Casey Howard had no hint when she enrolled as a landscape architecture major that she’d wind up on a student team that would defeat professional firm entries in a national competition. Or that the contest would lead her to form a business, learn about patents, and build prototypes. Or that the project would inspire a career goal—to create a cost-effective way to safeguard water quality in developing countries.
She also had no intimation that her professors — seeing all her capabilities — would then nominate her for the prestigious 2016 National Olmsted Scholar award. Which she also just won.
The Landscape Architecture Foundation annually presents the Olmsted Scholar award, one to an undergraduate student and one to a graduate student. Howard’s recognition, in the undergraduate category, carries a $15,000 stipend.
“I was completely in shock when I found out who I was speaking to, let alone the fact that I'd just won another competition,” Howard says of the phone call from Jennifer Guthrie of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol, an award-winning landscape architecture firm in Seattle, telling Howard she’d won.
Given the award’s prestige, it’s not surprising that Howard, who graduated in March 2016 with her bachelor of landscape architecture degree, says “I'm still not sure I believe it. There are so many incredibly gifted and driven students within the University of Oregon landscape architecture program who I had the pleasure of working with over the last few years [that] it's an incredible honor to be selected within the school, let alone the entire US and Canada. It's important to note Keegan Oneal was the graduate nominee from UO for the Olmsted Scholars, and though he wasn't chosen as the graduate student finalist he has a very impressive background.”
Howard plans to use the cash prize to expand on her UO team’s “Living Filtration System” concept, which won the design round of the Biomimicry Global Design Challenge last fall.
The team’s “biomimetic drainage system” would allow agricultural chemicals and fertilizer to be absorbed by plants rather than leaving fields as polluted runoff.
Howard’s team, which won $10,000 in the design round, is now receiving business incubation support and an opportunity to win $100,000 and move their design to production.
“This isn't the kind of work you'd expect to be doing as a landscape architect, but I believe it's a reflection of the versatility and collaborative nature of our profession,” she says. “I had no idea when we won the biomimicry competition that I would end up running a business, but forming an LLC has opened my eyes to the unexpected sides of being a practicing professional, which you don't consider while doing design work in school,” Howard says.
What Howard modestly doesn’t mention is her ability to shepherd a team, or that she was the sole undergraduate on an interdisciplinary team otherwise comprised of graduate students.
“Casey has this wonderful capacity for effective, quiet leadership,” says Anne Godfrey, the Department of Landscape Architecture career instructor who shaped a studio course around the Biomimicry Challenge. “She is able to organize people effectively and positively through her ability to be concise and straightforward, while maintaining respect and openness. It has been a joy to watch her develop into an excellent professional.”
With some of her Olmsted award funds, Howard hopes to explore how the team’s concept could be used in additional applications.
“While our primary focus began with agricultural runoff, I believe there's potential to explore ways to adapt the design for storm water management, golf courses, horticultural applications and even marijuana farming,” she says. “My long-term goal would be to have a scalable, adaptable design that can be applied worldwide in a variety of settings.”
Ultimately, Howard says, her “driving force” is to develop effective methods to protect waterways.
“If I can find a cost-effective way to do that in developing countries around the world where having clean water is a matter of life and death, I can't think of a more fulfilling career goal. I don't know yet how I'll accomplish it, but then again less than a year ago I had no clue how I was going to approach the biomimicry competition as a landscape architecture student and come up with a concept for dealing with eutrophication. The support and positive feedback that's come out of that one idea continues to open a lot of doors.”
Eutrophication is the term used to describe depletion of oxygen in water caused by dissolved nutrients from fertilizers or sewage, thereby encouraging the growth and decomposition of oxygen-depleting plant life and resulting in harm to other organisms.
Howard will accept the Olmsted Scholar award in October at the Olmsted Scholars event during the annual American Society of Landscape Architects expo in New Orleans. As luck would have it, that’s the same weekend as the next gathering for the Biomimicry Challenge — which she’ll have to miss. “My teammates will be pitching our concept to the judges at the Bioneers Conference in San Francisco while I'm in New Orleans.”
Along with praise for her student colleagues, Howard is quick to credit UO professors for her achievements.
“I owe my success in both the biomimicry competition and the Olmsted Scholars to the dedication and talent of the professors within the LA department. Anne Godfrey in particular has been a mentor to me throughout my schooling. My time at the University of Oregon has been a very rewarding experience,” she says.
“Congratulations Casey,” Professor and Department Head Bart Johnson adds. “We’ve seen you serve these ideals in your work and demeanor throughout your time here and believe this a fitting recognition of what you’ve already achieved and where you plan to go in your career.”
Now in its ninth year, the Olmsted Scholars Program is the premier national award and recognition program for landscape architecture students. Azzurra Cox, a master’s student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, won the 2016 graduate student Olmsted Scholars award.