Last week The New York Times, in alliance with the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation, put out a call for names of the invisible women who "built New York." Other than midcentury urbanist Jane Jacobs, well known for fighting tooth and nail against vast urban renewal projects, early designers (read: pre-WWII) credited with New York City's urban fabric is a list of white men: Robert Moses, Edward Durell Stone, Frederick Law Olmsted, and more.

California had Julia Morgan and Ray Eames. France had Charlotte Perriand. England had Eileen Gray and Alison Smithson. The Midwest had Marion Mahoney Griffin. Brazil had the wildly talented Lina Bo Bardi. New York had Norma Merrick Sklarek, the first licensed African American female architect, until she left for the West Coast because no one would in New York would hire her. That's not to say that women didn't play a huge role in building NYCsimply that they did so under the radar. Many are interns, daughters, wives, or clients. Their influence was ingeniously negotiated; they've been listed as "unknown," they've created parks, and they've shuffled into interior design. A few examples:

Photo via NYC Architecture

When she died in 1918, The New York Times wrote in Fay Kellogg's obituary that she was the "foremost woman architect in the United States." Kellogg began her study of architecture under a German tutor, who taught her drawing and math. After her father talked her out of becoming a doctor, she went to Brooklyn's Pratt Institute for two years and then to Paris, where she fought to get admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, which at the time only accepted men. She was unsuccessful for herself, though her protests are thought to have cleared the path for its first female graduate, famed California architect Julia Morgan, who graduated from the institution in 1902. She came back to the U.S. and began working with architect John R. Thomas, designing, among other things, the grand staircase in the city's Hall of Records (now known as the Surrogate's Court). What's more, she opened her own firm in 1903, and established "specialist in steel construction" (also according to the obituary) by renovating and building seven buildings for Manhattan's American News Company. This was all before she died at 47a very young age for any established architect.

Photo via The Blogazine

Neither an architect nor engineer, designer Florence Knoll never technically "built" anything, but is still largely responsible for the look of midcentury (read: Mad Men) Manhattanclean lines, geometric patterns, splashes of color. She trained under the likes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Walter Gropius, and Marcel Breuer, but never joined their ranks. Still, her influence cannot be overstated. She convinced her husband Hans Knoll, with whom she founded midcentury furniture megalith Knoll, to work with Europe's expat architecture community, as well as curated New York's new minimalist aesthetic. What's more, she famously refused to be pigeon-holed as anything but a creator: "I am not a decorator," she said. "The only place I decorate is my own house."

Photo via NYC Parks official site

As NYC's Chief of Tree Plantings, a position she nabbed in 1936, landscape architect Clara Coffey brought greenery to the Hutchinson River Parkway and swapped out the fences and hedges of the Park Avenue Malls with flowerbeds and kwanzan cherry trees.

The adage "anonymous was a woman" is especially pertinent to Doris Dreyfussor, as she was known in her husband's office, "Mrs. Marks." The secret wife of skilled industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, Doris was unlicensed for the entirety of her career, despite the fact that Henry once remarked, "I wouldn't have a business without her."

Photo via New York Botanical Gardens official site

Excerpt from:
Gender Studies: These Five Anonymous Women Helped Build New York City

David Baker, FAIA, LEED AP Andrea Cochran, FASLA
The Affordable Housing Design Leadership Institute #39;s (AHDLI) keynote address will be presented by architect David Baker, FAIA and landscape architect Andrea ...

By: USC Architecture

Here is the original post:
David Baker, FAIA, LEED AP & Andrea Cochran, FASLA - Video

Zoo Jobs: Meet Small Mammal Biologist at National Zoo
Attention middle school students, the video series, Other Duties as Assigned: The Secret World of Zoo Jobs, is a cool way for you to learn about Zoo career...

By: Smithsonian #39;s National Zoo

Continued here:
Zoo Jobs: Meet Small Mammal Biologist at National Zoo - Video

Landscape Architect: Sam Caswell
Your mother.

By: Sam Caswell

Excerpt from:
Landscape Architect: Sam Caswell - Video

Hire a Landscape Architect in Delray Beach | Michael J. Phillips Landscape Architecture, Inc.
South Florida is known for its beautiful tropical flora. With over 25 years of experience creating beautiful landscapes for both commercial and residential p...

By: MJPhillipsLA

Read more:
Hire a Landscape Architect in Delray Beach | Michael J. Phillips Landscape Architecture, Inc. - Video

Architecture Spotlight #40 | Eichler Elegance BY by Elemental Design Group | Palo Alto, California
Specializing in custom garden design, award-winning landscape architect, Rhadiante Van de Voorde, principal of Elemental Design Group, shares her design phil...

By: Chibi Moku

Read more from the original source:
Architecture Spotlight #40 | Eichler Elegance & BY by Elemental Design Group | Palo Alto, California - Video

In its current form, Memorial Park doesnt feel like 1,500 acres, planning consultants say. But it could, if a renewal-minded master plan under development successfully resolves natural and man-made barriers to a more cohesive, connected environment thats ecologically sound.

That a park divided cannot thrive was one of several messages about Memorial Parks future shared last week, at a public reveal of early design concepts. Technical experts from a range of specialties have teamed up to develop a long-term design proposal and strategy to restore, preserve and enhance the park experience for all Houstonians, not just those residing near it.

The planning phase is a third complete, too early to expect a final design for the parks renewal and management, consultants said. They did acknowledge how Houstons get er done tradition might find the timeline a bit confounding.

Still, the vision is sharpening its focus after a years worth of robust public input, park-related research, open houses, data gathering and analysis, interviews, digging (both literal and figurative), polling, workshops and outreach efforts, now assessed and considered.

Were listening...We really want to get this right for the city, landscape architect Thomas Woltz said. His award-winning firm, Nelson, Byrd Woltz, is spearheading a consortium of about 70 experts, most of them local, as they seek a healthy, sustainable future for the park.

The ongoing collaboration to plan, implement and, importantly, fund a new master plan teams up Memorial Park Conservancy, Houston Parks and Recreation and Uptown Houstons TIRZ. The latter has bankrolled many of the studies so far and plans to contribute $100 million to $150 million toward the projects implementation.

Preliminary findings and early design concepts floated at the meeting included one very ambitious one that would dramatically alter the landscape: a land bridge formed above an 800-ft. section of double tunnel accommodating Memorial Drive, which currently separates the parks northern and southern sections.

Renderings showed how new acreage atop the tunnels could support more prairie, ponds and pathways while reconnecting some of the parks fragmented sections. Its implementation would signify the park rising triumphantly over the road, Woltz said.

There are, however, other impediments to park connectivity.

Currently, the 1,500 acres fall into 24 segments formed over time by an assortment of infrastructure and concentrated pockets of designated activities. Woltz said a more integrated use of acreage and amenities would improve park use and enjoyment.

See the original post here:
Memorial Park Makeover

Serene scene: Lake Burley Griffin provides a haven for many species of bird. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

Keep the hard-edged clutter away from Lake Burley Griffin and respect this designed urban lake as a national rarity.

These are the aims of Juliet Ramsay, who has nominated the lake for the National Heritage List.

"There is no other city lake in Australia that has such a central designed lake and landmark feature," says Ms Ramsay, who has a background in landscape architecture and heritage, and specialises in cultural landscapes.

Ms Ramsay's nomination is on behalf of Australian members of the International Scientific Committee on Cultural Landscapes, of which she is a member. The committee is a non-government organisation for cultural heritage professionals.

Advertisement

The nomination captures the outstanding planning, engineering and landscaping that create Canberra's magnificent centrepiece.

The proposed heritage listing notes Walter Burley Griffin's knowledge of natural geography and appreciation of space in design. The Molonglo flood plain's natural terrain needed only a little help from the designer to transform it into outstanding ornamental waters, and change the gentle slopes of the foreshores into parklands.

Inspired by the great US landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted,Mr Griffin loved geography and botany.

"He gave to Australia a unique landscape vision to make a city where landscape features, low-level buildings and an abundance of spaces are the most significant features," Ms Ramsay writes.

See more here:
Lake Burley Griffin a national rarity

Art meant for public enjoyment was stolen for private profit. When San Francisco revamped the Embarcadero, the project included bronze plaques and figures. Some of those have gone missing.

"Public property goes missing, I guess that is stealing," said Dan Hodapp, landscape architect with the Port of San Francisco, which owns the waterfront stretch of property. "There are very resourceful people in the city from all walks of life. We ask that they respect public property for the enjoyment of others."

The missing items include bronze discs embedded in the sidewalk that depict San Francisco Bay animals and birds, and rectangular strips with words that tell the story of the waterfront. When one is missing, it's a like a page torn out of a book. You don't get the full story.

"Some of the components have a recycling value to some individuals." Hodapp explained. The bronze fabricator for the project, Gil Hernandez from South Bay Bronze, told KTVU a stolen bronze plaque that weighs about eight pounds can get about $1.50/lb at a scrap metal recycler. Hernandez said he's replaced dozens of stolen bronze items along the Embarcadero.

"How do they even pry them up from the ground," asked Steve Busichio as he ate lunch on a sunny Wednesday afternoon along the Embarcadero. "I didn't know you could possibly do that!"

The Port is working with the San Francisco Arts Commission to take inventory of what public art is there and what is missing, and figure out better ways to keep public art from getting into private hands. "We go back to the fabricator, have these re-poured. When we do, we look at stronger ways to put them in," Hodapp said. "We try to learn from the experiences we have on the waterfront to make this as good as we possibly can."

View original post here:
Bronze artwork stolen along the Embarcadero

The sky will be the limit during the initial planning stages to restore the LSU lakes, the project's lead planner said Thursday (Sept. 25).

Kinder Baumgardner, a landscape architect with SWA Group in Houston, answered questions from reporters in Baton Rougefrom a spot overlooking the six-lake system's biggest water body, University Lake.

Cost, of course, will steer what can be accomplished. But Baumgardner said the first goal is to pinpoint exactly what the community wants from the lakes and then deliver the vision. Cost analysis and sorting out who pays for what will come next, as well as a potential paring down of the design elements in necessary.

Many cities "would kill" to have such a beautiful natural environment perched in the middle of an urban environment, he said. But the challenges that brings with it are complicated ones, which his team will explore to find solutions that meet both the ecological needs of below thelakes' surface and the community's needs for the recreational space around them.

Part of his firm's task is to identify funding sources to execute the plans. Those may include a bond issue, donations or a combination of public and private funds. Most projects like this one, he said, are done these days through such a combination of public and private dollars.

"I'm guessing that's probably going to be the answer," he said.

Baumgardner joined Jeffrey Carbo of Lafayette in Baton Rouge Thursday to begin formal work on a master plan to restore the ecological soundness of the lakes and design 45 acres around them for recreational use. BRAF, which raised $750,000 in private fundsto hire theplanning team, along with other stakeholders,selected the team in June among a number of candidates for the project.

They will meet with leaders from LSU, the city-parish government, BREC and an advisory committee established by theBaton Rouge AreaFoundationcomprised of a number of stakeholders.

Plans will include:

-Recommendations for shoreline improvements with dredged materials, such as a trail system.

The rest is here:
LSU lakes restoration project planners begin work in Baton Rouge