Field Session

MON-FS-05: Louisiana Children’s Museum: A Joyous and Resilient Landscape in City Park

Field Session Leader(s)

• 

  Christian M. Runge, ASLA

  Principal, Landscape Architect
  Mithun
  Seattle, Washington
• 

  Rami Diaz, AIA, LEED AP

  Urban Design Director
  Waggonner & Ball, A Moffatt & Nichol Studio
  New Orleans, Louisiana

Field Session Presenter(s)

• 

  Stephanie A. Aubert

  Sustainability Learning Director
  Louisiana Children's Museum
  New Orleans, LA

Louisiana Children's Museum, courtesy Kevin Scott

Attendees will tour the ASLA award-winning landscape at the Louisiana Children’s Museum. The visit will focus on the relationship of the project to the New Orleans Water Plan, which was created post-Katrina. Attendees will learn about the experiential and ecological underpinnings of the design including a transparent discussion of lessons-learned from design through five years of occupancy. Visitors will also get a sense for how the landscape is used daily by families and how the Museum staff developed environmental programming for the new site, using it as a laboratory for learning, dialogue and fun.

Experience an exclusive, hands-on field session while the museum is closed to the public. Includes transportation and catered lunch.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the New Orleans Water Plan and how it influenced the museum landscape design.
• Understand the approaches and lessons learned in designing an ecological and resilient landscape within a highly modified hydrologic landscape that is used extensively by children.
• Learn ways to integrate children’s experiences into natural landscapes.
• Learn how children’s museums can develop education and fun programming for natural landscapes on their grounds.