Tanya Olson

Thanks Mike. Hey – aren’t we LAs put on this earth to solve unsolveable problems? ha! Seriously – I was walking on the sidewalk next to the highway (35 mph, downtown 25 mph) and a semi with a pup flew past. I thought ‘if he looses a tire, I will be toast!’
The DOT here is trying, but they put marked (striped) UNCONTROLLED pedestrian crossings in…[Read more]

Thanks for the reference to the Hamptons! I’ll check it out. It kind of sounds like they did what Palm Springs / Indian Wells / Palm Desert did.
This won’t be the ordinance and it will be ‘suggestions’ rather than law, but it will have tons of graphics, historic photos, etc. At least thats the plan.

Yes. Really pop 1,860! Everyone thinks SD is the great plains, but we have this amazing little mountina town. Here’s the problem – and you and I have discussed this thoroughly – its not exactly crawling with jobs!
Nonetheless, I do absolutely love it here and I’ve lived in some pretty righteous places, which is why I am volunteering to write the…[Read more]

Thanks so much Mike. Your response is very helpful.

The design guidelines I’m working on are part of a 6-year effort by an ad-hoc committee formed at the request of the mayor which has resulted in the renovation of our ‘town square’ park, and a giant TIF project described below. The committee was formed to respond to requests by the community for…[Read more]

http://scenicdakotas.com/sd-custer.shtml
Scroll down to the video – it shows pretty much the entire main street. The video starts out on the edge of the central business district, then about a block after the Dairy Queen (quite prominent in the video) it turns into highway commercial. Ideas, precedents, publications are all welcome.
Thanks!

not sure…but could be. This is a county job and I would imagine most of the employees wear a couple of different hats.

Since no one else will admit it, I will confess to subscribing to Sunset….not quite the ‘People’ magazine of landscape architecture, but definately eye-candy and its CHEAP. Yeah, yeah, plus the ones Jason mentioned except Metropolis. I like Dwell better.

I tried to think of a design or designer (firm) that really gave me goosebumps, but much of the work I’ve only seen in pictures….Teardrop Park by MVVA, when I saw photos of it, struck me as far and away one of the best and most creative new projects I had seen in a long long time. I always love Oehme and VanSweden projects – I don’t think I’ve…[Read more]

You know that was said facetiously right? Yes – A.E. Bye – minimalist but wonderfully sensual. Those poor plants in the square pots….They might as well have put in astroturf and plastic plants. At least it would have been more honest to their aesthetic!

Can you STAND the bare dirt under the stools in the lawns? DId they think no one would ever site on the stools? Hey, everyone knows you can’t be a minimalist with any plant other than turf. aaagh!

You know what they say about architects….landscape architect wannabees who couldn’t hack the botany. hahaha.

I love this field. They’re going to have to drag me out feet first because I’m never leaving. Will I ever have to do a different job? Maybe. But I will never not consider myself a landscape architect. I just so happens that I graduated with my MLA at the tail end of the last (smaller) recession. It took a year to find a job, but it was a great job…[Read more]

Hey Brandon – great idea on your website – the three different design packages – really easy to read and understandable for the client can see at a glance exactly what you have to offer. I love the way the graphics reflect each level. You would think it would be a no-brainer, but I haven’t seen this idea in landscape architecture yet – other…[Read more]

A great way to learn about this kind of permitting / regulation is through non-profit orgs – the sierra club, non profit public interest research groups (they often focus on environmental issues and are usually named by the state they are in plus PIRG, as in MNPIRG for Minnesota), restoration groups, etc.

I asked for and received permission from my former firm to use images and drawings from projects that I worked on. It was a small firm so I did a significant amount of the design and CD work on these projects. In the graphics annotations I said “with _____ Landscape Architecture” and had my role in that project listed. When I did freelance work…[Read more]

I get it. I just got the impression that you were looking for projects that would be a good fit for landscape architecture / engineering firm…..
Anyway….my original reply is representative of where my work is coming from with the addition gettting work via networking – residential client A recommends me to residential client B who works for…[Read more]

This might sound crazy, but in response to your accidental post on the ‘are you thinking what I’m thinking discussion’….

I would LOVE to see some parking lots designed by landscape architects. There is a lot of retrofitting old buildings around here – particularly strip malls – SOME of the retrofitting is adhereing to architectural concepts…[Read more]

You can place yourself on the locator map on Land8Lounge, I found out. I think its really cool – if I want to visit France I could contact some of the LAs there are ask for tours or information….great idea.
I’m not too worried about my house being raided! I don’t have anything anyone would want – a bunch of drawings on trace paper???!!! ha!

I’m kind of hearing two things:
A potential need for professional critique.
An unanswered call to examine landscape changes on a larger scale.

I’m hearing from some students that the crits they are getting are unsatisfactory – geared toward their programs, perhaps, but myopic in relation to the greater landscape. Trace was talking about this to…[Read more]

Yeah – I know – it seems huge, amorphous, something on the edge of imagination and technology….

Do you think it would be a “too many cooks” kind of thing? Would our opinions and expertise be too widely divergent? Could we organize regionally? It would be really neat if we could get an online charette or critique going at any rate.

The…[Read more]