Landscape+Urbanism

Category: history

  • The Peregrine

    While not specifically urban, some reading worth your time is JA Baker‘s slim volume, The Peregrine. Written in 1967, it was one    The cover of the 2004 edition I own features an introduction by Robert Macfarlane  (who I learned about the book from via his readings).  Seemingly simple in format, a short blurb from Amazon gives…

  • Rome: Urban Formation and Transformation

    I was really happy to receive a copy of Jon Michael Schwarting’s new book “Rome: Urban Formation and Transformation”.  As a self-professed lover of Italy and Rome, it is interesting to see the analysis of the form of Rome. A short blurb from Amazon via the link in ArchDaily:  “In this book, Formation is ideal and utopian thinking,…

  • Walden, the game

    I’m a bit tardy in posting about the 200th Anniversary of Thoreau’s birthday, which generated some great reading about the man, his adventures, the pond, and his legacy.   I’m one of the camp that was highly influenced by early and often readings of Thoreau, and accept both the critical view of his life, while also…

  • John Yeon: Modern Architecture and Conservation in the Pacific Northwest

    Those not hailing from the Pacific Northwest may be less familiar with John Yeon, one of the influential figures in architecture and conservation and the development of a unique brand of regional modernism.  If you don’t know Yeon, or you want to learn more, you will be pleasantly satisfied with the recent volume from Oro…

  • Introducing Hidden Hydrology

    Regular readers of the blog know of my long-time passions of both Vegitecture and Hidden Hydrology, which both dovetail nicely into the larger themes of Landscape+Urbanism.  While the L+U blog has been relatively intermittent, I’ve been hard at work developing a new website and blog for the Hidden Hydrology project. The goal is to culminate…

  • Google Timelapse

    The announcement Google Earth Timelapse has created a bit of a stir, with a number of videos exploring landscape change of natural and urban systems.  From their site: “Timelapse is a global, zoomable video that lets you see how the Earth has changed over the past 32 years. It is made from 33 cloud-free annual…

  • LA+ The Tyranny Issue

    I’ve posted previously about the LA+ Journal, which has had previous issues focused on both Wild (reviewed here) and Pleasure in previous issues.  The current issue takes a radically different turn – with a focus on subjects around the broad concept of Tyranny.  Perhaps a strange topic for landscape architecture journal to tackle, and I…

  • PA35: Going Live

    I was really excited to receive the latest version of  Pamphlet Architecture, published by Princeton Architectural Press.  While I’ve not seen all of them, i do have at least a dozen, and they offer focused snapshots of theory and practice both as well as a longitudinal section of though spanning decades.  My first experience was…

  • TopoView for Historic USGS Maps

    The USGS tool TopoView offers access to digitized maps from 1879 to the current day – which is an amazing resource for looking at landscape change over time.  Using an online mapping tool, you can access maps from 250,000 scale down to 24,000 for the entire US , including Alaska and Hawaii.  The maps are…

  • Hidden Hydrology at UERC Conference

    I recently gave a talk at the great annual conference Urban Ecology Research Consortium of Portland/Vancouver (UERC), which focuses on ” advance the state of the science of urban ecosystems and improve our understanding of them”.   I was really excited to be chosen to present (i had done a poster presentation in past years), and…