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Archive for the ‘IDEAS’ Category

RICH HAAG OWES HIS LIFE TO A TREE

Posted in ACCESSIBILITY, EDUCATION, IDEAS, PEOPLE on March 28, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

"Say Manure!" -Rich Haag. (Photo by Daniel Jost)

“Say Manure!” -Rich Haag.
(Photo by Daniel Jost)

AUSTIN, TEXAS—The Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture conference began on Wednesday with a rousing and hilarious rant by Richard Haag, the 89-year-old landscape architect from Seattle best known for his design of Gas Works Park and his early advocacy for edible plants. The speech veered in numerous directions. At one point Haag polled the audience to see what topics they wanted him to focus on, and, to his surprise, they chose trees. Some of the most memorable lines and moments:

“I have known for 50 years that landscape architecture is the fine art of visual swindles.” [Arguing that no rendering can truly capture the landscape in all its complexity.]

“Landscape architecture is the only profession that embraces nature as a lover. Biophilic, we were biophilic before they started combining words like that.”

On the landscape architecture profession: “Right now we’re on the top. We have what I call the power of procreation. But it can be threatened by other technologies moving in, and we damn well better take control of it.”

“Every idea you have, give it away, because you get a better one in return.” (more…)

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PENN, MEET YOUR LEADER

Posted in EDUCATION, IDEAS, tagged , , , , on January 9, 2013 | Leave a Comment »

Richard Weller is the new chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Landscape Architecture Department

Richard Weller is the new chair of the University of Pennsylvania’s Landscape Architecture Department

In late November,  the University of Pennsylvania named the new chair of its landscape architecture department: the Australian landscape architect Richard Weller. The previous chair, James Corner, ASLA, had led the department since 2000 and will continue to be a professor there. I recently caught up with Weller on his wife’s cell phone and asked him about his plans for the department. What follows is an edited and condensed version of the conversation.

Is there a reason why you don’t have your own cell phone?

To be honest, I just don’t like telephones. I just thought that was sort of intrusive—you randomly ring up people and dial into their lives. I prefer email.

What drew you to the landscape architecture department at the University of Pennsylvania?

There has been a sequence of people at Penn who have been very influential and led the academic discipline. Penn’s always been front and center.

What drew them to you? 

I have had an intellectual relationship with some of the people there going back to John Dixon Hunt. I’ve written about Jim Corner’s work. Penn’s Press published my first book, called Room 4.1.3: Innovations in Landscape Architecture, which was a very risky book because it was so conceptual. I’ve done work that tracks the entire spectrum of what a landscape architect can do. I’ve done the smallest gardens that are all about meaning and allegory all the way to large scale planning. It’s always been about what is in this project that will critically make some contribution to the discipline. Of course, the short answer is that there’s not that many people around, either.

What do you hope to do with your new position as chair?

First thing is to consolidate Penn as the world’s best design school. In many ways it’s a legendary school. It has great alumni. But the school can’t rest on its laurels. We have to guarantee that the students coming out of Penn are going to be leaders and visionaries and critics. We’re not just filling up the offices, Penn’s about leadership, intellectual leadership. I’m interested in large-scale phenomena, things like population growth, climate change. (more…)

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COMPOST RUMINATION

Posted in ENVIRONMENT, IDEAS on August 6, 2012 | 1 Comment »

Looking like a souped-up dumpster with a Holstein theme, ReGenerate’s Compact Organic Waste Station (or COWS) creates compost and energy from what would otherwise be wasted in a landfill. The COWS unit is an anaerobic digester and functions in a similar way to a cow’s stomach, breaking down food scraps  and generating a methane biogas that’s then redirected to heat water on site. When used at capacity by a hotel, cafeteria, or supermarket, the COWS system can save as many as 100 tons of organic waste from ending up in landfills. With hauling prices and tipping fees steadily rising in recent years, alternatives like COWS are not only greener but also more economical.

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PEAK OIL POSTPONED?

Posted in ENVIRONMENT, IDEAS, PLANNING, POLLUTION, REGULATIONS, TRANSPORTATION on July 23, 2012 | 4 Comments »

For a while, it seemed like rising oil prices and shrinking supplies might help us kick our greenhouse gas addiction. But if recent research holds true, we won’t be able to rely on the market to rein in global warming any time soon. In a paper published by Harvard’s Geopolitics of Energy Project, Leonardo Maugeri, a former oil executive and current research fellow, concludes: “Oil is not in short supply. From a purely physical point of view, there are huge volumes of conventional and unconventional oils still to be developed, with no ‘peak oil’ in sight. The real problems concerning future oil production are above the surface, not beneath it, and relate to political decisions and geopolitical instability.”

Maugeri does a comprehensive analysis of oil resources and predicts production could increase by nearly 20 percent in the coming decade and prices could collapse, thanks in part to the new opportunities for tapping tar sands and producing shale oil by hydraulic fracturing. “The Western Hemisphere could return to a pre-World War II status of theoretical oil self-sufficiency,” Maugeri writes, “and the United States could dramatically reduce its oil import needs.” (more…)

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DESCRIBE YOUR IDEAL COMMUNITY

Posted in HEALTHY COMMUNITIES, IDEAS on June 13, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The Smart Growth Network (SGN) wants to know how you think neighborhoods should be designed to meet the needs of residents now and in the future. Density, structure, and even demographics are among the issues that may play into your vision. SGN is asking for short papers about an issue you believe will be affecting communities over the next 15 years—the deadline for papers is June 30. Then the fun begins: By July 9, SGN is requesting that people send blog posts, videos, and photos describing their ideal community. Some of the entries will be shared on SGN’s web site and at the National Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Kansas City, Missouri, Feb. 7–9, 2013. What does your ideal neighborhood look like?

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GET A LIFT

Posted in IDEAS, VIEWS on June 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

So you’ve designed a project that looks amazing in plan, and it’s now complete and ready to show off to the clients and the press. But you’d really like them to have a high vantage point to appreciate the design’s finer aspects, and there doesn’t seem to be an ideal spot already on site.

It’s time to host a Dinner in the Sky.

Brussels/Courtesy Dinner in the Sky

Dinner in the Sky will haul you and your guests, seated at a luxurious and specially tricked out dining table, 40 to 50 meters up. Brave attendees can enjoy high-end cuisine while taking in the view. Guests are strapped in, naturally, and need to meet a height requirement. The Dinner in the Sky web site is deliberately coy about the cost, though it’s fair to guess it’s going to be more than a land-bound client dinner would set you back.

Those interested in a heavenly perch for less professional pursuits—such as weddings, bar mitzvahs, or high-stakes poker games—can make those happen as well.

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D.C. TO WELCOME SKYSCRAPERS?

Posted in ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, IDEAS, PLANNING, REGULATIONS on April 13, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

For more than 100 years, the federal government has restricted building heights in Washington, D.C.  But those limits may soon be relaxed, according to the Washington Post. A number of leaders from both sides of the aisle, including Mayor Vincent Gray,  Congressman Darrell Issa, and Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, are discussing changes to how building heights are regulated.

There seems to be a common interest in preserving views toward major monuments, and height limits downtown would probably only increase a little, the leaders say. But Issa tells the Post he’s interested in exploring taller buildings in areas outside the historic core—such as Southeast D.C.

The Post talked to people on both sides of the debate but didn’t really get into the issues surrounding height restrictions that I find most intriguing: (more…)

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MALL COMPETITION: READ LITTLE ABOUT IT

Posted in IDEAS on April 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Here’s a treat for all those who have been moaning about the steady loss of design criticism and reporting in mainstream newspapers. The finalists’ schemes for the competition to redesign three sites on the National Mall are being shown to the public for the first time. The Washington Post has a story, sort of. It’s by the Associated Press, and its most helpful observation might just be that “Proposals in the competition are varied.” If you want to see who actually did what, go to the web site of the competition’s sponsor, the Trust for the National Mall.

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OVERHEARD AT CELA

Posted in ECONOMICS, IDEAS on March 30, 2012 | 1 Comment »

The state of the economy is a hot topic at the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) conference at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign this week. While things seem to be improving, there is some concern about what will happen to the many architects and landscape architects who were laid off and still can’t find work.  Ted Landsmark, president of the Boston Architectural College, and Mark Hoverston, dean of the College of Art and Architecture at the University of Idaho, discussed this at the table where LAM is stationed for the gathering. ”We’re going to lose a whole generation [of designers], but it’s not the generation we thought,” Landsmark said. Both agreed that recent grads, at least those who had secured the technical skills that firms are seeking, are being hired. It is the mid-career professionals—10 years out of school—that they were most concerned about.

(more…)

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SUN FOR RENT

Posted in ENERGY, IDEAS on March 27, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

Image

Courtesy Eight19

In sub-Saharan Africa, 300 million people don’t have electricity. Those who can afford it save up for solar systems, buying them component by component—battery, light, inverter, solar panel—sometimes taking years to buy the cheapest, $50 systems. Those systems are still too expensive for many, who settle for kerosene lamps or do without.

Mother Nature Network reports that a new system makes solar power work much like phone cards—customers put money on “scratch cards” and use them to pay for electricity, which costs about $1 a week, as much as $2 less than kerosene. A company called Eight19 has created IndiGo, a pay-as-you-go solar electricity option. For as little as $10, people can get a 3-watt solar panel, battery, two LED lamps, phone charging unit, and module. People who buy the system can put money on their scratch cards with their mobile phones.

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