Jennifer Horn

Residential Design at ASLA 2013

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Rough Point, one of the stops on a Saturday Field Session in Newport, Rhode Island image: Rick Laferriere
Rough Point, one of the mansions that will be visited during a field session focusing on Newport, Rhode Island
image: Rick Laferriere

With the ASLA Annual Meeting only weeks away, it’s time for a glance at the events with a particular emphasis on residential design:

On Friday, November 15, there are two great field sessions. Thomas Elmore, ASLA and Jennifer Judge, ASLA have planned visits to two of Newport, Rhode Island’s treasures, The Elms and Rough Point. See two of Rhode Island’s most beloved mansions and get a sense of high, high-end residential design from years past.

On a more contemporary note, Keith LeBlanc and his team are hosting a day-long excursion to some of his most beautiful private gardens. Tour the residences with Keith and understand how the artisanship of highly-detailed residential landscape design persists today.

As residential designers, a detailed and sophisticated grasp of plants is key. Learn how to get the most mileage and best performance from your horticultural selections by attending Sunday, November 17’s session, “Effective Strategies for Horticultural Sustainability in Planting Design” with Patrick Cullina and W. Gary Smith, ASLA.

On that note, as a residential designer, establishing collaborative working relationships with experts in the nursery trade is vital for learning about current cultivars, and rediscovered species and sourcing excellent specimen material. This topic is covered in detail on Monday, November 18’s session, “Planting: Unlocking Creativity Through New Avenues of Designer/Grower Collaboration.” Speakers include nursery owners Chet Halka and Theodore Kiefer as well as Edmund Hollander, FASLA and Michael Van Valkenburgh, FASLA.

On the business side of things, check out “The One-Man Show” on Sunday, November 17. Mike Heacox, ASLA, Chris Thompson, ASLA, Duane Christopher, ASLA and Annette Heacox, ASLA discuss the agony and ecstasy of micro business management.

And don’t forget about the PPN Networking Reception on Friday, November 15 at 5:15pm and the Residential Landscape Architecture PPN Meeting on Sunday, November 17 at 4pm–I look forward to seeing you there!

by Jennifer Horn, Chair of the Residential Landscape Architecture PPN

Pointers for Beginning a Residential Design Business

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image: Jan Johnsen
image: Jan Johnsen

As co-chair of the Residential PPN, we are tasked with finding talented landscape architects to contribute to this blog.  As a new-ish business owner (my firm is still in its toddler years; established in 2009), I could only hope that my friend Jan Johnsen would be willing to share her thoughts on starting up a new residential design business.  Jan and I met in 2005 when we both began teaching at Columbia University’s Landscape Design program.  Her design studios are a perennial favorite of students, particularly as the program often engages individuals with dreams of beginning their own firms.  Jan owns and operates her own firm, writes a beautiful blog called Serenity in the Garden, and has a book being published in 2014 by St. Lynn’s press focused on creating gardens for inspiration and reflection.  Jan’s thoughts below on beginning a firm are relevant not just to newbies, but also serve as a wonderful reminder of what is most important to operating a mature firm as well.
– Jennifer Horn, RLA, ASLA

Residential landscape design is one of the most fulfilling – and demanding – professions I know of.  Fraught with all sorts of pitfalls, transforming someone’s property is a very personal and uplifting endeavor. I find it to be all consuming but in a wonderful sort of way. Does this sound like a two edged sword? It is as if I am saying ‘come, but stay away’ at the same time.  Well, that is true. As in everything, there are 2 sides to the story and residential landscape design is definitely a ‘both sides, now’ undertaking.

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Time Management Tips for Designers

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image: Deborah Steinberg
image: Deborah Steinberg

Who didn’t have the studio experience in school of the daunting all-nighter?  Furiously drawing scheme after scheme, the pile of crumpled trace that was once low on the ground, slowly climbing ominously high?

School too often cultivated an atmosphere of deadline-driven work that does not serve us well in our professional lives. Nonetheless, many offices run similarly to design studios, with frenzied employees working 12 or 16 hour days (or worse) to deliver a concept presentation, a bid package, etc.

As designers, we are uniquely susceptible to confusing urgency with importance.  If you have ever attended a business conference, chances are you have heard about this keystone tenet to time management.  While urgency is time-sensitive, importance is not – or it shouldn’t always have to be. Google “important + urgent + matrix” and you’ll find a variety of charts identifying time usage in the following categories: urgent and important, urgent and unimportant, not urgent and unimportant, and not urgent and important.

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