Boilerplater

So how do you maintain a current version of AutoCAD? I thought they were only offering it in the subscription format now. If I want to work with civil firms, more than likely I’ll need the latest version. Yeah, I don’t care for the subscription deal either. It seems to be the only way they figured out to prevent piracy of their software. So many…[Read more]

Might be interesting to find out what they are up to now. I imagine the developers have gone to China and Abu Dhabi and the lawyers are now doing bankruptcy and foreclosures.

Rick Steves says you should see Schonbrunn Palace. I’ve never been, but was impressed with his travelogue view of it.

Well, if there’s no tertiary treatment of the effluent, it could certainly harm streams and lakes, but that is increasingly uncommon. A greater problem are things like medicines which can’t be removed by sewage treatment. Don’t flush those pills! Garbage disposals use a lot of water, clean water, which isn’t an especially prudent use of it in…[Read more]

This is what I’m talking about. To the right is the pavement, to the left is the tree lawn.

Walking around New Orleans some years ago, it looked to me like the city had created green streets by default. Lack of maintenance or rebuilding funds had allowed many curbed street edges to deteriorate to the point where there were wide vegetated strips along them. I was told they have no property taxes there, one reason the city is so broke.…[Read more]

I don’t feel qualified to rank any countries as best, but I can offer anecdotal opinions. I know the Netherlands has had strong energy efficiency standards for many years, and the country’s small size forces them to be very efficient with land use. They’ve been doing very comprehensive town planning for a long time. They use a lot of wind energy.…[Read more]

As I mentioned, I’m in one of the worst hit metros in the country (Las Vegas). There are unfinished construction projects all over the valley. Some are rather bizarre scenes, as they look like all the workers just left one day and didn’t come back. The equipment and materials are still on-site, presumably because there is no place else to take…[Read more]

No, nearly 6 months. I live in one of the worst-hit metros in the country.

That’s some really slick work, David. Its got that “high concept” look too.
Did you find Rhino easy to learn?

I agree about the neck-downs. They provide a better visual cue. This is especially so if you are in an area where paint on pavement doesn’t last long or gets covered with black from tires and exhaust, as it does in the dry southwest. Personally, I think a speed table forming a crosswalk can look nicer than sidewalk ramps going down to a crosswalk,…[Read more]

Yeah, Ms. Arieff always seems to find interesting topics and presents them well. This reminds me of when I worked for the NJDOT. With land acquisition for highway projects, you end up with a lot of leftover pieces of land. One of our jobs was to look at those pieces and decide if they served any scenic, buffering or other useful function and…[Read more]

What? You’ve never watched Mega Builders or any of those shows on the Science channel where they portray gigantic civil engineering projects? I’m a bit of a science geek and grew up with Popular Science magazine in the house, so I gravitate to that stuff. And I guess working with civil people for so many years kind of rubbed off on me, as much as…[Read more]

It would be nice if the promotion took it beyond the backyard perspective, to show that LAs are involved with design of larger-scale spaces, other features that contribute to the aesthtic success and environemtnal amenities of neighborhoods. All too often you just see the home lot level of design, not how it relates to the larger landscape or…[Read more]

Funny, I was just looking for the same thing yesterday. A Google search for “Solar Training” gives a lot of responses. Its becoming apparent to me that learning solar design would require some real field experience and so may not lend itself very well to long distance learning. I hope this thread stays active for a while and we get some feedback…[Read more]

You guys should feel quite privileged – attracting a noted New Urbanist like Mr. Mouzon to this discussion. He does some pretty cool work and you might want to look up his photo streams if you want to see some pretty pics of old world urbanism and architecture.

As to value in creating a well-deigned place where the community can come together, yes, certainly that’s a value for the greater good, even if its debatable whether or not it is a reflection of community values. Is it as much value for the designer’s net worth, maybe not so much! ; )

Hmm. Is it that LAs are catching on to the fact that if more land is developed along New Urbanist dictum then there will be less land to design “landscaping” for? Really, most of them don’t have extensive planted areas, the space in front of homes is narrow, backyards are small. That makes for less work for the LA, so one position to take is that…[Read more]

NYC does a lot of programming for its parks, in the way of organized events and sports in addition to allowing and even encouraging concessionaires. Central Park has the Woolman Rink for skating in the winter, a pond specifically for toy boats in summer, concerts, plays, etc. The New Urbanists seem to feel that public space needs to be filled with…[Read more]