Blog

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

Earth’s hypnotizing seasonal “heartbeat” from outer space. John Nelson stitched together twelve of NASA’s satellite images into a gif that shows the seasonal changes in vegetation and land ice around the world, almost making Earth appear as a living, breathing entity. (Co.Design)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will soon announce a new vision for the Los Angeles River, which had been cast in concrete eighty years ago. Until the announcement, take a look at five dramatic redesigns of L.A.’s river by SWA landscape architecture interns from all around the world. (Curbed LA)   Can restorative landscape design cut down recidivism rates for prisoners? Iowa State landscape architecture students think so by helping in the design of a therap...Read More

Public spaces are constantly changing in today’s cities. Rather than destroying them or completely rearranging them, more and more landscape architecture projects focus on converting  spaces to better serve the community. The city of Cluj-Napoca is an example of such a project, coordinated by Asta association president Alex Vladovici. I talked to him to get a perspective on how such projects work and why we need to implement them more in the  future. Tell us a bit about the project… What is the Mobile Park? After studying the city, following careful considerations, mainly based on community and how people use public spaces, we found that there are a lot of small neglected green spaces, which provide no use for nearby residents, sometimes being ‘bullied’ by cars and garbage. The Mobile Park...Read More

Friendship, like all living things, requires regular tending to keep it thriving. And the Royce Pollard Japanese Friendship Garden in Clark College, Vancouver, does just that — strengthening the bonds of friendship and symbolizing life and beauty between Japan and the city of Vancouver. The garden is a gift from Dr. Chihiro Kanagawa, CEO of Shin-Etsu Chemical Company, the parent company of SEH America. For its construction, he made a whopping $1 million donation and named the friendship garden in honor of former Vancouver Mayor Royce E. Pollard. Kanagawa called the garden a “lasting symbol of close friendship beyond business that has matured over the years with this city.” Design Features Murase Associates has designed the garden to create a meditative and peaceful pausing place on a...Read More

Acclaimed international architecture firm BIG cleverly slipped a multifunctional gymnasium beneath a molehill courtyard, blending a social arena up top with a new sports facility down below. (inhabitat)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   Philadelphia-based Groundswell Design Group transforms a vacant lot into a lively Pop Up Beer Garden with upcycled shipping containers, colorful umbrellas and lights, locally sourced fare, and an array of artistic and cultural activities. (World Landscape Architect)   What happens when a plant biologist and a landscape architect team up to create a garden on a California hillside? Surprising plant combos at every turn! (Sunset)   ASLA is hiring a web and graphic designer. (ASLA)   Welcome to the United States of Mulch. Thomas Rainer asks why Americans love mulch s...Read More

Do you ever read design books and wonder what they have to do with your reality? Yes, I’m addressing landscape architects on this one, as I am one of you who constantly questions this. It’s as if the objective of architectural discourse is to find everything fun, sacred, and beautiful about the world and turn it into a dialogue that only a few can understand while excluding the people who originally came up with the idea or thought. I suppose there are some who feel included in the established fabric of the city, while others do not. These people may occupy space between the cracks and have a perception of space and urban life quite contrary to the way it was intended. This book is for those who embrace the cracks and gaps and find their identity among them. What is this book a...Read More

Olithas by Landscape Forms is part of their new Terrace Life initiative that marks the company’s entry into lifestyle furniture for more intimate, social, high-design outdoor spaces.  “Design professionals know Landscape Forms as a manufacturer of site furniture for streetscapes, parks and campuses,” explains company president Richard Heriford. “Now we are going to places we haven’t been before with furniture by award-winning architects and landscape architects designed specifically for terraces, rooftop gardens and other private and protected spaces. With Terrace Life we’re creating new modern classics.”  More after the jump… Olithas is a table and bench collection by architect/industrial designer Efrain Velez that draws on his grounding in classical and international style an...Read More

Say hello to drip irrigation in its funky new form. Aqueduct is a 3D-printed modular mini planter system that can be set up in numerous different configurations. (Urban Gardens)   LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   A highway that has long choked the flow of the Everglades and upset the ecosystem is slowly being raised, segment by segment, to allow water to flow underneath the road. (Landscape Architecture Magazine)   Open Voice sits down with Principal Thomas Woltz, FASLA, CLARB and Senior Associate Jeffrey Longhenry of Nelson Byrd Woltz to discuss their sustainable design approach to the Naval Cemetery Landscape project. (Nature Sacred)   James Patchett, FASLA, has been announced the 2013 recipient of the Christian Petersen Design Award by the Iowa State University College of Design. Patchett is fo...Read More

You may know him as “The Treehouse Man” from Animal Planet’s Treehouse Masters, but Pete Nelson of Nelson Treehouse and Supply is also one of the eminent authorities on the subject of arboreal architecture. He builds treehouses, writes books about treehouses, and provides the world with materials and supplies for treehouses. Treehouses have been a large part of Pete Nelson’s life for more than 20 years. It was Pete Nelson’s inspiring talk at Dwell on Design in June of 2013 that led to this follow-up interview. Why build treehouses?   I build treehouses because they move me. They get me up, excite me, and put me outdoors and in the woods. They challenge my creative side and also unite me with friends, colleagues, and, when I’m really lucky, entire communities.    Sam’s Treehouse, Wash...Read More