SESSION B5-C -Stormwater Design in the Mountains as envisioned by Landscape Architects: A Holistic Approach
Landscape Architects can take stormwater design to a superior level. As Landscape Architects, we are trained to look at a site in a holistic way. We understand that the way water moves through a site and interacts with a site is a huge component of the design process. This presentation will showcase stormwater design in our Mountain Region through the eyes of Landscape Architects. It will show how designing stormwater systems can be much more than calculating treatment percentages and peak flow attenuation. This presentation will highlight local projects that have designed stormwater control measures that also serve as flood mitigation, habitat creation, places of recreation, and spaces for education. We will focus on innovative stormwater design for the mountains because let’s be honest, designing stormwater treatment in steep slopes is a unique challenge!
Learning Objectives:
Showcasing why landscape architects should be leading stormwater design projects.
Demonstrating unique ways to design stormwater on steeper per slopes.
Sharing the role ecology and site play in stormwater design.
Providing insight to help convince clients the importance of surface treatments as opposed to underground treatment options.
Lecture format with case studies
Jason Seickel
After a career in teaching, Jason went back to school to pursue his passion in the field of design. His combined experiences in math, physics, and leadership coupled with Landscape Architecture, provide him with a unique lens to work on projects that require problem solving skills, technical and detailed design, and the ability to look at both the details and the larger context of a project. Jason focuses on site engineering and the technical aspects of the landscape architecture profession as it applies to grading, stormwater design, erosion control, and construction documents. Jason is a Certified Erosion Prevention and Sediment Control Inspector and is a member of the City of Asheville Stormwater Task Force. In addition, Jason has been involved in projects that require site planning, feasibility reports, site engineering, and construction documents.
Sarah Newton
Sarah is a landscape architect with design experience in parks and greenways, stormwater, and planting across mountain, residential, and urban landscapes at both site and master planning scales. With a degree in biology, her background in plant ecology combined with design gives her a systems-based approach to projects. Her ecological and sustainable design experience guides her toward understanding the qualities of place to create a well-rounded and rooted product. Project experience at Equinox, includes site, stormwater, and signage design as well as master planning and feasibility studies for various parks and greenways throughout the western North Carolina region. These projects include Riverside Park and Greenway, the Ecusta Trail, Swannanoa River Greenway, and Chestnut Mountain Frontcountry. Before moving to Asheville, Sarah worked in Nashville, TN where projects included public spaces including Noble Park, a pocket park that offers gathering space, respite, and green space in the heart of Nashville.