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Marco Bay, the gardens of the San Domenico Palace in Taormina - Abitare English | Architecture and Design Magazine

A landscape architect has poured cold water on the process to identify 78% of the West Coast as "Outstanding Natural Landscapes" in its proposed "one" district plan.

Landscape architect Hadley Mills said designating so much land as "outstanding" would just add unnecessary costs and compliance to landowners.

Mills was one of two landscape architects to critique the methodology of designating Outstanding Natural Landscapes (ONLs) during the The Te Tai o Poutini Plan hearing in Westport yesterday.

Local authorities have been required to identify these outstanding areas for over a decade.

Under the proposed combined District Plan for the West Coast, 54 Outstanding Natural Landscapes areas encompass 78% of the region.

Mills, a former West Coast Regional Council planning manager, said this would add another layer of compliance, including consent applications, adding costly landscape assessments for landowners.

Mills called for the Outstanding Natural Landscapes chapter to be scrapped, noting many people had not realised the implications for their land.

The Te Tai o Poutini Plan could utilise the existing Conservation Act to govern Outstanding Natural Landscapes given most of the West Coast areas were within DOC estate where activity is permitted, he said.

Mills said the Te Tai o Poutini Plan Outstanding Natural Landscapes seemed to be derived from maps containing "inaccurate and unchecked" assessments of vegetation "and not rechecked by a human".

"This is totally unacceptable for such an important planning document which has real impact on people's lives, and will apply to 78% of the West Coast."

A map detailing the 54 Outstanding Natural Landscapes designated in the West Coast's proposed 'one' district plan. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)

Mills said classification amounted to two thirds of the 2.3 million ha of the region.

"Approximately 1.8m ha of that is being proposed to be classified as Outstanding Natural Landscapes. That is 78% of our entire region approximately 7% of New Zealand's land area," he said.

He also referred to the 2022 NZ Institute of Landscape Architects guidelines on "outstanding" landscapes, which said it was "a matter of reasoned judgement".

"Outstanding" should be done in the West Coast context, not on a national or international basis as appeared to have been done, Mills said.

Most West Coast residents could see DOC land from their homes, but that did not mean those areas were "outstanding" in the local context, he said.

The Te Tai o Poutini Plan hearing panel challenged Mills about the relatively low submissions on the topic.

Mills replied that the more heated Significant Natural Areas debate had overshadowed the topic despite it having similar implications for private land.

Landscape expert James Bentley, representing Manawa Energy, said they supported a review already of the plan's Outstanding Natural Landscape section but it did not go far enough.

"A fundamental starting point for any regional landscape assessment is to acknowledge all landscapes, not just those that are 'outstanding'," Bentley said.

"It is only after acknowledging all landscapes, through a landscape characterisation, that assessment on the 'special' or 'outstanding' landscapes can be determined."

Farmland at Turiwhate in the Taramakau River valley caught within an Outstanding Natural Landscape designation in the draft Te Tai o Poutini Plan. (Source: Local Democracy Reporting)

Bentley said he believed the Te Tai o Poutini Plan work was at a "high level", without being ground checked.

This resulted in mapping errors and "broad sweeping descriptions", some being "almost generic", he said.

Bentley said it was important Manawa's hydro schemes within an Outstanding Natural Landscape were recognised "as modifications" within the Te Tai o Poutini Plan to inform future planning decisions.

"Very little, if any, modifications are described within the [ONL] schedules which from a policy perspective creates a distorted assumption that Outstanding Natural Landscapes are pristine," he said.

Questioned by commissioner Sharon McGarry, Bentley said adjustment in the Outstanding Natural Landscapes schedule and the boundaries needed "a pragmatic approach".

That included first understanding all the features in a landscape including its human footprint, and the underlying cultural values which should then be detailed in a schedule.

"It's all context dependent. That's why those two process, where the [boundary] line is and what is in the schedule needs to go in tandem".

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Too much West Coast land deemed 'outstanding landscape architect - 1News

Landscape Architect Sara Zewde Reimagines the Land at Dia Beacon, New York

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Dia Art Foundation announced a major landscape project to reimagine the land at Dia Beacon, New York. Commissioned landscape architect Sara Zewde of Studio Zewde aims to go beyond the simple arrangement of attractive plants and integrate ideas of ecology, culture, and people into the design. Taking over the museums 32-acre campus, the project will create an expanded outdoor park, free to access for visitors and locals alike, complete with native meadows, sculptural landforms, and winding pathways. The project, which has been recently extended to also include the museums eight back acres, is expected to open to the public in 2025.

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Located on the 32-acre former industrial site of the Nabisco box printing factory in the Hudson Valley, the Dia Beacon Museum houses Dia Art Foundations collection of works by conceptual, minimalist, and land artists. The experience of the museum is thus linked to the landscaping surrounding it. Studio Zewdes approach responds to the locations particular conditions and history, as well as to Dias collection of Land art. In addition to extensive research, the studio also discussed with Indigenous organizations around Beacon and with artist Robert Irwin, who designed the original landscape framing the museum entrance.

The design introduces winding pathways that connect the sculptural hills with the meadowland, recreating the patterns of water moving through the floodplain. It also creates references to the Indigenous river crossing and movements through the land, while also allowing the public to experience the landscape.

The design also takes into consideration the changing weather patterns and strives to create resilience against rising waters. The presence of water on site is thus choreographed through landforms and the extensive meadowland, in addition to underground storage, all designed to manage the range of water levels. More than 90 native meadow species are introduced, along with nearly 400 new trees and shrubs to support the water management. A small lawn area is also integrated to offer event-organizing possibilities for the institutions outdoor public programming.

The landscape project is designed by Studio Zewde, in conjunction with Sherwood Design Engineers, LWLA (Larry Weaner Landscape Associates), and Pine & Swallow Environmental.

Historys impressions on the land that now hosts Dia Beacon inspire our design for the landscape. Our work together with Dia Art Foundation has been a process of listening, seeing, and amplifying the patterns of movement, water, material, and culture across the site over time. The designs landforms, the meadows, and the embrace of water in the landscape are a means of managing the 21st-century challenge of rising water but are also a means of remembering. We are honored to be working with Dia on this project of opening up eight acres of land to public access. - Sara Zewde, Studio Zewdes founding principal.

New York-based landscape and urban design firm Studio Zewde was founded by Sara Zewde in 2018. The firms work gained recognition for its integration of cultural native approaches and careful site interpretation. In 2021, the Black-women-owned film joined a multidisciplinary team to design the redevelopment of Kingsboro Psychiatric Center in Brooklyn.

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Landscape Architect Sara Zewde Reimagines the Land at Dia Beacon, New York - ArchDaily

Tuesday, March 12, 2024 By: Kyle Niblett

More than 100 people passionate about the University of Florida Department of Landscape Architecture descended upon the UF College of Design, Construction and Planning this past Wednesday evening for an extravagant gala celebrating the 90th anniversary of the department. The event was sponsored by CHW Professional Consultants, an NV5 company.

The 90th Anniversary GaLA was the perfect occasion to unite students, faculty, alumni, and friends in celebration of our accomplishments, said Dr. Jules Bruck, the director of the UF School of Landscape Architecture and Planning and chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. Tonight offered a valuable opportunity to reflect on our achievements while also igniting enthusiasm for the future of the department and its programs.

Serving as a poignant reminder of the extensive network of support from the departments alumni base and industry friends, the event kicked off with DCP Dean Chimay Anumba welcoming everyone and thanking sponsor CHW, followed by Dr. Bruck previewing the plans for the next 90 years.

It was very unique to have different generations of alumni in attendance in support of the department, said UF LA student Jourdan Friedlander. It was truly a privilege to be part of this event and see how connected the Gator LA family is.

Following Brucks speech, LA masters student Michael Valenti highlighted UFs student chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, reflecting on what it meant to be a student in the department and how important the alumni network was.

The 90th Anniversary GaLA was a fantastic opportunity to connect with alumni, faculty, and fellow students in a relaxed atmosphere, free from the pressures of career networking, Valenti said a day after the event. It was a chance to celebrate the rich history of landscape architecture at UF and to look forward to its promising future.

Once Valenti wrapped up his speech, 1996 UF LA graduate and EDSA Chief Executive Officer and Principal Scott LaMont gave a toast to the audience and then a catered meal from Sonnys was served.

Preceding the GaLA was an open house sponsored by Ervin Lovett Miller, an architecture, landscape architecture, and planning firm located in Jacksonville, Florida. For two hours, Lamont, other members of the UF LA Alumni and Professional Advisory Council and outside industry leaders had the chance to visit with current students and critique their work. For some students, it was the chance of a lifetime.

Having industry professionals in the studio was beneficial for both parties, said UF LA student Lily Crawford, who spent her time mostly with CHW Vice President Laurie Hall and CMA Senior Landscape Architect Tanya McCormick. I think that they enjoyed getting to come in and see what we were working on and relive their memories in the studio, while also helping and encouraging us in our projects.

The 90th anniversary celebration began earlier in the day with Kona Gray serving as the keynote speaker for the annual Edward D. Stone, Jr. Lecture.

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Department of Landscape Architecture Celebrates 90 Years UF College of Design, Construction and Planning - UF College of Design, Construction and...

SCAPE is a landscape architecture and urban design practice based in New York, New Orleans, and San Francisco. We design and advocate for the ecologically restorative and socially engaged landscapes, urban environments, and natural infrastructure of the future. We do this through diverse forms of designbuilt landscapes, planning, visioning, and researchwith the ultimate goal of connecting people to their environments.

Our staff of over 90 individuals includes landscape architects, urban planners, architects, ecological designers, horticulturists, and community engagement professionalsand a deep bench of technical expertise related to construction, regulation, and agency review. We work across disciplines, collaborating with architects, developers, engineers, foundations, agencies, institutions, and grassroots environmental justice and community groups on projects of all scales.

We plan, design, and build parks, waterfronts, and plazas; master plans and urban frameworks; educational and medical campuses; cultural landscapes; greenways and multimodal trails; streetscapes; on-structure and interior landscapes; wayfinding and interpretative signage; and more. We also communicate the transformative potential of landscapes through publications, exhibitions, research, thought leadership, and other initiatives. With a focus on excellence in construction and long-term performance, we translate complex visions into beautiful, legible, and accessible landscapes.

SCAPEs work and leadership has been honored with the highest awards in the design fieldincluding dozens of national and chapter ASLA, APA, AIA, and other professional awards; a 2019 National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum; and a National Planning Achievement Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2017, Founding Principal Kate Orff became the first landscape architect to receive the prestigious Genius Fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. In 2019, she was elevated to the ASLA Council of Fellows.

The firms collaborative leadership team includes Kate Orff, FASLA, RLA, Founding Principal and Partner; Gena Wirth, RLA, Design Principal and Partner; Alexis C. Landes, Managing Principal and Partner; John Donnelly, RLA, Technical Principal and Partner; and Pippa Brashear, RLA, Resilience Principal and Partner.

SCAPE was founded in New York in 2007.

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About Our Studio - SCAPE

Judging for the 11th A+Awards is now underway! While awaiting the Winners, prepare for the upcoming Architizer Vision Awards, honoring the best architectural photography, film, visualizations, drawings, models and the talented creators behind them.Learn more and register >

Often seen as the overlooked, unsung heroes of the design world in past decades, the role of landscape design in shaping our cities whether by revitalizing neglected areas; creating healthier places to live; or adapting for climate resiliency is rapidly expanding in the present day. As the AEC industry reckons with its role in addressing the current climate crisis, landscape architects have never been more vital to the discipline. Cities are on the forefront, facing the complex challenges of the twenty-first century head-on. In response, landscape architecture firms are growing their practices, bringing on engineers and urban planners to collaborate on larger scale, interdisciplinary plans that often bring urban planning, intelligent systems, ecology and sustainability together under one umbrella.

In recognition of this vital discipline, Architizers A+Awards the worlds largest awards program for architects and products includes categories dedicated to the innovative works of landscape architecture firms, including Public Parks & Green Spaces, Urban and Masterplan and the coveted Plus award for Architecture +Landscape. New this year, were celebrating forward-looking designs by introducing the Unbuilt Landscape category, which encompasses unrealized plans for the future.

Start A+Awards Submission

Beijing, China | Founded 2004

Zhu Yufan YC Atelier is a decorated Beijing-based design firm with nearly 3 decades experience under their beds. The vast range of their expertise in landscape planning and design is reflexted in the diversity of their project, which range considerably. Their choice of name is telling: YC references the Chinese idiom yiyuzhongdi, which means hit the key-point in one word.

Emphasizing an approach centered on one sharp design move, they explore the design essence of balancing the site and its demands under the unique perspective of history and culture. In turn, this results in a considerable diversity and openness in the design details via interpreting, rewriting and representing the historical and cultural factors of the site from the ancient to the present, from the east to the west.

Miami, Florida | Founded 1977

Miami-based ArquitectonicaGEO has been redefining landscape architecture for nearly two decades. Our approach is clear. though they take international commissions, their innovative and bold design solutions are particular welcome in on their home turf; their approach is one that creates landscapes adaptive to climate change, sea level rise and restores biodiversity. At the same time, theirs is a humanistic practice that mixes resiliency with human-centered design to produce a level of awareness in communities.

Bangkok, Thailand | Founded 2007

Led by Pok Kobkongsanti, this Bangkok-based studio believes that the design process is as important as the design it produces, so they rely on close relationships with clients. The result exceeds the expectations, pushing boundaries in the practice of landscaping. At Ribbon Dance Park, for example, pushed beyond typical categorizations that result from pigeon hole thinking and moves beyond simply satisfying the clients expectations to introducing green space to be enjoyed by the public. TROP has been working on various projects throughout Asia since 2007, bringing the landscape back into the urban environment.

New York, New York | Founded 1999

Though you may know the firms name from from high-profile projects in New York such as the High Line, Domino Park and the Cornell Tech Campus in Roosevelt Island, this tri-city-based practice also has offices in San Francisco and Philadelphia, and has completed game-changing urban parks around the globe. From large urban districts and complex post-industrial sites, to smaller, detailed-oriented design projects, their oeuvre is united by a deep, underlying commitment to the design of a vibrant and dynamic public realm that integrates ecology, program and people.

Seattle, Washington | Founded 1988

This Taiwan-based landscape engineering consultancy has been providing environmental architectural planning and design work all over the world for 20 years. Since their establishment, they have completed hundreds of projects across the United States and Taiwan, with clients spanning from central and local governments to schools and research groups to private construction and development companies. With a strong focus on engineering, their detailed design work is buttressed by their expertise in development plans, environmental assessments, feasibility studies, engineering drawings and budgets, manufacturing supervision and engineering management. While that all may sound technical, they produce design-centric results see for yourself in their lauded HEITO 1909 park, above!

Phoenix, Arizona | Founded 2009

Founded in 2009 by landscape architects Allison Colwell and Michele Shelor, the Pheonix-based firm has dedicated their practice to creating meaningful, vibrant environments that deeply reference the cultural and ecological requisites of each site. From academic plazas, civic complexes and parks to intimate domestic sanctuaries, the breadth of the firms portfolio is matched by the depth of their engagement and attention to detail in each work. From this approach, designing landscapes also involves building relationships not only with clients, but between humans and the natural world. In addition to an overarching concern with sustainability, the firm strives to weave community-building threads into each design.

Boston, Massachusetts | Founded 1994

For twenty years, Boston-based studio has focused on human-centred design aimed at building better, more inclusive cities and improving civic health. Their expertise in restorative landscapes, backed by research into human cognition and green storm water technologies, allows them to face some of societys most pressing environmental and health-related issues head on. From waterfronts and workplaces to public gardens and healthcare centers, this evidence-based design approach has wide reach.

Bangkok, Thailand | Founded 2003

Based in Bangkok, this Thai landscape architecture design firm is squarely focused on creating unique urban environments. The goal is not architecture for architectures sake, however, but to produce singular spaces that improve citizens quality of life enhancing the green ecosystem. These aims are backed by a duo-specialty in both landscaping and urban development, backed by a team of landscape architects and young designers with progressive visions for alternative urban future centred on placemaking and value landscapes.

Rotterdam, Netherlands | Founded 2014

Founded in 2014, Felixx specializes in designing and engineering landscapes that maximize environmental impact. Their locally-embedded design solutions are aimed at addressing urgent global challenges. Taking on projects within a broad international scope, their clients include governments, NGOs and private developers, and their output varies from spatial research, landscape transformation strategies and developing masterplans, to public space and product design. Across the spectrum, their solutions seek to diversity environmental landscapes by transforming them from mono-functional places into complex hybrids that integrate vital systems with scenic experiences.

Oakland, California | Founded in 2012

Founded by friends, this Oakland-based landscape architecture and urban design practice is known for producing collaborative, innovative and interdisciplinary designs across a range of project types and scapes. Many of their projects unfold through years of working with clients, building relationships through successive projects. In so doing, they promote a long-term approach to design work and urban thinking; one that uses landscape to create a healthier world where people are more equitably connected to nature and to each other.

Judging for the 11th A+Awards is now underway! While awaiting the Winners, prepare for the upcoming Architizer Vision Awards, honoring the best architectural photography, film, visualizations, drawings, models and the talented creators behind them.Learn more and register >

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On Solid Ground: 10 Top Landscape Architecture Firms in 2021 - Journal

Okej Studio founders Emmie and Mitchell Brower also dont see curvy shapes going anywhere anytime soon. We can see a variety of interior design styles experimenting a little and becoming more eclectic, Emmie says. One might see more minimalist interiors embrace complex shapes and really add those standout pieces that you normally wouldnt find in those environments. Well see a lot more classic and simple design that has been enhanced through interesting patterns and textures.

From the point of view of Bougie Woogies Jazmin and Matias, wiggly and squiggly shapes are expanding into two new directionsthe central piece, which is an accent that calms down the wiggle frenzy to clean the visual information and brings balance without losing the fun, and the passage from 2D squiggle to 3D swirl. The couple cites Vivid Wu and Aden Wangs home as a prime example of a space where the balance between classic minimalism and retro-style wiggly shapes and colors make the space feel modern with a touch of nostalgia. (They also point to the Home Union and Pieces collaboration as a reference.) On a similar note, the architectural designer Lula Galeano also thinks that spiral patterns will be huge in 2022. Perhaps its a sign that we are on our way toward the upward spiral?

Jeanette Reza is a hopeless romantic at heart so when she was conceptualizing the shape of her Jiu Jie cushions back in 2018, she wanted them not only to provide squishy comfort, but also to be viewed as objects of desire. The Mexican designer sees her knotty creations as a labyrinth that takes us into this alternative universe where all our fantasies and desires become true. Cushions molded like this serve as transitional pieces that make you feel connected to something on a deeper emotional level.

Now that everything is happening within one space, Jeanette also thinks that modular multiuse products will be an even bigger design trend because more people want things that you can play with that have multifunctionality. She says, It has to be something a little more special that has a story and meaning behind it, not just a decoration purpose.

Wiggle Room's signature coffee table with a purple Sophie Lou Jacobsen pitcher full of flowers.

Jenny Kaplan, cofounder of Pieces, has been gravitating toward new shapes that have never been shown before. As a brand that looks to push the boundaries of modernizing our designs with innovative forms, Pieces is constantly thinking about what areas have yet to be explored within the design landscape. I am feeling lots of print and organic silhouettes for 2022, Jenny says. We are currently working on a new collection based on the study of patterns from the 20th century with a focus on the 80s and 90s.

Gustaf Westman is interested in what the wiggle will evolve into. Lately, the designer has noticed a shift in color palettes from pastels to deeper hues so he expects to see a new wave of color combinations in the mix. I think we are going to see an increased mix in materials, colors, and shapes, he says. I think that the wiggly and bulky styles will be seen a lot in raw materials like wood and metal The shapes [might] come after harder materials and straight lines.

Original post:
What's Next After the Wiggle Trend? We Asked 9 Designers for Their Predictions - Architectural Digest

The origin story of Americas national parks goes like this: during the Lincoln administration, fearing that the recently discovered wonders of Yosemite Valley would be defiled as Niagara Falls had been, and the Mariposa Big Tree Grove logged, federal legislation created what would eventually become Yosemite National Park, though as author Dennis Drabelle notes, the word park never appeared in the law.

The reserve was conveyed to the state of California.

A mysterious and spectacular landscape, mostly in Wyoming Territory, similarly threatened by entrepreneurs who sought to profit from access to it and possibly make it into a carnival like Niagara Falls, resulted in the first national park because Yellowstone was federal land and there was no state to which to grant it.

John Muir and others campaigned to make the land around Yosemite Valley and the nearby giant sequoias a national park, which they achieved, and Yosemite Valley was ceded back to the federal government and became the Yosemite National Park we know and love today. So, there you have it, a simple and straightforward progression.

The actual origin story is, however, neither simple nor straightforward, stretching over half a century and involving many players, some well known to the park-loving public today, and most not.

In The Power of Scenery, Dennis Drabelle traces the early evolution of the national park idea and its realization. His account moves from British statesman and political philosopher Edmund Burke, who wrote of the aesthetic that stirred the national park movement, to early American artist George Catlin, who envisioned a nations park, and then to Henry David Thoreau, who also floated the idea.

Drabelle describes how U.S. Senator John Conness of California shepherded the initial Yosemite legislation to passage by Congress and the signature of Abraham Lincoln, and then to a lengthy discussion of how Frederick Law Olmsted influenced the national park movement. Others in the story include journalist Samuel Bowles; Americas first landscape architect, Andrew Jackson Downing; scientist and survey leader Ferdinand Hayden; photographer William Henry Jackson; entrepreneur Nathaniel Langford; Congressman John Lacey; and financier Jay Cooke. While these and other philosophers, legislators, writers, journalists, photographers, early scientists, and explorers all play their parts, Drabelle makes Olmsted the focal point in his account of the evolutionary process that resulted in the National Park System we know today.

Why Olmsted? Because, as Drabelle explains, the power of Olmsteds ideas about parks influenced the course of national park history more than any other single person, and that might be a surprising claim to those who give the accolade to John Muir.

After reviewing the contributions of Olmsteds predecessors who contributed ideas that influenced the park movement, Drabelle summarizes Olmsteds early life and his many ventures as an apprentice seaman, farmer, journalist and, most importantly, superintendent and landscape designer of New Yorks Central Park, the historic role for which he is especially remembered. With architect Calvert Vaux he designed and oversaw early construction of this historic park. Then he served as a United States Sanitary Commission member and leader during the Civil War, and as manager of the Mariposa Estate in California, which placed him where he could make his primary contribution to national park history.

Drabelle opens The Power of Scenery in 1865 with Olmsted in a smoke- and beard-filled room presenting a lengthy report to his colleagues on the Yosemite Commission on how the new Yosemite park should be managed. The Commission and its charge were required by the conveyance of Yosemite Valley from federal to state ownership and Olmsted, with his Central Park management and design experience, had become its de facto leader.

Drabelle writes, Olmsted applied to Yosemite the first principle behind his great New York project: a park should belong to and be useable by everyone. At the time, this was a radical proposal, as Drabelle goes to some length to explain using the example of Niagara Falls where everyone could only enjoy it at considerable financial expense.

And then came a recommendation tailored specifically to this, the first public park in the wilds: leave it in its natural state, permitting only such minor additions as a road or two for better access and a handful of rustic structures to accommodate visitors, continues Drabelle. This, too, was a radical idea as, driven by the idea of manifest destiny and other motives for taming and conquering nature, Americans at the time were bent on extracting every cent possible from the land, modifying it to fit their ambitions.

Several of his fellow commissioners decided for various reasons that Olmsteds visionary blueprint for the park was too radical and expensive and managed to have his report quashed, but for decades it percolated in the background as the national park movement got underway.

Olmsted became nationally prominent as a landscape architect and found many ways to put his ideas before the public and decision-makers. Drabelle notes that In 1903, the year of Olmsteds death, President Theodore Roosevelt gazed out over the Grand Canyon and implored his audience to leave it as it is. You cannot improve upon it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it. Almost 40 years earlier, Olmsted has reached the same conclusion about Yosemite and, by extension, every American national park to follow.

Olmsteds thinking had reached the pinnacle of political power with lasting consequences for the American landscape and its national parks, the Grand Canyon of course destined to be one of them. Olmsteds 1865 report may have been quashed for a time, but Drabelle writes that it was Buried but influential all the same.

According to Drabelle, Olmsteds genius lay in peering into the heart of each landscape he came across and finding ways to bring out its best. Yosemite Valley struck him as an entirely different case than Manhattan Island, in that Yosemites best had already been brought out, as agents such as the glacier grinding away at its granite, and he fashioned his report accordingly.

Olmsted left California after four years of trying unsuccessfully to right the sinking Mariposa Estate and commenced his career as the most influential landscape architect in American history. He designed parks all over the United States and established the profession to which he had been introduced by Andrew Jackson Downing, a profession that would be most influential in the future National Park System.

Following in his fathers footsteps, Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. was the principal draftsman of the National Park Service Organic Act of 1916 in which, as Drabelle writes, he might have simply cut and pasted the principle laid down by his father in the 1865 Yosemite report.

His father had reaffirmed the [Yosemite] reports central recommendation that managers of a wilderness park should keep improvements to the bare minimum periodically throughout his career, including in the report for Niagara Falls he coauthored with Vaux. But cutting and pasting was of course impossible. Olmsted Jr. had to state the principle differently because in 1916 there were national parks, and Congress was finally getting around to creating an agency to manage them, authorizing it to enforce rules in them, police powers that even the U.S. Army had lacked in its decades-long efforts to protect early parks.

The Organic Act famously stated, in part, The service thus established shall promote and regulate the use of the Federal areas known as national parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.

Father and son set the National Park Service up for a big challenge provide for enjoyment but leave unimpaired which the agency has struggled to manage since its inception.

The Power of Scenery covers historical ground extensively explored by many other writers in both popular and scholarly ways. Drabelle puts Frederick Law Olmsteds role in national park history into context, explaining how and why he was able to be so important to that history in the late 19th century and even to the present.

Drabelles style and approach make for a compelling read for anyone with a shred of interest in Americas national park history. For instance, he explains how Olmsted seemed unimpressed by the sublime qualities of Yosemite Valley that so captured John Muir and many others yet saw the great value of Yosemite Valley. Olmsted subscribed to a different aesthetic even though Drabelle goes to considerable length to describe the nature and influence of the sublime aesthetic that was so important to the rise of the national park idea. Describing the new California reservation soon after its passage in a letter to his father, Olmsted portrayed the valley as awfully grand, but . . . not frightful or fearful . . . . The valley is as sweet & peaceful as the meadows of Avon, and the sides are in many parts lovely with foliage and color.

Drabelle writes,

While saying nothing specifically about Half Dome or El Capitan or Yosemite Falls, he compared the Merced River to the bucolic Avon and preferred ferns and rushes to chasms. When it came to natures extravagances, Olmsted had a blind spot. Toward the end of his career, in 1893, he admitted as much, mentioning his susceptibility to natural beauty but adding a qualification. Not so much grand or sensational scenery as scenery of a more domestic order. Scenery to be looked upon contemplatively and which is provocative of musing moods. It all went back, he thought, to the enjoyment which my father and mother (step-mother) took in loitering journeys; in afternoon drives on the Connecticut meadows. As for all things craggy, they struck him as anything but tranquilizing. Mountains, he said, suggest effort.

This passage illustrates Drabelles readable style and approach and his occasional touch of humor. Asides, such as his account of Truman Everts getting lost in Yellowstone when traveling that wild landscape as part of the famous Washburn-Langford-Doane expedition of 1870, provide entertaining tales that enliven the story of how the national parks got their start.

Scholars of national park history, who are not the audience for this book, might be put off by some obvious errors that will jump out at them. Perusing the small collection of photos in the book they will note that in photo #9 the caption reads, Yellowstone superintendent Horace Albright (left) with explorer Charlie Cook in 1922, at the fiftieth-anniversary celebration of the parks establishment. Courtesy of Wikimedia.

Unfortunately, NPS Director Stephen Mather is listening to Charlie in the photo, not Albright, who was present but not in this image.

In another error, Drabelle has the Yosemite National Park superintendent responding to a letter from George Grinnell that the superintendents boss, Stephen Mather had passed along for comment. He has the wrong Grinnell here. George Bird Grinnell indeed played a role in national park history, but the Grinnell writing to the Yosemite Superintendent was Joseph Grinnell, the director of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the University of California at Berkeley, whom Yosemite Park historian Al Runte (cited by Drabelle as his source here) describes as an indefatigable champion of park protection and research.

And finally, Drabelle places the first official American wilderness area, within the Gila National Forest in Arizona. That wilderness is in New Mexico. Errors like this will not detract from the value of this book for the average reader, who can learn much from Drabelles study of Frederick Law Olmsteds role in national park history, but it will annoy some who hold authors writing history, even for popular audiences, to a high standard of accuracy.

In this book, Dennis Drabelle makes a compelling case that Frederick Law Olmsted deserves the prominent place he holds in the pantheon of shapers of the National Park System we enjoy in the 21st century. Visitors may be awed by the monumental scenery, experiencing the sublime qualities of Yosemite, Yellowstone, and other parks. Or they may enjoy the sweet and peaceful meadows and wildflowers as Olmsted did. They will enjoy, without knowing of it, the work of landscape architects as they have sought to fashion park development that does not intrude upon the scenery, part of Olmsteds legacy.

While today we recognize that national parks have many more values than scenery, the power of scenery in the history of national parks is an important and entertaining story.

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Review | The Power Of Scenery: Frederick Law Olmsted And The Origin Of National Parks - National Parks Traveler

Died: December 18, 2021.

RICHARD Rogers, Lord Rogers of Riverside, who has died aged 88, was an architect of towering ambition, whose creations transformed urban landscapes in major cities across the world.

His buildings include the Pompidou Centre in Paris, designed with Italian architect Renzo Piano, which opened in 1977; the Lloyds of London building, completed in 1986; and the Millennium Dome, the symbol of New Labour triumphalism that opened to the public on New Years Day 2000, and which evolved into the O2 venue.

Other key buildings by Rogers included the Leadenhall Building (2013), across the street from Lloyds, which became known as the Cheesegrater. He also designed the law courts in Bordeaux (1998) and Antwerp (2005), the National Assembly in Wales (2005), and Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport (2008). This was eventually built following a labyrinthine public inquiry and associated objections and protests, and took 19 years to come to fruition.

Rogers also designed the first Maggies Centre for cancer care in London, which opened at Charing Cross hospital in 2009. The building won Rogers his second Stirling Prize for architectural excellence. The first was for Barajas Airport, Madrid, in 2006.

Rogers buildings used glass, steel and other industrial materials to create shiny structures that attempted to open up inner cities with space and light. At times there were contradictions in his vision. As an advocate of social housing and public space for all, he also created expensive apartment blocks and helped open the door to an era of regeneration that sometimes sidelined existing communities. The expansive scale of his creations nevertheless became symbols of upwardly mobile communion on a grand scale.

Richard George Rogers was born in Florence, Italy, to Nino, a doctor, and Dada (ne Geiringer) Rogers. His father was the son of a British migr, and his artist mother was the daughter of an architect and engineer, and had once been taught by James Joyce. The family lived in an apartment that had a view of the Duomo, before fleeing to England in 1939 from rising fascism. They lived in one room in a Bayswater boarding house, where, as Rogers later put it, life switched from colour to black and white.

He was sent to boarding school at Kingswood House in Epsom, where he took up boxing after being bullied. He went to St Johns school in Leatherhead, but left without A-levels. He later discovered he was dyslexic.

He did his national service in Trieste, and while on leave worked in the office of his cousin, Ernesto Rogers, who had designed the Torre Velasca building in Milan. Back in London, this inspired him to enrol as a student at the Architectural Association School. With his first wife, Su Brumwell, he went to Yale University on a Fulbright scholarship. While in America he met his contemporary, Norman Foster.

A brief period working in a San Francisco architects office made Rogers realise that working in someone elses practice wasnt for him. Collaboration became key to his ethos ever after. Returning to the UK, Rogers, Brumwell, Foster, and Fosters wife Wendy Cheesman, set up the Team 4 practice.

They began by designing Creek Vean, a house in Cornwall for Brumwells parents. Six years in the making, the experience was a baptism of fire, with Rogers and Foster brought before the Architects Registration Council for practicing without a licence. Rogers learnt his lesson, even if his proposed ZipUp House, an affordable factory-assembled construction for modern living, never took off.

Winning the competition to design the Pompidou Centre put him on the map, even if some of its more epic plans were scaled back in the face of budget cuts and public scepticism. In the end, the building was deemed a success, and was the beginning of his re-imagining of cities at a global level.

This was done primarily through the Richard Rogers Partnership, later Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, founded by Rogers in 1977.

In the 1980s, he became a public advocate of radical modernism in London and beyond, and clashed with Prince Charless sense of traditionalism, with the monarch-in-waiting describing Rogerss proposed extension to the National Gallery in London as a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved friend.

At the turn of the century, Rogers led the new Greater London Authoritys Architecture and Urbanism Unit, with support from the citys first mayor, Ken Livingstone. Plans for more public spaces in London were quickly overturned by Livingstones successor, Boris Johnson.

Rogerss achievements were recognised both in the UK and Europe. In France, he was awarded the Legion dHonneur in 1966, and was knighted in 1991. Tony Blair made him made a Labour peer in 1996, and he became Lord Rogers of Riverside. His autobiography, A Place for All People: Life, Architecture and Social Responsibility, was published in 2017 by Edinburgh publishing house, Canongate. He retired from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners in 2020, closing the door on more than half a century of his modernist vision being at the heart of city living around the world.

He is survived by his second wife, Ruth Rogers, and five children; Ben, Dad and Ab, from his first marriage to Su Brumwell; and Roo, to Rogers. Their youngest son, Bo, predeceased him in 2011. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren, and his younger brother, Peter.

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Obituary: Richard Rogers, pioneering architect who re-imagined the urban landscape - HeraldScotland

A rose to all those who sacrificed a part of their Christmas Day to serve the public. While Christmas is a day off to enjoy family and friends for most of us, there are many who work on the holiday to provide essential (and non-essential) services law enforcement, firefighters, emergency service workers, utility company employees, hospital and urgent care clinic employees to name a few. We thank you for the important work you do and for the sacrifices you are sometimes called to make for our benefit. Merry Christmas!

A rose to Columbus Mayor Keith Gaskin for his decision to bury a time capsule on New Years Eve and inviting the public to contribute items that will be unearthed in 2072, the citys 250th anniversary. We believe time capsules have a value that goes beyond the curiosity and anticipation that increases as the time goes by until the time capsules are reopened. Now, its an opportunity for us to reflect on who we are, what we believe to be important and how we want to be remembered. For those who are around when the time capsule is retrieved in 50 years, its a chance to reconnect with those who preceded them, tying the past together with the future. We encourage citizens to carefully consider contributing items that tell our story to those who follow.

A rose to the city of Starkville, which announced its masterplan for a $16 million upgrade for the citys parks. Based on recommendations from a landscape architect firm, the plan includes many renovations at all city park facilities. Of particular note, the plan creates more walking paths and green spaces that can serve a wide variety of uses. The old lets build a ballfield and call it a day approach has been abandoned to create a diverse offering of recreational opportunities while creating opportunities to adapt to new trends as they emerge. Its clear careful thought was given to both the current recreational needs of the community as well as future possibilities for facilities that have yet to emerge. Its a practical, flexible, forward-focused plan.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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Roses and thorns 12-26-21 - The Commercial Dispatch