[Peter Briggs]

We have a fair number. Private and public facilities (i.e. our new convention center in Anchorage). They have also heated street sections and intersection crossings. There are some issues… but that’s probably another topic stream.

[Peter Briggs]

Interesting. I think we should also just be honest with ourselves… why do we put trees in places where they can’t achieve their potential in any sustainable fashion? If we want trees in urban areas… they’ll either be miniatures (with your idea being one way to address a form of sustainability)… or we need to provide the green infrastructure to support them. I think I lean to the latter…

 

I also like the larger context of using urban areas for sustainable forestry practices. When a tree has achieved its optimal value (and begins to slowly age/degrade after that), it could be harvested for its timber value. This is something my forestry professor at the U of Guelph mentioned. In areas that allow growth of high value trees (i.e. walnut), this could be a funding source (i.e. for scholarships if on a University). It’s also a more sustainable management strategy to ensure a mixed and continuous stand of healthy trees.

[Peter Briggs]

Heh… probably an idea someone might take you up on. One of the questions I do ask myself is to what end do we work “technology” to get trees that will still only live 10 years maybe (hopefully more!). Maybe more permanent urban design/canopies/artwork would fill some of the benefits without the need for a potential commitment to replacement…

 

p.

[Peter Briggs]

Rob:

The installation in Anchorage did use Silva Cells (Deep Root) with insulation above. They’ve been in 2-3 years now, and seem to be doing quite well. They were a maple tree (Crimson king or similar hardy type if memory serves). For the moment, the trees in the heated sidewalk seem to be doing similarly to the ones installed in a continuous planting bed (12″ish above grade surrounded by seat wall.

 

It was installed with an air gap too. The other benefit of this is air/soil interchange for gases, biota, etc…

 

The details of the final installation are unfortunately unknown it seems… no photos during or inspection. One of those things…

 

p.

[Peter Briggs]

Knowledge. =)

 

And perhaps logical (pehaps cost neutral) alterations that might increase chances for success. If they’re spanning/cantilevering the pavement, leaving an air gap might be an option… and even if only for a small radius around the tree.

 

When we were researching this about 6 years ago, there just wasn’t much information out there on interactions between heated sidewalks and plantings. We found one instance where the planting method was really poor (vertically insulating the walls of a typical sidewalk 4×4 tree pit/coffin. This discussion today is great!

As to liability… my assumption is that any liability to Rob would only happen if he were signing the final drawings or approving the changes. New information isn’t really a bad thing… it just might be too late.

[Peter Briggs]

I’m not sure what the final installation section was (I’ll see if I can find out), but they appear to be doing well enough. For us, we have other street tree issues (as with many locations)… so the discussion is more along the lines of “should we really be putting trees here?”. I think emerging consensus will probably be that rather than shoe-horning trees into locations and fighting with the details to optimize their possible survival… we find the opportunities to really allow them to maximize chances. At the same site on another side, with unheated sidewalks, we put the trees in raised planters. With unheated sidewalks, snowmelt substances really do seem to contribute to ill health. So, raised planters get them out of the way of that… as well as out of the way of the snow clearing equipment (typically four wheelers with plows that seem to not only run into trunks, but also break tree grates), and the issues with being recessed even slightly in a planting pit (garbage, silt, everything that gets down there and piles up… encouraging trunk rot). I digress… I’ll see if I can get anything meaningful for you…

[Peter Briggs]

Rob:

 

How far North? We have various somewhat similar installations in Alaska. One of my concerns was the ability of the tree to go fully dormant. (i.e. with heated sidewalk above, even with insulation, will the soil freeze?) For one project I was involved with, the potential solution was to try to get an air-gap between the soil and slab system that would allow for the soil to freeze. This is kind of counter-intuitive for a properly designed heated sidewalk though… and adds expense because the slab either needs to span to get the air-gap, or more economically probably… use something like Silva Cells, and don’t fill them all the way (that’s the direction we were headed). The heated sidewalk really throws a wrench into things, since there isn’t much information out there on how well it interacts with plantings.

 

Peter

[Peter Briggs]

Sean:

 

Here’s some related info: https://sites.google.com/site/lpsocmed/ Including the text from an upcoming article on social media for landscape architects. The summary is that social media in our experience has three uses: 1) like a newsletter as a way of communicating with people, 2) for projects where an interactive public/team face is useful (i.e. a project blog), and 3) where a company wants to illustrate a higher level of expertise (i.e. a more focused subject blog). Return on money is hard to quantify… but, in our experience… doing these kind of things for our clients makes them pretty happy. It’s also fun for us.

 

My favourite related quote: “Facebook feels like a mall. Twitter feels like the street.” William Gibson

 

Cheers,

Peter

[Peter Briggs]

Our apologies that it is for Canadians/Canadian Residents only. The reason for posting here is that Land8Lounge is international in scope, and a good way to reach those that meet that requirement. We hope if you know any of them, you’d direct them to it. One of the competition goals is to support the development of the profession in Canada, so we are targeting that audience… especially trying to encourage/support/showcase students at the Canadian Universities with related programs. We’ve had some great winners in the past if anyone is interested in seeing them: http://www.csla.ca/en/wlam-poster

 

Again… apologies that we do have limitations on who can enter, but we hope you’ll understand the reasoning…

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