Tag Archives: By J. Link

A Deep Dive Into the Archive

Albert Kahn Associates mines original drawings for the restoration of the historic Ford House.

By Jeff Link

1929 plan the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House
The design team consulted Jens Jensen’s original drawings for the restoration, including this 1929 plan for the pool and lagoon. FOE31 Jens Jensen Drawings and Papers, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan.

The restoration of the 87-acre grounds of the Edsel and Eleanor Ford House in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, may be among the most historically faithful re-creations of the work of Jens Jensen and Albert Kahn to date. Pieced together from Jensen’s original drawings, detailed construction logs, archival photographs, and digitized film reels, the restored landscape just outside Detroit features a 185,000-gallon clamshell-shaped pool, a lagoon, a meadow, and a wagon-wheel-shaped rose garden. 

Continue reading A Deep Dive Into the Archive

Lethal Glass Landscapes

A proposed building and landscape ordinance could shape the future of bird-friendly design in Chicago.

By Jeff Link

The interior plantings of the Michigan Avenue Apple Store blend with the reflections of the exterior plantings on Chicago’s waterfront. Photo courtesy Bumble Dee/Shutterstock.com.

On a mild Friday in early May, Ted Wolff took a personal day and drove to the Ballard Nature Center in Altamont, Illinois, to catch a glimpse of Lewis’s woodpecker, a nearly foot-long, pink- and white-breasted bird native to the western United States. Continue reading Lethal Glass Landscapes

Processing through Play

A pilot study suggests playground equipment can provide social and emotional benefits for children with sensory disorders.

By Jeff Link

A child traverses a Möbius climber with adult assistance. The structure is designed to support motor planning and development. Image courtesy STAR Institute for Sensory Processing Disorder.

Lucy Miller lost her sight when she was 16 and, in 1970, underwent one of the nation’s first corneal transplants. A procession of specialists flitted in and out of her recovery room—doctors, nurses, residents, fellows—but she recalls thinking that only the occupational therapist was interested in her as a person. Continue reading Processing through Play

Closer Quarters

A two-year study of coyotes and red foxes reveals the impact of urban environments.

By Jeff Link

Urban Canid Project participants Marcus Mueller and Holly Hovanec apply an ear tag to a captured coyote. Photo by Jaymi Heimbuch.

Over the past half century, coyotes have expanded their range across the continental United States and live in many North American cities—literally, in some cases, in people’s backyards. Continue reading Closer Quarters

The Road to Evidence

The military–medical complex is looking at environmental approaches to treating trauma.

By Jeff Link 

A visitor on a bench beside Stoney Creek. Photo by Lisa Helfert.

This past summer, Fred Foote met me in front of Naval Support Activity Bethesda, the home of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in a Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. We set out for an early look at the Green Road, a half-mile path and a 1.7-acre woodland garden being built along the banks of a stream that winds through the sprawling campus. Continue reading The Road to Evidence