Richard DePalma, ASLA, LEED AP

Phil,

Ditto Dan comments on experience, common sense and to use your company history on previous Construction estimates. I would add to his list, network(social) with local contractors and ask them for their input. Some will be glad to help out and others may not, you never know until you ask. Good Luck

Phillip,I have seen several programs over the years and have not been a big favorite of any of them so far. I have been in d/b for almost 28 years. I have worked in the field and behind the desk and I know how long it takes to plant a 4″ tree etc. including the stop at 7-11 for a big gulp and traffic, waiting for the semi to deliver the sod or…[Read more]

Hi, I’ve recently started working for a small residential design/build company and I’m wondering how other people go about estimating construction costs. Is there some great piece of software that makes the process easy, or do people rely on their own knowledge of material and labor prices. It seems like the estimating software I’ve looked at are…[Read more]

That’s fantastic to know USGBC is taking SiTES seriously. Alot of fellow designers have been very concerned about how SITES and LEED will integrate or if any integration will take place at all!?!?! There are so many great things about SITES that it would be a shame for LEED to miss. Thanks for the note, Heather!

Hey Folks! Just a quick note to say hello and introduce myself. After completing the 2009 report, I resigned as project manager of the Sustainable Sites Initiative to pursue other opportunities and spend more time with my 7 month old son. I am currently working with the USGBC as a subject matter expert to incorporate portions of the Sustainable…[Read more]

Hey Folks! Just a quick note to say hello and introduce myself. After completing the 2009 report, I resigned as project manager of the Sustainable Sites Initiative to pursue other opportunities and spend more time with my 7 month old son. I am interested in the practical application of landscape sustainability in residential settings and look…[Read more]

Thanks much to Chad and Charles. Are there specific details that you used, or did you just design your own details for each specific site? I’m going to look at SSI and see if there are any parking lots in their case studies; looking for pictures of good examples to show client that it can look good as well as earn them LEED credits!

Naomi-
If 6″ curbs are a must, explore the possibility of using curb cuts at regular intervals or where it makes sense….the cuts will still allow runoff to enter the depression. Clay soils? Maybe grade soil towards a central trench/basin filled with gravel. Put an underdrain at the bottom of the gravel and follow Charles’ suggestion of piping…[Read more]

Naomi
We have done quite a few parking lots with the planting islands as depressed catchment areas. Most of the time we have to plumb them together to get rid of the water as infiltration is not good. One problem I have seen is that these areas tend collect litter and looks bad unless cleaned oftern.

I just took a little Green Associate Review the week before last as part of training for BPI (Building Performance Institute) certification. I plan to take the GA test within the next few weeks, so I’ll post how it goes.

Anyone have a good detail/case study for using planting islands as small stormwater catchment areas? This is for the northeast, and the parking lot will most likely have standard curbs, but if there’s another idea… Just getting started on the project, but excited about the possibilities. Thanks!

Has anyone taken the LEED Green Associate exam? Please share your exam experience.

Baskar – Could you go into more detail with your comments…

natural topography( wild grasses area or growing naturally ) can take as landscaped area? or it should be neatly landscaped ( dry or xeroxscping_) area? for site selection ?.

Hands-on all-day workshop on Modeling Residential Sites with Slope in Google SketchUp (for intermediate/advanced users) in San Francisco Feb. 20th, 2010

tal_sketchup.pdf

Hi James,
Actually, my professor introduced me to your work this past summer, my first semester in LA, and it was he who let me know about your rendering techniques and color usage. In fact, our first shot at perspectives involved 20 minute perspective-making sessions that aimed to emulate your graphics.
I could only hope that if he hadn’t told…[Read more]

Hi Vanessa; glad you’re having success with the colored pencil techniques. You have a good eye! I do use a cream pencil combined with peach on almost all buildings and hardscape at the very beginning of coloring a drawing, then wash over them with whatever color will best depict the material I’m envisioning…terra cotta, slate blue. etc. The…[Read more]

Nick,
Thanks! I’ll probably be doing more of these in the future and I would like to seed them be as representative of the true design as possible.

Thanks!

Eric-

I got your message. I need to make some evergreens for a plan tomorrow as fate would have it. I’ll post my steps here or shoot you a message.

-Nick

Eric,

I couldn’t tell you how to do it using drop shadows, but I could offer some good advice on doing it manually in photoshop without creating numerous layer copies and keeping the file size down.

send me a message if you still need help with this and I’ll explain some simple tricks.