Open space planning for Travis Country, Austin, Texas: a collaborative design Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Travis Country is a 700 acre rapidly growing suburban community located in southwest Austin, Texas. It is situated in the Barton Creek Watershed and the Edward Aquifer Recharge Zone. Travis Country has 200 acres of protected open space land located in the middle of this development. The Travis Country Homeowners Association requested the assistance of a collaborative design studio class consisting of 16 graduate and undergraduate landscape architecture students at Texas A and M University. The class was asked to develop a comprehensive open space and greenways master plan for Travis Country with a focus on its protected open space land. Later the project was taken over and completed by two third-year MLA students as their final project. In the summer of 1996, the proposed master plan was formally approved and adopted by the Travis Country Homeowners Association. Some of the plan recommendations have already been implemented. This paper addresses issues related to students involvement with a real-world project in a design studio setting and to graduate education in landscape architecture. Our discussion will focus on how to conduct a community outreach project in a collaborative design studio. First, we describe the planning process and methods used for this project. Then, we summarize the major results of the master plan. Finally, we discuss some teaching strategies used in conducting this collaborative design studio and the community outreach project.

published proceedings

  • LANDSCAPE AND URBAN PLANNING

author list (cited authors)

  • Teal, M., Huang, C. S., & Rodiek, J.

citation count

  • 14

complete list of authors

  • Teal, M||Huang, CS||Rodiek, J

publication date

  • December 1998