This is Landscape Architecture. And this is Ben Morton, RLA.

This is Landscape Architecture. And these are our Landscape Architects. In honor of World Landscape Architecture Month, we are highlighting what landscape architecture is and the different stages of development, from paper, to dirt, to the final product. Landscape architecture is not just an aesthetically pleasing and thoughtful planting design. It could be an entry sign design, stormwater drainage swales, paving design, or even a bus stop enclave. No matter what it is, or in what stage of the process, this is landscape architecture.

Ben Morton, RLA, a Senior Landscape Architect and Project Manager, is a key team member, responsible for conceptual design studies, ordinance and regulatory reviews, land development and construction plans, cost estimates, and project team coordination. Benjamin combines hand drawing and computer software skills to develop and communicate site layouts, construction details and amenity designs to ensure client satisfaction and constructability. “Nature” is abstracted in our projects, culminating in a celebration of wonder found in both the technological and ecological. For every project, Ben vigilantly adheres to the guiding principle that a landscape should respond to its adjacent architecture and its social and natural histories. Ben has a passion for the built environment and spaces that bring communities together. One such space was Culliton Park, featured here, that was partially located over a historic stream channel that was long

ago sequestered within a 16-ft-wide brick culvert, and has been dramatically transformed. RGS creatively addressed stormwater management while maximizing this 3.75-acre site’s recreational amenities – many of which were carefully constructed over the subsurface stream. The park’s amenities now include a safer kids play area, new basketball courts, a new ballfield with spectator seating, a hillside amphitheater/sledding area, picnic and grilling spaces, parking with sub-surface stormwater management, public art, site furnishings, and a large central green for all sorts of unstructured and spontaneous recreational activities. This is Landscape Architecture.

PROJECT ELEMENTS

• 3.75 acres of recreational opportunities and environmental improvements
• A safer kids play area, new basketball courts, a new ballfield with spectator seating, a hillside amphitheater/sledding area, picnic/grilling spaces, parking with sub-surface stormwater management, public art, site furnishings, and a large central green
• Park is properly illuminated and connected to adjoining spaces via a circuitous and accessible pathway network
• Colorful plantings provide a seasonal succession of landscape interest while assisting with water quality and pollinator initiatives

April is World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM). Established by the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), WLAM is a month-long international celebration of landscape architecture and designed public and private spaces. People and communities around the world have deep, long-standing personal connections to the spaces landscape architects create – they’re just not aware of it. During WLAM, ASLA and landscape architects around the world aim to demonstrate that connection by highlighting landscape architect-designed spaces.