Social dynamic of opinion polls

As part of conversation in EnvPlan we have been talking about polls.  Even if you aren't in the class, please take out a second to answer the 2 poll questions on the right-hand side of the page.

Its Duany vs. Harvard!

In the urban design smack-down of the decade, we see the new urbanists and the landscape urbanists gearing up for battle.  Who will win? 

moveibarcode

moviebarcode is a different way to look at movies.

Rock Creek Park

Greater Greater Washington, a group working to improve the DC area, asks an interesting question: Is Rock Creek Park like Central Park or Yosemite?  If you read it (and look at their data) it raises a more interesting question, Why don't more people use Rock Creek Park?

Feeding Philly

Michelle Byers writes about how the Garden State serves as the foodshed for Philly.  But do they have an interest in protecting this resource?

Urban Tree Roots

Great talk tomorrow:

SPEAKER:   DR. JASON GRABOSKY

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, DEPT. OF ECOLOGY, EVOLUTION, AND NATURAL RESOURCES, RUTGERS UNIVERSITY

TITLE OF TALK:  “URBAN TREE ROOTS: THE USE OF DESIGNED SOILS TO SUPPORT URBAN TREES AND PAVEMENT AS A COMPONENT OF STORMWATER MANAGEMENT SYSTEM DESIGN”

  

DATE/TIME/LOCATION:

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2011

 2:30 P.M. (refreshments 2:15pm)

Environmental & Natural Resource Sciences Bldg. – Room 223

14 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ

Seminar Website:  http://www.envsci.rutgers.edu/info/seminar/seminar.shtml

Abstract:

Within an urban landscape, soil volumes are a limited resource.  Designed soils can integrate urban tree root zone needs and support requirements for safe, durable pavement.  The use of such designed soils, coupled with stormwater management design methods such as the use of porous pavement materials, develops a multi-use, shared soil volume providing multiple environmental services.  This presentation discusses definitions and several research projects into the behavior of designed urban tree soils to support pavement, and how they might be employed to leverage the efficacy of a parking lot design with respect to stormwater.  While there are more questions than answers in the technical details, the presentation serves as a reasonable status report, and an invitation for collaborative projects.

Social quote

A cobblestone is more real than personal relationships, but personal relationships are felt to be more profound because we expect them yet to reveal themselves in unexpected ways, while cobblestones evoke no such expectation.

- Michael Polanyi, Personal Knowledge

(Sorry, after re-reading the quote I couldn't resist adding the photo)

Winter hike at HMF

Hutcheson Memorial Forest Tour
Sunday February 27th at 2:00 p.m.

Tour Leader: Peter Morin, Community Ecologist
“Winter Botany at Hutcheson Memorial Forest.”

The Hutcheson Memorial Forest (HMF) is a unique area consisting of one of the last uncut forests in the Mid-Atlantic States, along with the surrounding lands devoted to protection of the old forest and research into ecological interactions necessary to understand the forest. The tract is administered and protected by Rutgers University.

It is apparently the only uncut upland forest in the Piedmont of New Jersey, and appears on the National Park Service Register of Natural Landmarks.

Tours leave from the entrance of the woods on Amwell Road (Rt. 514) in Somerset. From New Brunswick, follow Hamilton Street west past JFK Blvd, Cedar Grove Lane and Elizabeth St. HMF is on the left past Gardener’s Nook Nursery. The driveway is located just past the guardrail over the brook.

The trail may be muddy in places so come prepared.
The tour through the woods and fields takes between one and two hours.

Tours are free and reservations are not required for these guided tours.** Groups of more than ten persons may not attend the guided tours. Such groups are invited to arrange special tours.


For more information and a complete tour schedule visit: http://rci.rutgers.edu/~hmforest/
**HMF is not open to the public on a daily basis.

LiveBlog: Ray Mims on SITES

Ray Mims, US Botanic Garden
Applying the SITES rating System: Lessons from Pilot Projects


One of his favorite quotes:
We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
— Aldo Leopold

He used a photo of three LEED Plantinum buildings, none of which had any trees anywhere around them. He pointed out how different meanings of green can proliferate. We are missing out on, or ignoring, countless free ecosystem services that we should be appreciating. Examples like the Catskills and New Orleans illustrate how important ecosystem functions are.

SITES is up to 165 pilot projects. 65% were grayfield projects while 15% were brownfields and 20% were on greenfields. The pilots worked - they discovered some issues they hadn't thought about. For instance, it changed their treatment of prime farmland and the submittal materials. The goal of using these case studies is to make the Sustainable Sites Initiative as well thought out as possible.

A detailed description of the Bartholdi garden explained how the USBG  is trying to apply the sites criteria themselves, in the shadow of the US Capitol. (I love that fountain)

They've worked to be very open and collaborative so avoid lawsuits like LEED. 

Redistricting: The first map emerges

Jerrymandering and mapmaking fans are watching closely.  Redistricting talks are underway in New Jersey. The impact of these will shape NJ politics for the next decade, so everyone is taking them seriously. And, while the final map is a long way off, the first map has leaked out and already suggests some big battles, according to NJPoliticker:

Among the bombshells contained in the sample map is a district – denoted on the map as District 4 – that would combine Elizabeth and portions of Newark into one Hispanic dominated district. The new district would pit powerful state Sen. Ray Lesniak (D-20) of Elizabeth against the only Hispanic member of the Senate – Sen. M. Teresa Ruiz (D-29) of Newark – in a district made up 56 percent of Hispanic residents.

Maps are very powerful.

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Ray Mims

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Ray Mims, United States Botanic Garden

Wednesday, 02/23 at 4:00 pm,
Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall

Applying the SITES rating System: Lessons from Pilot Projects

Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) is in the midst of becoming a functioning rating system and is now receiving feedback from real projects. SITES, an interdisciplinary effort that has created national guidelines and a rating system encourages integrated, systems-based approaches to sustainable landscape” design, construction and maintenance. SITES will work at all landscape scales, with or without buildings. The goal is renew and restore places and move from conservation to regeneration through landscapes that mimic natural systems. SITES should also be used to “restore degraded ecosystem services” found in brownfields and greyfields, creating new economic value in the process.

Ray Mims has been the United States Botanic Garden staff member working on the development of the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES) since 2006, participating in both the SITES steering Committee as well as the Vege tation Technical Committee. At the United States Botanic Garden, Ray oversees the ongoing development and implementation of sustainability efforts, conservation partnerships, and threatened plant collections at the United States Botanic Garden. Prior to joining USBG, Ray served as the Director of Horticulture at Denver Botanic Gardens, Director of Horticulture and Grounds at the Washington National Cathedral, and Horticulturist at the Atlanta Botanical Garden.

UCGIS Summer Assembly 2011

UCGIS Summer Assembly 2011

June 22-23, Boulder, CO 

Call for Research and Poster Abstracts

and

Full Papers by Graduate Students and Junior Faculty

on

GISCIENCE FOR THE CHANGING HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

The 2011 UCGIS Summer Assembly will be held at the beautiful location of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s (NCAR) Research Application Laboratory facilities in Boulder, CO. In keeping with the location of this year’s Summer Assembly, the theme of this meeting is 'GIScience for the Changing Human Environment'. This includes topics on representation, analysis, data modeling, and visualization relating to human-environment interactions, sustainability, water, climate, and health. The program will involve plenary talks, research and poster presentations, and a workshop to collaborate on a new UCGIS initiative in geographic information science education, by participants based at UCGIS member institutions (see http://www.ucgis.org/).

Research abstracts of up to two pages addressing the conference theme are solicited. These abstracts will be reviewed by the Summer Assembly program committee, and selected authors will be invited to present their research results at the meeting. We also invite separate submissions for a poster session in the form of an abstract of up to 1 page in length. High quality abstracts that are not accepted for the research presentation sessions will be considered for the poster session. All abstracts will be posted on the UCGIS website.

Graduate students and junior faculty (i.e., untenured assistant professors) from UCGIS member institutions are encouraged to submit research papers of up to 5000 words also addressing the conference theme. The program committee will review these papers and selected papers will be presented as part of the research presentation sessions. Authors of papers selected for presentation will be eligible to receive reimbursement for travel expenses up to $1000. See UCGIS Travel Awards below for more details.

The deadline for submission of research and poster abstracts, and full papers by graduate students and junior faculty, is April 22, 2011. All submissions must be made through EasyChair at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=ucgissummerassembly2

Notification of acceptance will be made on or before May 9, 2011.

UCGIS Travel Awards Sponsored by USGS and ESRI

The students and junior faculty selected for paper presentations will be eligible to receive up to $1000 to help cover travel costs of the 2011 Summer Assembly. All submissions must come from students and junior faculty of UCGIS member institutions that are in good standing. These awards are sponsored by the USGS and ESRI. Individuals will be responsible for making their own travel and accommodation arrangements and submitting receipts for reimbursement following the meeting. If needed, participants are encouraged to apply for additional funds from their home institutions. In order to receive the award, the participants must be selected to present their paper at the 2011 Summer Assembly.

No more than one student and/or one junior faculty member will be selected from any UCGIS institution to receive a travel award to attend the meeting. If you have received a UCGIS Summer Assembly paper award in the past, you are still eligible to submit again, but the paper must be on a completely new research topic. A faculty member at a UCGIS member institution must approve student papers.

Best Graduate Student Paper Award – Sponsored by Transactions in GIS

Wiley-Blackwell, the publisher of Transactions in GIS will present a “Best Paper” award of $200 for the best paper and presentation among the graduate student submissions. To be eligible for this award, the paper must not have been previously published nor should it be under consideration for publication. Authors must also be either engaged in full or part-time postgraduate research or within one year of completion of their research degree (assuming the scholar does not have faculty appointment). The editors will approve the selection of the winner and may choose to recommend that no publication award be made.

In addition, presented papers by graduate students and junior faculty will be reviewed in consideration for submission to one of several potential peer-reviewed outlets. The editors of Transactions in GIS, and the International Journal of Geographic Information Science, for example, have agreed to work with the authors of selected papers and advise on the submission process for their journals.

Please visit the UCGIS website (see http://www.ucgis.org/) for updates and more information about the Summer Assembly 2011.

Visual Preference Survey

We are about to talk about using visual preference in class. You might want to peek at Bentonville, Arkansas' results (PDF) as a conversation point for our class discussion.

Or, you might try this more statistically-oriented one from Salt Lake City (Flash).

VGI through Waze

Waze is a new VGI (volunteered geographic information) app that is trying to use grassroots, driver-based data to help you get around easier. Waze uses driver info to create data about traffic problems, but also lets driver input information about bad addresses or locations. VGI is a rapidly evolving field, and efforts like this (whether it succeeds or fails) are essential to advancing both the science and usable code.

Here is their flash video which includes this blog-apropos line: "And, if you are the kind of person who has a passion for mapping..."

Flood plan for Passaic

Last year's flooding in NJ has sparked a new plan.  The Passaic River Flood Advisory Commission has released a 15 point plan for addressing flooding like we saw last year:

• Expanding and expediting floodway buyouts, with state Blue Acres funds and federal FEMA funds.
• Encouraging home elevation projects in flood prone areas if acquisition is not an option.
• Buying undeveloped land for use as flood storage areas.
• Improving operation of the Pompton Lakes dam floodgates.
• Initiating de-snagging and shoal dredging efforts to facilitate improved river flows.
• Removing feeder dams to offer flood relief to Pompton Lakes, Wayne and Pequannock.
• State adoption of National Flood Insurance Program regulations to ensure state rules are consistent with local flood control ordinances, and eliminating
• the risk that FEMA could suspend its flood insurance program in New Jersey.
• Expediting the DEP's permit process to let towns more quickly obtain permits to de-snag and remove river debris, repair retaining walls and remove shoals.
• Improving effectiveness and efficiency of county and local emergency response plans.
• Enhancing the Passaic River flood warning system.
• Contracting with the National Weather Service to create inundation maps to provide critical information to enable quicker flood projections and greater storm preparedness.
• Enhancing public involvement, information and outreach on flood issues.
• Requesting a re-evaluation by the Army Corps of Engineers of the larger potential major engineering projects for long-term flood damage reduction.
• Updating floodplain mapping to eliminate decades-old maps that do not include detailed modeling of floodplains.
• Having towns in the river basin pursue flood risk reduction changes to their master plans, zoning ordinances and flood prevention ordinances, to guide future development away from floodplains or prevent future development in these high risk flood-prone areas.

Not everyone is impressed by the plann. The Record quotes the leader of one the environmental groups in the area as saying, "These are stop-gap, Band-Aid measures that will accomplish more harm than good, proposed by people with little understanding of how rivers work." And a town manager is interviewed about his desire to dig a big flood tunnel to release the waters.

You can relive the predictions, read about a store closed by the storms, or watch the flooding as photos or video or video of photos.   What will March bring this year?

Tree killers

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that someone has poisoned the 130 year old oak trees at Auburn University's Toomer's Corner with Spike80DF.  Clearly a malicious act, this appears to be a sports rivalry gone bad.  Toomer's Corner is the local and campus landmark that served as the central spot for celebrating Auburn's recent victory in the BCS title game. 

Common Lecture: jeffrey Friedman on Dance and Space

Technical problems kept me from getting the LiveBlog going right today.  Still, here is the abstract:

Title:  Citing Site: Landscape and Ritual

Traditional societies often use ritual events as a performance-based index for expressing cultural values about landscape. These ritual events often celebrate and consecrate the siting of sacred buildings or reflect how societies si tuate themselves within the context of their cosomology, writ small in the form of sacred landscape and architecture.  In the 20th and 21st centuries, site-specific performance strives to interrogate, interpret and stimulate a performance-based discourse about land, architecture and "site." The lecture briefly surveys both practices, with visual examples of both traditional and contemporary works.

Late Response:

And I am struck by the central importance of context in these dance pieces.  Just like many examples of landscape architecture, they wouldn't make sense somewhere else.  In some ways these performance responses were more sensitive to their sites and their contexts than many designs.  One example dealt with the shifting sand and gravel underwater that caused the site to change during the performance.  This is great parallel to the dynamics of landscape architecture where the designed experience continues to change over seasons and years, often in ways that enhance great designs.

I think that the trend is clear that the competition between dance (blue) and space (red) is neck and neck:

At the end he referenced Halprin's classic RSVP Cycles.  Every student should take a little time to explore that.

It is scholarship season

Please apply early for the SEBS scholarship programs.  Even if you aren't sure whether your GPA is high enough, you should apply. 

Buildings as mountains

Daily Dose of Architecture has a fascinating series of images of recent or proposed buildings that resemble hills or mountains.  Is it just that landscape metaphors are compelling?  Or is there something else behind this quasi-trend?

Lecture: Citing Site: Landscape and Ritual

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Jeff Friedman

Wednesday, February 16 at 4:00 pm,Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall;

3 College Farm Road, New Brunswick, NJ

Citing Site: Landscape and Ritual

Traditional societies often use ritual events as a performance-based index for expressing cultural values about landscape. These ritual events often celebrate and consecrate the siting of sacred buildings or reflect how societies si tuate themselves within the context of their cosomology, writ small in the form of sacred landscape and architecture.  In the 20th and 21st centuries, site-specific performance strives to interrogate, interpret and stimulate a performance-based discourse about land, architecture and "site." The lecture briefly surveys both practices, with visual examples of both traditional and contemporary works.

Jeff Friedman ran away from Cornell University's architecture school to be a dancer. He sustained a professional career as a dancer and choreographer in Boston and New York before returning to the University of Oregon where he completed his B.Arch in 1979. Based in San Francisco for 18 years, from 1979-1997, Jeff was a professional performer and choreographer, touring nationally and internationally with the Oberlin Dance Collective and specializing in multi-disciplinary site-specific performances in outdoor land and hard-scapes as well as architectural interiors. He completed his Ph.D. in dance history and theory at the University of California in 2003 and was appointed to the dance faculty at Rutgers where he is now Associate Professor, teaching both studio and theory courses. His research takes the form of both print publication and choreography, with a focus on oral-kinesthetic tradition, oral history theory, method and practice, and performance culture. Recent invited lectures include the Korean Arts Council in Seoul, Auckland and Victoria Universities in New Zealand, and Giessen and Leipzig Universities, during his 2010 Fulbright Fellowship in Germany. 

Geolocation is for lovers

Or at least that is the idead behind Google's new http://www.MapYourValentine.com/.

Early Modern Chinese Cities

As China becomes an important shaper of the world, understanding the influence of its cities is important for planners.  As such, this could be a fascinating lecture:


Professor William T. Rowe (Ph.D. Columbia) is John and Diane Cooke Professor of Chinese History and current chairperson of the History Department at Johns Hopkins University. He established his reputation as a meticulous scholar with two studies on 19th-century Wuhan entitled Hankow: Commerce and Society in a Chinese City, 1796-1889 (1984) and Hankow: Conflict and Community in a Chinese City, 1796-1895 (1989) respectively.  More recently, he authored a biographical study on an 18th-century scholar-official and statecraft thinker (Saving the World: Chen Hongmou and Elite Consciousness in Eighteenth-Century China, 2001), chronicled the socio-economic history of a Chinese county from the mid-14th century to the 1920s (Crimson Rain: Seven Centuries of Violence in a Chinese County, 2007), and published a new history of the last Chinese imperial dynasty (China's Last Empire: The Great Qing, 2009).

While cities in late medieval and early modern Europe have long been recognized for their "catalytic" role in the formation of the modern world, Chinese cities have been conceived, until very recently, as basically static and inherently unable to bring about the transformation of Chinese society from tradition to modernity.  In his talk, Professor Rowe will demonstrate just how wrong this earlier conception of the Chinese city was and how, in fact, Chinese cities from the sixteenth century onward became a focal point for the incremental but radical changes of Chinese society at large.  As a result of these changes, a distinctively urban culture developed, and a proliferation of old and new forms of voluntary organizations led to the challenge of the monopoly of authority claimed by the late imperial bureaucratic state and thus laid the foundation for the modern Chinese state.

Please visit us at http://www.ciru.rutgers.edu

Early Modern Chinese Cities: Catalysts for Historical Change by Prof. William T. Rowe from Johns Hopkins University
Time: 4:30 pm on Thursday, February 17, 2011
Venue: Room A, B & C Rutgers Brower Commons, 145 College Ave., New Brunswick, NJ 08902

Open to the Public, All are welcome

A couple odd topos

After mention USGS topographic quad maps of Louisiana in class the other day, I found these great examples.  The first is of Venice, LA - effectively the last town on the Mississippi River before the delta and the Gulf.  The high point on the map is the levee, along the South side of the river.  It looks like there are 2 contour lines, and the bottom of the map says they are 5 foot contours, so the levee would be a little higher than 10 feet above see level.  The rest of the maps has nearly no contour lines anywhere.  Flat, flat flat.

The second map is from an adjacent quad but has no contour lines.  Instead of labeling the contour interval at the bottom, there is simply a note that says "Entire Area Below 5 Feet".  And, in the corner you'll notice that there is no legend for roads, either.

Be careful, the linked images are quite large.  But if you want to go back to the source, you can head over to Libre Map to get all of the topos for Louisiana.

Cook Campus loses a landmark

The NJ Ag Museum is closing.

Tough economy? Consider the Peace Corps

Instead of becoming a temporary employee doing something more menial than you want after you graduate, maybe you should fight the bad economy and go talk to the Peace Corps.  When I see the Peace Corps listed on students' grad applications I know that they've been through an intense maturing process and have a larger world view than many other applicants.  Their experiences will be broad and they will know how to problem solve.

On Friday February 18th you can visit with the Peace Corps here at Rutgers at the Diversity Fair.

Valencia just keeps getting better

Valencia, Spain keeps attracting some of the most talented designers in the world. ASLA's The Dirt posts details of the London's Gustafson Porter winning design for Parque Central.

Even a simple Google image search for "Valencia architecture" reveals why people are flocking to this city.  Calatrava's work alone justifies the trip.  But there is more.

A radical at Rutgers

Rutgers' Naa Oyo A. Kwate uses GIS in way that Good Magazine calls radical.

SHIFT deadline is coming

February 15th is the deadline for student writing submissions to SHIFT: Infrastructure.

Unpaid GIS internship near campus

USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has a need for a student intern to assist with checking the Cumberland County and Burlington County digital Soil surveys for errors. Automated procedures have been developed to assist in the work, however, the work itself is tedious. The student would learn some specialized procedures using ArcGIS (thus, some prior ArcGIS experience would be helpful), and get exposure working for a federal agency involved in natural resource management.

Estimated time required is 40 – 100 hours to complete this job.

Our preference would be for the volunteer to come in for at least four hours, two days per week, but we can be flexible with the schedule.

If you need any more information or have any questions about this opportunity, please contact:

Trish Long
GIS Specialist
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service
220 Davidson Avenue, 4th Floor
Somerset, NJ 08879
www.nj.nrcs.usda.gov
732-537-6064

LateBlog: NYC street trees

Jennifer Greenfeld
Tree Selection for Survival in New York City

(Apologies all around, but I got a late start and missed some content...)

Over the last 100 years, NYC has had a changing list of encouraged and discouraged trees. Here is the list today.

The City has also conducted a tree census, counting over a half million trees of over 150 species. While in 1995 the Norway maple was the single most frequently counted tree (23%), the latest count found that in 2005 London Plane was most popular (15%).

Measuring mortality rates begins to reveal deeper patterns.

But just because a tree is recommended, it doesn't mean that NYC can get them from a nursery in a quantity that works, at a cost that works, with a history they can trust.  While it can change significantly by growing season, some just aren't handy.  For example, the hardy rubber tree, Eucomnia ulmoides.

USGS Quad sheets

If you want to explore USGS Quad sheets from around the country, you can search through many at Libre Map Project.  Or, you can just look at the New Jersey collection at the NJ Topo Map Depot.

Planning Board Meeting

The Planning Board for Woodbridge Township generally meets twice a month: normally on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month. Tomorrow night would be the second Wednesday. Check before you go: 732-602-6005.

The East Brunswick Planning Board holds public hearings on the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 8:00 pm in the Municipal Building. The next one looks to be February 16th. Check before you go: 732-390-6870

The meetings for Edison Township are held on the third Monday of each month in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Building at 7:30 P.M. This month that would be the 21st. Check before you go: (732) 248-7249

Crime mapping, sort of

This map of organized crime didn't require GIS, but does show quickly social networks can get complicated.

Summer program: Feb 21 deadline

Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company is accepting applications for its class of 2011 Summer Design Scholars. This is a juried selection, open to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design.

We hope you will distribute this link to your students, friends and school acquaintances. The submission deadline is Monday, FEBRUARY 21. Selection will be made by March 15. If you are not the person who should receive this information, we would appreciate your assistance in getting it into the right hands. You can learn more about our program (and applicants can apply) at this link:

www.hewv.com/scholar

This is the ninth year of the program, and our scholars have reported their experiences to be rewarding and life-changing. Scholars, including international students, have come from the Savannah College of Art + Design, McGill, Universidad de Monterrey, UPenn, Yale, Carnegie Mellon, Tulane, Virginia Tech, UVA, Clemson, Penn State, Ohio State, Kansas State, Iowa State, Georgia Tech, and Hampton University. Several Summer Scholar “alumni” have accepted full-time positions with our firm.

If you have other questions, please contact Nick Vlattas, nvlattas@hewv.com, or 757-321-9608.

Lecture: Tree Selection for Survival in New York City

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Jennifer Greenfeld
 
Wednesday, February 9 at 4:00 pm,
Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall;
3 College Farm Road
New Brunswick, NJ
 

Tree Selection for Survival in New York City

 
With the creation of PlaNYC, a sweeping plan to enhance New York's urban environment, Mayor Bloomberg promised to fill every available planting space  along the streets of New York City.  Ms. Greenfeld will describe how the Department of Parks & Recreation is fulfilling this mandate with particular
focus on how her department met the challenge of locating large quantities  of high quality nursery stock,  while increasing species diversity.  The talk will also discuss how they monitor success.
 
Since 1997, Jennifer Greenfeld has worked for the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.  As the Director of Street Tree Planting she manages what is arguably the largest street tree planting program in the nation, planting nearly 20,000 trees annually as part of MillionTreesNYC and Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030. She also managed the 2005 street tree census, created the Trees for Public Health program, developed forestry management  plans for community parks, and coordinated a mortality study of 40,000  recently planted trees.  A graduate of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Jennifer has also worked in Washington DC and San  Francisco.
 

Alternative to a Planning Board Meeting

EnvPlan Students: If you are looking for a Planning Board Meeting for Assignment 1, I might consider this Hunterdon County meeting if you asked in advance.

Phil Lewis

University of Wisconsin Landscape Architecture Professor Emeritus Phil Lewis is on MySpace. His book, on the other hand, is starting to get scarce.

You can see how Fitchburg WI has their Regional Design guidelines online based on his work.
Here is a local blog writing about Phil Lewis' work.  You can see a great photo of one of his large models. The Wisconsin Idea Center features a classic Lewis-ian diagram. 

Perhaps the continuing relevance of his ideas is reflected in the fact that students still write about him.

The Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop

The Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop is on February 17th in CT.  The meeting, "what Does the Future Hold?" is being coordinated by the Brownfields Coalition of the Northeast.

A World of Change: Climate Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

"A World of Change: Climate Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" featuring Susan Solomon
February 10, 2011, 6 p.m.

Susan SolomonSusan Solomon is a senior scientist at the Earth System Research Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She is internationally recognized as a leader in atmospheric science, particularly for her insights in explaining the cause of the Antarctic ozone "hole." Her current research focuses on issues relating to both atmospheric chemistry and climate change.

Please join in for this dynamic presentation, which is part of the Ecologies in the Balance year-long seminar series to examine possible solutions to sweeping and unprecedented global environmental, social, and economic challenges and to explore the opportunities for intervention that these changes represent. A reception will follow Dr. Solomon's talk.

Contact the Office of Community Engagement to register for this event at 732-932-2000, ext. 4205, or discovery@aesop.rutgers.edu.

News Map: Cairo

The NY Times has an interactive map to help you explore the Tahir Square protests.

New Census numbers: Hispanics outnumber African-Americans

The 2010 aggregate Census numbers are out for New Jersey and one of the most notable findings is that the 1.5 million Hispanics now represent the largest minority group in the Garden State.  On the whole, New Jersey grew 4.5% which has political ramifications both within and beyond New Jersey.

Scholarship opportunity

If you are a junior who has been active in the community, you might want to look into the Wells H Keddie Scholarship.  If you haven't been active, you might want to consider getting off campus and getting engaged.

Mixed economic news for LA Firms

It is hard to tell which way is up in the latest quarterly report from the ASLA.  Billable hours are down but more firms are looking to hire.

Invasive Species Talk

Ecology & Evolution Graduate Program Seminar

Dr. Alycia Crall
Department of Land Resources
University of Wisconsin, Madison

“The Art and Science Of Invasive Species Monitoring with Citizen Scientists”



Citizen science programs have widespread applications to invasive species science where educating the public and increasing collaboration could prevent new introductions and control existing ones.

During this seminar, Dr. Crall will discuss efforts by the National Institute of Invasive Species Science citizen science program to answer the following research questions: 1) Can citizen scientists effectively contribute to established professional monitoring programs for invasive species? 2) Can p roper training provide skills necessary to collect data comparable to professionals? 3) Can participation in the training program improve knowledge, attitudes, and promote scientific inquiry? Trained as a plant ecologist, Dr. Crall will also remark on the benefits and struggles of an interdisciplinary approach to research when developing programs of this type.


Thursday, February 3, 2011

4:00 p.m.
Alampi Room, Marine and Coastal Sciences

Host: Dr. Rebecca Jordan

Refreshments at 3:30

DeBoer Travel Prize reports

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Roy DeBoer Travel Prize winners reports

Wednesday, February 2 at 4:00 pm,

Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall;

3 College Farm Road

New Brunswick, NJ

Traveling is an essential experience for landscape architects. That is even more important for students of landscape architecture—learning creative design for livable places demands first hand studies of existing landscapes. The Roy DeBoer Travel Prize offers students of our depar tment the opportunity to travel and experience landscapes in the US and abroad. In this presentation the four 2010 prize winners will share their experiences and impressions:

Zena Zahalan, Paris

Erin Greenwood, Pacific Coast Highway

Jenna Gatto, Grand Canyon & La Bash

Alexandra Bolinder-Gibsand, Sweden

The presentations will be followed by a reception at Blake Hall.

Graduate on time: See your advisor regularly

This one goes out to our currently enrolled students:

The Star-Ledger reported this weekend on the relatively low 4-year graduation rates at many of the schools in New Jersey.  As the article points out, one of the many reasons is difficulty in getting into required classes.  One of the best ways to avoid this is to meet with you advisor regularly. S/he knows how to plan ahead, some times multiples semesters in advance of the problem, to avoid getting stuck.  

Grand Challenges for GIScience?

In response to a call from NSF May Yuan, the new president of UCGIS, has written an open response on the Grand Challenges of GIScience over the next 10 years. All told, 100 were submitted.

Snow Day: Public Processes

Today, despite relatively poor attendance, we talked about some different forms of participation.  Examples that Steiner mentions include:

• Task Forces
• Samoan Circles
• Delphi Technique (and Policy Delphi)
• Public Opinion Surveys
• Visual Preference Surveys (pdf)

We also talked about trying to figure out the "problem" with complicated situation after watching this short video:

Sandy River Flood from alexandra erickson on Vimeo.

Spring 2011 Speaker Series

United States of Shame

Someone has made a map highlighting each state's shame.

Intersting conference: Space and Flows

SPACE AND FLOWS: AN INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON URBAN AND EXTRAURBAN STUDIES
Monash University Prato Centre
Prato, Tuscany, Italy
17-18 November 2011
http://spacesandflows.com/conference-2011/

Following the success of our 2010 conference at the University of California, Los Angeles the 2011 Spaces and Flows Conference will take place in Prato, Italy. Prato is located in the Tuscany region of Italy, a short train ride from Florence and close to the Florence airport. Prato has yet to be transformed by mass tourism, even though it is in a beautifully preserved Italian Renaissance city. Historically home to a thriving textile industry, Prato has seen an influx of immigrant workers in the last 20 years. This juxtaposition of the local-historical with the global-hypermodern makes Prato an excellent location to discuss human spatial conditions in global flows.

This conference aims to critically engage contemporary spatial, social, ideological, and political transformations in a transitional world. In a process-oriented world of movement, the global north and global south now simultaneously converge and diverge in a dialectic that shapes and transforms cities, suburbs , and rural areas. This conference addresses the nature and mapping of these forces and the dynamics that propel these changes. The conference also examines and defines the myriad of different spaces that make up our contemporary world, including urban, edgeurban, de-urban, micro-urban, greenfield, and off-the-grid.

In addition to plenary presentations, the Spaces and Flows Conference includes parallel presentations by practitioners, teachers, and researchers. We invite you to respond to the conference Call-for-Papers. Presenters may submit their written papers for publication in the peer reviewed 'Spaces and Flows: An International Journal on Urban and Extraurban Studies'. If you are unable to attend the conference in person virtual registrations are also available which allow you to submit a paper for referring and possible publication. You also have the ability to upload your presentation to the Space and Flows YouTube playlist. Please sign up for our monthly newsletter http://spacesandflows.com/ideas/newsletter, and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

The deadline for the next round in the call for papers (a title and short abstract) is 17 February 2011. Future deadlines will be announced on the conference website after this date. Proposals are reviewed within two weeks of submission. Full details of the conference, including an online proposal submission form, may be found at the conference website: http://spacesandflows.com/conference-2011/ .

GIS keeps growing

A new report out last week shows how quickly the GIS economy keeps growing, even in down times. The head reads "GIS/Geospatial sales up 10.3% to US$4.4 billion Growth forecast to top 8.3% in 2011" but the content gives some real insight. It isn't just the recent growth, but the future growth in apps, imagery, phone apps, and enhanced uses of geospatially enabled CAD.

Lecture: Paul Keyes, 'Estates at Alpine, Alpine NJ"

LA Spring Lecture Series presents Paul Keyes

Wednesday, 1/26 at 4:00 pm,

Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall

Estates at Alpine, Alpine NJ

The Estates at Alpine Development is a subdivision of the 60-acre estate formerly owned by Dr. Henry Clay Frick. The developer, Richard Kurtz, purchased the estate for $58 Million and subdivided the property into individual parcels leaving the original estate on 20 acres. The first home in the development was constructed on speculation and is on the market for $68 million.

Paul Keyes Associates designed and styled the development entrance as well as the landscape and gardens for the primary residence. I also managed the installation and construction of our design work which included locally mined hand carved granite walls, custom iron gates and lights, granite paving and mature plantings. Richard was extremely passionate and involved with the design and details. It was another great opportunity to work closely with a fun client and the results were spectacular. I’ve always said that my best ideas come from my clients and this is certainly a prime example.

Paul Keyes  graduated from Rutgers University in 1989 with a B.S. in Environmental Planning and Design and a minor in Ornamental Horticulture. Paul continued his education by Graduating from Montclair State University with a M.A. in Environmental Studies with a concentration in Environmental Education.Paul established Paul Keyes Associates in 1996.

For more information see: http://www.paulkeyes.com/index.html

Atlantic Crossing on WNYC

Rutgers had a nice showing on Leonard Lopate Friday, with Scott Glenn and Dana Seidel talking about the new movie abut the Atlantic Crossing. 

Arcosanti

A couple years ago I finally got to visit the formerly futuristic commune-like Arcosanti.  This is Paolo Soleri's dream of how we could build future cities, although it was also a living experiment in how to incrementally advance the forms and ideas of a such a place as a self-sustaining community.  And since it was in the desert of Arizona, sustainability is especially difficult.  My visit was limited to an hour or two, so I was interested in reading someone else's account of a recent visit in PlaNetizen. 

Talk on Changing Land Use Rules

Wednesday morning (the 23rd) the Hunterdon County Planning Board is hosting an early morning talk on the changes in the timing rules in New Jersey's Municipal Land Use Law.  This "coffee with the County" event should have some pretty serious discussion of a topic that may sound minor but has the potential to alter day-to-day planning in New Jersey.

Quote of the Day

"Nature abhors a straight line"

- Capability Brown

A new memorial

The new Rosie the Riveter Memorial has opened in Richmond, CA.

Great project site

The web site is up for Holly Nelson's Senior Studio investigating the Salt River Bay on the island St. Croix, VI.  The representations of the site include creative studies of both the land and people:

But it also includes more spatially explicit studies of the site.

And soon it will include the final design the students presented to the National Park Service and partner institutions.

Another great MLK Day link

The City Fix talks today about Public Transportation as a Civil Right.

Rev Martin Luther King Jr Day

This video of the I Have a Dream speech includes not only one of the great American speeches, but some compelling shots of the areas around the Lincoln Memorial.




The work at the MLK Memorial site continues, so you might want to check out this virtual tour:

Scientists explain why are students are failing

Too much research.

Best Building in NYC?

Places' Mark Lamster asks, What is the Best Building in NYC?  The comments, still growing, are pretty good.

A different sense of scale

Ogle Earth has a link to a news article that reports that Google Earth has had over 800 million activations.  That is pretty amazing.

Jack Dangermond at TED

Since there aren't many Landscape Architects talking at TED, we are extra excited to see GIS and LA represented in Jack Dangermond's TED Talk on GeoDesign. Go team!

Job in upstate New York

Introduction
ORI – Organic Recycling Inc was established in 1985. Its business can divided into 2 aspects 1) Compost project management and 2) One stop horticultural supply centers that offer bulk mulch, compost, topsoil and other landscape needs, a wholesale stone and pavers center and wholesale nursery. ORI is an MBE.
In the east coast we have 2 Supply Center – 1) Orangeburg NY (30 Acres) and 2) Goshen,NY which is 85 Acres.

POSITION AVAILABLE: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER- ORGANIC RECYCLING INC

1) DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
a) Qualified Landscape Architect or Agronomist
b) One to three years work experience within the horticulture/plants industry. Some knowledge of plants and landscape construction preferred.
c) Trainable Person:
i) Capable and motivated to learn the ORI business approach and products
ii) Self motivated and confident type of personality
iii) Capable of undertaking a project on his own with reference and parameters provided.
iv) Capable of professional presentation
d) Experience in marketing in the NY Metropolitan Area
2) GOAL
• Increase customer base (increase ORI’s off-site business development/sales effort and increase ORI’s geographical territory)
• Implement and maintain a consistent customer service program
• Support sales effort of Division Managers.
3) RESPONSIBILITY AND TASK
Increasing ORI Customer Base - Landscape Architects, Property Developers and Property Development Contractors State authorities (e.g. NYSDOT, NYC Agencies, NJSDOT) and Municipal Departments (e.g. DPW, Parks Dept etc.) by

• Develop awareness of ORI Products and Services targeting
• Determining contact person(s) for these target customers
• Contacting these target customers:
a) via post-card/email for initial awareness
b) via telephone requesting for personal appointment to presentation and to drop-off ORI “Products & Service Manual”. Develop “Power-point” presentation
c) Presentation booths at appropriate trade shows e.g. Landscape Architect Association Annual Conference ADPW Trade Show

* Acquire knowledge of ORI’s existing customers
* To get ORI Products and Services specified in plans
* General Marketing activities
* Develop market intelligence e.g. competitors, new projects, customer feedback, new products, price changes, changes in market conditions etc. Monitor specific competitors/vendors for business development purposes
* Monitor listing of projects etc. from permit listing Service Company.
* Business Development via Web-Site. Organize and maintain internet and usps mailing list for the above described category of customers.
* Participate in Trade Shows. Develop a list if target trade shows.
* Assist with Advertisement and Promotions Program(s)
* Assist with ongoing Monthly Product Sales Program
* Assist with customer loyalty program
* Special Sales Events at the ORI Sales Centers.
* Customer Service Program:
o To develop a customer service program in coordination/consultation with Division Managers.
o Customer Service Program provides for scheduled and consistent business contacts (telephone calls/visits) with existing and potential customers
o Customer Service Program commences after the Training Period and the initial launch of the program to increase ORI’s customer base.
* Assist Division Managers with sales closings (once initial business development task have been implemented).

Please fax resume to Organic Recycling Inc at 845-398-1017 or email to hr@organicrecycling.com

GeoDesign II

If you couldn't make it to the 2nd GeoDesign Summit, you might enjoy Mike Gould's Twitter feed right now or, at your leisure, blog posts by James Fee, Adena Schutzburg, and Matt Ball.

Blue Ridge Parkway documentary

For those in the NY area, you'll want to set your DVRs to record this weekend's showing The Blue Ridge Parkway: A Long and Winding Road.  It looks like it might really probe more into the land owners who lost their land so the road could be built.  It will show at 9pm on Saturday (Jan 8th) on WLIW.  Just another example of ow TV can help you learn.  (h/t Puk)

NPS LA Office

 Shenandoah National Park has a visitors center exhibit showing a typical Landscape Architect's Office from back in the earlier days of the park.  It includes a plan of a stopover along the beautifully designed Skyline Drive.

Not only does the exhibit include some drawings, but it also includes this mark up of a photograph.  It really shows how seriously the landscape architects were thinking about the impacts and aesthetics of what turned out to be one of America's great scenic drives.

Of course, details matter too...

 And the tools of the trade have changed a bit since then.

 

Accurate to the period?  Maybe.  But necessary?  Not really.

 

Best post-industrial proposal of the year?

Not really a year-end wrap-up, but Charles Jenks' artistic use of a slag heap is one of the more unique post-industrial projects that has been proposed in recent memory.

Snow daze

If you are still struggling to fill your time with the current snow, you might consider what some other designers have tried. Last year our students made the most of snowballs and coloring.

A Buffalo professor is trying to use snow to resculpt visitor experiences to an Olmsted park. The video below shows you more.

Home Alone house

A streetview of Kevin McCallister's house from Home Alone. (This year is the 20th anniversary of the movie's release.)


View Larger Map

We're down a man!

While it isn't much of a surprise, the Star-Ledger has an interactive map showing how New Jersey is losing a congressional seat.  It isn't that we got smaller, just that we are getting bigger slower than some other states.  Between 2000 and 2010, we still grew grew 4.5 percent to 8.8 million.

Air photos of sprawl

Does sprawl look better on the ground or from the air? (h/t Pete K)

Cape May pits environment against aesthetics

Some Cape May residents are finding the Historic Preservation Commission's strict opposition to environmental improvements - solar panels that can be seen from the street and any windmills - that they are referring to them as the "gingerbread police".

More and more rural

The LA Times has a powerful map last week showing the rapid depopulation of rural America.

IGERT RAs at Iowa

The University of Iowa's Geoinformatics for Environmental and Energy Modeling and Prediction IGERT Program is looking for Research Assistants. If you are looking at grad programs, you might add this to your list.

Gaudi in NatGeo

National Geographic covers the breaking story of an architect whose work is inspired by nature itself, Antonio Gaudi.  Sustainable Cities Collective has a copy of the big fold out poster that looks great.

Then and now

Wired helps you see landscapes in a different way.  Considering how I go to the same places on Fall Field Trips every three years, I probably should take this more seriously.

Hanbury Evans 2011 Summer Scholars Design Competition Opens

Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Company is accepting applications for its class of 2011 Summer Design Scholars. This is a juried selection, open to upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and interior design.

Dangermond Fellowship deadline is Feb 15th

The Dangermond Fellowship


Award: Up to three (3) $10,000 fellowships awarded each year to graduate students in the United States. Recipients are also awarded ESRI software, technical training access, and travel costs to conferences.
Deadline: February 15

The Landscape Architecture Foundation, Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), and the American Society of Landscape Architects jointly sponsor the Dangermond Fellowship, a national fellowship for graduate students of landscape architecture. The purpose of the fellowship is to promote and facilitate the integration of art, science, method, and technology in the study and profession of landscape architecture, and encourage the use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a framework for exploring integrated approaches to landscape assessment and intervention.

Students wishing to apply for a fellowship can apply as individuals or as members of interdisciplinary project teams. Individual applicants are required to be graduate students studying landscape architecture. All members of a project team are required to be graduate students with at least one member majoring in landscape architecture. The applicants are to be supported by one or more faculty advisors. The principal advisor should be a faculty member in the department of landscape architecture. Employees of ESRI and their relatives are not eligible for the fellowship.

Selection criteria will include the creative use of geographic information systems (GIS) as a framework for exploring integrated approaches to landscape assessment (analysis) and intervention (planning, design and management).

In addition to the General Submission Guidelines this fellowship requires the following:

Requirements:
1. A written proposal for the work to be undertaken (limit 3 pages) containing the following:
• an objective, outcome and method
• transferability of the proposed work
• deliverables
• level of institutional support (faculty, facilities, etc.)
2. A cover letter from the principal faculty advisor indicating his/her faculty position and confirming department approval and adherence to the overall goals of the fellowship
3. A specific delineation of the roles of each team member and faculty advisor(s)
4.

A one-page biographical sketch of the faculty advisor(s)
5. Two letters of recommendation for individual or team efforts from faculty members not involved in project.

More wildlife corridors

Complete with color images, the Wall Street Journal ran a feature on landscape architects designing wildlife corridors including Olin's design of a $12 Million overpass.

(h/t Puk)

Olin's new plaza in Portland

When Laurie Olin spoke at Rutgers last year he showed images of a new plaza being built in Portland, Simon and Helen Director Park. Pictures are starting to emerge and magazines are writing it up.

Deadline for course evaluations

Despite discouraging words from The Chronicle, remember to get your online course evaluations in for all of your classes today.

Mark your calendars

Poster designed by Alexandra Bolinder-Gibsand

An old, but important map

The Disunion blog at NYTimes.com talks about how important a map of slavery was to President Lincoln.

Dream 'hood?

Claiming that "For Gen Y, it's not about the dream house, but the dream 'hood," doesn't change the fact that Gen Y is smaller than either the generation before it or after it.  Niche markets are big, but Generation Me is the one that'll change the real estate market.

Reminder: New Jersey Geospatial Forum

The New Jersey Geospatial Forum is pleased to announce that Jack Dangermond, founder and CEO of ESRI, will be the guest speaker at the Forum's December meeting. The meeting will be held at the New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608 at 10 a.m., in the auditorium.

Please allow sufficient time for parking, which is available either on street at metered spaces or in the following parking garages:

There is limited free parking in the Statehouse Garage:
Enter from Memorial Drive or West State Street

There are some pay parking facilities in the area:
*State Street Square Garage
Enter from Chancery lane above East State Street

*Trenton Marriott Garage
The hotel is at the intersection of W. Lafayette Street and S Warren Street
Enter the garage from South Warren Street

Or you could just take the train and walk 10 minutes.

LiveBlog: Yankee Stadium Upland Park Redevelopment

 Yankee Stadium Upland Park Redevelopment

Gary Sorge, FASLA, Stantec
Frank McCue, NYC Parks

Last LiveBlog of the semester.

While one is the client and one is the design firm, they really work as a team.  The project had over 450 submittals to review. 

Mill Pond Park was built on the site of the old Bronx River Market from the 1920s-1970s.  The old Powerhouse has been retrofit with a green roof, hoping to get LEED Gold.

The new park has been built just as it was shown to the community in early renderings. Macomb Dam Park was also overhauled with Heritage Field and Ruppert Plaza.  There are River Avenue Pocket Parks, including small play areas and a $3 million skateboard park.

MetroNorth built a new train station which had to be integrated into these design, too.

Stantec's approach emphasized the park as more than just a collection of ballfields, but a highly accessible park for the broadest possible audiences.  Some pieces of the old frieze (the white arched fencing that is part of the Stadium iconography) were saved for the new Heritage Field.  Layout and grading requirements prevented them from being able to save the location of home plate as the new home plate, where Lou Gehrig gave his famous address. (now it is at 2nd base)  But they did preserve the giant bat.  They are also installing 7 Viewmasters so you can see slides of the old Stadium.  They did preserve the footings of much of the Stadium, burying them under the berms.


Ruppert Plaza is the wide walk you see below.  The mound is above the roof of a parking deck.

The park will also have Yankee quotes and even a Bull Durham quote scattered around on the walls. 

  Work began this past summer.

Wildlife corridors

Kelly Brenner has a detailed post on Sustainable Cities Collective that looks into Wildlife Corridors.  It pointed out that planners aren't yet making these as effective as they could be: "A study from 2008 found that planners and designers need to think more naturally because corridors that were too symmetrical were not as effective as corridors with some asymmetry and irregularities."

Turning the House that Ruth Built into Heritage Field, a New Community Park

LA Fall Lecture Series presents Gary T. Sorge, FASLA, AICP

Wednesday, 12/08 at 4:00 pm,

Cook/Douglas Lecture Hall;

3 College Farm Road

New Brunswick, NJ

Turning the House that Ruth Built into Heritage Field, a New Community Park

Sports enthusiasts and fans greatly anticipated the opening of the new Yankee Stadium in 2008.  The nearby Bronx community greatly anticipates the opening in 2011 of the final piec e of an extensive park redevelopment program.  The new Stadium was constructed on existing parkland, perhaps some of the most intensely used ballfields in the City.  As part of its commitment to the Bronx community, the City of New York needed to construct new park facilities to replace what was displaced by the new stadium and associated parking structures as soon as possible.  Of course to do so, the City and the design team needed to recapture the land beneath the old Stadium for development of a significant portion of the park plan.  A new park on the roof of a parking garage, a waterfront park, two off-site ballfields, a major building renovation, two additional community parks, pedestrian bridges and local roadway improvements are now complete.  The final piece is the construction of Heritage Field and Ruppert Plaza on the grounds of the former Stadium, arguably the most prominent venue in the history of sports.

Our presentation will focus on three major elements in the sites transformation:  dismantling the Stadium; designing, gaining approvals for and constructing the new park as quickly as possible; and appropriately commemorating the events that occurred at the Stadium over its 86-year history.  Each element presented its own unique challenges and our presenter will provide a first-hand account of how a  landscape architecture led design team influenced the results.

 

Gary T. Sorge is Senior Principal at Stantec and alumnus of the Rutgers Landscape Architecture program.

For more information see Stantec.com

MoMA's growing collection

MoMA has some new art for people who like things that grow.  (And since it is in the lobby, I suspect you can see it for free)

NPR travels the Passaic

The Great Swamp and the Passaic River made it on NPR last month.  Sally Rubin helped them track down the headwaters in Mendham and then they headed downstream to ponder the effects of industrialization.  Today our students are still exploring the next steps for the Great Swamp Watershed.

Gold-light tress

To call this potential new technology a game breaker is an understatement. (h/t The Texan)

A sad first for Celebration

Not quite like Mayberry.

Special speaker at New Jersey Geospatial Forum

The New Jersey Geospatial Forum is pleased to announce that Jack Dangermond, founder and CEO of ESRI, will be the guest speaker at the Forum?s December meeting. The meeting will be held at the New Jersey State Museum, 205 West State Street, Trenton, NJ 08608 at 10 a.m., in the auditorium.

Please allow sufficient time for parking, which is available either on street at metered spaces or in the following parking garages:

There is limited free parking in the Statehouse Garage:
Enter from Memorial Drive or West State Street

There are some pay parking facilities in the area:
*State Street Square Garage
Enter from Chancery lane above East State Street

*Trenton Marriott Garage
The hotel is at the intersection of W. Lafayette Street and S Warren Street
Enter the garage from South Warren Street

Or you could just take the train and walk 10 minutes.

Map of warming

The Economist has a global map showing the likelihood of a place having a new "hottest summer on record" in the next several decades.  For instance, it looks like both Washington DC and Atlanta have a 70-89% chance of having a hotter summer than they've ever had. It is interesting to note that the map comes from a Food Security paper in Science - the implications could be frightening.

Factory Farm Map

Where does your food come from? Unless you shop local, FactoryFarmMap shows you the answer. (h/t Peter M)

Common Lecture canceled

Today's Common Lecture by Ray Mims of the USBG has been canceled. Maybe you could use the hour of found time to read a book.  PlaNetizen has posted their top 10 Books for 2011 and Strong Towns blog has a list of what they consider essential reading.

Quote of the Day

"Boy, if somebody could write a song about [city planning] I'd have to stand up and cheer for them. No. There are some things you just can't write songs about."

- David Byrne