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Archive for February, 2009

CowPots

Posted in Technology, Waste on 02/27/2009 | Leave a Comment »

According to The New York Times, second-generation dairy farmers in Connecticut have devised a way to re-use smelly cow manure: Developing pots for plant and flower seedlings made out of dried, deoderized manure fibers. With eight years of development, and “countless grim experiments,” Ben and Mathew Freund, owners of 225 Holstein cows, produced CowPots, bio-degradable seed-starting containers, which are being [...]

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Orchids as Art

Posted in Exhibits, Gardens on 02/26/2009 | Leave a Comment »

The New York Times wrote about Raymond Jungles, a Miami-based landscape architect, who is designing the New York Botanical Garden exhibit The Orchid Show: Brazilian Modern, which opens on February 28. According to The New York Times, the modernist forms and sculptural plants are a reference to Roberto Burle Marx, Brazil’s great landscape architect. Jungles said: “When [...]

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Interview with Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, Mexico’s Renowned Landscape Architect

Posted in Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 02/24/2009 | Leave a Comment »

Mario Schjetnan, FASLA, spoke with ASLA about his work on the Chapultepec Park in Mexico City, his own garden in Malinalco, and environmental justice in Mexico City. On working in the 500-year old Chapultapec Park in Mexico City, Schjetnan says: “The challenge was to intervene in the park through a restoration which addressed important issues, [...]

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Land Matters: On Shifting Ground

Posted in Landscape Architecture, National Mall, Public Spaces, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 02/24/2009 | Leave a Comment »

I was angry the last time I was on the National Mall for anything related to politics. That was exactly two years ago, when I joined the mass protest of tens of thousands of other Americans against the war in Iraq (Land Matters, March 2007). What a difference an election makes. The mood on January [...]

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Ecological Urbanism Conference at Harvard Design School

Posted in Opportunities on 02/23/2009 | 1 Comment »

While climate change, sustainable architecture, and green technologies are increasingly written about in the media and becoming more widely understood, issues surrounding the sustainability of the city may be less so. To address issues surrounding the sustainability of cities, the Harvard Graduate School of Design will host Ecological Urbanism: Alternative and Sustainable Cities of the [...]

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Sustainable Design and Development Resource Guide

Posted in Sustainable Design on 02/23/2009 | 1 Comment »

ASLA has produced a guide to the best online resources focused on sustainable design and development. The guide provides links to a range of organizations, environmental assessment tools, and local resources. Help ASLA improve the guide. Add your thoughts on what resources should be added. Go to the Sustainable Design and Development Resource Guide

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Green Wall Variations

Posted in Green Buildings on 02/20/2009 | Leave a Comment »

The New York Times reported in its Home section on a new type of green wall that can be created without soil. The Bardessono hotel in Napa Valley, California has four panels containing epiphytic air plants (tillandsias), which are clipped onto metal rods. The plant-based wall installation was conceived late in the development process, so there’s no internal irrigation [...]

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A Plan for Energy Efficient Buildings by 2030

Posted in Green Buildings, Policy and Regulation, Sustainable Design on 02/20/2009 | 1 Comment »

Edward Mazria, a well known architect and founder of Architecture 2030, an organization focused on increasing energy efficiency in buildings while confronting climate change and stimulating the domestic housing market, gave a presentation yesterday at the National Building Museum. Mazria and John Podesta, President of the Center for American Progress, both took part in the NBM’s “For [...]

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Re-defining the Role of Landscape Architects

Posted in Landscape Architecture on 02/18/2009 | 5 Comments »

Construction Week Online spoke with the global design consultancy Aedas about the role of landscape architects. Dastin Hillery, senior associate, at Aedas, says: “landscape architecture is not just beautification; it’s about creating a space, creating the ambiance of a development, initiating lifestyle and it’s creating a new public realm and at the end of the [...]

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How the Crash Will Re-shape the U.S. Landscape, Infrastructure

Posted in Policy and Regulation, Smart Growth, Technology on 02/17/2009 | Leave a Comment »

Richard Florida, author of The Rise of The Creative Class, and most recently, Who’s Your City?, wrote an article in this month’s Atlantic Monthly on How the Crash Will Reshape America. Florida argues that the the economic downturn has and will damage some places more than others. The economic landscape of the U.S. will look [...]

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