Landscape+Urbanism

Category: dialogue

  • Targeting the Public

    Pioneer Courthouse Square is the central plaza of downtown – often referred to as the ‘living room’ of Portland and is praised as one of the best public spaces for it’s flexibility and programming :: image via MetroBabel In this regard, the space hosts a number of large-scale public events, rallies, concerts, and gatherings –…

  • Landscape+Urbanism Turns 3

    What a strange trip it’s been since an initial post of three years ago, November 26, 2007.  Almost 750 posts, just shy of 1000 comments (not counting the 10,000 or so spamments I’ve deleted), and a lot more landscape-related blogs in the territory than when I started.  Plus a lot of great virtual friends made…

  • City Turkey

    In honor of US Thanksgiving, a snapshot stories about of the urban turkey.  As habitat shrinks due to the spreading of cities, urban turkey’s much like their more domesticated brethren, the urban chicken, has begun to move to the cities (many stories such as here, here, and here) and develop a certain air of cosmopolitanism. ::…

  • Aquifers not Aquitards

    From the recent post on watershed boundaries, a reader mentioned the concept of underground aquifers and their relation to geographical boundaries and .  My title is in jest (sort of) referring to ‘Aquitards’ which according to Wikipedia is “a zone within the earth that restricts the flow of groundwater from one aquifer to another“, but…

  • Natural Boundary / Political Boundary

    I’m really glad that Strange Maps featured the interesting (albeit never realized) notion of John Wesley Powell‘s watershed-based approach to defining political boundaries in his 1890 ‘Map of the Arid Region of the United States’.  The concept reframes the Jeffersonian national grid, using drainage districts as “the essential units of government, either as states or…

  • Upcoming Lecture on Detroit

    Detroit: the 21st Century Challenge – a test of equity, vitality, and sustainability THURSDAY DECEMBER 9TH, 5:30 TO 7 P.M. Please join us for a moderated discussion with Dr. Ellen Bassett of the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning and a panel of speakers including Dr. Robin Boyle of Wayne State University in Detroit;…

  • Environmental Urbanism Panel Discussion

    As an addenda to the previous post, on Chris Reed’s lecture, a round-about summary of the panel discussion that followed. Panel Discussion – Environmental Urbanism:  Ecological Design for Healthy Cities The panel was moderated by Peter Steinbrueck, with Reed joined by additional panelists including Randy Hester (who lectured the previous evening on Design for Ecological Democracy) and…

  • Ecology.Agency.Urbanism

    I warn the reader that my take on the recent NOWurbanism lecture featuring Chris Reed, Randy Hester and Howard Frumkin may be skewed by a really bad cold and the influence of massive doses of cold medicine, along with spilling an entire water bottle inside my bag that literally muddied my notes into a semi-decipherable pulpy…

  • Parsley On the Building

    A great overview on Urban Omnibus features some of the recent site specific events in the 50th Anniversary of the GSD celebrating the half century of urban design (which at least in a modern perspective evolved from Harvard and mid-twentieth century theorists).  While the author seems to incorrectly equate concepts ecological urbanism and landscape urbanism,…

  • Environmental Urbanism

    Excited to have a chance to head up to Seattle for tomorrow’s lecture as part of the NOW Urbanism series at University of Washington.  Look for a report of the festivities in coming days. November 18:  Environmental Urbanism: Ecological Design for Healthy Cities Kane Hall, Room 120 (University of Washington) What does it mean to…