March eNewsletter

Social Distancing Playbook: Landscape Architecture Edition

My, how quickly things change…and how quickly we adapt. Like all of us here at RVi, you’re probably reading this from your makeshift home office, surrounded by pets and family members who have become your new coworkers. With our new normal comes new challenges – how to use digital tools to stay connected, how to get your spouse to stop leaving water cups everywhere, how to stop the dog from barking in the middle of your conference call…the list goes on. But today we’re here to address a singular pressing issue: How should we entertain ourselves for weeks on end?

Lucky for you, we’ve put together a brief, curated selection of resources aimed at uncovering and inspiring your inner landscape architect. Or at the very least, inspiring your appreciation for landscape architecture. In no particular order, here are our Top 5 favorites:

Take a virtual tour of 31 National Parks using Google Earth.
Teach your kids about landscape architecture with this downloadable ASLA Activity Book.
Visit the Great Wall of China virtually.
Take the family to the zoo via the live webcams at the San Diego Zoo and Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Explore the surface of Mars as recorded by NASA’s Curiosity Rover.

Finally, we offer a 6th suggestion that should come as no surprise: Open the outdoors! We’ve been getting creative over here with walking conference calls and virtual team meetings that showcase our own backyards. Whatever your chosen avenue of entertainment, we hope that you are staying safe and healthy as we work towards overcoming the COVID-19 crisis together.

Keep Your Project Moving Forward with Virtual Site Visits

BY RUSSELL THOMMAN

With the mountain of changes that are suddenly upon us due to COVID-19, the business world is turning to digital tools more quickly than we ever thought possible. Many of us are stepping outside our comfort zones to find new solutions. Virtual meetings are now the primary way that we are communicating with our teams, clients, partners, teachers, family members, and even doctors!

At RVi, we have been using Virtual Site Visits since long before coronavirus was a household name. This tool helps transport our team members and clients to projects across the U.S., from the comfort of their newly-established home workspaces. While maintaining compliance with current travel restrictions and social distancing requirements, our Virtual Site Visits allow us to communicate site conditions to our clients, their stakeholders, and other consultants in order to have more productive conversations about the project at hand.

Click here to take a virtual tour of the site for one of our upcoming parks projects in the Mueller Development in Austin, TX.

Do you have a project that would benefit from a Virtual Site Visit? Contact me today to learn more about this helpful service.

Planning for the Future of Goodnight Ranch

BY PETER DUFRENE

Owned by members of the Goodnight Family since the 1960s, this 700-acre ranch in southeast Austin has been transformed into a vibrant, walkable, tree-lined urban hub. The Goodnight Ranch neighborhood currently features a variety of housing options, parks and trails, an amenity center, and three AISD school sites.

RVi was recently contracted by the Onion Creek Metropolitan Park District to create a Parks District Master Plan for the presently undeveloped southern half of the community. All open spaces in this area will tie into the mostly completed northern half and will feature two pedestrian underpasses on Slaughter Lane, providing essential connection between the sections and allowing for continuous and safe paths that avoid major street crossings.

In Other News

Working from Home
We wanted to let you know that here at RVi, we are keeping our spirits up and our computers logged in. Our workspaces may look a little different and our newfound coworkers (cats, dogs, kids, etc) may not have gotten the memo, but we remain responsive, productive, and connected. We look forward to hearing from you!