A trend appearing across the nation in cities big and small is the development or redevelopment of downtowns. These areas are gaining clout as a kind of "blank canvas", ready to be rejuvenated in the name of economic development. They are also gaining popularity amongst luxury loft and condo developers, who are rapidly buying up old office buildings and warehouses in the downtowns of some of North America's biggest cities. But while this recent revival of interest in often ignored and abandoned… Continue

What is Landscape Infrastructure?

What types of infrastructure will this book delve into?

Will it extend beyond tired conversations on sustainable water management?

 

Those were my initial questions, or perhaps even skepticisms, when I picked up this book.

I was happy to find that the well written, succinct prose of the Preface by Gerdo Aquino quickly answered those questions and in fact piqued my interest further to see exactly what ideas would be explored…

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SLANT AWARDS SUMMER 2011 ©

International Competition for Students of Landscape Architecture

www.slant.eu

The international competition for the SLANT AWARDS is being held this year for the first time and on…

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Row, Row, Row Your Boat; or The Case for Network-Centric Landscape Architecture

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Just as buying everything Home Depot has to offer doesn't make you a better craftsman, signing onto every social media channel doesn't make you a better planner. Ben Brown, a founding member of the USA TODAY editorial staff, co-founder of Coastal Living magazine, contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Southern Living, etc., etc., now spends his time communicating about placemaking. In this article, he talks about the challenges and opportunities of building and sustaining community in the…

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In 1992, Rage Against the Machine’s Zach De La Rocha offered a dire warning to a restless but aimless Generation X: “If we don’t take action now,” he sang, “we’ll settle for nothing later.” An anthemic rallying cry and yet, just ten years thereafter, Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard was introducing those same listeners to “the sound of settling.”

While the idea of settling carries with it some pretty unsettling connotations, its execution is proving far different. In short,…

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Lee Sobel, author of Greyfields to Goldfields, says a strong NO!

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