Landscape+Urbanism

Category: region

  • Daily Drawdown 12: Smart Growth

    This is the twelth in an ongoing series illustrating the relationship of Drawdown strategies to landscape architecture. For context, read the initial post here. As I alluded to in the post on Buildings & Cities, there are a number of secondary Drawdown strategies around ‘smart growth’ that have the ability to make a positive contribution…

  • 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…

  • Urban Ecology

    I’ve been eagerly awaiting the arrival of Urban Ecology: Science of Cities by Richard T.T. Forman (Cambridge University Press, 2014).  Since arrival a couple of days ago, i have not been disappointed, and this shapes up to be one of the most up to date resources for ecological principals applied to urban areas to date.…

  • Islands of Seattle

    This map of Seattle by UW Planner Jeffrey Linn via a post on The Whole U, features a speculation on sea level change in the Seattle region. The result is dramatic when taken to the level of complete world ice-sheets melting resulting in a 240′ sea level rise.  Particularly is you live in certain parts…

  • Watershed Moments

    The previous post outlining the “River Maps” (01.10.14) got me thinking about watersheds and the differences between natural boundary delineation vs. political boundaries.  Long-time readers will note the recurrence of the Powell map on Landscape+Urbanism “Natural Boundary/Political Boundary” (11.24.10), which has gotten some more attention lately. Powell’s map is derived from observation, as mentioned in…

  • Get Shaking

    One thing of note in Seattle is that it is a city of varied topography, and that this obviously guided the evolution of where settlement occurred, while creating districts and landmark areas (many ending with ‘Hill’).  An interesting post related to this topographic urbanism is the seismic stability of my new city.  From the Seattle…

  • Building a Bike Highway

    The video of the presentation for GOOD Ideas for Cities is up, along with a nice write-up from organizer Alissa Walker from GOOD – so enjoy. Also check out some more detail, and download a PDF of the presentation over at the THINK.urban site.

  • 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…

  • THINK.urban: Introducing Megapolitanism

    A recent article from John King at the San Francisco Chronicle mentioned the concept of using the Megalopolitan scale for planning purposes. The article references the new book by Arthur C. Nelson and Robert E. Lang entitled ‘Megapolitan America: A New Vision for Understanding America’s Metropolitan Geography‘ (APA, 2011). As an example, King mentions the…

  • Introducing THINK.urban

    I am happy to announce the formation of a new organization, THINK.urban in Portland, Oregon.  Along with colleagues Katrina Johnston and Allison Duncan, our group plans to promote, as our tagline mentions: “Better Design Through Applied Research.”   We bring a range of experience in urban design research, landscape architecture, urban ecology, public space, and…