Archive for the ‘PLANTS’ Category

FEBRUARY LAM: LANDSCAPE TAMERS

Posted in ASLA, CONSTRUCTION, ECOLOGY, EDUCATION, ENVIRONMENT, FEATURES, HABITAT, ONLINE ONLY, PEOPLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, PLANTS, PRACTICE, REGION, REGULATIONS, RESEARCH, RESILIENCE, SPECIES, STUDENTS, UNIVERSITY, WILDLIFE, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 1, 2019| 1 Comment »

 

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It’s the first of February, which means the latest issue of LAM is here! You’ll find these stories inside:

FOREGROUND

Changes Ferguson Can See (Planning)
In Ferguson, Missouri, the Great Streets plan for West Florissant Avenue is revived,
this time with more community participation.

Life Insurance for Plants (Materials)
Who’s responsible when a plant fails?

FEATURES

ICEd Out
The U.S. government does not classify landscape architecture as a STEM topic. That is bad news for foreign students seeking visas to study here—and for the profession.

Live and Learn
Artificial intelligence may well revolutionize landscape architecture. At least
that’s what the robots tell us.

The Huntress
Hunting her meat, growing her vegetables, and designing for meaning: Christie Green, ASLA, has chosen the wild life.

All this plus the regular Now and Goods columns. The full table of contents for February can be found here.

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 700 bookstores, including many university stores and independents, as well as at Barnes & Noble. You can also buy single digital issues for only $5.25 at Zinio or order single copies of the print issue from ASLA. Annual subscriptions for LAM are a thrifty $59 for print and $44.25 for digital. Our subscription page has more information on subscription options.

Keep an eye out here on the blog, on the LAM Facebook page, and on our Twitter feed (@landarchmag), as we’ll be posting February articles as the month rolls out.

Credits: “The Huntress,” Gabriella Marks; “Live and Learn,” XL Lab/SWA Group; “Changes Ferguson Can See,” SWT Design; “Life Insurance for Plants,” Cristina Cordero, ASLA, SiteWorks.

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OPEN OFFICE

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, FEATURES, GARDENS, IN THE ISSUE, MAINTENANCE, OFFICE, PARKS, PLANTS, PRESERVATION, REAL ESTATE, RECREATION, SOIL, SPECIES, Uncategorized, WATER, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2019| Leave a Comment »

BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

Inside the years-long effort to design the world’s least traditional workplace.

FROM THE JANUARY 2019 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.

 

In 1659, Lord Henry Capel, a member of England’s Parliament, inherited a coveted estate along the River Thames near London. Capel and his wife moved into the grand manor house at what was then known as Kew Park and, as was popular at the time, began developing a series of formal gardens. But Capel’s plant collections were unusual. He built greenhouses for species that craved warmer climates, and his gardens burst with exotic flowers, fruit trees, and rare dwarf cultivars. Evergreens, oranges, flowering viburnum, Pistacia lentiscus from the shores of the Mediterranean. It was said that Capel’s gardens were “furnished with the best fruit trees in England.”

In 1772, the estate was joined with the adjacent Richmond Gardens, and in 1840, Kew Gardens, as it was then known, was conveyed to the public. The world-renowned botanic garden and research institute now boasts more than 30,000 types of plants housed in a series of ornate, Victorian-era greenhouses and ornamental gardens. Today, Kew is considered both the “cradle of the English landscape movement” and a locus of cutting-edge botanical knowledge. The gardens draw more than 2.1 million visitors a year.

More than 300 years after Capel planted his first fir, Jeff Bezos found himself meditating on Kew’s legacy. The American CEO of Amazon, and officially the wealthiest person on the planet, found the botanic garden bewitching. It was invigorating, nourishing. He wondered if an office could have the same effect. Was it possible to capture the sense of quiet inspiration? What would it look like? (more…)

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GREAT LAWN VS. GROVE

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, GARDENS, HISTORIC LANDSCAPES, PARKS, PLANTS, PRESERVATION, REUSE, SOIL, SPECIES, VIEWS, WATER, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The Marcus Center in 1970. Photo courtesy Joe Karr, FASLA, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

Milwaukee rushes toward a zero-sum choice that could eradicate a Kiley landscape.

 

Dan Kiley developed his approach to landscape design in the wake of World War II. After designing the courtrooms for the trials of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg, he explored the classical European gardens such as the Tuileries, Villandry, and Versailles, and  translated their allées, bosques, and hedgerows into modern expressions of landscape design. Channeling this tradition created “spaces with structural integrity,” Kiley wrote.

“The trees form a mass that’s almost a structure,” says Joe Karr, FASLA, who worked with Kiley from 1963 till 1969. “Dan quite often used plants like an architect would use other materials.”

Kiley’s landscape for Milwaukee’s Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, which sits next to the Milwaukee River downtown, exemplifies these lessons. The Cultural Landscape Foundation’s President and CEO Charles Birnbaum, FASLA, says it’s “truer to the Tuileries as any Kiley landscape that survives today.”

But the Marcus Center is now planning to destroy Kiley’s primary landscape feature on the site: a grid of 36 horse chestnut trees. A new plan will replace the trees with a great lawn for large public gatherings, quite contrary to Kiley’s design intent. Construction is tentatively slated to start (more…)

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ART DIRECTOR’S CUT, JANUARY 22

Posted in ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, OFFICE, ONLINE ONLY, PHOTOGRAPHY, PLANTS, SPECIES, THE CLIENT, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 22, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The things our art director, Chris McGee, hated to leave out of the current issue of LAM.

Image courtesy NBBJ/Sean Airhart.

From “Open Office” in the January 2019 issue by Timothy A. Schuler, about the Spheres—Amazon’s hybrid greenhouse and office in Seattle.

“Sphere interior.”

–CHRIS MCGEE, LAM ART DIRECTOR

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 700 bookstores, including many university stores and independents, as well as at Barnes & Noble. You can also buy single digital issues for only $5.25 at Zinio or order single copies of the print issue from ASLA. Annual subscriptions for LAM are a thrifty $59 for print and $44.25 for digital. Our subscription page has more information on subscription options.

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PRESENT PARK, FUTURE FOREST

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, IN THE ISSUE, NOW, PARKS, PLANTS, RECREATION, SECURITY, STREETS, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2019| Leave a Comment »

BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

On a tiny, distressed site in South Los Angeles, Hongjoo Kim creates a multilayered landscape.

FROM THE JANUARY 2019 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.

 

South Los Angeles is the last place a person might expect to find a tranquil walkway winding through the canopy of a mixed evergreen and deciduous forest. But 10 or 12 years from now, when the pines and redbud trees of Vermont Miracle Park have grown up past the metal railings of its 11-foot-high elevated walkway, residents of Vermont Knolls will have the chance to disappear into nature—if only for a few minutes.

Occupying just 10,500 square feet, Vermont Miracle Park was designed by Hongjoo Kim Landscape Architects and developed by the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust (LANLT), a nonprofit organization formed in part by then-city council member Eric Garcetti, Honorary ASLA, in 2002 to bring additional green space to underserved neighborhoods like Vermont Knolls, a predominantly African American and Latino community not far from Compton. It’s an area characterized by strip malls, auto body shops, and more than its fair share of vacant lots.

The lot at 81st Street and Vermont Avenue had been vacant since the building there burned down in what Keshia Sexton, the director of organizing at LANLT, refers to as the 1992 Uprising, after the acquittal of Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Twenty-five years later, the lot has been transformed into much-needed green space, funded through (more…)

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JANUARY LAM: WHAT GOES AROUND

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, GARDENS, ONLINE ONLY, PALETTE, PLANNING, PLANTS, RECREATION, REGION, SHORELINE, SPECIES, Uncategorized, UNIVERSITY, WATER, WILDLIFE, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 3, 2019| 1 Comment »

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It’s the beginning of January, which means the latest issue of LAM is here! You’ll find these stories inside:

FOREGROUND

Circle of Knowledge (Campus)
The University of Chicago’s Crerar Science Quad gets a well-rounded redesign.

Ready for Anything (Palette)
The landscapes of Karen Ford, ASLA, are making a mark in the Pacific Northwest.

FEATURES

In the Hunt
Kinngaaluk Territorial Park in Nunavut, Canada, will preserve flora and fauna,
as well as local Inuit traditions.

 Open Office
In Seattle, the spheres of Amazon’s new, plant-filled alternative work space
take their cues from an equatorial cloud forest.

All this plus the regular Now and Goods columns. The full table of contents for January can be found here.

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 700 bookstores, including many university stores and independents, as well as at Barnes & Noble. You can also buy single digital issues for only $5.25 at Zinio or order single copies of the print issue from ASLA. Annual subscriptions for LAM are a thrifty $59 for print and $44.25 for digital. Our subscription page has more information on subscription options.

Keep an eye out here on the blog, on the LAM Facebook page, and on our Twitter feed (@landarchmag), as we’ll be posting January articles as the month rolls out.

Credits: “Circle of Knowledge,” Kate Joyce Studios; “Open Office,” Stuart Isett; “In the Hunt,” Brian Barth; “Ready for Anything,” Karen Ford, ASLA. 

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THE SPECIALISTS

Posted in CLOSE-UP, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, IN THE ISSUE, PEOPLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, PLANTS, RESEARCH, SPECIES, THE BACK, WILDLIFE, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

As part of an ongoing effort to make content more accessible, LAM will be making select stories available to readers in Spanish. For a full list of translated articles, please click here.

Click above for a full PDF of the translated text, with English text available below.

BY MAGGIE ZACKOWITZ

FROM THE DECEMBER 2018 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.

 

Sam Droege’s lab at the Patuxent Wildlife Research Center does not have a street address. To get there, you count the miles down a winding Maryland road, looking for the seventh in a series of gates (#6 is unnumbered) set into the tall wire fence alongside. Punch the code into a keypad for the gate once you find it, drive up the hill, and hang a sharp left. There sits a low building in a yard of waving grass and wildflowers, encircled by another high fence—this one electrified. It’s a remnant of security for the yard’s former occupants: whooping cranes once raised here to repopulate the species.

“The fencing wasn’t to keep the cranes in so much as keep the predators out,” explains Droege, a wildlife biologist. These days the compound’s objects of study aren’t luring the local carnivores. What’s inside, in fact, are stacks and stacks of pizza boxes. They are filled with bees.

First, the bees are drowned. Cup traps filled with soapy water are placed in sunny areas near blooming plants; the bees cooperate by falling in. Their bodies are then gently washed clean of pollen and dust, dried, assigned bar codes, labeled with date and place of collection, and pinned by the dozens to the floor of the protective pizza boxes to await identification. Bees are sent here by bee collectors from all over the world. “We’re up to over half a million specimens,” says Droege, who has run the United States Geological Survey’s Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab (NBIML) for some 20 years. (more…)

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