Landscape+Urbanism

  • City Concealed: Staten Island

    I previously featured a video from the online video series “The City Concealed” produced by Thirteen, a project of New York station WNET.  The series offers glimpses into some of the terrain vague of the metropolis by: “…exploring the unseen corners of New York. Visit the places you don’t know exist, locations you can’t get…

  • Smart Growth

    One of the recent awards from the EPA for the 2010 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement went to Portland Metro region for it’s 2040 Growth Concept. Policies, Programs, and Regulations: 2040 Growth Concept, Portland metro, OregonEPA says: Metro, the elected regional government of the Portland, Oregon, area, is making sure that future population growth can be…

  • The Digital Canopy (Expanded)

    It’s intriguing that Google Earth 6 has started populating the virtual ‘planet’ with 3-Dimensional trees, which together with buildings and terrain offer the opportunity for some reasonable representation of exterior sites.  Right now, only a few cities have been added in selected cities and natural areas: “I think we can all agree that our planet…

  • 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…

  • Black Friday

    Let’s make the shopping experience a bit more dangerous… Asphalt Spot in Tokamashi, Japan by R&Sie(n). :: images via Space Invading

  • 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;…

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