Jennifer de Graaf

Charles,

“Blame it on the Rain” – Milli Vanilli

Well, not really. I just wanted to quote them! Policy is a difficult thing. Until every land owner is charged by the city for the real cost of thier stormwater impacts from a pre development hydrology, there will be uncecesary systems put ini place.
The cool thing about rain gardens is that for…[Read more]

Cole

Good comments. It is annoying to listen to disciples of the “new” green movement who lack the understanding necessary to design facilities that actually work and can be maintained (sustained). Even here in the NW we have LID facilities being required in locations where they just will not work.

Robin, not to be a sceptic: I have recently moved to hawaii though spent the last 5 years in the califonia working for a large engineering firm. It is difficult to get buy in from the engineers as the systems are simply not as functional there as they are in the NW. The reason for this is that the NW has rain year round whereas cali has no rain…[Read more]

James Richards is great. I love his simple color palette. He blends darker colors in his lighter colors to make things look cohesive. For instance, he used carmine red and true blue (i think it was true blue) prismacolor color pencils over cream to create this really nice effect. So, the cream hardscape and buildings really popped after i tried to…[Read more]

….and a nicely planted raingarden, or artful rainwater catchment system usually looks better, provided it works correctly, than the typical curb and gutter system. I have found that the client is usally into this aspect of LID. In residential applications, is it wonderful if they take ownership of the process and work to make regulatory change…[Read more]

I have found that it is best to be part of the design process early on, integrating bmp and lid strategies into the program. Working with the engineers can often open up more opportunities and gain momentum to make green strategies more tangible to designers, since we can explain the simplicity and practicality of these strategies. In most cases,…[Read more]

Great website–thanks for pointing it out. Living in Seattle, I have visited many of the listed projects, urban and rural, but many more are coming on board. In 2010 some Seattle homeowners will receive $$ rebates for installing rain gardens and cisterns to reduce CSO into Puget Sound and Lake Union. read more: http://www.seattle.gov/util/rainwise

Hi there,

nice to see this group on L8L. I’m hoping to find information, reference, or anything else that can help me doing my thesis about healing garden and its relation with the patient’s health recovery. Esp. the design concept and its criteria. So far, i have a few articles by Cooper Marcus and Marni Barnes, and also Ulrika. Anyone can tell…[Read more]

Hi All,

I’m new to your group and new to landscape architecture, currently enrolled in the masters program at the Illinois institute of Technology in Chicago.

I was hoping to gain some insight from this group with regards to healing gardens and urban agriculture. My latest school project requires both programs previously mentioned. If you have…[Read more]

I am currently working on a classroom addition for a high school which is a LEED project. We are designing a central courtyard that demonstrates a variety of LID features. These include porous concrete paving, four rain gardens and a cistern that collects rain water from the roof. Most of the materials being used have some recycled content. We are…[Read more]

hi everybody, i just graduated with my MLA and was worried I couldn’t take a LEED exam without LEED experience, I scanned and attached my diploma to the registration and I’m qualified to take the LEED GA – I haven’t received the study materials yet because they’re on backorder but thought I’d let the word out

Is anyone working on a LEED project now? How is it going? Share with us…

Two years after clearing the invasives in my part of the creekbed in my backyard – you know, plants like Arundo and Tamarisk (how did that get there?) and Washingtonia palms (we all know how that got there) – the birds were kind enough to plant 3 Quercus agrifolia and a Toyon that is now about 12′ high. None of these are requiring additional water…[Read more]

Christmas berry!? They can make a landscape designer a hero!

I just received mine a few days ago too and I passed on the 27th of June.

By the way, it is dumping down rain in Portland right now!

Thank you Jason, and everyone else for the welcome into the green streets group. I really am looking forward to discussing the latest thinking with green streets with you all. Going to Kansas City, Missouri for a presentation on Tuesday and Wednesday, but I would like to post some things when I return.

Welcome Kevin. It’s great to have you involved with our group. I am a big fan of much of your work which has continued to push the envelope for innovative LID solutions.

I also wanted to mention that I just recently moved to Seattle to pursue 2 Professional certificate Programs at The University of Washington. One is in Wetland Science and M…[Read more]

Welcome Kevin! Thanks Jason for your comments on maintenance. After e-mail chats with many people, the fundamental move is to have regular inspections to look for needed maintenance patterns. I agree that it is a relatively new field for L. archs, and so the phrase “moving target” is apropos for the moment.

Hi all I’ve just uploaded some of my latest university drawings please send any positive criticism. Thanks.