nca

You might change your mind if you ever heard them speak. I did in Denver a little over a year ago before Jean Claude died and it was inspiring.

Great images Johnson.

Too bad Jean-Claude passed away a few months ago.

I don’t get it either.

Maybe there hasn’t been enough pictures of oil-covered animals on TV. My thought has been that it will take the ‘slick’ arriving on New England beaches to fuel real public outcry.

Really, though how are you going to use volunteers anyway? We’ve already seen cases in which local volunteers got sick.

I don’t know about…[Read more]

Environmentalists? Government regulation?

I’m not sure about the science involved in fixing a leak in 300 feet of water versus 5000 feet, but logic tells me it would be easier. What do you think? What might be the implications of drilling in shallower water, ie I’m assuming closer to shore? NIMBYism?

Logic also tells me that given the same…[Read more]

Thanks for the video Rob.

I know I’m throwing stones.

I agree that we need to be discussing solutions moreso than ideaologies. The issue I have with our current economic organization is that the system is setup to serve the needs of multinational corporations with an unlimited supply of consumers.

My solution would be to make little changes we…[Read more]

I agree. But alot of people think this is truly a free market for you and I, when we are serfs in an oligopoly (oligarchy). This should be so blatantly obvious at this point.

I’ll let my absence of commentary here be my comment.

I feel like I’ve seen several teaching position openings advertised in the past few months on ASLA’s job board and elsewhere. I know CSU was hiring at one point recently.

A little off topic, but in what aspaect of the profession do you see yourselves teaching? What interests you?

Nice website Brent. Did you build it yourself?

NR-

I don’t think…[Read more]

Good Topic.

Thanks for bring this up.

You’re talking about prior written agreements though really.

If a contractor and a designer agree to compensation for selling their services unbeknownst to the client while also collecting a service fee from the client that would certainly be unethical and probably criminal in my book.

BUT, if there is no prior written (or verbal i suppose)…[Read more]

I think it’s OK in the residential world as a sales commission. Also, rather than collect a straight commission, wouldn’t it be better to call i a CA fee or something like that?

In the public realm I’ve seen this happen in the form of referrals, which is just good business–We recommend a GC or architect and in turn, maybe 6 months down the road…[Read more]

Actually, NU is based around the use of Form-Based Code, No? Transects instead of single use zones, right? Or are they not interchangeable?

Many of the concepts are sound, but in practice, they are essentially just fancy suburbs. Not transit oriented, not walk to work (for a vast majority of residents),

I pretty much agree. Just because a neighborhood uses NU principles doesn’t mean it should be transit oriented or even ultra dense.

and usually with a density that makes them…[Read more]

I agree.

I’m too tired to analyze this, but I dont see where people are getting the idea that NU doesnt work. That said, I dont agree that there is a single formula for good community design as I still believe strongly in site-based design.

I personally dont see the attraction some have to sprawl suburbs–we all know the places–40 foot streets,…[Read more]

Couldnt have said it better myself Roland.

“Sprawl is the dream… the wife and 2.5 kids in a house in the burbs with a dog, a cat, and a white picket fence. How do you change the dream?’

The ‘(American) Dream’ hasn’t necessarily changed, we’ve just figured out how to market a cheaper version of it.

http://www.turenscape.com/english/news/view.php?id=204

I just noticed that they permalinked our discussion to the Turenscape website. Interesting.

Good topic Roland.

Unfortunately it seems there isn’t much interest in urbanism discussion.

It still looks and sounds like New Urbanism and an extension of Duany’s transect idea from the suburban to the rural fringe. I feel like this is what wwe’ve been trying to do all along.

In some of the latest projects I’ve been able to work on here we’ve explored the idea of ‘agriburbia’ which is basically using rural land for farming within the…[Read more]

In my opinion that is a xenophobic response to a population of people ‘we’ don’t try to understand, just make look like ‘normal.’