João Bicho e Joana Carneiro, LDA

I’ve used a variety of green roof techniques which have been more or less successful. I’m gathering information about what folks have done with green walls, the materails they have used and their success. I’ve read quite a bit about Patrick Blanc’s work but keep wondering about maintenance and costs. I’m currently looking into the nonwoven…[Read more]

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]

Charles, This is probably easier to deal with in Phoenix as most people don’t really expect anything to live here without water. Even natives. I don’t know how you can expect a plant that is used to regular and frequent irrigation at the grower, to suddenly become a plant that thrives with irregular and infrequent feeding.

Ya Bill, all I know is when a local suburban city requires the planting of natives in parking lot islands that get hammered by not only the heated asphalt but also the vehicle exhaust, I tend to shake my head. With pedestrians tromping through and no irrigation, it is just tough sledding. What we need is to educate the planners who write the…[Read more]

I Navid, the pine like plant looks like a grevilia flower. I’m not sure but it’s similar.

Ya Charles, all the natives around here grow in balls and cubes. You never have to water them and they never grow past the 3′ dia. ball or cube. They even flower in colors that contrast well with the building they are planted next to. I love natives. They’re truely the answer to all your sustainable dreams. You just need more experience, buddy.

We are being asked more and more to do less and less irrigation on our projects here in and around Seattle. One might think, “so what, it is always raining in Seattle.” This is not quite true. We have had a very dry summer here but we are only about an inch below average for the year. Many native and non native plants are suffering, and will not…[Read more]

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

Ryan, while I agree with your assessment of renovation projects being the niche to look at these days, it takes the right client to take a “chance” on these renovations these days. With golf rounds down nationally 25-40%, it is somewhat of a leap of faith for owners to renovate their course to try to spark increased rounds. Yes, there are several…[Read more]

Hi Chad! Thanks for joining the group and posting a comment. You’re correct that new course building has slowed; however, I think this slow has fostered an opportunity to be creative and find ways to keep course design moving. Rather than new course construction, I have seen a high increase in existing course renovation. As existing courses…[Read more]

Yes, this is a great attitude toward golf course architecture. It is just too bad that the golf market is all but dried up. Of course, I still hold out hte dream that it will return again someday!

I love your idealism and passion about golf course architecture in your infromation entry above, don’t let too many people see that they dispise anything remotely close to golf or turf or opulent landscape uses!

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]

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]

Hi folks, it’s me on my lounge in Cairo, but active now in Abu Dhabi.
This is the place to try all this xerophytic plants and other material.
Whenever I come into a new arid area I try to studdy the the vegetation off the beaten tracks. Potential natural vegetation is the best indicator to meet climat and geology. We only (I guess that is the…[Read more]

Hello- I’m new to the group! Currently our LA firm has been dealing with the recent water restrictions- How do we (as Landscape Architects) get the word out that turf is no longer the San Diego landscape? We are in our 3rd consecutive year of drought and something has to change.

Stomwater is cool in the Sunshine State.

Hey guys! Here is a link to some presentations from a conference in Reno at the University of Nevada that talked about different stormwater and bioretention techniques. Some are really basic info but also some good overall information. The links to presentations are actually at the bottom of this page that you can scroll down to once you open the…[Read more]

It looks pretty old but I like the details and formality of it, especially as it moves between the brick wall.

check out this cool solution to getting water off the property at Duisburg-Nord/ Germany: