Lanscape Architecture Students to Exhibit Designs

Drawing on the fields of fine art, design, botany, horticulture, landscape ecology, hydrology, engineering and more, about 20 undergraduate and graduate landscape-architects-in-training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison will display their handiwork April 6-20 at the UW–Madison Gallery of Design.

According to John Harrington, chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture, the exhibition will feature renderings (color drawings), hand and computer drawings, plans and models from a wide diversity of class projects.

“The work is intended to show the range of diversity within the program and the profession,” he says. “Students will have the opportunity to view work from various class levels, and view the sequence of instruction.”

Jennifer Sabo, a junior from Chilton, Wis. majoring in landscape architecture, has direct experience with the range of vision among landscape architect students. One project she has been working on this semester is the design of a city plaza between two box-shaped buildings.

“We were assigned music to listen to as inspiration. Mine was flute music, and it made me think of mythical South American Indian legends,” Sabo says. “I broke apart the geometric forms depicted in visual art from those cultures and created kind of a desert oasis for my plaza design.”

In contrast, a classmate assigned the same music took a completely different approach to the theoretical plaza. “He said the flute music reminded him of light filtering through the trees, so his design uses a great deal of honey locust to achieve that effect,” Sabo says. “He also used a great deal of water. I think that illustrates how much diversity there is in this profession.”

Another project Sabo is working on reconfigures a rail corridor near what used to be the Washington Hotel, extending to Lake Monona. “We had to include two historic landmarks and the new Kohl Center in our designs. I tried to incorporate a mix of urban housing styles and open space,” she says.

Harrington says in addition to showcasing their creativity, taking part in this exhibition gives landscape architecture students practice in presenting their designs in the best possible light. “It gives them an opportunity to select ways of marketing their skills and talents that they determine are most representative,” he says.

Meanwhile, gallery-goers will be amazed at the depth and breadth of the profession, he says, and the relevance of landscape architecture to future social and environmental landscape issues. “It also will give viewers an idea of how much fun there is in the profession,” he says.

Gallery hours are Sunday, 1-4 p.m., and Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, contact the Gallery of Design at (608) 262-8815.