Blog

Why Invest in Landscape? – the new campaign from the Landscape Institute, shows how towns around the UK are seeing a positive bottom line benefit by investing in landscape.  From revitalising a small public square to planning for massive new estates, the economic benefits are clearly demonstrated.  Landscape Institute president Jo Watkins said, “High streets, squares, parks and other public spaces should be special places.  Getting them right is the best investment you can make. Getting them wrong often has people voting with their feet.” He continued, “When landscape is placed at the heart of the development process, developers profit while businesses and communities reap the economic benefits. Our campaign focuses on the positive impact on business and communities of investment in ...Read More

Our firm, Craig Design Group, Inc. has been selected to design the Site Plan and Lanscape Plan for the Extreme Makeover Home Edition which is coming to Chattanooga Tennessee. We have been feverishly designing the project and all the ammenities in secrecy until the press release yesterday, and today our phone is ringing off the hook with volunteers. This should be a fun project.  You can check us out on our website at www.craigdesigngroup.biz or facebook me glen craig. If anyone is in the Chattanooga area and would like to volunteer, go to www.extremevisonhomes.com we need all the help we can get.  

Washington, D.C., January 26, 2011 – The fourth quarter of 2010 represented a mixed bag for landscape architecture firms, as firm leaders reported fewer billable hours but increased hiring opportunities, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Business Quarterly survey. The findings echo the results from the 4Q 2009 survey, though billable hours, inquiries and hiring all strengthened from this time last year. Six in 10 respondents reported stable or higher amount of billable hours (59.6 percent) and inquiries for new work (59.4 percent) in the fourth quarter of 2010 – a decline of six and ten points, respectively from the third quarter survey. At this time last year, 45.5 percent reported stable or rising billable hours, and 53.7 percent reported stable or rising i...Read More

A few weeks ago I posted a blog asking for critiques on some 3D models components I had made.  I posted it on IGN, WordPress, and Land8Lounge.  The response was fairly low, and I tried posting it as a discussion thread on Land8Lounge as well.  This got some helpful comments, but it also possibly inspired a thread that brought up the issue of rendering VS. design in Landscape Architecture.  This question came up a few weeks ago at a networking event for NYC landscape architects, and I talked to a few different people about it.  It made me wonder: Why is it that designers often have a negative reaction to “high end” renderings?   If I said I had never seen a rendering and assumed that the graphic quality was hiding something I would be lying.  I think this often comes from past e...Read More

Land8 will be there….will you?   It is getting close to that time of the year again when landscape architecture students from across the globe throw down their pencils and eraser shields (do students even know what these are any more?), in complete disregard for the huge deadline looming over their heads, and come together to celebrate their love/hate relationship with this fantastically misunderstood profession!  This year the students of Purdue University will have the honors of hosting this special conference which has been passed from school to school since 1970.   What is in store in 2011: The focus of LABash 2011 will be celebrating cultural landscapes and landscape architecture worldwide. They have a great program lined up which will include lectures and demonstrations from tw...Read More

The first step in picking what components you want in your computer, whether you are building a custom setup, or buying one off the shelf, is looking at what software you expect to use.  I was looking for a rig that would work for Photoshop, AutoCAD, SketchUp, Thea Render (3D-Rendering Engine), and of course, games from time to time.  The next thing is to figure out what each one of these software packages rely on most heavily- Processor, RAM, or Graphics Card.   Photoshop Here are the system requirements: Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® 64 processor 1GB of RAM 1024×768 display (1280×800 recommended) with qualified hardware-accelerated OpenGL graphics card, 16-bit color, and 256MB of VRAM The newer Photoshop versions make use of graphics cards more and more, but in bigger file s...Read More

  Call for Submissions Deadline: Jan 31st. Late Deadline: Feb 15th. SHIFT:process The inaugural issue of SHIFT: infrastructure suggests that the integration of natural systems into the built environment provides for a more sustainable model of landscape architecture in infrastructure design. However, the skillful employment of ecological principles does not necessarily ensure a culturally sensitive design.  In the 21st century, Landscape Architecture faces the challenge of not only creating ecologically regenerative designs, but doing so in a way that engages the public through education, community mobilization, and inspiration. This is important not only for the long-term viability of the design, but also for its economic success.   How can we as students re-imagine the design process tha...Read More

Today’s Therapeutic Landscapes Network Blog guest post is by Amy Lindemuth, author of “Beyond the Bars: Landscapes for Health and Healing in Corrections,” a chapter in the forthcoming Greening in the Red Zone: Disaster, Resilience and Community Greening edited by Keith G. Tidball and Marianne E. Krasny. Amy became interested in corrections after taking a series of undergraduate courses in medical anthropology at the University of Washington that focused on the culture of institutions and cultural constructions of health and mental illness. As a graduate student in landscape architecture, her interest in therapeutic landscapes and corrections led to a thesis project at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Monroe, Washington, designing a large courtyard garden for staff and inmates within a un...Read More

Landscape Architecture Publications you should have or at least check out: High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC This is a brand new release (Jan 2011). From Amazon.com: “High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC is the first document of its kind in the nation: a comprehensive, municipal primer for sustainable parks and open space. The product of a unique partnership between the New York-based nonprofit Design Trust for Public Space and the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation, the Guidelines cover every aspect of creating sustainable parks, from design to construction to maintenance, and feature hundreds of best practices for managing soil, water, and vegetation resources, as well as dozens of full color photos and illustration...Read More

Diana Balmori understands the power of visibility. Her firm, Balmori Associates (which by the way is made up of super talented dedicated designers and amazing design alums), has projects around the globe and is known for highly creative landscapes that urge clients and users to question their idea of a lawn, garden, or park. Whether through 35,000 sq feet of green roofs in Long Island, NY or a stair climbing garden in Bilbao, Spain, Balmori Associates does not let the landscape fall to the background. For some examples, check out their website, http://www.balmori.com/balmoriMain.htm, where projects like the Botanical Research Institute of Texas in Fort Worth, Texas and their proposal for the Highline in NYC show their unflinching dedication to roaring soaring landscapes supported by cultur...Read More

Columbia, Md. (December 9, 2010) – Vectorworks 2011 software was honored at this year’s Construction Computing Awards ceremony as the winner of the Product of the Year 2010 award. In addition to winning the Product of the Year award, Vectorworks 2011 software was also honored as a runner up in two categories: CAD Product of the Year 2010 (Nemetschek Vectorworks, Inc. – Vectorworks 2011) and Channel Partner of the Year 2010 (Computers Unlimited). “We are honored to be recognized by the Construction Computing Awards,” says Sean Flaherty, CEO of Nemetschek Vectorworks. “We have worked hard to make Vectorworks 2011 a breakthrough release, strengthening its 3D technology and BIM capabilities, and it’s rewarding to be recognized by members of the AEC industry in this way. We are also very fortun...Read More