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INDONESIA Landscapes & Culture is a book devoted to Indonesia and its breathtaking landscapes, the warm people, and its rich and diverse culture. Rick Wezenaar was born in 1968 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. At the early age of 11 he started with photography and has never stopped since. In 1989 he started making professional photography. One of the things Rick really likes is travelling. Especially Indonesia has caught his photographic eye. Therefore, during a 4 year ‘quest’, Rick has travelled the countryside, villages and cities of Indonesia, capturing its beauty and culture. A small part of all these photographs taken during those journeys have found their way into this book. We really hope the viewer will enjoy this publication of Rick’s stunning and breathtaking ph...Read More

The Dirt (ASLA) covered this story a while ago, but I am still bothered by this solution to an old landfill in Brooklyn. They capped the landfill with a layer of plastic and applied 3′ of good soil over top. Andropogon did an excellent job (and should rightly be praised) for their push to use trees and naturalized meadow flowers and grasses rather than the traditional lawn. However, I would never call this a remediation or a solution. Base flow and ground water is still going to be severely affected by the abandoned and buried trash. The water quality contributing to the local watershed is still going to be compromised and degraded. It’s nice that a habitat was able to form and wildlife is beginning to return to the site, but it’s still just a short-term solution. Landsca...Read More

The Therapeutic Landscapes Network is pleased to announce the launch of our new website. Same url, HealingLandscapes.org, same great content (actually we’ve added more), and many new features, including: – Search function within the site; – Blog and site under one virtual roof; – Larger, richer images, with more on the way; – Updated Designers and Consultants Directory with a map for geographic as well as alphabetical search (contact us if you’d like to be added to our Directory); – Expanded Therapeutic Gardens Directory (map coming soon, too); – Sponsors who help fund the work that we do (individual donations are also most welcome); – Sound! Click on “play birdsong audio” on the left-hand side of the home page; – And ...Read More

The 54th annual Edward C. Martin Landscape Symposium is scheduled for Oct. 21, 2009 at Bost Auditorium, Mississippi State University from 9am to Noon. Guest speakers include Dr. Jim DelPrince on interior design, Gail Barton on Mississippi gardening, and Bob Brzuszek on residential landscape design. For more info and registration, please visit http://www.lalc.msstate.edu/

Thanks to everyone able to attend this year’s Land8 Happy Hour – Chicagostyle! And many thanks to Baseline and Vectorworks for sponsoring the event. For those of you who missed it this year, we met at the Exchequer Restaurant on the Saturday night of the 2009 ASLA Conference for some Chicagostyle deep dish pizza and cold beverages. There were close to 70 people who attended and it was awesome to meet everyone in person. Here are some pictures of the event… During the first hour, visitors made themselves comfortable. Sitting at the table in the forground is Scott Munroe. He later won the Tallest Hat Contest. In the background you see the screen with a running slideshow of members’ work from the Gallery. (Right) Scott showing off his hat. It was great to see how the e...Read More

Each year the American Society of Landscape Architects has an annual meeting, and this year it was in Chicago. I’ve gone to three of the last four, and must say that this was one of the most enjoyable weekends. Some of that may be caused by my circumstances surrounding each meeting. (Minneapolis I was still in Grad School and a week from presentations, so my mind wasn’t fully there; San Fransisco I had just graduated and had an interview set up that I was to busy freaking out about to enjoy myself) This year I am working retail, have been out of the field for just over a year, and am feeling… disheartened. So to go to a convention center for four days straight, see talks about all the things that used to make up my daily work life, and talk to nothing but people who do wh...Read More

The Therapeutic Landscapes Network is working feverishly to launch our new website in time for the annual American Society of Landscape Architects Meeting and Expo next week (and the American Horticultural Therapy Association and Healthcare Design 09 conferences soon after that). Above is a sneak peek at our beautiful homepage. Oooh. Ahhh. This isn’t just a superficial makeover. We’ve reconfigured the TLN site to offer improved searchability and richer imagery; an expanded Designers and Consultants Directory; an expanded Directory of Therapeutic Gardens; sponsorship opportunities for businesses and organizations to promote their products, services, and expertise; an integrated blog (website and blog all under one virtual roof); an interactive Network Forum where members can mee...Read More

Sausalito Fire Destroys Shades of Green Landscape Architecture Studio Sausalito, CA – A fire that broke out last evening in a three-story building on Pine Street is under control after it destroyed the studio space of Shades of Green Landscape Architecture. The start of the fire is still under investigation along with the total damage. I was happy to blog about their successes in this post, but this news is, simply put, awful. I have yet to speak with principals Ive Haugeland and Tyler Manchuck, or their associate Jamie Morf, so I can only imagine their devastation. I encourage you to drop them your well-wishes below, or on their profiles.

Hello: I’m a Landscape Architect and freelance writer for the Examiner.com. I write short articles to raise awareness of the profession and to highlight projects around Metro Detroit. Also, we’ll be highlighting Metro Detroit L.A. firms. If you are from Michigan and want your firm to be highlighted in my column, feel free to e-mail me at nanette.alton@gmail.com or leave a comment on my web page at the website below. Looking forward to examining the L.A. profession and giving others all the good news about what we do! Nanette Alton, RLA http://www.examiner.com/x-22299-Detroit-Landscape-Architecture-and-Public-Design

As many Landscape Architects are well aware, the ASLA national meeting is in a few weeks in Chicago. I’ve gone to four of the last five meetings, and highly recommend attendance to all professionals and students at least once. The networking opportunities are amazing, as you can find yourself sitting at lunch next to your state’s ASLA trustee, and sitting in an education session next to the principal at the firm you’ve always wanted to work at. You can also join one of the national committees, which means you get to help steer the profession, and for the small cost of some conference calls and one in person meeting at the national meeting. There are also the copious amounts of education sessions that both count towards your continuing ed credits for your registration, and...Read More

Now that you have a completed CAD base map, with all of the elevation edits needed, you have just one final step before you can Import your design into SketchUp. If you used a construction line hidden layer, turn it on, and every other layer off. Then delete all information off of the trace layer, and delete the trace layer itself. The main reason to do this is because when CAD files are imported into SketchUp, if a line exists in the same spot on two different layers, the line will be assigned to one layer, and the other will have the area blank. As a quick software note: One of the main differences between SketchUp standard and Pro is that while CAD can be imported into either version, you can only Export non-CAD files in Pro. So if you are planning an rendering in SketchUp, or using pho...Read More

To those who didn’t pass it in June, any comments as to why? and what are you planning to do not resolve it. Thanks