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Archive for December, 2010

Olmsted’s Blank Snow

Posted in Land Art, Landscape Architecture on 12/23/2010 | 1 Comment »

Sergio López-Piñeiro, an assistant professor of architecture at the University of Buffalo, has created “Olmsted’s Blank Snow,” a seasonal ”snow-scaping” project. The university writes that López-Piñeiro is working with the Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy to plow snow into 15 giant forms in Buffalo’s Front Park, a park Frederick Law Olmsted designed with his partner Calvert Vaux.  As can be seen from [...]

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Cancun Climate Summit: Success for Mexico and the UN, but a Win for the Climate?

Posted in Climate Change, Policy and Regulation on 12/22/2010 | Leave a Comment »

The Economist writes that wealthy and developing countries reached some “common ground” on climate change at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings that just concluded in Cancun. The deal builds on the Copenhagen accord negotiated last year (see earlier post), includes a new $100 billion “Green Fund” to aid developing countries with emission cuts and adaptation, [...]

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Using Plants to Clean up Toxic Sites

Posted in Environment, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Real Estate Development, Smart Growth, Sustainable Design, Technology, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization, Water Management on 12/22/2010 | Leave a Comment »

In Urban Omnibus, urban designer Kaja Kuhl writes that in New York City ”underutilized or vacant space can be a source of creative inspiration for urban agriculture, public parks, housing, community space, and the occasional mini-golf course.” However, before these abandoned lots can be reused, a thorough environmental assessment must be conducted and contaminated soils must be [...]

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West 8′s Garden of 10,000 Bridges

Posted in Gardens, Land Art, Landscape Architecture on 12/22/2010 | 1 Comment »

This spring, a new landscape created by West 8, a Dutch landscape architecture firm, will appear in Xian, China for the international horticultural expo. With its series of undulating bridges that will rise and fall into bamboo gardens, this poetic new garden is designed to perhaps convey the idea of life’s ups and downs, while also immersing visitors in nature. Visitors will [...]

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NEA Creative Placemaking Grants

Posted in Opportunities, Policy and Regulation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 12/17/2010 | Leave a Comment »

The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced a new set of “Our Town” grants for “creative placemaking” projects that contribute to the livability of communities and put the arts at their core. The organization says creative placemaking involves partners from the public, private, non-profit, and community sectors that work together to ”strategically reshape the physical [...]

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Landscape Architects Must Fight for Public Health

Posted in Environment, Landscape Architecture, Policy and Regulation, Urban Revitalization, Water Management on 12/16/2010 | 1 Comment »

An essay by Thomas Fisher, dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota,  in Places argues that Frederick Law Olmsted‘s early work as general secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission serves as a important model for today’s landscape architects. Fisher believes landscape architects must once again deeply engage in improving public health by creating parks and walkable, [...]

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City of Dreams Pavilion Competition

Posted in Opportunities, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials on 12/15/2010 | 12 Comments »

FIGMENT, a Governors Island cultural organization, the Emerging New York Architects Committee (ENYA) of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter (AIANY), and the Structural Engineers Association of New York (SEAoNY) announced the launch of their 2nd annual pavilion competition. The theme of this year’s pavilion is “City of Dreams,” which asks designers to look towards the future of ”both the island [...]

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The Innovation Ecosystem

Posted in Climate Change, Policy and Regulation, Renewable Energy, Residential Design, Sustainable Materials, Sustainable Transportation, Technology on 12/15/2010 | Leave a Comment »

At the Energy Innovation 2010 conference, a number of leading experts on renewable energy, climate change, and sustainable transportation systems like electric vehicles, argued that innovation goes way beyond simple investments in research and development, but encompasses a comprehensive “innovation ecosystem” guided by consumer demand, supply of scientific research and marketable technologies, geographic clusters of firms, [...]

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Milan’s Urban Regeneration Project Adds a Public Park

Posted in Landscape Architecture, Public Spaces, Real Estate Development, Smart Growth, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 12/13/2010 | Leave a Comment »

Bustler writes that London-based landscape architecture firm Gustafson Porter won the Milan CityLife international park design competition. The park is a key component of the new CityLife urban redevelopment scheme, a 3.2 million-square-feet, 532 million Euro project in the historic Fiera Milano quarter of Milan. The project’s 170,000-square-meter park will take up a good-sized chunk [...]

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Creating High Performance Federal Buildings (and Landscapes)

Posted in Green Buildings, Policy and Regulation, Sustainable Design on 12/08/2010 | Leave a Comment »

At the 2010 Ecobuild, Senator Thomas Carper, a key member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, argued that public-private partnerships are critical to creating high-performance federal buildings and — the Senator left this out – landscapes. He said sustainable, high-performance buildings are a “common sense approach” to reducing waste, increasing energy efficiency, and tackling the [...]

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