NJ Green Acres

 New Jersey has released the list of recommended Green Acres projects (PDF).

Parks Hike

I recently had the chance to lead some of our students on an urban transect hike in Barcelona. Here are maps and images.

 

 

Summer internships at NYC Parks

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Summer internships at NYC Parks

Prescription Parks

As we wrap up National Landscape Architecture Month, I am excited to see that the prescription parks movement is getting new attention, especially with some mapping of the parks in and around Washington DC. ASLA's The Dirt returns to this topic to capture how it continues to grow and offers some new details. The integration of the medical community and the use of the phone app make this old idea seem new again. And for landscape architecture, it just reemphasizes the important role that we can have in improving health in our communities.

Good weather to get out?

Sunday looks like a great day to clean up in the park - 47 degrees!

So head down to Jamesburg Park and spend a couple hours helping make the park look better.

MVV at the NY Times

The NY Times has posted a very short video of Michael Van Valkenburg. It feels like a telling sign of where landscape architecture is today. The highest-profile LAs are increasingly treated with a seriousness that parallels artists and scientists.

The manholes of Prospect Park

In a wonderful bit of writing, Karrie Jacobs turns the mundane discovery of a manhole into an exploration of the greatness of Olmsted's Prospect Park. The story wraps around to talk to Christian Zimmerman who is helping keep the park faithful to the original Olmstedian vision. Finally, Jacobs revisits something Olmsted worked to explain to the city - is it an urban park or a rural landscape?

Olmsted’s answer, in short, is that it’s a “special type of rural landscape,” one made specifically to be used by an unusually large number of people—in 2017, about 10 million a year. As Olmsted argued, “to permanently secure a high degree of rural charm in the public ground of a large city, special preparations are required.” Indeed they are.

Take a quick visit to Curbed to read the story.

New parks tool

The Greenprint system now has a major hub supporting park efforts in a variety of settings. Next City reports on the Greenprint Resources Hub which has been developed through combined efforts of the Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land and the Conservation Fund. The site is focused on the benefits of parks, and offers to help "Make the case for conservation with a greenprint".

The Greenprint Resource Hub allows interested parties to explore case studies (like the one in Hawaii), locate greenprints by geography, review best practices, and, perhaps most importantly, explore various funding strategies and policies that help enable greenprints.

While it seems like it is targeted towards park departments and NGOs, students will find it very helpful for projects, too.

Doug Blonsky interviewed in Crain's

Rutgers alum, Doug Blonsky, was interviewed in the latest issue of Crain's about his work as the Executive Director of the Central Park Conservancy.

Maker Park at Bushwick Inlet

It seems that each potential post-industrial park has to be debated again as if it were the first. Hence, the NYTimes coverage of the proposed Maker Park at Bushwick Inlet.

(Naturally, I don't mean that all of these parks should be slam dunks either. Each new park is its own park. It just seems like the coverage never recognizes that these are advancing a collective idea over time.)

Panel on Post-industrial Public Landscapes

Rutgers University - Landscape Architecture Common Lecture
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Loree Building - Auditorium 022, Cook Campus (click for Rutgers Map)

As part of common lecture series, the folks from the Forest Service, NYC Parks and CUNY who have been part of the Freshkills Park and the folks from Rutgers and Montclair State University, who have worked on Liberty State Park will be available to talk from 2-4 before the presentation in Room 148, Blake Hall.

Parking for visitors will be in Lot 87 at Blake Hall. It’s just a short walk to the Loree Building – right along Red Oak Lane.

Parks on TV

On April 10 PBS stations around the US are airing a special called 10 Parks that Changed America. Watch the preview here.

Central Park in the FT

Rutgers alum, Doug Blonsky, got featured in a nice article in the Financial Times this week.

Parks lecture

Nette Compton
Senior Director of Park Central and City Park Development
The Trust for Public Land

Common Ground: Parks as a driver for public process and community empowerment 

Parks play a critical role in the civic life of cities - places to reflect, play, relax, and interact with the community. A successful park is not only based on its size, location, and physical features; the life of a park is in its ability to be used flexibly by a wide range of people, conveying a sense of ownership and welcoming that endear a park it its neighbors. Landscape architects must consider how best to create these vibrant public spaces not only through the built form of a park, but in the process itself. Community engagement in the process of building a park is not just an opportunity to receive feedback on program and layout; it is an opportunity to instill interest and momentum around the value of the park, fostering a network of stewards and advocates long after the ribbon is cut. Presentation to include a collection of case studies demonstrating this process, and a discussion of how landscape architects can play a central role in leading this process.

February 3, 2016 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Cook/Douglass Lecture Hall, Room 110
Cook Campus

Friday Fotos: Postindustrial

With a long weekend ahead, I thought I should post an extra long photoset. On Wednesday, Dr. Wolfram Hoefer talked with  our students about the post industrial landscapes of Germany's Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord (mapped). This is an old industrial site that has been converted into a pretty amazing park.  The design by Latz + Partner is both an icon of brownfields redevelopment and contemporary landscape architecture.Although my photos are from a cloudy day, they give a sense of the large post-industrial site.

Many more photos after the break...

Parks of Northeast Middlesex County

As part of our current studio, I made a quick tour of some parks in Northeast Middlesex County. The diversity was pretty amazing. Check it out below.

DC Parks RX

“We don’t prescribe a park to every patient, but when they are ready we will.”

Do you really need me to say more to get you to read about the DC Parks RX program where doctors write scripts sending patients to parks?

BTW, this story is written by LSU MLA student Liz Camuti who has developed an impressive record of writing over the short time of her internship at ASLA. Geaux Tigers.

Swap parklets for pavement parks

Josh Cohen has penned an opinion piece asking us to, "Stop Building Mediocre Parklets, Start Building Pavement Parks."

The 606 Trail is open

Urban Land Blog takes you on a ride of the first open section of the 606 Trail. In case you don't know Chicago that well, the Tribune has mapped out this elevated park for you.

The Lowline

Have you seen the proposal for the Lowline, a subterranean park-like space in Manhattan?  I'm not sure I really get it, but 1,000 donors do. [Mapped]