Landscape+Urbanism

Category: land use

  • Ecologists on Urban Ecology

    A great roundtable going on right now from The Nature of Cites asking ecologists “What is one thing every ecologist should know about urban ecology?”  Consisting of a range of voices from all over the globe, the conversation discusses the larger contributions of ecology, as well as some of the challenges, as mentioned by David Maddox in…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • UGB – to grow or not?

    A perpetual discussion in Portland revolves around the Urban Growth Boundary and the ability of the Metro region to remain compact while accommodating population growth.  Proponents of density say we have plenty of room to infill without expanding, while others say expansion is the only method for having adequate land for economic development.  Debate ensues.…

  • The Death of the Cemetery?

    It was interesting to see the multi-author story a few weeks back in the NY Times on “Too Many Bodies, Too Little Space,” which focused on the combination of traditional burial techniques and population booms making for shortage of cemetery real estate.  The following views of Washington Cemetery in Brooklyn show that New Yorkers take…

  • Got History?

    Hawthorne & 50th (1936) Aerial View of Portland (1936) My fascination with history and place is no secret.  While i am intrigued with urban history in many forms, there’s always a desire for a connection with the place you inhabit.  Typically this fascination comes via maps, which have been well documented, but the timeline of…

  • Shrinking Cities: Sugrue Part I: Arsenal

    Arsenal Moving along with the Shrinking Cities readings, the first part of ‘Origins of the Urban Crisis’ by Segrue recounts the development of the City of Detroit around WWII as the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ which made it one of the highest paying blue-collar cities in the US.  In the words of Segrue, “Mid-twentieth-century Detroit embodied…

  • To New Horizons

    Oh the sick and twisted future… a film from General Motors in 1940 entitled ‘To New Horizons’ talking about the world twenty years later.  Yes indeed, “Man continually strives to replace the old, with the new!”  Spotted on one of my favorite new sites – Copenhagenize.  Check it out.

  • Shrinking Cities – Readings

    A class this term at Portland State involves a reading and conference on ‘Shrinking Cities’. Led by professor Ellen Bassett, a group of a dozen students from PhD and Masters in Urban Studies and Urban and Regional Planning reading and discussing four diverse texts, along with a range of other writings on the subject.   …

  • Siftings 01.06.12

    Another round of Siftings from the past couple of days.  Starting off with a couple of Occupy-related posts, including a great article from Saskia Sassen and Hans Haacke from Artforum entitled ‘Imminent Domain‘.  The first sentence – “OCCUPYING IS NOT THE SAME as demonstrating…” points out a recent and annoying trend of calling any sort…