Site Design Flashcards
Cost estimating
To limit any unforeseen financial surprises, contingency should always be included in cost estimating.
Relative value:
quick value for design elements.
Schedule of probable cost:
spreadsheet with quantifiable elements that calculate estimate costs. columns: items, units, quantity, unit cost extension, comments. Rows: earthwork, hardscape, landscape, irrigation.
Influences of unit pricing:
industry standards, historic data, industry trend, inflasion.
Contractor influence on Cost:
o Availability of material o Fire sales o Long lead times (it has less changes of rush charges, probable lower cost) o Competitiveness of contractor market o Market fluctuations
performance metrics
enable designers to show a design value and make the case of sustainable landscape solutions
The sustainable sites initiatives (SITES)
is the first comprehensive rating system for the design, construction and maintenance of sustainable landscapes. The rating system provides a wide-ranging set of guidelines needed to measure the performance and the value of sustainable landscapes.
Design of green space and lush plantings (Regards To SITES)
While the design of green space and lush plantings seems inherently ecologically beneficial, quantifying the actual value of those benefits is a little more complex. This barrier makes it challenging as we advocate for high-performing landscapes. Meanwhile, the drawbacks of initial cost and maintenance are seen as barriers to the development of more green space. This is where landscape performance metrics are valuable; using data to estimate the positive benefits of design elements and ensuring a landscape performs to the anticipated standards. Data allows us to quantify the benefits of a designed landscape, and provides hard evidence for a client trying to balance a project’s budget, schedule, and demands.
Applicable to projects size, typ for SITES
varying from 2,000 square feet to over 200 acres, the program aims to ensure that landscapes are planned, designed, developed, and maintained in a way that either avoids, mitigates, or even reverses the harmful impacts on the environment. SITES advances best practices in landscape architecture and ensures clients that their project has achieved field-tested standards for sustainability.
The Landscape Architecture Foundation’s Landscape Performance Series
another online resource for quantifying the value of the landscape. With over 100 case studies and dozens of toolkit calculators, the Landscape Performance Series aims to transform the way landscape is considered in the design and development process. Bringing together innovations from research, industry, academia, and professional practice, the website is a handy place to find precedents, explore metrics, and make the case for sustainable landscape solutions.
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA)
provides a number of sustainable design resources, including toolkits and guides. The toolkits are broken down into environmental, economic, and social models. The resources are a compilation of the available assessment tools, checklists, and modeling software for a variety of projects and project goals. ASLA has also compiled 40 case studies, which highlight the transformative effects of sustainable landscapes. These tools are aimed at putting sustainable design theory into practice.
Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE):
the study of effectiveness for human users of occupied designed environment. It is done after an environment has been designed, completed an occupied. Reason why is done:
o To generate info about how a facility is used.
o To generate design guidelines
o To provide info to guide the redesign of a park that no longer meets the needs of the neighborhood.
o To fine-tune a space that isn’t used as much as it might be.
Diagnostic POE:
to provide reliable findings it is essential to use multiple methods: questionnaires, interviews, observations, physical measurements. Sometimes it requires comparatives measures of several facilities.
Solar Radiation- Standard approaches:
- Locate objects in the landscape so that their shadows fall on areas that will benefit from it.
- Select the density of object to provide the desire level of shade.
- Increase the amount of solar radiation received by areas through reflection.
- Consider both solar radiation and wind modifications to provide beneficial microclimates.
Regional Climate:
Two main drivers of climate: proximity of a body of water and latitude.
Modifying microclimate:
- Cool seasons: provide protection from the wind, then provide access to the sun.
- Warm seasons: provide shade, then provide wind access.
Modifying air quality:
- Concentration of gaseous pollutants is measured in parts per millions (PPM) or parts per billons (PPB)
- Air pollutants can be primary or secondary
- Two approaches: prevent or reduce
- Windbreaks that halves the wind speed will increase pollutant concentration by 2
- Landscape vegetation has the potential to reduce air quality problems by acting as sink and dust filter.
SUSTAINABLE SITE DESIGN:
Environmental site analysis shall incorporate:
- Examination of microclimate of the site
- Geologic and hydrologic evaluation
- Soil report vegetation inventory
- Identification of wildlife habitat
- Any other environmental impact statement
Cultural analysis shall incorporate:
- Current land use pattern
- Inventory of existing structures
- Identification of historical and cultural features
- Human population and economic setting
- Meeting with the community
Minimize site development footprint:
- Site development should occur on portions of the site that have already been impacted.
- Use clustered or multistory bldgs.
- Designing following the existing topography
- Clustering underground utilities
Minimizing parking lot sites:
- Implement shared parking policies
- Impose codes and place a max number of spaces
- Located development near mass transit
- Encourage carpooling
- Downsize parking stall and lane size requirements
- Increase the number of compact spaces
- Locate parking lot under bldgs.
- Locating parking island in all areas of parking lot that will not be occupied by cars shortening the length of parking spaces and adding the saved footage to planting strip.
- Encourage runoff to planted areas
- Curb openings or no curbs to allow water flow
- Biodegradable planting reduces non-point source pollution and encourage infiltration.
- Scattering parking around site and breaking up large expanses of pavement can reduce site disturbance and grading.
- During construction, care must be taken to prevent compacting or disturbing existing soil or vegetation in these areas.
- Marking permeable paving will not reduce site disturbance, but can assist stormwater infiltration, soil health and reduction of heat island effect.
Street and Driveways:
Narrow streets and road widths can mean less site disturbance. narrowing from 10 to 9 can reduce site disturbance and grading, lower resources use and maintenance requirements and encourage lower vehicle speed.
Traffic calming:
o Promote narrowing streets
o Reduce width at pedestrian crossing points (less paving and more planted areas)
o Slower traffic, increase planting and pedestrian crossing can support more pedestrian activity.
o Creating shared driveways can also help reduce site disturbance around roads, parking, bldgs. And other paved areas should be limited to 10 feet from the structure to minimize site disturbance.
Erosion control benefits and guidelines:
• Reduce the need of off-site soil (around 10%)
• Limit removal of vegetative covers
• Plan construction on dry season to reduce erosion
• Install sand or wind fences for high winds
• Permanent erosion control measurements:
o Vegetative buffers strips, silt fences, sediment traps, detention/retention ponds
• Protect existing vegetation:
o limit clearing vegetation to 40’ beyond bldg perimeter,
o limit clearing vegetation to 10’ beyond curbs, walkways and paved areas
o limit clearing vegetation 5’ beyond utility trenches
o place construction feces outside and around the drip line of all trees to remain.
Water Conservation:
• Greywater: can be used to:
o Recover waste water from bldg. uses such as lavatories, showers, washing machines and other facilities that don’t involve human or food waste
o Use greywater collected from roofs or paved surfaces for irrigation (avoid particulate matters)
• Rainwater can be collected from roofs and paved ground surfaces, roofing materials from rainwater collection should be metal, clay or concrete based.
PRESERVING HISTORIC LANDSCAPES:
- Can be economically beneficial when properties are adapted for reuse for modern purposes.
- Tourist and economic benefits.
- Well preserved places connect with our sense of place, space and time.
PRESERVING HISTORIC LANDSCAPES:
• Preservation treatment approaches:
o Preservation: retain high level of integrity, no changes in the property.
o Rehabilitation: when repair or replacements are necessary to convey historic character, or new user require alterations.
o Restoration: best treatment to restore a place as it was in a specific time, because of its historical significance.
Reconstruction: it is done where is little remaining material. Must be done when all info documented is available to support reconstruction.
