2018 PA-DE ASLA Award of Merit

October 29, 2018

Bartram’s Garden Restoration earns 2018 PA-DE ASLA Award of Merit

We are proud to announce the PA-DE ASLA Chapter has honored our work at Bartram’s Garden with a 2018 Award of Merit in the general design category. This restoration marks the first major garden restoration project at Bartram’s Garden in nearly a century. Through extensive research and collaboration with the John Bartram’s Association, we have restored the Carr Garden as it existed when Ann Bartram Carr (1779-1858) was in residence. Ground Reconsidered is humbled to be included amongst the excellent PA-DE ASLA Chapter award recipients. Click here to read more on the 2018 Awards on the PA-DE ASLA Website.

Shakespeare Park for 2018 ASLA Annual Meeting

October 17, 2018

2018 ASLA Annual Meeting Field Sessions

Ground Reconsidered is proud to be part of five Field Sessions at the 2018 ASLA Annual Meeting and Expo on Friday, October 19. Read more about each session below or follow the links to the individual Field Session pages.

Reinventing the River: Central and North Delaware Waterfronts | FS-004
Industrial uses and infrastructure have long separated Philadelphia’s residents from the Delaware riverfront. On a walk of this emerging landscape, we’ll visit pop-ups and permanent landscapes with their designers, talk strategy with the agencies overseeing riverfront development and see sites poised to unlock the river’s future. Ground Reconsidered’s Julie Bush is a speaker.

Discover Bartram’s Garden and Bartram’s Mile Along the Schuylkill River Trail | FS-005
Experience Bartram’s Garden and the Bartram’s Mile section of the Schuylkill River Trail. Take a walk along the Schuylkill riverfront that has been reclaimed from its industrial past and admire living collections at Bartram’s Garden that continue to grow, bloom, and reproduce as they have since 1728. Ground Reconsidered’s Brad Thornton is a speaker.

Academia in Arcadia: Design, Sustainable Stewardship, and Pedagogy on Swarthmore’s Campus | FS-007
As Swarthmore’s Scott Arboretum prepares to celebrate its 90th anniversary as an arboretum and home to one of the most prestigious liberal arts colleges, this field session explores the intersection of campus planning, sustainable stewardship, design, pedagogy, and community outreach in the art and science of a public garden. Ground Reconsidered’s Kristen Loughry is a speaker.

Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway—100 Years | FS-009
Part of the City Beautiful movement, this mile-long civic vision of architecture and landscape, in its centennial year, has evolved into an incomparable cultural campus of exceptional museums, gardens, and parks amid a vibrant growing city. Learn how it continues to be influenced by contemporary landscape architects and civic leadership. Ground Reconsidered’s Julie Bush is a speaker.

University of Pennsylvania Campus—A Cultural and Environmental Legacy | FS-011
This field session showcases Penn’s 300-acre campus, with more than 180 buildings and 100 acres of landscaped lawns, gardens, and athletic fields designed by notable landscape architects and designers over time. It highlights the iconic spaces, recent projects, and new directions in landscape design and ecological management currently under way at Penn. Ground Reconsidered’s Karen Skafte is a speaker.

The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony
The Discovery Center ribbon cutting ceremony

October 9, 2018

Grand Opening for The Discovery Center

On Friday, September 28, Ground Reconsidered attended the ribbon cutting ceremony and official opening of the Discovery Center, a partnership between the National Audubon Society (Audubon Pennsylvania) and the Philadelphia Outward Bound School.  The site is on a decommissioned water reservoir in East Fairmount Park near the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood.  Originally built in the late 1800’s to provide clean water to Philadelphians, the 37-acre reservoir was closed to the public in the 1970s.  Since that time, nature has taken over, creating a unique urban oasis and a critical stopover point for migrating birds.  Audubon and Outward Bound have teamed up to save and sustain this important site and to open the education center for environmental conservation and leadership development.

As the Landscape Architect on the project, Ground Reconsidered worked with Digsau to recreate the initial feeling of discovery as you walk up the steep slope of the man-made berm to the large expansive view of the reservoir lake.  Plants native to the Mid-Atlantic region were chosen to increase ecological functionality, providing habitat for birds, butterflies, and other animals, while also providing important education opportunities.  Learn more about the Discovery Center in PlanPhilly’s “Building for Discovery”. For hours, events, and programming visit www.DiscoveryPhila.org