David McLay-Kidd Bringing Minimalistic Design Strategy To Texas With Loraloma
By: Jack Hirsh September 11, 2023A rendering of Loraloma's 8th hole.
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Bandon Dunes designer David McLay-Kidd is well known for his minimalistic golf course design, working with the site he's given rather than moving mountains of dirt to create something new.
As the designer of three of GOLF's Top 100 Courses in the U.S. Already, McLay-Kidd's work has typically been on links-style sites, like the Oregon coast, along the Columbia River in Eastern Washington or the sand hills of Nebraska. The Scotsman was the first designer of a new course at St. Andrews in nearly 100 years when his Castle Course opened for play along the North Sea.
But McLay-Kidd had yet to put his name on a project in the southern U.S. Until now.
This month, Loraloma, a private Hill Country community within the 2,200-acre Thomas Ranch masterplan outside Austin, Texas, will break ground on McLay-Kidd's first design in the southern U.S. The community, which is in the Lake Travis area, is being developed by Areté Collective.
The name "Loraloma" translates to "lore of the hills," and both the course and community aim to focus on respecting the land's natural beauty. That aligns with McLay-Kidd's design philosophy of working with the natural land, rather than against it.
"The Loraloma Landscape is vastly more visually inspiring than most of what exists in the Austin area today," McLay-Kidd said. "Our goal is to open up this compelling landscape to golfers for a world-class experience, and I will tread very lightly to preserve and protect this land so that it can be enjoyed and embraced for generations to come."
The 18-hole, par-72, 7,060-yard championship golf course is scheduled to be completed in late 2024 for select play with a full opening by spring 2025.
The course is routed through the community with eight holes along the cliffside overlooking the Pedernales River. The greens will be Creeping Bentgrass, allowing the Zoysia fairways to showcase the native flora, including the iconic Texas bluebonnets and other wildflowers and native plants.
The community combines ecologically-inspired residences with premium amenities including fitness, wellness, culinary arts, equestrian and nature-based experiences.
"Loraloma's environmentally conscious approach is something that really drew us to the partnership with Areté Collective, and an ideology we plan to replicate on the course we are creating for residents," McLay-Kidd said. "Our company was built on the idea of incorporating active and passive recreation into our course designs. The principles that Loraloma and Areté Collective have harnessed, such as having a minimal number of homes on the course itself, will only enhance the type of game and social interaction we aim to offer."
For more information, click here.
Jack Hirsh Golf.Com EditorJack Hirsh is an assistant editor at GOLF. A Pennsylvania native, Jack is a 2020 graduate of Penn State University, earning degrees in broadcast journalism and political science. He was captain of his high school golf team and recently returned to the program to serve as head coach. Jack also still *tries* to remain competitive in local amateurs. Before joining GOLF, Jack spent two years working at a TV station in Bend, Oregon, primarily as a Multimedia Journalist/reporter, but also producing, anchoring and even presenting the weather. He can be reached at [email protected].
Thinking About The Land With Interdisciplinary Artist Marlena Myles
From designing Augmented Reality experiences grounded in Native American knowledge and storytelling, to mural projects, public buses, illustrated Dakota land maps and more, Marlena Myles brings together technology, culture and a distinctive style to interrogate how we think about the land where we live.
Her interdisciplinary approach has a basis in Dakota thought, Myles tells me in a recent conversation over Zoom, when I reached her at her home in St. Paul. "I don't try to limit myself because I don't think that's the way my people lived ever," she says. "I try not to place boundaries between areas of knowledge. I try to blend it all together."
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Self-taught in art and technology, Myles developed a love for both from an early age, growing up in Minnesota and South Dakota. "My mom bought us a computer in the late '90s. I learned to code making websites and teaching myself Photoshop and whatever outdated technology was popular at the time," she says. Learning from YouTube tutorials and from other users who shared their knowledge, Myles has pursued the cutting edge of creative output moving freely between disciplines, whether that be animation, public art, illustration or digital design.
In recent years, she's found new institutional support for augmented reality, a process that uses geolocation data and 3D animation to bring together creative design with views of the real world.
"When I first started out with augmented reality, I would submit my ideas to grants, and people would be like, 'Are you sure you can't just paint something instead?' Myles tells me in a Zoom interview. "They didn't understand really what the technology was."
That changed when Pokemon Go dropped in 2016, which used augmented reality (AR) technology. After that, "it was easy to reference that phone game to get people really to see how the technology works."
Myles' AR momentum gained steam when she was selected by curator Tricia Heuring for a new AR project. Heuring had been hired by Todd Boss, artistic director of the app Revelo, to select artists who would be a good fit for creating work in the AR realm.
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"I actually had been following her work for a while," Heuring tells me, adding that she recalled Myles saying she'd love to see her work in AR. "When the opportunity came up, I knew she was the one to talk to," Heuring says.
With support from Pixel Farm, Myles has collaborated with Boss to create the "Dakota Spirit Walk" at Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary and "The Dakota Sacred Hoop Walk" at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
I had an opportunity to experience the latter this summer. Using my phone, I'd walk to different landmarks throughout the arboretum. There, through my phone, I'd experience Myles' vivid imagery and a mix of Native storytelling and philosophy. The immersive installation opened up a new perception of a place I had walked through many times.
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Part of Marlena Myles' installation at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
Myles tells me she spoke with people from the arboretum as part of the project. "When I went there I listened to the people who have been around these plants for 20, 30, 40 years and just listened to their connection and relationships," she says. "I'm coming into it as a Dakota person. I'm able to translate those experiences into Dakota philosophy, or a Dakota worldview. We have the same goal, we're just taking two paths to get there."Myles' process for developing the stories immersed in her AR designs varies from project to project. It's a mix of research, listening and a connection to place. "A lot of times, I go to these places with an open mind, studying the landscape that's there, and use the features to come up with a story," Myles says.
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She offers the metaphor of a computer to describe Dakota storytelling. "You click on something and it opens up a folder that has memories, or files," she says. "If I look at the Mississippi River, it connects to our star knowledge. We believe what's above is reflected below. The Mississippi River on earth is reflected above as the Milky Way, which is the spirit road we travel to this world and when we leave this world."
She doesn't need to read about that knowledge in a book. Instead simply looking at the river, or at a landscape, or plants, connects her to a broader understanding.
"I'm using augmented reality to immerse people into that sort of thinking, to not limit yourself to just what's in front of you, but try to think about the seasons, think about nature," she says.
Plus, AR is a way to get people to go outside. "People are like, oh, get off your phones and go outside. Well, how about you just do both and gain a deeper experience of nature that'll make you want to keep going back?" she says. "You'll see the Earth as a relative, appreciate all the seasons and everything for what they give us as humans."
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Last weekend, Myles opened a new augmented reality experience at the White Bear Center for the Arts, which runs through Nov. 18. She opens "Wodakota Walk" at Caponi Art Park in Eagan on Sept. 16.
For the Caponi Art Park installation, Myles began with the theme of wodakota. "Dakota means friends or allies and the word, and wodakota means friends or allies with all of the universe, with all the natural world with the communities around us," Myles says. "It's also the translation of the word treaty."
Myles was interested in exploring the concept of wodakota as a metaphor for our current world, and people connecting across diverse communities and also connecting with nature and the spiritual world.
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Part of Marlena Myles' installation at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.
The project also touches on the land back movement. "When I say land back, I don't just mean, here's a land deed or something," Myles says. "I mean, land back as a relative. A lot of people don't know how to properly live with nature, as if it's your grandmother."For Myles, wodakota is about warning people about the dangers of not being in "a good way" with nature. It's also about reminding people the power of building community and diverse storytelling.
Myles is documenting the project, working with All Arts, a multimedia platform based in New York. She'll be creating a documentary about her process, with guidance from the All Arts staff.
She hopes the experience will lead to more mini documentary work, especially about sacred sites and AI. Being able to make her work accessible to people outside of Minnesota is important, especially because the Dakota people were forced away from the state.
"When I go up to North Dakota, where my reservation is, my little cousins, they don't know about the sacred sites that aren't on reservation," she says.
Meanwhile, Miles has mural projects underway and is gearing up to head to Franconia next year, and plans to bring other artists into the project, ideally sharing her knowledge about AR with others. "I wanted it to be is more community based from the very beginning," she says. With funding from the Joyce Foundation, she's taking things to the next step. "We're showcasing to the world how this technology works, how it can tell these stories that people do want to see," she says.
"Wodakota Walk" opens Saturday, Sept 16, with a dedication ceremony, dance exhibition and a Native Arts Market from 1 p.M. To 5 p.M. An artist talk takes place Sunday, Sept. 24, from 2 p.M. To 4 p.M. More information here.
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SUPPORT MINNPOSTChester: Landscape Architecture Studio Expands Operations
A LANDSCAPE architecture studio established in Chester has expanded and launched a new ecology division.
The new department at Land Studio is being headed up by director of ecology Val Gateley, who has more than 16 years of experience as an ecologist, including specialist knowledge in habitat survey and assessment.
The new service will offer clients a wide range of ecological services including Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) assessments in support of their projects.
Land Studio was established in the city in 2016 and is based in The Old Rectory on St Mary's Hill.
The company works on projects across the UK and its clients include The National Trust.
Last year, it became the first nature led landscape architecture practice of its size in the UK to have its own in-house civil engineering and sustainable drainage design division.
Simon Richards, managing director of Land Studio, said: "We're delighted to welcome Val to our growing team and to launch our Ecology design and management division.
"As a studio that champions a nature led design approach through our expertise in landscape architecture, sustainable drainage design and Building with Nature, ecology is a fundamental part of our approach and a key service that we have been keen to integrate.
"We look at all our projects from a holistic perspective that considers both the built and natural environments in equal measure, so we're excited to expand into providing ecology design."
Director of ecology, Val Gateley, said: "It's great to join the Land Studio team and to be part of a forward-thinking business bringing landscape architecture, engineering and ecology all together in one practice."
