Bury+Partners

Blog

Posts Tagged: landscape architecture

Industry — No Comments
30
Aug 12

Green Building Standards Arrive for Landscape Developments

Early this year, a new standard in green building was developed to encourage sustainable land development and management practices for sites without structural components. The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is the first of its kind in terms of sustainability for project sites without buildings and provides tools for those who influence land development and management practices.

 

By developing sustainable benchmarks for soils, hydologry, vegetation, human health and well-being, and materials selection, SITES provides new standards which help project teams properly combat growing global environmental concerns like climate change, biodiversity loss and resource depletion.

 

The effort to launch this program began as two individual projects of the Sustainable Design and Development Professional Practice Network of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. In 2005, the two groups united to hold a Sustainable Sites Summit. Once the United States Botanical Garden joined the mission, Technical Subcommittees were created to guide the Initiative in the right direction.

 

Those in charge of SITES hope the program will increase awareness of green building possibilities for landscapes and land planning, much like the way the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED program did for sustainable building design and construction.

 

 

Open spaces such as local, state and national parks, conservations easements and buffer zones, and transportation rights-of-way are just a few site examples that are encouraged to participate in SITES. More conventional developments with buildings such as retail and office, airports, residential and commercial projects can also take advantage of the tools SITES has created.

 

The USGBC, a stakeholder in the Initiative, plans to integrate SITES into their standard LEED programs in the future.

 

Sources:

Sustainable Sites Initiative

Good Magazine – LEED for the Outdoors? Landscapes Get Their Own Green Certification Standards

 

Industry — No Comments
1
Jun 12

Engineering Ranks on List of Most Valuable Majors

High school graduation season is in full swing. Years of studying and hard work have paid off, and many graduating seniors are preparing to embark on the next chapter of their lives: college.

 

Deciding on a field of study can be a challenge for some, and even if one goes to college certain of a degree plan, the average student changes their major two or three times during their college years. While majors should be chosen based on talents and ambitions, it may be wise to research projected job growth for careers a student is interested in.

 

Forbes recently ran a story on “The 15 Most Valuable Majors,” showing that “engineering concentrations comprise one third of the most valuable majors.”

 

“These aren’t majors that anyone could do. They’re hard, and these programs weed people out… However, there is high demand for them and a low supply of people with the skills, so it drives up the labor market price.”

 

Civil engineering ranked No. 6 on Forbes’ list, so we took some time to ask a few of our recent graduates what they love about their chosen career.

 

Lauren Beavers, E.I.T., is a 2010 graduate of the University of Texas, and she chose engineering simply because she’d always been good with math and science. “The best part about engineering classes is that it’s not about memorizing, but about learning how to solve problems.”

 

Sarah Shepard, E.I.T, a 2011 graduate of Southern Methodist University, changed her major several times, but chose civil engineering after trying a few classes and deciding it was a good fit. “Civil engineering is a challenging and diverse field that can present any number of design problems, which can be addressed in several ways. I enjoy the process of determining what the driving factors are for each project and designing a solution to meet those needs.”

 

After receiving her degree from California State Polytechnic University Pomona in 2010, Brenda Rascon, E.I.T. feels that her education and experience are versatile. “The (engineering) program itself is described as challenging, but there’s no reason everyone can’t achieve it.”

 

Civil engineering may have been the only service we offer to make Forbes’ list, but projected job growth for other Bury services is looking great as well. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average growth rate across all careers is 14 percent over the next 10 years.

 

Projected Job Growth 2010-2020

  • Civil engineering – 19%
  • Landscape architecture – 16%
  • Urban and regional planners – 16%
  • Survey and mapping technicians – 16%
  • Mechanical engineering – 9%
  • Electrical engineering – 6%
  • Surveyors –25%

 

School may be out for the summer, but Bury has already mapped out our fall college road trip to visit with engineering students across the country. A full schedule of our campus visits can be found on the Student Programs page of our website, along with information about the internships we offer.

 

Congratulations, graduates!

Spotlight / Voices — No Comments
15
Dec 11

Cevallos Street Lofts Adds New Flavor to Southtown San Antonio

Cevallos City Lofts

Just south of downtown San Antonio and home to some of the City’s oldest neighborhoods, Southtown is known for its diverse community, art galleries, restaurants and Victorian era homes. Texas Monthly magazine once labeled it “Texas’ most eccentric neighborhood.”   The area has plenty of history and cultural hotspots to speak of and is always alive with entertainment.

 

Cevallos Street Lofts was developed at the center of Southtown, allowing folks to live at the center of all the excitement, while promising to add further flavor to the area. The project is a massive, four-story, 252-unit apartment building on Cevalles Street, providing a link between the older Southtown arts district and the developing SoFlo district. The units will be rented out at a wide price range, from $500 to $2,200 per month, with one quarter of the units deemed affordable housing. Dan Markson, Senior Vice President of Development for the NRP Group once said that the lofts would “light up Cevallos Street.” He called it “the magic connection between King William, South Flores and Blue Star.”

 

Cevallos City Lofts - Exterior

The Lofts fit in nicely with its surrounding neighbors, echoing the same utilitarian form as other buildings found within Southtown. The building’s features exude a certain contemporary aesthetic, while reinforcing its “membership” to the industrial nature of the district. The combination of old and new marks a new experience for the Southtown urban residential experience.

 

Bury+Partners Principal Coy Armstrong said the project was not without its challenges, as it involved the relocation of a 16-foot public water main that ran through the site. The location of the project site is also next to a Union Pacific railroad, which offered some difficulty as well. To alleviate the noise, Bury designed a 25-foot berm between the tracks and the complex. Bury is providing civil engineering, landscape architecture and survey services for the project.

 

The lofts will be opening their doors to new residents in January.