The site for the addition to the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture was a long, narrow service corridor with under-used, eroded spaces and slopes, a fire access road, and a parking lot on a steep grade. The plan for the addition and landscape evolved from a collaboration with the architects to define a new faculty and staff office wing with an attendant series of outdoor work terraces, classrooms, demonstration gardens, and connecting passages. The landscape design explores innovative interpretations of local stormwater conveyance and collection, deliberately expressive means of using plants associated with the Piedmont region, and various site constructions (walls, pavings, and paths) that evoke regional geologies. The specific microclimates created in each of these places correspond to a combination of topographic position, building configuration, and solar/wind orientation. The landscape associated with the building addition is intended to be didactic and demonstrative, and serve as a place for faculty and students to gather both formally and informally.
Collaborators: WG Clark Associates, Architect William Sherman, SMBW Architects, Fox & Associates, Draper Aden Associates, Whitescarver Hurd & Obenchain, Donley's, Cleveland Cement Contractors, Sitework Linco, Faulconer Construction, Windridge Landscaping Company
