Blog

Today I invite you to take a trip through Spain to learn about the classical gardens of Spanish Landscape Architecture, both in history and in contemporary times. We all know the major achievements of the 17th century garden designer André Le Nôtre, from his work on Versailles to Vaux-le-Vicomte. What is equally as remarkable, however, is how his cultural and artistic influence spread throughout the European countries. Some of Spain’s finest examples of classical gardens, including El Retiro Park in Madrid and the gardens of the palaces of La Granja in Segovia and Aranjuez, were created by gardeners and hydraulic experts brought in from Italy and France. El Retiro Park When entering El Retiro Park from Paseo del Prado in central Madrid, the first thing you will notice are its  large ...Read More

HMH, a California-based planning, engineering, and landscape architecture firm recently bolstered its design portfolio with the completion of THE Campus, a renovated 250,000 square-foot office complex in San Jose. The project situates the workplace within a more sustainable landscape that offers newly configured connections, amenities, stormwater management facilities, and plantings. THE Campus came to fruition in part because of San Jose’s masterplanning initiatives that seek to increase commercial space, largely by transforming old buildings into new, flexible offices and research facilities. A major factor in choosing the site for redevelopment was its proximity to public transportation and bicycle routes, which offer alternative modes of transportation to commuters – a welc...Read More

Landscape architects – and I include future ones in this group – seem obsessed with cities these days.  Urban projects are all over the place at conferences and in design magazines, and even more predominate in related social media and the blogosphere, to the point that it makes me wonder if we all really just want to be urban designers. Of course there are legitimate and good reasons for this focus, such as the fact that more work is becoming available in cities as people migrate back from the suburbs, and high profile urban projects give landscape architects greater exposure on the media map. Even so, I do worry a little that this preoccupation with big city landscapes may limit the perspective of students and young professionals to just how vast and diverse this profession really is. Al...Read More

Yesterday marked the first day of spring, and to pay tribute to the change in seasons we’re featuring one of the most stunning landscape timelapses we have ever seen. Filmed on Mount Teide in the Canary Islands, this short film is a breathtaking reminder of the beauty in nature. With jaw dropping shots of the Milky Way to swaths of yellow flowers, “The Mountain” is bound to inspire you to embark on an outdoor springtime adventure of your own. From the description: “This was filmed between 4th and 11th April 2011. I had the pleasure of visiting El Teide. Spain´s highest mountain @(3718m) is one of the best places in the world to photograph the stars and is also the location of Teide Observatories, considered to be one of the world´s best observatories. The goal was t...Read More

A new Google Street View hack called Urban Jungle Street View takes the greening of cities to new extremes. Generated by Swedish developer, Einar Öberg, the instant greening is made easy on his website: users simply “visit any place available in Street View by entering a location, drag the map to browse around and drop the little guy on a road.” From there, the familiar world of Street View gives way to a lush, hazy scene that evokes both sustainable utopias and post-apocalyptic ruins. Chicago, Illinois Los Angeles, California Öberg explains that the project makes use of depth data, which is an undocumented aspect of Street View, to accurately orient and place the vegetation geometries onto the surfaces of building facades, streets, and sidewalks.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Th...Read More

The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects (CSLA) recently announced the winners of the 2014 Awards of Excellence in Canadian landscape architecture. Selected by a national jury of landscape architects, the national and regional awards are judged on a variety of factors from project management performance to application of environmentally friendly practices. Read on for a look at these award-winning landscape architecture designs! Dundas West Streetscape | PMA Landscape Architects This year, 15 projects received national award out of a 29 total award recipients. The awards are presented in three categories: Honor, Merit, and Citations. “More and more frequently landscape architects appear to be leading projects that are increasingly multi-disciplinary,” says Brian Parker, Cha...Read More

A series of brightly-colored, angular, four-legged metal structures stand high over the rapidly-growing city of Chongqing, China. The tilting and jutting pavilions atop Fengming Mountain Park emit a warm orange glow at night and shelter the passing pedestrian from the sun’s stare at midday.   Martha Schwartz, known for her iconic–and sometimes controversial–landscape designs, recently completed Fengming Mountain Park, a dramatic landscape that shapes a unique identity for the new development west of the Chongqing city center. Located on an extremely steep site, the park includes a meandering series of riverine fountains and architectural follies along geometric switchbacks leading from a car park on high ground to a sales center far below.   Completed in 2013, Fengming Mo...Read More

Finding peaceful respite in urban settings can be tough, especially in a city like London that’s constantly buzzing with activity. To help Londoners reconnect with nature, the Finnish architecture firm AOR designed and installed Viewpoint, an angular structure that floats over the Regent’s Canal and borders the Camley Street Nature Reserve. Clad in Corten steel and timber planks, this permanent public space doubles as a relaxing escape from the city and a ideal spot to observe wildlife in the heart of London. From the description: “Commissioned by The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation for London Wildlife Trust, Viewpoint is an unique urban island hideaway set to bring nature and architecture together on London‘s Regent’s Canal at Camley Street Na...Read More

Many landscape architects enter the profession for the social good of creating healthier places for people to live and play. And while these projects span both profit and non-profit models, one of the main paths to social impact design can be found in pro-bono work. Last year, Cinda Gilliland, a Principal at SWA’s Sausalito office, initiated an internal discussion on social impact design that later led to the launch of SWA’s pro-bono Social Impact Design Initiative (SIDI) and partnership with the 1% Program at Public Architecture. As an involved member of SIDI and SWA designer, I gave a lecture at ASLA’s Northern California Chapter last Spring. The following are six ways pro-bono work makes us better designers: SWA Group San Francisco partnered with Argonne Elementary School, a...Read More

On a mild, misty afternoon, cyclists, pedestrians, kids, and adults embark on a journey through their neighborhoods. However, these neighborhoods have a “special” feel. I often find it difficult to describe to visitors, but I always welcome them to experience this resounding aura in Portland, Oregon. What is City Repair? City Repair is a community-organized group based in Portland that instills knowledge, inspiration, and creativity in individuals and communities in an effort to transform their neighborhoods (City Repair). This group began with the idea that local values of culture, economy, and decision-making promote sustainability and establish community-oriented places. During each year, City Repair takes part in several largely volunteer-driven projects, including natural building, pe...Read More

It’s been nearly three years since a right-wing extremist blew up a bomb in the city of Oslo and then attacked a summer camp on the coast of Norway. These horrifying terror attacks claimed 77 lives in total, marking the deadliest attack in Norway since World War II.  To commemorate the victims, Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg was recently awarded the bid to design Norway’s memorial after a closed competition. Titled the “Memorial Wound,” the winning entry uses land art as a major component.   The first memorial will be located on the Sørbråten peninsula facing the island of Utøya. The memorial is designed to be a “wound or cut within nature itself,” says Dahlberg. “I noticed how different the feeling was of walking outside in nature, compared to the ...Read More