Tanya Olson

Nick – we’re at exactly the same point as you (and sounds like several of us who were forced to start our own shops because of the economy are). We are both working full time and often into nights and weekends, just starting to get ahead, thinking we could sure use some help – and WANT to help new landscape architects enter the profession, but its…[Read more]

Thanks so much for sharing, Leslie. This is one of the better natural play ‘books’ that I have seen. I LOVE the Berkley Bayfront playground – it looks like a junkyard – and a kid is going down a slide on a pair of skis!!! Awesome! I would love to see more examples of how to construct some of the elements of the playground – for instance the log…[Read more]

Henry! How was trout fishing in America? That boring?
I’ve been wondering too and have been lurking the discussions, but it takes a lot of time to write a well-thought-out response and yes, work is busy. Lots going on this year – beats the pants off of last year. Today is a snow day (!!! April 22nd?!) and just got a huge CD set out the door, so a…[Read more]

Here’s a nearly opposite instance that what most of you are talking about – playgrounds in extremely rural areas – and I mean a gathering of 8 or 10 homes that is 60 miles from the nearest grocery store or gas station.
We are working on a project to bring a number of playgrounds to extremely rural areas in the middle of South Dakota. The kids in…[Read more]

DON’T buy an HP! What a piece of junk – and won’t run AutoCad no matter what they tell you. Well, it will half run it and make you want to throw it out the window the other half of the time. 
Consider this – Puget Systems makes custom computers with prices similar to Dell and quality that easily surpasses Dell. http://www.pugetsystems.com.  We j…[Read more]

Check the lakewalk in Duluth, MN. Giant sheets of lake ice pile up against the shore there, so I think they used a particular design strategy that dealt with that. I think they also used Ipe or some other tropical hardwood that has weathered very well. No handrails or guardrails. Similar in harsh weather and very active ice.
Still could be helpful…[Read more]

Jason did a good job with the nerdy stuff (haha Jason) and here’s the touchy feely…Find out what print shop local designers use and go to that one.
For full bleed 11×17’s they tell us to make the print size a little bigger than 11×17 , equal on all sides, say 1/4″, and they trim them correctly. We can leave the crop marks or not – they do it…[Read more]

I agree with Mark – consider a multi-stemmed Amelanchier. Or how about Amur Maple? This can’t be in CO or you wouldn’t be considering an Eastern Redbud or Japanese Maple….
I’ve seen hundreds of Japanese Maples in small spots like this in northern CA that have thrived for many years, but they have many many cultivars available ranging from 5X…[Read more]

My prediction is that if O gets reelected we’ll continue on a slow steady recovery and nothing very spectacular will happen. If R-squared gets elected, we’ll be in a war with Iran by next year, all talk of the national debt will be thrown out the window and we’ll be on the hook for another unfunded war, federal funding will obviously be…[Read more]

I think you just said it or nearly so –  ‘horticultural expertise in AZ and desert southwest’ or ‘horticultural specialization in native plants of such and such landscapes’  – something specific like that.
 

Justin – you might be interested in this; http://rawdesignbuild.com/ Its an architect that is an adjunct (I think) at the University of MN who put a summer design-build course together at some property near us. Students have come out for three summers to design and build various projects. The property owner lets them camp on the land and pays for…[Read more]

We used Word Press for exactly this reason. 
SD gave technology grants to small businesses through the SBA for consultation with a tech advisor – ours said flash pages aren’t recognized through the search engine index. Our tech advisor was 9Clouds http://9clouds.com/ and they were great. How can you go wrong with a couple of guys who call the…[Read more]

Well I took the leap and got a Lenovo Thinkpad. The stylus is great and more pointed like a pen, not a rounded finger-shaped stylus that most tech stores have available. I was looking for less screen delay for drawing and thats exactly what this tablet provides. Tried iPad, Samsung Galaxy, Asus Transformer and a couple others with the same…[Read more]

I’d like to see a lot more discussion on this topic – they’re too expensive if they’re toys, but if you can REALLY utilize them they could be invaluable. Kevin – check out the other discussions on tablets, how people use them and what software they use…there have been a couple of like discussions lately but I was too lazy to put mine in ‘technology’!

Yes – thats exactly what I would expect. You can’t expect creative solutions if you are delusional about the problem – look at Greece, North Korea, the former USSR, the American housing bubble – it doesn’t do anyone any good to lie.
The role of an effective leader is to identify obstacles and opportunities and help create an inspired roadmap towa…[Read more]

Using AutoCad, photoshop mostly. Would like a field sketch / measurement program that sin’t limited to a sheet size equal to the surface of the pad/tablet, sketch overlay would be great where you can take photos, stitch panoramics and sketch over the top with a stylus of course…sketching on top of pdfs would be helpful for meetings…

Its like shooting fish in a barrel….

I’ve had excellent customer service from CLARB on a number of different occasions – from cancelling a redline review I bought before I realized my state doesn’t offer them, dealing with tech issues in getting my council record setup to ADA accomodations for exams. They have communicated very very well with me and my licensing board.
I was…[Read more]

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/walking_in_america_send_us_your_photos_of_its_most_unwalkable_parts.html
 
And for the chaser…all you LAs MUST have some good pics of ‘unwalkable America’!

Thanks Roland – any ideas about compatability of the iPad with an otherwise entirely PC office? Would I have to buy a totally different AutoCAD?  Can you share CAD files between mac and PC? Not to be ignorant, but I just don’t know!