2025 CSI Teams and Projects Announced
Six faculty Research Fellows and six high-performing landscape projects have been selected for LAF's 2025 Case Study Investigation program.
Case Study Investigation (CSI) is a unique research collaboration and training program for faculty, students, and practitioners. LAF funded faculty-student research teams work with designers to document the impacts of exemplary, high-performing landscape projects. Teams develop methods to quantify the environmental, social, and economic benefits of built projects and produce Case Study Briefs for LAF’s Landscape Performance Series.
A faculty Research Fellow leads each CSI collaboration with the support of a student Research Assistant. The academic teams work with liaisons from design firms to evaluate and document each project. LAF provides training, supporting materials, and feedback throughout the process.
Among the projects selected for the 2025 program are a barren slope in New Mexico turned ethno-botanic public demonstration and research garden utilizing indigenous farming techniques, the largest open space in South Los Angeles, and a multimodal transportation system and linear park that bring bluegrass countryside to Lexington’s urban core. The geographically diverse projects also include a publicly supported working urban farm in Seattle, a creek-centric Indiana town center designed in response to a significant flood event, and the first Living Building Challenge-certified building in Georgia.
The 2025 CSI program kicks off in late January and runs through late July. We look forward to working with this impressive group to document these outstanding projects and their impacts!
Purdue University
+ DAVID RUBIN Land Collective
CSI Research Fellow: Yiwei Huang, PhD
Student Research Assistant: Serine Kao
Project: Grand Junction, Westfield, IN
University of Georgia
+ Andropogon Associates
CSI Research Fellow: Alfie Vick, PLA
Student Research Assistant: Jabari A.S. Lottie
Project: Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design, Atlanta, GA
University of Kentucky
+ Gresham Smith
CSI Research Fellow: Jordan Phemister
Student Research Assistant: Mitchell Kubera
Project: Town Branch Commons, Lexington, KY
University of New Mexico
+ radicle
CSI Research Fellow: Anthony Fettes, PLA, PDC
Student Research Assistant: Kailani Gorman
Project: Española Healing Foods Oasis, Española, NM
University of Southern California
+ MIG
CSI Research Fellow: Esther Margulies, PLA
Student Research Assistants: Ashley Stephens and Jordan Fucci
Project: Earvin "Magic" Johnson Park, Los Angeles, CA
University of Washington
+ Berger Partnership
CSI Research Fellow: Vincent Javet
Student Research Assistant: Piper Sallquist
Project: Rainier Beach Urban Farm and Wetlands, Seattle, WA
