City-Wide Projects:
Virginia Beach
“Virginia Beach: Sense of Arrival” (2022)
Virginia Tech Landscape Architecture Students proposed design options for the entrance corridor of the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Student considerations included urban design, planning, landscape architecture, flooding, rainwater management, and resiliency.
Project Video:
The projects—”Immersion,” “Surfers Meet the Wetlands,” and “A Memorable Place to Be”—are below.
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, & Norfolk” (2021)
Dr. Mintai Kim’s (VT Architecture) rather extraordinary report documents the progress and outcomes of his advanced design studio that focused on addressing contemporary land design and planning challenges faced by coastal Virginia, especially the impacts of climate change. The report explores the integration of ecological planning, sustainable development, and collaborative community-based design practices in coastal Virginia.
Report:
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, & Norfolk” (2021)
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach & Chesapeake” (2020)
Dr. Mintai Kim’s annual Fall 2020 coastal resilience design studio with the Virginia Tech landscape architecture students provided an opportunity to look at broader geographic scales. Students looked at sites in both Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. In Virginia Beach, students focused on a wooded property in the Southern Watershed of Virginia Beach, designing an alternative wooded use that would support a land trade between the City and the property owner who intended to clear the land and install a cemetery.
The student designs inspired the City of Virginia Beach to prioritize keeping the land wooded and negotiate a land exchange with the property owner to move the proposed cemetery to a less environmentally sensitive area. In Chesapeake, students explored design strategies in a neighborhood along Mains Creek that has been the subject of several local property acquisitions. This provided an interesting design challenge for students, as residents of communities that have had properties bought out and demolished often complain about the impact on community character. The Mains Creek designs also supported Wetlands Watch’s Conservation Pilot Project.
Reports:
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach & Chesapeake Report: Part One” (2020)
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach & Chesapeake Report: Part Two” (2020)
Coastal Virginia Beach Landscape Design Studio (2019)
Landscape architecture students from Virginia Tech proposed new designs for various sites across Virginia Beach. The students engaged with the City’s Green Ribbon Committee, meeting key stakeholders and gaining valuable networking experience. They also toured the Brock Environmental Center, where architect Billy Almond (Collaboratory mentor) provided insight into the center's site planning. Encouraged to focus on resiliency in Virginia Beach's southern watershed, the students explored areas impacted by "blue sky" flooding.
The final projects were presented at a LEED-certified Virginia Beach high school, where Green Ribbon Committee members and AP Environmental Science students interacted with the students to learn more about their designs and areas of study.
“Designing the Future of Coastal Virginia Beach: Landscape Design & Planning Studio” (2019)
This rather extraordinary report by Dr. Mintai Kim (VT Architecture) highlights the progress and achievements of his advanced studio course on landscape architectural design and planning across a variety of environments and scales.
The course prepares students to tackle design challenges in urban, suburban, and rural settings, with a strong focus on integrating ecological, cultural, social, and economic factors into responsible land planning.
By examining large-scale processes and their broader regional and global impacts, students learn to apply sustainable design principles. The course also helps students hone their skills in identifying key issues, setting design objectives, and effectively communicating their proposals through both traditional and digital techniques.