Design Week 2009 Redux

Professional shortcourse on stream restoration

ANNOUNCEMENT: STREAM RESTORATION COURSE

The NJ section of the American Water Resources Association is presenting a course on river and stream restoration. The course will be presented in a 2-day and 5-day format and both sections begin on April 27, 2009.

Course details can be found in the attached announcement and at the course web site: http://streamrestorationnj.com/. For more information, please contact Skip Jonas, Course Coordinator via email at njawra_stream@yahoo.com .

Internships in Northern Delaware

Posted more or less as I received it:

Salutations from Mt. Cuba Center <http://www.mtcubacenter.org/> , Hockessin Delaware.

A non-profit, public garden - Mt. Cuba Center <http://www.mtcubacenter.org/> is considered to be the region's finest woodland gardens. Our mission is to foster an appreciation of the Appalachian Piedmont and the conservation of their environment through garden display, education, and research.

We are currently accepting internship <http://www.mtcubacenter.org/contact/internships.html> applications to eight positions. These internships are geared for students who are interested in working and studying native plants. Our program encompasses both working hands on with professionals and plant studies. Students complete the internship knowing how to identify native plants, how they grow and how to incorporate them in the landscape. Students spend time both in the field and in the lab.

Please pass this internship application
<http://www.mtcubacenter.org/contact/documents/InternshiipBrochure2009professorversion.pdf> to any of your students who may benefit from this
hands-on training. The application deadline is March 1, 2009.

Please feel free to contact me at 302 239-4244 ext. 234 or jehrhardt@mtcubacenter.org.

Julia Lo Ehrhardt
Education Assistant
Mt Cuba Center Inc
PO Box 3570
Greenville, DE 19807-0570
302.239.4244 ext 234
www.mtcubacenter.org

Roberto Burle Marx

The NY Times posted a slideshow and review of a new museum exhibit in Rio on Roberto Burle Marx. It is great to see this important painter and landscape architect getting some well deserved attention. His parks are treated as giant paintings and his home is a national landmark. But it his sensitivity to the landscape that is praised by Virginia's architecture dean, Karen Van Lengen :

“Burle Marx was prescient in his reverence for plants and his stewardship of the whole nursery, for his ability to see the garden both as an aesthetic experiment and also as part of the ecology,” Ms. Van Lengen said. “That’s the challenge for today’s landscape architects, to bring those energies together.

“Burle Marx was already doing that before most people were even thinking about it, so he really stands alone.”

Land+Living had some good photos and links a while back.

Live Blog: Networked Ecologies: Infra-Architecture

Mason White
University of Toronto
Lateral Architecture
InfraNet Lab
"Networked Ecologies: Infra-Architecture"

Since he is used to talking to architects, this is a refreshing opportunity to explore this topic without having to first educate his audience on the different nature of the landscape.

Four figures have provided guidance for this presentation:

• Benton MacKaye - coined the term geotechnics: where human settlement encounters nature
• Constantine Doxiadis - Ekistics - Ecumenopolis - a continuous city
• Cedric Price - Potteries Thinkbelt - advanced site finding
• Keller Easterling - Organization of space - Enduring innocence -

In thinking about infrastructure - somewhere in the mix there is an immense amount of science, but also an opportunity for an immense amount of design

The networks of food, economics, aeroponics, hydroponics and infrastructure are all about SYSTEMS.

One student project was from Scotland looking at seaweed agriculture. How is it moved? How is it stored? The design looked at a net system with a drying tower and seed farm on the land. The multiple public lives it could have include a nighttime use as a lighthouse.

Another project looked at the possibility of merging speculative office space with sustainable agriculture/greenhouse space.

Both have great graphics. Be sure to look closer.

In Reykjavik they looked at turning runways into greenways for production, civic/ecology, and recreations.

Their final project was a metis garden inspired by the map that changed the world and brought in soil samples from throughout Canada.

Infrastructure quotes

"The operation of infrastructure disrupts the opposition between culture and nature, which posits landscape as an unbuilt, original condition upon which architecture, as part of culture, is built. Infrastructure is a built ground onto which a landscape, nature, is built. They [infrastructures] acquire the spatial and functional characteristics of the places onto which they are grafted. They [infrastructures] emerge as frame works for urban development.”

-- Berrizbeitia, Anita, and Linda Pollak. Inside Outside : Between Architecture and Landscape. Minneapolis: F & W Publications, Incorporated, 2003.




Infrastructures are flexible and anticipatory. They work with time and are open to change. By specifying what must be fixed and what is subject to change, they can be precise and indeterminate at the same time. They work through management and cultivation, changing slowly to adjust to shifting conditions. They do not progress toward a predetermined state (as with master planning strategies), but are always evolving within a loose envelope of constraints…. Infrastructure creates a directed field, where different architects and designers can contribute, but it sets technical and instrumental limits to their work. Infrastructure itself works strategically, but it encourages tactical improvisation.

--Stan Allen, INDEX Architecture, A Columbia Book of Architecture, 2003, p. 87

Google Earth on Inauguration Day

Google Earth has some special updates today.

Sea level rise in NJ

The Asbury Park Press focused attention on some of the potential impacts of sea level rise. The reporting cites Cook College alum, John D'Agostino, as well as a CRSSA study:

Another mapping study by the Center for Remote Sensing and Spatial Analysis at Rutgers predicted inundation of coastal marshes all along the state's littoral, from the Hackensack River Meadowlands through the Shore's back bays and up the Mullica and Great Egg Harbor rivers. Left to nature's ways, those marshes would gradually migrate landward with sea-level rise, but in many places retreat is blocked by roads, utility lines and other vital infrastructure, D'Agostino said.

Still, you'd be better off checking out the actual studies and papers since the slightly awkward reporting reveals that they might not quite be picking up on some subtleties and caveats that those reports may have built on.

Google Earth on Inauguration Day

Google Earth has some special updates today.

Nature's Infrastructure

PlaNetizen has published a timely column by Jim LaGro encouraging the new administration to make sure that it's infrastructural development emphasizes improvements in nature's infrastructure. Since infrasturcture is central to the theme for Design Wek, this stands out as being notable.

Group think and other collective failures

The Utne Reader has two interesting articles looking at problems with groupwork.  One looks at how groups that get along well are susceptible to the problem called groupthink.

Groupthink—the go along to get along mentality that results in accelerated, false consensus—was vexing collective endeavors long before psychologist Irving Janis popularized the phenomenon in 1972. A sure sign of groupthink is team members getting along too well. Those who might dissent stifle themselves: No one wants to rock the boat, irritate superiors, or lengthen a meeting by disagreeing with the consensus. But a project can be doomed if no one stops to wonder “What if we’re wrong?”

The other makes suggestions about how to lead your group through tough times.  Great reading as you start Design Week.

Obama knows Jane Jacobs

Welcome back to school. We can celebrate Inauguration Day with this link to a video of Obama talking up planning principles in a political context.

Design Week Lecture

Jan 21, 2009

Mason White, University of Toronto, Lateral Architecture, InfraNet Lab
"Networked Ecologies: Infra-Architecture"
Wednesday 4:00-4:55 PM
Cook Douglass Lecture Hall 110

Mason White has a B.Arch from Virginia Tech and an M.Arch from Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Mason’s work and research privileges architecture as a mutable territory that is formed out of and responsive to its environment and history. His work, research and teaching invites readings of Architecture as a byproduct of complex networks within ecology and culture. Design is conceived more as a system for open patterns of use and active engagement rather than merely arranged objects. Recent research pursues questions of the role of infrastructure and networks within contemporary spatial practice. His design research exists at the intersection of architecture, landscape, and urbanism. It is often situated within sites where the systems and codes that determine these environments must be uncovered and rethought.

Mason founded Lateral Office <http://www.lateralarch.com> in 2002 in partnership with Lola Sheppard. He is also Director of InfraNet Lab <http://www.infranetlab.org> , an exploratory initiative launched in 2008. InfraNet Lab is a non-profit research collective probing the spatial byproducts of contemporary resource logistics.

Mason received the Alumni Travel Fellowship from Virginia Tech in 2001, and was the Lefevre Emerging Practitioner Fellow at Ohio State University in 2003-04. In 2005, Lateral Office was selected for the Young Architects Forum by the Architectural League of New York.

Mason’s work has been published in Young Architects: Situating (Princeton Architectural Press, 2006), Canadian Architect, Landscape Architecture, C3 and l’Arca. His writing has been published in Alphabet City: Fuel (MIT Press, 2008), Ourtopias (Riverside Press, 2008), MARK, Detail, A+U, and 306090. Mason has taught at Cornell University, The Ohio State University, and is currently the Director of the Master of Architecture program at the University of Toronto, Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape & Design.

Photosynth innauguration

I don't know how this is going to end up looking, but I think it is a very cool test of an emerging technology. CNN is trying to crowdsource the photography of the inauguration and then use Microsoft's Photosynth to create a 3dimensional spatial representation of the historic day.

Sonoran Desert Museum

A little more from the Sonoran Desert Museum.

Bad apples on studio projects

I know. You've spent your entire winter break thinking about how much you hated working on a team. It would have been great except for that one person. Thank goodness you'll never have to work with anyone else for the rest of your time here...

Until Design Week 2009!

Well, to get ready for a little more group work, you might want to listen to the opening segment of the recent episode of This American Life called Ruining It for the Rest of Us. To set the stage, they talk to a researcher who experimented with group behavior. He explored the three general kinds of bad behavior that could bring down a group:

• Insulting jerk - attacks others - "Are you kidding me?"
• Slacker - does less than they can - text messages other friends during team meetings
• Depressive pessimist - puts their head down - "We can't succeed" or "This isn't fun at all"

What he found was that just one bad apple could bring down the group - performance was down 30-40%. What ever the bad actor did, the behavior spread to the whole group. The jerk's insults would quickly lead to other insults, not just directed at the jerk. When he just kept his head on the table, the rest of the group would end up tired and say "let's just get this over with".

But here's the thing. A good leader should be able to recognize these behaviors and intervene. Did you have one of these bad apples on a recent team? Did you try to keep it from spreading? Or did you let their defeatism become the team's motto?

One of the challenges for Design Week 2009 will be to watch out for the bad apples and try to help them improve.

Cream Ridge

Design Week is almost here, but have you looked at the site?

We'll spend the week looking at The New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station's farm down at Cream Ridge. This has been home to Rutgers Fruit & Ornamental Research Extension Center. The farm is in Upper Freehold Township at the western end of Monmouth County. That puts it in WMA 20 and just inside the upper right corner of the New Egypt quad sheet.

There are lots of air photos. Historic Aerials has a nice 1931 and 1947 image. When in doubt, check this latlong out 40.117235,-74.526186


View Larger Map

Liberty State Park

The Star-Ledger took a look at reasearch that Rutgers is pursuing at Liberty State Park.  One of the folks they talked to was Frank Gallagher. Aside from his role in overseeing the new plans for the park, Gallagher is also teaching our class called, Environmental Issues in the US.

Harris Hawk

At the Sonoran Desert Museum.

Lecture: Tom Woltz on Desiging the Frame

Jan 28, 2009
Thomas Woltz, ASLA
Nelson Byrd Woltz
“Designing the Frame: landscape architecture as a tool in the ecological conservation, education & sustainable architecture.”

Wednesday 4:00-4:55 PM
Cook Douglass Lecture Hall 110

Mr. Woltz is a landscape architect who holds Masters degrees in Architecture and in Landscape Architecture from the University of Virginia. In addition to his practice, Mr. Woltz maintains a part-time faculty position at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. He currently teaches Sites and Systems, a graduate course which explores ecological system analysis as a generator of design strategies in architecture and landscape architecture. Through teaching and constructed form, he seeks to emphasize the rich dialogue between the disciplines of architecture, landscape architecture, and ecological process.

Nick’s Head Station, Gisborne, New Zealand
The firm of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects is developing a master plan for the estate that would assure a productive farming operation while repairing ecological damage done over the past hundred years including near total deforestation, drainage of fifteen hectares (37 acres) of wetland to the Pacific Ocean, and serious erosion due in part to over-grazing. With the completion of the Master Plan and the extensive conservation work, only 470 hectares (1,160 acres) of the 680 hectare (1,680 acre) property will be farmed. Despite the reduction in farming area, the fencing plans and improved fertilization regime have allowed livestock numbers to remain at levels prior to the implementation of the plan. Already the estate is a destination for local environmental groups, international students, and local farmers and the goal of an environmentally responsible livestock farm is slowly being realized.

El Prado en Google Earth

Google's effort to digitize everything on the planet has taken another leap forward. Somehow they got into the great art museum, the Prado, in Madrid. They captured the highest possible resolution images of the paintings and have put the Prado online in Google Earth.

When you follow the link, be sure to watch the video (seriously), it will make you appreciate what it takes to generate these high quality images. The detail is unbelievable. And, I can take my time to study the images, unlike when I visited the real Prado with two small boys.

Is Gen X really in charge?

Some people are using next week's peaceful transition of power as a metaphor for everything under the sun. Tammy Erickson, at the Harvard Business Review, thinks that this is a time for many in business too. Gen Ys are being integrated fully into the work teams and Xers are taking the reins while the baby boomers are stepping back to help. She writes:

Will these new roles suit the times? I think perhaps they will. Bill Strauss and Neil Howe, coauthors of Generations, posit that each generation makes a unique bequest to those that follow -- and generally seeks to correct the excesses of the previous generation. They argue that the Boomer excess is ideology -- and that the Generation X reaction to that excess involves an emphasis on pragmatism and effectiveness.

This generational priority will give X'ers a strong advantage in remaking organizations to reflect twenty-first-century realities: the need for transparency, accountability, real-time performance, lack of ideology, top-of-market effectiveness, and cash value.

What will that mean for the professional firms and public offices where our grads are working? Is there any chance that the Ys will jump past the Xs and take over directly from the boomers?

Self-handicapping isn't excused

The NY Times reports on a researcher that studied the ways people used excuses for performing below the expected standard. We've all heard someone say something like, "I did poorly on that test because I didn't get enough sleep." It starts out as a temporary excuse but becomes an addictive long-term problem:

As a short-term strategy, self-handicapping is often no more than an exercise in self-delusion. Studies of college students have found that habitual handicappers — who skip a lot of classes; who miss deadlines; who don’t buy the textbook — tend to rate themselves in the top 10 percent of the class, though their grades slouch between C and D.

On the other hand, I have had students who seemed to be single moms, wrecked their only car, constantly sick AND working 3 job (OK, maybe 2 of the four?), but found a way to attend every class and outperform their classmates. It seems like people who really want to succeed just find a way.

A map of sand

The NY Times has turned its attention to mapping out sand. It is certainly more fun than reading the world news.

Can video games fight trauma?

Researchers found that playing Tetris could fight trauma if played immediately after the traumatic event.

The season is finally over

Thank goodness. We finally have a National Champ and the SEC is somewhat vindicated. LSU climbed back in to the Sagarin's top 25. And Kentucky and Rutgers both finished with improvements. Oddly enough, both RU and UK finished 3 spots worse than where they started in the pre-season rankings.

I can't wait until next year...to see what graphing options Google presents us.

Too much, too late

In the last year I have gained a greater appreciation for Philadelphia. In particular, our field trip to ASLA included some great walks and provided a different perspective on the city. So, I was primed for the photo archives from Philly History. This is an award-winning collaborative effort that has posted over 60,000 historic photos and 5,000 maps capturing the old Philadelphia. Oh, did I mention that they are all geotagged?

• This one from Quarry street has some ne'er-do-well hanging out.
• This photo of the Broad Street Station under construction helped me realize how much the city has changed in just several decades.
• And here's a great photo taken from the top of City Hall showing some areas near where the conference was held.

Video: What is Landscape Architecture?

Here's a short video of Jane Amidon describing landscape architecture as a profession. A perfect treat on transfer advising day.

Sustainable Sites Initiative makes the NY Times

Today's NY Times included a fairly lengthy piece on the Sustainable Sites Initiative. Their article looks more at the USBG's participation. It includes a quote from Ray Mims:

“We want to make sure that you look at the soil, the vegetation, the hydrology, so that you are improving — or certainly not harming — the natural ecosystem,” he said.

That would be an interesting contrast with the LEED standards which seem designed to promote building by trying to be less bad.

Your last chance to comments on the report is January 20th!

Take some time out for film

Movies are a great way to relax while still peeking at special landscapes or learning a little more about how the world sees designers. Here are a few movies you might watch before returning from the break:

• The Truman Show shot in Seaside, Florida
• Sunshine State with Tim Hutton as the Landscape Architect
• Frtiz Lang's Metropolis

Did anyone see Jude Law's landscape architect in Breaking and Entering? I hate to recommend it since I haven't seen it (and since it was a January release). Somewhere I have a much more complete list, but it'll probably have to wait until Spring Break.

Study abroad featured at SEBS

Direct your browsers to SEBS.Rutgers.Edu right now and you will see a photo (and a link to more) from last summers' Germany studio. If you follow the link to the scholarships you'll see a picture from our studio in Barcelona.

Depot

Things are moving (slowly) at the depot in Hillsborough.

Is eminent domain a mainstream topic?

Some of the planning topics that we explore have proven to be a bit obscure. I know, because when I chat with people at public meetings or sit next to a stranger on an airplane, it takes while for me to explain why PPGIS or TDR are interesting to me. I mean they all impact your property rights and taxes, and they all might shape the places where you live or play, right? At least that's how I see it. But the citizenry has a mixed response to the issues.

So, now eminent domain comes along and is in the papers a little more often than the others on the list. I know it has some non-profits trying to fight its use and make the public aware of the tradeoffs involved. But do people really care? Or is this a fringe movement? Well, today I found this interesting piece of evidence that suggests this is a mainstream conversation.

An online map of red dots

Camden's new spatially-enabled online reporting system of complaints has resulted in an easily accessible map that has some people feeling "despondent". Maybe they should consider a new tagline like, Camden: The City of Unresolved Complaints. This is a good example of how VGI and PPGIS can backfire. Being able to complain isn't the same as having your voice heard.

2009 Milestone

I was so busy writing weighty and meaningful items for the blog that I didn't notice when our counter hit the 100,000 visits mark. Yes, some commercial sites hit that in a day (or even an hour). But we'll take what we can get here at Places and Spaces.

Berlin reconstruction

Germany has picked the architect for a notorious reconstruction project in Berlin and the TImes has some very helpful photos. I suspect that our summer studio students visited the whole in the ground last summer.

Faster change than anticipated

The US Climate Change progam, led by the USGS, has released a report that says that climate change and sea level rise are happening faster than previously thought. According to the Washington Post:

In one of the report's most worrisome findings, the agency estimates that in light of recent ice sheet melting, global sea level rise could be as much as four feet by 2100. The IPCC had projected a sea level rise of no more than 1.5 feet by that time, but satellite data over the past two years show the world's major ice sheets are melting much more rapidly than previously thought. The Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets are now losing an average of 48 cubic miles of ice a year, equivalent to twice the amount of ice that exists in the Alps.

A four foot change really means something to a number of the more famous (and less famous) coastal attractions in New Jersey like Cape May, Atlantic City, Wildwood, or Sandy Hook. But it also will severly impact the less visitable coastal wetlands that make some of these places possible. Even in New Brunswick and 4' rise would be a serious thing to consider, so I hope the county isn't spending any more tax money on a marina down there.

Water mains

Is this another sign that we are entering the era of infrastructure?

A river of sludge

A river of toxic sludge is flowing in Tennessee. The link includes a video that is dramtic enough to warrant watching the local ad that opens it. This is bad timing considering the recent change in federal rules.

Just in time for Boxing Day

T-shirts.

Best careers 2009

Readers of ASLA's DIRT have already seen their posting advertising that US News and World Reports' Best Careers for 2009 includes both Landscape Architecture and Urban Regional Planning. (It also looks like they've dropped architect as a career)

Even in tough economic times, these professions should be relatively strong. They have limited educational opportunities compared with the need for their work, especially as issues like green urbanism move ahead.

green urbanism

Witold Rybczynski reflects on the recent green urbanism conference at UPenn. He asks if cities can really save the planet but also asks how we can change our cities if it is too late to prevent climate change.

Post-downturn New York?

Nick Paumgarten imagines a grim scenario for New York in an economic downturn.

Tarragona

Old photos will have to do instead of real blogging since my grades aren't done. These are from Tarragona, Spain.




Here is their old market.

Majora Carter

The NY Times calls her the green power broker and talk about the fact that some environmentalists might not appreciate the fame she is getting.

105 years in the air

Today is the anniversary of the first flight at Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

What did it look like and when?

There is a great commercial site where you can see parts of NJ (and some other states) at different points in time over the last few decades. Check it out at http://historicaerials.com/

Small Sustainability

In LAND Online, Bill Thompson asks whether sustainability is affordable and whether smaller projects can afford to respond in meaningful ways to environmental concerns. He positions the question with this bit of evidence:

George Washington University’s program in landscape design now offers a Certificate in Sustainable Landscapes to teach landscape designers “best practices in landscape conservation and sustainability, adapted to the small-scale landscape at the neighborhood level.”

Greenprint program in Maryland

Maryland has used a Greenprint program to develop a statewide GIS-based parcel map of open space.

The mapping project is partially a response to objections that the state was buying open space and preserving forests and farmland as they came on the market, rather than identifying the most important parcels that would protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Old slides

I found some old scans of 35mm slides. Some of the slides predate my time at Rutgers, but the scans just predate our better scanners, I think. I am sharing a few of those that look more like real slides.






(Photos: Grand Teton National Park, Montreal Olympic site, Saguaro National Park, Budapest Parliament, Budapest Streetcar, FLW's Hollyhock House, Long Island City)

The NY Times

Since the New York Times is the paper of record, I had hoped that a small measure of my success might come from getting my academic work mentioned in the pages of the Gray Lady.

Well, I made it! Maybe a feature in the higher education special section or a mention in the Science Times, right? No, not those. I am in the lead photo for a restaurant review in today's New Jersey section. Fortunately for the world at large, the photo is not available online. And since printed newspapers are going the way of the dinosaur, it is like being almost famous.

2009 Triad Internship

The Center for Public Horticulture at the University of Delaware is accepting applications for the 2009 Triad Internship. The purpose of this unique learning / working experience is to provide undergraduate students an introduction to the diverse careers in public horticulture and an exposure to the missions, resources, and operations of varied public horticulture institutions. The Internship provides broad exposure to career opportunities through a balance of job shadowing, hands-on work, and other learning opportunities. While this Internship is part of the UD Landscape Horticulture curriculum, undergraduate students from any college or university are invited to participate. Working with staff of the Center, students will choose three internship sites with differing missions and budgets, from a menu of approximately thirty public gardens from one of the following metropolitan areas:

. Philadelphia / Wilmington, DE
. New York City
. Washington, D.C.
. Baltimore
. Northern New Jersey

An applicant may also work well in advance with The Center to assemble an internship in another area of the country or with gardens not listed on the menu.

While UD students can earn three hours of course credit, students from all universities and academic programs are invited to participate, but are urged to verify credit transfer acceptance at their home institution prior to registration. The Center cannot be responsible for any credit transfer problems.

The Center will provide a stipend to each student that includes $10 per hour of work at each institution, as well as cover transportation expenses, and, if necessary, housing expenses. A minimum of 135 work hours is required, with extensions entertained upon request, especially for non-UD students, pending availability of funds. The Internship is offered for credit only,
and all students are responsible for associated tuition and fees, including out of state tuition if applicable. The application deadline is February 1, 2009, with decisions by March 1st. For an application, list of host gardens, FAQ's, and more information, visit the Center's website at <http://www.publichorticulture.udel.edu/education/triad-internship.html>.

Will Manville get wet?

Even as we are trying to wrap up our look at the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed, things are getting pretty dicey on the downstream side of things. Here is the threat assessment from the Home News and Tribune:

The Raritan River will crest just below flood stage in Manville, according to the National Weather Service. Flood stage in Manville is 14 feet and the crest is predicted at 13.9 at 1 p.m. Friday.

At 15 feet Dukes Parkway begins to flood Manville. At 14 feet, street and roadway flooding widespread in the Manville area. At 13 feet, Southside Ave. in Somerville floods. Cautionary stage is reached at 12 feet with minor street and roadway flooding. At this 11 feet, some flooding of roadways begins.

Federal spending on higher education

The Chronicle will help you monitor federal appropriations for higher education and science. If you aren't familiar with the process you'll probably be surprised at the number of categories that they track.

OIRT shortcuts

As part of the conversation at OIRT today, we'll talk about newer computing things and I'm using some of these shortcuts...

Revolutionary War in NJ
Vernal pools
Eco-preserve
NJ LA Sites
History of Landscape Architecture
LA Field Trips - Boston, NYC, DC

Common Census
GreenMap for GoogleEarth

I'll probably also make a shameless plug of my First Monday paper.

Our keywords are PPGIS and VGI. You can just pretend you were there.

Andrea Cochran on the cover of LAM

RU LA alumna Andrea Cochran has an award-winning project in California's Russian River Valley that is featured in the most recent issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine. It is also the cover photo.

Distributed computing

IBM's World Community Grid wants to use your computer while you sleep to save the world. This approach to distributed computing isn't new, but with over 1,000,000 participants helping improve solar panels and energy solutions, this is more impressive than SETI.

Better than astrology

The letter of the day is P and the number of the day is 10.

Wind turbines

Can you imagine the day when urban New Jersey neighborhoods might have more wind turbines than satellite dishes? Me, neither. But it is fun trying.

Green Showroom

A temporary green building as a showroom for sustainable techniques.

T. S. Eliot

from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.

Car-free Nagoya City

Some design students in Japan took off for 3 days and designed the future of their city without cars.

Cools Class: Gardens and Landscapes of Italy

Study Abroad

Gardens and Landscapes of Italy
3 Credits
May, 2009


Informational meeting on
Wednesday, December 10
4:30 PM
Blake Room 152

David Brooks on on New Localism

In his column this morning, David Brooks cites Joel Kotkin's 2002 book The New Geography (which probably just jumped on Amazon) and the phenomenon of New Localism which he then links to Obama's new infrastructure investment plan. He sets the stage well for both his discussion of the plan but also our current exploration of our watershed:

The 1980s and 1990s made up the era of the great dispersal. Forty-three million people moved every year, and basically they moved outward — from inner-ring suburbs to far-flung exurbs on the metro fringe. For example, the population of metropolitan Pittsburgh declined by 8 percent in those years, but the developed land area of the Pittsburgh area sprawled outward by 43 percent.

It is remarkable how rapidly much of this change occurred. Still more remarkable is how we act like nothing has changed - this is the America of Jefferson and Lincoln and Roosevelt. In reality, this is something new and very possibly something fairly transitory. Read Brooks' column and see if you think something new is coming down the pike.

Regular season over

Wow. At the end of the regular season Rutgers has a higher Sagarin ranking than any of the other teams I follow.



But when you look at the ratings, the teams are closer than you might think. The difference between the bottom and the top is less than 6 points.

Crits

Part of taking a crit is in the listening.

Dan Kiley's Westward Expansion

The NY Times writes about the current debate over the future of the historic park at the base of the St Louis Arch. The "history" is not that the site restores an ancient burial ground or a lean-to used by the Lewis and Clark expedition, but instead it is the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial park design by Dan Kiley. The park is considered one of the birthplaces of American modernism in landscape architecture.

One group has raised money for the park, but wants to "improve" the park in ways that might compromise the integrity of the original design. As the centerpiece of St Louis, the entire city thinks it should serve the city in various ways. But the preservationists point out that (aside from literal ownership by the NPS) the park is for all of America and not just the city:

“This is where it all begins,” said Charles Birnbaum, president of the Cultural Landscape Foundation, a nonprofit group in Washington.

“Here are two of the most important place makers of the 20th century, and this is one of their most important commissions,” he said of Kiley and Saarinen. “You start putting in buildings, and it changes the geometry significantly.”

"Gardening" books

The NY Times Review of Books threaded several books together under the heading of "gardening" but I don't think that Métis and vertical gardens were meant to fit the normal ideas about what is included in gardening. Indeed, the Times itself admits as much:

This year’s offerings, with a couple of notable exceptions, seem more to do with thinking about gardens than with the act of gardening. And only a particular kind of gardener (one who has to survive a very long period of dormancy) will have the patience to tussle with the vexatious question on several writers’ minds: What is a garden?

Still, the review is well worth the time for reading even if you don't have the inclination to read these particular books further.

The tanning pits of Fez

The always reliable Daily Dose of Architecture has posted a great exploration of a potential new life for the famous tanning pits of Fez, Morocco.

OIRT is making Rutgers more like a game

Technologies for instruction are providing increasing opportunities for collaboration, student engagement, and active learning.

Rutgers' Office of Instructional and Research Technology is holding their annual Holiday Technology Showcase

featuring the
Grand Opening of the Rutgers University Second Life Island
and the
Launch of Rutgers on iTunes

Also featuring: Sakai, ePortfolios, Digital Storytelling, and Games
for Education
Thursday, December 11, 2008, from 10am-6pm
ASB Annex 1, Busch Campus

A list of exhibits and demonstrations is available at:http://oirt.rutgers.edu/showcase2008

Environmentally-friendly Christmas Trees?

Growing Christmas trees may not sound like the most destructive practice, but the NY Times reports on how some farms are finding ways to improve on traditional practices.

The rising waters of Venice

Venice is very wet this week. You have to check out the photos at The Big Picture. Just the photos of Piazza San Marco and the Doge's Palace alone are great. But the people buying food in waders is a sign of how extreme this city is.

Live Blog: Joel Flagler (brief)

Today's liveblog was cut VERY short by technical problems and some of this is from memory...

The 2008 Landscape Industry Lecture

Taking Stock: The True Value of Horticultural Therapy

by Joel Flagler

Flagler has been at Rutgers for 21 years - he is a Cook grad and got his masters at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

The only ag extension agent with a teaching appointment - Rutgers is one of four Universities in USA that offer a degree in horticultural therapy

Our language is filled with many horticultural references – a reflection of how we integrate values into the dialogue.

Horticultural therapy is used in at least 3 different ways:

* Vocational
* Therapetic
* Social

There are myriad benefits including building self-esteem, enhanced motor skills, psycho-emotional healing, job skills, etc.

An exciting example in Bergen County is Health Barn USA. He promises we'll hear more about it soon.

(The above photo shows people shopping for some happy healthy improvements at Ag Field Day)

3d GIS Symposium

Join the GITA New York/New Jersey Chapter for their 3D Infrastructure Symposium

Thursday, December 11, 2008
The Graduate Center/CUNY
Skylight Conference Room 9100
365 Fifth Avenue (at 34th Street)
New York City, NY 10016
(view map), http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=365+Fifth+Avenue,+ny&sll=40.748419,-73.983639&sspn=0.00595,0.007242&ie=UTF8&t=h&ll=40.749858,-73.986268&spn=0.011899,0.020106&z=16&iwloc=addr

This event will focus on 3D/4D applications of infrastructure modeling and management. New York City is home to some remarkable 3D infrastructure projects and is an excellent location to challenge the capability of technological solutions provided by our key sponsors. You can read more about these technologies on the Web or walk in for powerful sessions at our event.

Symposium Outline:
08:30 - 09:00 Registration
09:00 - 12:00 Invited Presentations
12:00 - 01:00 Lunch
01:00 - 04:00 Technical Breakout Sessions
04:00 - 04:30 Awards


Keynote Speaker:
Cosema E. Crawford, P.E.
Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer
Department of Capital Program Management, MTA NYCT

Featured Speakers:
William E. Goodrich P.E., Program Executive, MTA Capital Construction
Judith Kunoff, AIA, LEED AP, CCM, Chief Architect, CPM, MTA NYCT
Geoff Zeiss, Autodesk
Mike Williams, CIO Parsons Brinckerhoff
Christopher Reseigh, SVP, PB Americas
John Okerman, Bentley
Abhi Basu, Basu Technology
Hosney Abdelgelil, NYC BIM Group
& few more award winning speakers!


View more information here!, http://gita.org/chapters/new_york/3D-Infrastructure-GITA-NYNJ-Dec11-.pdf

Registration is FREE. Pre-registration is required for this event. Please email nynjgita@gmail.com with your contact information or you can register online., https://www.gita.org/forms/forms/Default/GITA_NY_NJ_3D_Symposium.aspx

Travel Notes:
The building is across from the Empire State Building, and is convenient to all major transportation routes. Grand Central Terminal, Pennsylvania Station, the midtown PATH, and all major New York City subway and bus lines are within easy walking distance.

For more information or questions, contact us at nynjgita@gmail.com.

Plans for the Depot

The current plan for the General Services Belle Mead Depot is to turn it into a park. They need a plan before they can receive Brownfields funding for the clean-up.

The Depot's history is at least a little interesting, according to the Home News:

The depot was an Army warehouse facility through the Vietnam War. During World War II, the facility was used as a camp for captured members of the Italian military. The property was then turned over to the General Services Administration and was used until its closure in 1991.

StreetView gets more visible

Wired describes how GoogleMap has brought their StreetView into greater visibility. The video is goofy, but fun.

Old news

Catching up with news and links that I meant to post earlier...

• New Jersey's decrepit sites
• Downtown vs. Downturn (Features Manville's Grub hut)
• The Times had a great graphic on the restoration of St John the Divine
• Beetles are killing the trees
• NYC's historic preservation process isn't as efficient and successful as you might hope

The shake-up continues

Rutgers has climbed to 42 with LSU at 40. When you look back at around the 5th or 6th week, and see the chasm between those two teams, the change is quite impressive. It will be interesting to see if anyone can make a big change between now and January.