Tosh K

They should be, but too many dinosaurs plodding around.
 
Some are faster and more adept at predict trends: the stock market never really broke the established indicator trends.  They survive, and the rest, well, don’t – at least in a market driven economy right?  I don’t buy the government control aspect: infrastructure work has always had su…[Read more]

Recovery to the bubble years or to a stable economy?  I get the feeling many folks want/expect recovery to take us into the bubble economy of the 90s/00s… which isn’t healthy.
 
The BDI is back up to its “normal” levels, which would indicate that big picture manufacturing and construction outlook is normalizing (it’s a bit down of late due to o…[Read more]

Check with the MNASLA – they had a map of downtown with projects at the annual meeting.

map apps would be awesome: an ASLA national project? or maybe a TCLF project? anyone? It would be a great marketing tool for us.

In germany every major city has a waterproof map of significant projects available at local bookstores, was great to have such a resource.

I give my pro-bono services to the local land trust (who runs community gardens) and to the local chapter of Architecture for Humanity (something I think more LAs should look into – they have an open source website for designs Open Architecture Network – to exchange ideas as well). As AfH’s mission is to provide general design services to those…[Read more]

I appreciate the choice of change in the ground plane over architectural objects- a sign maybe that LA’s have a better chance in future projects. “Phenomenology of moving rocks” has me puzzled though – an homage to all the earthwork when creating the park?

I’ve had numerous firms ask for work samples of professional work including CAD details. I usually limit a CAD layout to a couple of nice plans and complex/in-depth/non-standard details (ones that look nice with thought out line weights).

1. A few pages of the drawings with images of built/rendered images helps convey and understanding of the…[Read more]

I believe they can legally not pay you if you are being compensated with academic credit. It can provide a student with a means to learn the practice of a profession in an office environment. I find it rather distasteful but so long as the work is not something billed out to a client, it can make some sense. The way I see it, an unpaid public…[Read more]

Do take a close look at what you want to do and if LAs are in that field. I like what I do, the pay is low and work hours can be long but being paid to do what I want is nice. It’s not a cushy field by any measure, especially the first few years but most of my friends from grad school are enjoying their work.

Talk to the faculty at each about…[Read more]

As I understand it both VA and CT will allow you to take the LARE w/o experience, but the state board will not issue a license until your CLARB certification is complete and you have the necessary experience as required by the board.

Compared to the IDP process for architecture, the LA license procedure is, simple – they require you log a…[Read more]

I always preferred CAD base, Illustrator to check/adjust line weights and broad area rendering (using masking) => photoshop for finer raster touch up/importing scanned hand images => Illustrator to keep crisp lines for final PDF => InDesign for layout/labeling. This allows for edits in a consistent way (always hated edits in PS) and manages file…[Read more]

Can do CAD imports, pdf as an image I think. It’s a simple program that’s good for small areas and quick mock ups, but is lacking in features (it is a sketching software after all)

You can also “select by colo.r” as long as each layer is a different color, it makes it easier to separate the layers

I’ve known a few UGA alumni and a couple of current students. They have a great program and with the Beltline going in in Atlanta have a frontline look at that process. Also ran across a few LSU alumni as well, they were also very talented and well versed. Being on the east coast, I haven’t met people from UCDenver or USC.

Aren’t schools giving…[Read more]

I remember seeing terraced bioswales somewhere online (had to design one for a development in VA). Don’t know where it was – the thing with steep slopes and heavy rains is that you will need a fairly large volume storage area that is relatively flat to allow for long term infiltration.
As for US examples, the bioswale options from the…[Read more]

Always had trouble in central VA with the city/town governments being fascinated by NU “town center” look for development, the public process in general (most public meetings are dominated by people with strong opinions and loud voices, quite often negative), the environmental needs -therefore approvals- (often neglected in NU).

Topics to look at…[Read more]

nanoparticles, not bad.

so can they make them Dark Sky compliant?

As I understand it was coined by a group critical of the separation of the understanding ecological processes and urban processes. It is/was an attempt to allow for urban designs to accommodate both the human constructs and the necessary ecological processes. It is the first “wave” of reexamining the profession from a performance perspective…[Read more]

Kongjian Yu and Adrian Geuze both write about the need for their respective countries to embrace their placeness and fight the trend toward adopting outside aesthetics at the cost of local traditions base on local needs (below see level, river flood cycles, etc). While at Turenscape in Beijing there was some frustration expressed about the desire…[Read more]

Starting a year before graduating (2009) I visited offices, showed my portfolio in progress and tried to get a feel for what firms were out there and what they were looking for. It definitely helped me prepare myself to assess a firm’s needs and sell myself as a good option for them. While I had very little luck initially, I’ve been able to get a…[Read more]

UC Berkley (Walter is definitely awesome – had him in a couple of reviews) and U of MN are particularly keen on social aspects.

I went to UVA and they do a good mix of ecological design (recently thru our new chair Kristina Hill) and have had a strong social function emphasis throughout.