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In our office we all use Photoshop for our digital renderings. I think it helps using one program to do our renderings because we typically all use the same format so that anyone can pick up the rendering at anytime to work on it. This works well when someone is sick or needs help with a rendering.

I think you can see the problem with using…[Read more]

ASCA is assembling a national database of BMPs
http://www.asce.org/community/waterresources/nsbmpdb-extdesc.cfm
Analysis is still in the works I believe. But their Bibliography is a pretty good starting point. I don’t know how much $$$ have been included.

Keven, The US Forest Service has been conducting alot of research on the value of trees in urban landscapes. They have developed software (i-Tree) for analysis and benefit assesment. So far they have used it in a few cities and gotten some positive results (ie. to the descission makers). These make a pretty good case for Urban Forestry but also…[Read more]

Hi Keven
first things that cammes to my mind are publications from CABE spaces in UK, they have whole section on value of design,
but two of those are on your subject “The value of public space” and “streets paved with gold” check this out.
Hope this will…[Read more]

I like this one..Other ones are too wordy, and don’t like ‘the sky is mine’ quote – No it isn’t, for goodness sakes..But this is good – ‘design of changes to the land.’ ..Dont’ personally understand what the obsession is with defining landscape architecture – is it some question that professors are enjoying torturing their classes with?

Thanks Chris, i will look that up. We are trying to build the economic case and pull together so we can use to showcase the profession to decission makers. This is for a chapter based initiative.

Sorry I don’t know of any studies but I think National Geographic had a really good article on rooftop gardens in various parts of the world. Vancouver Canada had some really good ones too. One of the major local restaurants grows a lot of their fresh food right on their rooftop.

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whistler accommodations

I think it was cost of construction-$3500 which includes the associated drive lane, curb and gutter and stall allocated in the budget to make that one stall work.

I’ve heard upward of $14,000 for structure parking/stall. Maybe there is an agenda there, I dont know.

How about a giant solar power collector, as well as a radio-transmitter aimed at broadcasting towards the Vulcan planet, so we can transplant their logic into our brains..
“More Parking
Is Better”

We have those rquirements in certain zoning areas on certain projects. They are not without problems. Most notably the invisible hole when they fill up in downpours that tend to find buicks and camrys in them (when they are not being pulled from the front window of CVS). They also are catch alls for debris.

I would not park there if I had to park in an 8′ stall.

Mr. Radice: Now THAT sounds like Caltrans..I can believe that..The engineers do not know how to say no, only to modify so it might be slightly less dangerous, or move the bottlenecks down 200 feet or so..See recent hideous tragedy on the SF Bay Bridge- Caltrans loves to neck down very fast roads, with no apparent reason for the necking (to the…[Read more]

Thats interesting about Charlotte Trace..

‘ I’m glad that we have various options to how we want to live.’

I agree. It’s the lack of true options thats the problem. I’m not sure if mass. is seeing as much rampant, out of control, disorganized growth as places like Colorado right now. Its the wild west here.

Sprawl isnt so bad on a block by block scale, if you like that pattern, but the…[Read more]

Not a model for sustainability.

Sean, thatproject looks like a great precedent for small (semi)urban lots. How many stalls were included in the project? What is the context?

In general, I think there’s a balance between fully urban walkable retail and mixed uses and fully suburban tract development that utilizes good, conservative land usage, with progressive pattern…[Read more]

Trace and Jason-

Your last two comments reminded me of this:

‘Anyplace worth its salt has a ‘parking problem’. – James Castle

We completed a “sustainable” parking lot in downtown Charleston, SC this past year, lots of permeable materials and we won a BZA request to reduce the parking space widths from 9′ to 8′ to increase the sq. ft. of greenspace.

http://seanhoelscher.blogspot.com/2009/10/1315-george-st-sustainable-prking-lot.html

The Caltrans comment was for dangerous circulation into a parking lot…left turn across three lanes of traffic with no stacking space once in the parking lot.