I’d like to take the opportunity to share the course of my life these past few weeks. A couple days after my last post, I discovered that I’d been accepted into a Sustainable MBA program. Hurrah! At first it was exhilarating. Then it dawned on me that I’d better get cracking on my FAFSA, among other things. For all those in school or planning on going to school, read on to get a little help on the…

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Landscape Institute (UK) has just seriously updated its I want to be a landscape architect careers website.… Continue

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The official launch of the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Rating System was on April 29, 2010. The US Green Building Council (USGBC) is the first national organization to regulate neighborhood design by focusing on smart growth and eco-friendly building principles. The LEED for Neighborhood Development Certification awards a stamp of approval for developmental design and location choices that meet the high standards of sustainable development and environmental responsibility in… Continue

With the current push for more stringent, eco-friendly, building standard practices being supported by the federal government and abroad, the need for LEED training is now expanding globally. An agreement was signed between the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) and China's Green Building Council (CBGC) on April 6, 2010 that signifies the dawn of a new era between these two powerful green building organizations. The… Continue

Dirt is one material that, while rarely fully exposed, is often a base material that other elements are placed over. Many times these elements will have gaps between them where there is exposed dirt, whether it be in a mulch-less planting bed, or in areas like a dense forest as we have here. You cold also combine the dirt with another layer of material, like a scattered moss or leaf-litter, to add some depth and realism. I have used this in 3D models before with good results, but in a 2D…

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As it is with many things, my technique for turf, and the similar techniques I use for other materials, were born of other needs. Namely, I hated the way my turf looked in 3D renderings. You could use a created texture, but it never looked organic. You could use a photo, but you got TERRIBLE tiling effects. You could do a slight color overlay to soften the impact of the tiling, but the color was always off, and you would lose to much of the internal texture. I tried all of these, before…

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When starting a digital rendering, just like with a hand rendering, the first step is always to create the lines you are going to render within. Generally people use lines directly taken from AutoCAD for digital renderings as these are the "cleanest" lines, and allow for some shortcuts such as exporting each area as its own file.

This method, which I have used often, involves turning every layer off…

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The UK Landscape Award is looking for the best landscape in the UK. …

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Anyone heading to New York City between now and June 27th, 2010 may want to check out Architecture of Dance - New Coreography and Music Festival. There are seven new ballets with commissioned scores by the New York City Ballet in collaboration with world-renowned architect, Santiago Calatrava.



Here's some copy from… Continue

After about a week and a half of fine tuning techniques, taking tens of photos for reference use, and taking hundreds of screen shots, my relaunch of Tutorial Tuesday is imminent. This time, I am adding a twist to the formula. Last year, I came up with the idea of doing the tutorials based on a single project, and walking you through my process. This started with my SketchUp models. Unfortunately, soon after I began making the project model, intended to be a base for a new website, I decided…

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Image: Mosier Creek, OR

The editors of Natural Home Magazine have compiled a…

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