Conway School of Landscape Design-Link to home map of Conway, MA Graduate Program in Sustainable Landscape Planning and Design
 

Graduates of the 2000s

Robin Simmen '01

Director of GreenBridge, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn, NY

Robin came to CSLD with a bachelor’s degree in English and anthropology from Cornell University, a year studying botany at the University of Oregon, and a year of graduate work in anthropology at Columbia University. A serious photographer, for ten years she was the senior editor at Amphoto Books, where she produced many best-selling nature titles. A strong desire to “step outside the frame” and become a direct advocate for the environment motivated her decision to study at CSLD. “Making beautiful books was aesthetically satisfying,” she says, “but ultimately, selling images of disappearing wilderness felt like window dressing for corporate short-sightedness. Leaving Times Square for Conway was more than a breath of fresh air for me—it helped restore my soul.”

After graduation Robin found work as a regional land-use planner for the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission, based in West Springfield, MA. Her winter project at CSLD—a state-approved Open Space and Recreation Plan for Cummington, Massachusetts—helped her get the job. Doing environmental planning for a wide range of municipalities, from tiny villages to major cities, she acquired a good background in source water protection, large-scale urban-design projects, and an understanding of how regional politics affect community resources.

Robin returned to New York to work for GreenBridge, the community environmental horticulture program of Brooklyn Botanic Garden; today she is its Director. Her work promotes a greener Brooklyn, food security, composting, sustainable landscaping, and conservation. Major projects include the Greenest Block in Brooklyn Contest, the GreenBridge Community Garden Alliance, the Brooklyn Compost Project, the GreenBridge Gardener newsletter, and Making Brooklyn Bloom, an annual symposium on environmental horticulture. GreenBridge offers free workshops at BBG, street clinics for block and merchant associations, and technical assistance to community gardens. Supporting the installation of rainwater harvesting systems in community gardens citywide is a favorite part of her job. Robin thinks that "New Yorkers don't just talk about conservation—we live it. Making urban landscapes greener, more sustainable, and more desirable places to live helps preserve wilderness by preventing sprawl, the biggest environmental threat to North America."

The first time Robin visited the campus in Conway, she knew that CSLD was the right program for her. “CSLD’s intensive program is a total immersion experience, plunging students into real-life projects that require quick, careful decision making. My third-term project—designing a town park for Tilton, New Hampshire—prepared me to do top-notch presentations on a professional level. Environmental protection depends on community education, and learning to facilitate group dialogue and work through conflict is a great strength of the CSLD program.

Michael Cavanagh '02

Landscape Designer, Horticulturist, Arborist, Newport, RI

Before attending CSLD, Michael had a background in landscape painting and a degree in fine art. He had an abundance of experience in landscape gardening, and landscape construction, including horticulture experience in Japan and in the Caribbean, as well as running his own business in Newport, Rhode Island, where his landscape projects included mostly residential construction and maintenance with some small commercial projects.

In 2000, he began looking for more specialized training in landscape design. There seemed to be no better match for him than CSLD’s intensive one-year design program focusing on sustainability and ecological priorities. The program at CSLD was ‘tailor made’ to impart a wealth of knowledge and a new set of tools for an individual that was already immersed in the field. He enrolled looking to acquire finer tools in site analysis, planning, and design. His stated goals at the beginning of the program were met: to acquire drafting skills, to develop formal tools of analysis, and to understand landscapes from an ecological perspective.

After graduation, Michael went back to work in Rhode Island, designing, building and maintaining landscapes. He found that the greatest difference in his work was the focus on sustainable design. He has worked native plant choices, sustainable design principles, and the control of invasive plants, into the center of all project work. Sustainable landscape design in general is an uphill battle: “almost everything that we as a culture do, or don’t do, to our ‘yardscapes’, our ‘streetscapes’, and our ‘cityscapes,’ is wrong.” Correcting that — really correcting that — is a process of educating people, offering alternatives, and acting against the grain of popular preference. Results can be disappointing and success is often incomplete. The value of the education and the principles upheld by Conway School of Landscape Design become even more significant when looked on in this light.

Quoting John Hart (in an article originally printed in the New Hampshire Landscape Association newsletter, Oct. 2003), Michael agrees that “Aldo Leopold clearly defined the right direction 60 years ago: ‘A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.’ ”

Michael says that CSLD offers the opportunity to understand and then practice what it means to support the biotic community and how in doing so, we support our human community in a way that is urgently needed.

Amanda Wischmeyer ’03

Owner and designer, Down to Earth Landscaping Services, Lima, OH

Amanda enrolled at CSLD with a BS in environmental biology from the University of Dayton, where she researched the establishment of native prairie in various disturbed environments. After graduation from UD, Amanda worked as a field biologist monitoring endangered species and delineating wetlands. “As I observed these endangered species and visited beautiful wetlands, I realized that I needed to be working in a field where I could have some influence in land planning to not only preserve our natural environment, but to educate others on the importance of the ecological world.”

At CSLD, Amanda was exposed to all levels of land planning, beginning with her residential project. Amanda’s clients had just purchased a 10 acre piece of land; they wanted a house and workshop sited with solar orientation and low ecological impact taken into consideration. An in-depth analysis of the ecologically complex site led Amanda to propose an earth-sheltered home with an exposed south facing facade that was tucked into an existing hillside that opened out onto a historic railroad bed.

The winter project, an Open Space and Recreation Plan for a small community in rural Massachusetts, provided Amanda with the opportunity to learn about community involvement in the land planning process. “This project enabled me to understand the thought process and traditions of small communities and the importance of educating the public on environmental issues.”

The final team project required Amanda to use the skills learned in the previous projects to develop a low-budget, interpretive trail system with community approval for a non-profit museum. “The challenge of designing a trail system with interpretive information for any age was difficult, but rewarding when it all came together.”

Since she graduated from CSLD, Amanda applied the experience gained in landscape design and land planning at a civil engineering/architecture/landscape architecture firm. She learned CAD (computer-aided design) and aspects of civil engineering and land planning. Since then, Amanda and her husband developed their own residential landscape design business.

“CSLD’s hands-on approach gave me the skills needed to understand the landscape and become part of the land planning process. In addition to the core education, faculty and fellow classmates provide an invaluable breadth of knowledge and experience.”