2024 Education Symposium
Session 1 Where’d I Go Wrong? Top Ethics Issues for MN Design Professionals
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Attorney Kristine A. Kubes is principal of Kubes Law Office, PLLC, serving design and construction professionals through all stages of a project – from contracts to payment issues, liens, risk management, defense of professional liability claims, and representation of professionals before their respective licensing Boards. She is a litigator licensed to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, a mediator, and an educator on construction, design, and ethics issues. Kristine is Past National Chair of the American Bar Association Forum on Construction Law. She served as a public member on the MN Board of AELSLAGID from 2006-2013, during which she served two terms as Board Chair from 2009-2011. Daughter of a carpenter and a teacher, Kristine uses the lessons they taught her every day.
Session 2 Parks & Parkways — Supporting the Evolution of Suburban Shopping Malls
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Chuck Evens is an experienced Landscape Architect and Associate Principal at Damon Farber. He’s grounded by small-town roots and driven by a passion for uncomplicated pragmatic design. Consistently throughout his nearly 25 years of practicing, he has sought a balance of vision and practicality in his work. A natural problem-solver - he has cultivated a strong understanding of construction modalities and enthusiastically embraces the implementation phase as a collaboration between the client, contractor, & design team. His built works have fueled his optimism for landscape architecture & placemaking.
Chuck’s work has included a wide array of park design endeavors. He composed Riverfront Park and the Vetter Stone Amphitheater in Mankato – voted the best place for live music by Southern Minn Scene. His work with Three Rivers Park District includes an exciting renovation of a creative play area at Baker Regional Park and the design and development of the lakefront zone at Spring Lake Regional Park. Chuck spent multiple construction seasons engaged with and overseeing the development of The Commons – an award-winning ten-million-dollar project in downtown Minneapolis. He went on to design the six-million-dollar all-abilities play environment – specifically designed to include kids with autism - in La Crosse Wisconsin. It was later bestowed with Honor Awards from both ASLA Wisconsin and ASLA Minnesota.
Most recently, Chuck’s work with the City of Minnetonka around Ridgedale Mall – has led to the design and development of a new city park – Ridgedale Commons. Another award-winning project – the new park has spurred private development and expanded housing within the community. Part of a larger master plan around Ridgedale Center Mall - a critical economic engine in the community – the park plays host to the city’s weekly seasonal farmer’s market and other key community events and has truly become a community-building space.
Chuck’s fearless can-do attitude helps him tackle complex issues with both confidence and candor. He continues to build a strong legacy of award-winning designs and has honed his skills for design precision, clarity of organization, and complementary design elements. Chuck believes the built environment adds value and improves our quality of life, and he seeks intelligent ways to create strong relationships among spaces to enhance the places we live, work, and recreate.
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Joan MacLeod is a retired Landscape Architect and former Principal at Damon Farber. As Founder of Women in Landscape Architecture (WxLA) – Joan was a beloved mentor to many women in the profession and a strong supporter of discussion and exchange of ideas.
Joan practiced landscape architecture in the Twin Cities for over 25 years and won numerous design awards for a variety of projects that recognized her design talents and leadership. Her work emphasized a collaborative process - integrating natural systems into highly designed environments. Joan’s professional and personal experience in community arts, site and urban design, and cultural institutions resulted in a commitment to building strong, sustainable communities.
She earned a reputation for being a communicator who helped build bridges between communities and clients as evidenced by her creative outreach to the Minnetonka Community during Rock at Ridgedale. One of her last creative public outreach efforts before retirement helped inform and shape the future of Ridgedale Commons. She laid the foundation for a successful project that was years in the making – collaborating years prior with national consultants on how to reimagine and improve the context around a suburban shopping mall.
Joan took an innovative and knowledge-based approach to developing sustainable plans that emphasized design excellence, to support project goals. Her skillful leadership benefited clients and the design team – guiding them to explore and evaluate many strategies that push the boundaries of innovation; yet were grounded in technical and practical expertise.
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Loren Gordon, AICP, has served as the Minnetonka City Planner since 2008. In his role he oversees development review, zoning code administration, planning studies, sustainability efforts and preparation and implementation of the comprehensive plan. Sustainable placemaking is at the top of his interests in Minnetonka. Prior to Minnetonka, he served as the Wayzata City Planner, as a planning consultant with Hoisington Koegler Group, and Woolpert in Dayton, Ohio. Loren started his career as a planner with city of Ankeny, Iowa. He is a graduate in Community and Regional Planning from the College of Design at Iowa State University. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners and is a trained Mediator.
Session 3 Public Practice: Unfiltered
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Carrie Christensen’s work in design, planning, education, and community engagement falls at the intersection of equity and the environment. With a Masters of Landscape Architecture from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. in Urban Studies from Stanford University, her cross-sector work combines facilitation, design thinking, community organizing, project management, data analysis, planning and environmental design processes. Carrie is a published author, adjunct faculty at the University of Minnesota, 2001 Fulbright Scholar, 2010 Creative Community Leadership Institute Fellow, 2019 Herberger Institute Practices for Change Fellow, and has consulted with communities across the country around strategic planning, creative community engagement, and resilient design. Carrie is an owner of Landbridge Ecological and a Senior Planner at the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board where she works on park policy, design, and community engagement. Born in Switzerland and raised in California, Carrie considers Minnesota one of many homes and currently lives in the Twin Cities with her husband and two kids.
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Lil Leatham is a planner and registered landscape architect with nearly 25 years of experience helping communities across Minnesota with parks, trails and bikeways, and greenway planning. Her career has focused on helping people connect with the outdoors. She spent 16 years in the private sector before joining the Dakota County Office of Planning. Her work at Dakota County includes park planning, improving active living opportunities, and increasing healthy food access in the County.
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Nissa Tupper (she/her) is the transportation and public health planning director at the Minnesota Department of Transportation. She works with partners to embed public health and equity practices into state transportation decision-making, which includes leading the agency’s Complete Streets policy implementation. Her approach is informed by a diverse professional background in communications, landscape architecture, and public health.
Session 4 Trauma Informed Placehealing
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As an accomplished experience designer, researcher, and public artist, Teri Kwant founded and leads DreamLab, a human-centered experience design collaborative. She has led research and created experiences for a broad range of clients, ranging from health-care to corporate to community-based experiences, all from an experiential, functional, and multi-sensory point of view. Her holistic perspective brings end users' and stakeholders' perspectives into the conversation and into sharp focus with an intent to design connections and conversations that lead to more inclusive experiences. Kwant has designed public engagement at the scale of cities to inform urban design and has created placemaking and public art projects at the intimate scale of human interaction.
She has been a professional lecturer in the design of experience, environments, and communications for the University of Minnesota School of Design and Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She has taught Human Centered Design for Well-Being with a social and racial justice lens as an architectural studio in the BDA program at the University of Minnesota's School of Design, Research and Society, and Programming and Society, both architectural studios at Dunwoody College. In addition she has taught graphic design at both institutions.
A specialist in the design of inclusive places for diverse populations, Kwant led award-winning teams for the Sandy Hook Memorial and for the design of the third children's hospice in the country, located in Minnesota. A current thought leader in the topic of Trauma Informed Design and Design for Resiliency, she was a presenter at the AIA conference leading an interactive session on how design can be a factor and a force for change in the arenas of mental health and well-being, in the workplace, and in public space.
Kwant describes herself as a designer, artist, educator/advocate, and mom, not necessarily in that order. In practice, she is one part design thinker, two parts design doer, with the heart of a research geek. Endlessly curious about the role of design in the human journey and how our conversations can inspire new ways of thinking, designing, and doing, she believes that beauty, inclusive design, and artful conversations can create healing. Her purpose is to help create spaces for those conversations to happen.
Session 4 Green Infrastructure to Expand the Public Realm
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Nathan Campeau is a Water Resources Engineer and principal with Barr Engineering Co. in their Denver office, spending the last 20 years working on a variety of water resources projects focusing on the modeling and design of low impact development and green infrastructure practices in the urban environment. Nathan helps clients plan and design restorative projects in urban and brownfield spaces, helping to transform and create new public spaces that celebrate water and create meaningful recreation and habitat within critical water quality infrastructure.
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Marcy is a senior landscape architect with Barr Engineering and has over 20 years of experience in landscape architecture planning and design, with an emphasis on green infrastructure in urban environments alongside native landscape design and maintenance. Passionate about integrating green infrastructure into public spaces, Marcy’s work ranges from master planning and stakeholder facilitation to placemaking and park design, all through a natural resources lens. Prior to joining Barr, Marcy managed capital projects and supported community-based efforts to manage stormwater at the Mississippi Watershed Management Organization.
Session 6 Making, Keeping, Sharing — Mission Driven Firm
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Gina Ford is a landscape architect, co-founder and principal of Agency Landscape + Planning. Underpinning her two decades of practice are a commitment to the design and planning of public places and the perpetuation of the value of landscape architecture via thought leadership, teaching, writing and lecturing. Her work has received awards from the American Society of Landscape Architects, the American Planning Association and the American Institute of Architects, among others. She is a co-founder of the gender justice non-profit WxLA and on the board of directors for the Cultural Landscape Foundation and the City Parks Alliance. Gina is the recipient of the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Charles Eliot Traveling Fellowship, the Wellesley College’s Shaw Fellowship and the Boston Society of Architect’s Women in Design Award of Excellence.