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May 18, 2006
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May 18, 2006
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| Online Phonebook | Sandhills Guide | Business News | National News |
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BY MARTHA TYREE: Special to The Pilot Sandhills Community College served as a Business Training Host for a delegation of Russian landscape artists Wednesday. Eleven landscape architects and two interpreters traveled to Southern Pines as part of a three-week tour of the Triangle area in North Carolina. The group toured the Horticultural Gardens at Sandhills Community College, led by landscape gardening instructor Lee Ivy. The group also went sightseeing in downtown Southern Pines to observe local landscaping. "All of them are landscape architects, and landscape architecture is not as advanced in the Soviet Union as it is in the United States," said Bruce Howell, chairman of Crescent State Bank in Cary. "They are also coming from a very regimented society where capitalism is new. They are trying to see the best practices that we do with landscape architecture. "They are all entrepreneurs. They all operate their own businesses. They are small business people trying to learn how to get the free market to work with them in landscaping. Because of the dynamic growth in North Carolina, they wanted to come here where there are good examples of landscaping." Howell organized all of the site visits for the group, which include stops at businesses, industries and colleges. The Russian delegation is here through the Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) administered by the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI). CCI is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization based in San Francisco that provides management training to Russian small business owners and entrepreneurs. Since Russia's transition to a market economy in 1991, private ownership of property has made it possible for Russians to express their individuality by transforming residential, commercial, industrial and municipal spaces into aesthetic works of outdoor art. Information concerning planning of park and recreational areas, zoning of territories, drainange design, embankment walls, pathways and outdoor lighting, integration of water and fountains into landscaping, design of gardens, planting choices, design of church grounds, and sale of materials and equipment for landscaping are all in high demand in Russia. "The market is growing fast," said Yuriy Skibin, who owns a landscaping business in St. Petersburg, Russia. "It is hard to find your market, your niche. We have a choice to go with the private sector or with the government. Right know it is private, but maybe soon it will be more commerce- and business-oriented. We are all from different parts of Russia. We all have different processes and different points of view on the same goals. We are trying to see what works and what doesn't work here." The members of the delegation will take home what they have learned and offer training and seminars to their colleagues.
Martha Tyree, a recent graduate of Appalachian State University, is an intern at The Pilot. |
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