LARCP Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity
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Item Open Access The Ellis Trail to Nicodemus: Revealing Stories in the Landscape of Black Westward Settlement - Discovery Phase Design Plan(2024) Wigfall, La Barbara James; Kingery-Page, Katie (Mary Catherine); Wiersma, Erin R.; Epps, Kristen; Bates, Angela; Alexander, RobertNicodemus, Kansas, is the longest continuously inhabited, Black townsite west of the Mississippi River. The townsite of Nicodemus remains today as home to approximately twenty-four persons, who act as stewards of their historical legacy with support from thousands of former residents and descendants of the families of those freed people who settled in Nicodemus in the 1870s. Nicodemus represents the achievements of a group of formerly enslaved people who entered the West to experience freedom, autonomy, and homesteading through the establishment of their own town. The Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum’s (executive director, Angela Bates) original research has deepened understanding of the Ellis Trail to Nicodemus, a foot path and separate wagon trail used by newcomers to Nicodemus traversing the rolling grassland bluffs from the Ellis train station to their new home thirty-five miles away. The Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum has pieced together the trail route through painstaking research of recorded oral histories, photographs, and new interviews with descendants of Nicodemus settlers and white settlers along the Trail route. During the two-year National Endowment of the Humanities, Discovery Phase project, Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum worked with faculty members at Kansas State University and other humanities and digital media advisers to reveal this little-known aspect of Nicodemus’s history. This project interprets the cultural landscape of the Ellis Trail, a now invisible route winding through mid-grass prairie, down wooded riparian ravines, and along limestone bluffs; the wagon trail is sometimes visible as traces and sometimes now replaced by roadways. The product of this project is a thorough design plan for the digital product, an interactive website for viewers (a broad online audience ranging from middle school youth to adults) to understand the journey the first Nicodemus settlers took by wagon and on foot to the townsite. The website’s pages will also be connected to the physical landscape with an auto-tour along the Ellis Trail route, using smart codes to offer in-depth information about the settlers’ experience and the landscape’s hidden narrative. This Design Plan focuses upon specific humanities themes to be included, the visual and audio-visual assets to include, and a thorough site map for the website.Item Open Access Examples of adapted ethnographic approaches for participatory design(Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.) Kingery-Page, Katie; Glastetter, Abigail; DeOrsey, Danielle; Falcone, Jessica M.; kkp; jfalconeIn landscape architecture practice, participatory design approaches emphasize community workshops and charrettes. But marginalized voices are often suppressed during group meetings, if those at the margins are invited at all. To expand inclusion in the design process, we propose adapting classic ethnographic methods such as one-on-one interviews and direct observation. The benefit of adapted ethnography is that it gives us first-person accounts of a place and of people’s needs. Adapted ethnographic methods allow designers to observe how people really use and feel about places, and are well-suited to one-on-one interactions with stakeholders. Although ethnographic methods can be usefully adapted to landscape architecture processes, this adaptation differs from true ethnography. Developing an ethnographic narrative is a deep and long term endeavor, often occupying the majority of an ethnographer’s career. To adapt ethnographic methods for use during a relatively short period of time, a spatial designer must limit the inquiry to a specific “lens” or particular question related to the community design at hand. Recently, we used an adapted ethnographic approach in the design process for a temporary park and associated streetscape in a Midwestern city with slightly less than a half million residents. We sought to understand downtown resident’s lived experiences downtown, their perceptions of downtown place identity, and what they most valued in a temporary park.Item Open Access Built Environment Factors Influencing Walking to School Behaviors: A Comparison between a Small and Large US CityKim, Hyung Jin; Heinrich, Katie M.; hyungjin; kmhphdA growing body of evidence supports the association between the built environment and children walking to school (WTS), but few studies have compared WTS behaviors in cities of different sizes. This case-comparison study utilized WTS data from fourth graders in the small city of Manhattan, KS, USA (N = 171, from all eight schools) and data from fourth graders in the large city of Austin, TX, USA (N = 671 from 19 stratified-sampled schools). The same survey instrument was used in both locations. After controlling for socioeconomic and demographic variables, built environment, neighborhood, and attitudinal differences were demonstrated by the odds ratios for WTS in the small city vs. the large city. WTS in the small city was more likely to be associated with walking paths/trails and sidewalk landscape buffers en route to school despite lower perceived neighborhood social cohesion, school bus availability, and parental concerns about crime, compared to WTS in the large city. Also, the small city lacked key pedestrian infrastructure elements that were present in the large city. This study highlights important differences related to WTS behaviors and, thus, provides key insights for encouraging WTS in cities of different sizes.Item Open Access Political Fragmentation Indicator Database(2015-02-06) Keane, Timothy D.; Kim, Jae Hong; Bernard, Eric; whiskerThe Political Fragmentation Indicator Database is an outcome of the NSF CNH-Ex #1114931: Political Fragmentation in Local Governance and Water Resource Management project. The database contains a range of metrics that represent varying degrees of political fragmentation at multiple geographic scales. There are two files available for download. The Microsoft Access file (the “.accdb” file) contains the database and the Adobe PDF file is a detailed description of the database. The PDF file provides: 1) A description of the geographic scales, key approaches to measuring political fragmentation and effectiveness of natural resource management. 2) Descriptions of individual metrics and data sources. 3) A set of correlation analysis outcomes that explain how the metrics are interrelated with each other (at a single geographical scale or over the hierarchy) to promote appropriate uses of the data with the consideration of the interrelationships among the indicators.Item Open Access The Middle School Syndrome(2014-12-03) Gibson, Huston J.; hgibsonThis manuscript explores the notion of the middle. Whether discussing birth order, cars, housing, or schools, first and last seems to overshadow the middle. In particular, when investigating K-12 public schools and their relationship to housing prices, a “Middle School Syndrome” was uncovered.Item Open Access Site as experiential playground: artistic research for a learning landscape(2014-08-20) Kingery-Page, Katie; Melvin, Rebecca J.; kkpThe contemporary American schoolyard remains an under-utilized opportunity for experiential learning. Contemporary public schoolyards are often designed in response to perceptions of liability and a limited interpretation of child development. This paper examines a design proposal for an un-built, natural learning landscape through two lenses: epistemology and form. First, we propose that designers of school landscapes embrace artistic research as a humanities mode of knowledge. We illustrate an artistic research process using the design of an experiential schoolyard. Second, we present an un-built, primary grade schoolyard design as an exemplar for natural play and learning. Beginning with literature review of research on play and experiential learning, the proposed design layers child development, humanities, and landscape architectural knowledge to form a provisional understanding of how form and space may affect the child’s play experience.Item Open Access Sunset Zoo bio-retention area gardens (K-State demonstration project) [Information sheet](2013-12-19) Skabelund, Lee R.; lskabItem Open Access Final report for KDHE-KSU rain garden demo project (grant period: 2/1/07 to 6/30/08)(2013-12-19) Skabelund, Lee R.; lskabItem Open Access Kansas State University, Seaton Hall green roof demonstration project [information sheet](2013-12-19) Skabelund, Lee R.; lskabItem Open Access A designer's guide to bio-retention area planning, design, and implementation(2013-12-19) Skabelund, Lee R.; Brokesh, Dea; lskab; brokeshItem Open Access A designer's guide to small-scale retro-fit green roof planning, design, and implementation(2013-12-19) Skabelund, Lee R.; Brokesh, Dea; lskab; brokeshItem Open Access The neighborhood unit concept and the shaping of American land planning 1912-1968(2013-08-26) Brody, Jason S.; jbrodyAlthough one of the more well-known concepts in planning, both planning scholars and professional communities such as the New Urbanism have neglected the neighbourhood unit concept's historic influence in shaping suburban land planning norms. This paper analyzes contemporaneous professional and governmental literature in order to understand the context of land planning and development during the time that the neighbourhood unit became a leading idea. Between 1912 and 1968 the neighbourhood unit concept bridged planning, design, development and policy-making communities to improve standards in the construction of residential environments by shifting the scale of development to an area as a whole. In this time period the neighbourhood unit concept shaped land planning norms, facilitated execution of policies, framed new institutions, and became associated with the changes that it helped to bring about.Item Open Access Case Studies of Low-Energy Homes and Sites in Northeastern Kansas and Kansas City Metropolitan Area(Kansas State Unviersity. College of Architecture, Planning & Design, 2013-02-05) Clement, Lorn; Lewis, Katrina; Kingery-Page, Katie; lacjr; kkp; katrinaLow-energy housing is defined as housing that conserves both source (energy used off-site) and site energy through a variety of strategies, including a reduction in the use of purchased energy and conscious use of materials and techniques that reduce the embodied energy cost of the home and site.While low-energy housing has been extensively studied by the US Green Building Council and others, research tends to focus upon technologies used in the construction of homes, rather than the full optimization of site and building relationships. In order to explore optimal site-structure relationships for low-energy housing and introduce early design students to fundamental case study practices, three faculty members led a total of forty-four students in a study of three sites. The resulting case study sites include homes ranging in building cost from $150,00-$600,000 and employing a variety of both passive and active energy saving techniques. The case studies can be characterized as: a high-design urban lot home, a rural "earthship" home, and a suburban LEED platinum-certified retirement home. This interdisciplinary research effort included forty-one undergraduate students and three graduate students, all of whom were just beginning the interior architecture and product design program or the landscape architecture program at Kansas State University. The case study pedagogy employed experiential learning during site visits and in the context of teamwork between the two disciples. Students and professors visited the three low‐energy homes on a one day field trip in Kansas and Missouri. The case studies’goal was to shed light on the interplay between interior (building) concerns and exterior (site) concerns in the creation of low‐energy environments that are functional and beautiful. The authors wish to thank Kansas State University for supporting this effort through a university small research grant.Item Open Access Application of Rosgen's BANCS model for NE Kansas and the development of predictive streambank erosion curves(2012-09-12) Sass, Christopher K.; Keane, Timothy D.; whisker, csassSedimentation of waterways and reservoirs directly related to streambank erosion threatens freshwater supply. This study sought to provide a tool that accurately predicts annual streambank erosion rates in NE Kansas. Rosgen (2001, 2006) methods were employed and 18 study banks were measured and monitored from 2007 through 2010 (May-June). Bank profiles were overlaid to calculate toe pin area change due to erosional processes. Streambanks experienced varied erosion rates from similar Bank Erosion Hazard Index (BEHI)-Near Bank Stress (NBS) combinations producing R[superscript]2 values of 0.77 High-Very High BEHI rating and 0.75 Moderate BEHI rating regarding predictive erosion curves for NE Kansas. Moderate ratings demonstrated higher erosion rates than High-Very High ratings and BEHI trend lines intersected at lower NBS ratings, suggesting a discrepancy in the fit of the model to conditions in the NE Kansas region. BEHI model factors were evaluated and assessed for additional influences exerted in the region. Woody vegetation adjacent to the stream seemed to provide the most variation in erosion rates. This study's findings allowed us to calibrate and modify the existing BEHI model according to woody vegetation occurrence levels along streambanks with high clay content. Modifications regarding vegetation occurrence of the BEHI model was completed and the results of these modifications generated new curves resulting in R[superscript]2 values of 0.84 High-Very High BEHI and 0.88 Moderate BEHI ratings.Item Open Access School facility age and classroom technology: The influence of stakeholder participation in the technology planning process.(2011-10-19) Gibson, Huston J.; hgibsonThis study begins by examining the relationship between public K-12 school facility age and student access to modern classroom technological resources, driven by questioning “newer equals better” assumptions. The method of analysis employed is multivariate cross-sectional regression. The unit of analysis is the individual school, by school type (elementary, middle, high). Academic school year 2004/05 data are used. The study geography is the Orlando, Florida area (Orange and Seminole Counties). The findings indicate that classroom technology measures, while positively associated with newer school facilities, have no statistically significant relationship with school facility age. Instead, however, having more participants involved in the school technology planning process is found to be the most statistically significant variable included in the model, in relation to greater measures of technology in the school classroom. These findings are intended relevant for educational facility discourse on school facility age and classroom technology.Item Open Access A Grassroots Effort to Renew the Schoolyard: The Learning Garden(2011-05-24) Kingery-Page, Katie; Hunt, John D.; Teener, Linda; kkp; jdhunt; lteenerLike thousands of schools across the United States, Northview Elementary School in Manhattan, Kansas plans to infuse kids’ lives with nature. Educators, community advocates, and parents gathered funds, drew plans, and constructed a learning garden because they saw its potential to affect students. This paper documents the case of Northview and reviews research relevant to the establishment and success of schoolyard gardens.Item Open Access Landscape and Contemporary Art: Overlap, Disregard, and Relevance(2011-05-24) Kingery-Page, Katie; kkpLandscape, viewed for centuries by the art world as either an inspirational source for art or as a kind of decorative art, emerged with a new prominence during the twentieth century. Artists and landscape architects now share a realm of overlapping practice. By understanding contemporary art as a body of knowledge and art itself as a ‘mode of knowledge,’ students, educators, and practitioners of landscape architecture can compete more effectively with other ‘form-givers’ in 21st century culture. Art as a mode of knowledge is often disregarded within landscape architecture, in favor of seemingly more analytical approaches to design research dilemmas. Using examples of 20th and 21st century urban art, I argue for art as a mode of knowledge relevant to current landscape architecture practices. I demonstrate the results of applying normative artistic research to a student design project.Item Open Access Shades of Comfort: Privacy and the Street(2010-06-24T21:31:06Z) Kingery-Page, Katie; kkpConditions of pedestrian comfort have been evaluated by other researchers as they relate to climate, protection from vehicles, and spatial conditions of the street. But in a discourse that emphasizes the public nature of the street, privacy is seldom addressed. A person’s ability to regulate privacy, both in seclusion and in public, is an aspect of personal freedom. Privacy occurs and is necessary in public space, especially in dense urban environments, where privacy indoors may be limited. Privacy is a complex phenomenon dependant above all upon the individual’s desired level of privacy. The researcher uses working definitions of privacy and exposure based upon social, psychological, and legal definitions. Beginning with the theory that achieving a desired level of privacy has a profound effect on the comfort of a person on the street, the researcher identifies and describes factors that allow for privacy regulation on the street. This exploratory research uses a phenomenological method of systematically noting subjective responses to the street setting.Item Open Access The Post-Modern Analytique(Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, 2010-06-24T21:22:51Z) Kingery-Page, Katie; kkpThe 'analytique' is a Beaux-Arts approach to teaching design principles through an 'order problem' which relies on the analysis and representation of built work. The term 'analytique' refers to the product of a student's study: a carefully composed and drawn expression of the solution, emphasizing the relationship of parts to the whole, and of details to overall proportions. This paper presents a post-modern approach to the analytique. The post-modern analytique expresses the nature of current practice in landscape architecture: pluralistic in meaning, expressed through layered references and materials, and focused upon 'ideas, not authors.' This paper first presents an overview of the Beaux-Arts analytique and then defines 'post-modern.' Examples of student analytique projects, made using both traditional and digital media, illustrate the post-modern approach to the analytique.
