Let it flood?

Walter Hood's proposal to let the monuments around the Tidal Basin slowly get inundated is remarkable: 

"Let the waters be free," writes Walter Hood in his proposal. "It could start with living in a wetland rather than draining it." Hood, whose Hood Design Studio is based in Oakland, Calif., also calls for "a prophetic aesthetic ... that is really telling the truth about a place."

And the image from Field Operations, in NPR's Landscape Architects Unveil Plans To Save The National Mall's Tidal Basin, is downright haunting.

Next generation of DC landscapes

For us in New Jersey, Washington DC is close enough to visit regularly. Plus, the ASLA headquartered there, it is a great place for landscape architects to show off. ASLA's The Dirt has a nicely illustrated summary by Ian Dillon that describes several new stops on your update design tour of the District. In reality, it is the latest award winners, so they aren't all built works, yet. But it is worth marking your maps and keeping them in mind on future trips along I-95.

Lincoln memorials

Vox is celebrating Lincoln's birthday by posting images of many of the failed proposals for the Lincoln Memorial. Had they built Pope's memorial on Meridian Hill, the whole city would be different.

"To hold its own with this monument, a Lincoln Memorial first must possess this vital quality of bigness and of dignity." - John Russell Pope

Projects to watch

Curbed has named 10 Megadevelopments to keep an eye on. With one in Boston, one in DC, one in Philly and two in NYC, it will be easy for our students to watch them as they happen.

Is Washington DC a truly walkable city?

Tomorrow we find out.

A new life for Pershing Park

The NY  Times reports that the National Park Service is reviewing a proposal to turn Washington DC's downtrodden Pershing Park into a new National World War I Memorial. The current park was a notable late modernist example of the work of M. Paul Freidberg built in the early 1980s with plantings by Oehme van Sweden. The Culutral Landscape Foundation has created a record of the park as it was intended and they note that the park is now eligible to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Watch this story. This could end in a fairly high profile conflict between preservationists and WWI advocates.

DC Parks RX

“We don’t prescribe a park to every patient, but when they are ready we will.”

Do you really need me to say more to get you to read about the DC Parks RX program where doctors write scripts sending patients to parks?

BTW, this story is written by LSU MLA student Liz Camuti who has developed an impressive record of writing over the short time of her internship at ASLA. Geaux Tigers.

Hurricane Joaquin

With Hurricane Joaquin targeting the Chesapeake and Washington DC, I highly recommend keeping an eye on a blog that I have long enjoyed, the Washington Post's Capital Weather Gang. They often have a nice mix of forecasts (raw material and general public info) and science that makes it worth the trip, even if they are a few hours away.

New executive director at the US Botanic Garden

Rutgers graduate Ari Novy has been named the new executive director of the US Botanic Garden. Many of our more recent alumni learned their plants from Dr. Novy. But now visitor's to the Capitol can learn from his work too.

JFK Memorials from around the world

View Larger Map

With this view from the JFK Memorial Bridge in Longport, NJ pause to recognize the 50th anniversary of that tragic day. Slate.com took the day to publish a map illustrating the spatial array of "all" the different JFK memorial schools, streets, plazas, etc. from around the world.

Finally I offer a couple photos of Kennedy's burial site in Arlington National Cemetery taken on Memorial Day Weekend.

Remember

This summer we had the chance to make a return visit to the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. You can also see the original visit here.

Holiday photos

Pentagon Memorial

The 9-11 Memorial at the Pentagon is open 24/7 which makes dusk an interesting time for a visit.

Regrettably, the last lines of Witold Rybczynski's Slate piece on the memorial rang very true. Some of trees are already failing and a few light bulbs were temporarily out. Hopefully these can be addressed, because this is an important memorial at an important place.

Can bikes be too popular?

DC is wondering if they have a bike problem.  My photos of some DC bikeshare stations certainly suggest that they have some serious infrastructure.

The Proposed Eisenhower Memorial

Witold Rybczynski offers some thoughts on the current controversy over the proposed Eisenhower Memorial in Washington DC.  The LA Times and Washington Post also weigh in.  The Post offers some pretty some strong feelings hoping that we can still fix this to prevent it from becoming another WWII memorial.

MLK Memorial

Bikes in the nation's capitol

Like many other cities, Washington DC now has a pretty comprehensive bike rental system.  If you pop up the 2nd photo you can clearly see the map of bike stations across the city.

Check out this massive glass shed of bikes at Union Station. They look like they have enough bikes for every tourist in the District.

And the result, that I found exciting, was an increased number of bikes at the monuments and attractions.

MLK Memorial

After years of design and months of construction, the MLK Memorial has opened on the tidal basin in Washington DC and there are plenty of photos available online now.

Some reviews are not so positive with a famous MLK fan worrying that it send the wrong message.  And one cartoonist seemed to have a different critique of the committee's approach to decision-making.

Federal LA job

HURRY: The GSA is looking for a Landscape Architect to join the staff of the Office of the Chief Architect until 8/17.

(Details after the jump)

New CIO for US Government

Vivek Kundra has been great in jumpstarting the movement of federal government's antiquated IT efforts in to the 21st Century, but he is leaving for a fellowship at Harvard.  His parting quote is telling: "Focus coupled with ruthless execution delivers results - that's the most powerful lesson I've learned."   His replacement is Steven VanRoekel, Bill Gates former assistant and most recently the managing director of the FCC.  This could impact everything from Net Neutrality to open government to integration of geospatial into IT at all agencies.  Even though Congress gutted the Electronic Government Fund by more than 75% last year the Post quotes VanRoekel explaining why we have to move ahead with this, “The productivity gap between where the private sector has gone over the last two decades and where government has gone is ever-widening.”