Rob Halpern

From soil scientist to Realtor to L.A. to….can he cook too?

(I apologize for being so slow to respond..been on the road for a week now)

Now that is the thinking I can work with! Thanks for the lead.

Thanks, Jason

To tell the truth, I’d like a long term sub-consultant relationship as issues do crop up in many projects.

Currently I have one new field (for lack of a better term) that was completed in May and then was badly mismanaged and baked to a hardpan in the summer’s Southern heat. It needs to be aerated without ripping it to shreds. Right now it sheds…[Read more]

Majora is indeed fantastic. She has spoken at TED in the past and those talks are available on line. She did not, as I recall go deep into urban ag as such, but rather she works to green cities and especially areas where the poor and under-served live (rather than a city’s premier spaces alone)

Sadly, info on what a species may be capable of doing in the wild or in a landscape is of little use in real urban situations.
While the following doesn’t quite hit your mark either, it may be useful:

The Plant Growth Planner, by Caroline Boisset

Kris,

There is the Pure Yoga wall project in NYC, but depending on where in MA your project is, conditions will be harsher. And a South facing wall may be the most challenging (I’d prefer the wall to freeze and stay frozen rather than heat and cool daily)

Perhaps this is simply a cavil, but these township designs are neither biomimicry nor animism. Those are two different things.
Biomimicry may offer some great inspiration and innovations for design.
Animism, well that’s a different matter

It seems to me that to the extent anyone is expecting this whole economic mess to eventually go away and for things to be back the way they were for L.A.s 3 or more years ago…it seems unlikely for a very long time. That building boom and the landscape work it generated will not be repeated anytime soon, IMO. Just like the Dot.com boom will not…[Read more]

And then there is this:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/nation-shudders-at-large-block-of-uninterrupted-te,16932/

This may be a quibble, but what I was thinking was more how people behave with their colleagues (when they can “be themselves”) rather than with clients.
Altho I have known a very talented designer who could be so contemptuous of the clients that I privately asked his employer why he was allowed to ever meet clients. He is no longer with that firm.

But to Andrew’s point: the issue is not simply one of changing technology and misunderstandings, I think. The internet has made acceptable and normal and more snarky, the sarcastic, arrogant tone in postings. If you met someone who spoke as some post, you’d walk away muttering “jerk”. To read some threads on this Forum, a visitor might think that…[Read more]

Thanks, Andy. I figured there was a reason.

I expect doing a living wall in MN will be a bit tough. Frozen roots and all.

This is off your topic (which is fascinating), but I find myself wondering why the Living Wall in this site.

From the elevations you posted I get the impression that the whole scheme is for the sake of the living wall, when there is adequate space for tree and shrubs, etc. Is form dictating function or the other way around?
Curious about the…[Read more]

Pictures and catalogs, on-line or in books, are fine, but for me, knowing the plant in real landscapes is essential.
And the more times I see a plant in different circumstances, the better I understand it.
Nothing beats going outside and getting “to know” the plant
Sadly, that does not give the other essential piece of knowledge: what maintaining…[Read more]

A survey sounds more optimistic… and pessimistic at the same time

http://www.asla.org/NewsReleaseDetails.aspx?id=28120

I thought it was clear: that these systems, whatever their merits, are not the same system that Ferdash was asking about.

These recent web sites are related to alternative approaches to Blanc’s
They are not the same system

I believe that Patrick Blanc would say that the first necessity in making his walls successful is careful plant selection to match the conditions.
You seem to be attempting to turn that rule on its head.

Yeah, I’d love to see it too.
Of course, he seems to be accusing certain applications of failing to meet goals… not all. It does speak to the necessity to design systems specifically to do these “green” jobs rather than simply throwing up a green roof.
And then there’s the issue of performance over time.
I really would like to see more long…[Read more]