Jason T. Radice

The bags that go around the tree trunk really tend to attract bugs of all types. And if not positioned properly, they can water too fast to the point of runoff (they are supposed to take hours). The other thing I don’t care for is that they tend to water in ONE SPOT, so the other side of the tree might not be getting water in windy or very dry…[Read more]

It will look like that, not because of sea level rise, but because the ground is sinking. They working to stabilize a bulkhead wall that has sunk over the years in the tidal basin. Remember, much of DC is built on a filled in swamp.

I make a great deal of my own textures in a combination of photoshop and CAD. Say I need a slab or “architectural paver” made by companies like Hanover or Wausau. They really don’t have good textures, so I draw the grid that I need in CAD (the size of paver, like a 12×24). Save it off as a PDF and bring it into photoshop. I then either find a…[Read more]

Most trees don’t need staking at all if planted properly. Most of the time it isn’t done right anyway, and just ends up hurting the tree.

Totally agree, but the lumber and chemical companies have a point as well. There may be perfectly acceptable uses for their products, which may be greener than something else, but they are stigmatized because of generalizations about the industry.
As well, I always thought it was ironic that USGBC charged so much for their manuals if they want…[Read more]

There are vast differences in Landscape Architecture and landscape design. A Landscape Architect can be a landscape designer, but a landscape designer cannot be a Landscape Architect. Many of us who are LAs really don’t have a great deal to do with the plant side of things except for occasionally specifying them. But day to day, it just really…[Read more]

There is also the issue that a great many LEED buildings do not perform any better, and in some cases, WORSE than their non-LEED counterparts. Worse even than older buildings. The design of many LEED buildings is far from the most energy efficient possibility. Architects know the “loopholes” to have a building still be LEED, but be an energy hog…[Read more]

They use raw iron (rusty color) or ductile iron which creates a darker non-orange patina.

Excellent point about the finish. Underfoot, the protective coating of intentional corrosion will wear off and cause the next layer to rust. That, and the surface of Cor-Ten is quite fragile and the ‘rust’ will come off on user’s feat. Cor-Ten does not equal corrosion or rust-proof, it is a mix of alloys in the steel that intentionally corrode…[Read more]

Not a huge fan of the cloud, but I do have a free Dropbox account for larger file transfers and keeps me from setting up an FTP site that people never seem to be able to figure out.

I do self backups to hard disk, and plan on getting a web-capable NAS. You could also do the same thing with Linux and free/cheap software with an old PC. But I like…[Read more]

Read this:

http://www.deeproot.com/blog/pdfs/Comparing_Silva_Cells_and_Structural_Soil.pdf

I’ve heard the same issues with the long term performance of structural soils. It does not work as well as other methods and the trees don’t get nearly the size they do with trenching or mechanical support methods.

I’d skip the structural soil altogether and redesign the structure of the sidewalk to span a tree trench or use something like Silva-Cells where you can use proper soil.

Pretty much every municipality should be using the National Cad Standards for CAD and BIM by now, as this is the exact thing they were developed for.

http://www.nationalcadstandard.org/ncs5/

This is what you should be using, and this is what you should tell the municipality to use as this is the preference of the GSA (Federal) and most state DOTs.  

If it is a public park area meant to be for everyone and not just skateboards, the preference would be to keep the uses separate. Around the city, the skateboarders have taken over various parks and thing that were never meant to be skated upon and have utterly destroyed very expensive landscapes. They also tend not to give two craps about the…[Read more]

http://youtu.be/ijeswAdX2kY
Have it blown in. You can hire a company (if there is one around you) that has large blower trucks where they just run a large diameter hose to where it is needed and the material is literally blown in place. They use them for mulch and to blow green roof media to the top of the roof so no crane is needed for the large…[Read more]

What font are you using? If it is a fake hand lettering font, sometimes one line of the character is doubled, so there would be three. Try another font.  

Depends on the state. But it can take you a very long time and you generally have to prove that you have the requisite experience hours to sit for the exam. It would be faster to go get an engineering degree.

I just spec polymeric jointing sand for all of my paver installs. Problem solved. If you have a serious weed problem in other types of pavements, you are doing something wrong.

All that money that does not go to the employee directly as wage goes to pay for their benefits (expensive), unemployment insurance (really expensive) and all of the other insurances and benefit packages like 401k administration fees, vacation days, and any other benefit an employee may receive. And it goes into CORPORATE taxes (really, really…[Read more]

It really depends on the firm and what your interests are. If you are more design oriented and architectural in your thinking, than the obvious is an architecture firm. I’ve worked in both and have had good experiences in both, but it really depends on the firm and the role you play there. I had to “fight” for responsibility and respect with a few…[Read more]