The Man Turning Cities into Giant Sponges to Embrace Floods — 11/11/21, BBC News
“One of China’s most prominent urban design thinkers and Dean of the prestigious Peking University’s college of architecture and landscape, Yu Kongjian is the man behind the sponge city concept of managing floods that is being rolled out in scores of Chinese cities.”
What Designers of Video Game Cities Understand About Real Cities — 11/12/21, Bloomberg CityLab
“The complex urban settings in computer games can feel as believable as the cities they’re based on. But the rules that govern them are very different.”
Philly Chooses Firm Design Workshop to ‘Reimagine’ Ben Franklin Parkway — 11/10/21, PBS
“‘The Benjamin Franklin Parkway is Philadelphia’s grand boulevard, a historic cultural epicenter that has the opportunity to become a vibrant, bustling public space for all Philadelphians,’ said Mayor Jim Kenney. ‘The team selected to carry out this work is as bold, spectacular, and rooted in local pride as the Parkway itself.'”
An Iconic San Francisco Park Gets a Masterful Makeover — 11/08/21, Fast Company
“Willie ‘Woo Woo’ Wong Playground, designed by CMG Landscape Architecture and Jensen Architects for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, has been an important public space in tightly packed Chinatown for nearly a century.”
AN Sits Down with the 2021 Landscape Architecture Firm of the Year, Stimson — 11/05/21, The Architect’s Newspaper
“The practice, founded by Stephen Stimson in 1992, produces sharp work that straddles the urban and rural realms. This quality is baked into the firm’s operations: Stimson and his wife and co-principal, Lauren, maintain a farm–cum–living laboratory in central Massachusetts, just north of Worcester.”
It’s Time for America to Talk About Bike Parking — 11/05/21, Streetsblog
“A historic commitment to increase bike parking in Paris has U.S. advocates wondering why cycle storage doesn’t get the same level of attention in American cities — and sharing policy strategies that could help.”
Climate Change Is Now the Main Driver of Increasing Wildfire Weather, Study Finds — 11/01/21, The Los Angeles Times
“The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, looks at what’s known as the vapor pressure deficit, which basically describes how thirsty the atmosphere is, Fu said.”