Public Input Process-Create Your Own Design

[markwarfel]

awesome project! fellow landscape architect here - looks like a great way to engage the public

[jaltschuld]

Public Input Process-Create Your Own Design

Really cool idea to get folks engaged and have some input. I like how you included the cost element too so that folks can see the financial impact of their choices.

It was important to the team, client, and community. Most of these public outdoor recreation projects are funded by grants rather than taxes (at least in large part), so it’s easy to ignore the cost, but then you wind up with a project that is too expensive to get grant funding for. Plus, there are always tradeoffs-do you want the $50K plaza in one area, or spread $30K for plantings across the whole site and have $20K leftover for maintenance, etc.

Public Input Process-Create Your Own Design

Wow, I was considered advanced by making early 3D visualizations, especially as the client could not make sense of plans and elevations. If we could have done the sort of thing you are doing it would have been so much easier. How much better to build that in 3D and let folks do that

This has been and is a big part of my career. I have gotten myself into some incredibly cool projects because of my ability to create effective visual communications (usually digital 3D) for projects where all the stakeholders don’t understand what the intended design is. I haven’t updated my website in a couple years (it’s on the to do list), but my Company Website shows some of this work. Also on my past projects page there is a bunch of my work from previous projects.

Public Input Process-Create Your Own Design

i get that, but it’s still all about time and money. we can do all kinds of cool things with models, but we don’t always do it because it’s more expensive and takes more time than the client will give us.

All about the billable hours!

Public Input Process-Create Your Own Design

awesome project! fellow landscape architect here - looks like a great way to engage the public

Nice! Always good to meet a fellow LA! I always have a tough time describing my job when people ask what I do.

[marmak3261]

I appreciate all the decorative items and art that people make, but functional products are what I focus on. You give a great example of why offices could use a Glowforge. Precision scissors for whatever.

My church is just putting out our RFPs for the next step of our long range planning. I could see something like this help us navigate among competing interests in the prioritization stage. Thanks for sharing the whole process.

[jaltschuld]

Thanks! It’s a great tool. Back when I was in grad school working on my Masters degree, we had an amazing workshop with 2 or 3 lasers, but they were in the $80-90K range, so a big investment for most businesses, and one that did have a limited range of uses. The is at a price point that makes it so much more reasonable, and at the same time it opens up more possibilities for the type of deliverables we can offer.

[shop]

the commercial lasers have gotten a little more affordable, but they’re still more expensive than GF. we got a model shop when we moved (essentially an extra large walk in closet ), and in that model shop we got a Universal PLS6, which is a 32x18 with a 75w laser (upgradable with a second tube to 150w), plus a BOFA filter. it was about $40k or so.

[jaltschuld]

You guys planning on upgrading/have any need to go up to 150w? Always a bit jealous of the architects-they get to make much cooler physical models than us landscape architects

[shop]

and the landscape parts of our models are the least developed.

i doubt we’d go to 150w. we’d probably spend that $$ on other woodworking tools. or if we added a second tube, i’d advocate a 30w so we’d have a better engraving tube. the 75w goes so fast that the engraves look lighter than on the GF. which can be good or bad, depending on what you’re trying to do. and you can still run them in tandem and get 105w.