Activity

Roland:

I think we have communicated here enough for you to know that I am in China. Two things have changed in the last couple of years since my first and now second tour of duty. The first is that most employment posting for landscape architects specify either that you have to speak Mandarin or that it is highly desired. Despite my appealing…[Read more]

Don’t take this the wrong way, former Vandal Roland but my advice: you are spending too much time at things which won’t further your L.A. career. Do you want to be a landscape architect or a Chinese/English interpreter for some American shoe company in Beijing? You’re barely out of school and I’m guessing…need lots of landscape training.…[Read more]

Hey Andrew. I’ve been checking out the new mobile site and I think it’s great. Very sleek, simple, and easy to use. Nice work!

You’re probably right. I wonder if my former classmates from China would help. If they’re still here in town.

I’m using Rosetta Stone right now and it’s not bad but the only way you’ll learn a language is if you’re immersed in it. I’m trying to learn Mandarin but being in Hong Kong, the locals prefer to speak English to me rather than Mandarin so I never really get to use it. I would suggest you get friends who are fluent if you are truly interested in…[Read more]

Don’t forget Osage Orange trees.  What a truly odd plant.  I love the early fall when the fruit falls like civil war cannonballs.

Jason:
 
I just read the NYT article that summed up the passage of the transportation bill. Looks like roadside (whatever kind of road) beautification and more bike lanes and pedestrian pathways lost out to the automobile, again. I read your reply and am not sure how to really interpret it. Do you mean that “fixing failing bridges and other…[Read more]

i’m told that’s where all the multiflora roses come from… hardy, easy to establish hedgerow planting…

I just sent in my $150 (cheap!) to renew my Nevada license yesterday.  Maybe it will be useful in 2015 or so!  Its such an absurd place…don’t know if I’d want to work there again, but I did get to do some things that I’m proud of.  I wonder who those companies are renting to in LV when so many people have up and left the valley, as I did last year.

I applaud the two planting initiatives in principle, however, both the planting of a monoculture and the removal of native species for exotics is dumbfounded. As for the argument against the mass expenditures on such an undertaking in favour of spending the funds on necessities such as healthcare, I feel that if more healthy cities were planned in…[Read more]

Thank you for posting this. I’m thinking the same way.
I read several econ and one very good housing blog from time to time. What they all seem to point to is the huge “shadow” inventory of homes that are still in the foreclosure pipeline that have to be worked through first before there is any real sustained recovery in housing. They all agree on…[Read more]

I’m interested nonetheless in your process since I end up doing a lot of “from scratch” trees with random brushes, etc.

The OP has an uncompensated work issue, not a copyright issue.  It really doesn’t matter if the railing is ever constructed. 

Jason, are you sure about the first paragraph you wrote ?  
If I buy a book, I can copy the pages for making my notes on.  What I cannot do is copy the book and sell/handout the copies for others to avoid the purchase of…[Read more]

The choice of a monoculture of Gingko reminds me of the over-use of the American Elm in this country and how that fostered the spread of Dutch Elm Disease.  Apparently that lesson has been lost, or just not understood and heeded by mayors with delusions of grandeur.
The US has done such large-scale plantings in the past.  Remember the Dust B…[Read more]

A little something to brighten your day:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/28/business/economy/new-indications-housing-recovery-is-under-way.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120628
 
So, first that supply of existing homes has to be bought up.  That takes a few years maybe?  Then they’ll start building more seriously again.  I’m thi…[Read more]

Considering the air quality/respiratory health issues over there, some of the efforts are understandable, so long as it isn’t designed solely as an aesthetic.  The attempt west of Beijing to reforest in an effort to stave off the desertification also is a fascinating one – anyone know how it’s holding up?
In some sense, the projects under FDR may…[Read more]

We are kind of having the same discussion in the US Congress right now with the transportation bill. There are a lot of ‘questionable’ projects that have a poor track record of sucess. ASLA is trying to get as much money as possible for things like streetscape renovations and bike lanes, which would help a few (the last round of transport spending…[Read more]

i would recommend writing the note:  “DESIGN ONLY. NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION” on each of your drawings unless your drawings are Construction Documents or unless they are being used to attain approval from Building or Planning. This note will clearly speak to the fact that you are not intending the drawing to be built as drawn and will help prove (if…[Read more]

hilarious, great reply….

Yes, I have found that lawyers understand the hourly rate concept very well, and yeah, they know they’re overpaid….