Blog

 Swiss photographer Gus Petro performs some “Photoshop magic” to blend together the extremes of “emptiness and density” in the U.S. landscape. (The Atlantic Cities) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   ASLA honors 33 members to the ASLA Council of Fellows for 2013. (ASLA)  Oakland adds Bird Safety Measures to its building permit requirements, limiting types of materials and lighting in the landscape to curb rising bird mortality rates. (Golden Gate Audubon)   Landscape Forms puts the spotlight on campus planning for the 2013 annual round table. (PR Web)   A look at creating play environments and educational public spaces in zoos. (The Field)   & RELATED   L.A. residents in drought-plagued Southern California have been taking advantage of the “green-for-green trade:...Read More

Design students tackle environmental problems in Electrolux’s “Inspired Urban Living” design competition. (Atlantic Cities) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE   Rutgers landscape architecture students travel to work on design projects in the Caribbean island of St. Croix. They also created a video (well done, I might add) that covers the students’ love for the field as well as lessons learned. (Rutgers)   ASLA is looking to hire a Professional Practice Coordinator. (ASLA)   Garden historian Tom Turner welcomes the birth of the Royal Baby with a somewhat hilarious plea for its support of a London Greenway Network. (Garden Visit)    & RELATED   Strengthening our urban commons is key to improved city life and sustainable futures. (Switchboard)   Imagine sharing one house with ...Read More

When I was a senior in high school, I went on a student trip to see a performance of a Shakespeare play in the gardens of Vizcaya, an estate in Miami, Florida. Admittedly (and a bit embarrassingly), I don’t remember what play it was or much about it, because I was more transfixed by the moonlit atmosphere of the gardens where the play was staged. My tastes in garden and landscape design have run far in another direction since then, but when I went for a return visit this year with family (followed by mind-numbing amounts of delicious Cuban food in Miami’s Little Havana neighborhood), I remembered why I found it to be such a special place. Vizcaya, which is now run as a museum, was conceived by James Deering, a wealthy industrialist whose father founded what became the giant International H...Read More

Architect Jeanne Gang is profiled for her design work that merges nature with urban design. (Grist) (photo by Lucy Wang) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE The Dirt calls attention to the under-appreciated landscape addition to the newly restored Rijksmuseum, Netherland’s national museum. (The Dirt) Douglas Hoerr, principal at the Chicago firm Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects, shares ten of his favorite things. (ChicagoMag) Landscape architect Peter Latz, of Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park fame, has recently been awarded the Topos Landscape Award 2013–the first time Topos has honored a landscape architect for his life’s work. (Topos) New York-based SCAPE/Landscape Architecture with Roger Marvel Architects were unanimously chosen to design Minneapolis’ Water Works Park, one of th...Read More

It’s finally July, the sun is shining and school’s out for summer. For those Über-geeks, keen beans, and even those who just want to keep their hand in — here are 10 things you can do to keep yourself in good stead for the next year ahead at college or university (or just life in general!). 10. Wake Up Early Ok ok, within reason — it is your holiday after all. But do you really want to waste it in bed? Think about those few hours when the sun rises, all is quiet, before anyone else in the world is awake – a serene and brilliant thinking time. Besides it’s been widely suggested that early risers are more productive, creative, and successful. 9. Volunteer  If you haven’t managed to wangle yourself an internship this summer, why not volunteer? There are so many different com...Read More

This time-lapse video by Jay Gordon visualizes all 16 million transactions made by the 3.1 million Oyster card users across the city of London in one 24 hour period. The brightness of each pixel represents the number of people in one of three categories. The blue pixels indicate the presence of cardholders either before their first transaction of the day or after their last (assumed to be at home). The green pixels represent passengers in transit, using either bus, rail or tube. The red pixels indicate travelers between transit journeys, whether transferring, traveling outside the transit system or engaging in activities such as working or shopping.  The video was shown by Gareth Sumner of Transport for London (TfL) as part of a recent event hosted by the Urban Design Group (UDG) in London...Read More

The world’s largest standalone structure opens in Chengdu, China. Almost equal in size to the country of Monaco, this cavernous shopping mall will even include an artificial sun to give off light and heat 24 hours a day. Does this set up remind anyone of the ship Axiom from the movie WALL-E? You can also watch their 15-minute promotional video (if you don’t mind text-to-speech narration). (Dezeen) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE A look at beautiful contemporary paving patterns in Europe. (The Dirt) In collaboration with Boyer-Percheron-Assus architects, West 8 wins an urban design competition to redesign the 35-hectare, former School of Infantry site in one of France’s most forward-looking cities, Montpellier. (West 8) ASLA announced results of their residential and hospitality de...Read More

One of the reasons I like Copenhagen so much, is the way it reminds me to enjoy nature as something evanescent.  There are plenty of green spaces in Copenhagen, some easier to spot than others, but you are rarely able to enjoy them fully because of the cold climate.  Coming from Portugal, I am used to see lush trees and shrubs popping out of every backyard, and at least one row of trees along every major street. I am also accustomed to seeing vegetation as something permanent, that perhaps changes slightly throughout the year, but remains the same in essence. When I first arrived in Denmark, late in the summer, it was with disappointment that I saw the colourless shrubs and the sparse trees in the city. Even with the delight of the city’s multiple water channels and my amazement of t...Read More

Chinese artist Xu Bing creates two 12-ton phoenixes from materials collected found in Chinese construction sites, a striking visual commentary on the effects of China’s rapid commercial development on the country’s landscape. Check out the time-lapse video down below. (Colossal) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates has been selected to work on updating the Menil Collection’s museum grounds in Houston, TX. The Renzo Piano-designed museum is renowned not only for its stunning collection of twentieth century art, but also for its lush park surroundings. (ArchDaily) Low-impact development has become a hot topic in light of recent climate change-induced disasters. From August 18 to August 31, the 2013 International Low Impact Development (LID) Symposium wi...Read More

  Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), occupies prime waterfront land right next door to the Opera House, and recent news from downunder had landscape architects standing to attention like meerkats when it was announced that Grant Associates (UK), designers of Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, had been invited to develop the landscape component for a new Master Plan defining the future for this harbourside oasis.   Image source Destination NSW – Sydney It’s a favoured spot for garden weddings, for watching NYE fireworks, holding a corporate event or staging a concert.  But like many public facilities that raise revenue by allocating exclusive usage rights for temporary functions, cries of “crass commercialism” are rife.   Photo courtesy R O’Callahan, Photographer: L Lau The RGB’s trus...Read More

The 2013 international mosaiculture competition, Mosaïcultures Internationales de Montréal, opened mid-June and will run through September 29 at the Montréal Botanical Garden. According to their website, mosaiculture “is a refined horticultural art that involves creating and mounting living artworks made primarily from plants with colourful foliage (generally annuals, and occasionally perennials).” (Colossal, photo credit: Guy Boily) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE ASLA’s Advocacy and Public Awareness Summit will be held this weekend, July 12 – 14, in Alexandria, VA. (ASLA) The University of Tennessee appoints Gale Fulton, former assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, as the new landscape architecture chair. (UTK) In honor of Laurie Olin and h...Read More

As mentioned in our recent DoD 2013 summary post, fellow Land8 writer Mitch Howard and I scoured the expansive DoD exhibit hall, poked and prodded, kicked and shook, and endlessly interrogated sales people, all to find the latest and greatest products for our Land8 readers. We were able to narrow down our extensive list to 10 (not in a particular order) of what we believe are the best of the best. You’re welcome.  1. Treehouses by Peter Nelson: Do you or your clients ever daydream about being up in the trees, overlooking the landscape below? Well, you can now do it in style. Peter Nelson has designed and installed glorious treehouses all around the world. This is not your little brother’s treehouse. Even though this is not a product, per se, I would love to have one of these in my backyard...Read More