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No! About 1.5 months now…

NO!! 13 months

Final week of your status, situation and outlook, please offer it.

I can assure you all a complete wrap-up and summary with a week from this coming Friday.

The results and responses so far have been very revealing and all over the map. I also fully intend

to submit this to ASLA and see if it shakes their cage into being a little more proactive…[Read more]

Thanks Trace.

Great to hear of examples that have gone before. Sounds like some great fertilizer too! Recycled Philly Cheesesteaks!
This stuff is relatively new to me as I don’t spend much time in big cities and have never lived in one. Closest I get is Sacramento and some, including myself, would argue that it isn’t a true big city.

It seems…[Read more]

Thanks Nick.
From my perspective and experience… In my ‘small’ community, and immediately surrounding us, we have this problem and the city is absolutely partially responsible.

Two examples- (My neighbor is a building inspector for the city. Through him I have stories to list that would make Santa Claus’ list seem like a small honey-due…[Read more]

Vacant lots in Philly and New York have been co-opted by neighbors in a movement that started years ago,the
“Community Garden” thing..In the eighties I had a nice 12×8 foot raised plot for my veggies in a W. Philly lot that the neighbors had reclaimed, removing the rubble brick by brick..
Don’t know the legality of that lot, but I do know that…[Read more]

In DD, with a computer one cannot FEEL the design principles and elements come alive as they do when pencil dances with paper. For me, I rely strongly on FEELING the design. I just can’t on a computer. There is a connection between the hand and mind as my hand develops and traces the composition. Just me though.

Design for me is evoking a desired…[Read more]

I remember reading about this a year or two ago, but I didnt think they had implemented any of the plan at that time. I remember hearing about Flint, MI and entire city blocks going vacant and turning into public safety hazards.

I think it’s a very compelling idea- reclaiming unfeasible urban development. Whtever the city officially decides to do…[Read more]

I’ve thought to myself more than a few times in the past few years that some of the new plazas and public spaces designed and built recently look like sketchup models- In my mind this is because the places look ‘plastic,’ and catalogue-y if that makes any sense. Is this because the designer relied too heavily on the computer through the conceptual…[Read more]

Speaking from the residential design perspective, technology has enabled inexperienced designers to make professional looking presentations. However, I feel like I benefit from that as an experienced designer (RLA) because I do focus on the idea behind the design and marginalise the graphic presentation by using black and white line work…[Read more]

surprise: disposers are factory-tested on frozen steer bones, so can easily handle peach pits – allowing for a bit of noise, of course; perfectly ok to grind bones, as long as they fit w/in the grind chamber and don’t just spin around vertically. mango pods tend to get jammed in the grind chamber because of their size.

Yes, this topic tends to generate alot of misinformation/misperception, vs. looking at the research (e.g., water consumption); it has been a more legit issue with respect to commercial/food service disposers, which conventionally run continuously along with a water feed, but water-control sensors are available that minimize water use when the…[Read more]

I actually kind of like this idea, I’m going to have to not do the elevated pathways because I already know of at least two people doing this, and I like to go for originality, the idea for the sculptures is pretty cool, my only problem is that as far as ‘natural’ prairie goes I kind of feel like it may be too gaudy. Now, the site is named Buffalo…[Read more]

yes

Exactly. I thought about that analogy before you posted it. Those that still have jobs are VERY LUCKY! Those that changed jobs recently did not have enough seniority were the first to get screwed. The LA’s that have been laid off have been kicked in the ass and thrown out the door like garbage.

The way I see it (for those of us unemployed) we…[Read more]

Thanks for posting this too. I have also struggled looking for books about LAs rather than solely Architects. Never crossed my mind to put it on Land8.

One other book I highly recommend, though not the genre you are looking for, is The Architecture of Happiness by alain de botton. This book opened my mind further and expressed many sentiments…[Read more]

I would say the ease of graphic design software, whether talking about Indesign, Dreamweaver, or Powerpoint, has had done two things. First, for people who know how to do good graphic design, they have more tools than ever, and can make some amazing pieces of work. Secondly, and more unfortunately, many of these programs have helper tools that can…[Read more]

Nice Gabe, thanks for the recommendation. I’ll check out the Fletcher Steel book.

Nick
I read this a few years back also (Lapidus’ book) and really enjoyed it for the same reasons. One that I read 6 or 7 years ago was Fletchers Steel: an account of the gardenmakers life. Though this isn’t a new book (1989) it will do the same thing for you as did Lapidus’ book. Steele relates his experiences going through WWII , his…[Read more]