January 14, 2007 1:05 PM
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"Want to cool your data centre?"
"It's called a 'green roof,'"
explains this Computerworld article linked on the British site Techworld. A most minimal green roof is then described which not only provides tax credits as a benefit, but keeps those hard-working computers cool.
One IT manager estimates his cooling needs may be half of what they once were before the green upgrade 1.0. Sounds like they still might benefit from some technical assistance regarding plantings, etc.
The Dirt sees this as the closest bridge between computer science and landscape architecture since CAD, not to mention the bartering potential.
January 9, 2007 7:44 PM
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Some of the creative sessions of the Great Park design team are described in this
Orange County Register article which encompasses what
The Dirt deduces to be a new-age business lesson.
However, follow the video link (highlighted in the article) to watch engineer Patrick Fuscoe describe the evolution of ASLA member Ken Smith's idea for a canyon. The video also has great virtual footage of the design for the park - complete with Smith's hot air balloon.
This is the engineer's description of the crack creative team:
"Ken Smith is a trained landscape architect," he explains. "Mary Miss is the artist, with scarves and the silk gown and jewelry. You're got Steven Handel, the ecologist, like Euell Gibbons, who just walked off the prairie in Montana. And then Pat the engineer, with my slide rule."
January 8, 2007 12:05 AM
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At a cost of close to - gulp - $600 million, construction of
the Capitol Visitor Center looks to be finished in March,
USA Today reports. And the eighth major expansion of the Capitol in its 213-year history would dig up something left behind around Olmsted's time.
The original estimated cost of the 580,000-square-foot underground visitor center had been estimated at under $300 million at the start of the project, the paper said.
Among the unanticipated expenses:
Construction workers
had to remove a 121,000-gallon cistern used for fire prevention at the turn of the 19th century and buried when pioneering landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted created the Capitol grounds.
$2 million was spent on tree preservation because of the landmark status of the grounds, according to a spokesman for the center.
January 5, 2007 4:44 PM
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Georgia landscape architect Bill Smith and Rosemary Alexander, the founder of The English Gardening School in London, offer advice for revitalizing outdoor gardens in
this article from The Ledger-Enquirer of Columbus, Georgia.
The two panelists are scheduled to appear at this year's Southern Gardening Symposium at Callaway Gardens,
where experts from across the country and abroad will share ideas on everything from floral design and container gardening to incorporating native habitat.
The two illustrate interesting, and culturally different, takes on redesigning a garden. Their advice covers color (or colour) schemes and basic principles.
It's that time of year to feel good about what you do - if you're a landscape architect.
U.S. News & World Report (
once again) names the profession as being among the best.
They also find an excellent example of one, Laurie Olin, FASLA, to explain why. And when someone comes by a completed project and says, "wasn't it always like this?" the Zen master pays no mind. "Nothing is more exciting than going to a site that is under construction, and then going back to see people use it," he says.
Look for related links at the end of the article. The summary suggests, "To be content in this career, it helps if you're an avid environmentalist and can tolerate the often labyrinthine approvals process."
September 8, 2006 9:43 AM
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Finds sedum. According to CBS 2 in Los Angeles, the LA City Council has approved plans for a green roof to be incorporated into plans for a new neighborhood city hall in Council District 9, which covers Downtown and South Central Los Angeles. According to Los Angeles Deputy City Engineer Deborah Weintraub, the city is considering green roofs as a way to bring more green space to the city and mitigate the urban heat island effect.
"If you looked at LA a hundred years ago you would have seen a lot more landscaping," Weintraub tells the station. "With all the construction we have now put in the LA basin we have increased the temperature of the basin. By putting green roofs on buildings we would be adding green space that would help to lower the temperature."
September 8, 2006 9:43 AM
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ArchNewsNow draws our attention to a new exhibit at the Van Alen Institute in New York titled
The Good Life: New Public Spaces for Recreation.
The exhibit “explores how architects, designers, landscape architects, and artists are reinventing urban public spaces to meet the needs of 21st-century recreation,” Zoe Ryan, senior curator for the institute, writes. It is organized around five themes—The Cultured City, Connected City, 24-Hour City, Fun City, and Healthy City—designed to demonstrate how open spaces can help define a city. The Good Life opens today at Hudson River Park’s Pier 40. If you go, let us know what you think.
September 8, 2006 9:43 AM
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Ronald Stoltz, ASLA, director of the University of Arizona’s Landscape Architecture program, has led a team of four graduate students to come up with designs to replace a community park and golf course clubhouse that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, the
Arizona Daily Star reports. The team flew into Gulfport with airfare donated by ASLA Arizona Chapter and worked with community members to draft plans to rebuild West Side Park, the city's second-largest park, and create a clubhouse complex on a city golf course. Gulfport Mayor Brent Warr said the city is “interested in using a lot of key elements” from the students’ plan.
He added that one of the real values of the experience was having students on hand to do proactive planning, which city officials simply did not have time for.
September 8, 2006 9:43 AM
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There is an excellent political/planning thriller to be written about the battle to bring Metro service into the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia. And the chapter on the Tysons tunnel (which turned out not to be a tunnel) could be the most intriguing bit. Essentially, Virginia’s new Democratic governor and local leaders in Fairfax County wanted to tunnel Metro through Tysons Corner and turn a car-centric planning disaster into a pedestrian-friendly urbanized oasis. However, the Federal Transit Administration—which is footing a large part of the Metro-extension bill—warned “bluntly,” according to the
Washington Post, that
federal funds could be withdrawn because the tunnel plan would not meet strict cost-effectiveness requirements. The Feds stuck to their guns despite Virginia Senator John Warner (R) “imploring” them to back the tunnel. In the end, the possibility of losing the entire Metro extension made Governor Kaine blink, and now there will be a 35-feet-high flyover through Tysons. Urbanize that.
September 8, 2006 9:43 AM
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OK, that’s not an actual statistic, but it’s probably true—it’s probably true for college and pro players as well. They all rave about the playability and predictability of the fake stuff. The
Danbury News Times tackles (get it, “tackles?”) the subject of artificial turf at high schools, noting that more and more schools are turning to turf to create multiuse fields that can withstand football, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey seasons. "With the wear and tear of time and the growing number of athletes, it isn't unusual for a school district to find its current recreational facilities inadequate to accommodate its current needs," Eric Sweet, ASLA, tells the paper.
"Choosing synthetic turf over natural grass fields can be a highly successful and cost-effective choice." The fact that turf doesn’t require mowing, watering, or fertilizer also makes it a highly successful environmental choice.
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