The University of New Mexico

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Carolyn Gonzales 277-5920
cgonzal@unm.edu

August 28, 2009

UNM Landscape Architecture Student Wins Award for Pat Hurley Neighborhood Project

University of New Mexico landscape architecture Yekaterina  “Katya” Yushmanova is the recipient of a 2009 JSR Student Award for her project, Changing Perspective: Farming Habitat, that she designed for the Pat Hurley neighborhood in Albuquerque’s West side. The award comes with a $2,000 scholarship.

The concept was to design a project that could act as a catalyst for quality of life improvement for residents.

Yushmanova’s design came out of a studio assignment for graduate students in UNM Landscape Architecture Studio 3 last fall. Taught by Adjunct Professor and Landscape Architect John Barney, the students worked on visioning projects for the Pat Hurley Neighborhood.

Barney said that the area was selected because of its interesting geography and history. “Pat Hurley, for whom the park is named, is the son of the famous Western artist Wilson Hurley,” he said. The students researched the area and discovered the remnants of agricultural patterns along the ditches and evidence that Atrisco Plaza was an actual plaza at one time.

Yushmanova’s winning design looked at the abandoned canal in the bosque. “It was poorly engineered. It still floods and has created an unintentional habitat, or wildlife corridor,” she said.

Yushmanova wrote, “The Pat Hurley neighborhood is a historically agricultural community on the west bank of the Rio Grande, but in recent years, most agricultural land was sold to developers despite the neighborhood’s proximity to the river – a definite amenity in the desert southwest. The quality of the new developments is low and there is a lack of parks and recreational facilities. The riverside trail along the levee is under-used and poorly maintained. The residents prefer to use well-maintained trails and recreational facilities on the east bank of the river instead.

The land use analysis showed that the under-used area along the northeastern edge of the neighborhood had the greatest potential for overlapping recreational uses and habitat restoration. The context analysis revealed the lack of connectivity and destinations along the riverside trail. The site at the northeastern corner of the neighborhood where the riverside trail and riverside drain and an irrigationa canal dead end was identified as a good location for the intervention, which will become a destination and an activitating element for the trails.

The goal for the design is to create a multi-functional space, which will incorporate a public recreational facility, habitat restoration, and which will help promote environmental awareness among Albuquerque residents.”

Each student in the studio participated in an installation that conveyed an area or aspect of Pat Hurley neighborhood and the processes that shaped it over time. The installation addressed larger issues of landscape architecture and contemporary art so that was mirrored in the site. Her design for the installation featured an earthen wall embedded with seeds. An artificial irrigation system allows her creation to erode over time.

Yushmanova earned her bachelor’s in art history from the University of Culture and Art in St. Petersburg, Russia. “Living in the American Southwest has given her an appreciation for the “stark and fragile beauty of the desert – so different from my native Siberia.”

The JSR Foundation awards scholarships to students who demonstrate a passion for preserving, improving and enhancing public spaces through responsible and innovative land use and design. To be eligible, students must be currently enrolled in an accredited landscape architecture program that will result in a bachelors or masters of landscape architecture. A monetary scholarship is awarded each year to one deserving student. Students are required to submit a design brief for review by the JSR board.

The foundation and scholarship are named in honor of Jane Silverstein Ries, FASLA; the first woman to pursue a career in landscape architecture in Colorado. She graduated from the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in Groton, Massachusetts in 1932, and by 1934 had already opened her own landscape architecture office in Denver. Ries held the third landscape architecture license in the State of Colorado.

For more information about Yushmanova’s winning design, visit: http://www.jsrfoundation.org/scholarships.html

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