[Gil Lopez]

Thanks Andrew, this is an oldie but will never be out-dated. I suspect most of us have seen this in undergrad studies but it’s great to revisit, and a must for any designer who hasn’t seen it yet. More thoughts and a synopsis here.

[Gil Lopez]

The line was long and wonky, people passing may have thought it was a trendy club. I was standing on the upper level but enjoyed the presentations just the same. It was noted that it was the largest attendance in The Center’s history. I enjoyed all of the presenters and the whole presentation was pretty much what I expected it to be. I would have like some more in depth talk but that’s my wonky side coming out. When more than two or three folks are presenting in a couple hours time span things seem rushed and kinda glazed over.

I did run into a table full of authors and contributors around the corner at Half Pint afterward and got a few of them to sign my copy of the Manual, including Charles McKinney and Andrew Lavellee.

[Gil Lopez]

One of the authors actually called this out, stating something along the lines of, “last time this many folks came out to anything with the words “high” and “performance” together was back in the ’60s and it was definitely a different type of performance.”

Another pointed out the absolute unwieldiness of the name “High Performance Landscape Guidelines

21st Century Parks for NYC a Project of the Design Trust for Public Space and The New York City  Department of Parks and Recreation”

[Gil Lopez]

Hello Orlando section members. Well it is the 3rd Tuesday of the month and I haven’t heard of any section meeting going on. This may well be due in large part to people like me who cannot afford membership fees thus leading to a lack of funds for the meeting space (that said there may well be a meeting I just don’t know abiout it because I’m not on the member email list). Or lack of sponsor support, or the fact that the section head no longer commutes to Orlando?
So what is everyone doing? Anyone been attending other professional meetings? AIA, APA, CNU? It seems like the last thing to do now is to quit participating. Even though I cannot support ASLA monetarily right now I would like to see the local meetings continue. I would like to speak to anyone interested in trying to make the June meeting happen. It could be extremely informal and we could simply discuss the future of the local section or we can try and get a venue and a speaker. Feel free to contact me here or call me up 407.432.8156
Regards,
Gil Lopez

[Gil Lopez]

Thank you for your eloquent interprietation Eric. You have touched upon a several of the ideas behind my comments and presented them respectfully. Kudos

[Gil Lopez]

Unfortunately I was laid off last Thusday and could not justify paying the fee to take the “starting a non-profit” course. So nothing to report on that. In the mean time I plan on plugging into an existing local nonprofit to try to achieve some mutual goals.

[Gil Lopez]

Ditto, but im finding it harder and harder not to express my opinion. Maybe I’ll enlighten y’all later. LOL

[Gil Lopez]

America needs a green new deal. With the knowledge and skilles landscape architects have, we are best equiped to lead the charge.

[Gil Lopez]

Well I definitely consider myself an optimist! But, with the current financial meltdown, the environmental crisis the rest of the world has recently opened their eyes to, and all of the bad planning & design (urban sprawl and places with no sense of place) and poor judgment on the part of financiers, real estate developers and many others, that has lead up to these two issues, I have become a doom and gloomer as of late. I don’t usually outwardly project these views but I often convey this attitude as a precursor to the solutions. Otherwise, many people would discount and often reject the “radical” ideas that are needed to get us out of this debacle. Ideas such as homesteading, urban farming, creative reuse of buildings, public transit and so many others.
It is clear that we landscape architects and designers are the knowledge workers of the green collar workforce. This, in my mind makes us the most likely to benefit from governmental spending reform away from foreign war and towards domestic infrastructure. If that infrastructure where to be green infrastructure (one of my favorite topics). I think the charge is now to convince the powers that be (senate and congress) that green infrastructure is the way to go because it has the potential to solve our environmental crisis as well as our financial crisis while weaning us off of oil (foreign and domestic) and giving old blue collar workers from the gray industries new and fulfilling work in the new green collar economy.

As for the self fulfilling prophecy, there is a parable that Michael McDunough told of in one of his lectures. To paraphrase… Two gentlemen arguing over the fate of the world, the doom and gloomer convinced of imminent peril and the optimist convinced otherwise, made a bet as to the outcome after 20 years. The optimist continued as if nothing was wrong. The doom and gloomer work furiously to solve the problems ailing the world. After 20 years the Earth was still thriving and the optimist won the bet, not even realizing that if it were not for all the work the doom/gloomer put in things would likely have ended up much differently.

I know doom and gloom is negative in general but the answers that come out of that mentality are essential to forming solutions to the problems that cause the worry. I view community projects and involvement not so much as a way to polish my resume but to raise awareness of the multiple benefits of the green industries, perhaps creating demand for such solutions in the future. Thus raising the demand for the services that we landscape architects and designers provide. So it is more of an investment in the future of both the community and my career and profession.

Warmest regards

[Gil Lopez]

I agree with the clustering of activity centers idea, this is how public space is activated. Especially if these are to be located in suburban or otherwise unaccessible areas by non-drivers. Ideally these would also have access to public transportation nodes.
As for the policing of the walls, it sounds like a necessary evil. Without actually requiring a permit, having “overseers” on site and a myriad of other rules, it would be too easy for the walls to simply become another territorial spot for gangs and taggers to claim.
Legal walls would likely need a solid set of rules in order to accomplish the ideal of reducing illegal vandalism graffiti.
How about mobile walls. These could be painted up somewhere, maybe near or in a skate park, then transplanted into the urban core as a legitimate art installation, then taken back to the park, retagged and moved to maybe a shopping mall interior or something. This would raise awareness of graffiti as art and give the artists a public venue and expose them to a broader audience.

[Gil Lopez]

More from Odlandscape:

How many landscape architects does it take to screw in a light bulb?
-How many?
-We have a very qualified electrical sub-consultant for that.

What’s black, white, green & striped all over?
-What?
-A Peter Walker landscape.

What do landscape architects call a Brazilian wax?
-What?
-A Roberto Burle Marx

Why did the landscape architect cross the road?
-Why?
-To get to the other bulbout.

Your momma’s so fat she can’t fit in paper space.

Knock, knock
-Who’s there?
-Kobori Enshu
-Kobori Enshu who?
-Enshu glad I gave you this borrowed view?

[Gil Lopez]

Reposted from first cultural industries:

Architect, Landscape Architect, City Planner, or what?:
Choose the answer that best completes the sentence.
Trees
a. are good for hiding a poorly designed part (or whole) of a building.
b. are an essential part of the environment.
c. keep the air fresh and clean.
d. make a decent building material.
e. are an annoyance.
f. look good.

Light is
a. vital to the spirit.
b. vital to life.
c. to be shared.
d. a type of electromagnetic radiation.
e. required to do work.
f. a luxury.

An ugly building is one that is
a. poorly proportioned.
b. lacking in vegetation.
c. not in harmony with its neighbors.
d. lacking in maintenance.
e. in need of a renovation.
f. out of style.

An empty lot
a. ought to have something built on it.
b. could make a good park.
c. is a potential crime magnet.
d. makes an impromptu parking lot.
e. is easy to work with.
f. a waste of space.

A hundred-story building on a small Pacific island would be
a. impressive.
b. disasterous to the environment.
c. out of scale.
d. hard to have a proper foundation.
e. a logistical nightmare.
f. stupid.

The most important room in a house is
a. the living room.
b. the garden.
c. the kitchen.
d. the basement.
e. the bathroom.
f. the bedroom, or more importantly, the number of bedrooms.

If your choices were mostly
a. You’re an architect. While your designs may be visually stunning, chances are that is all they are.
b. You’re a landscape architect. With designs both ecologically friendly and attractive to the community, landscape architects are well recieved by all people except Architects. Too bad there’s this thing called rain.
c. You’re a city planner. You actually understand that a site does not exist in a vacuum and ought to fit into its context. Unfortunately, there’s very little you can do about it.
d. You’re a civil engineer. Your designs are solid and work, as they follow the best way of solving the problem. Fortunately there are architects to mess things up so not everyone’s living in a box.
e. You’re a contractor. You don’t really care what’s being built, only how it’s built. Or maybe you don’t care much about that either.
f. You’re a developer. You actually get stuff built that 99% of the population finds agreeable. Too bad the other 1% just happen to be the people in the neighborhood where you’re building.

[Gil Lopez]

To address more directly your question as to, “whether graffiti walls work or not”? I would say that I do not know and I know of no scientific or academic research on the topic. I would like focus some attention on the Venice Public Art Walls and their history and rules though.

In their history section the curator writes that, “In an effort to keep the walls here, and in an effort to work with the community to reduce illegal vandalism, the area will be governed by new rules and regulations.” So it seems that the walls have actually increased the amount of illegal vandalism in recent years (or maybe the gentrification of Venice Beach has simply lead to increased reports? Or perhaps this fact has also lead to increased quantities of graffiti portraying more anti-establishment messages. Yet another topic for discussion???). Despite these, one of the benefits of the new rules and the new program is that, “If this program proves to be successful at reducing the amount of illegal vandalism in the area, there is the possibility of getting more yards opened up in other parts of the city.” This seems to acknowledge the fact that the legal walls can serve as an outlet for graffiti artist and a realization that a few walls on the beach don’t really serve a community as large as Los Angeles. That, in itself, justifies the opening of more legal walls in my eyes.

In the end there will always be vandals, on the other hand, there will always be individuals who need to express themselves artistically on the cheap and/or in public. Some times these two will overlap either out of necessity or by the nature of the artistic expression. It has been mentioned that these walls are relatively cheap. Although this has is a relevant topic worth discussion I see little to no reason standing in the way of providing creative artists an urban canvas for use without fear of being arrested or harassed by other taggers defending their turf.

[Gil Lopez]

Claudia, I don’t think that anyone is saying what you have posted may be murals but the links that Ahmed provided would likely be classified as such. These wall paintings in Iraq where placed there (according to one of the news articles) by art students, under the instruction of a local art professor. So, although they are good and I would never condone them, they where planned and done by aspiring art professionals. As they where an assignment they where not spontaneous either. In the end I would say they are murals, then again I’m no expert on this subject.
As for the youth/teen/kids debate, I fall into none of those categories and furthermore, I’m not a graffiti artist. So I would argue that I, nor the majority of design professionals, inherently know and understand the needs of this societal group. If we did this conversation would not be needed, indeed the problem of graffiti would not exist or at least wouldn’t be seen as a problem. I could look back at my childhood and teenage years and make assumptions about what today’s “youth” need but those would have to be very generalized or risk shoehorning them into my own, very personal, image of youthfulness. I guess the best solution would be to ask the question of, “whether graffiti walls work or not?” directly to the end users in order to get a correct answer.

[Gil Lopez]

I am intrigued by the non-profit idea. I have been tossing around the idea of opening a more hands on business and wouldn’t mind it being a non-profit organization. I have no clue about non-profits though so I am attending a seminar on starting one at the local business school on Monday. I will report back with any insights.
Although I am still gainfully employed I am hoping for the best and planning for the worst. I understand your desire to jump right in and start changing the world through landscape architecture, I am somewhat an idealist myself. I also have realized that ideology won’t put food in my mouth.
I agree with the other posters that networking is crucial but its seems that most of the attendees of all the social hours, ASLA meetings and other groups I attend are recently laid off professionals who are out plugging themselves. Lattely I have taken to putting lots of stock in the idea that President Obama will create lots of public works projects and get everyone back up and running. Right now that is my best case scenario. My worst case scenario is me helping my neighbors create community gardens so we can all eat this spring and summer.

[Author]

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