Jennifer de Graaf

Check out Land8Lounge member Jason King’s review of Esther Sternberg’s new book, Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being. An excellent review of an excellent new book.

I am pulling together a maintenance manual for a design studio that wants to install storm water mitigation in its projects. After reading widely, I have noticed that most information has the same maintenance guidelines. I find it difficult to believe that if sedimentation must be cleaned out 4-5 times a year from an in-street planter in Portland,…[Read more]

Jay,
I have run into similar situations in my work experience, (I’ve worked at 4 firms and have ten years + of construction experience) where registered LA’s are “designing” things but have no practical knowledge of how the thing will actually stand up or be built and a very narrow knowledge of construction in general.It seems often-times the old…[Read more]

Hi Scott
I learned the ropes in the field prior to Licensure; I started at an ornamental tree farm then became manager and head of landscapeoperations, then lead designer, then partner in a design build firm, all the while not fulfilled in my carrer thinking that I took the wrong path by not stepping straight into a design firm. It wasnt until I…[Read more]

Great idea for a group!

I’m glad to see someone else interested in SSI! I’m working on a children’s garden project for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. We’re designing the project to the preliminary draft SSI credits in hopes to create a sustainable landscape project, test the credits and criteria and eventually hopefully become a pilot project.

I like to share this document on sustainable site design. SSI_Guidelines_Draft_2008.pdf

Hi Guys”
Greetings!!!!!
An innovative design in stone surfaces that offers a customizable line for interior and exterior wall claddings
Cheers / Bharat Mishra

Here is another recent article from BuildingGreen.com regarding LEED changes : http://www.buildinggreen.com/live/index.cfm/2009/7/28/New-LEED-AP-Exam-Writer-Tells-All.

intheleed.com also has some good explainations:
http://www.intheleed.com/what-exactly-is-the-credential-maintenance-program-for-leed/

Go to the link below to download the “Credentialing Maintenance Program Guide” valid for July 2009 from USGBC – this is the official document addressing credentialling maintenance.
http://www.gbci.org/ShowFile.aspx?DocumentID=3665

Just got an e-mail regarding GBCI Credentialing Maintenance Program for those of us that have been accredited without specialization under the old system. Was wondering if anyone has dug deeper into what this really means for us and if upgrading to a specialization will pay off in the end?

Just slid into this group. Many of the Washington State funded building design projects require a LEED certification. I’ve been involved in the number of LEED workshops on projects for community colleges in the state. I am not up to speed on the newer landscape/site related LEED certification. I know from past projects, the landscape/site related…[Read more]

And new InformeDesign article review on Children’s Use of Accessible Playgrounds.

I would like to think that it is the LA who knows best, but sadly I feel that the contractor is the one who is going to be the key in creating the finished project. I would love to get to know my contractors well enough to find out there likes and dislikes but I never seem to be able to work with the same one over again, the market is so cutthroat…[Read more]

Hey Charles, Its good to have you in the group. How do you feel about this narrowing of role? Do you think that if we still had more of a role in related fields that there would be more work currently available for landscape architects? If you want you could start a discussion about it. I think it would be interesting to see what we could learn…[Read more]

What was the name of the site where you can sell your entourage images that you have created?

I’ve been working in this profession for 37 years and have found that as time goes by, landscape architect’s role gets more and more narrow. 30 years ago, I was doing natural resource analysis, coastal management programs and land use plans. Now to do much of anything with natural resources we have to hire biologists, geologists, soils engineers,…[Read more]

Conference in Dubrovnik: Resocialization-benefits from nature, I put album of photos finally on my folio, so you can see them 🙂 . I find articles send by this group really interesting, bye. Marina

Does anybody know if there are any efforts being made to cover theraputic landscapes under health care insurance?