Activity

Aside from that how about some of the neighborhood, city, and regional planning being done from the perspective of landscape? What about the socio-economic, and environmental aspects of public spacemaking in he 21st century? The Lurie Garden at Millenium Park in Chicago and the Highline come to mind.

Let’s not sell ourselves short.

I think that we need to be honest with ourselves a bit, too. There is a lot more that an architect can do to affect energy consumption and material uses than very many of us can. A green roof still requires a building and let’s face it, bioswales and rain gardens do not make great repetitive articles or eye candy on a magazinepage. Of course a…[Read more]

Having an extensive retail background, I can safely this is not a realistic scenario. The grease, the view, the traffic idling at the drive-thru, plus the blocked visibility of the store. What would be required is a different type of building for the McDonalds…a new prototype store. Not that a McDonald’s cannot fit within a more urban context,…[Read more]

I agree Noah.

It’s not tha I want ASLA to make work for us, but I think the purpose of the organization, or one of, is to promote our service to the community at large. I remember watching the show narrated by Brad Pitt on PBS (e-squared design). Every episode I caught I found myself waiting in vain for them to interview/include a landscape…[Read more]

Mike,

I think what you described in the latter part of your message is the scenario typical here in northern Colorado. There is so much open/rural land primed for development that there is no financial basis for infill or denser development such as in the second image. I could visulaize myself drawing something like this for one of the many fast…[Read more]

“Come check out my new apartment! It has an AWESOME view of a McDonald’s drive thru and the cooking smells are just heavenly!”
Sorry, but that’s the 1st thing that came to my mind. I like it in concept otherwise. I just like to be as far from fast-food odors as possible. Such a place would be hellish for me.

I am trying in my corner…..http://www.examiner.com/x-53639-New-Brunswick-Gardening-Examiner~y2010m6d17-Its-2010-What-does-green-mean

lets all try in ours, evey little bit…

I don’t mean to be argumentative (trying NOT to be!) but in my experience image #2 is fairly standardized in zoning ordinances I have worked with..I am sure it depends on what part of the country you are in..but zero lot line, parking in back, mixed use, is part of the ordinance of the City of Charlottesville since the nineties, and was definitely…[Read more]

I remembered that graphic after reading the two articles from the beginning of this forum. Unfortunatly that is not mine, it was taken from http://www.re-burbia.com/. I was trying to understand what Mr. Rybczynski was talking about in the articles. I certainly was a bit confused as academics often do to me, but I think he has something interesting…[Read more]

They actually did something like this with an old mall in Madison, WI. They started with condos around the edges. I think they built a new parking structure, as well. I moved before they finished it, though, so I have no idea how successful it was or whether there were parking problems.

Michele I think your point here is dead on. I read/hear/see a lot of news segments about green and sustainable design and construction. The guests on these shows and segments are almost always architects, sometimes scientists or engineers, but NEVER LAs. It really annoys me that when the opportunity to represent the proffession on issues that fall…[Read more]

three words, Nick – Parking Exempt Zone..

To me there is nothing in the second drawing, however, that makes it more ‘small scale’ – I don’t see that..The design with street wall and mixed use is just as easy to legislate through zoning..I found that the trouble CAN be that you can build it (and designate it mixed use) but that does not mean that…[Read more]

Thats a cool graphic Mike.

What I dont quite understand though with this particular scenario is what happens with all the parking. I’d guess that what is shown in the first image is parked per town standards for the restaurant alone, no more, no less. Then, add all that (what looks like) retail with residential and it seems way underparked. I’m…[Read more]

how about rhino 4.0 software?

Vectorworks is a great program to consider. I always think of it more for its 2D features and ability to work with geospatial data (another discussion – working with 3D geospatial data), but I do like it’s 3D capabilities, and the interconnectivity with SketchUp is very nice.

No doubt academics don’t paint detailed pictures. If no one minds a visual response here’s my take on what Mr. Rybczynski may be speaking of. This image taken from http://www.re-burbia.com/.
I think the top image is a result of ‘big plans’ and the bottom image a result of many ‘little plans.’

While both are probably born from a collaboration of…[Read more]

In looking for 3D, site specific solutions, you may also want to take a look at Vectorworks Landmark. With the BIM functionality of the architect module, you have the power of designing 2D and 3D at the same time, and with intelligent objects…a plant is 2D/3D and reports the data associated to it…a hardscape (patio) knows the total area it…[Read more]

I just don’t see landscape architects using Catia or DP … and given the existing tool set in Revit and ArchiCad, most won’t we using those either.

My advice …
(1) learn SketchUp
(2) figure out what program you want to import your SketcUp models into for rendering
(3) gain a better understanding of 3D data in order to know how to move this…[Read more]