ON THE COVER: New York City Housing Authority buildings in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Image by Google Earth (base); Chris McGee/Landscape Architecture Magazine.

Featured Story: “Bet the House,” by Zach Mortice. New York City’s public housing was once a visionary project that combined architecture and landscape in humane and practical ways, but years of systemic disinvestment scuttled that dream. A new landscape master plan for the New York City Housing Authority by Grain Collective and Nancy Owens Studio looks to kick-start a transformation long overdue.

Also in the issue:

NOW: Urban canopies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will need strong roots; an Olmsted vision for a healthier childhood gets a restart in Rochester, New York; promising tech for reducing urban heat needs more work, and an Indigenous landscape designer helps move a mission forward (online here).

PRESERVATION: “Honor Roll,” by Timothy A. Schuler. When the influential landscape architect Joseph Yamada’s house in San Diego went up for historic listing, everything was there but the landscape (online here).

GOODS: “Parting Ways,” by Laurie A. Shuster. Walls and fences that add charm and texture while defining space.

THE BACK: “Designing Upward,” by Jennifer Reut. The key to a flourishing public space in Amsterdam is found below, according to BiodiverCITY: A Matter of Vital Soil!

BOOK REVIEW: “No Green Pill,” by Pollyanna Rhee. A review of The Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American Landscape, by Sara Jensen Carr, ASLA (online March 16).

BACKSTORY: Without 3D-printed models, Public City might never have figured out how to build Thunderhead, a memorial to those affected by the LGBT Purge in Canada (online March 23).