course vignettes
 Lot vacancy, housing dereliction, and
lack of investment in environmental quality are outward signs of
deep-seated, complex problems plaguing inner-city Pittsburgh. Still, community leaders and residents possess great resilience and resolve, and generously share their creative insight on possibilities for regeneration.  residents and students interact during a
Fall '08 charrette in
Beltzhoover
 on site in Larimer, where crumbling
infrastructure and gestures of community aspiration co-mingle
 the post-industrial 'shrinking city' afflicts low-income neighborhoods more than any other; here are studies for vacant lot recycling and greening  Kingsley Association director Malik
Bankston orients students
to neighborhood regeneration possibilities in Lariumer  re-establishing the local green grocer;
concept by R. Fellenbaum
 Beltzhoover urban farm and
cafe complex; concept by K. Snyder
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 The Pittsburgh Studio LArch 414 vertical BLA / MLA sponsor: The Pittsburgh Center, Penn State Outreach Over the past two years my Pittsburgh Studio has worked with stakeholders and residents in the distressed inner-city neighborhoods of Beltzhoover, Larimer and the Hill. Working through the Pittsburgh Center, we're collaborating on ideas for sustainability, place-based livelihood opportunities, and renewed civic conviviality. other partners: Kingsley Association, The Hill House, Beltzhoover Neighborhood Association, Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority, Pittsburgh City Planning   65 residents showed up at our final Fall '09 open house in Beltzhoover  |
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prep work for riparian restoration along Slab Cabin Run, Focht Farm
  overhead power lines and invasive reed canary grass influenced our choice to go with a robust mix of native wetland and riparian shrub species  after consecutive Saturdays in the field, we were a well oiled restoration crew |
Riparian
Ecological Restoration
LArch 497c / HORT 497c vertical BLA/MLA / cross-college co-taught with Louise Comas sponsors: ClearWater Conservancy Chesapeake Bay Small Watersheds Program This is a cross-college field and seminar course in applied restoration ecology, concentrating on design, techniques, and implementation practices to improve functional stream buffers and floodways that have been degraded. Following livestock exclosure, we planted native streamside vegetation along a 200 m stretch of Slab Cabin Run that runs through the Focht Farm. Student groups also prepared riparian restoration strategies for a downstream reach of Slab Cabin Run and a denuded section of Spring Creek in Bellefonte, PA.  for
a good cause, studentsfearlessly cross the rickety footbridge over Slab Cabin Run |
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 students look for artifacts of prehistoric occupation along Slab Cabin Run  soil science professor Rick Stehouwer and graduate student Ashlee Dere discuss a soil pit at Penn State's Larson Agricultural Research Farm  field categorization of potential lithic (chipped stone) artifacts near Musser Gap 
Dr. Rick Stehouwer demonstrates use of a probe to examine hydric soils in Whipple Dam State Park  Andy Cole instructs students on the flora of the lower slopes of Tussey ridge  fragrant wild azaleas (Pinxterflowers) grace the ridge top of the Bonta property |
Ridge
& Valley Ecology in the Field LArch 272 intermediate BLA This is a post-Spring semester experiential field course, augmented with lead-in assignments. Over four days we paddled Spring Creek, conducted basic archaeological investigations and soils tests, learned to identify native and invasive plant species, and drew connections to cultural landscape change through time, all within the context of the larger Ridge and Valley geology. This course serves as a prelude to the Fall semester Landscape Systems studio.  sorting artifacts under the direction of Prof. Tim Murrtha  keying out forbs using Newcomb's Guide  students traverse Laurel Run after exploring an adjacent wetland complex  a Munsell's color chart comes in handy when delineating wetland soils  author and naturalist Marcia Bonta reveals spring ephemeral wildflowers at the Bonta family's Plummer Hollow preserve near Tyrone, PA  quite time for field notes |
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Landscape
Systems Studio LArch 311 intermediate BLA team taught A core studio that focuses on landscape-level patterns and processes. Relationships between sites and regional systems are considered using GIS as a primary tool. Natural and cultural histories, socio-economics and demography, landscape experience and other factors are explored, community goals are identified, and interventions at site and landscape level are recommended. a. CD set cover of the 2004 studio b. Mount Nittany studio, on site c. end-of-semester public open house d. peer critique e. kayaking during the Susquehanna North Branch Riverway Study f. colleague Tim Murtha and students use the plasma screen to model Mt. Nittany g. my colleagues looking for jasper, a sign of early human occupation  exploring a pioneer cemetery, surrounded by new suburbs at the base of Mt. Nittany  Mt. Nittany Conservancy stakeholder in the studio |
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Ecological
Restoration &
Design Studio LArch 453 (now 414) vertical BLA / MLA cross-college co-taught with Andy Cole An advanced vertical studio in applied restoration ecology and ecological design. Students from design and life science backgrounds have worked with community organizations and conservation groups on stressed urban landscapes, brownfields, wetlands, stream corridors, and other sites. a. examining hydric soils at the Potter wetland b. Center for Watershed Stewardship MLA student demonstrating macroinvertebrate sampling techniques c. Potter farmstead, showing degraded stream corridor to be restored d. and e. Elks Country Club riparian project site, and presentation of restoration strategies  Mr. Potter,
farmland preservation and restoration enthusiast  spotted newt in eft stage found on site |
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Planting
Studio LArch 332 intermediate BLA team taught A planting design and methods hybrid studio that culminates in a refined set of contract documents. Planting types include woodland, meadow/grassland, mixed beds, and urban hardscape. a. tiger swallowtail b. container seedlings from Octoraro
Nurseries
c. balled and burlapped tree d. controlled burn near State College e. T. Hsu planting plan f. big bluestem (Andropogon gerardii) inflorescence  a typical studio scene |
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Tensions
of Change Graduate Seminar LArch 510 / Engl 597 joint cross-college seminar co-taught with Bob Burkholder sponsor: Institute for Arts and Humanities An advanced, interdisciplinary MLA-MFA seminar that examined themes of writing and making the region, landscape and place. Guests included Anne Whiston Spirn, David Orr, John Elder, John Tallmadge, Ken Lamberton, Marcia Bonta, Alison Hawthorne Deming, Evan Eisenberg, Stacy Levy and others. a. guest speaker Anne Spirn exploring the atmosphere of Tussey Mountain b. Alison Hawthorne Deming reads from Science and Other Poems as part of the Tensions of Change speaker symposium c. John Elder discusses his book Reading the Mountains of Home d. David Orr fields questions at Shaver's Creek Environmental Center e. seminar-in-the-field, this time at Marcia Bonta's Plummer Hollow nature preserve  Anne Spirn interacts with English and MLA students |
photos © K. Tamminga
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