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Thriving
on Collaboration
Neil Porterfield took over as department head in 1985, after more than 20 years in private practice. Also that year, President Reagan appointed him to the seven-member Commission of Fine Arts in Washington, D.C. (he served as vice chairman for most of his eight-year tenure on the commission). While department head, Porterfield oversaw the establishment of the master of landscape architecture degree program and made significant progress toward the re-establishment of the bachelor of landscape architecture degree program, which had been phased out in the early 1980s in favor of the four-year bachelor of science program.
Despite his successes as a university administrator, Porterfield had never planned on entering academe. “However, once I was at Penn State, I never wanted to leave, even though I was offered positions at other universities… There’s something about coming back to your alma mater.”
As department head, Porterfield got the ball rolling on a number of projects he was later able to implement as dean. In the late 1980s, he and Raneiro Corbelletti, head of the Department of Architecture, began discussions about forming a School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, which was eventually established in 1997 (the school will be moving into a new building in fall 2005—see box on page 2). After spending half his career working at Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum Inc. (HOK), one of the world’s largest multidisciplinary design firms, Porterfield understood the importance of collaboration—and also how difficult collaboration can be. “Landscape architects have always collaborated with many other people—our profession depends on it. … Seeing how difficult multidisciplinary collaboration was in the professional world made me realize that undergraduate programs throughout the country provided few opportunities for interdisciplinary studies or collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.”
Porterfield became dean of the College of Arts and Architecture in 1993. Eliza Pennypacker, a faculty member since 1982, became interim head of the department and was formally appointed department head in 1996.
In the mid-1990s, the department spent two years redesigning the bachelor of landscape architecture program, focusing on broadening students’ viewpoints. The resulting program included a required semester abroad (a requirement in few other landscape architecture programs nationwide), in addition to electives to obtain a minor. “The result has been graduates whose breadth of perspective is phenomenal,” says Pennypacker.
The last few years of the 20th century were eventful for the department. In addition to the creation of the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture in 1997, several other collaborative efforts were initiated, including the Center for Watershed Stewardship, the Stuckeman Center for Design Computing, the Hamer Center for Community Design Assistance and the Raymond A. Bowers Program for Excellence in Design and Construction of the Built Environment (see box on page 4).
According to Pennypacker, those initiatives reflect the “inherently interdisciplinary nature of landscape architecture, as well as the considerable breadth of our field.” In addition to providing opportunities for collaboration, the centers have helped to attract graduate students, as well as expand the department’s tradition of outreach and service to communities, she notes.
In 1995, the Department of Landscape Architecture also established the Center for Studies in Landscape History, which promotes interdisciplinary dialogue among scholars of landscape history and provides consulting services and service-based learning activities that focus on combining scholarship and practice. Acclaimed landscape architect and Penn State alumnus A. E. Bye (’42 B.S. L.Arch.) donated his papers to the center, and they are held in the Penn State University Archives. The center has hosted several international conferences that have attracted practitioners and scholars in a wide variety of disciplines.
The 21st Century
Brian Orland succeeded Pennypacker as department head when she stepped down in 2000 to become Penn State’s director of campus planning and design (she later returned to the landscape architecture faculty). Orland brought with him the Imaging Systems Laboratory, which he had established while a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The lab specializes in the application and evaluation of information systems for environmental management.
Over the past several years, the department has made further efforts to show students the importance of collaboration by engaging them in projects with professionals and organizations outside the University. Through a new course, Community Assessment, Planning and Design, students have been working with residents of South Allison Hill, a diverse, low-income Harrisburg neighborhood, to help them revitalize their community. Sam Dennis, a former faculty member, developed the course to give students experience in collaborative design using asset-based community development. The partnership has produced a park and a landlord map showing the owner of every building in the neighborhood, among other resources.
Jesse Hunting, who took Dennis’s class in fall 2002, has continued to work with the residents of South Allison Hill, even spending summers in the neighborhood. The mayor of Harrisburg took note of Hunting’s dedication and awarded him the Distinguished Community Service Award, the city’s highest recognition for public service. Hunting, a two-time recipient of the prestigious Morris K. Udall Scholarship, is grooming a younger student to lead the South Allison Hill effort after he graduates in spring 2005.
Students
also learn about collaboration in the Regional Landscape Studio, where they
work alongside professionals on a large-scale landscape study. In 2002, students
examined the Susquehanna Greenway as part of the Susquehanna Greenway Partnership,
which involves nearly 260 communities along the 500-mile Susquehanna River.
They analyzed the greenway and shared their findings through public charrettes,
where they also solicited ideas for how the greenway should be developed.
Their research data will ultimately be used in Susquehanna Greenway Partnership
final reports. This course is team-taught by Ken Tamminga and Tom
Yahner (and previously Dan Jones, who will retire
later this year).
Since Penn State’s landscape architecture program was established in 1906, it has grown to include approximately 200 undergraduate students and 10 students in the post-professional master of landscape architecture degree program. The integrated bachelor and master of landscape architecture degree program, established in 1998 for returning adult students, also has about 10 students. There are approximately 20 full-time faculty members, many of whom have spent much of their careers at Penn State, reflecting the collegial, collaborative environment in the department.
According to Jim DeTuerk, the character of the landscape architecture faculty made him teach at Penn State for more than 30 years. “They’re an honest, straightforward group… Since Wayne Wilson was program chair, the department has been a group effort, always working together.” Don Leslie agrees, noting one of the department’s greatest strengths is its commitment to team teaching, which has positively impacted graduates in their careers.
Eliza Pennypacker says the quality of both students and faculty in the department makes for a great working environment. “Our people, both faculty and students—who have always been a wonderfully collegiate group—become more accomplished each year. This is not the same department I joined in 1982! It’s every bit as delightful as it was then, but so many exciting additions and changes have greatly improved all facets of quality. I’m extremely proud to be a member of this department.”
