Northala Fields and why I want LatLongs on projects

The May 2009 issue of Landscape Architecture magazine had an intriguing cover photo of a park that really drew me into the issue. But since it is in West London, a landscape with which I am unfamiliar, I wanted to see the larger context on Google Maps or Live.com. But since it is a foreign landscape for me that was really tricky. Harder still was the fact that the online images are all currently taken before the project was completed, so I wasn't looking for large round hills, but a site under construction by a highway.

Most major features in LAM include a through citation of the designers and planners for the project, right down to the lighting engineer. But I think that an equally helpful reference citation would be a simple Lat Long for the project that would allow any reader to check out the site in Google Earth. It would also facilitate visiting publicly accessible sites when nearby.

All that would be required is one extra line in the credits or a parenthetical note after first mentioning Northala Fields Park (LatLong: 51.539936, -0.373653).

Marc Treib's feature 10/2007 on the Australian Red Sand Garden (LL: -38.129569, 145.269701) definitely left me wanted to see more.

Or maybe you wanted to follow-up a little on the April 2008 LAM feature called, How Not to Revitalize an Icon, which looked at Seattle's occidental Park (47.600477, -122.333311).

It might be tempting to rely primarily on a digital resources (like the Places and Spaces Map or the new Land8Lounge map) but by printing the coordinates, they become a permanent, open identifier of the park location that can be used widely. A reader could readily compare the construction photos from Yahoo with those from Google with Live.com's. Or they could enter the coordinates directly into their own private database.



View Places and Spaces Map in a larger map

Here you can see a different look for the site...
Live Search Maps

Than you see here:
Live Search Maps