Public Practice Project Management

Synthesize project components, Resolve project-wide issues, Quality Assurance, Construction document review, Budget and project expenditure monitoring, Process and permit administration

ASLA 2013 Professional Analysis and Planning Award of Excellence. Lafitte Greenway + Revitalization Corridor | Linking New Orleans Neighborhoods. New Orleans, Louisiana. Design Workshop, Inc. Client: City of New Orleans.

Design Workshop

Public agencies lead projects to address community needs and deliver public investments, including parks and recreation facilities, streets and sidewalks, transit, housing, schools, drinking water, and stormwater management. Starting with the initiation and planning of a project through its final completion and close out, project management is essential to meet project objectives and achieve desired outcomes. Successful project management includes:

  • Ensuring projects meet community expectations and the agency’s quality standards
  • Facilitating and motivating the project team to meet project goals and objectives
  • Completing on time, within budget, and to meet the objectives of the project
  • Managing change and minimizing project risks

Public practice landscape architects frequently serve in a lead role managing projects. They are often responsible for ‘the big picture’ on a project, synthesizing the components of a project and managing project-wide issues. As a project manager, they represent their agency when conducting project activities in the community, with elected officials, with design teams hired by the agency or with agency staff, and with construction contractors building projects. They are responsible for administering projects to protect public assets—both physical and fiscal. 

Design review of an irrigation plan for a project

Courtesy of Amie Wojtech, ASLA

Activities typically include:

  • Developing project work plans to plan work activities and processes for completing the project.
  • Consulting with agency staff to determine project requirements, including gathering and preparing information regarding specifications, materials, project budgets, and schedule assumptions.
  • Meeting with community groups, technical committees, public agencies, and elected officials to explain and describe project plans, generate support, and ensure public participation
  • Conducting periodic on site observation of work in progress to ensure contract compliance with plans and specifications to meet standards for quality.
  • Reviewing plans, drawings, specifications, and other project submittals for compliance with appropriate municipal codes, regulations, and policies.
  • Monitoring project budgets and contract documents to achieve successful project completion and/or grant compliance.
  • Preparing correspondence, reports, and maintaining records
  • Directing, scheduling, coordinating and reviewing the work of assigned project staff and private consultants.
  • Coordinating, acquiring, and administering required permits for projects.
  • Preparing documentation needed for approval by various government and regulatory agencies.
  • Preparing grant applications and conducting grant administration, management and reporting

Keep Exploring Public Practice Landscape Architecture

Aerial drawing of the reimagined brownfield site known as the Lafitte Greenway

Guide to Public Practice Landscape Architecture

What is public practice landscape architecture? The not-for-profit enterprise whose mission is to design, implement, and manage functional, liveable, safe, and attractive places for the public, often developed with a larger social objective in mind—community gathering, preservation/acknowledgement of history/place, environmental resilience, and economic vitality.

Engagement facilitated conversation among residents and community members through sketching

Public Communications

Initiatives, Presentations, Media Relations, Progress Reporting, Public Education

Contract Administration

Procurement Proposals, Bid Documents, Advertising, Negotiations, Grants/Funding, Scope-of-work Refinement, Budgets, Billing

Data Collection & Analysis

GIS - Mapping, Surveys, Record Reviews, Site Condition Assessment (Grading and Drainage, Erosion, Circulation, Climatic Conditions)

Design

Drive design vision, advocate for landscape architecture components, create design standards, direct design processes

Engagement

Political Bodies, Stakeholders, Owners, Community Interest Groups, Programming, Inter-Organizational Relations

Aerial View of the Eastern End of Orange Mall

Public Asset Management

Inspections, Maintenance, Stewardship, Health & Safety, Inventories, Acquisitions & Agreements

Enhanced pathways traverse the Penn and Fountain Landfills, which rise 130 feet above Jamaica Bay.

Regulation & Compliance

Public Policy Development, Ordinances, Development Standards & Guidelines, Zoning Review, Permitting, Specifications

Representation

Coordination, Collaboration, Team Leadership, Subject Matter Expertise, Agency Liaison, Task Force Member, Public Guardian

Academic researchers meet with a firm liaison to discuss a research project

Research & Documentation

Precedent/Benchmark/Case Studies, Historical Record Review, Preservation Studies, Informational Resources