Trace One

Monet exhibit gets glowing review – looks like a must-see to me..

ehttp://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/arts/design/05monet.html?_r=1&ref=arts

I think you are limiting your conception of where LA’s work..With increased requirement for going green, LA;s are needed to fill a lot of environmental review jobs – just check USAJobs if you want to see some creative job descriptions coming up..Some of these are even TARP jobs..I t hink it is essential the LA’s keep their expertise in the whole…[Read more]

I work for a state department of transportation that spent 5 to ten years transforming everything they had to metric, in the nineties, because we had a mandate from our federal government to change with the times! We then discovered that no-one else had changed to metric, and we had a really hard time with contractors bidding in metric, they just…[Read more]

Landphair and Klatt, Landphair and Klatt..Get an old copy if you can, I don’t think the updates improved it..

Is that the end of that thought on roadkill, Rob? My point is, we can look at a cancer cell forming, but we haven’t spent one second of time on research on what can keep animals out of roadways and traintracks..I am sure you read about the seven elelphants run over by a train in India last week – two babies got caught in the tracks, and the adults…[Read more]

Border collies are the best for big areas – golf courses in virginia use to good effect – plus you are giving a couple of dogs a good job..Geese cannons were used in the Hamptons, but man they piss off the neighbors..hee..

The rejexis product sounds expensive and weird. Why introduce one more human applied chemical to the world.
And of course,…[Read more]

i agree, I already said before that this site is entirely artificial.. that does not mean there is not a context, (There were SWOaks in Brooklyn, as far as I know..) nor that there is a need to get beyond sweetgums, very very often, and at least looking at what is local can help the brain get out of the grooves..

I actually can’t believe Sweet…[Read more]

I completely disagree about two centuries ago being completely irrelevant, Rob… In the first place, even just considering what was there, originally, opens the normal landscrapers mind up a bit to possibilities…I think if another subdivison is planted with sweet gums, we will be able to see the impression of sweet gum foliage from…[Read more]

I like swamp white oaks, they are NOT common in Manhattan, while sweet gums are like callery pears..boring..and overused, street trees…… and the S. W. Oak is probably native to that original lower manhattan landscape….Just geussing..

And Mr. Thomas, I shouldn’t be cocky? pot and kettle problem?

but for me,that is a good thesis topic – when…[Read more]

How about european lindens? Thomas, you have resorted to the usual problem with landscrapers – the need to decorate..As for the swamp white oak, I like them..no cancel that, I LOVE swamp white oak…..and I am NOT looking for work..
But I think the design was lost once it was taken away from the original conception of creating voids in the…[Read more]

The article is about how they nixed the sweetgums in favor of swamp white oaks, right? Seems like a much better choice..

And while diseases do spread in monocultures, cities are one place that can be protected – There are even a few incredible elms remaining in New York , because they were in the ‘urban island’ and did not succumb to Dutch…[Read more]

wow, well-covered and balanced, Thomas! I just wanted to point out one more thing – UCSD made a HUGE deal about providing showers for employees who biked to work, maps of where showers were available….I biked to work for years in Southampton and never showered, (for years! I mean at work, of course..) The whole concept of getting to work and…[Read more]

Certainly keeps ME employed, Boilerplater! Hee hee..Every action has reactions, I geuss..I am sure I am going to loose my anti-irrigation crusade, anyway – it is like gospel around here, the sainted holy central valley of the irrigated landscape..While the sierra snowpack diminishes, the governator wants to build some huge tunnel to capture more…[Read more]

Thank you, Theodore, so it seems like you are saying ‘captured views’ is the only landscaping they do? I like that! We are busy in California planting and irrigating, for people driving 80 mph, and I just think it is wrong!

Ha! My point exactly, Jason!

ps, good point about the Memorial benches inappropriate use, also , Thomas, but I hate that design in the memorial and hate it in the High Line..What exactly is that design good for? And the people who worked on the Memorial wanted to commemorate the FLIGHT OF THE PLANES? Too weird for me..Let’s see – my parents were crushed by a semi, so I think…[Read more]

Yeah, those things you call ‘lounges’ Thomas – I really hate them..Why can we continuously RUIN something as old as a bench, for goodness sakes..I have one college, an LA who does most of our big designs, who has a personal hatred for benches, and will not include them in his designs!..To me that is like a painter hating paint..We are crafts…[Read more]

I think that is a really important point, Jason, how high-maintenance his design is, just to appear natural.. This goes against the basic tenets of ecological design, sustainable design. He would have been better off creating some kind of matrix and letting volunteers be cultivated – the ‘tree that grew in brooklyn’ was an Ailanthus, after all..

I have two comments on the Highl Line design – I think ‘feathered paving’ is a very weak design element, difficult to maintain, prone to construction problems, and something that looks better in plan than when walking with one’s grandmother.. Secondly, I think the big weird benches look uncomfortable and inappropriate..To me, these are signs that…[Read more]

Mr. Schafer,
That attitude towards criticism sounds like Obama politics – he has to be more right, otherwise he will loose his ‘base.’
That is the wrong idea. I think well-articulated criticism will garner you an audience.
Go for the criticism – I think the profession could use some serious writers..I think the High Line has some really shaky…[Read more]