A week of interchanges: Arizona

The first cloverleaf in America

Driving up Route 1 a few miles north of campus, one may spot a small plot called Cloverleaf Cemetery. Thanks to a well read 6th grader, I discovered why it is called that. The History Channel has a web page that describes this same plot of ground as home to the first highway cloverleaf in the US. 

The problem is that I know that intersection well enough to know that there is no cloverleaf there. To figure it out I turned to imagery from the 1930s and 2007 and compared it.

But you won't find this in the post on New Jersey interchanges because it is not on an Interstate highway.

A week of interchanges: Kansas

Safer Intersections

Maybe these flowing Interstate interchanges have lulled you into a sense of complacency. But Atlantic Cities has a great piece on the potential for a dramatic redesign of intersections that could make them safer too.

Of course, our regular readers already knew about double crossover diamond intersections.

A week of interchanges: California

Mark your calendars

Special Panel Discussion

The Pine Barrens: The Past, the Politics & the Future

SUNDAY, MARCH 3 - 2 p.m.

Princeton University - McCosh 50 Lecture Hall

Join us for a rare conversation with former Governors Brendan Byrne and James Florio,  "The Pine Barrens" author John McPhee, Michele S. Byers of New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Carleton Montgomery of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance. Panelists will discuss how the Pine Barrens were preserved and how to ensure their continued protection. Hosted by NJTV's Michael Aron. 

Free and open to the public. Reservations not required, but seating is limited. Click here for map of Princeton University and McCosh 50.

A week of interchanges: Louisiana

A week of interchanges: Kentucky, Part 2

A week of interchanges: Kentucky, Part 1

National Transportation Week isn't until June, but that can't keep us from spending a week celebrating the Interstate interchange. All of this weeks photos are derived from the USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program (NAIP). There are many more photos after the break.

Pickett lecture

L.A. Lecture

Presented with Ecology Evolution Graduate Program
– Wednesday, February 27 @ 4:00 p.m. / Cook Douglass Lecture Hall / Rm. 110

"Urban transformations: From the Sanitary to the Sustainable City"
Dr. Steward T.A. Pickett
http://www.caryinstitute.org/science-program/our-scientists/dr-steward-ta-pickett

Speculator quote

"The whole history of American Land, even of urban land, until not long ago, is a record of the wildest speculation. It is a part of our inheritance, and although the continent could have been developed by other means, the speculator's role is of the greatest importance in the founding and developing of the American community."

- Christopher Tunnard

City of Man (1953)

Why hasn't the Park Service reopened Ellis and Liberty Islands?

NBC News looks at the damage from Hurricane Sandy that is still left to be repaired before the islands can be reopened to the public.

DLA conference 2013

Connectivity and Collaboration in Planning and Design: The 14th annual International Conference on Digital Landscape Architecture DLA 2013 will be held in Bernburg and Dessau, Germany, 6 - 8 June, 2013. Check out the Conference Poster online.

National Parks in the budget crisis

Longtime readers know that Places and Spaces is a sucker for stories about our National Parks, but for reasons we will explain soon, there will be even more stories about National Parks and the National Park Service. In the meantime, here is one that is less fun:

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees is reporting on closures and service reductions that would be implemented in some of the most heavily visited parks under sequestration. They remind readers that some of these actions (see Glacier) could have significant financial impacts on the surrounding communities.

Of course, with Hurricane Sandy recovery in the mix, Sandy Hook will be its own special story.

Online free data

Looking to add some data to your ArcMap project quickly? Online data services are a great option to consider.

As a very local option, you can use the ArcIMS server from Atlantic County which is at http://njgin.aclink.org

For New Jersey there is a fairly rich ArcWMS service on http://njwebmap.state.nj.us/njimagery  This includes the 1930s b/w aerials of NJ and beautiful old topo maps.

For detailed leaf-on imagery across the US you could  add napi.apfo.usda.gov as an ArcGIS web service.

NOAA has multiple ArcIMS services including http://nowcoast.noaa.gov/ 

Lecture CANCELLED

THIS WEEK'S LECTURE HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Sorry for the inconvenience.
 
Landscape Architecture Common Lecture

Susannah Drake

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 @ 4:00 p.m.

Cook Douglass Lecture Hall - Rm 110

Resilient Urban Environments: Landscape Architect as Instigator of Change

Susannah Drake of dLand Studio will discuss how the impacts of climate change call for the development of new infrastructure systems that can be more responsive to sea level rise and storm surge. Landscape architecture has tremendous economic power and case studies will show how designers can demonstrate that value. Through visualization of data to improve understanding about the financial incentives of good environmental design, these methods can also help to detangle the bureaucratic web surrounding complex jurisdictional environments. Our knowledge when communicated clearly can make real change happen.

Architecture movies

With the Oscars on Sunday Feb 24th, design fans who want to watch some movies might want to start with Arch Daily's list of The 30 Architecture Docs To Watch In 2013.

The list includes a few I have already seen and can recommend (e.g., My Architect: A Son's Journey) and a few in my Netflix queue (Eames: The Architect and the Painter and The Pruitt-Igoe Myth). Sadly, the one I most want to see (Los Angeles Plays Itself) will probably never be released on DVD due to complicated rights issues. But that still leaves plenty that are more widely available.

Water Lecture

Later this week a notable talk will be given by Dr. Katharine Meehan, from the Department of Geography, University of Oregon (http://geography.uoregon.edu/Faculty/Meehan). Her talk is titled "Tool-power: the political life of water infrastructure in Tijuana". Date: Friday, February 22, 2013 Time: 3:00pm Location: Lucy Stone Hall B-115, Livingston Campus, Rutgers

A geodesign bibliography

Matt Artz and Shannon McIlvaney have developed an impressive and extensive bibliography on geodesign that is kept at GIS and Science. Admittedly, it is less academic, but the volume is impressive and captures the growing substance of this nascent field with both breadth and depth. It seems like the next step is for someone to step up and develop a more selective annotated bibliography that serves to define the core of the field.

The ethics of community mapping

This post on the ethics of community mapping raises some great questions. It asks the tough questions that every VGI and PPGIS person should be asking, like:
"Is digital mapping really about communities, or are we really just using communities as a backdrop to showcase our own innovation and coolness or that of our donors?"

It is based on the NY Technology Salon panel from February. Good stuff.

Research Methods reading

For Research Methods you might want to peek ahead at this paper: 

• Aaron W. Thompson, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Kristin Floress and Denise C. Weinkauf, A Method for Incorporating Community Priorities into GISChallenges, Choices, and Directions for Landscape Planners, Landscape Journal, February 1, 2011 vol. 30 no. 2 299-312.

Weiss/Manfredi's Olympic Sculpture Park at the Seattle Art Museum

In a GeoWorld Online Exclusive, “Students Map Critical Gas Resources” tells the story of the IMSOCIO group's efforts to crowdsource the mapping of gas stations. (Sorry about the ads)


Tulloch, D. 2013, “Students Map Critical Gas Resources,” GeoWorld Online Exclusive, (Posted: Jan. 31, 2013) (http://alturl.com/92khs).

Lecture: Inhabiting Topography

Landscape Architecture Common Lecture

Michael Manfredi of Weiss Manfredi Architects

Wednesday, February 13, 2013
6:30 Alampi Lecture Hall

“Inhabiting Topography”
The territory of architecture should concern itself with the whole of the built environment. Heightened disciplinary distinctions between architecture, art, infrastructure, landscape architecture, and urban planning marginalize the status of the architectural project, precluding new paradigms for contemporary settings. These issues will be critiqued through a series of recent multidisciplinary projects completed by WEISS/MANFREDI.

Firm Profile
WEISS/MANFREDI Architecture/Landscape/Urbanism is at the forefront of architectural design practices that are redefining the relationships between landscape, architecture, infrastructure, and art. The firm’s projects are noted for clarity of vision, bold and iconic forms, and material innovation. Named one of North America's "Emerging Voices" by the Architectural League of New York, WEISS/MANFREDI’s distinct vision was recognized in 2004 by the Arts and Letters Award in Architecture from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Additional honors include the Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal—an international recognition awarded to one architect annually—and the New York AIA Gold Medal.

NASA's Nemo pic

NASA's image of the day seems particularly timely.

Keep warm.

Pioneers

All the pulses of the world,
Falling in they beat for us, with the Western movement beat,
Holding single or together, steady moving to the front, all for us,
Pioneers! O pioneers!

- Walt Whitman 

Sea level rise in Boston

The Atlantic explores the consequences of sea-level rise with some maps of the most impacted areas of Boston. A new report from the Boston Harbor Association provides details on properties that would be most severely impacted, but it appears to be much of the city as we know it now.

IMSCOIO in GeoWorld

In an Online Exclusive, the new GeoWorld (sorry about the ads) provides some details and well-deserved attention for IMSOICIO's gas station mapping project. Kudos to the students for their high-profile efforts. And kudos to GeoWorld for giving them some attention within the GIS community.

Geocoding reading

It is hard to reconcile "current state" and 2007 at this point, but I don't have a better summary piece than this:
Goldberg, Wilson and Knoblock, 2007, "The current state of geocoding" URISA Journal

Do anyof our dear readers have a more up-to-date geocoding paper that summarizes today's state of things?

BTW, here is the link to the Spatial Autocorrelation Game as played in class today.

Kim interview

Miyoung Kim was interviewed in yesterday's NY Times. While the interview is meant to focus on her healing gardens, it also evokes qualities of her design approach that permeate the rest of her work.

LiveBlog: Julie Langsam

Not much bloging today, but a few good links because the imagery was so engaging. It was fascinating to hear her boldly show us how she has stripped away context and landscape (2 things we treasure most).

Julie Langsam
Classicism, Romanticism & Modernity: A Painter’s Perspective

• Painting
• Corbu Painting
• Corbu Painting 2
• Guggenheim

GIS students take note

Geospatial education has grown substantially in recent decades, but where is it going? Where should it be going?

GeoPlace/GeoWorld got comments from some GIS experts on the state of geospatial technology education. Jack Dangermond of Esri raises concerns about STEM needing a clearer link to spatial (STEMS?). Steve Woolven of Applanix says:

The basic skills of map reading and navigation also are taught, but because students rarely use these basic skills in life, the question is "Do they really learn it, or is it something quickly forgotten?"

There is still a lot that we don't know.

Tick tock

"The clock, not the steam engine, is the key-machine of the modern industrial age."

- Lewis Mumford

Writing help

• Bill Safire's Fumblerules and On Language Columns 
• EVIATAR ZERUBAVEL The Clockwork Muse: A Practical Guide to Writing Theses, Dissertations, and Books (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999).
• Rutgers'  Plangere Writing Center
• Rutgers' Writing Program - Cook-Douglass Center
• Strunk and White 

Which sprawl is best?

Using a new beta version of SimCity, a gamer tested out cul-de-sacs vs. radial sprawl vs. gridded suburban/urban housing. Turns out sprawl wins. h/t PlaNetizen

Recruiting thoughts

As Acting Graduate Director, I have been talking to potential students about Rutgers' graduate program in landscape architecture and have been trying to explain, specific to their situation, why this is the best landscape architecture program in the northeast or in the US. Clearly one of the most important things is that both the BSLA and MLA program are situated within Rutgers' School of Environmental and Biological Sciences making one of the best schools for linking ecology and landscape architecture.

Our students are getting international recognition for landscape architectural design and landscape architecture in tropical or neo-tropical environments.

For others, our strong record of finding funding for students in landscape architecture is important.

What else stands out?

Google Map directions in Europe

McSweeney's proposes a more realistic approach to Google Map's walking directions for European cities.

Micheal Kimmelman reviews the new plans for the New York Public LIbrary by Norman Foster, writing:

"To me, what results is an awkward, cramped, banal pastiche of tiers facing claustrophobia-inducing windows, built around a space-wasting atrium with a curved staircase more suited to a Las Vegas hotel.”

 See if the photos in the NY Times slideshow convince you.

 h/t Peter M