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Archive for May, 2010

Sustainable Sites Initiative Selects 175 Pilot Projects

Posted in Landscape Architecture, Sustainable Design on 05/27/2010 | Leave a Comment »

The Sustainable Sites Initiative™ (SITES™) has selected 175 pilot projects to test a national rating system for sustainable landscape design, construction and maintenance. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History & Culture, New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward Sustainable Infrastructure Project and the Indianapolis Super Bowl Village join others that include educational centers, transportation corridors, industrial complexes [...]

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Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario Garden

Posted in Exhibits, Land Art, Landscape Architecture, Public Spaces on 05/27/2010 | 2 Comments »

The Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, New York, has marked the thirtieth anniversary of famed modern artist Isamu Noguchi’s California Scenario with a new exhibition. The public garden, commissioned by developer and philanthropist Henry T. Segerstrom, is located in Costa Mesa, California. The exhibition explores the design of Noguchi’s garden through photographs, models, and video. In 1979, Segerstrom asked Noguchi to design [...]

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Ford Foundation Invests in Metropolitan Areas

Posted in Smart Growth, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 05/26/2010 | Leave a Comment »

The New York Times writes that the Ford Foundation will spend $200 million over five years on programs aimed at connecting cities and suburbs, with the end-goal of creating “cohesive metropolitan areas.” Investments will generate metropolitan plans that cut-across cities and suburbs, and also expand access to public transportation systems, affordable housing, and “regional land banks,” which can help redevelop urban [...]

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Laying out a Path to a Climate-smart World

Posted in Climate Change, Policy and Regulation, Residential Design, Smart Growth, Urban Revitalization on 05/26/2010 | 1 Comment »

Marianne Fay, Chief Economist, Sustainable Development Network for the World Bank Group, discussed the 2010 World Development Report, a major report on climate change and developing countries at the National Building Museum. Fay said the World Bank is focused on climate change because of its enormous impact on the way countries grow, but also said it’s important to [...]

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Calculating Sustainable Return on Investment

Posted in Environment, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Sustainable Design on 05/25/2010 | 1 Comment »

The U.S. Green Building Council’s 2010 Federal Summit focused on how green site and building practices can be used to implement President Obama’s new executive order (13514), which calls for all federal buildings to be net-zero by 2030 and the federal government to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by 28 percent by 2020.  Martha Johnson, administrator of the General Services [...]

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Sea Change 2030+ Ideas Competition

Posted in Climate Change, Opportunities, Sustainable Design, Urban Design on 05/25/2010 | Leave a Comment »

The Australian Institute of Landscape Architects [AILA] and its competition partners launched Sea Change 2030+, an international ideas competition designed to showcase ideas for planning, designing and managing for adaptation to urban sea level rise. The ideas competition site is Sydney Harbour, situated within the Parramatta River estuary. The competition seeks to engage designers, planners, universities, policy makers and [...]

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Recreating Wildlife Habitat in Cities

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Sustainable Design, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Wildlife on 05/20/2010 | 1 Comment »

During the Dumbarton Oaks symposium on “Designing Wildlife Habitats,” ecologists and landscape architects also explored challenges and opportunities with wildlife habitat restoration in urban areas, and the impact of climate change. Speakers offered more variations on the idea of ecological infrastructure, arguing that interdisciplinary design teams are needed to create these multi-use systems. Speakers also concluded that designers and scientists must work harder [...]

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Restoring the Balance between People and Nature through Wildlife Habitat Design

Posted in Climate Change, Environment, Landscape Architecture, Wildlife on 05/20/2010 | 1 Comment »

During the Dumbarton Oaks symposium on “Designing Wildlife Habitats,” a range of ecologists and landscape architects analyzed various aspects of the relationship between people and nature, and how these relationships take form in natural, managed, and even restored wildlife habitats. Speakers also explored cutting-edge thinking on “ecological infrastructure” and ”human-nature interaction design,” ideas that can guide the future development of both designed [...]

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Designing for the Full Range of Biodiversity

Posted in Environment, Landscape Architecture, Wildlife on 05/19/2010 | 1 Comment »

Kicking-off a two-day symposium on “Designing Wildlife Habitats” at Dumbarton Oaks, John Beardsley, Director of Garden and Landscape Studies and convenor of the symposium, said landscape architecture has always had an “art camp” and an “ecology camp.” There are a few like “Frederick Law Olmsted, and, now Michael van Valkenburgh, FASLA, and Kongjian Yu, International ASLA, who straddle the [...]

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UN Climate Group Gets New Chief

Posted in Climate Change, Policy and Regulation on 05/18/2010 | Leave a Comment »

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed Christiana Figueres as the new executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), reports The Guardian. Figueres has been the head of Costa Rica’s negotiating team, and is the daughter of a former president of Costa Rica. She will replace Yvo de Boer, who will quit the [...]

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