Blog

Downtown Denver is undergoing an unprecedented revitalization. At the heart of this impressive public-private transformation sits the Historic Denver Union Station and the adjacent Riverfront Park Neighborhood.  Design Workshop, Inc. has been commissioned to design one of the key public spaces on the site of a former rail yard and atop a new parking garage at the center of this up and coming neighborhood. The plaza is adjacent to Denver’s 16th street mall and is a key pedestrian connection between the New Denver Union station Train Terminal and Residential and Entertainment hubs, such as the Denver Pepsi Center. This parcel represents the last undeveloped piece of land on the southwestern side of the mall as it runs through the downtown. The site area is just under 40,000sq/ft but is part ...Read More

Following the Composite Landscapes Exhibit,  the Isabella Gardner Museum has announced the schedule for the 2013-14 Landscape Lectures.  This is the second year of Landscape at the Gardner event programming featuring lectures by esteemed Landscape Architects Gary Hilderbrand, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander, Laurie Olin, and Andrea Cochran.  These lectures sell out quickly, so don’t delay purchasing your ticket from the Gardner Box office.  Lectures begin at 7pm in Calderwood Hall. Gary Hilderbrand (9/26) Cornelia Hahn Oberlander (11/7) Laurie Olin (2/13) Andrea Cochran (4/10) For information on the past 2012-2013 lecture series please visit The Gardner Museum website.

Could turning crosswalks into colorful works of art entice more people to walk? (Pop Up City)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   The LSU Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture welcomes two new assistant professors: Forbes Lipschitz and Richard Hindle. (LSU)   Are you a Dan Kiley fan? If so, you’ll want to check out TCLF’s upcoming Landslide compendium, a retrospective of Kiley’s work. If you’re in Boston, you may also want to attend the opening reception in November. (The Cultural Landscape Foundation)   Speaking of upcoming events in Boston, in about a month’s time the annual Landscape Lectures are due to kick off at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and will feature speakers such as Gary Hilderbrand and Andrea Cochran. (Gardner Museum)   & RELATED   Bry...Read More

Despite the current criticisms of overplanning, Kaid Benfield reminds us that the planned, walkable town of Seaside, Florida was radical and incredibly inspiring for its time, particularly its adoption of green infrastructure. Here’s an excellent video about Seaside as produced by Chris Elisara for the American Makeover series. (Switchboard)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   This week kicks off with a couple interviews with landscape architects across the nation:   Metropolis interviews Kim Mathews and Principal Signe Nielsen, principals of the successful female-owned firm Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects. (Metropolis)   Here’s another Q&A with landscape architect Glen Schmidt, founder of the prolific San Diego-based firm Schmidt Design Group. (U-T San Diego)   And on the rese...Read More

In the city, the streets are literally our front yards. And every year, New York City celebrates these oft-undervalued public spaces by closing down the streets to cars and opening them up for people to play, run, walk and bike. The annual event is called Summer Streets and for three amazing Saturdays in August, Manhattan is host to one of the coolest events of the summer.  This incredible event that joins placemaking, public health, and community together is modeled after similar events from around the world, most notably Bogotá, Colombia’s Ciclovía, which dates back to the early 1980s. Every Sunday and holiday, over 70 miles of Bogota’s streets are shut down, attracting millions of Colombians to come out to explore, exercise and socialize. New York City’s foray into the...Read More

A list of some of the greatest influencers in landscape architecture.  Being a landscape enthusiast, chances are you’re familiar with the names synonymous with landscape design greatness. I’m referring to household names that have left their mark on the landscape — the likes of Le Nôtre, Capability Brown, Olmsted and Burle Marx are but a few of the adroit designers the profession has delivered in generations gone by. If you’re not familiar with these names in landscape architecture you should be! But what about the leaders and visionaries in today’s contemporary setting? A concoction of landscape architects, urban designers, authors and professors: these are the ones to take note of. Here are the top 10 names in the landscape architecture world today. Top 10 Names In Landscape Archit...Read More

Traveling throughout Zurich and Basel this summer I was fortunate enough to visit the top green roofs in the area. I was invited by Professor Stephan Brenneisen of the ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences in the Department of Life Sciences. Stephan is an international green roof pioneer and is behind the design of every green roof listed below. He currently heads the Green Roof Competence Center at ZHAW in Waëdenswil, Switzerland. In 1972 Stephan wrote a research paper titled ‘Every Unused Flat Roof Must Be Green‘ as a PHD student. His encouragement to promote green roofs in Switzerland was to benefit the natural environment. “I was tired of seeing birds die” Stephan told me.  In 2000 this paper got into the hands of Barbara Schneider, former minister of the C...Read More

Think geology is a bygone science for landscape architecture? Think again, says Rutgers professor David Tulloch, who points towards a giant resort’s recent catastrophic collapse into a massive sinkhole near Walt Disney World. (Places and spaces) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   The Library of American Landscape History shares Lawrence Halprin’s design sketch for the first phase of the Haas Promenade. (LALH)   Ohio State University’s Knowlton School announces Dorothée Imbert as the next Section Head of Landscape Architecture. (Knowlton)    Metropolis reviews landscape architecture professor Kristine F. Miller’s book, ‘Almost Home: The Public Landscapes of Gertrude Jekyll,” which looks at the Gertrude’s less-examined design work in the public realm. (Metropo...Read More

And you think your cramped apartment stinks? Meet the man who lives inside a converted New York DUMPSTER (Story Board)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   How to keep the grass green and healthy on the National Mall. (Landscape Architecture Magazine)   The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects partners with The Adelaide Review to invite you to choose your favorite for this year’s People’s Choice Awards for the Design Category in Landscape Architecture. (Adelaide Review)   D.C.-based landscape architect Thomas Rainer shares his five favorite late season annuals. (grounded design)   & RELATED   Do you know where your jeans came from? There’s a good chance they’re from China’s Xintang city, the denim capital of the world. One in three pairs of jeans sold global...Read More

Kent State University’s 2013 COLDSCAPES Competition, a contest that tested ideas for improving livability in cold weather cities, recently announced their three winning designs. (Cleveland Urban Design Collective) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Landscape architecture faces a slow climb out of the recession. According to the ASLA’s Q2 Business Quarterly survey, though most landscape architecture firms are reporting stable or increasing work, many firms won’t be looking to hire anytime soon. (Fort Mill Times)   Anyone up for a late summer road trip? Sam Fox School’s landscape architecture students will travel through five midwestern states to learn about productive landscapes as part of the inaugural Spatial Practices seminar. As visiting professor Jesse Vogler puts it: ̶...Read More

The Wiesenplatz train depot green roof was designed by Basel Architects, Baader Architekten and constructed by BVB Basel in 2010 as a part of Basel’s green roof mandate for all flat roofs in the city. Neighboring residents overlooking the roof were particularly happy about the roof noise insulation from the loud work that sometimes takes place in any particular train depot.    The Wiesenteppich “meadow carpet” project was by far the most innovative living roof I came across in Switzerland. The wavy roof alone is architectural genius which is essentially a meadow with alternating waves over skylights which allow for natural daylight inside the building. The roof effectively connects nature with the city environment to provide a habitat for butterflies, grasshoppers, birds ...Read More

  Bears, elk, and wolves rejoice: Canada’s Banff National Park has installed animal overpasses and underpasses that have been successfully proven to facilitate safe animal crossings over the four-lane Trans-Canada Highway. (Story Board)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   Alice Webb takes a stroll through Montreal’s public spaces, keeping an eye out for tastefully patterned pavement. (Land Perspectives)   How do you feel about out-of-state landscape architects practicing in your neck of town? Local landscape architect Michael Gibbons has some strong opinions. His two complaints filed with the North Carolina Board of Landscape Architecture have successfully stalled the efforts of New York-based Christopher Counts from moving forward on Raleigh’s Moore Square Redesign. (Raleigh Publ...Read More