The Landscape Architecture Symposium

The Boston Society of Landscape Architects sponsors a day-long symposium on sustainable landscape design.

B08 Site sustainability on institutional campuses
8:30 - 10:00 am

Every development today is being challenged to become greener, be LEED-Certified, and reduce its impact on the environment. Institutions – unlike for-profit developers who sell the completed development deal – maintain ownership in their projects for the life of the building and therefore have a greater interest in lasting sustainable solutions. This seminar includes case studies of institutional responses to sustainable site development opportunities.

B24 Green roofs – the conversation continues
10:30 am - noon

This workshop is a continuation of the discussion started about green roofs at last year's Build Boston. Our inter-disciplinary panel discusses a variety of topics including: definitions of green roofs; advances in the technologies of green roof systems; and current strategies in the design and implementation of green roofs.

B44 Realizing sustainable soils: the hardball politics of soil design
1:00 - 3:00pm

Soils are an integral part of a site’s infrastructure affecting planting success, stormwater management, and long-term sustainability. Manufactured soils offer great rewards, but successfully designing, specifying, and realizing them, as well as justifying them to owners and regulators (when most people just see dirt), is the real challenge. This workshop is not about science, but about politics: it is designed to provide the language and information that allow designers to realize the promise of manufactured soils, from design to installation. We engage the issue of sustainability head on. As the Sustainable Sites Initiative looks to transform LEED, how can the competing goals of on-site soil reuse and ideal horticultural environments be balanced? How can manufactured soils be understood as sustainable? We answer these questions and more.

B72 Go native: a guide to planting and conserving native plants in public landscapes
4:00 – 5:30 pm

Landscape architects, designers, and ecologists discuss the critical selection and care of native plants in the public landscape. We present and discuss lessons from the natural landscape and native plant selection and management. We also share case studies and examples of recent installations.

B88 Vegetative applications for stormwater management
6:00 – 7:30 pm

This session focuses on vegetative applications as a positive part of a comprehensive stormwater-management plan. We discuss vegetated swales, rain gardens, bio-retention areas, and stormwater wetlands. These stormwater-management techniques, used separately or together, can mimic natural systems, provide various levels of total suspended solids (TSS) and pollutant removals, and promote stormwater infiltration. We present specific design and construction techniques, including issues pertaining to soils and recommended planting palettes, and use current research and examples to illustrate the various techniques.

The package cost for the symposium is $325 if you register before October 24 and $365 if you register after that date (this is a significant savings over the individual workshop costs). However, you may choose to register for one or more individual sessions by selecting the individual workshops in the a la carte section of the online registration site or under section 3 on the paper registration form.