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Archive for October, 2009

Planning Sustainable Communities: “It’s More than Being Green”

Posted in Policy and Regulation, Real Estate Development, Smart Growth, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design on 10/29/2009 | 2 Comments »

The focus of this year’s American Planning Association AICP National Symposium, held at the National Building Museum, was planning sustainable communities. Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy at the Department of Transportation (DOT) and Shelley Poticha, Senior Advisor for Sustainable Communities, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), two key policymakers involved in the [...]

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The Garden That Climbs Stairs

Posted in Land Art, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 10/29/2009 | Leave a Comment »

Now famous for its Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim building, Bilbao continues to come up with unique ideas to revitalize its city center through urban design. According to Metropolis POV, the city commissioned a master plan seven years ago for the Abandoibarra area in the city’s downtown. Bilbao then sponsored BilbaoJardín 2007, “a contest that solicited designs for garden plots of up to 80 [...]

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Interview with Sadhu Johnston, Chicago’s Chief Environment Officer, on the City’s Climate Action Plan

Posted in Climate Change, Policy and Regulation, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Water Management on 10/28/2009 | 1 Comment »

Sadhu Johnston, Chief Environment Officer, Chicago city government, discusses Chicago’s forward-thinking and comprehensive climate action plan at its one-year anniversary. Johnston outlines progress in key areas, including green roof and stormwater management infrastructure, building energy efficiency (including new rules on reflective roofs), renewable energy, and sustainable transportation systems. Chicago’s many city agencies has spent the past year turning the [...]

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A New Response to Climate Change: Landscape Conservation Cooperatives

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Policy and Regulation on 10/28/2009 | 1 Comment »

Barbara Boxer, Senator from California and chair of the Senate committee on the environment and public works, kicked off three days of hearings on the latest version of the Kerry-Boxer climate change legislation. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and E.P.A. Administrator Lisa Jackson all spoke to the committee about their organizations’ plans for [...]

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Lawrence Halprin, FASLA, Dies at 93

Posted in Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 10/27/2009 | 4 Comments »

Lawrence Halprin, FASLA, one of the world’s leading landscape architects, passed away at the age of 93. His six-decade career encompassed such prominent works as the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C.; Freeway Park in Seattle, Ghirardelli Square, Levi’s Plaza and the United Nation’s Plaza in San Francisco; among many others. In comments to The San [...]

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Design It: Shelter Competition Winner Facilitates Immersion in Nature

Posted in Environment, Exhibits, Opportunities on 10/26/2009 | Leave a Comment »

The Guggenheim Museum and Google SketchUp announced the winners of their Shelter It design competition. Amateurs and designers were invited to submit 3-D shelter concepts created using Google SketchUp and Google Earth. Almost 600 entries were received from 68 countries. David Mares of Setúbal, Portugal won the People’s Prize for Cork Block Shelter (CBS). David [...]

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How High Speed Rail Can Spread Across the U.S.

Posted in Smart Growth, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 10/22/2009 | 7 Comments »

The U.S. High Speed Rail Assocation, a new group formed to advocate for high speed rail, organized a conference in D.C. attended by Congressional representatives, smart growth advocates, and Governor Ed Rendell from Pennsylvania, a leading high speed rail proponent. Rendell argues that a nation-wide high speed rail network is critical and called for a “dedicated federal government capital budget” to [...]

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Does Looking at Nature Make People Nicer?

Posted in Education, Environment, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design on 10/21/2009 | 4 Comments »

A new study from the University of Rochester published in Personality and Social Psychology argues that paying attention to the natural world makes people feel better and also makes them behave better. Richard Ryan, an author of the study, says that viewing nature can not only have personal health benefits, but also broader social benefits. [...]

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Habitat Corridors Have Positive Spillover Effects

Posted in Environment, Historic Preservation, Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design on 10/21/2009 | Leave a Comment »

Habitat corridors, strips of natural land in between human settlements, enable plants and animals to spread and migrate and conduct their crucial ecological roles, such as fertilization. Scientific America notes that “as conservationists discovered more than 40 years ago, if you connect these fragments with skinny strips of natural land, called ‘corridors,’ plants and animals can more naturally [...]

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Economic Stimulus Opportunities for Landscape Architects and Other Design Professionals

Posted in Landscape Architecture, Opportunities, Policy and Regulation on 10/21/2009 | Leave a Comment »

ASLA has produced a guide to economic stimulus opportunities. The guide outlines U.S. federal government stimulus opportunities that benefit landscape architects and other design professionals. Federal opportunities are organized into the following sections: transportation, water, sustainable design, climate change, small business, and government procurement. There is also a list of U.S. state and territory recovery sites where design professionals can [...]

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