UW Landscape Architecture Student to "Green" Geneva

We are the Evergreen State, after all. David Bramer, of the U.W.’s Green Futures Research and Design Lab (GFL), is one of nine U.S. landscape architecture students selected to draft a sustainable landscape for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.

The team will be joined by three Swiss students and will be overseen by three U.S. landscape architecture faculty. The project is a collaboration with the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) to create a comprehensive, sustainable landscape design for the Mission building grounds. Here’s the details:

The prominence of the Mission building in international Geneva and the fact that it is regularly visited by diplomats and political figures from around the world were factors when the U.S. State Department selected Geneva as its “Flagship Post for Energy and Sustainability.” The building is the site of the installation of the largest solar energy project ever undertaken by the Department of State overseas and home to an innovative magnetic levitation (MaglevTM) chiller air conditioning system that runs a virtually friction-free compressor.

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Conserving the variety of plant and animal life is also a priority, and in 2009 the Mission became the first State Department facility to earn certification by the U.S. National Wildlife Federation as a Certified Wildlife Habitat. Seeking ways to further improve the sustainability of the building and grounds the Mission formed a Green Team which developed the concept with ASLA to recruit students for a collaborative sustainable design project. The students were selected by a committee which included representatives from ASLA and the Department of State. Applicants were required to be U.S. citizens and to submit a résumé; 400-word- statement of interest; faculty recommendations; and three samples of project work.

“I am very excited about this project, which will help reinforce the Mission’s reputation as the greenest US diplomatic building in Europe,” said Ambassador Betty E. King, U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva. “The efforts of this talented team of young landscape architects will not only help us make our environment more sustainable, but also provide our staff with an inspiring and healthy environment which we will enjoy for years to come.”

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The Geneva region is a major international center for conservation and the environment. The city is home to the European headquarters of the U.N. Environment Program, and to major organizations such as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Nearby Gland is the site of two of the world’s most important conservation organizations: the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the World Conservation Union (IUCN). During their stay in Geneva the students will also have an opportunity to visit some of these organizations, to meet with international diplomats, UN staff and NGOs, and to exchange ideas with major players in the environmental community in Switzerland.

Read the full press release here.