廊道项目的工作范围包括：总体规划和设计过程、现有的条件与分析、社区参与、采用适用于拉斐特绿道的项目策划、拉斐特绿道设计以及日后运营和维护拉斐特绿道所需的大致步骤。此外，拉斐特廊道复兴计划勾勒出了与兼容性的用地规划和城市设计相关的广泛策略，以及经济开发战略和交通连接。在更为详细的建议中还包括关于土地用途、分区、城市设计、社会公平、公私合伙企业、资本投资、私营市场力量、经济开发、基础设施、公园与娱乐及交通等议题。设计团队遵循严谨的研究、规划和设计过程，目的是记录和分析现有场地的基线数据、建立绩效基准和制定设计成败衡量策略。

可持续发展的目标和绩效指标

对可持续发展的“四重盈余”（环境、社区、艺术和经济）的了解和应用涉及到开展并协调横跨三个学习分支的多学科研究：1）自然科学；2）社会科学；3）艺术和人文科学。鉴于第一个分支的定量性、客观性和有形性，在解决可持续发展的环境问题方面，它可能会比其它分支更有助于建立绩效指标和标准。而第二和第三个分支则是定性的、主观的、无形的、受信念所驱使的，因此不利于建立标准化的绩效指标。由于意识到有必要将这三个分支的研究和知识融合在一起来解决拉斐特廊道项目所表现出来的复杂环境和社区相关问题，DesignWorkshop的实践模式包括将与多学科团队以及学者和研究机构进行合作。为了解决项目所面临的各种问题，设计团队在从各学习分支内部寻求研究可适用性的知识方面进行了大量投入。

基于广泛的研究资源，如LEED®中的邻里设计评分系统和美国森林协会以及社区的参与，设计团队制定了一系列的明确目标、绩效指标、基准以及针对环境、社区、经济和美学每个范畴的策略，以便对设计备选方案和项目结果进行评估。在新奥尔良，拉斐特绿道将成为第一个创造了可衡量结果的项目，这些可衡量结果旨在减少城市热岛效应，并提高雨洪管理能力。该项目还大量使用了绿色基础设施和原生植物。

研究与知识的来源

设计团队利用大量的作品、研究和以往经验，为设计过程和研究方法论提供信息。学者、作家和从业者诸如帕特里克・戈德斯、伊恩・麦克哈格、安・惠斯顿・史必恩、迈克尔・霍夫、达尼洛・帕拉特塞尔和弗雷德里克・斯坦纳等所提出的景观建筑生态学方法和城市设计与规划概念为该项目提供了理论框架。

社会科学的研究，包括劳伦斯・弗兰克、彼得・恩戈尔克和托马斯・施密德以及蒂莫西・克罗和戴安娜・扎姆等完成的研究，为社区设计与人类福祉之间关系提供了证据。奥斯卡・纽曼早期的成果以及其他通过环境设计预防犯罪的知识表明，通过创建社区能“拥有的”并为之自豪的开放空间，社区能够控制犯罪率。这一方面已经吸引了杜兰公共卫生学院的关注，该学院很有兴趣追踪拉斐特廊道项目的开发对促进社区体育活动方面的影响，并表示有可能参与到研究中来。值得注意的是，杜兰公共卫生学院曾帮助召开后来成为“拉斐特廊道之友”这个组织的第一次会议，该社区组织的成立旨在把拉斐特廊道创建成一个绿色空间。

与拉斐特廊道复兴有关的许多问题都可归根于社会和经济问题，如：贫困、房地产贬值、犯罪、娱乐资源缺乏和营养不良。在经济方面，拟定的绿道设计可以提升毗邻房地产的价值，这个概念在很大程度上得到包括“衡量城市公园系统的经济价值”在内的经验研究证据的支持。经验证据还表明了纽约市历史悠久的中央公园和新建的布莱恩特公园带来的社会和经济效益。另一方面，一个有问题的公园或年久失修的公园则会使房产价值下降达五个百分点。这一点在当今的拉斐特绿道体现得淋漓尽致。在现在以及在拉斐特绿道实施后分别追踪拉斐特绿道周围的房地产价值以判断是升值还是贬值，将会为日后的研究可提供定量数据用以证明公园的价值。

设计愿景与设计理念

拉斐特绿道的愿景是提供一个安全的、公众可进入的开放空间，使其体现出周围居民区的需求和愿望以及更大背景下的自然和文化历史。这种愿景在总体设计理念上有所体现，该设计理念以历史生态学原理为基础，建立在该区域历史的丰富层次基础之上，同时也将社区的投入和先前计划考虑在内。从拉斐特绿道的历史用途或潜在未来用途上总结出四个初始概念——工业用途和商业用途【铁路效应】；雨洪管理【与水生活】；把社区拼接在一起【拼接图】；邻里与拉斐特绿道的关系【前门廊】，而这些概念则被发展成了拉斐特绿道的总体设计理念（参看图3）。

空间项目的策划是从周围社区成员和其他利益相关者的愿望中直接提炼出来的。该设计在现有的社区设施与拉斐特绿道的设计元素之间创造了一种协同效应，为正式的和非正式的活动提供了开放空间（参看图4）。如早期的地图所示，18世纪的Carondelet运河与CarondeletWalk的标志为一英里长的落羽杉（Taxodiumdistichum）树丛，而项目方案对此历史特征的呼应则是将曾经覆盖在场地上的柏树林重新唤醒，找回人们对这一地带的回忆。这条新的用压碎的和回收的砖块建成的CarondeletWalk在公园内部形成了一条次级通道和一条壮观的散步长廊，很像200年前的原型。如果恢复历史上的柏树林树冠面积，可以使拉斐特绿道的树冠覆盖范围增加46%。在十年一遇的暴风雨期间，落到这一带的雨水100%都会被截流并滞留在场地内，并慢慢渗回地下，而无需使用任何排水设施，随着时间的推移，泥土沉降对这一系统的影响也会大幅降低（参看图5和6）。

在这片小柏树林里面有是一个种满原生路易斯安那州鸢尾花的临时性雨水花园。当穿过这片小柏树林，锈迹斑斑的铁路可以将你带到火车轨道的所在处。种植设计充分体现出南路易斯安那州的天然植被格局，沿着拉斐特绿道的一端爬升到梅泰里山脊而另一端延生到密西西比河的自然水域，你会发现湿生植物景观逐渐转变为底层木本植被景观进而演替为山地植物群落。完全采用原生植物材料原料后，随着时间的流逝，野生动植物和鸟类的数量将会翻两番。

开发拉斐特绿道并复兴拉斐特廊道的发展方案回应了周边社区的需求，同时也传扬了这一带的丰富的历史底蕴，把这一片贫瘠的土地改造成了生态结构丰富、社会多元化、视觉上能唤起回忆的可持续发展区域（参看图7和8）。

结论、挑战与前景

该项目赞成实践与研究一体化，这是许多学者与从业者50多年来所提倡的，并被认为对我们行业的发展至关重要。通过制定并检验综合的研究型定量和定性目标及绩效指标，该项目所应用的模型在推动可持续发展范式的应用方面做出了巨大的贡献。此外，设计过程要协调各种相互矛盾的、有时相互排斥的环境、社会和经济目标，这些目标往往是项目所期望的或者在实现最高水平的可持续发展范式方面被认为是最佳的。在达成这些不同目标的过程中所涉及的延展机会和限制条件又为研究提供了一块潜在领域。

在生成、记录和共享知识的过程中所采用的系统方法，作为当前实践中一个最令人期待但是大部分情况下都未能实现的目标，可以成为一种可用知识的来源。该项目也是一个测试案例，明确了那些仍需解决的挑战以及建立研究合作关系的机遇。例如，与新奥尔良大学的鸟类学家合作为拉斐特绿道提供了鸟类数量数据的基线。杜兰大学公共卫生系的研究通过拉斐特廊道的居民测量了现有的体育活动水平，与设计团队的研究成果形成互补。这些独立的资源提供了宝贵的基线数据，可用于衡量设计的绩效。

图4 (fig.4)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopThepreferreddesignalternativeisbuiltuponmarkingandhonoringlayersofnaturalandculturalhistorywhilemeetingtheneedsofthesurroundingcommunities.设计在协调和尊重自然和文化历史的同时，满足了周围社区的需要。

不过，可用于拉斐特廊道项目的犯罪统计资料还不充分，因此难以评估整条廊道改造的娱乐空间和开放空间在安全方面所产生的影响。

这项案例研究调查的范围非常广泛，它表明了未来最大程度地提升研究型实践的潜在效益的关键一步。从根本上讲，景观建筑设计实践一直以来从那些有思想深度的从业者和学者（如：奥姆斯特德、劳伦斯・哈普林和麦克哈格）经久不衰的作品和言语中收益颇深。在过去20年里，我们在自然体系、城市废置景观和高度融合的景观方面的知识在不断拓展，人类的信念与价值观也在不断演变，使我们不得不对长期以来坚持的信念和实践重新检验，从而创造一套全新的理论。在这方面的一个重要的范例是在《设计结合自然》（1969年）出版后，生态学的研究和理论一直在持续的演进。这本书采用的稳定与平衡的概念是定义健康生态系统最具争议的标准之一。近期的有关生态系统的概念包括生态回复力、生态繁衍和生态干预等概念，开始在一些从业者的作品中出现，具体反映在沃尔克・格林姆、埃里克・施密特、克里斯蒂安・威塞尔、斯图尔特・皮科特、彼得・怀特和克里斯多夫・法斯梯等的作品中。保持对理论发展动态的了解是一项挑战，需要把系统性的评估以及对不断发展的研究进行应用作为实践的一个不可分割的部分进行持续投资。像DesignWorkshop这样的领先从业者已合理定位，引入了更高级别的详细性和学术方案对研究应用进行检验，这是一个持续的过程，涉及到设定清晰的假设、通过行动对这些假设进行检验、记录结果并明确实践面临的挑战，这些步骤对于把设计想法转化为实际应用是十分必要的。

另一个实践问题则纠结在这样的一个事实上：景观项目在施工结束时的绩效水平其实是最低的，之后，景观会以期望的或不期望的方式不断演变。在施工后进行系统性的长期监控和评估，可以产生大量的数据和知识，这些数据和知识对特定项目极其有益，对未来的项目也大有帮助。许多在拉斐特绿道项目竣工后所预期的经过研究的且理由充分的结果都需要一个长期监控的系统追踪项目的实际影响。

绩效指标的应用需要大量的基线数据和使用后的长期监控，这种后期监控需要来自多个学科通过大量学科特定方案来进行操作。这些尚未成为传统专业服务范围和费用结构的一个重要部分，而且还需要额外的专业知识和时间才能实现。制定收集基线数据的方法和使用后的长期监控模型（包括利用环境遥感突破性技术）必将成为未来研究的一个方面，并无疑将成为学术界与实践者之间新的合作空间。同样地，神经科学研究的发展，并随着人类对空间模式和其它环境属性在行为上和心理上的反应的进一步了解，为新的研究领域提供了广阔的前景，从而创造出更令人满意、更具可预见性的人生体验。

拉斐特廊道和绿道项目是一个令人瞩目的模型，可以指导未来日益增多的研究型和多学科景观建筑实践。美国景观建筑师协会（ASLA）授予的“2013年分析与规划范畴的卓越奖”和ASLA德克萨斯州分会授予的“2012年分析与规划范畴的荣誉奖”，均表明该项目已获得了专业的认可。利用合作实践的经营模式，DesignWorkshop的不断发展的实践，为拓展学术研究和推动研究型设计与规划的范式提供了机遇。

作为一名教育工作者和从业者，保狄夫・兰巴以其研究与创造性工作体现出设计与研究的一体化，并特别强调可持续发展的指标与措施。兰巴是宾夕法尼亚州费城天普大学的景观建筑副教授，因其在设计和教育方面的出色表现而获得景观建筑教育者理事会（CELA）授予的“2012年研究与创造性工作卓越奖”。兰巴及其同伴在景观建筑行业的获奖项目包括：位于哥伦比亚区华盛顿国家广场上的第一夫人水景园和宾夕法尼亚州费城宾夕法尼亚园艺协会弹出式花园，后者还被当选为意大利威尼斯第13届国际威尼斯建筑双年展的美国官方代表项目。

图5 (fig.5)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopThehistoricalignmentoftheCanalisretrofittedasaraingardenwith100-percentnativeplantmaterial.Thedesignachievesenvironmentalsustainabilitybyrestoringthenativeecologyandincreasinghabitatforwildlife,whileprovidingessentialrecreationspaceforthecommunity.水渠的历史定位是改造为百分之百原生植物材料的雨水花园。设计用恢复当地的生态和增加野生动物栖息地实现环境的可持续发展，同时为社区提供必要的休闲空间。

The Sustainability Revolution

Concepts of sustainability advocate a balance among environmental, economic,and social impacts of development in meeting current and future human needs and aspirations. First enunciated in the Our Common Futures report (1987)by the United Nation’s World Commission on Environment and Development, concepts of sustainability were seen as a way to address global concerns about a deteriorating environment that threatened the lives of many species, including human. These concepts gained momentum following the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, leading to the current full-blown global sustainability movement, reminiscent of the environmental movement of the 1960s. The pressures and politics associated with the concepts of sustainability are re-defining every aspect of our society and culture. However, the pursuit of sustainability has been fragmented, as there is no real consensus about how“sustainability” is def ned, realized or measured. Increasing demand for the application of sustainability practices, in their many manifestations, is altering how design is practiced, and, more importantly, how its performance is measured.

The increasing focus on proven performance is the greatest emerging challenge facing landscape architects today. And it's a paradigm shift that calls for increased technical and research capacity for the practice of landscape architecture. There is current debate around how landscape architects de f ne concepts of sustainability that integrate the artistic as well as the scientif c aspects of our profession. This can be seen as an evolution of our profession’s roots of environmental stewardship that bring ecological, social and cultural values into our designed landscapes, a design philosophy that goes back to the profession’s founder in America, Frederick Law Olmsted. Now these values must somehow be measured.

Metrics, Measures and Ratings of Sustainability

Designers are being challenged to meet various performance rubrics which follow the metrics and measures of sustainability for architecture lead by BREAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method)in Europe in 1990.The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®)Green Building Rating System, developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)in 2000,provides the standard for environmentally sustainable design, construction, and maintenance, and this standard has become the most widely recognized and used green building assessment tool. With an impressive record of economic growth and building projects, the People's Republic of China is using the LEED®certif cation to demonstrate its commitment to sustainability and to attract multinational tenants.For example, the Linked Hybrid complex in Beijing by Steven Holl Architects was designed to qualify for a LEED®Gold certif cation. LEED®has inspired an explosion of numerous sustainability rating systems and standards at the local, regional and global levels of organizations and municipalities. Rating systems are moving towards goal-oriented outcomes of designs that address issues such as urban agriculture, limits to growth, ecological water f ow, and net zero energy for a range of applications including buildings, landscapes, communities, regions, and beyond.

Lead by the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin, and the United States Botanic Garden, the Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™)rating system was created to address the site-specific conditions and opportunities for landscape projects with or without buildings. The SITES™ rating system, launched in 2009 and tested in a two-year pilot program, represents a primary alignment of the practice of landscape architecture with ecology and natural sciences in developing the benchmarks of excellence. One of Design W orkshop’s projects, Blue Hole Regional Park in Austin, Texas, was a participant in the pilot program and received certif cation from SITES™ in August 2013. Rating systems like SITES™, LEED®,BREAM, Living Building Challenge and others are re-defining the process of design and development to include extensive and thorough documentation to a level not done in the past, and these systems are changing the way design related information is produced, retained and documented.

The Landscape Performance Series (LPS)program started by the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF)is designed to develop on-line interactive set of resources to facilitate, measure, and evaluate performance of designed landscapes.It brings together information and innovations from research, professional practice and student work in the form of case studies, bene f ts toolkits, fast fact library, and scholarly works as data and knowledge resources to provide professionals with tools to promote development of sustainable landscapes.

Practice Research Dichotomy

Rating systems, regulating agencies, and code enforcements require predictable and defensible design solutions. Incorporating metrics and credible data for landscape assessment is increasingly seen as an integral part of the design process for landscape architects, planners, and architects. With the changing values and sensibilities of the 21st century, the notion of creative leaps and unsubstantiated assertions no longer satis f es the concerns and values of clients and the public at large. As the design professions move from speculating about the environmental and societal impact of our designs to predicting and quantifying those impacts,intuitive and artistic aspects of the design process need to be grounded in the structures and principles of the physical and social sciences to the greatest extent possible. While much progress has been made in devising quantitative measures for f ows of energy and water many practitioners are deeply concerned about the lack of research on measuring less tangible but equally important qualitative, visual,physiological, and social bene f ts of built landscapes. These somewhat ambiguous experiential qualities infuse users with respect and care for cultural landscapes and generate critical public support for long-term sustainability. While meeting these challenges requires enhanced capacity and resources for generating research based evidence to support design decisions, we are faced with a persistent and growing separation between research and design and, by extension, between academics, considered primary producers of research, and practitioners, assumed to be the primary consumers of research. Yet most of the academic research conducted over the last thirty years has had very little relevance to practice, and, for the most part, practitioners do not consider academia a viable source for applicable professional-based research. From the 1950s to the present, respected scholars,including Ervin Zube, Robert Riley, and Elizabeth Meyer, and leading practitioners including Garrett Eckbo, Hideo Sasaki, Ken Smith, the OLIN office, Andropogon,Mithun, and Design W orkshop, have and are advocating for the integration of practice and research in order to keep our profession relevant, competitive and growing. While not yet fully realized, with the demands of sustainability metrics the notion has acquired a renewed sense of urgency.

Understanding and transcending the historic tensions and the dichotomous ways of thinking between the artistic and the scientific communities (and by extension between designers and researchers; practitioners and academics)is critical for a holistic approach to solve the increasingly complex environmental and social issues related to the built environment of the 21st century.

The Culture of Practice

Works of practitioners going back to Olmsted have served as major sources for the advancement and production of knowledge for our profession. Motivated by their professional and environmental ethics, practitioners are again emerging at the forefront of f nding creative and innovative ways to bringing design sensibilities to the contemporary notions of sustainability in their work.

Interviews with leading practitioners point to increased realization about the importance of research-based practice. Practitioners must carry out their professional responsibilities in the context of greater demands from clients for research-based and quantitative accountability. The stringent time-consuming documentation required to comply with sustainability rating systems is usually not supported by the fee structures for professional services. At this time of economic austerity and increased competition among professionals, the perceived bene f ts and value for environmentally responsible development can be a hard sell for clients when it involves additional and perhaps unexpected expenses. And practitioners are also faced with a general lack of available and applicable research to support their design decisions. In spite of the sincere desire to raise the level of inquiry, research is generally considered secondary to the ‘real work’of practice, and allocating time and streams of funding, with mostly longer-term returns,is proving very diff cult for many practitioners to incorporate into project budgets.

图7 (fig.7)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopVignettesshowkeyelementsthatusersoftheLafitteGreenwaywillexperienceastheytravelthelengthoftheGreenwaytrail.插图显示了拉菲特绿道用户因为他们穿行于绿道所能体验的要素。

The world of practice, seen as project-centric applied research, contains a wealth of raw but potentially valuable and mostly untapped innovation and knowledge of great value beyond the singular application of the project for which it was developed. Practitioners are essentially engaged in research on a daily basis as they test things out and learn from project to project. But the nature of this research and the knowledge generated within practice tends to be episodic, lacking in scholarly research protocols; in addition, it is not well documented and is seldom preserved, shared, or published. Practitioners are also concerned about sharing proprietary information derived from their work that is considered confidential by the clients. Sometimes, specialized research gives a firm a competitive edge.Even with the many constraints, practices generate much knowledge that can and should be harnessed for the benef t of the entire profession. Some highly motivated practitioners, recognizing the importance of bridging the divide between practice and research, especially with the new demands of sustainability metrics, are making signif cant contributions, through publications and presentations, to re-de f ning the design, documentation, construction and monitoring of the designed landscapes.

Design Workshop - A Model of Ref ective Practice

Design Workshop has managed to chart a more inclusive, integrated, and collaborative pathway between research and design as represented in its philosophy, organizational structure, and body of work. With its origins in academia,Design Workshop's culture involves continuous learning through critically examining every facet of their practice. This def ning characteristic of "re f ective practitioners,"as described by Schöni, has positioned this practice as a leading in f uence in the profession. The f rm approaches each project as an experiment for gaining greater insights, creative learning, and unconventional thinking, unfolding new perspectives and directions for the future. In addition Design Workshop's commitment to engaging in extended dialogue with the academic community is re-def ning the role and scope of work for landscape architects and putting Design W orkshop in a leadership position on multidisciplinary teams. Such models of practice are needed to serve the next generation's clients with a metrics and performance-based mindset, providing scientif c accountability from design professionals.

Design Workshop is playing an important role in exploring pro-active and creative ways to address the challenges surrounding sustainability and the related paradigm shift towards design performance. A seamless and systematic synthesis of intuition and reason, physical and social sciences, practitioners and academics, teaching and practice, and knowledge and action permeates every level of the f rm's organizational structure. Design Workshop's holistic understanding of sustainability is ref ected in the f rm’s design philosophy of creating a synthesis of environmental, economic, artistic and community aspects with every project. Recognizing the paramount importance of making the economic argument to support design decisions, Design W orkshop has initiated for clients a Development Services Group that conducts market research and analysis related to land development and planning.

Community, Environment and Art/Aesthetic topics are also part of the design conversations, and the firm’s process and project goal setting, addressed in the articles that follow, shows its intentions for making sure that staff are being cognizant and deliberate about all four categories of sustainability. Each project is examined through these four lenses of sustainability in understanding existing conditions,setting clear and measureable goals, developing explicit metrics, and monitoring outcomes to determine performance effectiveness.

Widely acknowledged, the LEED®process together with the more recent SITES™rating system for landscape architecture strive to promote leadership in embracing sustainable practices and products. Rating systems, considered adequate standards for the present and generally accepted and followed by professionals,must evolve and be continually evaluated in order to address more comprehensive measures of sustainability goals for the future. Building on these systems through internal teaching and learning, Design W orkshop has developed its own set of matrices and methodologies that establish and track their sustainability goals,formulate the research agenda for the project, and share the results within and even outside of the f rm. This evolution poses professional challenges that require re-examination and re-formulations of every aspect of the design process with increased focus on systematic methods and means for capturing, organizing,analyzing, and documenting quantitative and qualitative outcomes. The design process at Design W orkshop goes beyond the traditional scope from design to construction and often includes follow-up reflection through writing, publications,presentations, and identifying topics for further research.

On-going dialogue with the academy is an integral part of the practice at Design Workshop. This involvement includes conducting the f rm’s well-known interdisciplinary Design Week at institutions around the country along with mentoring thesis students,offering internships, and doing adjunct teaching. Design W orkshop was recently honored with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)2012 Landscape Architecture Medal of Excellence for its Design W eek initiative. Collaboration with academia extends to hosting a Faculty-in-Residence program at Design W orkshop which exposes staff to academic experts in the f eld, and, at the same time, acquaints academics with current practice thereby informing subsequent academic instruction.Links with academia bring a more rigorous methodology to support the innovative work happening in the f eld and make it widely known through publications.

Design Workshop has also been actively involved in the recently launched Case Study Investigation (CSI)program, sponsored by the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF). It is a unique research collaboration of faculty-student teams working with leading practitioners to document the benefits of exemplary highperforming landscape projects. Teams develop methods to quantify environmental,economic and social bene f ts and produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series. Design W orkshop's early involvement with this initiative included peer-reviewing case studies and methodologies and participation in the pilot phase, followed with ten of the f rm’s projects selected for this program. This partnership with academic colleagues involves more probing and more robust research about methodologies and baseline conditions and provides critical feedback for future work. The case studies are featured on the LAF website where they are accessible to the wider profession and the public at large.ii

Research at Design W orkshop takes place in the context of individual projects with the idea that not every project should re-invent the wheel. Sharing collective knowledge on an internal web-based portal connects Design W orkshop’s six locations and allows staff, regardless of location, to operate as a single f rm. Similar projects in the firm provide comparative research opportunities through multiple applications where the theories and lessons learned are challenged or con f rmed.This knowledge is supplemented by programs and events with outside experts as guest speakers. Experts are also invited to provide feedback and fresh points of view to the firm-wide design reviews of similar projects in different offices. In addition, Design Workshop has cultivated private sector clients who would be willing to help pay for academic research about things important to the clients, opening additional opportunities for collaborations with the academia. This represents a relatively new development in the profession of landscape architecture that can provide sorely needed resources for research.

Design Workshop's origins in academia and a knowledge-sharing culture is further reinforced by the publications of four books, New Gardens of the American West(2003)iii, Toward Legacy (2007)iv, Garden Legacy (2010)v, and Landscapes of Enduring Quality (2013)vi, with inspiring stories of the evolution of thoughts, ideas and design philosophy. Knowledge dissemination also includes numerous articles in professional magazines, presentations at conferences, breaking into peer-reviewed journals and aspiring to meet the highest standards of academic research that parallels the high standards of their practice.

Design Workshop's creative efforts have been recognized with more than 250 awards from such organizations as the American Society of Landscape Architects(ASLA), the American Planning Association and the Urban Land Institute, testifying to the extraordinary range and excellence of their projects. The recent ASLA Professional Award in the Analysis & Planning category for the Great Streets Initiative, a streetscape revitalization plan in St. Louis, Missouri, recognizes the planning and design process driven by rigorous research and measurement. It involved developing over forty metrics including pedestrian mobility, employment,urban wildlife and f nancial rate-of-return to assess the success of the design. The methodology used to quantify performance bene f ts of this streetscape design can be adapted to similar projects.

All of these initiatives situate Design W orkshop front and center in the evolution toward meeting contemporary demands of providing explicit measures of performance for cultural landscapes. The firm’s design process benefits both nature and society, reasserting and advancing an enduring vision that reaches back to the founding of our profession. The f rm offers many tangible examples of how researchers and practitioners, working together, can better contribute to the progress and growth of our profession, expand its body of knowledge and enhance the landscape architecture profession’s sphere of inf uence into the future.

Case Study - Laf tte Greenway + Revitalization Corridor Project, New Orleans, Louisiana

Practice as Applied Research

Ideally in practice, prior experience-based wisdom used in the creative and artistic appearance of design is reconciled with scientif c knowledge and theories to support design in a credible and veri f able way. The design process involves informed and intuitive projections moving interactively between the "proposing" and "disposing"of alternative scenariosviibased on the availability of reliable base line data and the identification of additional research to move from speculation to proven performance. Generating reliable baseline data for the full spectrum of sustainability criteria needed to measure post construction performance poses a formidable challenge for practice.

In the Laf tte Greenway project, Design Worship’s team tested bodies of knowledge from landscape architecture and numerous related disciplines to direct the design process and to predict and measure the performance metrics established for the project. The design methodology employed an evidence-driven approach that considered over thirty metrics embracing issues of environment, community,economics, and art. The project was benchmarked against the standards of LEED®and SITES™, but it went far beyond these frameworks to establish more holistic standard for sustainable design. Factors considered include the following:stormwater management; effects of urban heat island; urban wildlife; native plant use; recycled content; public health; employment; tax generation; housing values;crime rates; and safe routes to school. The questions probed, the methods used,and the outcomes predicted for this project will contribute to re-de f ning the design,construction and monitoring of designed landscapes that address the challenges posed by the sustainability goals developed for the project.

Project Overview

Located in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana, the La f tte Corridor is a 1,375-acre,3.1 mile-long district that includes the 65-acre La f tte Greenway and a rich mix of residential, commercial and light industrial uses. The Laf tte Greenway is a former shallow shipping canal and railroad right-of-way that connected Lake Pontchartrain and Bayou St. John to the V ieux Carré. Starting from New Orleans’ famous French Quarter through nine of the city’s historic neighborhoods, the corridor’s right-of-way traverses a cross-section of the city that captures its 200-year settlement pattern,ranging from the colonial-era settlement of the V ieux Carré to the mid-20th-century suburban neighborhood of Lakeview. During the early 20th century, the canal was f lled, and the Carondelet W alk, adjacent the canal, became La f tte Street. A railroad line was active along this site until the 1950s, and there are still portions of the railroad that remain in operation today. During the f rst half of the 20th century,public housing sites and industrial buildings were established along the corridor, redef ning the urban fabric of the neighborhoods. Later in the 1980s, lack of business activity, changing land use, and the abandoning of industrial uses resulting in the decline in the Corridor’s commercial activity. Recently, some vacant industrial buildings have been renovated as mixed residential and commercial investments,although some unused industrial buildings remain along the corridor site. With 13,583 residents, the corridor presently contains a vast spectrum of socio-economic conditions and racial compositions, creating a challenging context for community engagement. High crime rates in some of the neighborhoods required sensitivity to and special focus on safety and crime prevention. (see f g. 1 and f g. 2)

The history of the Lafitte Greenway and Corridor displays the important role the Corridor could have in connecting the various neighborhoods and commercial nodes and in providing open space for community enjoyment. It has long been the objective of the surrounding communities to convert this special right-of-way into a greenway comprised of publicly accessible open space, recreation areas and other amenities.

Project Scope and Objectives

The concept for this project was f rst put forth in a ‘vision plan’ by the Friends of Laf tte Corridor (FOLC), the neighborhood advocacy organization, who advocated for the corridor becoming a linear park. This vision plan was completed, pro bono,by Brown + Danos landdesign, Inc., a local landscape architectural of f ce through a cooperative agreement between the ASLA and the National Park Service, and this document was critical in building community support for the creation of the corridor among elected officials, agencies, and greenway constituencies. A second study by Waggonner + Ball Architects (Waggonner + Ball, ‘Laf tte Greenway: Sustainable Water Design’), commissioned by the greenway’s support group, proposed a stormwater strategy for the Greenway.

Design Workshop was retained by the City of New Orleans to lead a multi-disciplinary team that included architects, civil engineers, ecologists, economists, as well as experts in park management and operations and crime prevention through environmental design. Design Workshop was chosen specifically for their credible proposal for this corridor and for their comprehensive sustainability approach to planning and design incorporating the “quadruple bottom line” of sustainability categories: Environment,Community, Art and Economics, termed DW Legacy Design®. The project started in spring 2009 and the construction began in August 2013.

The scope of work for the La f tte corridor includes addressing the overall planning and design process, existing conditions and analysis, the community engagement,programmatic uses appropriate for the Greenway, the Greenway design, and the general steps needed to operate and maintain the Greenway in the future. In addition, the Lafitte Corridor Revitalization Plan outlines the broader strategies related to compatible land uses and urban design, economic development strategies and transportation connections. Specific recommendations regarding land use,zoning, urban design, social equity, public-private partnerships, capital investments,private market forces, economic development, infrastructure, parks and recreation,and transportation are included.

The design team followed a rigorous research, planning, and design process with the objectives of documenting and analyzing baseline data for the existing site,establishing benchmarks of performance and creating a strategy for measuring the success of the design over time.

Sustainability Goals and Performance Measures

The understanding and application of the “quadruple-bottom-line” of sustainability(Environment, Community, Art and Economics)involves conducting and reconciling multi-disciplinary research spanning the three branches of learning: 1)natural and physical sciences; 2)social sciences; and 3)arts and humanities. The quantitative, objective, and tangible nature of the first branch, addressing the environmental aspect of sustainability, may be more conducive to the establishment of performance metrics and standards than the other branches. The qualitative,descriptive, subjective, intangible value and belief-driven nature of the second and third branches are resistant to the creation of standardized metrics of performance.Recognizing the need for integrating all three branches of research and knowledge to solve the complex environmental and community related problems represented in the Laf tte Corridor, Design Workshop's model of practice included multi-disciplinary teams and partnerships with scholars and institutions. The design team made signif cant investments in researching applicable knowledge from a cross-section of all branches of learning in answering questions posed in the project.

Based by extensive research sources such as LEED®Neighborhood Design and American Forests as well as community involvement, the design team created a system of explicit goals, performance metrics, benchmarks along with strategies for each of the categories of environment, community, economics and aesthetics to evaluate design alternatives and project outcomes. This Greenway will be the first project in New Orleans to create measurable outcomes that aim to reduce urban heat island effects and to increase stormwater management capacity. The project will also employ extensive applications of green infrastructure and native plants.

Sources of Research and Knowledge

The design team drew upon a broad range of writings, research, and previous experience to inform the design process and research methodologies. Ecological approach to landscape architecture, and concepts of urban design and planning advanced by scholars, authors and practitioners, such as Patrick Geddes, Ian McHarg, Ann Whiston Spirn, Michael Hough, Danilo Palazzo, and Frederick Steiner provided the theoretical framework for this project.

Research in social sciences, including work done by Lawrence Frank, Peter Engelke and Thomas Schmid, and by Timothy Crowe and Diane Zahm, provided evidence of the relationship of community design to human well-being.viiiThe early work by Oscar Newmanixand other knowledge of crime prevention through environmental design suggests that by creating an open space that the community can “possess”and feel proud of will reduce crime. This aspect has attracted the attention and possible involvement by the Tulane School for Public Health, which is interested in tracking the impact of the development of this Corridor on physical activity .Signif cantly, Tulane’s School of Public Health was instrumental in convening the f rst meeting of what eventually became the Friends of La f tte Corridor, the community organization formed to advocate for the corridor’s creation as a green space.

Many problems associated with the revitalization Corridor can be contributed to the social and economic issues, such as, poverty, depressed real estate values,crime, lack of recreational resources, and poor nutrition. On the economic front, the proposed greenway design can raise adjacent real estate values, a notion supported to a large degree by empirical research including “Measuring the Economic V alue of a City Park System.”xEmpirical evidence also suggests the social and economic benef ts of historic Central Park, and more recently Bryant Park, in New York City.On the other hand, a park that is problematic or in disrepair has been shown to subtract f ve percent of home value. This is visible in the Greenway today. Tracking the real estate values surrounding the Greenway now and after the Greenway is implemented to determine the increase (or decrease)of fers a venue for future research to provide quantitative data to support the value of parks.

Design Vision and Concept

The vision for the La f tte Greenway is to provide a safe, publicly accessible open space that re f ects the needs and desires of the surrounding neighborhoods as well as the natural and cultural history of the larger context. This vision is ref ected in the overall design concept that draws upon principles of historic ecology and builds upon the rich layers of the site’s history while also taking into account community input and previous plans. Four initial concepts derived from historical or potential future uses of the Greenway – industrial and commercial uses [Railroad Artifacts]; stormwater management [Living with W ater]; stitching communities together [The Quilt]; and the relationship of the neighborhoods to the Greenway [the Front Porch ]– and these were developed as concepts for the Greenway’s overall design. (see f g. 3 and f g. 4)

Programmed spaces were derived directly from the desires of surrounding community members and other stakeholders. The design creates synergies between existing community facilities and designed elements of the Greenway, providing open space for formal and informal activities (Figure 4). The historic alignment of the 18th century Carondelet Canal and Carondelet W alk, marked by a mile-long bosque of bald cypress (T axodium distichum)trees, is evocative of the Cipriére au Bois (Cypress Forest)that once covered the site, as shown on early maps. The new Carondelet Walk of crushed, recycled brick provides a secondary path within the park and a grand promenade, much as the original had done 200 years before.Restoring the historic cypress tree canopy will result in an increase of 46 percent tree canopy coverage in the Greenway, and since 100 percent of the stormwater falling on-site during the ten-year storm will be captured without the use of drainage infrastructure by retaining water on-site and allowing it to slowly percolate back into the ground, the impact of soil subsidence will, over time, be substantially reduced.(see f g. 5 and f g. 6)

Within this cypress grove is an ephemeral rain garden filled with displays of native Louisiana iris. Rust-stained bands of paving trace the location of train tracks once traversing the site. Plantings reflect the natural vegetation patterns of south Louisiana with swamp species that transition to bottomland hardwoods and upland species as the Greenway rises to the Metairie Ridge on one end and natural level of the Mississippi River on the other. Through the total use of native plant material, wildlife and bird populations are projected to quadruple over time.

The proposed development for the Lafitte Greenway and revitalization of the Lafitte Corridor respond to the needs of adjacent communities while celebrating the rich layers of the site’s history in transforming the barren stretch of land into an ecologically rich, socially diverse, visually evocative and sustainable environment.(see f g. 7 and f g. 8)

Conclusions, Challenges and Prospects

This project embraces the integration of practice and research, advocated by many scholars and practitioners for over f fty years and considered critical for the growth of our profession. The model applied to this project makes a signi f cant contribution in advancing the application of the sustainability paradigm through the creation and testing of comprehensive research-based quantitative and qualitative goals and performance measures. The design process also required reconciling many competing, and sometimes mutually exclusive, environmental, social and economic goals desired for the project or considered optimum for achieving the highest levels of the sustainability paradigm. The stretching and straining involved in the resolutions of these divergent goals offer a potential area of research.

The systematic approach used in the generation, documentation, and sharing of the knowledge, a much desired but largely unrealized goal in current practice,contributes to providing an accessible source of knowledge. The project also serves as a test case in identifying challenges that still need to be resolved as well as opportunities for creating research partnerships. For instance, collaboration with ornithologists at the University of New Orleans provided a baseline bird count for the Greenway. Research effort by the Tulane University Department of Public Health measured existing levels of physical activity by residents of the corridor ,supplementing the design team’s efforts. These independent resources provided valuable baseline data against which to measure the performance of the design.However, inadequate crime statistics available for the Lafitte Corridor project will make it diff cult to assess the impact on the safety issues of improved recreational and open space opportunities created along the entire corridor.xi

This wide-ranging case study investigation represents a critical step in identifying future scenarios for maximizing the potential benef ts of research based practice. At the most basic level, practice of landscape architecture has always been in f uenced by the enduring works and words of thoughtful practitioners and scholars, such as Frederick Law Olmsted, Lawrence Halprin and Ian McHarg. Over the last twenty years, our expanding knowledge of natural systems, urban, abandoned and highly compromised landscapes as well as evolving human beliefs and values has resulted in the re-examination of our long held beliefs and practices, creating a whole new set of theories. An important example is the evolution of research and theories of ecology since publication of Design with Nature (1969)xii. The notions of stability and balance, adopted in this book, have been one of the most debated and contested criterions for def ning healthy ecosystems. More recent conceptions of eco-systems that include notions of resilience, regeneration, and disturbance, are just beginning to inform the work of some practitioners, and are re f ected in the works of V olker Grimm, Eric Schmidt and Christian Wissel; Stewart Pickett and Peter White;Christopher Fastie; and others.xiiiStaying informed about theoretical developments is a challenge that will require consistent investment for a systematic evaluation and application of evolving research as an integral part of practice. Leading practitioners,like Design Workshop, are well positioned to bring a greater level of specificity and scholarly protocols to testing research applications, a process that involves formulating clearly def ned hypotheses, testing them through action, documenting results, and identifying practical challenges as an on-going process necessary for translating the ideal into pragmatic applications.

Another practice issue revolves around the fact that landscape projects are at their lowest level of performance at the end of construction, and that they evolve in both expected and unexpected ways. Systematic long-term post-construction monitoring and evaluation can yield a wealth of data and knowledge that can be extremely bene f cial for the specif c project and to support future projects. Many of the well-researched and reasoned outcomes anticipated after the completion of the La f tte Greenway project will require a long-term monitoring system to track the project's true impact.

The application of performance measures requires extensive base-line data and long-term post-occupancy monitoring from multiple disciplines and through numerous discipline-specific protocols. These have not been an important part of traditional professional scopes of services and fee structures, and they require additional expertise and time to accomplish. Developing means for collecting baseline data and models for monitoring long-term post occupancy, including utilizing breakthroughs in environmental sensing technologies, is certainly an area for further research and is clearly a place for cooperation between those in practice and those in the academy. Similarly, advances in the study of neuroscience and the increasing ability to understand human behavior and physiological responses to spatial form and other environmental attributes of fer promising new areas of research for ways to create more desirable and predictable human experiences.

Lafitte Corridor and Greenway project represents a compelling model for the future direction of the increasingly research-based and multi-disciplinary practice of landscape architecture. The 2013 National American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)Award of Excellence in the Analysis and Planning category and the 2012 ASLA Texas Chapter Honor Award in the Analysis and Planning category underscores the professional recognition for this project. Operating in a collaborative practice model, the growing practice at Design Workshop offers muchneeded opportunities for expanding scholarly inquiry and advancing the paradigm of research-based design and planning.

Notes:

i Donald A. Schön, The Ref l ective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. New York, New York: Basic Books, 1983.

ii http://www.lafoundation.org.

iii Sarah Shaw, New Gardens of the American West: Residential Landscapes of Design Workshop. New York,New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 2003.

iv Design Workshop, Inc., Toward Legacy. Washington, DC: Grayson Publishing, 2007.

v Design Workshop, Inc., Garden Legacy. Denver, Colorado: Design Workshop, Inc., 2010.

vi Design Workshop, Inc., Landscapes of Enduring Quality: The Landscapes of Design Workshop. Shanghai,China: International New Landscapes, 2013.

vii John Lyle, "The alternating current of design process." Landscape Journal, Vol. 4(1), (1985).

viii Research on the relationship of community design to human well-being is the focus of social scientists,including: Lawrence Frank, Peter Engelke and Thomas Schmid, authors of Health and Community Design: The Impact of the Built Environment on Physical Activity, Washington, DC: Island Press, 2003; and Timothy Crowe and Diane Zahm, authors of "Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design." Land Development, (Fall 1994).ix Oscar Newman, Defensible Space: Crime Prevention Through Urban Design. New York, New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1973.

x Peter Harnik and Ben Welle, “Measuring the Economic Value of a City Park System.” The Trust for Public Land, (2009).

xi Kurt Culbertson and Mary Martinich, "A Holistic Approach to Sustainability: Lessons from the Laf i tte Greenway Project in New Orleans, Louisiana." Edinburgh Architecture Research, Vol. 33, (2013).

xii Ian McHarg, Design with Nature. New York, New York: American Museum of Natural History/Natural History Press, 1969.

xiii Recent conceptions of eco-systems that include notions of resilience, regeneration, and disturbance, are reflected in the works of: Volker Grimm, Eric Schmidt and Christian Wissel, "On the application of stability concepts in ecology." Ecological Modelling, Vol. 63, (1992); Steward T.A. Pickett and Peter S. White, Eds., The Ecology of Natural Disturbance of Natural Patch Dynamics. Waltham, Massachusetts: Academic Press, 1985;and Christopher Fastie, "Causes and Ecosystem Consequences of Multiple Pathways of Primary Succession at Glacier Bay, Alaska." Ecology, Vol. 76, (1995).

About the author:

As an educator and a practitioner, Baldev Lamba's body of research and creative work re f ects an integration of design and research with special emphasis on metrics and measures of sustainability. An Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Lamba received the 2012 Excellence in Research and Creative W ork Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture(CELA)in recognition of his long-term excellence as a designer and an educator . The award-winning projects of Lamba Associates, Landscape Architects, include the First Ladies W ater Garden on the National Mall in Washington, DC, and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Pop-Up Garden in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,which was also selected for the of f cial United States presentation at the 13th International V enice Architecture Biennale in Venice, Italy.

图8 (fig.8)CREDIT:DesignWorkshopTheproposeddevelopmentoftheLafitteGreenwaywilltransformthebarrenstretchoflandintoanecologicallyrich,sociallydiverse,andvisuallyevocativeenvironment.拉菲特绿道的开发方案将贫瘠的土地改造成一个生态结构丰富、社会多元化、视觉上能唤起回忆的可持续发展区域。