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Archive for the ‘WATER’ Category

MAY LAM: WHO’S WATCHING?

Posted in CITIES, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, ONLINE ONLY, PEOPLE, PHOTOGRAPHY, PLANNING, PRACTICE, RESEARCH, RESILIENCE, STUDENTS, TECH, UNIVERSITY, WATER, tagged , , , , , on May 3, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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FOREGROUND

Print to Scale (Tech)
A low-budget student project meets new 3-D printing technology, and an award-winning garden
is the result.

        Room to Lead (Advocacy)
The National Association of Minority Landscape Architects formed in a moment of recognition. Now it is using its platform to reach out to students.

FEATURES

    Alternate Ending
Silver Lake Reservoir in Los Angeles was once a gathering place, but when it was decommissioned, the future went hazy. Navigating a vocal public process, Hargreaves Jones and the local firm Chee Salette honed a jumble of ideas into a plan for people and wildlife.

Whose Eyes on the Street?
Design strategies meant to prioritize safety in public housing often increase surveillance and overpolicing instead. A new program for New York City Housing Authority communities returns the keys to the people who live there.

The full table of contents for May can be found here.

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 250 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 May articles as the month rolls out.

Credits: “Alternate Ending,” Hargreaves Jones; “Whose Eyes on the Street?” Geoff Manaugh; “Room to Lead,” NAMLA; “Print to Scale,” Mississippi State University.

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TOWARD RECLAMATION

Posted in CLIMATE, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, FEATURES, PLANNING, PRESERVATION, REGION, RESILIENCE, RIVER RESTORATION, STUDENTS, WATER, tagged , , , , , , on March 25, 2021| 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.

BY TIMOTHY A. SCHULER

FROM THE MARCH 2021 ISSUE OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAGAZINE.

 

On August 29, 2005, the world saw what happened when a levee failed. A Category 3 hurricane slammed the Gulf Coast, 169 linear miles of federally constructed levees collapsed, and nearly 80 percent of New Orleans flooded, killing almost 1,000 people, the majority of them African American and over the age of 65. It was a wake-up call not just for New Orleanians but for lawmakers 2,000 miles away in California, who worried about their own state’s intricate system of ancient levees, which hold back the waters of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta.

Covering an area the size of Rhode Island, the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta is an inland delta formed by the confluence of five major waterways, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. It stretches from just east of the San Francisco Bay north to Sacramento and south to Stockton and drains more than 50 percent of the state of California. It is also a highly engineered landscape, made up of winding canals, earthen levees, and terraced agricultural fields. Roads follow the sinuous levees, forming what, from the air, appears as a convoluted puzzle pieced together over eons by a deranged dissectologist.

The delta’s present-day morphology is the product of one of the largest land reclamation projects in U.S. history. In the late 19th century, farmers and land speculators drained more than 500,000 acres of wetlands in the delta, using the dredge material—much of it the spoils of industrial gold mining—to build human-made islands. In the 20th century, water conveyance projects such as the California State Water Project further severed the relationship between delta wildlife and its unique hydrology. “There is nothing about the delta that is like what it used to be,” explains Brett Milligan, an assistant professor of landscape architecture at the University of California, Davis, and a cofounder of the Dredge Research Collaborative. “The way water flows through it is entirely different. The channels have been widened; all the dendritic channels have been cut off. There’s no floodplain at all.” (more…)

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SALT SOAKER

Posted in BROWNFIELDS, CITIES, ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT, ONLINE ONLY, PLANTS, REGULATIONS, RESILIENCE, RIVER RESTORATION, SHORELINE, SOIL, WATER, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »

BY ZACH MORTICE

The Morton Salt site will feature a riparian ecosystem grown in a synthetic medium. Image courtesy Lamar Johnson Collaborative.

In Chicago, a synthetic growing medium will provide a healthy buffer between contaminated soils and riparian plant life.

 

For nearly 100 years, the Morton Salt facility on the North Side of Chicago, with its massive rain slicker and umbrella sign, has been an iconic presence along the industrial corridor that traced the North Branch of the Chicago River. The warehousing and packaging facility closed in 2015, and within a few years, the company announced an ambitious adaptive reuse plan for the site, turning it into a mixed-use campus featuring a concert venue and office spaces. (The sign will stay.) It will also be home to Morton’s R&D facility, relocating from Chicago’s suburbs, where the company will research water softener salt, pool salt, deicing salt, and salt solutions for other industrial applications.

The project’s innovation will extend to the outdoors: The landscape of the campus will include a synthetic growing medium developed by Omni Ecosystems. According to the company, it’s the first site in Chicago that’s been approved for the use of special stormwater soils designed to mitigate runoff and stormwater from combined sewer overflows. Working with the Chicago Plan Commission and the Department of Buildings, Omni Ecosystems will use 60,000 cubic feet of Omni Infinity Media, largely composed of an ultra-light, kiln-dried mineral similar to volcanic rock. This medium will allow a rich wetland and riparian ecosystem to thrive on top of a degraded and polluted site that’s been capped with concrete and asphalt.

The Omni Infinity Media is mostly air—it has 78 percent void space, compared to standard topsoil, which has 25 percent. “It’s quite literally and physically a sponge,” says Michael Skowlund, ASLA, the director of landscape architecture at Omni Ecosystems. (more…)

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ART DIRECTOR’S CUT, MARCH 2

Posted in CLIMATE, ECOLOGY, ECONOMICS, ENVIRONMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, HISTORIC LANDSCAPES, HISTORY, ONLINE ONLY, PHOTOGRAPHY, PLANNING, PRESERVATION, RECREATION, REGION, REGULATIONS, RESILIENCE, RIVER RESTORATION, WATER, tagged , , , , on March 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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

Image by Florence Low for California Department of Water Resources.

From “Toward Reclamation” in the March 2021 issue by Timothy A. Schuler, about how federal recognition of a critical ecosystem in California where five waterways collide can maintain the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta’s cultural heritage and ecological integrity.

“Flooded fields on the delta.”

–CHRIS MCGEE, LAM ART DIRECTOR

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 250 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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MARCH LAM: RECLAIMED

Posted in CONSTRUCTION, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, HISTORIC LANDSCAPES, MATERIALS, ONLINE ONLY, PARKS, PHOTOGRAPHY, PRACTICE, PRESERVATION, RESILIENCE, RIVER RESTORATION, STUDENTS, WATER, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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FOREGROUND    

Cracking Up (Materials)
Concrete cracks inevitably, but there are steps designers can take to help alleviate stress.

FEATURES  

Toward Reclamation
A National Heritage Area designation brings the overlooked cultural history of
the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, long seen as California’s plumbing system, to light.

The Big Deal
A small city in rural North Carolina finds itself with a lot of land to develop after a historic psychiatric hospital moves on. A landscape-driven plan by Stewart helps find 800 acres of potential.

The full table of contents for March can be found here.

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 250 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 March articles as the month rolls out.

Credits: “Toward Reclamation,” Paul Hames for California Department of Water Resources; “The Big Deal,” Jared Brey; “Cracking Up,” http://www.shutterstock.com/phoonperm.

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ART DIRECTOR’S CUT, FEBRUARY 4

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, HISTORIC LANDSCAPES, ONLINE ONLY, PARKS, PHOTOGRAPHY, RECREATION, SAN FRANCISCO, VIEWS, WATER, tagged , , , , , , on February 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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

Photo by Robb Williamson, AECOM.

From “Give ’em the Slip” by Clare Jacobson in the February 2021 issue, about AECOM’s transformation of a former shipyard to a recreational waterfront in a park-hungry San Francisco neighborhood.

“Bay access.”

–CHRIS MCGEE, LAM ART DIRECTOR

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 250 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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ART DIRECTOR’S CUT, JANUARY 19

Posted in CITIES, ECOLOGY, ENVIRONMENT, GREEN ROOFS, HABITAT, HEALING GARDENS, NEW YORK CITY, ONLINE ONLY, RESILIENCE, SANDY, WATER, tagged , , , , , , on January 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »

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

Photo by Joanna Pertz.

From “A Resilient Renewal” in the January 2021 issue by Alex Ulam, about how Joanna Pertz Landscape Architecture reimagined a New York City hospital’s courtyard as flood resilience infrastructure that also connects patients and staff to the healing properties of the outdoors.

“Alumni courtyard at dusk.”

–CHRIS MCGEE, LAM ART DIRECTOR

As always, you can buy this issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine at more than 250 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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