Landscape Site Grading Principles

Grading with Design in Mind

Bruce G. Sharky

• Publisher: Wiley
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781118668726
• eBook ISBN: 9781118931400
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Architecture
• Subtopic: Urban Planning & Landscaping

A complete guide to site grading for designers and other visual learners

Grading With Design in Mind: Landscape Site Grading Principles is a comprehensive guide to grading, written specifically from the design perspective. Heavily illustrated and non-technical, this book meets the needs of designers and visual learners by presenting the principles and methods of site grading with less emphasis on engineering, and a strong focus on the effect on the overall aesthetic. Written by a professor in America's number-one ranked undergraduate landscape architecture program, the book guides readers step-by-step through the process of solving various grading problems in real-life scenarios.

Landscape designers, landscape architects, and engineers need to have a deep understanding of site grading as the foundation of any project. Grading plans must not only solve practical requirements, but also create landforms that contribute to the aesthetic ambition of the overall site and architectural design concept. Grading With Design in Mind takes a highly visual approach to presenting modern grading techniques and considerations, providing designers the guidance they need to become competent in site grading while understanding the design implications of the subject. Features include:

• Numerous illustrations to support the text
• Step-by-step examples
• Professional grading plans

Studying the professional grading plans helps readers better understand the real-world application of grading principles in different situations. Site grading is a complicated topic with plenty of on-site variables, but Grading with Design in Mind breaks it down into clear, concise instruction with value to both professionals and students in the field of landscape design.

Chapter 1
Some Background on the Subject of Site Grading

Site Grading Informs Design

Inspired landscape designs contain at least one vital ingredient: an inspired grading design. Many designers consider landscape grading as the generative basis for many of their successful landscape site designs. The ambition of this text is to present an approach to grading that will prepare students not only to grasp and master concepts of landscape site grading but to develop site-grading and drainage design solutions that are both practical and aesthetically pleasing. Students reading this text will appreciate that the underlying approach considers grading as an integral component of site design. Design should be in their thoughts as they walk from their design studio class and into the classroom where their grading course is held. Just as they spend their design studio class time and their evenings striving to develop exciting and inspiring landscape design solutions, they should experience this same enthusiasm in the hours they spend developing grading assignments.

Cultures throughout history have modified the native landscape to accommodate their activities and to facilitate their survival. The Native Americans who settled in what is now Bandelier National Monument in New Mexico found a river valley suitable for habitation and managing their crops (Figure 1.1-A). Modifications of the existing landscape were required to enable them to adapt to the landscape they found. In some cases the modifications were substantial, and in other cases little change was required. In contrast, the designers of Teardrop Park, a high-rise residential development in Lower Manhattan, New York City, were challenged with making substantial modifications of the existing ground to realize the award-winning site design (Figure 1.1-B). In both cases the resulting landform seems natural—that is, it does not appear that very much modification of the existing ground occurred, while in fact a great deal of site grading was required.

Figure 1.1-A: Bandelier National Monument, New Mexico

Figure 1.1-B: Teardrop Park, New York City

Figures 1.2-A and 1.2-B provide an example of a utilitarian application of site grading to accommodate human activities. What appears as a flat lawn area is in fact a sophisticated site-grading design with subtle slopes to disperse rainwater. The site also required an equally sophisticated soil preparation and underground drainage system to support a healthy lawn capable of withstanding a large crowd.

Site grading is an integral aspect of specialized landscape designs. Elaborate and aesthetically pleasing landforms are developed in designs for specialized uses such as golf course greens, skateboard parks (Figure 1.3-A), and outdoor event spaces (Figure 1.3-B). Site grading is as much an art form as a disciplined application of specific practical and functional considerations.

Figure 1.2-A: Bryant Park, New York City, in the early morning

Figure 1.2-B: Bryant Park, New York City, later in the afternoon

Figure 1.3-A: Alamosa Skate Park in Albuquerque, NM

Figure 1.3-B: Stern Grove Amphitheater, San Francisco, CA

Let’s Begin

Some time ago, someone gave me a round metal badge (see Figure 1.4) with the message “Time for Design.” I have long forgotten who gave me the badge and the organization behind the badge. For the last several years I have worn the badge at the first few class meetings of the introductory site-grading course I teach. I have found that students generally do not think of grading as having much to do with design, at least at the beginning of the course. Their impression is that design studio is about design, and the site-grading course is about math. When they come to the grading class they turn off the design side of their brains. It seems they set aside what they have learned in design studio when working on grading exercises and projects. I go out of my way, during the early meetings of the landscape site-grading course, to stress the importance of design and to explain, verbally and with visual examples, how site grading is fundamental to achieving creative as well as functionally appropriate, responsive landscape designs. The process of grading and the exploration of reshaping the land can inform design.

Figure 1.4: Grading involves design and can be the generative basis of an outstanding site design

The Importance of Grading in Design

Students readily understand the need for, and importance of, design studio courses in the curriculum. And of course they spend most of their waking hours—including late into the night—on their design projects. When a design project is due, students will be working on their designs in my grading class. I have worked to figure out how to reprogram design students to understand and believe in the importance of landscape site grading during their academic preparation, because they will surely come to realize grading’s important role after graduation, during their early professional careers.

I have given all this a lot of thought, asking why grading often takes a back seat to design and some other courses. I have come up with a number of possible explanations. A majority of design students are visual learners, but grading texts do not approach the subject of landscape site grading in visual terms. The nonvisual approach used in existing textbooks employs left-brain content in presenting the material, and walks students through grading as basically problem solving, learning to apply mathematical formulas. Another explanation that I can get my arms around—one that is not so slippery to defend—is that students do not necessarily understand what it means to be a well-rounded and effective professional landscape architect or designer. So it is important, in the introductory grading course, to describe the context of grading in the continuum of academic preparation and professional practice. Students must be taught that grading is not an accessory but a key element in the design process, leading through design development, contract drawing preparations, and finally to the building of their projects. Grading can be the generative basis of arriving at a design concept. Given the generative potential of site grading, an introductory course in grading should be approached as a design activity. Like design, grading can be approached as a reiterative process and not a straight-line process with a beginning-to-end trajectory. Additionally, students should think of grading as the framework for design. Solving site-grading problems, like design, is a process grounded on in a body of knowledge that students must come to understand and master. Another parallel to design: Site grading involves the mastery of representational graphic skills necessary for clearly communicating a design intention, as well as for problem solving. Lastly, I alert students to the fact that in order to become licensed professionals they will have to successfully pass all portions of a landscape architecture licensure examination (a national examination administered by individual states) that tests for competency not only in planning and design but also in grading, dra...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Titlepage
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Some Background on the Subject of Site Grading
• Chapter 2: Site Grading and the Legal Requirements
• Chapter 3: Site Planning and Grading Process
• Chapter 4: Drawing Conventions
• Chapter 5: What Is Scale, Why Is It Important, and How Is It Used?
• Chapter 6: Where Are You?
• Chapter 7: Contours
• Chapter 8: Signature Landforms
• Chapter 9: Calculating Slope and Other Grading Calculations: Tools for Gaining Mastery in Grading
• Chapter 10: How to Calculate Spot Elevations
• Chapter 11: Working with Contours: Creating Landforms with Design in Mind
• Chapter 12: Signature Solutions
• Chapter 13: Detailed Grading with Slopes, Contours, and Spot Elevations
• Chapter 14: Storm and Surface Water Drainage Management
• Chapter 15: Estimating Volume of Cut and Fill Using Contour Method
• Chapter 16: Professional Example of Site Grading by Design
• References
• End-User License Agreement