Juliett Vong, President, Owner, Landscape Architect
HBB Landscape Architecture
Slides: LINKS
Juliet is a Landscape Architect. She grew up in Alaska. When she was in school she liked math, art and being outside. She is honest that she wasn't as keen on the S (science), T (technology) or E (engineering) of STEM, though during her college education had to take some classes related to those subjects but it was in the context of what she was interested in. When it was time to think about college and careers, she looked into a few careers and came upon the title Landscape Architect and declared that was what she wanted to do, although she still wasn't completely sure she knew what it was!
The definition of a Landscape Architect is: the art and practice of designing the outdoor environment.
She initially thought of going to small colleges but as she looked into Landscape Architecture programs she realized it was offered as an undergraduate degree at larger colleges, which would mean she wouldn't have to take a graduate degree later. She went to the University of Washington and studied urban ecological landscaping. (UW program) .
The course offered classes in ecology, plants, and urban planning. They had to understand each of these subjects at different scale. For example big scale might be urban planning and how regions might develop, then the next level of scale might consider where to situate certain sites, like a park in a community area, and they also had to study at the build level which requires detailed descriptions of exactly how to build spaces (specific dimensions of paths, benches, etc). The program allows students to specialize in different areas. Juliet focused on urban design, but others might consider restoration environments (e.g., wetland and river restoration). The UW website has lots of details about different options.
During her training she realized she really liked designing spaces where people want to be - where people want to sit, play, eat, etc. She asked us to think about the spaces at a football field (ignoring the grass) and how an architect like her has been involved to intentionally design spaces - where do the fans sit, what types of eating areas are needed, are their open play spaces nearby.
Juliet is the owner and President of her company. She has 14 employees. They will work on about 30 projects a year in 5 states.
Her work is very collaborative - she believes the best ideas come from people sharing ideas and then evolving the ideas as a group. This is how her company operates. They work in an open office environment so everyone can contribute to ideas easily.
Being able to present an idea is very important to her type of work and is in fact as important as the idea, as great ideas that people don't understand will not get built.
Juliet presented a few projects to illustrate the variety of work (variety of projects is something that Juliet loves about her work). The slides have some great illustrations of the plans and drawings her company did, and photographs of how the projects turned out.
HBB Landscape Architecture
Slides: LINKS
Juliet is a Landscape Architect. She grew up in Alaska. When she was in school she liked math, art and being outside. She is honest that she wasn't as keen on the S (science), T (technology) or E (engineering) of STEM, though during her college education had to take some classes related to those subjects but it was in the context of what she was interested in. When it was time to think about college and careers, she looked into a few careers and came upon the title Landscape Architect and declared that was what she wanted to do, although she still wasn't completely sure she knew what it was!
The definition of a Landscape Architect is: the art and practice of designing the outdoor environment.
She initially thought of going to small colleges but as she looked into Landscape Architecture programs she realized it was offered as an undergraduate degree at larger colleges, which would mean she wouldn't have to take a graduate degree later. She went to the University of Washington and studied urban ecological landscaping. (UW program) .
The course offered classes in ecology, plants, and urban planning. They had to understand each of these subjects at different scale. For example big scale might be urban planning and how regions might develop, then the next level of scale might consider where to situate certain sites, like a park in a community area, and they also had to study at the build level which requires detailed descriptions of exactly how to build spaces (specific dimensions of paths, benches, etc). The program allows students to specialize in different areas. Juliet focused on urban design, but others might consider restoration environments (e.g., wetland and river restoration). The UW website has lots of details about different options.
During her training she realized she really liked designing spaces where people want to be - where people want to sit, play, eat, etc. She asked us to think about the spaces at a football field (ignoring the grass) and how an architect like her has been involved to intentionally design spaces - where do the fans sit, what types of eating areas are needed, are their open play spaces nearby.
Juliet is the owner and President of her company. She has 14 employees. They will work on about 30 projects a year in 5 states.
Her work is very collaborative - she believes the best ideas come from people sharing ideas and then evolving the ideas as a group. This is how her company operates. They work in an open office environment so everyone can contribute to ideas easily.
Being able to present an idea is very important to her type of work and is in fact as important as the idea, as great ideas that people don't understand will not get built.
Juliet presented a few projects to illustrate the variety of work (variety of projects is something that Juliet loves about her work). The slides have some great illustrations of the plans and drawings her company did, and photographs of how the projects turned out.
One project in particular that she found fun to work on was a project for Reiter Foothills Trail. Juliet's company had to design a trail for 4x4 trucks that would be fun and adventurous for them to drive but also sufficiently safe that it met certain safety and health requirements. Her team had to learn about 4x4 truck trail driving, what the drivers would want from a trail and understand the engineering design requirements for how to place appropriate obstacles, like boulders, in the trail.
She likes her work because she frequently has to learn new things. One particular project was for the North Transfer Station (a transfer station is a location where the cities rubbish is collected before its taken out of the city). The city decided it wanted to have a park area surrounding the transfer station so it wouldn't be such an ugly visible location. Working on public city projects requires a lot of meetings, presentations and discussions with the public. During the process of deciding what to do with the park, the idea of making it a Parcour Park was suggested. Juliet had to learn more about the activity of Parcour and what it would take to design an appropriate public park that would have Parcour elements in it. She enjoyed the project so much she's now on a public board that is trying to enable more Parcour public spaces in Seattle!
Juliet described the design process for landscape design - from idea generation to construction. She mentioned that like many professions, its important to be able to listen to feedback (or take criticism). This is related to how well you can help people understand your ideas. Her company works hard at helping their clients (and the public) understand their design ideas by showing different visual representations of the work (e.g., a plan, a sketch, a modeled image). Clients are encouraged to ask questions and give feedback as they look at the designs, and then Juliet and her team adapt the designs. Take a look at her presentation for some great pictures of different types of plans and diagrams.
Juliet got her start in landscape architecture as an intern for the company she now owns! She got the intern position when she was at UW. They liked her and had her come back to work for them when she graduated. When she got started in the business she spent her time doing a variety of project tasks like site visits, drawings, graphics, meetings and cost estimates. Today as the President of the company she does less detailed design work and cost estimates and a lot more meetings, but she still loves going on site visits and being part of the creative design process with some design work.
She claims her days are crazy with lots of things happening and being busy, but the great thing is Juliet loves crazy!
She likes her work because she frequently has to learn new things. One particular project was for the North Transfer Station (a transfer station is a location where the cities rubbish is collected before its taken out of the city). The city decided it wanted to have a park area surrounding the transfer station so it wouldn't be such an ugly visible location. Working on public city projects requires a lot of meetings, presentations and discussions with the public. During the process of deciding what to do with the park, the idea of making it a Parcour Park was suggested. Juliet had to learn more about the activity of Parcour and what it would take to design an appropriate public park that would have Parcour elements in it. She enjoyed the project so much she's now on a public board that is trying to enable more Parcour public spaces in Seattle!
Juliet described the design process for landscape design - from idea generation to construction. She mentioned that like many professions, its important to be able to listen to feedback (or take criticism). This is related to how well you can help people understand your ideas. Her company works hard at helping their clients (and the public) understand their design ideas by showing different visual representations of the work (e.g., a plan, a sketch, a modeled image). Clients are encouraged to ask questions and give feedback as they look at the designs, and then Juliet and her team adapt the designs. Take a look at her presentation for some great pictures of different types of plans and diagrams.
Juliet got her start in landscape architecture as an intern for the company she now owns! She got the intern position when she was at UW. They liked her and had her come back to work for them when she graduated. When she got started in the business she spent her time doing a variety of project tasks like site visits, drawings, graphics, meetings and cost estimates. Today as the President of the company she does less detailed design work and cost estimates and a lot more meetings, but she still loves going on site visits and being part of the creative design process with some design work.
She claims her days are crazy with lots of things happening and being busy, but the great thing is Juliet loves crazy!