Jay Womack, ASLA, LEED AP

Jay Womack, with over 20 years of experience, is the Director of Landscape and Ecological Design at WRD Environmental, a firm that has provided sustainable results for its clients since 1993. In particular, Jay has a professional background that reflects his lifelong affinity for the natural areas of the Midwest. His design process is based on an understanding that every site contains a unique and ever-changing part of the global system. Therefore, every design solution requires innovation that is achieved through the partnership of environmental and economic growth. Jay also believes that the reconnection of people to the natural environment is an important link regardless of location and can be accomplished through ecological principles that support Aldo Leopold’s land ethic.

Jay applies this philosophy to his course at IIT, which is designed to introduce students to a number of ecologists/conservationists and how they view the landscape in terms of ecological principles and self-renewal. The course provides a practical overview of various facets of ecological systems in relationship to function and design of both urban and suburban landscapes and the role landscape architects play to protect and enhance them. Through a combination of lectures, readings, field trips, and project work, students will endeavor to "see" the landscape through the eyes of an ecologist. Field trips are used to relate systems recognition, biodiversity, restoration, and stewardship in conjunction with conventional construction techniques, disturbance, invasive species, and fire management. Urban runoff, the significant negative impact it has on local habitats, and the role landscape architects play in solving the problem is key to the field trips and discussions. The sequence of field trips/readings/discussions are intended to provide basic information and philosophies on ecological restoration/natural areas management and the latest in green infrastructure technologies related to stormwater management.