来认识一下我们的新景观设计师和城市设计师，Liz Barr

Landscape architect and urban designer Liz Barr joined RTD in October, 她带来了在全国各地的私营公司积累的经验，为许多著名的 公营及私营项目. Barr also served as an instructor in the landscape architecture program at CU Denver. 巴尔的角色如何适应RTD这样的公共机构? We sat down with her to explore the answers to this and many more questions.

What types of projects are you working on, and which are on the horizon?
我正在接手我的前任没有接手的几个项目, 不同的Park-n-Rides. I’m getting some things across the finish line for redevelopment and/or renovation, one being the US 36•McCaslin Park-n-Ride that was damaged by the Marshall Fire. 我们努力确保它是防火的，并符合苏必利尔市希望看到的. 然后我们会把它转过来竞标，这样我们就可以在春天安装了.

Understanding fire, there's a lot of design efforts that go into keeping things safe, RTD轨道线实际上在某些景观之间保持了很好的缓冲. It's something I learned in more detail when I taught a studio at CU Denver. There's a lot of designing with fire in landscape architecture, as far as mitigating the risk of it but creating more resilient designs, 尤其是在山区.

Liz，跟我们说说你加入RTD之前的经历吧. 你来自哪里，是什么吸引你进入这个领域的?
I am from Chicago. 我是中西部女孩, 我认为这在这个行业对我很有帮助，因为我从小就想和我旁边的人说话. 这为我打开了很多扇门, and it’s also helped me create relationships that have helped me move across the country, 无论是为了上学, for life, for work, living abroad.

我在芝加哥工作了几年，想从事一些更大的项目工作. 我读研究生就是为了找到答案，我找到了. 我找到了一位很棒的导师，杰西卡·汉森. She was my professor, and she helped me flesh out what I wanted to learn about. 我发现从工作回到学校真的很有挑战性，因为我非常实际, 所以我一直在考虑预算，并试图让事情变得合适. 我花了一两个学期的时间来打破对自己和现实世界的刻板印象, the industry, actually permits. 一旦发生这种事就很有趣了, 因为它真的打开了这些闸门, 如果没有限制，我会怎么做?

这让我爱上了垃圾. 当时我住在伊利诺斯州的丹维尔. 那里有很多垃圾填埋场，在河边形成了一个网络，我很着迷. 他们为什么在那里? What was the point? I was thinking about garbage and how much trash we create as humans. 这是人们最关心的问题，因为有很多垃圾，而且回收利用是理所当然的? 我开始对人类对土地的利用产生了浓厚的兴趣. 认为这些地方曾经是煤矿, so we've scoured out the earth and then we fill them with trash, 然后我们给它们盖上帽子, 接下来我们要怎么处理它们?

During my time at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), 我沿着这条研究道路走下去, and it afforded me the opportunity once I wrote my thesis to apply for a research grant. 我获得了那笔补助金, 我到国外去看看其他国家, 德国专门, 重新构想了他们的“废物通道”吗,或者被认为不再适合人类互动的地方. 关于你，我想了很多.S. rules and regulations that are in place to protect the human population, but in turn quarantine off these toxic sites from reintegration or reuse. 最终，怎样才能最好地利用这个空间? 我们如何让这些被破坏的地球碎片起死回生? 我们如何使这些景观再次安全? With growing populations, space will soon be our greatest commodity. 我的激情显然是围绕着社会正义而点燃的, 环境健康和重新构想那些被榨干的土地.

我接受了这一切，(设计工作室)Olin的合伙人杰西卡·汉森(Jessica Henson)为我辩护. 她帮助我加入了奥林费城办事处, 我在那里做了一些很棒的项目. 洛杉矶河总体规划是我多年来关注的重点——它有很多层次, 同时也为社会公平做出了巨大贡献. 我们努力通过公共交通将不同的社区连接在一起，保证人们的安全, while recharging aquifers and advocating for native wildlife populations. 这是一项令人着迷的工作.

从那时起，我需要改变生活. 我收拾好行李，开车去了山区, 因为在那些时刻，人就是这么做的. 我搬到了科罗拉多，我很喜欢那里. Ahead of time, I reached out to (Denver landscape architecture firm) Dig Studio and a few other places. 我也曾在芝加哥的Design Workshop实习，并帮助他们建立了芝加哥办事处. 我不确定我会在哪里降落.

Dig sounded exciting: They were smaller, and they were looking to do similar things. They demonstrated a lot of interest in brownfield remediation projects. 我非常重视这一点——我告诉他们这是我的激情所在. While I was at Dig, 我是科罗拉多斯普林斯市中心重建项目团队的一员, 其中包括Vermijo大道和新建的U.S. 奥林匹克博物馆广场. Seeing that project come to life was exciting and really rewarding. 我很确定这是科罗拉多州第一个使用结构土壤细胞的项目dular systems that provides space for uncompacted soil volumes for tree roots 和雨水储存). That was something that I’d used often in different urban conditions, 所以我把它带到了这个项目中. 这是我引以为豪的事, 因为树木看起来很快乐，这是一种控制和引导雨水的方法.

我从费城到芝加哥再到洛杉矶都工作过. 当我在这些公司工作的时候，我们接触了全国和世界各地的很多地方. 我在很多美国大使馆工作过, and, as you can imagine, 这项工作让我在景观安全方面积累了丰富的经验.

What led you to bring your skills and experience to work for a transit agency?
I studied planning as well – that was my focus in my master’s degree. 大局观对我来说总是很有启发性, 因此，我将在RTD内寻求任何途径，在那里我将成为那些更大的思考和未来规划的对话的一部分. 作为一名景观设计师，我真的很想参与预测中的很多事情. RTD只有我一个人，这对我来说很新鲜. Bringing some of my knowledge and excitement to people at the agency would be fantastic. And bringing the agency into more of the current and future practices, because there's so much work that RTD has accomplished and built and done in the last 10, 20, beyond years, 但总有新技术和新方法让我努力跟上时代的步伐. 只要我们能够以这种方式继续努力，推动优秀的设计和声音设计. 这对我来说是一个巨大的挑战，我喜欢挑战. 我认为这吸引了我，因为我知道要让它成为一种根深蒂固的规范将是一场战斗.

我明年的工作就是评估Park-n-Rides, 所以我会亲自去量化, looking at, 确定每个Park-n-Ride需要发生什么，以证明有预算做这些事情. I will be evaluating, is concrete broken or are curbs functioning? Are the lights on? 玻璃碎了吗?? Is there trash? 有便利设施吗?? 树在枯死吗?? 灌溉工作顺利吗?? Are there opportunities for us to improve something, whether it's sod to native grasses? Is there a missed opportunity for bringing some of my passion of integrating people, transit, 把这些东西都叠在一起? Is there an opportunity for this space to become more equitable, 可访问和可用的社区?

因为这些都是交通枢纽，所以人们会被吸引到“停车换乘”，不管他们是开车还是走路. 那么我们如何创造这个空间来为使用RTD的人们和RTD的员工服务，让我们都为我们所做的事情感到自豪? 它确实是丹佛市中心RTD的一个入口，无论你通勤到哪里. 整个体验是紧密相连的, 从去Park-n-Ride, 上火车, 你的一整天都被这种心流支配着. 那么，作为景观设计师，我怎样才能使这种体验成为最好的——最安全的, 最舒服, 美观, 你想去的地方, 而不是只是穿过它?

作为景观设计师, 你在倡导环保, but you're also advocating for the people who live around there and work there. 或大或小，我们如何整合这两个世界? 很容易了解已经完成的工作和标准, but to try to break the mold and integrate both is a challenge, and it takes a village to get those kinds of projects off the ground.

景观建筑能提高RTD物业的安全性吗? 你在工作中是否考虑到安全问题?
Absolutely. 我提到过我参与了一些美国.S. 大使馆，所以安全是最重要的. We worked on blast ratings to bollards to looking at vehicle testing of speed, 车辆会翻转或转向的地方. 这些都融入了景观建筑中.

美国有相关规定, but there are many ways that we can layer improved safety and nice design. Again, all of this comes down to design goals and, of course, budget. From bollards, lighting, 为所有人提供庇护所和安全的空间, 在设备和工程之间有一个融合. Whether it's a way that the path is laid out or the placement of a tree, 我总是在观察和思考视角, 植物材料的景观. Long term, if this tree grows to be this big, can you see safely to your car? There's a lot going on in my mind when I'm laying something out on site.

RTD是否概述了它希望通过这类工作看到的积极影响，并确定了实现这些影响的时间框架?
Yes. 风景是短暂的，没有什么是永恒的. 你建了一个停车场和路边石，然后想，我们10年前就这么做了，应该没问题. Well, maybe something happened and the ramp is no longer functioning. 这个过程需要持续进行, 需要有人监视所有的Park-n-Rides和车站，这样我们就能正确地理解需要做什么.

我们已经注意到了，现在计划正在进行中. And I think we will be seeing some improvements in the coming years. 这些事情肯定会被很好地记录下来, and we will have an operating list of priorities to get out there and make them happen.

到目前为止，你职业生涯中最引以为傲的是什么?
我对洛杉矶河总体规划的贡献当然是我非常自豪的——看到我创造和梦想的东西变成了现实，感觉非常好. Also, as I mentioned, 我真的为科罗拉多斯普林斯感到骄傲, 因为我听过人们谈论它的影响. That's amazing.

我来自芝加哥，威利斯大厦(以前的西尔斯大厦)是我的项目之一. It gives me great pride to know that I helped reimagine the repositioning of the tower. 这是另一个项目，我们对柱柱间距进行了广泛的研究，以确保没有行人碰撞的风险. On top of that, 我们创造了一个屋顶花园, 还有建筑周围的小花园. We redesigned the entire city block with bollards, paving and lighting. And underneath all of the paving we used structural soil cells, because Chicago is built over a vast network of tunnels with little space for utilities, 更不用说植树了. 我们通过连接土壤体积来实现这一切. 这是我们解决的一个非常有趣的难题. We were almost to completion with our construction drawings and then the budget was cut, 所以我们的一些想法需要调整. 但这是芝加哥女孩的骄傲时刻.

Tell us about a challenge you addressed elsewhere that was satisfying.
当事情在第11个小时发生巨大变化时, rallying with your team and being able to come up with something worth its salt. 最困难和最具挑战性的时刻是当你筋疲力尽，试图想出一些伟大的事情, and overcoming that and still putting out something that you're proud of. 这种情况在我身上发生过很多次，我相信任何景观设计师都会这么说. 但总的来说，总体情况是能够转向的, 保持你的冷静，把一些东西放回去，和原来的设计一样质量，有时甚至更好!

What would you like the public to know about you that we have not discussed?
I am an open book. I love to learn, teach, advocate for the underdog and inspire change. 无可否认，我需要提醒自己我是 the landscape architect at RTD, as I am a team player through and through. 我曾与我那个时代的一些最杰出的建筑师和景观设计师一起工作过——我开玩笑说，我可能是少数几个可以给弗兰克·盖里(Frank Gehry)和劳里·奥林(Laurie Olin)发短信并得到回复的人之一——但我仍然更愿意保持谦虚. 这要归功于我父亲, 谁总是有时间和另一个人在一起, 不管是陌生人还是朋友, 他在75岁时仍在努力追求自己的激情. Personally, 我不希望75岁还在工作, but I will bring all that I can to this role before I get there.

你可以想象，我是一个自然爱好者，所以我对我的职业有很高的赌注. In college, I signed up to be a landscape architect in efforts to save the world, 我认为保持这么高的标准对我们大家都有好处.