Client Projects

Transportation Planning: Visual Impact Assessment

Cal Trans Design Division

UC Davis Extension provided unique training to 250 landscape architects for the Cal Trans Landscape Architecture Program throughout all 11 districts in the state.

The need: Cal Trans needed to train their landscape architects and environmental generalists in Visual Impact Assessment methods and help them understand how visual assessment fit into Cal Trans' internal CEQA and NEPA compliance processes. The last time this topic had been presented in an organized training to the landscape architecture staff was nearly 30 years ago.

The solution: UC Davis Extension worked for more than a year with Cal Trans program leaders and subject matter experts to develop a two and a half day course. The VIA course was rolled out to staff in the Los Angeles, several Central Valley districts, San Bernardino and Redding, and five additional classes were presented to all parts of the state in June 2010.

Meet the instructor: Craig Churchward, ASLA, RLA, has 30 years of professional experience related to fitting complex and controversial transportation projects into the natural environment and the social fabric of the affected community. He worked for the Minnesota Department of Transportation and for regional and national consulting firms, most recently HNTB, where he was the national director of Context Sensitive Solutions. In 2009, he started his own consulting firm, Avenue Design, focusing on sustainable transportation.