Category Archives: Featured

The June 2023 Issue: Speak Out

ON THE COVER: We Are Here: Visible Histories & Proud Futures, by Max Dickson. Image courtesy Max Dickson/OLIN.

Push And Pull – a look into Landscape Architecture Magazine
Image courtesy Max Dickson/OLIN.

FEATURED STORY: “Push & Pull,” by Bradford McKee.

Nine queer landscape designers convened virtually to address the place they’ve made in the field, while darker clouds loom in the form of hate crimes and restrictive legislation. Hopeful and determined to thrive, these designers pledge to create community and safe and celebratory public spaces for all. Continue reading The June 2023 Issue: Speak Out

The May 2023 Issue: Sedge Heads

ON THE COVER: The slender, cattail-like inflorescence of Hayden’s sedge (Carex haydenii). Image courtesy Mt. Cuba Center.

LAM stacked covers

Featured Story: “The Sedge Insurgency,” by Bradford McKee. Versatile, hardy, and increasingly available, the 2,000 species of the genus Carex are enjoying a moment in the sun. Fans of the humble sedge praise its drought tolerance and adaptability to climate flux, declaring that there truly is one (at least) for most every landscape. Continue reading The May 2023 Issue: Sedge Heads

April 2023: Make It Work

ON THE COVER: A model of the Narikala Ridge project in Tbilisi, Georgia, by Ruderal. Photo by Giorgi Kolbaia.

An image of a physical model of the Arsenal Oasis garden in Tbilisi, Georgia, inset with a photo of three people on the design team.
A model of Arsenal Oasis in Tbilisi, Georgia, reveals the roots of Ruderal’s practice. At right, Sarah Cowles, ASLA, (center) at Ruderal’s office with Benjamin Hackenberger and Ana Petriashvili. Photos by Sandro Sulaberidz.

FEATURED STORY: “Range Rover,” by Jessica Bridger. Tbilisi, Georgia, is an unexpected place for a well-established American designer and educator like Sarah Cowles, ASLA, to launch a new practice, but the vibrant city, wild Caucasus Mountains, and go-go business climate suited her. With Russia, China, and western Europe jockeying for ever-bigger infrastructure projects, Georgia, and increasingly, Ruderal, is right in the thick of a global crossroads’s rebirth. Continue reading April 2023: Make It Work

THE MARCH 2023 ISSUE: LIFE SUPPORT

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.

Gardens designed by Joseph Yamada for his home in San Diego

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).

 

February 2023: Her Crown

On the cover: A mural of Shirley Chisholm by Danielle Mastrion, at Shirley Chisholm State Park in New York. Photo by Lexi Van Valkenburgh.

Stacked magazine covers from Landscape Architecture Magazine

Featured Story: “Trash to Treasure,” by Jonathan Lerner. Residents of East New York have been promised a new park over a pair of landfills for years. With a hard push from the governor and an award-winning design by Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, a new state park to honor the civil rights legend Shirley Chisholm has arrived. Continue reading February 2023: Her Crown

Park Diplomacy Across the U.S.–Mexico Border

This article is also available in Spanish

At Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, “two countries, two cities, one culture, one river, one park.”

By Jane Margolies

Zacate Creek, which feeds into the Rio Grande, creates an arroyo with a natural waterfall. Photo by Overland Partners.

Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo in Tamaulipas, Mexico—known colloquially as Los Dos Laredos—were a single city divided by the Rio Grande River until 1848, when a treaty established the international border in the river, leaving one half in the United States and the other in Mexico. Continue reading Park Diplomacy Across the U.S.–Mexico Border

In Their Elements

Stimson takes on the challenges of success by staying true to its New England roots.

By Jonathan Lerner

Stephen Stimson, FASLA, and Lauren Stimson, ASLA, built a new house and utility building on property Steve’s family has long farmed. Photo by Ngoc Doan.

Outside the kitchen door of the Massachusetts farm where Stephen (Steve) Stimson, FASLA, and his wife and partner, Lauren Stimson, ASLA, live with their two kids is a water feature created by Steve in the agrarian spirit of thrift. Continue reading In Their Elements