Landscape Site Grading Principles: Grading with Design in Mind

By Bruce G. Sharky

A complete guide to site grading for designers and other visual learners

Grading With Design in Mind: Landscape Site Grading Principles is a comprehensive guide to grading, written specifically from the design perspective. Heavily illustrated and non-technical, this book meets the needs of designers and visual learners by presenting the principles and methods of site grading with less emphasis on engineering, and a strong focus on the effect on the overall aesthetic. Written by a professor in America's number-one ranked undergraduate landscape architecture program, the book guides readers step-by-step through the process of solving various grading problems in real-life scenarios.

Landscape designers, landscape architects, and engineers need to have a deep understanding of site grading as the foundation of any project. Grading plans must not only solve practical requirements, but also create landforms that contribute to the aesthetic ambition of the overall site and architectural design concept. Grading With Design in Mind takes a highly visual approach to presenting modern grading techniques and considerations, providing designers the guidance they need to become competent in site grading while understanding the design implications of the subject. Features include:

• Numerous illustrations to support the text
• Step-by-step examples
• Professional grading plans

Studying the professional grading plans helps readers better understand the real-world application of grading principles in different situations. Site grading is a complicated topic with plenty of on-site variables, but Grading with Design in Mind breaks it down into clear, concise instruction with value to both professionals and students in the field of landscape design.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Dec 31, 2014
• ISBN: 9781118931400

Book preview

Cover image: Wiley

Cover design: Measurement, topography and courtyard Images: © Bruce Sharky; Center landscape Image: © Design Workshop

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Sharky, Bruce.

Landscape site grading principles: grading with design in mind / Bruce Sharky.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-66872-6 (cloth : acid-free paper); 978-1-118-93139-4 (ebk); 978-1-118-93140-0 (ebk)

1. Landscape construction. 2. Building sites. 3. Grading (Earthwork) 4. Landscape architecture. I. Title.

TH380.S53 2014

624.1'52—dc23

201400839

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Gracías Nolita

Preface

Landscape Site Grading Principles embodies a new approach for teaching site grading for designers who think and learn visually. Knowledge and skill in site grading are essential areas of service for landscape architects and allied design professionals. Demonstration of competency in site grading is a significant component in the test for obtaining professional licensure to practice landscape architecture. Site grading plans must not only solve practical requirements and meet various governmental standards but also create landforms that contribute to the aesthetic ambition of the overall landscape site and architectural design concepts. Landscape Site Grading Principles will provide students with the necessary background, knowledge, and problem-solving skill set to develop landscape-grading plans that meet standards of care related to meeting public health, safety, and welfare design standards.

The predominant site grading textbooks used in site grading courses take an engineering approach. Landscape Site Grading Principles teaches grading principles through visual means to better meet the needs of the visual learner. It provides a hands-on approach to allow students to better understand grading principles. This is accomplished by integrating text with illustrative diagrams and actual examples photographed in the everyday landscape.

Finding a more effective approach to teaching site grading has been a goal of mine. I have found that students seem to better grasp grading concepts when I utilize a more hands-on approach. For example, I have taken blackboard chalk out with me on campus walks with students to draw hypothetical contours and spot elevations on the ground, walls, and other surfaces. I find doing this helps students visualize what they have struggled to visualize reading existing textbooks. I have also used PowerPoint presentations, but this method, while visual, does not necessarily help students visualize how to apply my description of the images on the screen to manipulating the site contours and making the required spot elevation calculations for their assignments. While most students view grading and other technology-related courses as something other than design, in fact grading is just as much a design subject, and just as visual, as any other aspect of landscape design. Although landscape grading does involve a certain amount of computation, many students do not readily see what they are creating from calculating spot elevations and reconfigured contours. With the publication of Landscape Site Grading Principles, faculty will be able to help students more readily visualize grading concepts and solutions and become successful at solving site grading problems while creating aesthetic solutions.

Site grading education continuously evolves, and curricula change, reflecting the changing nature of the design professions and the nature of professional practice. Site grading is typically taught as a stand-alone course in a landscape architecture and architecture curriculum technical stream. Although this approach will most likely continue, there is a growing consideration of greater integration of site grading and technology with the design studio stream. Landscape Site Grading Principles is written to address the ambition for more effective integration of design and site grading by placing emphasis on the design implications of site grading.

Landscape Site Grading Principles recognizes that students enter landscape architecture and related professions with an academic preparation and set of life experiences influenced greatly by computers and other technology. Walking around a high school or college campus, one will quickly notice that most of the students’ heads are tilted downward as they walk across campus or sit amongst their friends, with thumbs flying, either texting their friends or doing Google searches. College students come into academic life well versed in and adept at a range of computer skills, and they expect the computer to be their primary means of doing their course assignments, including those in landscape architecture studio and technology courses. While these students are highly computer literate, they may not have a sound grasp of the physicality of the world. This is particularly true of concepts of scale and of the substance and dimensions of the material world they pass through every day. This statement may not apply for everyone, but it is important for technical courses—such as site grading—to give students more hands-on experience of the materials and elements they will be designing. Landscape Site Grading Principles will provide as close a hands-on experience as possible of the physical elements that a course in grading must address for the students. Actual examples photographed in the everyday landscape are liberally integrated with the text, to help students better see, and hopefully grasp, landscape-grading concepts.

Landscape Site Grading Principles will prepare students to become competent in landscape grading while understanding the design implications of the subject. This goal will be accomplished in several ways. First, the book presents principles of site grading and the knowledge necessary for gaining competency. Second, it presents the material using a variety of visual and graphic aids in support of the written explanations. Third, step-by-step examples will walk the student through the process for solving several types of grading problems. Chapters will also contain professional examples of grading plans, to help students better understand how principles are applied in different circumstances.

Much of the content in the first half-dozen chapters is material that was previously taught in specific preparatory courses that were considered prerequisites to courses in site grading but have gradually been eliminated from the curricula. This background material has been included in the early chapters to provide students of landscape site grading with the necessary preparation and context for the professional conventions and knowledge needed to understand landscape site grading as an important piece of the project design continuum.

Although writing is often a solitary endeavor, even the writer who goes solo has many people to acknowledge, credit, and thank for their unique contributions. Foremost, I must thank my teachers: the students who have taken my landscape site grading courses and from whom I learned much, through their eyes, about site grading and design. Undoubtedly, significant credit must be given to Sarah Zelenak, an MLA student assigned to me as a graduate research assistant. Sarah has had the heart and skill to translate my rough diagrams, sketches, and markups of many photographs into a format suitable for publication. She provided the professional graphic polish that I think makes this textbook unique with its reliance on imagery to convey concepts presented in the text.

Margaret Cummins of John Wiley & Sons saw the potential of this book from reading my original book proposal and guided me with her good counsel through the review process. She was assisted by Michael New, also of Wiley, in the day-to-day questions I had once the writing of the book was under way. Thanks also to Professor Bradley Cantrell, Director of the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture, for his support by assigning a graduate research assistant to assist me in the graphic preparations. Professor Van Cox, Brad’s predecessor, assigned my graduate assistant Jia Li, who translated early hand-drawn diagrams and graphic ideas I was experimenting with during the early stages of research. Both Sarah and Jia are extraordinary talents. I would recommend both as they develop their professional careers.

Appreciation for their contributions is due to a number of landscape architecture firms who responded to my request for outstanding examples of designs where site grading played a central role in their projects. I appreciate all the firms and their contributions, particularly in their selection of exemplary design projects that I hope will serve as an inspiration to students of site grading. In particular I would like to thank:

Doug Reed and Alex Strader of Reed-Hilderbrand

Sarhar Coston-Hardy of the Olin Studio

Tegan Holly of RHHA

Izabela Riano of Michael Van Valkenburgh

M. Reed Dillingham of Dillingham Associates

Dale Horchner and Kurt Culbertson of Design Workshop

Rhett Rentrop of SWA Group

Tary Arteburn of Studio Outside

Robert Loftis of Morrow Reardon Wilkinson Miller

Jennifer Harbourt of Reich Associates

Professor Sadik Artunc allowed me to select several of his original site grading exercises to adapt in this book. Marshall Roy, IT analyst of the LSU College of Art + Design, helped debug troublesome computer files and resolve software issues. Kevin Duffy helped in the photography studio to set up map photographs. Vincent Cellucci, coordinator of my college’s Communication Across the Curriculum studio, was one of two people who inspired me to take on the project. The other was Professor Michael Pitts of the LSU School of Architecture, who—unbeknownst to him—inspired my own effort by his writing project on sustainable design in architecture. Unavoidably, there are probably some omissions. I offer my apologies, but most importantly my appreciation. Though you may have been omitted in print, I thank you.

Photographs, diagrams, and images are the author’s unless otherwise noted. Reference is given where photographs, plans, and other images are from third-party sources.

Finally, I thank my wife, Nola, whose support made this work possible. While I did try to keep up with various duties around the house, our usual summer travels together were supplanted by my writing alone, with my head down at my computer and iPad. This project would not have happened without her encouragement and patience.

Chapter 1

Some Background on the Subject of Site Grading

Site Grading Informs Design

Inspired landscape designs contain at least one vital ingredient: an inspired grading design. Many designers consider landscape grading as the generative basis for many of their successful landscape site designs. The ambition of this text is to present an approach to grading that will prepare students not only to grasp and master concepts of landscape site grading but to develop site-grading and drainage design solutions that are both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Students reading this text will appreciate that the underlying approach considers grading as an integral component of site design. Design should be in their thoughts as they walk from their design studio class and into the classroom where their grading course is held. Just as they spend their design studio class time and their evenings striving to develop exciting and inspiring landscape design solutions, they should experience this same enthusiasm in the hours they spend developing grading assignments.

Cultures throughout history have modified the native landscape to accommodate their activities and to facilitate their survival. The Native Americans who settled in what is now Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico found a river valley suitable for habitation and managing their crops (Figure 1.1-A). Modifications of the existing landscape were required to enable them to adapt to the landscape they found. In some cases the modifications were substantial, and in other cases little change was required. In contrast, the designers of Teardrop Park, a high-rise residential development in Lower Manhattan, New York City, were challenged with making substantial modifications of the existing ground to realize the award-winning site design (Figure 1.1-B). In both cases the resulting landform seems natural—that is, it does not appear that very much modification of the existing ground occurred, while in fact a great deal of site grading was required.

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Figure 1.1-A: Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

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Figure 1.1-B: Teardrop Park, New York City

Figures 1.2-A and 1.2-B provide an example of a utilitarian application of site grading to accommodate human activities. What appears as a flat lawn area is in fact a sophisticated site-grading design with subtle slopes to disperse rainwater. The site also required an equally sophisticated soil preparation and underground drainage system to support a healthy lawn capable of withstanding a large crowd.

Site grading is an integral aspect of specialized landscape designs. Elaborate and aesthetically pleasing landforms are developed in designs for specialized uses such as golf course greens, skateboard parks (Figure 1.3-A), and outdoor event spaces (Figure 1.3-B). Site grading is as much an art form as a disciplined application of specific practical and functional considerations.

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Figure 1.2-A: Bryant Park, New York City, in the early morning

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Figure 1.2-B: Bryant Park, New York City, later in the afternoon

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Figure 1.3-A: Alamosa Skate Park in Albuquerque, NM

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Figure 1.3-B: Stern Grove Amphitheater, San Francisco, CA

Let’s Begin

Some time ago, someone gave me a round metal badge (see Figure 1.4) with the message Time for Design. I have long forgotten who gave me the badge and the organization behind the badge. For the last several years I have worn the badge at the first few class meetings of the introductory site-grading course I teach. I have found that students generally do not think of grading as having much to do with design, at least at the beginning of the course. Their impression is that design studio is about design, and the site-grading course is about math. When they come to the grading class they turn off the design side of their brains. It seems they set aside what they have learned in design studio when working on grading exercises and projects. I go out of my way, during the early meetings of the landscape site-grading course, to stress the importance of design and to explain, verbally and with visual examples, how site grading is fundamental to achieving creative as well as functionally appropriate, responsive landscape designs. The process of grading and the exploration of reshaping the land can inform design.

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Figure 1.4: Grading involves design and can be the generative basis of an outstanding site design

The Importance of Grading in Design

Students readily understand the need for, and importance of, design studio courses in the curriculum. And of course they spend most of their waking hours—including late into the night—on their design projects. When a design project is due, students will be working on their designs in my grading class. I have worked to figure out how to reprogram design students to understand and believe in the importance of landscape site grading during their academic preparation, because they will surely come to realize grading’s important role after graduation, during their early professional careers.

I have given all this a lot of thought, asking why grading often takes a back seat to design and some other courses. I have come up with a number of possible explanations. A majority of design students are visual learners, but grading texts do not approach the subject of landscape site grading in visual terms. The nonvisual approach used in existing textbooks employs left-brain content in presenting the material, and walks students through grading as basically problem solving, learning to apply mathematical formulas. Another explanation that I can get my arms around—one that is not so slippery to defend—is that students do not necessarily understand what it means to be a well-rounded and effective professional landscape architect or designer. So it is important, in the introductory grading course, to describe the context of grading in the continuum of academic preparation and professional practice. Students must be taught that grading is not an accessory but a key element in the design process, leading through design development, contract drawing preparations, and finally to the building of their projects. Grading can be the generative basis of arriving at a design concept. Given the generative potential of site grading, an introductory course in grading should be approached as a design activity. Like design, grading can be approached as a reiterative process and not a straight-line process with a beginning-to-end trajectory. Additionally, students should think of grading as the framework for design. Solving site-grading problems, like design, is a process grounded on in a body of knowledge that students must come to understand and master. Another parallel to design: Site grading involves the mastery of representational graphic skills necessary for clearly communicating a design intention, as well as for problem solving. Lastly, I alert students to the fact that in order to become licensed professionals they will have to successfully pass all portions of a landscape architecture licensure examination (a national examination administered by individual states) that tests for competency not only in planning and design but also in grading, drainage, professional practice, history, plants, and topics unique by state in some cases1.

Site grading is typically taught as a stand-alone course in the technology stream of a landscape architecture or allied discipline curriculum. While this approach will most likely continue, there is a growing consideration for greater integration of site grading, and technology in general, with the design studio stream. This book is written to address the ambition to achieve a greater integration of design and site grading by placing emphasis on the design implications of site grading and presenting the material visually as well as textually. In considering how to approach writing this text, the author recognizes that students enter a program with an academic preparation and set of life experiences influenced greatly by computer and other technology.

A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Walking around a high school or college campus, one will quickly notice that most of the students’ heads are tilted downward as they walk across campus or sit amongst their friends, with thumbs flying, either texting or doing Google searches. College students come into academic life well versed in and adept at a range of computer skills, and they expect the computer to be their primary means of doing their course assignments, including those in landscape architecture studio courses. While these students are highly computer literate, they may not have a sound grasp of the physicality of the world. I mean by this, that they may not understand concepts of scale or have knowledge of the physical attributes of the material world they pass through every day (such as its dimensions, construction materials and details, and design codes). This statement may not ring true for everyone, but it would benefit students to give them more hands-on experience of the materials they will be working with in solving for grading solutions. This text attempts to provide as close a hands-on experience as possible of the physical elements that a course in grading must address for the students. Actual examples, photographed in the everyday landscape, are integrated with the text (as in Figures 1.5-A and 1.5-B).

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Figure 1.5-A: Contour lines superimposed on a landscape

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Figure 1.5-B: Contour lines as they might be shown in plan view without the photograph

Figures 1.5-A and 1.5-B are examples of the type of diagrams that have been developed throughout the book. Photograph A shows an undulating grass area with hypothetical