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Digital Landscape Architecture Archive Developed by Utah State University and Design Workshop to be Featured at March 25 EventArchive Viewed as a Benchmark for the Future of Digital Preservation of Landscape Architecture Projects and Will Serve as an Educational Tool for Students 21 March 2011 Salt Lake City – In 2010, Design Workshop, Inc., an international landscape architecture and planning firm, and Utah State University (USU) formed a partnership to create the Design Workshop Landscape Architecture Archive and Digital Collection. The archive is a collaborative effort between Design Workshop, USU’s Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning (LAEP), Merrill-Cazier Library’s Special Collections and Archives, and the Library’s Digital Initiatives Department. The archive will be highlighted in a special presentation as part of the 2011 Utah American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Annual Meeting, which will be held at USU on March 25, 2011. The following are some details of the presentation:
The Design Workshop Archives and Digital Collection at USU focuses on the firm’s early work in a pilot effort to bring each piece to life via carefully selected materials, colorful visuals and engaging audio. The selected projects in the archive highlight the firm’s Legacy Design® philosophy, which focuses on an equal balance of four key elements: environment, community, economics and art. Merrill-Cazier Library is in the process of adding this archive collection to its Digital Library and partnering with LAEP to develop learning objects for students, both at USU and around the world, according to Brad Cole, Merrill-Cazier Library associate dean for Special Collections and Archives. “The archive is truly groundbreaking in both the professional and academic worlds of landscape architecture. This partnership has allowed us to create a digital library like no other in the country in the way it captures and transforms how we tell the history of our firm and the evolution of our project portfolio,” said Kurt Culbertson, Design Workshop’s chairman of the board of directors. “Our work is inspired by the West and USU’s landscape architectural studies are at the center of teaching the design spirit of the West.” Additionally, the records will inform more than just landscape architects and environmental planners. “These documents help tell of the development of the modern western United States,” said Cole. “They deal with recreational sites and planned communities and how this development interacts with the natural environment. One of Special Collections’ main collecting emphasis areas is in Western environmental collections. The Design Workshop Collection will definitely be a boon to those researchers studying the history of the 20th century West.” Design Workshop’s founding partners, Joe Porter and Don Ensign, graduated from USU in 1963, earning bachelor’s degrees in landscape architecture. Other USU graduates followed and joined the firm, including Richard Shaw, Todd Johnson and Terrall Budge, among others. “In the process of providing access to the firm’s genesis, evolution and workings, the archive offers students the most comprehensive look available into how leading designers and design firms succeed at their trade. Design Workshop has an impressive history with a story that can enrich future generations,” said Sean Michael, head of USU’s LAEP department.About Design Workshop |
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