This thesis explores therapeutic garden design and its role in landscape architecture. It also conducts a post occupancy evaluation (POE) for an existing therapeutic landscape. The St. Michael Health Care Center campus, Texarkana, Texas, is a Sisters of Charity institution and was designed and built in 1994 as a healing environment for patients, staff, and visitors. In this thesis, A POE was conducted to determine (1) user-perceptions and utilization of the campus, (2) whether the campus reduces stress and fosters restoration, and (3) any barriers or constraints to use of the campus. Results from visual analysis, behavioral observations, and survey questionnaires indicated a number of benefits of the campus. The campus was perceived as a place of stress reduction and restoration. However, there was a lack of knowledge of the history behind the design and the healing benefits of the campus, and some areas were not utilized as often or as effectively as intended. Interviewees recommended changes for the campus, such as the inclusion of more flowers and greenery, and more raised beds for outdoor therapy. In addition, certain areas required more maintenance. Based on the findings, recommendations for improvement were made. These findings can subsequently be used to inform guidelines for the design of future Sisters of Charity institutions, as well as other exterior hospital environments. By adding to a body of research, this evaluation provides a service to all of those involved in the design of healthcare facilities such as owners, users, medical planners, architects, interior designers, artists, and landscape architects.

As the human population has increased, the consumption of natural resources has become a serious problem for our society. With the possibilities of severe oil shortages, there is a growing need to promote a society which better suits the requirements of pedestrians. At the same time, there is a big push for urban redevelopments to rebuild a strong city center in the United States. It is important that these new redevelopments take into account the changing needs of our society by providing a good pedestrian environment. The main objective of this thesis is to illustrate the fundamental elements that must exist to support a pedestrian friendly environment in downtown areas, to determine the potential and potential problems facing downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and to offer suggestions on how to further bolster these plans in its effort to establish a healthy pedestrian downtown. By analyzing the two selected case studies of Portland and New Orleans, three fundamental components, consisting of eleven criteria were established. These criteria were; Enhancement of the Retail Core, Promotion of Mixed-use Developments and Ground Level Retail, Provision of Restaurants and Bars, Promotion of Cultural and Entertainment Uses Through Public Events and Festivals, and Provision of Downtown Housing Opportunities. All components should work together to provide a diversity of downtown uses thereby generating the critical mass necessary to support a healthy pedestrian environment; Provision of Public Transit Systems, Establishment of Central Transportation Hub, and Enhancement of Sufficient Parking Facilities, should work to ensure accessibility to downtown and to create an environment that is compatible with pedestrians; and Size of the Downtown Area, Size of the City Blocks, and Other Elements Serving to Create a Sense of Human Scale, will condition peoples perception of downtown thereby prompting people to walk. Through analysis of downtown Baton Rouge, many positive aspects were revealed, and the study concluded that downtown Baton Rouge can achieve its goal of a pedestrian friendly downtown. Recommendations stress the urgent need for the improvement of downtown accessibility. Several improvements and enhancements that can further promote the pedestrian friendly environment in downtown Baton Rouge were included.

This biographical study of the development of Marge Yates Jenkins into Louisiana's pre-eminent plantswoman examines the issues of culture and regional history, particularly the history of the horticultural industry in Louisiana. It traces how a self-taught botanist overcame the obstacles of gender and post-war depression to become an innovator in the nursery business, experimenting with native plants of the Southeast, as well as exotics imported from as far away as New Zealand. Her experiments and the plants that she introduced to the trade would eventually change the selection of plants used in the landscape industry in the Gulf Coast region. The thesis relies primarily on the method of oral history to document Jenkins' life story and her impact on the professions of ornamental horticulture and landscape architecture. Her family history with its agricultural roots serves as a backdrop for her eventual entry into the field of horticulture. The thesis covers the development of horticulture in Louisiana from 1962 to 2004, and explains how Jenkins' work gradually changed the way plants were viewed and used in the landscape industries. Particular emphasis is placed on Jenkins' success as a plant propagator and on her introduction of new varieties of azaleas into commerce. Finally, Jenkins' generous and open spirit is described as an important factor in her being able to bridge the gap between the nursery and horticulture industry, and landscape architecture theory and practice. The thesis calls upon these two aspects of landscape practice to embrace the model that Jenkins espouses in order to create landscape design that possesses the best of both the worlds of plants and design theory.

Few studies on presentation methods in the profession of landscape architecture have been done in the past, because evaluating presentations raises primarily subjective issues. Today, interactive multimedia presentations offer an excellent opportunity to investigate the presentation methods employed by landscape architects, gCan new communication technologies help to enhance the communication between the presenter and his audience?h This is the fundamental question addressed in this thesis. It explores interactive multimedia presentations to see their potentials, and considers ways to integrate various multimedia as presentation methods for future landscape architectural presentations. The main terms, interactivity and multimedia, are explained to understand the features of interactive multimedia presentations. Conventions of traditional presentations and historical aspects are overviewed to deepen the meanings of presentation methods. An interactive multimedia presentation is actually produced to explore how multimedia can be effective tools and to document how the interactive multimedia presentations are produced. It used to be very difficult to represent the transitions between spaces in traditional paper board presentations; however, interactive multimedia presentations make it possible to visualize the transitions and relationship between the designed spaces three-dimensionally. Landscape architects today should make the most use of various media and utilize the new computer communication technologies to enhance their presentations. 3D modeling process greatly helps designers check and reevaluate their proposed designs as well. In fact, interactive multimedia presentations are useful not only for the presentations but also for total professional communication and educational purposes.

The Atchafalaya Basin in the Southern United States is a cultural, environmental, historical and natural land region of such universal importance, designation as a World Heritage Site is appropriate. This thesis provides a justification for this designation through compliance with cultural and natural criteria detailed in the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972. The treaty, also known as the World Heritage Convention (WHC) promotes natural and cultural landscape preservation on an international level. This thesis lists the cultural and natural arguments for nominating the Atchafalaya Basin to the World Heritage Site list. <p> National, regional and local heritage preservation movements have a strong foundation of support from landscape architects and planners. The environmental science community has an equally dedicated base working on behalf of the natural preservation movement. In recent years, the two studies have commingled their efforts to preserve the great cultural and natural landscapes of the world. The resulting preservation of culture and nature provides protection for the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems and geomorphic phenomena while recognizing man's historic and physical influence upon the land.

The purpose of thesis is to provide a preliminary history of Middlegate Japanese Gardens and to make public their significance as an example of the landscape architecture that was typical during the Country Place Era, and their significance within the community of Pass Christian and the City of New Orleans. As it now stands the story of Middlegate Japanese Gardens is not known in its own neighborhood. Between 1923 and 1929 New Orleans residents Rudolf Hecht and Lynne Watkins Hecht developed Middlegate Japanese Gardens at their summer home in Pass Christian, Mississippi. The Hechts built Middlegate Japanese gardens to perpetuate their pleasant memories of their travels in Japan. In 1979 the Middlegate residence and gardens were listed as contributing element, number 88 in the Scenic Drive Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1923 when the Hechts established them, Middlegate Japanese Gardens have been private, residential gardens. Although the heirs subdivided the property in 1962, the family still owns the gardens. Middlegate Japanese Gardens are furnished with Japanese antiquities that the Hechts collected in Japan between 1900 and 1929. Little documentation exists for the garden objects. Three garden statues were listed in the estate of Dorothy Cooper, a bronze Buddha and two bronze warriors. In his book, Around the Face of the Globe, Rudolf Hecht gave the origin of the Buddha as the Gardens of the Daibutsu in Kamakura Japan. One of the highlights of the garden is a large concrete swimming pool designed to look like a natural lagoon. A waterfall fed by an artesian well fills the pool and water overflows into a little river that meanders through the garden. Teahouses sit on top of hills that were created by fill from the pool. New Orleans Architect Rathbone DeBuys, designed the Japanese style buildings in the garden. Mississippi craftsmen used local building methods and local materials to construct the teahouses, guest house and pool house. Blue barrel tiles that cover the roofs of the Japanese style buildings are designed with an end cap for an embossed image. There is no documentation of the gardens history. No archives exist for Rudolf or Lynne Watkins Hecht. The thesis details the methods used to find existing information on Middlegate Japanese Gardens and its founders Rudolf Hecht and Lynne Watkins Hecht. It places the gardens in the context of the national movements in landscape architecture, showing how they were influenced by the ideas of their time.

The focus of this thesis is to establish a basis for a typology of New Orleans gardens from 19th Century Notarial drawings. Previous inquires of the New Orleans Notarial Archives drawings emphasized elite gardens of the Vieux Carré and Garden District. This baseline study investigates both vernacular and elite gardens of 159 drawings in the three oldest of the city Municipal Districts during the period 1810-1880, and identifies 19 garden templates. It sets the drawings in their social, political, and historical context to inform a critical understanding of the garden types. The inquiry examines 47 spatial and design variables, using the New Orleans Notarial Archive drawings, photographs, maps, and personal accounts as primary source materials. Quantitative data analysis methods, qualitative image analysis, site observation, and interviews with experts are used. Three products were derived from this study: Property Location Map, Property Variable Data Base, and Lexicon of the three Municipal District gardens. The study findings reveal that while individual properties sometimes vary within a particular garden template type variants are not geographically (and perhaps not culturally) dependant. The garden typology determinants are: space dependence, gardener program, environmental and cultural conditions, vegetation availability, resources, and consensus gardenways. All results are consistent with previous research conclusions. The 19 garden templates identified may be applied in period garden rehabilitation, restoration, and reconstruction.

The objectives of this research are to demonstrate the process of applying perception of safety in a campus environment to actual crimes and to use the results to better implement safety improvements within the campus landscape. The focus of the research is the outdoor environment on a college campus. The Louisiana State University campus was selected as a case study. The survey was developed and tested to better understand how people perceive their surroundings and to incorporate the findings of perception of safety to improve design and planning decisions for the LSU campus. The criteria for a safe design was developed from research gathered on crime prevention and the psychological reactions of users to exterior site features. Crimes reported on the LSU campus were compiled on a crime map in order to analyze whether student perceptions of unsafe and safe areas were justified. The hope of this thesis is to enlighten designers on the subject of crime prevention and the perception of safety in the landscape. Further research on the LSU campus that leads to actual improvements of public safety is encouraged for persons involved in campus planning and maintenance.

Master-planned communities can be designed for the protection of wildlife while providing an aesthetically pleasing, eco-friendly, and affordable community for people. This study was conceived from a background of academic studies in plant biology, forestry, and landscape architecture, and a desire to rescue wildlife habitat from the encroachment of urban sprawl. A variety of books and periodicals were consulted, along with a few web sites. The primary threats to wildlife habitat are habitat fragmentation, pollution, and exotic invasive species of plants, animals, insects, and diseases. Many aspects of planning are addressed, including wildlife corridors, site selection, connecting habitat patches, and stormwater management. With careful planning, new communities can incorporate the principles of sustainable design, building inside natures envelope, green infrastructure, new urbanism, and Smart Growth to protect and preserve wildlife habitat.

This study seeks to identify the key components that would enable neighborhoods to become responsible for the trees under which they dwell-their urban forest. Guidelines will be established for neighborhoods to use to compose a plan that allows them to create and sustain the tree population specific to their needs and desires. To develop these guidelines, this study is divided into two parts. The first section examines urban forestry. This review revealed several issues pertinent to urban forestry: (1) The urban forest is crucial to the health and beauty of the city and is directly linked to the well-being of the city's inhabitants and, (2) there are simply too many trees in a city for municipal arbor crews to provide adequate care for them all. There are however, (3) other resources available to help citizens care for their urban forests. The second section presents case studies of three neighborhoods that have established successful urban forestry programs and projects. The case studies attempt to isolate the ideas, methods, and characteristics of urban forestry programs created and carried through at the neighborhood level. The case studies examine the neighborhood urban forestry projects of three southern neighborhoods: Boulevard Oaks in Houston, Texas; Inman Park in Atlanta, Georgia; and Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. The case studies examine these three different neighborhoods' projects in terms of these specific components: project name, location, date created, progress to date, date completed, neighborhood description, project background, project goal, role of the project's directors, role the neighborhood residents, maintenance, and lessons learned. As a result of the research and case study analysis, the necessary components were developed to help neighborhoods devise plans and implement urban forestry projects. The guidelines would enable interested neighborhoods to cultivate the urban forest that best meets their neighborhood needs.