During my visit to Louisiana I got to serve as a guest critic on a design jury at the Robert Reich School of Landscape Architecture. The student project was undertaken with guidance from EDSA and explored solutions for a central corridor open space on Dubai's Jumeirah Palm island. It was a great jury and I enjoyed the work I saw, and the conversations really kept it engaging despite the 5-hour length.
Upon my return to New Jersey I was surprised to see that Thom Mayne is coming out swinging at what he calls Dubai's future as an "ecological disaster". Dubai sounds like a fascinating place with some serious natural limitations but exceptional financial resources.
As a life-long resident of one of the thirteen original colonies, I accept the old development issues as a weird mantle of pride. That presupposes, of course, that younger communities across the nation and across the globe learn from our mistakes, rather than from our example.
ReplyDeleteI found this featured on the ASLA home page...does this place look familiar?
ReplyDeletehttp://asla.org/awards/2008/08winners/354.html