Common Lecture

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Date of lecture: February 2, 2025

Abstract

Leveraging life cycle assessment data in digital workflows for more sustainable buildings

This talk focuses on the growing demand for LCA tools that measure the embodied impacts of a building’s material components and systems. Participants will learn about architect’s can make better and faster design decisions in market-driven design workflows with LCA data driven tools. We will discuss the academy’s role in building capacity for metrics-based design professional practice.

Short Bio

John Cays is Professor of Practice in the New Jersey School of Architecture at NJIT’s Hillier College of Architecture and Design. John holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of the Arts and Master of Architecture degree from Princeton University. He is a recognized sustainable design professional and lectures internationally on the subject of Life Cycle Assessment in Architecture. John co-founded GRADE Architects, an architecture and interior design firm in NYC. Prior to that John was a project manager at Robert A.M. Stern Architects.

John has been active in various academic and professional associations, including serving as North East Regional Director for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture from 2014 – 2017 and as a Director on the National Architectural Accrediting Board from 2017 – 2020. He served as the Hillier College Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2005 to 2024. He currently serves on the SIGGRAPH Education Committee and is a current Board member of the American Center for Life Cycle Assessment. John was the 2021 recipient of the ACLCA Education LCA Leadership Award. He is the Author of An Environmental Life Cycle Approach to Design: LCA for Designers and the Design Market published by Springer Nature.

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Date of lecture: January 29, 2025

Abstract

Hudson Yards: Bridging Design, Infrastructure, and Community Connectivity

New York Penn Station, the Hudson River and the High Line are a few of the landmarks that accentuate the $20 billion Hudson Yards East development on the west side of New York City, Sherwood was the civil engineer of record

for the 4.5 acre open space plaza on a deck above the LIRR rail yard. Our role was to carry concept design through construction administration for drainage, grading, development and analysis of a 3D model for the overbuild volume to ensure that appropriate separations and depths were provided for clearance to trains below the platform and accommodation of utilities and planting above.

The six towers that grace the first phase of this ambitious project, along with 4.5 acres of new public open space are nearing completion on one of the largest private development projects ever undertaken. Our work focused on the public open space, which sits on deck above the busiest section of MTA, NJT and Amtrak rail service in the country. Sherwood supported the landscape architecture team of NBW to provide a stormwater management, grading and water reuse plan that enhances the landscape vision for the space and achieves a water net positive landscape while carefully navigating the myriad constraints associated with building over an existing 60 plus track rail yard and ensuring that the stormwater system above does not impact the operations of the trains or the rail workers during and after construction. Our effort also included the coordination of a system of woonerf style or shared private streets that connect to the DOT street network. Using a series of slot drains and gravity fed drainage structures, we were able to support the vision of the landscape architect of a curbless environment to promote pedestrian movement.

Bio

Jason Loiselle
PE, LEED AP | Principal

Jason Loiselle has served as Principal for some of Sherwood’s most progressive projects including, Brooklyn Bridge Park, Hudson Yards, and Croton Water Treatment Plant Landscape. He oversees the development of project design from the initial stages of master planning through construction administration services. Jason is a Registered Professional Engineer in the States of New York and is a LEED Accredited Professional. He has worked in both the public and private sectors with planners, architects, and landscape architects as a civil engineer. Jason has served as a designer and manager for numerous projects that showcase progressive green building and low impact development design techniques. Jason’s project expertise includes urban public spaces, commercial and residential planned developments, roadway and infrastructure design, water resource analysis and remediation, stormwater management, and bicycle transportation planning.

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Date of lecture: January 22, 2025

Bio 

Memo Salazar Memo Salazar is a Mexican-born filmmaker, writer, and activist… and a longtime resident of Queens, New York. As a director, his work ranges from Public Enemy music videos to Elmo tackling homelessness on Sesame Street. He has collaborated with theoretical physicist Brian Greene on a Ted Talk, won 3 Emmy awards, and produced an animated series for Rohingya refugee children exiled from their home country of Burma. As an activist, he is a recipient of Arena’s Five Borough Future fellowship and the 2019 Queens Latinx leadership award for his community work. He has co-run the Sunnyside CSA since 2007 and is now the co-chair of the newly created Western Queens CLT, which aims to bring truly affordable housing and community-owned land ownership to New York City.

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Date of lecture: December 4th, 2024

Abstract

As urban density increases, the traditional single-family backyard is evolving into a shared, multi-family open space, particularly within these environments. This lecture explores the transformation of private backyards into communal, multifunctional spaces that cater to the needs of residents, most particularly in mid to high-rise settings. We will delve into the design opportunities and strategies used to create these spaces, focusing on how rooftop gardens, terraces, and recreational areas are being conceptualized and implemented in modern multi-family buildings. By examining the design process of these complex rooftop solutions and utilizing completed case studies, this session will highlight how these urban open spaces foster community interaction, enhance residents’ quality of life, and contribute to sustainable design.

Bio

Tom, a Principal at Melillo Bauer Carman, has been a key member of the firm since joining 30 years ago. He is a graduate of SUNY Cobleskill where his interest in horticulture led him to study and graduate from the Landscape Architecture program at Rutgers University.  Tom has had the pleasure of designing and overseeing the completion of many successful multi-family mixed use developments over the years. He, along with the team at MBC have been recipients of many Landscape Architecture design awards.

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Date of lecture: November 20th, 2024

Bio

Mark V. Mistretta, RLA, ASLA, has served as the Niagara Region Director of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation since May 2018. The region encompasses all of Erie and Niagara Counties and consists of 18 parks, two historic sites, three marinas and one golf course.

As director, Mistretta provides leadership over park capital improvements, operations, maintenance and rehabilitation, land acquisition, planning, development, human resource management, fiscal administration, environmental management and compliance, historic preservation, programs and community services, grants administration and public relations in the region.

Prior to his appointment, Mistretta briefly served as the Capital Facilities Manager for the Niagara and Allegany Regions of State Parks. In that role he was responsible for overseeing the execution of the NYS Parks 2020 state parks revitalization program.

For 32 years prior to his Parks’ service, Mistretta worked in the private sector at two full-service design firms where he was instrumental in the work of hundreds of public and private sector projects including master planning and phased improvements for large parks to a multitude of recreation facilities to waterfronts, shoreline restorations and sustainable landscapes to impactful regionwide initiatives and historic landscapes.

In addition, Mistretta was responsible for marketing and sales of the company’s services, strategic planning and visioning, development of business plans, various committee assignments and quality control.

Mistretta also brings with him experiences gained from founding roles in real estate and landscape contracting firms. Additionally, he was a founding Board Trustee, past Chairman and Trustee Emeritus of the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy and currently serves on the Niagara Falls Illumination Board and as Ex-officio on the Artpark and Darwin Martin House Board of Trustees.

Among various recognitions, Mistretta most recently received the ASLA NY Upstate “Distinguished Practitioner Public Practice” Award.

A graduate of St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in Buffalo, NY and Rutgers University (’79) in New Brunswick, NJ, Mistretta and his wife of 32 years, Barbara Piazza, reside in the Buffalo area.

Abstract

Shepherding America’s Oldest State Park, Niagara Falls

In this session you will learn about the dynamic forces that helped shape America’s Oldest State Park to where it is today—hosting over 9 million visitors per year while balancing the need to be stewards of this sensitive environment and accommodating the recreating masses.  You will hear about the challenges and design solutions that have positioned this flagship park well into this century.  The role of the landscape architect will be highlighted as you will see some examples of the $188+ million spent on projects to help restore the State Park’s image.  And finally you will learn about significant projects currently in construction or being planned for further transformation of Niagara Falls State Park.

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Date of lecture: November 13th, 2024

Abstract:

The lecture contains two main parts: 1) Cultural ecosystem services (CES) concept and PPGIS as a tool for landscape assessment and evaluation, 2) Research findings related to perception of CES in Central-Eastern Europe. The first part of the lecture includes a general introduction of ecosystem services, possible categorizations of them, as well as a wide overview of cultural ecosystem services. In addition, PPGIS will be presented as a suitable tool for analyzing CES perception and involvement of local citizens. The lecture reflects not only on the methodological aspects, but also on the possible applications of it.

The second part focuses on some research findings related to CES perception using PPGIS tool. These findings represent many regularities from landscape/regional to local/settlement scale related to CES perception in Central-Eastern European geographical and cultural context using a Hungarian study area from Budapest Metropolitan Region.

Bio:

István Valánszki, PhD, head of department, associate professor, landscape architect, teacher of engineering, landscape protection expert. He is working at the Department of Landscape Protection and Reclamation, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE). He is the program director of BSc in Landscape construction and Garden Design Engineering program of the university, which is among the biggest landscape architecture-related undergraduate programmes in Europe.  He has been involved into several national and international projects (e.g. the ecological network-focused ConnectGREEN Interreg project; international teaching (education) development-focused EUland21 and InnoLAND Erasmus+ projects; Democratic Landscape Transformation: Towards an Open Landscape Academy Erasmus+ project; Hungarian Ecosystem Services Mapping and Assessment project). He is author or co-author of more than 200 publications, mainly related to public participation (ppGIS), cultural ecosystem services and green infrastructure (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Istvan-Valanszki). He is teaching and supervising students in Hungarian and international programs of the University from BSc to PhD level. He has long-term international research experience in many countries (e.g. University of Copenhagen (Denmark), Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (Germany), Norwegian University of Life Sciences (Norway), The James Hutton Institute (UK), University of Massachusetts (USA)). In addition to national awards, in 2017 he received the “Outstanding doctoral student 2017” Award of the ECLAS (European Council of Landscape Architecture Schools).

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Date of lecture: November 11th, 2024

“Labor and Care in the Landscape of the Local: Migrant farm labor and diverse economies in Community Supported Agriculture”

Abstract:

The objective of my dissertation research in human geography has been to engage in spaces of New Jersey’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in order to understand and make visible the lived experience of migrant farmworkers within local agricultural economy. I employ mapping in this project as part of the performative practice that diverse economies research seeks to do in order to, as Gerda Roelvink suggests, “open up a politics of economic possibility, not close it down,” and (hopefully) to bring into being, through making visible, design for generating further care in the space of CSA. I use the term ‘deep mapping’ to describe the concept and practice of exploratory layering of geographic, spatial, temporal, personal, social (and sometimes imaginary) information. The deep map may be read as a sort of palimpsest in which multiple aspects of labor and CSA as phenomena can be deciphered simultaneously. As a mode of critical cartography, deep mapping holds the space for visualization of narratives and livelihood experiences that are on the one hand bound by time and place, and, on the other, refuse to be bounded by either. This particular research method is utilized in order to visually address what migrant labor looks like in a manner that strives to avoid a reductionist representation, and rather seeks to present multiple and authentic engagements with the physical and economic space of CSA.

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Date of lecture: October 30th, 2024

Abstract

Projects that explore the intersection of climate change, infrastructure and urbanism. The work  puts forward innovative concepts at the intersection of large-scale landscape infrastructure and placemaking. Examples include South Battery Park City Resilience’s Wagner Park and Pier A Plaza, Brooklyn Montgomery Coastal Resilience’s Waterfront in Lower Manhattan and Hoboken’ Harborside Waterfront Park.

Short Bio

Gonzalo leads AECOM’s Urbanism + Planning Practice as a Vice President and Principal of Design in the New York Metro area as well as strategic collaborations across the Americas and abroad. His award-winning practice has received numerous awards from ASLA, AIA, NYC by Design, and the Chicago Atheneum Design Excellence Award in Open Space design for the World Trade Center’s Liberty Park. Gonzalo holds a Bachelor of Architecture from the City College of New York and a Master of Landscape Architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.

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Date of lecture: October 23rd, 2024

Our Rutgers Students will be sharing their summer travel trip to Spain and our Roy DeBoer Prize winners will be speaking as well

Presenters will be:

• Brooke Belmonte

• Su Lin

• Josh Chang

• Maggie Bazurto

• Dean Awari

• Ana Maria Olinyck

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Date of lecture: October 16th, 2024

Abstract

Stephen Whitehouse, a founder of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners in New York City, discusses the interplay between the aspirations of landscape practice and the creative adaptation to challenges and opportunities.

Bio:

Stephen Whitehouse is a co-founder of Starr Whitehouse Landscape Architects and Planners in New York City. A landscape architect and urban planner, Stephen’s diverse pursuits share a concern for the environmental quality and social vitality of places. He formerly served as Chief of Planning for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, where he managed the expansion of the USTA National Tennis Center and launched the City’s Greenway system. Since co-founding Starr Whitehouse, he has worked with public and private clients to create dynamic urban districts and engaging landscapes that connect people to nature. Recent work includes: Southwest Park in Hoboken, New Jersey’s first resiliency park; EDC’s Manhattan Greenway Harlem River project; a streetscape and lighting plan for the Union Square Alliance in Manhattan; and a vision to integrate an upcoming Army Corps of Engineers levee system into shoreline parks and communities on the East Shore of Staten Island.