Greening the city: Towards a landscape integration.
An Urban Design Group Lecture Fenella Griffin is a practicing landscape architect and partner at Untitled Practice, architects and and landscape architects. Current work focuses on the redevelopmen...

By: UrbanNous

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Greening the city: Towards a landscape integration. - Video

Towson Unitarian Universalist Church has won a grant to produce a rain garden on a slope on its property. . As part of the grant, the public is invited to a workshop to learn how to plan gardens that capture rainwater before it races into local waterways and then help to plant the church's new rain garden.

"The workshop is about educating people and getting them involved in the process," said Jack Leonard, a landscape designer based in Hereford, who has designed the church's rain garden. He is involved in the planting of 10 more area rain gardens this spring, he said.

"Everybody will get information to design their own plantings," Leonard said. "In the end, everybody can walk away proud of what they accomplished."

The new plantings will also include a "bayscape" garden of native plants near the church entrance, as well as the 230-square-foot rain garden farther down the property's slope.

The rain garden is designed to handle up to an inch or so of rain enough to keep most pollutants from going into the Chesapeake Bay watershed, he said. With the combination of earth berms, river rocks and plantings, the water should soak into the ground rather than run down the hill into the stream.

Plants native to the Chesapeake Bay watershed will be used exclusively. Flowering dogwood, inkberry holly, bee balm and goldenrod support local insects and birds, including butterflies and songbirds, Leonard said. Turtlehead, which sprouts flowers that resemble the head of a turtle, will be planted because it is a host plant for the Baltimore Checkerspot butterfly.

Many gardens are filled with non-native plants that can't sustain the local butterflies and other creatures.

"You're not giving them anything to eat," Leonard said. "It's like having a restaurant without anything to eat."

Leonard noted that every property, residential or commercial, has a roof or paved space where runoff can occur. Each time a family plants a rain garden, runoff and pollution into the Chesapeake Bay watershed is reduced. Encouraging home gardeners to make rain gardens is a part of a larger effort, he said.

"We're going to fix it by getting people to understand the problem," he said. "Let's fix the problem piece by piece."

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Public invited to rain garden workshop at Towson Unitarian

Landscape architect Hargreaves Associates for the first timerevealed imagesfor The Commons,afuture park in downtown Minneapolis shoulderinghigh expectations from the public for recreation and commercial growth in the area.

The San Francisco-based firm outlined four generalapproaches that contain essentially the same features for the 4.2-acre, two-block park sited just west of the new Vikings Stadium. The key difference istheconfigurations of these elements.

The type of water feature, changes in soil height, placement of the programmable space and vision for the support services pavilion placed in each plan are still up for negotiation depending on public feedback.

There are two things that appear certain regardless of which approach is selected. First, there will likely be the presence ofa grand promenade, or tree-lined walkway, along 4thand 5thStreets. The second, which was a talking point at the first public meeting and remained an issue at the second, is thatPortland Avenue will still host car traffic, but less of it.

Portland Avenue will be significantly narrower, said Mary Margaret Jones, principal at Hargreaves. And it can be closed at times for events.

Instead of the existing three traffic lanes, two parking lanes and one bike lane, the new Portland will have two car lanes, and two parking lanes will turn into bike lanes.

As for the design approaches presented Wednesday night to a crowd of several hundred residents at the Mill City Museum, the four concepts fall along a gradient or spectrum.

On one end of the conceptual gradient is the approach that separates the uses into distinct districts. The other end of the spectrum is a moreblended layout witha central focus point.

The images provided by Hargreaves arent final renderings but provide a visual for the broad brushstrokes of these variousapproaches.

The first, called Contrast, separates uses by the physical barrier of Portland with the open lawn on the east side and a more organic landscape on the west side. The fourth, called Unite, has a single, defining design, and the other two are a compromise that fall in between on the spectrum.

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Hargreaves presents four "approaches" to Downtown East Commons

Bob Byers, associate executive director for Garvan Woodland Gardens, seems right at home at the botanical garden where he spent more than 20 years as resident landscape architect.

He and Susan Harper, the garden's visitors services director, sat outside the Pratt Welcome Center on Thursday with peacocks strolling and calling nearby. Harper pointed out how close the birds stay to Byers and called him the "peacock daddy," as he first proposed their presence some years back.

Byers became fully immersed in the 210-acre botanical offering of the University of Arkansas when he was named the full-time garden curator in September 1994. But now, Byers has decided to leave Hot Springs and become director of Texas' Fort Worth Botanical Garden beginning April 20.

His beginnings in landscape architecture go back to when he was a child, he said Thursday.

"I was probably 5 or 6, and I talked my dad into giving me a row in the vegetable garden. I planted petunias and beets and Indian corn. The petunias didn't come up, the beets didn't do anything, but I made three little old ears of Indian corn, and I just thought it was the coolest thing in the whole world," he said.

Early work at the gardens included documenting what philanthropist and namesake Verna Cook Garvan had done in years before -- planting rare specimens on the property -- and developing a comprehensive topography plan.

In 1996, the first master plan was created, and for the next 10 years a large part of his job was to make sure personnel understood the vision of the garden and to oversee their actions, ensuring all were sympathetic to both the vision and plan.

"We actually made a lot more progress in the first 10 years than we expected," he said.

One person instrumental to that progress was David Slawson, who designed the garden's renowned Japanese style Garden of the Pine Wind. Byers said Slawson has been a great source of inspiration over the years.

"He's really intuitive and really in touch with the way people respond to landscapes emotionally, which was helpful to me and very formative in the way I thought about gardens," Byers said of his mentor.

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Garvan Gardens architect leaving post

Yountville, CA (PRWEB) April 07, 2015

The renderings are inand the design team chosenfor a historic renovation of The French Laundry, the first major overhaul of the landmark restaurant in 20 years. International design firm, Snhetta, is the lead design and landscape architect, working in collaboration with California-based firms Envelope A+D as executive architect and Tim Harrison of Harrison, Koellner, LLC as kitchen designer. The renovation will result in a new and expanded kitchen and courtyard, an auxiliary building to house a wine cellar and support offices, and a new arrival experience to enhance the approach to the iconic blue door.

While the historic restaurant will remain unaltered, all of the former kitchen structure and auxiliary buildings have been demolished to make way for the modernization. Wright Construction leads the construction.

The French Laundry is being redesigned to be a backdrop worthy of the restaurant's history, Thomas Keller said. With the Louvre Pyramid as my inspiration, we wanted to find a way to juxtapose the historic and the modern while maintaining the high quality cuisine and service our guests have come to expect from The French Laundry. The new design will be an innovative and functioning space that will allow us to continue to evolve as a restaurant and develop new standards.

Every element of the design strikes a thoughtful balance between form and function, beginning with the guests first step onto The French Laundry property. In preparation for the project, Snhettas Craig Dykers spent many hours in Chef Kellers kitchen, observing the rhythm and the culture of the restaurant. Snhettas design aims to create a meaningful environment for those who work there, recognizing Chef Kellers emphasis on efficiency and precision, along with his vision that the kitchen is the keystone of a world-class restaurant experience.

An experience at any of Chef Kellers restaurants transcends expectation. The kitchen is the starting point for an architecture of connection, energy and authenticity. As Chef Keller makes us aware, the kitchen is where all the senses are first ignited, said Craig Dykers, Founding Partner of Snhetta, and longtime friend of Chef Keller. The French Laundry kitchen is both primal and innovative, setting the stage for culinary magic.

The renovated kitchen will support the graceful choreography for which the restaurants culinary and service teams are known. The new custom vaulted ceilings, fabricated by local manufacturer Kreysler & Associates, will evoke a white linen table cloth being gently unfurled across a table, while also hiding the ceilings functional elements. The sweeping vaults create large skylights that will let in ample natural light and sound-dampening ceiling panels will reduce ambient noise. The new kitchen will also be equipped with customized ventilated ceiling systems by Halton Americas that use remote sensors to control air flow.

The renovation of The French Laundry kitchen is not simply a face-lift. It is a commitment by Chef Keller and his team to continually aim themselves toward the moving target of perfection, said Douglas Burnham, Principal/Founder, Envelope A+D.

In addition to expanding the kitchens size by 25 percent, the renovation will make for more efficient use of space, creating one contiguous room for the entire culinary team with a visual connection from station to station. With walls, flooring and work stations all fashioned out of anti-microbial Dekton Quartz by Cosentino of North America, the new kitchen will feature a white-on-white palettea nod to the sense of promise and potential of a fresh start. The kitchen equipment will feature two unique Moltini suites by Electrolux and commercial ranges by Hestan Commercial. The ground-up construction of a new Kitchen Annex will house The French Laundrys support functions including the prep kitchen, butchery, produce breakdown, and management offices. It is also home to The French Laundrys regarded wine collection, with the storage capacity to hold up to 14,000 bottles.

Energy conservation and efficiencies are also critical components of the renovation. Renewable energy solar panels by NRG will be installed and the kitchen will feature a power generation system utilizing new fuel cell technology by Bloom Energy. An expansion of the existing unique geothermal loop is planned as well to further improve overall sustainability.

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The French Laundrys Plans Revealed

Its time for the 1957 Royal Poinciana Plaza to have a wow moment again, Samantha David told residents and others Tuesday at the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach.

For six months, Smith and Moore Architects and Nievera Williams Landscape Architecture have worked with David, of Up Markets, to make that moment possible. Up Markets took a controlling leasehold interest in the John Volk-designed commercial plaza last August through a $22.5 million deal.

We very deliberately chose residential landscape and building architects with the hope that, (when) you drive up to this building, it feels like you are approaching the most beautiful home, David said. When you go on to the gardens, its someones garden and its cozy and its intimate and special.

The team showed its plan to revitalize the Regency-style plaza to the public for the first time Tuesday.

The keys, they said, are a major boost in landscaping to increase shade and visual appeal, a change in traffic flow and the restoring architectural elements lost over the years in piecemeal changes.

Windows and storefronts need to be restored to Volks original design and awnings should be the same style and color, according to Daniel Kahan, an architect with Smith and Moore.

What we are trying to do is strip away all of the unfortunate things that have happened to a great building since it was constructed. In a vacuum, each decision that has been made may have not been so terrible, but they werent made holistically and over the years they have amassed to something that really does a disservice to a great building, Kahan said.

Landscape architect Keith Williams said the plan would improve traffic flow by eliminating the entrance/exit on Cocoanut Row, adding a curb cut for an entrance/exit at the northeast corner of the property and a cut for two exit lanes on the southeast corner.

To reduce the asphalt on the massive property, those spots and the existing north-side entrance/exit would be paved with cast stone.

Sidewalks would shrink from 12.6 feet to 5 feet in width to provide room for palm trees and shrubs, and to increase the distance between parallel parking spaces next to the buildings and the first row of angled spaces, according to Williams.

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Team reveals plan for intimate redo of Royal Poinciana Plaza

"Ludic" a word denoting aimless playfulness is an important one for Solange Serquis. "I like to be as playful as possible in the outdoors," said the landscape architect who was trained in Argentina and Santa Fe. The concept came up in a discussion about one of her focus points when planning residential landscape projects. In New Mexico the outdoor areas are amazing. In Buenos Aires its very hot and humid in the summer and people don't want to be outside. But here its beautiful and I like doing water features with recirculated water. In my own garden I did a river feature with black stones. My kids love to play in it and adults like to put their feet in.

Water, shade, and confluence point makes everything happen and you can sit there and enjoy. Then plants. I especially love red feathergrass. I like to use native plants so you will get butterflies and birds. If you love birds, do native plants.

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Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy | Euromaxx
Welcome to the new Milan. The gray, industrial metropolis is turning into a greener, environment-conscious city. Fittingly, the Expo #39;s motto this year is "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life"....

By: DW (English)

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Expo 2015 in Milan, Italy | Euromaxx - Video

Nondual Perception - Testimonial for Roma Hammel Meditation Teacher

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Nondual Perception - Testimonial for Roma Hammel Meditation Teacher - Video

Discussing the Landscape Design and Living Amenities
Bob talks with landscape architect David Raphael of Landworks about his approach to designing the grounds surrounding the Vermont farmhouse. General contractor Ted Riley tells Bob about some...

By: Bob Vila

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Discussing the Landscape Design and Living Amenities - Video