Guest Lecture

CHRIS LAGUARDIA

LaGuardia Design Group

“Landscape Architecture in the Hamptons: the work and processes of The LaGuardia Design Group”

Christopher LaGuardia FASLA founded the LaGuardia Design Group in 1993 and has received numerous awards and accolades including the ASLA Award of Excellence in Residential Design, The ASLA Honor Award, and Several NYASLA Merit Awards.

The LaGuardia Design group works at designing Landscapes that are sustainable and sensitive to the highly varied natural and manmade landscapes that constitute the Hamptons resort community.

Additionally, LaGuardia has lectured on his work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the ASLA National Conference, The New York Center for Architecture and the Parish Art Museum.

Please see our schedule for other lectures.

Newsweek interview with Martha Schwartz

Martha Schwartz is coming to town this month. Start preparing by reading her interview in Newsweek. Although it is relatively short, she squeezes in quite a bit:

"We  design places where people can interact and connect with each other. We plan so that people can live in a healthy, walkable environment and enjoy public spaces. We work in an integrative, collaborative and fluid process in order to design unique places that create memory, identity, and move the spirit."

 

Tent City

A few years ago we had a common lecture on the informal housing of tent cities. At the time we were told that Lakewood was trying to get rid of theirs. It sounds like it is still there, but the Star-Ledger went down and visited one or two in Howell. This is not just a few dozen people, but a substantial informal community that planners and designers should be aware of.

Nearby lecture

Recent Work: Diller Scofidio + Renfro

A lecture from Elizabeth Diller (Founding Partner, Diller Scofidio + Renfro; Professor of Architecture, Princeton University School of Architecture)

Monday, April 10th, 6:00pm
Betts Auditorium, School of Architecture

 

Some past projects in our region include:

• Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2006)
• Lincoln Center Public Spaces, New York, NY (2010)
• High Line, New York, NY, Phases 1, 2, 3 (2009, 2011, 2014)

Resources of the Day

Claritas Prizm Groups

Historic Preservation tools

            http://mapmaker.rutgers.edu/MAPS.html

            Sanborn maps

Historic Aerials

National Trust for Historic Preservation

               

Trust for Public Land’s ParksScore

Newspapers

Master plan

Ordinance.com

Master Plans

As an assigned reading for Fundamentals of Environmental Planning, students should look over this ANJEC piece on municipal Master Plans in New Jersey.  But they can optionally look over this scan of the 2006 Chatham Borough Master Plan. Does the quality of the scan say more about 2006 technology or the Borough's commitment to engaging the public in their plan? Before you judge, the slides from their 2016 update seem much more engaging.


And, in case you lost the link, this great Steve Strom handout on Suitability Analysis.

Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills 2014 Reexamination Report of the Master Plan.

In our textbook, the community Master Plan is described as a chart of collective hope. That is a powerful summary of what these official documents (and processes) can represent at their best.

So, take a few minutes to look over this municipal Master Plan from Parsippany, New Jersey. More precisely, it is the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills 2014 Reexamination Report of the Master Plan.

It includes seemingly boring but important things, like the date it was adopted. But it also includes elements from the inventory and analysis process that we studied in class, like the age sex pyramid shown below. And it includes several pages of maps of the Land Use Plan for an area that is pretty representative of much of New Jersey.