How does one landscape architect
provide all the landscape design, planning and construction services for a
planned city of 350,000?
With a lot of help from his friends, that's how.
For the first 3 years I was the only
landscape architect associated with the Tuggeranong project. I provided the
vital landscape conceptual input that
help form the strategy plan. This took about 2
years. For the next year or so I provided design and construction services for
the beginning of the
project and used this hard experience to formulate a longer term strategy for
acquiring the consultant workforce I would need to finish this mammoth
challenge
Below are selected samples from hundreds of printouts and graphics I created
over a 6 year period that provides a glimpse of the
management techniques that were essential to cope with a task of this scale and
complexity.
Two vital resources were in high demand
not only in the early phases of the effort but throughout the life of the
project and they were raw creative
instincts for the mega scale and a natural bent for the organizational side of
things. It was the kind of project, so epic in scale, that either you got a
grip on it right away or it would systematically consume you where you stood (or
sat), It reminded me for a long time of a Cecil B Demill's gala
production complete with larger than life characters and script. The site area was a
gorgeous valley about 30 Km long) and yes with a river
running through
it. It's average width was around 15km with many thousands of hectares of
Eucalypt forest and grazing land.
Like WW2 or space exploration, any mega
scale undertaking needs creative organization to achieve it's goals. Early in
the Tuggeranong adventure the
TT (team tuggeranong) set it's sights on both an organizational strategy and a physical plan to reflect it. The diagram below
reflects the makeup of the team
and how each
member related to their own specific objectives and how each were a crucial part
of a larger whole. One definitely grasped the fact that
you, by yourself
had very little effectiveness. But as part of a motivated group with a mission
you could achieve just about anything. The colored circles
in the
diagram below denote my location in the setup. Essentially the diagram says that 1-a
strategy plan was created and 2-a complex construction effort
began based on
each division launching co-ordinated
programs to achieve the overall objective of building a new city.
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The land servicing or lot
building diagram below illustrate
the core structure for the new city. Upon completion of a long term strategy plan, Tuggeranong
was divided into over 50 land servicing contracts that averaged 1000
serviced blocks each. The pipeline sketch follows the history of one
of these building
cycles over its average 56 month lifespan. All components were
synchronized to the land servicing schedule. The pink
colored strip at the top highlights the
landscape architects 2 part role in one
of these typical cycles. The process involves early conceptual input
to the team, and then branching out to form 8
comprehensive briefing strategies (Type A briefs) and, as these assignments produce results, then an
extensive system of over 500 tasks I dubbed Type B
briefs would be created and
managed to achieve the final built results
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Each lot building (land servicing) contract below has 6 basic phases over
its 56 month life starting with the strategy plan and ending up with built
results.
The phases occur again and again over the long life of the project as this urban behemoth gradually takes shape. The green highlight
looks
at a typical
community's planned evolution. In this case it's the Wanniassa area
and it's 26,000 residents. From these planned road and lot building
contracts all other
components would follow e.g.
schools--centers--telecommunications--hospitals-etc. Below is a partial schedule
of the 19
communities that comprise Tuggeranong
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Early arterial road construction--Wanniassa,
Tuggeranong
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Getting a handle on Tuggeranong's massive
128km(80mile) 6 lane arterial network was no easy matter to put it mildly. The
arterial pipeline model below
illustrates how the three main players in this drama not only related to one
another but what each skill set was expected to do at some point. Weather and
periodic labor shortages impacted the program considerably but the pipeline
setup as shown proved to be a very efficient model for a construction effort
as intimidating as this one was. The segment schedule at right is only a partial
glimpse of the overall program.
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The diagram below represents the 8 briefing areas for
comprehensive landscape planning that I established as an integral part of the
long term strategy plan.
Eight landscape architects under my guidance, were asked to work with all
parties concerned to formulate specific development plans in a given
strategic area. The results would be conceptual landscape plans for school
locations, corridor analysis for specific parts of the arterial system and so
on.
The highlighted green area is a case example. Bruce MacKenzie Associates
(Sydney) was briefed to formulate a plan for the 3000Ha (4800 acre)
Murrumbidgee River Metropolitan Park system and their office originated many
creative proposals in plan form for this future huge river park.
Each of the 8 comp plans produced in depth solutions for each zone that:
- produced optimal siteing for primary, high and junior colleges
- integrated adjacent arterial corridors with their development areas re acoustical solutions, creative underpass locations, etc.
- worked closely with electrical engineers for best alignment of 130 KV lines and creative siteing of their pylons for minimal impact.
- imaginative solutions for the many kilometers of 100m wide storm water channels that wound their way through many communities
- work closely with architects and planners to site and configure commercial centers in their brief areas
- draft designs for the recreational needs of the neighborhoods re sport fields, recreation centers, passive parkland, etc
- optimal siteing and access for the 19
hillside reservoirs and
design for the many km of trunk mains that supply them.
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Landscape architects were required to
incorporate and design for all three major regional service systems that
impacted their comprehensive
brief areas (see below). These were, from left to right, the 19 reservoir hill zone water
supply system, the 48km, 132KV electrical grid, and the
massive 132km(70mile)
overland storm water drainage system. I decided early on that these critical
infrastructure components must be dealt with
first in landscape
planning terms because of their huge impact on the visual and functional makeup
of the new city. Some of the basic criteria for each
of these infrastructure
components were:
Water Supply (Reservoirs)
- work with hydraulic engineers to get
each reservoir sited in the least obtrusive way possible. This
included hill access drives, cut slopes on
embankments being minimized and screened from residents on the valley floor below - nominate earth tone colors from an acceptable range I gave them. These colors had a huge effect on merging the structures into the hill zones
- create tasteful. related furniture for these monsters. e.g. signage, pump houses, visitor parking, guard rails, etc.
- plan for major trunk mains if they
are in your zone of influence. Get alignment details from the consultant
engineers and work with them in minimizing
impact of same in every way possible
Electrical Grid
- closely liaise with the ACT Electric
Authority to maximize opportunities for creative treatment of both the KV
lines and their 2ha substations if they
fall within your brief area--This includes - use of the newly introduced Austen
(self oxidizing steel) where possible. This steel forms a protective rich
brown layer of rust over its skin and
never needs painting and is a natural darker brown landscape color. BHP (Australia) introduced this material and it is expected to be widely
adopted in exterior applications for everything from KV Pylon towers, highway guard rails, bridge structures, signposts and many other furniture
applications that landscape architects should be interested in. - work with the electrical engineers in
trying to get the lines off of skylines where possible and to change
direction as much as possible to avoid
long straight runs - Aggressively landscape the KV
corridors within the planting guidelines provided in your brief. This
includes planting within and adjacent to
the corridor itself - If a sub station is in your brief
then provide imaginative site layout within the parameters set by the
engineers. Try to keep the structure low in
the landscape and aggressively screen the transformers as much as possible with both planting and earth forms. Create imaginative theme
furniture detail for the facility re signage, lighting, parking, etc.
Storm water channel network
- work closely with the hydraulic
engineers to shape these huge features into the overall landscape design for
your brief area. Engineers will
have their own parameters but are amenable to creative interpretation of same within reason - often these channels will be in arterial ROW's and will require a lot of attention to get right because of space restrictions
- consult the design
opportunities for these elements I have given you--be creative with both
alignment and planting--save vegetation and rock
where possible
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Trail and error taught me a lot about
designing for KV transmission lines and siteing water reservoirs. With KV lines
it boiled down to effective
use of several basic techniques:
- keep the pylons below the skyline
- avoid excessively long runs (over
200M) by deflecting the alignment within reason. (15 degree minimum). 40-60
degree deflections are great
but involve more elaborate cable stays to achieve this which mean higher costs and visually unappealing cable mazes at these junction points. - use austen steel exclusively for
pylon construction. The rich brown color fades into the background unlike
the raw look of hot dipped galvanized
metal or worse yet aluminum structures - meander and vary screen planting along the face of the ROW to create a more natural woodland character.
Most of the 18 hillside reservoirs
were of the lower height larger diameter configuration for efficiency and cost
considerations. This was fine with
me because it made making them fade into the hillside a lot easier even though
their footprints made more of a mess on the ground. Their lack of
height meant a combination of landform, earth tone colors, and tree planting
could screen them a lot easier than the more narrow but taller versions.
Fortunately only one or two of these had to built that way when site slope
made it impractical for larger diameter structures to be built.
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Steeper slopes dictated that only a limited
number of these taller units be built. Shown are early siteing studies for the
6.2M Gillmore unit. Often I made
additional use of these hillside sites by providing limited parking for hikers,
bird watchers, campers, etc. A small (120sm) multipurpose structure
was built for reservoir maintenance crews, public restrooms, and cook out and
connected to the regional multi trail system. Extensive use was made
of polyester geotextile matting impregnated with native plant seeds to minimize
slope erosion in the establishment phase of the site.
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Below is a composite view of the Hume
reservoir under construction with integral earth tone coloring added to the
concrete walls. Also shown
is a typical 132KV line near Calwell with the dark brown Austen steel pylons. To
the right is a plan view of a completed unit near Kambah showing
the close relationship these structures had with each community they impacted.
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Over 50 commercial centers ranging in size
from corner shops to regional malls were planned and scheduled for construction.
Each center
was given its own unique identity and character and landscape architects were an
integral part of every creation. Shown below is a component
makeup of the 3 basic types of centers in Tuggeranong--the corner store--the
neighborhood and regional complexes. The diagram below is
a 5 year scheduling chart for one of the 6 regional complex's. Highlighted are
the phased timing on both the main landscape contracts and
the associated irrigation system that is an integral part of the final landscape
solution.
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Tuggeranong's 26 primary and 11 high
schools, it's 4 junior colleges and one university were all planned, designed
and scheduled for construction
over an expected 25 year time frame. Shown below are typical analysis for one of
Wanniassa's primary schools and it's high school
(Wanniassa High)
Landscape architects from around Australia were briefed for
every one based on guidelines that I formulated.
The schedule below the diagram was
a printout for the 26 primary schools.
Highlighted are the 3 primary schools in Wanniassa and how the
landscape design and construction effort was
phased into the overall design and
build timing
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A printout for Tuggeranong's 26 primary
schools and how landscape design and construction was phased in. A huge
undertaking to put it mildly.
A typical 800 student primary school was about a three year pipeline from
initial briefing to doors swinging open for class. High schools were
considerably more complex than primary's because more sophisticated facilities
had to be incorporated (tennis, squash courts, parking lots, etc.
Community colleges were perhaps the most difficult to get right because of
frequent technical updates that are now endemic to higher education
the world over (internet classrooms, vocational training demands, etc)
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The 70 million dollar
recreation scheme
for Tuggeranong was planned
and phased down to the last basic sports unit. I tested each community as
we designed it to ensure an adequate and roughly equal distribution of
recreational facilities based on population caps for each community.
Landscape architects were heavily involved in both conceptual and detailed
design of all recreational facilities. This included golf courses, tennis
complexes, squash courts swimming centers, polo fields, and much more.
Construction scheduling for recreation is particularly demanding
because it hinges on so many other factors that are affected by weather,
periodic material shortages, etc.
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kent mccoy landscape architect
www.kentmccoy.com