Bridging the gap between design and health

The American Academy of Pediatrics came out with an important policy statement yesterday reaffirming the critically important role that design plays in the health of youngsters. They do a good job of pointing out a variety of landscape patterns that contribute to the problem, from school siting to unsafe streets to dead-end neighborhoods:

An estimated 32% of American children are overweight, and physical inactivity contributes to this high prevalence of overweight. This policy statement highlights how the built environment of a community affects children's opportunities for physical activity. Neighborhoods and communities can provide opportunities for recreational physical activity with parks and open spaces, and policies must support this capacity. Children can engage in physical activity as a part of their daily lives, such as on their travel to school. Factors such as school location have played a significant role in the decreased rates of walking to school, and changes in policy may help to increase the number of children who are able to walk to school. Environment modification that addresses risks associated with automobile traffic is likely to be conducive to more walking and biking among children. Actions that reduce parental perception and fear of crime may promote outdoor physical activity. Policies that promote more active lifestyles among children and adolescents will enable them to achieve the recommended 60 minutes of daily physical activity. By working with community partners, pediatricians can participate in establishing communities designed for activity and health.

The statement is accompanied by a graphic from DPZ illustrating the role of neighborhood design in walkability. The ASLA has already responded with a supporting comment that urges strong support of Complete Streets legislation.

The American Society of Landscape Architects applauds the addition of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to the growing chorus of advocates recognizing the connections between human health and the design of our built world. Outdoor spaces that encourage physical activity, increase human interaction and offer beautiful, secure environments increase our physical and mental health.

In the meantime, take a kid to a playground and in just 30 years they'll tell their therapist that they wish they could thank you.

Geospatial Technology as an emerging industry

The Department of Labor has a reasonably well organized page explaining career paths in the "emerging industry" of Geospatial Technology. It separates GIS from Remote Sensing career paths and also includes links to videos, customized academic paths, and answers about certification. The emerging industry list is pretty short, so this is a fairly notable distinction (even if it took me a while to catch on).

The 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.

The GPS satellites are starting to reach an age where the network isn't as robust and reliable as it used to be. But these satellites, property of the United States that is shared freely with the world, aren't free. And now some are failing.

Wired Epicenter looks at the matter and points out that a) we can lose a few sats and still have a complete network, but b) a GPS tax might be the best thing for GPS.

In any case, after you read their short piece and the longer GAO review, you should come up with a solution, or pretty soon the only GPS receivers we'll be looking at will be museum pieces like this one from the Smithsonian.

Slashdot takes a look at the bigger picture and suggests that the overall satellite constellations will be changing towards larger but fewer sats. That just doesn't work for GPS right now.

Great day for graduation

Beautiful weather. Con'grad'ulations Class of 2009!

Step-by-step instructions for better streets

The DIRT reports that NYC has published its new street design guide. But I don't see the guide online. Does anyone have a link to it?

Arthur Erickson, RIP

Architect Arthur Erickson has passed away, the Vancouver Sun reports. Some of his notable buildings include Robson Square, the Canadian pavillion at the 1967 Expo, the Anthropology museum in Vancouver, and the Museum of Glass. This morning's NY Times talks about how his buildings worked with the landscape and created great outdoor spaces:

“His work always came out of the earth,” Ms. Lambert said. “He didn’t start the way most architects started. He actually started off with the earth, the landscape, and made something that inhabited the land.”

Mannahatta

Eric Sanderson, a former Geomatics Speaker and friend of CRSSA, has a book out called Mannahatta that explores the pre-settlemt history of Manhattan. This week he was on the Leonard Lopate Show talking about Mannahatta. The podcast is online - enjoy.

National Geographic Map Awards

As proud as we are of our recent award winning map designers, I can only imagine how proud the Wisconsin graduate program of geography must be. Their student entries just took 1st and 2nd place in the National Geographic Society's map contest.

NJ's 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites

Preservation NJ has revealed their 2009 list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in the Garden State. Particularly interesting is the inclusion of the landscape at Liberty Hall. These historic gardens provide a critical link between the well-preserved Kean family mansion and the Elizabeth River, but that nexus is threatened by encraochment from Kean University (the owner of the property).

The Star-Ledger points out that with NJ's Garden State Trust (another Endangered feature on the list) running low on funding, these endangered sites may need help from other sources. They pointed a finger at the Institute for Advanced Studies where they plan to build housing on 35 acres of the Princeton Battlefield, still aden with artifacts.

The Home News Tribune focused on Plainfield's Lampkin House which may have been built as early as 1690. But since the owner passed away last year, the property has become encumbered with more than $100,000 of debt.

"People don't realize how historic and how neat that house is, what an asset it is," Garrett said. "It's just so damn old and there's so much inside the house hidden amongst not just the junk, the furniture and old clothing that was left laying around, but inside remodeling that was done over the years. You can get down into the skeleton of that house and find that original building, and that's irreplaceable."

It seems likely that other local papers will also feature their favorite entries on this list in the coming days. Keep your eyes open, and visit these special places while you still can.

Philadelphia's answer to the Piazza Novona

The Schmidt's Brewery in Philadelphia is being replaced by an urban development that claims to be modeling its central space after the Piazza Novona. The Philadelphia Inquirer has posted a slide show that may intrigue or upset you.

Research assistantships at Iowa

This sounds like a perfect opportunity for the kinds of people who regularly read Places and Spaces:

The Department of Geography at the University of Iowa is accepting applications for graduate student research positions. These positions are available beginning as early as the Fall of 2009 and offer a unique opportunity to participate in large interdisciplinary NSF funded projects focused on the application of agent-based models to land use decision-making. Skills in geographic information science and computer programming are required.

Research assistantship stipends start at >$19K for a 12 month appointment, with health benefits and tuition scholarships.

For more information please contact, David Bennett, david-bennett@uiowa.edu, Department of Geography, The University of Iowa, 319.335.0158.

Economic improvement for landscape architects

ASLA is reporting early signs of a recovery for landscape architects, with reason to believe more is on the way. In particular LAND Online cites both the stimulus bill and the new budget as sources for increased activity. Hopefully there is more than just federal monies to look towards.

Can you lose your World Heritage status?

If a site is important enough to merit inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage list, can it be modified in a way that makes it unimportant for the world? There is a concern that a proposed bridge in Germany could do that to the Lorelei Valley.

Global warming is different in Juneau

Global warming is having a different effect on Juneau, Alaska where, the NY Times reports, is it actually lifting the land and creating new land areas. The local golf course already has 9 holes on "new land" and is considering another 9 on even newer land.

Should you take a year off while you can?

The job market isn't what it used to be (although some reports suggest that the LA market isn't as bad as some others), but our new graduates may be wondering what to do. While you should certainly be trying to get job, Tammy Erickson points out that a gap year is the trendy ting for Gen Y's. She encourages a long-term perspective:

Beyond 2009, the reality of the past 20 years of falling birth rates, coupled with the inexorable shift to a higher percentage of knowledge-based jobs, means that there will be good jobs coming available over the next 2-4 years, particularly for the college classes of 2009.

Ecocasting videos

This spring Rutgers' School of Environmental and Biological Sciences featured a pilot class "Blogging and Podcasting for the Environment 11:374:493," taught by Caron Chess and Jesse Schibilia. It wasn't just about the technique of how to post some information or make a video, but it was more about how to use these technologies in a way that actually changes the audience's mind.

The blog and videos are online at RU Ecocasting.

NJ's new media?

After the buyouts at the Star-Ledger last year, some of the former staffers formed their own new news outlet for New Jersey, NJ News Room. But will they cover planning board meetings?

What to see: California

A frequent reader asked what to see between San Francisco and Los Angeles. Unfortunately, I waited a bit late to post them so these are rushed. Some are old favorites and some are things I haven't yet visited.

No warranty is implied by these recommendations

Renzo Piano's California Academy of Sciences

M.H. de Young Memorial Museum by Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog

Panhandle Bandshell

The Berkeley Campus

Muir Woods and the Mountain Theater on Mount Tamalpais

The Stanford campus

The 17-mile Drive has its own Wikipedia page

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk


Hearst Castle

Santa Barbara

The Getty


Santa Monica and Venice Beach



The Gamble House



LA's Union Station

A show at Walt Disney Concert Hall?

Urth Cafe (if Entourage hasn't ruined it)



If you are willing to overshoot LA and hist Orange County I would add

Noguchi's California Scenario in Costa Mesa



Whatever is finished at the Great Park of Orange County

Our readers are both tasteful and well traveled, what would you recommend?

Spatial Decision Support Systems in Environmental Tourism Planning

I feel like I have so much left to learn.

"Spatial Decision Support Systems in Environmental Tourism Planning- Summer School in Tourism, Rimini (Italy), September 7th-11th, 2009"

This Summer School is at its 4th edition and has been developed as a very practical training course aiming at providing the students with an operational knowledge of the tools to build spatial decision support systems (SDSS) for tourism planning using geographic information systems (GIS).

Further info is online.

Expedition Race maps job

Some jobs are simply too cool not to post:

Nómadas Outdoor Services is seeking a GIS/cartography intern to design cartography for the 2010 edition of the Wenger Patagonian Expedition Race. The candidate must be able to independently design maps of Patagonia that racers will use to navigate for mountain-biking, kayaking, and trekking in a 10-day adventure race. The successful candidate must be able to work independently with a diverse staff including many non-English speakers.

More than a simple internship, this project will provide the applicant with a rewarding experience at the end of the world in a multicultural and dynamic team.

More details at the GIS Jobs Clearinghouse.

Designated Centers

Just as a quick review, a recent list of the State Plan's Designated Centers can be found online (PDF).

For those fixated on Cap May County, here are the Designated Centers there:

Avalon
Cape May
Cape May Point
Stone Harbor
The Wildwoods

Simulated Portland

Andy at Digital Urban posted this impressive video of an entirely computer modeled Portland, OR that is so realistic that is is hard to tell that it isn't real. Ah, but you ask, how can I tell it isn't real? The sun is shining.

While you wait

Q. I am unhappy with my FINAL grade and would like to see it changed. What can I do?

A. Unfortunately, you have waited until too late for most remedies. Now that the grades are final I will NOT:
* Offer additional extra credit opportunities;
* Change the break point between letter grades;
* Reconsider subjective grades (like a paper or a studio project) unless they were returned so late that you did not have the opportunity to review the paper until after the end of classes; or
* Accept late assignments or offer make-up exams without excused absences (as approved by Martin Hall).
You should understand that these are not fair to the students who worked so hard to come to class on time, take good notes, get their work in on time, complete the extra credit, and take advantage of office hours and test review sessions.

However, there are some appropriate reasons for which I would consider a grade change. If you are requesting that I reconsider your grade, you should suggest which of the following reasons applies:
a) there seems to be a computational error in calculating your grade;
b) there seems to be a reporting error in calculating your grade;
c) you believe there was a scoring error on one of your exams;
d) you believe that you showed significant consistent improvement over the course of the semester (65%->75%->85%) and should receive special consideration; or
e) you want to submit late work under an excused absence.

If you are going to argue your case on a subjective grade, you certainly should focus on the SPECIFIC element of the grade (like "Test #2", or "the graphics grade on the final studio project") that you think should be reconsidered, not the overall final grade.

If you are close to the next grade and don't see any justifiable reason to request a change, you should at least try to get a copy of your final (by the first week of classes of the next semester) and check that there was no scoring error.

You certainly should EXPLAIN why a change of grades would be appropriate. I won't even respond to vague general requests to reconsider.


GENERAL TIPS AND REQUESTS:
Ask yourself this simple question, is there some strong evidence that clearly demonstrates that your ability and knowledge are superior to your performance on the measures used in class? Is there a specific and appropriate reason that your test scores were not as high as they should have been considering your level of knowledge and ability?

Your grade is YOUR grade. Please do not ask me to change it because of someone else's (e.g., "I worked harder than him but didn't get as good a grade". If I erred and gave him a higher grade than he deserved, it doesn't mean that you deserve it too.) Instead, show me how your grade would be wrong even if you were the only person in the class.

Try not to insult me in your requests. Telling me that I am not FAIR is a really good way to make me feel less like helping. Plus, if I am really unfair, you should probably be discussing the matter directly with the department chair.

Try to avoid obvious lies. Students shouldn't tell me that they never missed a class when they know that I called on them 6 times and they answered twice.

Urbanism vs. cars

The NY Times has a discussion about the possibility (or lack thereof) of making more places in the US carfree. While Witold Rybczynski points out that only 6 downtowns have enough density for real car-free mass transit lifestyles, Marc Schlossberg (a PPGISer) points out the error in zoning ordinances requiring more parking:

Driving makes sense if there is an easy place to park your car. So reducing the available parking is key.

Some of them are trying out how to get our current world to work better, while others are trying look past new urbanism for the next planning approach to livable neighborhoods.

New Urbanist communities

A little more pre-exam review...

That we talked about:

• Seaside
• Celebration
• Kentlands
• Washington Town Center

That we didn't talk about:

• Orenco Station
• Stapleton
  

But remember, while they photograph well, not everyone likes this stuff.

Buy-in

Getting Community Buy-In on School Planning Means Including Your Community in the Planning

The title says it all.

Take an iMap break

If you are tired of reviewing the textbook and need something different to do, why not spend 20 minutes trying out the NJ DEP's iMap. Look at the wetlands in the Pinelands or the land uses in the Meadowlands or Sites on the Known Contaminated Sites List near your home or school.

Final Exam at Noon in CDL 102

The Final Exam for Fundamentals of Environmental Planning is at 12 NOON tomorrow in our usual room in the Cook Douglass Lecture Hall Room 102.

You can check it online yourself to confirm.

Takings review

For some reason I am suddenly getting several questions about takings law. You might want to review some old cases.

Environmental Impact Statement

A few students have been asking about the different parts of an EIS. This article from Cleveland's The Plain Dealer lays out some useful elements. But you might compare this journalistic description with the more academic one in Steiner's Living Landscape and ask yourself why they seem different. Can you find hints about things that we talked about like the scoping or alternatives, and does the outcome seem reasonable?

Water and sustainability

At TED, Steve Johnson spoke about the role of water and cholera (and Dr. Snow's famous map) in shaping a more sustainable 19th Century London. But it might also be something to think about if you are interested in the H209 competition (below).




h/t NJGeo

H209 competition

At a time when paid internships are a bit scarce, this sounds like a potentially good investment of your time...

In commemoration of the 400th anniversary this year of Henry Hudson's voyage to our shores, the Henry Hudson 400 New York Foundation is holding the international H209 Forum on September 9-10 at Liberty Science Center where Dutch and American environmental, planning and engineering experts, and decision and policy makers will explore how the 21st century water challenges facing today's cities can be tackled for a sustainable future.

The centerpiece of this forum is our New Generation Competition that invites undergraduates, including 2009 graduates, in marine and environmental studies, engineering, oceanography, urban design and planning, policy planning, and public health, to come up with innovative solutions to the issues involved with Sustainability for Coastal Cities.

The winners will receive cash prizes, internships at major water companies, and be invited, all expenses paid, to attend H209 where they will present their solutions and have terrific networking
opportunities.

Details are on our website at www.henryhudson400.com.

GIS is changing government

A sign of how big GIS has become is the cover story in Government Technology on ESRI's Jack Dangermond. It includes videos and some interesting comments about how GIS can change the way that government works.

Donovan speaks on HUD's future

The Urban Land Institute heard from the new HUD secretary,Shaun Donovan. His background is pretty interesting, having studied public administration at the Kennedy School of Government and architecture at Harvard GSD with work at the FHA, NYU, and NYC. But his vision for HUD is also pretty interesting since he wants to enliven the federal role in urban development. Here are his comments to the ULI crowd.

Maya Lin's Wavefield is open

They told you it was coming, but now the NY Times reviews Maya Lin's Storm King Wavefield at Storm King. The landform sculpture is 240,000 square feet and reaches up as high as about 15 feet. I am pretty sure that violates the proposed Sustainable Sites Initiative standards.

The reviewer at the Times isn't hiding their feelings very well either:

But the piece is already a classic. It has the gravity of Ms. Lin’s commemorative sculptures and the sociability of the earlier “wave” pieces, which lent themselves to picnics, play and privacy. And, more immediately than almost any of her other outdoor projects, it is inextricable from nature, which is where, as I say, all her art starts.

The opening of the new sculpture is accompanied with a special exhibit called Maya Lin: Bodies of Water that will last until November. (Mapped)

National Train Day

It's National Train Day!

New Jersey's moment in world history

OK, so maybe this isn't New Jersey's ONLY big moment on the world stage, but it is on the short list.

There is going to be a public NJN RECEPTION AND SPECIAL SCREENING of Bonaparte’s Retreat a new film by Eric Schultz Friday, May 15th at 5
pm. Bordentown Branch Library, 18 East Union St., Bordentown, NJ.

Light refreshments will be served. Space is limited so please reply by May 12th online at njn.net or call (800) 882-6622.

Bonaparte’s Retreat tells the story of Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon’s older brother, who escaped to America after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, and settled in Bordentown, N.J. An influential diplomat, at one time King of Naples and of Spain, and among his brother’s closest advisors, Joseph came to love the freedoms of America but decried its lack of culture. For over 17 years, he lived in a magnificent estate on the Delaware River, where he designed elaborate gardens, entertained the leading figures of the day, surrounded himself with the largest, most important collection of European fine and decorative art in America and helped to shape the cultural tastes of our new country.

Funding for this State of the Arts special was provided by the N.J. State Council on the Arts, the N.J. Council for the Humanities, and the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. Bonaparte’s Retreat airs on NJN Friday May 22 at 8:30 pm. Encore performance Wednesday May 27 at 11:30 pm.

Summer readings

The National Park Service, which is a unit of the Department of Interior, has released two new cultural landscape publications that might make good summer reading. They look at the cultural traces or influences left in our landscapes, and how to find these influences.

Asian Reflections on the American Landscape

This publication "highlights the cultural imprint of Asian groups on the built environment of the United States." Includes an introductory essay that summarizes Asian cultural heritage in the U.S., an annotated list of historic properties related to Asian cultural heritage, examples of historic places that interpret aspects of Asian heritage for the public, and a bibliography. Includes properties in Minnesota, Hawaii, Alaska, California, and other areas. From the National Park Service (NPS).

African Reflections on the American Landscape

African Reflections on the American Landscape/ /summarizes highlights of the scholarship presented at the conference, “Places of Cultural Memory:
African Reflections on the American Landscape,” which was held May 9- 12, 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia. It represents a follow-up to the conference because it illustrates ways in which this scholarship can be applied to historic preservation/cultural resources stewardship work.

(h/t) Jim Palmer

Crash: A Tale of Two Species

When you need a break from studying, this might be a productive diversion.

Nature on PBS has a great show called Crash: A Tale of Two Species examining the relationship between the horseshoe crab and the red knot, and how the NJ DEP is trying to track the decline of both species across the entire Western Hemisphere. The link above allows you to watch the entire show online.

The NJ DEP and CRSSA are involved because Cape May County is one of the epicenters of this decline. A recent CRSSA report shows, among other things, how spatial the problem is.

ASLA Design Awards

The American Society of Landscape Architects has announced their list of 2009 design award winners and it is an impressive group. Included on the list are well-known designers and firms like RU Alum Andrea Cochran, MVV, SWA, MVV, Ken Smith, MVV, Mia Lehrer, WRT, Ken Smith, WRT, West 8, OLIN, and WRT and a few designers without such high profiles. And, several of the projects are ones that we already saw in our speakers series including:

• Stone Edge Farm, Sonoma, CA
• Teardrop Park
• The Dell at UVA
• Orange County Great Park

Rutgers' own Steven Handel is all over this thing, especially with his Research Award. Congrats!

Walking Directions

When Google first introduced walking directions it might have seemed silly. But when you look at their tips for getting the most out of them, I think you can quickly see how they would be both a fun and useful tool in a big city.

Designers' website

The Madrid-based architecture firm Selgas Cano got featured on TreeHugger for their unusual offices, but I found their firm website (described as "winners of this month's incomprehensible architects website award) to be equally challenging to preconceived notions.

Cinco de Mayo

What better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than by looking at some good Mexican work. While you could go back and look at the classic works like Plaza Hidalgo (a PPS Great Space) or works by modernist designers like Luis Barragan, you should really take some time to look forward. Mexico is becoming a hot design spot.

One of the more visible firms working in Mexico these days is Grupo de Diseño Urbano and their principal, Mario Schjetnan, FASLA. GDU got a lot of attention (including an ASLA award) for their large Tezozomoc Park. It is hard to ignore their work on the Fountain Promenade at Chapultepec Park which is described as one of the largest city parks in the world.

And I have always thought that Daniel Winterbottom's Design/Build class in Mexico sounded like one of the ultimate field-based learning experiences. and, once this whole flu thing blows over, it could be a great time to visit.

¡Celebremos!

The beautiful photo of World Heritage Site, Chichen Itza, is by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen from the WikiCommons.

Green Roof photos

National Geographic's photos of green roofs are much, much nicer than mine.

Unpacking My Library

Last Week in class, I mentioned that books are a great resource, but tonight's lecture in NYC really makes the point as does this associated exhibit, Unpacking My Library, at Urban Center Books:

On Monday night, join world-renowned architects Peter Eisenman and Michael Graves for a discussion of their personal book collections and the books that have most influenced their work. Interviewed by MAS Chairman, David Childs, this is sure to be a lively conversation and is a rare opportunity to see and hear these influential architects in person.

The event kicks off Unpacking My Library, an exhibition by the MAS bookstore, Urban Center Books, of New York architects and their books. The first of ten in a series, the exhibition documents Peter Eisenman’s relationship with books by combining an interactive exhibit visually scanning the bookshelves, with a video interview, and more. With a different architect every month, the exhibition continues through 2010 with Michael Graves, Toshiko Mori, Stan Allen, Liz Diller and Ric Scofidio, Michael Sorkin, Henry Cobb, Steven Holl, Bernard Tschumi, and Tod Williams and Billie Tsien.
Support generously provided by Elise Jaffe + Jeffrey Brown.

An Evening with Peter Eisenman and Michael Graves
Monday, May 4, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m., at the Municipal Art Society of New York
$25, $15 MAS members. Purchase tickets online or call 212-935-2075.

So Long

And so, as The Texan rides into the sunset, we say farewell. You will be missed. but we appreciate the time you spent with us.

How can I do better on the Final Exam?

Since this has been a frequent question this Spring, I plan to add this to my FAQ list.

Q. How can I do better on the next exam?

A. Study your old tests. Why did you miss the questions you missed? What can you do to keep it from happening a third time? Was it from lectures you didn't understand? Come to office hours so we can talk about the tougher lectures. Was it on last minute changes on multiple choice questions? Maybe you should plan on spending an extra 15 minutes reviewing the MC questions at then end of the Final to prevent mistakes there. Was it material from the book? Was it a cluster of topics?

How are you doing on the in-class quizzes? Is the material familiar when I ask it? I would encourage you to prepare for the quizzes instead of waiting until the next exam. Try to know the material well enough that you can answer nearly every quiz question, even if you aren't called on.

I would certainly encourage you to find a study partner. That should be someone you could meet with, maybe over lunch, every week and talk through the most recent lectures. Each week you could try to write quiz questions for each other and see if you understand the recent material. You could also swap papers with them and help read each others work before you turn it in. A second pair of eyes goes a long ways.

Every student is different, so different techniques work. But there isn't anything special about the content of this class, so working on this should help you with many other classes you are going to take in college.

Save our historic treasures!

Once again, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced their list of the nation's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. The list has been released just in time for May, which is Preservation month. My favorite on the list is Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple, in Oak Park, IL. I've been looking for my old 35mm slides of it, but you can see perfectly fine photos in the NYTimes slideshow.

The lists are valuable since they attract both national attention and local attention, which contributes to national preservation trends while helping save the specific threatened treasures.

New Jersey's list for 2009 will come out in just a few days. While I liked last year's list with Lake Solitude and Speedwell Dam, the best lists usually included something really outstanding like The Stone Pony or Louis Kahn's Bath Houses in Trenton. Let's hope that this year's NJ list includes some exotics and avoids the lame statewide issues like rural farmsteads and teardowns.

DEP Mapping Contest 2009

Voices of the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed - by Krafcik, Maly, Marino, Siglin

1st Place Most Unique

Inventory and Analysis of the Stony Brook Millstone Watershed - by Brosius, BUSCHHORN, HELLER, KAHN, KOHLER, KRAFCIK, MALY, MARINO, OBARA, OROPALLO, RUNG, SIGLIN, TRIPLETT, UMBACH, VAUGHN

1st Place - Best Overall Non-DEP
1st Place - Best Software Integration
1st Place - Best Newbie
3rd Place - Best Scientific Application by the New Jersey Academy of Science

Winners

Flu maps

What good is an epidemic if not for making impending pandemic Google Maps? I think I'll go wash my hands again.

Assessing the Implications of Sea Level Rise to the Built and Natural Environment of Cape May, New Jersey

You are invited to attend the public presentation by the
Advanced Environmental Geomatics Class

"Assessing the Implications of Sea Level Rise to the Built and Natural Environment of Cape May, New Jersey"

11 AM - 12PM
Friday, May 1, 2009
Room 123 ENRS

Treehouses

The LA Times has discovered something we already knew, people just seem to love treehouses.

Uses for a deserted mall

Earlier this month the NY Times asked a some experts, including the authors of Retrofitting Suburbia, about what could happen to America's dying malls.

GIS Internships at the Highlands Council

Not one, but two unpaid GIS internships at the Highlands Council up in Chester, NJ. It could be a great opportunity to advance your skills, build professional contacts, contribute to a key area of New Jersey and and learn about the real world.

Review Days

This Spring we are starting a new tradition here at Rutgers - Review Days. Our Landscape Architecture design studios will be holding their juries over a two day period on Thursday and Friday, April 30 and May 1. Professionals and alumni are welcome to attend, but asked to attend an entire session rather than popping in and out for the sake of the students. Please check the schedule online for details.

Idaho LA student work

Elizabeth Graff, an Idaho professor who previously taught here at Rutgers, had her students implement an environmental exploration on the Moscow campus that caught the eye of the campus paper, the Argonaut:

Graff said both projects encourage students to think outside the box and use the skills they are learning in class.

“It is experimental learning, taking everything we normally study in textbooks and actually doing it,” Graff said.

The article has a photo too.

Congress of New Urbanism

For those who missed yesterday's planning lecture, a good place to start learning about New Urbanism is the website for the Congress of New Urbanism. It includes an Introduction to New Urbanism, images, award winning examples, and their fairly exciting new effort to integrate into the LEED standards.

Rutgers Day

They say that 50,000 people visited campus this weekend for Rutgers Day.

Landscape Architecture month focus on the Mall

As LA Month nears its end, ASLA's Blue Ribbon Panel on the National Mall has released it report. They are concerned with both the larger planning and design issues as well as the physical condition of the lawn itself. Meanwhile, yet another memorial is going to pop up a block away from the mall.

Remembering past Margeret Cekada Memorial Lectures

2001. Marilyn Clemens
2003. Niall Kirkwood
2004. Jim Sipes
2005. Linda Jewell
2006. John Stilgoe
2007. Michael van Valkenburgh
2008. Andrea Cochran
2009. Steve Martino

Yet another special observation

Between Landscape Architecture month, Earth Day, Arbor Day, National Trail Volunteer Week, and Ag Field Day, it turns out that this week is also National Parks Week. The photo is from Grand Teton National Park.

Almost ready for Ag Field Day

The tables are out and the posters are up for Ag Field Day 2009.

Landscape Architecture Open House
Blake Hall 9:30 - 3

CRSSA Open House
Grant F. Walton Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis
Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences Building
10 - Noon

GPS on school buses

New York is debating whether they should invest in the technology to track their school buses. It turns out to be a tiny bit more complicated than they first thought.

National Trail Volunteer Week

Aside from Landscape Architecture Month, Earth Day and Ag Field Day, this is week is also National Trail Volunteer Week. Even though it will be over soon, it doesn't mean you can't get out and volunteer as soon as you finish finals.

What made Burnham's plan work

As promised, the centennial of the Burnham plan for Chicago has brought lots of new commentary and reporting on the plan. Continuing the celebration, Urbanophile has written up an 8-point list of what made Brunham's plan work.

Toxic maps

MapEcos has mashed-up the TRI pollution data with Google Maps to make a useful interactive pollution map that might be a bit more intuitive than some of the others out there.
H/t MapEcos through Lifehacker

3 Landscapes: Steve Martino

Cosanti by Paolo Soleri
Taliesin West by Frank Lloyd Wright
Stowe by many including Kent and Brown

World Digital Library

UNESCO, the agency that helped created the World Heritage Sites system, has now created a World Digital Library that hosts digital versions of ancient documents that are of global significance.

The library includes links to things like an original map of St. Augustine, Florida, the picture (above) of Lincoln at Antietam with McClelland and Pinkerton, William Blake's Book of Urizen, a German Modern Geographic Table of Geography, Aucarete du Biscay's An account of a voyage up the river de la Plata, and thence over land to Peru, a recording of Amazing Grace played by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, an 1833 Japanese painting of Peony and Canary, and a 1550 manuscript of the Persian Munajat.

Maps of the recession

Did you ever see the movie War Games? This animated map of unemployment is like watching NORAD's WOPR simulate thermonuclear war, but without Matthew Broderick to bail us out.

There are lots of interactive online maps of poverty, unemployment and socioeconomic woes these days, and one of the better lists of sites is at MetaFilter.

Included in their list is a page that maps out income inequality and compares individual states to third world countries. The comparison between NJ and Uganda would be hard to ignore if you knew where Uganda was...

Happy Earth Day!

Happy Earth Day

High speed rail

It can be a little hard to read between the lines, but it sounds like James Kunstler has doubts about Obama's proposal for high speed rail.

We're on a road to nowhere

In 2007 the Commonweatlh of Virginia passed the Secondary Street Acceptance Requirements which will soon make it much harder for communities to build dead-end streets. This should be greeted with plenty of punny headlines, like the Winchester Star's Dead End for Cul-de-Sacs? The Richmond BizSense reports that Home builders call cul-de-sac rules a dead end. The Virginian-Pilot has a column saying that Effort to sack cul-de-sacs should come to a dead end. And while other communities and states are considering copying this model, The Architects Newspaper, with the headline Cul-de-Sacked! points out that this isn't a done deal, just because the law was passed and signed:

Meanwhile, the Virginia Home Builders Association has vowed to continue to challenge the new rules. “We only have one-term governors in Virginia,” Tolson said. “We’ll push to have it revisited.”

The sad part is that in these already tough time for newspapers, the best that the Washington Post could come up with was, In Va., Vision of Suburbia at a Crossroads: Targeting Cul-de-Sacs, Rules Now Require Through Streets in New Subdivisions. Really? And do we wonder why print is dying?

BTW - the Random House dictionary is clear that the plural is culs-de-sac.

No new open space

The DEP has announced that they won't be funding new open space acquisitions or farmland preservation.

Opinions about opinions

Witold Rybczynski has a new Slate slideshow about the new building trend towards buildings that look like they were made of Jenga sets. But just as interesting are the early comments that critque his critique.

FEMA map update

With 100 year floods happening every few years around here, it is good to hear that FEMA is updating their maps for Middlesex County. It isn't just a change in flood patterns, but an improvement in the terrain modeling, now that they are collecting their data with LiDAR. According to the Home News and Tribune, their update moved another 1,000 residences into the floodplain.

Catching up

Lots of news from the weekend:
Big fire in the Pinelands
BBC's Planet Earth for hip Earth Day preparations
Ten cool things about John Muir
Egypt has lifted its ban on GPS (h/t Ogle Earth)
UMich looks into serious Google Earth applications
Map-a-day picked up Sarah Williams' buzz maps

Storm Surge Climatology and Modeling for the New York City Metropolitan Region

For the RU sophomores in Landscape Architecture, who will spend some of their fall exploring design responses to sea level change, this talk may be a good chance to peek ahead:

April 24
Storm Surge Climatology and Modeling for the New York City Metropolitan Region
Brian A. Colle, Stony Brook University (Friday, 2:15 seminar)
Environmental and Resource Sciences Building, Room 223, Cook Campus (Environmental Sciences)

Internship in the Highlands

There is a GIS internship up at the Highlands Council. A great summer opportunity for someone. Apply early, apply often.

Shortened Description: The New Jersey Highlands Council is accepting applications to fill internship positions to assist in the development of the Council’s Geographic Information Systems. The position is a part time internship position with compensation ranging between $10 and $14 per hour depending upon qualifications/education. The position is geared towards students of GIS who are looking to advance their academic or applied knowledge of location based technology in a regional planning context. The position is best suited for someone who has a background in the natural resources and/or planning disciplines with GIS experience and/or coursework. The internship will provide excellent exposure and practical experience in applied resource management and regional planning. Work hours as well as start and end dates of employment are flexible. Summer only interns are encouraged to apply as well. The New Jersey Highlands Council office is located in Chester Township, Morris County, New Jersey.

Oldenburg's Third Place

In Dr. Beidler's talk on Wednesday, he mentioned Ray Oldeburg's coining of the term The Third Place to described social spaces on neutral ground where people can engage in community interaction. In new urbanism this is often adressed with a desire to design spaces - from front porches to mainstreets to public squares - that will change public life. It occurred to me that some readers might only be familiar with Dr. Oldenburg's work through the use of Third Place as a reference to Starbucks.

The Project for Public Spaces has created a web page dedicated to Dr. Oldenburg including some quotes that highlight how his work fits into their work. Here is one:

Totally unlike Main Street, the shopping mall is populated by strangers. As people circulate about in the constant, monotonous flow of mall pedestrian traffic, their eyes do not cast about for familiar faces, for the chance of seeing one is small. That is not part of what one expects there. The reason is simple. The mall is centrally located to serve the multitudes from a number of outlying developments within its region. There is little acquaintance between these developments and not much more within them. Most of them lack focal points or core settings and, as a result, people are not widely known to one another, even in their own neighborhoods, and their neighborhood is only a minority portion of the mall’s clientele.

Reading about Steve Martino

With Steve Martino visiting next week, now might be a good time to read up on his work.

In 2006 ASLA honored his Quartz Mountain Residence project with the Residential Design Award of Residential Excellence.

The site was limited in size:

A narrow 40-year house needed to be updated and enlarged for a growing family. Automobiles and asphalt dominated the arrival and outdoor experience. A drive-thru carport and a cul-de-sac sized asphalt parking area (4,300 square foot) were located at the ‘front’ door. The house was one lot away from the constant noise of a major roadway and lacked any outdoor shaded areas.

The solution is described in detail on the ASLA awards site. The description makes clear how much change was achieved on the site:

This project illustrates how new design work can be artful and at the same time responsible to the natural environment. The house celebrates where we live rather make apologies for it. The house strives to be in harmony with the site. A 6,600 square foot asphalt driveway and parking area has been replaced with porous decomposed granite paving. The entry courtyard with Palo Verde trees replaces the guest parking area outside the front door.

The jury was pretty impressed saying:

"Transforming. The landscape architect's ability to combine architectural elements with dramatic plant materials make this such a welcoming space. Great lesson value on sustainability in residential design, this garden emphasizes innovations in the use of native plants and shade trees."

And, since he has won several other ASLA design awards, our students and alums are welcome to stop by the Blake Hall reading room to read about them in our colection of Landscape Architecture Magazines.

Cool Class: Open Space Planning and Management

For the latest installment of Cool Class, we have a brand new class that could count as an advisor-approved Planning class for the Environmental Planning Certificate or Option.

11:372:413 Open Space Planning and Management

This class is being taught by Dr. Frank Gallagher, who was recently described by the Star-Ledger as an administrator for the state Division of Parks and Forestry, who is managing the future development of Liberty State Park.

3 Landscapes: Stu Appel

Piazza San Marco, Venice
Villa Montefiore in Tuscany
Yosemite Park


For background, go here: http://hahawall.rutgers.edu/tulloch/Candidates.html

Liveblog: Stu Appel - Greetings from Dubai

Stu Appel - Wells Appel

Greetings from Dubai: Design, Environment and Impressions of a New Middle East

Rather than talk about his own work, Mr. Appel talked about the larger context of this important place.
We are all temporary stewards and we try to learn lessons from the past. But here is a place with no lessons from the past, no history, no grounding to identify what is important. The Bedouin history is limited, there was a little pearl industry and a small port city.

Dubai
3:1 Male:Female ratio
83% of the city residents are expatriates – they can’t own property
Home to the iconic Burj Al-Arab hotel and the tallest building ever, the Burj Dubai
In 2006 the population had grown to about 1.4 million (over 1 million men)
The Palm Islands will have 4000 villas, 1000 water homes, 5000 apartments


View Larger Map

Other notable features of the city included the Mall of the Emirates, with its indoor ski slope, and the district of Dubailand. Stu described Dubailand as Orlando times 2.5.

The world financial crisis has impacted the place as well, with hundreds of billions in construction that has halted.


Qatar
45 minutes by plane from Dubai, but a very different approach
Doha is taking down its embassies to create green space along the water
Less than half a million residents, more expats than not
Has protected older places and created other quality spaces - Souk marketplace
It is a place of contrasts - Fishing ships cross in front of modern structures
The heat still requires better indoor spaces like at the Sidra Medical and Reserach Centre

They are not immune to the dramatic - check out this video of their island complex called The Pearl...


The environmental impact may not get discussed as much, but the opportunity to participate in some of these unparalleled experiences is a trade off that some designers won't make. And the cultural conflicts are tough, so guides have emerged. But this is an important place and different people and groups are dealing with it in different ways - ULI has a new magazine called Urban Land Middle East.

Summary: Not a travelogue, not a design presentation, but a serious and thoughtful discussion about this emerging world center.

This Friday's MaGrann Conference includes James Wescoat, former chair of landscape architecture at Illinois and currently the Aga Kahn Professor of Architecture at MIT. The whole thing is a short walk from Blake or ENR and Friday looks like a great day for a walk. Just click on the banner for details.

Coming next week

Design your street

Good Magazine is holding a street redesign contest where you take a photo of a street that isn't working and photoshop it to make it work. Livable streets should be that hard, right? May 1st deadline, so get it in gear.

Greetings from Dubai: Design, Environment, and Impressions of a New Middle East

This upcoming Wednesday 04/15 we will be honored to welcome:

Stuart D. Appel, ASLA, RLA, , wellsappel. Planning, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design

Greetings from Dubai: Design, Environment, and Impressions of a New Middle East

Dubai and Doha are major cities in the Persian Gulf whose historic importance as port towns has been modest for centuries. Traditionally nomadic tribes, the people of this sparsely populated desert region have oral traditions, which leave little history to print, and few building traditions which express their culture or environment.

The relatively recent discovery of oil and natural gas has however, changed all of this. With the creation of the United Arab Emirates in 1971 and the Gulf Cooperation Council soon thereafter, the modest cities of Dubai and Doha have grown in profoundly different ways. They share however a regional and international influence, which in less then twenty years has been remarkable.

The pace and scale of development in both cities has occurred at a rate unprecedented in world history. Some of it is thoughtful and embracing the best lessons of design and sustainability that the international design community has to offer. Much of it unfortunately is not. The absence of
historical context, building traditions, urban experience, and ecological priority has resulted (in my humble opinion) in a search for design identity. While this exploration is healthy and necessary, the rush to build has not afforded the time required to find the "self".

"Greetings from Dubai" will present an overview of what has occurred, what is planned and some of the challenges and opportunities facing the local population, the international community and the environment.

As the senior principal of Wells Appel, Stuart Appel's unique approach to his work seeks to merge the logic of planning, the art of design and the science of ecology. His practice requires a regional understanding of context, culture, and natural systems in the creation of landscapes, which are sustainable and compelling. His three decades of work suggest that great places, which are noteworthy and memorable, are designed and sustained, through a genuine understanding of and respect for the community's values, history and context. http://www.wellsappel.com/

Time: 4:00-5:15 PM
Location: Cook Douglass Lecture Hall 110.

Beidler: Sense of Place and New Urbanism

SEMINAR

Sense of Place and New Urbanism: Towards a Holistic Understanding of Place & Form
Kyle Beidler, Ph.D.

Wednesday 12:35
Room 131 Blake Hall

Co-Hosted By: Department of Human Ecology and Department of Landscape Architecture

Abstract: New Urbanism is an all-encompassing term that refers to an increasingly popular set of design tenets that draw upon traditional urban forms in the creation or redevelopment of residential communities. Although design professionals are increasingly adopting these design tenets in the creation of new communities, there is no research that either supports or rejects New Urbanism's underlying assumption that neotraditional design tenets are capable of fostering a "sense of place." This assumption is essentially a normative claim that presumes the principles of the New Urbanism can have a measurably positive effect on sense of place (Kelbaugh 2002; Congress for the New Urbanism 2000).

This research project employs an existential-phenomenological approach to understand two specific people-place relationships. The project first explores how a "sense of place" arises for residents of a neotraditional neighborhood located in Blacksburg, Virginia. The methodology then investigates the influence of physical form in the development of a sense of place.

Analysis indicates that social interaction in the form of un-structured chance encounters with neighbors heavily influences the transformation of mere space into place. Further analysis indicates that such encounters are not directly related to density. Rather, the spatial quality, the
relationship between the built and un-built environment and the design of the public/private realm emerge as key factors in encouraging such residential experiences. The results are discussed in the context of the New Urbanism design tenets.

Another Katrina casualty?

LSU (Geaux Tigers!) has a hurricane expert on staff who PBS says warned officials of the potential for disaster in a Katrina-like event:

"A slow-moving Category 3 hurricane or larger will flood the city. There will be between 17 and 20 feet of standing water, and New Orleans as we now know it will no longer exist."
—Ivor van Heerden, October 29, 2004

The Times-Picayune reports that he has been fired and the resulting letters are interesting.

Many of our undergrads have never seen a grad-level presentation. Here is one that might be particularly interesting to our landscape industry students:
Plant Biology Graduate program announces a non-thesis MS defense seminar.
"Best Management of irrigation Practices and the Physiological Effects Associated with the Use of Reclaimed Water in Golf Turf Management"
Tim Sibicky, MS candidate
2:30 - 3:30 PM, Monday (April 13)
Room 138A Foran Hall

Favorite question format

The results of our informal poll on test question format is done. Multiple choice is the clear winner. I promise a significant chunk of MC questions on the final of both Spring classes.

True/false	4%
Multiple choice	47%
Fill in the blank	4%
Short answer	34%
Essay questions	8%

Keep an eye out for another poll before the semester is over.