A leafy drive in Nashville, hikes in the Appalachian wilderness, a spin on a scenic Colorado byway: There are many ways to savor autumn while being mindful of pandemic travel precautions. Below are six fall outings, in Massachusetts, Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Tennessee and Colorado, replete with apple cider doughnuts, a highway ghost and sightings of otters, beavers and wild turkeys.

Nashville: Percy Warner Park and Radnor Lake

Fall in Nashville is the most vibrant season, and there is no better way for an immersion in the season's rich reds, corals and ochers than a drive along the canopied blacktop through Percy Warner Park, just 9 miles south of downtown. Tag on a hike around another Nashville gem, Radnor Lake, and you have the makings of a dazzling day trip, all within the confines of the city limits, and a perfect outing during the pandemic. Both parks abide by the Centers for Disease Control's guidance on social distancing, and numerous trails in both parks make it easy to avoid crowds.

Percy Warner Park and Edwin Warner Park on the National Register of Historic Places span 3,131 acres of wooded hills, open meadows and streams. The adjoining parks, which opened in 1927, offer hiking trails, mountain bike paths and bridle paths. However, a slow-rolling, scenic drive through the mature deciduous forest during peak fall is nothing short of stunning: The sun strobes through the trees above drivers, who share the roadway with hikers, cyclists and dog walkers. Once inside the park, the tulip poplars, dogwoods, black cherry, sassafras and pawpaw trees are breathtaking. Given the park's designation as a nature sanctuary, it's not unusual to see wild turkeys, white-tailed deer, cottontail rabbits, Eastern chipmunks and coyotes.

The road a roughly 4-mile loop can be found at the Old Hickory Boulevard entrance. You'll pass the tall wooden lookout that oversees the grounds (and beyond) of the annual Iroquois Steeplechase, which was canceled this year because of the pandemic, and along the route are scenic overlooks.

You can also enter Percy Warner via Belle Meade Boulevard. This is the main entrance with a ceremonial-style arch and dramatic limestone steps reminiscent of a European alle that was designed by landscape architect Bryant Fleming, who also designed the early 20th-century Cheek Mansion at Cheekwood Estate & Gardens.

From the Belle Meade Boulevard entrance, you can find trails like the Warner Woods trail, a 2 1/2-mile unpaved walking path that traverses the interior of Percy Warner, as well as a 5.8-mile stretch of paved pedestrian trail.

Next, set your GPS to Radnor Lake State Park off Otter Creek Road, another of the city's natural jewels, about 7 miles east. Because Radnor Lake does not allow food, it may be wise to first swing by a Nashville standard, Mere Bulles, just off Old Hickory Boulevard, for their famous crab bisque, available to go (call first). You won't regret it (or forget it).

The sublime glassy Radnor Lake pulls in photographers from around mid-Tennessee who often arrive early enough to shoot the morning brume that rises from the lake. Here, too, you can glimpse plenty of wildlife: deer, turtles, turkey, eagles, owls, waterfowl and coyotes; ranger-led programs throughout the year include canoe floats, night hikes and wildflower walks.

All the trails are blazingly colorful during autumn, often heightened on cloudless days by an azure sky.

One trail Otter Creek Road Trail is an accessible milelong stroll that hugs the curves of the lake and is paved for those in wheelchairs. Black gum, American beech and other deciduous trees line the trail, offering some respite from the sun. Still, hikers are close enough to the water to catch glimpses of lake inhabitants like beavers, minks and otters. For more experienced hikers, Radnor Lake's strenuous Ganier Ridge Trail delivers a gorgeous view of downtown Nashville.

Colleen Creamer

Massachusetts: The Berkshires

Fall is far and away my favorite time in the Berkshires.

This autumn, the region offers opportunities to alternate new trails with old favorites. But first, a few planning tips. I recommend the BNRC Berkshire Trails app from the Berkshire Natural Resources Council. You could spend a wonderful week wandering Berkshire County's backroads, using this app to guide you from one secluded wonder to the next.

Note, too, that many leading cultural venues including the Clark Art Institute, Hancock Shaker Village and The Mount, Edith Wharton's former home are not only open but are surrounded by paths and gentle trails on which it's easy to socially distance, and to sidestep that tough Berkshires call: culture or nature?

Most important, check Massachusetts's strict quarantine rules before you leave home. Oh, and dress brightly it's hunting season. And watch out for bears.

Start your day at Dottie's Coffee Lounge in Pittsfield, my hometown, where Jess Lamb (who previously practiced her craft at Joe Coffee on E. 13th St. in Manhattan) and her colleagues create the county's richest-tasting lattes with beans from Barrington Coffee and milk from High Lawn Farm, both in nearby Lee. Then drive west to Pittsfield State Forest (free).

Around 30 miles of trails lace this roughly 11,000-acre realm, which once formed part of Mohican and Mohawk hunting grounds. Later, the Shakers settled here. Their graves, former settlements and dancing sites can still be found among the stands of sugar maple, oak, birch and white pine.

First-time visitors should head to Berry Pond. At around 2,150 feet, it's the state's highest natural body of water. My mother and I often came here to pick blueberries, so imagine my surprise when I learned that it was named for William Berry, a Revolutionary War hero.

A network of steepish trails or a scenic one-way loop road, built by the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, can take you up (the road is curvy and narrow; pedestrians, cyclists and motorists should keep a close eye out for one another). Enjoy the spectacular westerly overlook, then head downhill to the pond for a view of the season's colors, pleasingly doubled by the water's mirror.

The world's most mouthwatering cider doughnuts still come from Bartlett's Orchard in Richmond. So busy was their farm shop this summer that they've instituted weekend online ordering and curbside pickup for the fall; you can still pick apples in the orchards behind the shop. From here, drive or cycle to Parsons Marsh, a BNRC property in Lenox that opened in 2018. A trail and boardwalk (free; one-third of a mile each way; wheelchair accessible) wind through a woodland worthy of Tolkien's Galadriel, and wetlands even now bursting with life. Along the marsh's edge you'll find haunting examples of the still-standing dead trees known as snags fine lookouts for raptors and your own tranquil views (see the beaver lodge?) from the deck at the boardwalk's end.

Then head to Bousquet Mountain, site of my first childhood ski lessons on Drifter, a gentle slope that's now also the start of the three-season Mahanna Cobble Trail (free; 1.4 miles each way; elevation gain, around 750 feet). Mahanna Cobble opened in June. It's the newest stretch of the BNRC's High Road initiative, a long-term plan, inspired in part by the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route through Spain, to use both old and recently cut trails to reconnect Berkshire landscapes and communities.

Mark Vanhoenacker

Ohio: Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Any road that gets you close to the Cuyahoga River is worth traveling, particularly in mid to late October, when the leaves erupt in a breathtakingly beautiful display. Snaking its way along a roughly 80-mile U-shape path before emptying into Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga plays an outsize role in the story of Northeast Ohio; it was vital to Cleveland's industrial growth before the many fires along its waters made it infamous, helping to prompt the passage of the Clean Water Act and the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency. These days, after half a century of cleanup efforts, it is held up as an ecological success story.

But the river itself is often overshadowed particularly in the fall by its tangential allures: the 87-mile-long Ohio & Erie Canal Towpath Trail, whose light, crushed-stone surface is brightly mottled with autumnal leaves; the waterfalls (around 100 in total) and rock gorges that pop with the warm colors; the Old World farms and markets, such as Heritage Farms and Szalay's, where people flock for pumpkins, apple butter, roasted sweet corn and, yes, the annual fall corn maze.

The valley's unexpected grandeur is nowhere more evident than in and around Peninsula, a postcard-esque (and postage-stamp-size) village that is, in many ways, the heart of the 33,000-acre national park. From the small train depot, board the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (there's even a Fall Flyer train) for a memorable view of the foliage.

Roving the area by car (or on bicycle) will lead you past dozens of worthwhile trails. A personal favorite the completion of which has become a familial Christmas Day tradition is a hike that links the Haskell Run and Ledges loops and includes some of the valley's most distinctive features. Beginning near the Happy Days Lodge, built in the late 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, the trail wanders beside a 19th-century cemetery, over gentle streams (via footbridge crossings), near bat caves, and past the dramatic Sharon Conglomerate rock faces of the Ritchie Ledges, formed from the sand and quartz deposited by ancient streams all while immersing you in the richest of fall colors.

Stephen Hiltner

West Virginia: Spruce Knob

While many traditional foliage tours are done from packed trains and buses that follow well-worn railways and roads, fall tourism this year demands a novel approach. And with travelers forced to chart their own course, some of the best places to take in the autumn colors are those that cannot be reached at all on the standard guided excursions.

One of the most rewarding options for those living in and around Appalachia is to forgo the winding roads at lower elevations and peer down at the landscape from atop Spruce Knob, the tallest peak in both West Virginia and the larger Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Nestled within a 100,000-acre section of the surrounding 919,000-acre Monongahela National Forest, Spruce Knob rises above an all-but-unspoiled tract of forest extending out in all directions.

The drive to the peak requires resolve and care. From a base point near Judy Gap, West Virginia, a serpentine drive up Route 33 narrows to a 9-mile stretch of old forestry road, with several blind curves and switchbacks, barely wide enough to pass traffic coming down, and with no guardrails protecting against steep drops down the mountain slope. The path is not treated to remove ice or snow.

At the top, however, visitors are rewarded with a wealth of options for taking in the scenery. About 1,000 feet from the parking lot is a two-story observation tower that provides an even higher vantage from which to survey the surrounding area. And the easy, half-mile Whispering Spruce Trail leads visitors along a gravel path that circles the tower for panoramic views across both sides of the ridge.

For another option, partway up the route to Spruce Knob, the road divides, allowing drivers to pull off by an overlook far enough down to avoid clouds and haze, but high enough to provide a striking view.

The drive through miles of national forest and up to the mountaintop is a passageway to a genuinely remote part of the East, and the Spruce Knob area offers visitors a menu of possibilities for savoring the auburn colors of fall. And in a celebration of continuity in an otherwise unfamiliar year, Monongahela, officially designated on April 28, 1920, is commemorating its centennial.

Zach Montague

Maine: Grafton Notch

A fall excursion to Grafton Notch from Portland, Maine, includes not just colorful swaths of foliage but a Shaker community, a ghost and a stretch of the Appalachian Trail. The area's glacial gorges, waterfalls and caves add further intrigue to the predominantly beech, birch and maple forest. Not to mention, a fall drive and hike support both sanity and social distancing.

Before heading out, check the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's website for its COVID-19 recommendations, which include carrying a mask and practicing social distancing when passing people on the trail. Maine visitors should check Keep Maine Healthy for the latest COVID-19 testing and quarantine guidelines.

The nearly two-hour trip from Portland begins with 10 miles of surprisingly vibrant leaf peeping on Maine's primary artery, I-95 North. At Gray, Route 26 North heads inland to New Gloucester where it passes the last active Shaker community in the country, founded on Sabbathday Lake in the late 1700s. Though closed to the public for 2020, the historic buildings and farmlands of Sabbathday Lake Shaker Village can be easily viewed from the car.

Next comes the township of Poland, namesake of the Poland Spring bottled water company and home to the Poland Spring Resort. It is also the territory of a ghost called the Route 26 Hitchhiker, which is said to manifest as a young lady wearing a fancy dress. It's rumored she died in a roadside accident on her wedding or prom night, and while she may ask for a ride, she'll likely disappear from the car before reaching the destination.

Past the Oxford Casino and views of distant mountains, Route 26 parallels the Little Androscoggin River through Paris to Snow Falls, a popular pull-off for the waterfalls and picnic area. In Woodstock, the Mollyockett Motel is named for a Native American Algonquin princess who is the source of many legends. The mountain views and foliage increase around Greenwood, birthplace of L.L. Bean's founder, Leon Leonwood Bean, and home to the Mount Abram Ski Area & Bike Park, popular in fall for the lift-accessed mountain bike trails.

Food and lodging can be had in Bethel, founded in the fertile Androscoggin River Valley in 1796, and at the Sunday River ski resort in nearby Newry. Continuing through Bethel on Route 26 North, The Good Food Store and Smokin' Good BBQ (try the smoked beef brisket or pulled pork/chicken on a bun) is a popular stop. From there, expect excellent foliage on the last stretch to Bear River Road and the 12 miles of the Grafton Notch Scenic Byway leading to the Appalachian Trail parking lot. On the way, Mother Walker and Screw Auger falls are worth a visit, and Grafton Notch Campground on the Bear River is a great option for overnight camping.

The Appalachian Trail parking lot in Grafton Notch State Park connects a number of hikes, including one of the toughest sections of the 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail: the Old Speck summit, elevation 4,180 feet, which can be reached on a 3.8-mile hike.

Melissa Coleman

Denver: Guanella Pass, Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway and more

One day trip to a stunning, high-alpine cirque allows you to bear witness to a whole spectacle, from aspens to tundra. It begins with a drive west on Route 285 and a turn north at Grant onto Route 62. About 5.5 miles up the 11-mile road to Guanella Pass is the Abyss Lake Trail. This challenging 7.5-mile, 3,000-foot hike passes through numerous stands of aspen, and, for the first few miles, the trail is wide enough for social distancing. Then it climbs more steeply up along a creek leading to the treeless and Lilliputian plant landscape of the 12,650-foot-high Abyss Lake. Look for moose and pronghorn antelope along the way.

If you'd rather stay in the comfort of your car, continue driving on the Guanella Pass Road through the aspen forest. The gravel road climbs to 11,700 feet, with views of Mounts Bierstadt and Evans above a sea of flamboyantly tinted fall willows. At the bottom of the pass road, alongside I-70, is the old mining locale of Georgetown, with an old-time railroad offering daily rides through the aspen forest. Plan for the round-trip drive from Denver to take about four hours.

For a shorter tour, drive roughly 30 miles south out of Denver on Route 85, which takes you directly to the Waterton Canyon parking area, where it intersects with the end of Colorado Highway 121. This moderate 6-mile hike on a dirt road, alongside the South Platte River, swirling with fishing holes, is also ideal for bicycling and horseback riding. The popular trail known for up-close big horn sheep viewing has plenty of toilets and is rimmed with huge cottonwood trees that blush as ripe as lemons in the fall.

But the state's oldest road trip, with brilliant foliage and Continental Divide viewing, is the four-hour, 149-mile Peak-to-Peak Scenic Byway from Estes Park through the Gold Rush mining country to Black Hawk. One stop could be Nederland's antediluvian Goldminer Hotel, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Or, near the town of Ward, a 5.5-mile hike loops around the well-traveled Brainard Lake but don't forget you'll be hiking above 10,000 feet.

Jon Waterman

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Leaf peeping is not canceled: 6 drives and hikes to try this fall - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Industry professionals learn how an irrigation audit is set up at an Irrigation Association event. The audit will show the effectiveness of the system across the test patch.

Irrigation audits are all about ensuring your clients irrigation systems are functioning properly and ultimately saving them money as a result. Although theres no doubt its a desirable service, youll have to first overcome the hump of helping clients understand what its all about.

Mark Brotton, CIC, CLIA, APLD certified landscape designer, ARCSA-AP, EPA WaterSense Partner and owner of Living Water Irrigation & Landscape LLC in Santa Fe, New Mexico, admits he does not perform as many audits as hed like and thinks its because most people dont understand the value. He equates it to a car tune-up: By making sure everything is running efficiently, you can save money and prevent costly problems.

Photos: Stephen Smith

Mark Ballenger, CLIA, CGIA, CID, EPA WaterSense Partner and president of Ballenger & Company Inc., Tampa Bay, Florida, says sometimes speaking with clients about audits means clarifying the meaning. Although an irrigation audit is something that could save money and protect our natural resources, it is common for the term audit to indicate a negative understanding, such as its connection to the IRS and financial audits. That is why Ballenger says BCI will refer to it as an irrigation evaluation.

People want to hear about things that will be a return on investment, so thats the best way to talk about this service, he says. We talk in terms of efficiency and effectiveness. When considering landscaping as an investment, clients must consider how effective the irrigation system is in keeping plants and turf looking their best with a precisely calculated amount of water. That particularly resonates with HOAs and master-planned communities. Ballenger assists in promoting this understanding with board members and other interested constituents. To be fiscally and environmentally responsible when it comes to establishing dues for their communities, the client should find in favor of these evaluations.

Performing an irrigation audit

In terms of performing the audit, Brotton says with his certified landscape irrigation auditor credential from the Irrigation Association, he was trained to perform a visual audit first when starting the process. That visual inspection will be an overview of the system as a whole, making sure that everything is in working order and up to date with local codes. Brotton says one of the first things hell check during an audit is whether a timer is old and needs to be replaced.

Another essential part of the irrigation audit is the proper placement of catch cans along the edge of each zone, adds Brotton. Spacing and test run times need to be consistent for both the sprinkler type and the arc.

As you examine those results, keep in mind that a properly efficient irrigation system is not overwatering the rest of the lawn to make up for areas that are under-watered, he adds. The DU will tell you the precipitation rate as well as whats coming out of the sprinklers.

On top of that, were testing with different tools to evaluate the pressure, Brotton continues. A comprehensive audit is looking at all of this data, running it through the formulations, and ultimately producing an efficiency percentage. A really bad system is operating at 40%-50% efficiency. Our goal is to get up to around 90% plus or minus efficiency, knowing that a man-made system is not as perfect as rain.

When talking to clients after an audit, Randy Bodine, president of Bodines Landscape Services Inc. serving the Opelika and Auburn market of Alabama, says the efficiency percentage is what clients ultimately care about most. When it comes time to discuss the irrigation audit results, this is where the focus should be.

To be perfectly honest, the client doesnt care about how we achieve the efficiency percentage. They just want to know what the number is, Bodine says. Thats something they can wrap their head around. But theyre trusting you to run the numbers. Thats why youre the expert. As a certified landscape irrigation auditor, you have the ability to quantify whats going on in their turf how dry and how wet it is and thats valuable.

Of course, Bodine says you may need to educate clients on why all of this matters. Water savings equating to money savings is certainly the part clients may grasp most. But Bodine says that clients should also recognize that in addition to wasting water, they may be making their turf more prone to disease.

Areas of the turf that are oversaturated are going to be more prone to fungal growth, he says. When you run the system and achieve an evenly watered lawn, that adds up to a healthier lawn too.

The importance of being certified

Becoming a certified landscape irrigation auditor or certified golf irrigation auditor is no small feat. It includes passing a three-hour exam with 125 equally weighted, multiple-choice questions; complying with the Selected Certified Code of Ethics; and remaining in good standing with the Irrigation Association with continuing education units. But those who have earned this credential say it has helped to create credibility and increase job opportunities.

Ballenger says the CLIA and CGIA certification designations support professionalism within the green industry. These designations have opened doors and indicate the depth of dedication and knowledge required to perform these types of audits.

Bodine takes the time to educate clients on what the credentials mean because that helps sell the job.

Im in a market where there are only a handful of CLIAs in our entire state, so Ive explained what it means for me to have earned this credential, he says. I think that once people understand these arent just credentials you pay for and that not just any irrigation contractor can earn it it does go a long way in how they view you.

People do notice, adds Brotton. Even if they dont know what the credentials stand for, clients tell him they chose him because he was highly credentialed.

For me, becoming a CLIA was a steppingstone on my path toward pushing myself to be continually improving, Brotton says. But I also think its good for the industry as a whole. Everyone should have a similar process on how they perform audits, no matter what part of the country theyre located in. We should all be able to go to the same site and come up with the same data at the end of the day. That ability to quantify data and to come to the same solution is what will set us apart from others who are not true experts in the field.

Looking ahead

Although there has traditionally been a lack of understanding about what irrigation audits mean, Bodine sees that changing as resources become more rare.

As water becomes more precious, the importance of irrigation audits will only grow, says Bodine. Its as much an economic issue as it is an environmental one, as water isnt cheap anymore. People are more concerned than ever with wasting it. We have a lot of great success stories of clients who have gained the cost of their audit back in water savings in a single year. It may cost $5,000 to do an audit, but if youre saving them $15,000, they can easily see the value. The more people understand this, the more it will become a line item on the budget.

We do a tremendous amount of design work, and if you can understand what a system is supposed to do from the end result, including how it will function and how it needs to be maintained, then that can really help on the front end when youre doing the design, he explains.

Bodine says that he sees a bright future for irrigation auditing and believes interest will only grow.

There are very few things in life where there is no downside, but an irrigation audit is one of them, he says. The customer saves money, its good for the environment, it keeps the turf and plants looking great, and it can be a successful service for irrigation contractors to perform and to establish themselves as the expert. Its really a win all around.

Lindsey Getz is a contributing editor to Irrigation & Green Industry and can be reached at lindsey.getz@yahoo.com.

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Do the math - Irrigation & Green Industry magazine

Come spring 2021, New York City will have a new outdoor performance space, verdant garden and floating park on the Hudson River.

Little Island at Pier 55, which is part of Hudson River Park, is hard to missits giant piles rise up out of the river like ancient trees and its tulip pots curve up toward the sky. Despite the pandemic, the park is still on schedule to open next spring.

Conceived in 2012, the park is the project of billionaire Barry Diller and his wife Diane von Furstenberg. When unveiled at the Cooper Hewitt in 2015, the plan by English designer Thomas Heatherwick envisioned an undulating configuration created by a series of "pods"concrete pilings formed into tulip-shape supportsset at varying heights. The effect was meant to evoke a "leaf floating on water."

As is standard in NYC, however, the $250 million project was met with swift legal action: a lawsuit underwritten by real estate developer Douglas Durst for the City Club led to the cancellation of the park's building permit in 2017. Later that year,Andrew Cuomo brokered a deal between Douglas and Diller and construction resumed.

So with work coming along, the two-acre park has reached a milestone. Significant progress has been made in its landscaping, reps say. To celebrate, its landscape architect and a founding principal of landscape architecturefirm MNLA, Signe Nielsen, took us on a private walkthrough of the park to point out what people can expectwhen it opens this spring.

Overall, Little Island will be home to 35 species of trees, 65 species of shrubs, and 270 varieties of grasses, perennials, vines and bulbs. Essentially, it will be like going to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden where you dont have to be a horticulturist to enjoy being there, Nielsen said.

Nielsen has been practicing as a landscape architect and urban designer in New York since 1978, and MNLA has designed dozens of spaces in NYC including ones at Industry City, Hudson River Park, the Flatiron Plaza reconstruction, Piers 25 and 42, the Queens Museum and more.

Nielsen has seen the Little Island project through since its inception, first working on 3D models of the space, to now, when she can physically walk through the space. She says the landscaping is about half-way done, but already shes seeing it come to life before her.

I hope they feel its very beautiful...I hope theyll see something theyve never seen before, she told us.

Once visitors walk through the vaulted opening of Little Island, theyll walk into an open lawn and get a 360-degree view of the park, where theyll see a gradient of colors and plantings that change as the elevation changes, from shrubs and vines to 40-foot trees, Nielsen said.

Visitors can opt to walk up to Little Islands highest points via walkways, or they can do a bit of light scrambling up boulders, much like at The Hills on Governors Island. Along the way, Nielsen and her team have planted a variety of perennials and grasses, 70 percent of which are native to New York and many of which are pollinators to help the bee population thrive. Some plants were chosen to flop over the top of industrial sheet piles that divide the space into curvilinear paths and mimic the round shape of the huge piles holding up the park, creating a cascade of greenery. The overall effect is to have people feel engulfed in plants, said Nielsen.

Once at the top, parkgoers will get incredible views of Manhattan, the river and across to New Jersey.

Of course, being on the Hudson River means the parks plantings will be subjected to brutal high winds. Nielsen and MNLA have planned for that and are using evergreens to block winds and more hearty shrubs and plants that can withstand it. Even the soils makeup is made with erosion in mind, she said.

Despite the logistics, the landscape is full of thoughtful artistic decisions. In one area, for example, yellow and gold plants compliment purple and lavender ones and plants are repeated along the way to keep interest.

Whether you come in the evening for a show or walk its paths in the morning, Little Island offers something different depending on when youre there and will be beautiful to look at any time of day and even across the year, Nielsen said.

Youll see relationships between things you might not have seen in the morning that you see in the afternoon, she said.

There will also be three main lawns that visitors can sunbathe on (because lets face it, New Yorkers love to catch some rays), and a secret garden full of only white bloomsfrom birch trees and crepe myrtles to roses and anemones that you can get to by walking through an arched trellis.

Next to the secret garden, a small amphitheater called The Glade will host shows and other events with the river and neighboring pier as its backdrop. Similarly, the main amphitheater will hold bigger performances right on the water.

In fact, Little Island just finishedtaking applicationsfrom performers, artists, buskers, merrymakers, entertainers, troupes, bands and players of all disciplines to help shape its programming for spring 2021. Of course, the state of the world next could have a large impact on the exact types of events and performances that come to fruition.

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Little Island on Hudson River Park Gives a Sneak Peek - Time Out New York

The National Science Foundation and now UW-Eau Claire is getting to the root of climate change through a transnational garden study on trees.

Three plots with a total of 100 poplar trees were planted on Sept. 25 on Bollinger Fields at UW-Eau Claire. These planted tree gardens will be an addition to the current arboretum on campus and provide data for national climate change studies.

We are trying to understand using all the different genetic lines and different locations how these trees might adapt to climate change, Nora Mitchell, an assistant professor of biology at UW-Eau Claire, said.

The project was first brought to Eau Claire through North Dakota State Universitys partnership with the National Science Foundation, Mitchell said. Now, the biology and grounds services departments at UW-Eau Claire are working together on the Mini Poplar Gardens project.

Daria Hutchinson, landscape architect in the grounds services department, said her position allows her to help redesign the campus community through the context of their geographical landscapes.

These landscapes enable things like trees to adapt to climate change and mitigate its root causes, Hutchinson said. That is one of the main intents of this project, to look at what the adaptiveness of trees are in varied climates and how it will impact a landscape.

UW-Eau Claire is one of the 18 arboretums and universities across the United States that are providing research on the adaptation of tree species in climate to the NSF program and North Dakota State University.

The UW-Eau Claire arboretum was originally founded in 2017, which encompasses all trees on campus and in areas across Eau Claire, including Putnam Park. The arboretum is connected to various nationwide environmental programs: Tree Campus Higher Education and ArbNet.

Mitchell said the biology departments groundwork for the project is a common garden experiment, where those involved in the project will take different plant lineages and grow them in the same environment.

If you grow (plants) in different places, they will look different because of the way they respond to that individual environment, Mitchell said. Those differences are due to the environment they were raised in, not due to genetics. If we raise plants in the same location, then any differences we see we can infer are due to genetic differences.

Thu Nguyen, a third-year biology and pre-professional health student, said the gardens project has allowed her to incorporate knowledge from both of her educational pathways.

Nguyen first became involved in the poplar gardens through prior independent studies with Mitchell for her sunflower research lab this past summer.

I have a great love for plants, Nguyen said. Although I am a pre-med (student), I love the ecology side of biology as well. There are researches that show great correlation between environment (ecology) and human health.

Mitchell said there is a sense of power as students and faculty harness the understanding of their research together.

This (project) provides a really great opportunity for students to get involved in even more hands-on research and also see the collaborative nature of science, Mitchell said. We have multiple institutions across the United States working together. Here in Eau Claire, we have a collaboration between the arboretum, facilities, biology (department) and between different students.

On the day of planting earlier this fall, Nguyen said she enjoyed seeing the collaborative efforts of all areas across campus.

We had a lot of fun on the day of planting, Nguyen said. We received a whole lot of help from both faculty and student volunteers. Needless to say, I had a lot of fun and a great experience.

Hutchinson said the gardening project allows her to continue working with students on sustainability practices and initiatives taking place on campus.

I like getting information out to students, Hutchinson said. I dont know that they are always aware of what is going on, on campus and I think we could be better about getting that story (of climate change) out.

The five-year-long project is currently facilitated by student volunteers in the biology and facilities/grounds departments, Hutchinson said. In addition to scientific research, the project will also serve as this years Arbor Day campus-wide event in April.

Nguyen said she looks forward to seeing how the project will expand throughout the next five years as the trees continue to develop and more communities become involved in the research.

This project is on a national scale, Nguyen said. It is great to know that there are many (locations) across the country who are also doing what we do at Eau Claire. I would love to see the project go to its maximal growth.

To become involved in the project or volunteer with future examination of the poplar trees, contact Mitchell at [emailprotected].

Nelson can be reached at [emailprotected].

This map shows the locations of the poplar gardens participating in the climate change studies.

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Trees: a study on the root of climate change - UWEC Spectator

A dramatic but small new park is now open in northern College Park.

As a so-called pocket park, Hollywood Gateway Park is designed to make maximal use of its smaller size by adding greenery and space for residents to meet up.

Based on the theme of wind and weather, the centerpiece of the $1 million park at the corner of Baltimore Avenue and Edgewood Road is a two-story pavilion overlooking the park that makes extensive use of long rods of bamboo and provides seating for residents waiting for a bus, having lunch al fresco, or reading. On a breezy day, visitors can hearthe bamboo chiming in the wind.

The City of College Park together with landscape architect Floura Teeter, partnered with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make Hollywood Gateway Park a place that educates the public about the climate and how weather works.

To compensate for the sites slope, designers cut a rounded concrete walkway into the side of the park, added a long slide for kids and added native plants to stabilize the soil. Most of the park is far below the level of Route 1, reducing noise.

The park also features a green roof, a stone rill to channel rainwater and a rain garden to reduce runoff to the nearby street.

The land was previously the site of a single-family home that was demolished after the city acquired the land.

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New Weather-Themed Green Space Opens in College Park - The Hyattsville Wire

Emerging from a former industrial wasteland, a series of towering structures promise the most affordable housing units built in one New York development since the 1970s. In a plan reminiscent of Brooklyns Starrett City, Hunters Point South will eventually have 5,000 apartments across multiple towers, creating a new neighborhood for New Yorkers of all income levels.

In the current phase of construction, developer TF Cornerstone is adding 1,194 rental units in two new buildings, 719 of which will be affordable. The pair joins the first two towers built on site in 2015 by Related Companies, which include a combined 925 units.

Located along the western Queens waterfront, the mega-project sits alongside the second phase of Long Island Citys newest gem: Hunters Point South Park.

Completed in 2018, the 11-acre landscape is now a central part of life in the neighborhood, with hundreds of locals and tourists pouring into the park everyday. It also serves as an ecologically resilient buffer against future storm surges, and will eventually help protect the 11 new buildings that, when finished, will fill out the southernmost point of Long Island City.

Stretching from 50th Avenue to 57th Avenue where the East River meets Newtown Creek and over to Second Street, the development stems from a Bloomberg-era initiative to create over 5,000 rental units with 60 percent affordable housing for low- to moderate- and middle-income residents.

For decades, the 30-acre area was overgrown with plants, weeds and hundreds of trees that made up a dense waterfront woodland. It was an urban adventurers paradise, created from the rubble of demolished industrial buildings, including a Daily News printing plant and the National Sugar Refinery.

After Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg left office, the New York Economic Development Corporation managed the build-out of the second and final phase of Hunters Point South Park; its first section was finished in 2013. The popular park helped lure developers to bid on nine available plots of land as part of Mayor Bill de Blasios Housing New York Plan.

TF Cornerstone won a bid for one of those plots in 2013 and is now building a pair of towers at 5241 and 5203 Center Boulevard. Zoe Elghanayan, the principal and vice president of company, said she believed the development was handled exactly the right way, in a process that required cooperation from the public and private sectors.

Because the city was able to pay for the land and public infrastructure," she said, developers were then able to focus on maximizing the affordability of these projects.

The first of the two buildings to top out, 5241 Center Boulevard, will open to residents in February. It began preleasing nearly 200 units in late September through the citys new affordable housing lottery system, NYC Housing Connect. The lottery will be open until Nov. 23.

Designed by ODA Architecture and SLCE Architects, the two-tower development has been in the works now for seven years and the road has been bumpy.

During the initial stages of construction, the project suffered a setback when the New York Power Authority and Amtrak, which owns a rail line underneath the site, wouldnt allow the building to rest atop the underground infrastructure. Initially, the architects had envisioned one structure that featured two towers joined together by a low-rise building. What stands today is the result of multiple redesigns and years of negotiations with the New York Power Authority to keep weight off the tunnel.

This element really risked the feasibility of this project to a point where everybody almost gave up, said Eran Chen, principal architect and founder of ODA Architecture. It seemed like it was impossible to overcome.

Finally in October 2017, plans were filed for two separate buildings to rise on the single lot. A new 22,000-square-foot public park designed by Mathews Nielsen Landscape Architects would be spread out over a half acre between the towers.

The first building also includes 209 market rate units that will begin leasing later this year. Its sister tower, 5203 Center Boulevard, includes 534 affordable units that will be available in the affordable lottery next spring. Monthly rent for the affordable units in both buildings will vary based on income and will range from $698 to $2,028 for a studio, $883 to $2,544 for a one-bedroom and $1,071 to $2,704 for a two-bedroom. The 266 market-rate units at 5203 Center Boulevard will likely begin leasing next summer and residents are expected to move in next August. Prices for the market rate apartments in both structures have not yet been disclosed.

Half of the affordable units in the two towers are reserved for local members of Community Board 2 in Queens, which includes Sunnyside, Woodside and Long Island City. There will also be 100 affordable apartments set aside for low-income seniors, as well as a 572-seat school, a 7,700-square-foot community facility, and 8,900 square feet of street-level retail.

Its really important for local people to apply, said Lisa Deller, chairwoman of the community board. Its a positive addition to the affordable housing inventory of the city, but its a drop in the bucket compared to the need.

Also under construction at Hunters Point South are two other towers by Gotham and senior housing developer RiseBoro Community Partnership. Designed by Handel Architects, one tower will be 57 stories high and the other will be 33 stories. They will include 1,132 apartments, 75 percent of which will be affordable.

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At Hunters Point South, a Popular Park Paves the Way for Housing - The New York Times

Archaeological and scientific analysis of the original surface determined quartz was the primary material used to pave the carriage turnaround. More than 40,000 quartz fieldstones were donated by Bass Sod Farm in Campbell County to incorporate in the restoration. The surface was laid by expert masons from Charles Funk Masonry of Colonial Heights.

With quartz a plentiful, native rock to the area, the choice of using it for pavement is not surprising, said Eric Proebsting, director of archaeology and landscapes at Poplar Forest. Slaves likely used quartz found in the fields to lay out the carriage circle, he said.

The level of effort that went into creating the [original] carriage road at Poplar Forest was exceptional for this area, Proebsting said.

The carriage turnaround restoration is an extremely significant project for Poplar Forest, he added.

In recreating it, we are able to get inside of Jeffersons design for Poplar Forest and also how he had envisioned for it to be experienced, Proebsting said.

Jefferson, a prolific writer among his other widespread interests, left behind detailed notes about many things, including recorded plans for a carriage turnaround at the White House, as well as one for Monticello, his primary residence in Charlottesville. However, Proebsting said so far no archaeological evidence of such a carriage turnaround has been discovered at Monticello. Poplar Forest is Jeffersons first residence evidenced to bring the design to fruition, he said.

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Poplar Forest carriage turnaround restoration complete - Lynchburg News and Advance

Designer Iaki Alday and landscape architect Kate Orff will reflect on how their practices respond to the climate crisisin this live conversation produced by Dezeen for Exhibit Columbus. Watch here from 7:00pm UK time on 29 September 2020.

The discussion, called New Middles: Resiliency and Climate Adaptation, will be the second instalment in a series of talks broadcast on Dezeen as part of Exhibit Columbus' New Middles symposium.

Running throughout September and October, the symposium focuses on the designed future of mid-sized cities situated within the Mississippi Watershed a central US region defined by the Mississippi river's drainage basin.

"This conversation stems from the question: how is the Mississippi Watershed and the plains ecosystems and habitat impacted by the changing climate?" said the curators.

Moderated by Exhibit Columbus curator Iker Gil, the discussion will examine how landscape design can help cities adapt to public health crises such as the coronavirus pandemic.

"The COVID-19 pandemic raises issues of how might middle city landscapes address global health challenges?" the curators added. "What future-oriented ecological strategies will serve middle city landscapes and communities moving forward?"

Gil is a Chicago-based architect, editor and curator. He is the director of MAS Studio, a collaborative architecture and design firm, as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of the studio's eponymous design journal MAS Context.

Alongside his design practice, Gil also teaches architecture at the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2019, he has been the executive director of the SOM Foundation, which seeks to advance the design profession's ability to address current key issues.

Iaki Alday is the co-founder of Aldayjover Architecture and Landscape, a multidisciplinary research-based practice with offices in New Orleans and Barcelona, which he established in 1996 with Margarita Jover.

In 2018, Alday was appointed dean of Tulane School of Architecture in New Orleans. Before this, he was the chair of the University of Virginia's architecture department, where he has co-directed the Yamuna River Project since 2016.

The Yamuna River Project is an interdisciplinary research programme that aims to revitalise the Yamuna River in India and reconnect it with the city of New Delhi.

Kate Orff is the founder of US landscape architecture studio, Scape, which she set up in 2007.

She is also the director of Urban Design and co-director of the Centre for Resilient Cities and Landscapes at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Orff's work focuses on recalibrating landscape architecture in relation to climate change and creating spaces to foster social life.

This conversation will be produced by Dezeen in collaboration with Exhibit Columbus as part of its New Middles online symposium, which takes place from 15 September until 29 October 2020.

It follows the first talk in the series, called New Middles: Futures and Technologies, which explored the role of strategic foresight and storytelling in design.

The talk, which featured futurists Dan Hill and Radha Mistry in conversation with Dezeen's founder and editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, looked at bringing mobility and manufacturing into the cities of the future.

Find out more about the symposium and view the schedule

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Upcoming talk by Exhibit Columbus to focus on resilience and climate adaptation - Dezeen

Grey, even ugly.

Whod disagree?

After all, its a safe bet no one has ever gawked at the alley between the Auburn Avenue Theater and the future Arts and Culture Center, or turned to the soul next to them and uttered the words Wow, lookee there, aint that something!?

But they may soon.

Plans have been on the back burner since 2017 to take the under-used alley and turn it into space for creativity, vibrancy, and cultural connectivity. The plans are now on the move.

Auburn Arts Alley, they call it.

Now, three years in, the project, which calls for lighting, seating, public art, space for temporary or rotating art and performances in addition to elements inspired by a local artist in collaboration with the Muckleshoot Tribe, is about halfway through construction, thanks to grants and partnerships with 4-Culture and the tribe.

The project first made news in 2017 when the University of Washington chose the cities of Auburn and Tacoma to be part of its Livable Cities project. The city submitted three projects, but the one that caught the eye of landscape architect students Allison Ong, Sylvia Janicki, and Jack Alderman was this homely alley.

Their first renderings offered custom-fabricated benches, artistically-altered pavers with poetry from local artists, daytime and evening activations with events and programming, food trucks, a low stage or raised platform around the rear of the Arts and Culture Center to provide a place for performances, and a raised seating area to accommodate other activities.

It was their work and their leadership in landscape architecture and urban design that made a complete difference in having them look at it through the eyes of a young 20-year-old versus the eyes of us older, active adults, said Daryl Faber, director of Auburns Arts, Parks and Recreation Department.

But their initial alleyway redesign plans generated cost estimates at over $500,000, Faber said.

But certain city officials wouldnt let it go, so they scratched their heads, asking themselves who Auburn could partner with to make such a thing happen.

The Livable Cities acted as sort of a launching pad for this vision to create creative and cultural energy in the arts and culture center and the alley next to it, said Allison Hyde, Arts Program coordinator for Arts, Parks and Recreation.

The city submitted a successful application for a $20,000 grant via 4Cultures Creative Consultancy program for the future Arts and Culture Center and the alleyway.

What came of that was a match between the city and local artist Kathleen Fruge Brown, who, in short order, submitted a formal proposal for grant consideration, suggested an undulating, curved, concrete wall with inlaid mosaics a speciality of hers and the stage earlier presented in the Livable Cities design.

Fruge Brown also worked with Willard Bill Jr., creative director for the Muckleshoot Tribe, and with local artist, weaver and teacher Gale White Eagle to incorporate her weavings and those of other Coast Salish basketry designs into the project.

At that, the city reached out to the community to hear what residents thought. From a community-shared Pinterest idea board to a widely-distributed email survey and in-person stakeholder meetings, the public input process helped define and refine the project goals.

Turns out, what the public wanted was lighting, seating, public art, temporary or rotating art and performances. Above all, the conversations revealed a hunger for more visual expressions of diversity, a thirst to see their own culture and history embodied in the public space.

Fruge Browns first rendering showed bench seating, mosaic inlaid tiles and the stage mentioned above.

For further inspiration, she turned to the Muckleshoot Tribe.

She based the resulting series of mosaics on traditional and contemporary weaving and inlaid into a concrete bench many of White Eagles designs and other Coast Salish weaving and basketry designs.

The concrete bench shows cast-in text of the Muckleshoot motto, I am alive and strong translated from Whultshootseed into the 10 other languages most commonly spoken in the Auburn community.

Fruge Brown also designed overhead lighting, with figures for the lighting created by the community during AuburnFest in 2019. The designs are intended to be lasercut in the MakerSpace with community member participation.

Local artist Will Schlough has designed and painted a dynamic wall mural with painting on the alleyway surfacing. Once the overlay is finished, Schlough will add his final rendering.

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Project to transform alley between Auburn Avenue Theater and future culture center - Auburn Reporter

While the winning design for a facility that will serve as a permanent aquatics center for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris was first (quietly) announced in late April, the two firms behind said designAmsterdam-based VenhoevenCS architecture + urbanism and Paris-headquartered Ateliers 2/3/4/have now formally shared images and further details about the planned structure. Among other notable attributes, the roughly 215,000-square-foot facility boasts a saddle-shaped, solar array-clad roof; a modular pool system that will be reconfigured post-Olympics; and a timber screen facade that will wrap around a compact and programming-packed building.

The Franco-Dutch design duo beat out other notable firms shortlisted in the international competition for the coveted commission including MAD Architects and MVRDV. In addition to VenhoevenCS and Ateliers 2/3/4/, the project team also includes contractor Bouygues Batiment Ile-de-France, along with French energy services company Dalkia and Swedish waterfun innovations firm Recrea, which will oversee maintenance and operations of the new facility, respectively. Ateliers 2/3/4/ will also serve as the landscape architect for the estimated $190 million venue, located opposite Stade de France in the Seine-Saint-Denis section of Paris, where a bulk of Olympic goings-on will be concentrated.

Like with the Olympic Village, which will be transformed into a sprawling new eco-district in the northern suburbs of Paris after the Games have wrapped up, the aquatics center, the only newly-built permanent sporting venue planned for the 2024 Summer Games, according to the designers, was also designed specifically with its post-Olympics afterlife in mind. During the duration of the Games, the 5,000-seat center will host diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming events and will also serve as the boccia venue during the Paralympic Games. In 2025, following alterations to the modular pool system, it will be transformed into a public swimming and recreational facility with 164- and 82-foot-long pools, a kiddie pool, a diving pool, and a number of features catering to a range of non-aquatic athletic pursuits including a soccer pitch, basketball courts, climbing wall, gym, and more. The design also includes an A1 motorway-spanning pedestrian bridge that links the center to the massive Stade de France. VenhoevenCS refers to the building as simply a place to learn how to swim, to practice sports, to relax and meet.

To be clear, not all aquatic events will be held at the new permanent aquatics center; a larger facility with 15,000 seats is also being erected for the Summer 2024 Olympics that will host the main swimming races; it will be disassembled at the conclusion of the Games. Certain swimming events are also expected to be held in a dramatically cleaned-up River Seine, which was a major aspect of Paris Mayor Anne Hildagos bid for the event.

Inside the planned facility, a monumental wooden roof suspended over the main pool area will strictly follow the required minimum space for tribunes, people and sightlines, thereby minimizing the amount of air that needs to be conditioned during the coming 50 years, explains VenhoevenCS in press materials. By using wood for this monumental structure, the proposal doubles the required minimum percentage of bio-sourced materials. The Olympic arena under the roof, with tribunes on three sides, can host 5,000 spectators around an innovative, modular, and multifunctional competition pool.

As VenhoevenCS points out, the arboreal nature of the building carries over to the landscape where 100 new trees will be planted in close proximity to the center in order to help improve the quality of life and air, stimulate biodiversity, and create new ecological connections.

Atop the undulating roof will be a massive solar arrayone of the largest in all of France, per the designersthat will enable the building to generate 25 percent of all required electricity production needed. Combined, on- and off-site renewable or recovered energy sources will provide an estimated 90 percent of the buildings formidable energy needs. An innovative water reuse system will also help keep the centers water usage to a minimum while still meeting hygienic standards needed for such a large and busy aquatic facility. Wood waste sourced from local demolition and construction sites as well as upcycled plastic furnishings also play heavily into the buildings proposed design.

[It] is a balanced ecosystem in itself, says the designers of the ultra-sustainable new facility. It shows how sustainable design concepts can evolve in new architectural aesthetics that contribute to the improvement of the quality of life in our cities.

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Dive into the winning design for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics aquatic center - The Architect's Newspaper