Places and Spaces

GIS and Design

2009-07-13T07:30:00.001-04:00

This morning the ESRI USer Conference will hold its opening plenary with the conference themed around GIS–Designing our Future. Jack Dangermond will be giving an opening talk looking at the intertwined roles of GIS and Design. In the printed version he references Stenitz's Framework and quotes Neutra. It isn't a coincidence that he is trained as a landscape architect and successful as a GIS innovator.

These two paths are linked (although sometimes awkwardly) and the relationship was recently explored with a special two-day workshop on Spatial Concepts of GIS and Design at UCSB. The participant list alone is a great resource.

I just hope the sunny weather in San Diego won't blind the audience from seeing the significance of this critically important intersection.

FREE Workshop on Grants for Planning and Designing Climate-Friendly Towns

2009-07-10T10:13:00.001-04:00

I never know how to summarize these things, so here is the whole announcement that I received:

Workshop for DEP Grants:
Planning and Designing Climate-Friendly Towns
Monday, July 20, 2009
10 a.m. to 12 noon

Edward J. Bloustein School, Room 113
33 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick
On June 18th, the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced a new grant program for municipalities and counties: the Local Government Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program. This workshop will focus on one aspect of the grant program: the development and implementation of climate-friendly design guidelines and zoning standards that allow for compact, walkable mixed-use development and/or transit-oriented development.
Speakers will present successful planning initiatives and approaches that are eligible for this grant category. DEP staff will be present to answer questions about all aspects of the grant program, including the application process, deadlines and qualifications. (Grant amounts for this category range from $25,000 - $200,000. Click Here for more information on the grant program.)
Speakers:

Pam Mount, Moderator
Owner, Terhune Orchards; Member, New Jersey Future Board of Trustees;
Vice President, NJLM Mayors Committee for a Green Future

Angus Jennings, AICP
Principal Planner, Concord Square Planning & Development, Inc.

Representative
Borough of Haddonfield, NJ

Elizabeth Semple and Martin Rosen
NJDEP Office of Planning and Sustainability

The Edward J. Bloustein School is located at 33 Livingston Avenue in downtown New Brunswick. Click here for directions and area map with parking information.
This workshop is provided at no charge; however, registration is required. Please contact Marianne Jann at New Jersey Future: mariannejann@njfuture.org or 609-393-0008, x101.
________________________________________
Event Partners
American Planning Association - NJ Chapter • Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions • Congress for the New Urbanism - NJ Chapter • County Planners Association Mercer County Chamber of Commerce • Municipal Land Use Center • PlanSmart NJ
Regional Plan Association • Sustainable Jersey • Tri-State Transportation Campaign
Voorhees Transportation Center

Reclaiming public beaches

2009-07-10T09:50:00.002-04:00

Pruned is trying to help Californians rediscover their public beaches.

collapse

2009-07-10T07:46:00.000-04:00

New Jersey has lost 90% of its bats.

Multiple skillsets

2009-07-09T11:43:00.002-04:00

Can you name the member of the US Senate who can draw a map of the 50 states in less than 2 minutes? The Map Room has the answer.

Maya Lin on WNYC

2009-07-08T12:09:00.002-04:00

Maya Lin appeared on the Leonard Lopate Show to discuss her new installation at Storm King, Wavefield. The video below is short, so you should listen to the whole show, too.

More than a subway map

2009-07-07T14:16:00.003-04:00

I was in the CIty this weekend and enjoyed using an iPhone app for my Subway maps instead of staring at the big wall maps. but now they've gone a step further with Subway platform maps.

What to see in New York?

2009-07-07T07:44:00.003-04:00

Time to reassess your summer. For those in the tri-state area it might mean asking, Have you made the most of your trips to New York and around its vicinity?

To start, have you made it to the High Line?

Have you seen the new Thom Mayne building at Cooper Union?

Have you seen the cleaned up, 50-year old Guggenheim Museum with its special exhibit on Frank Lloyd Wright?

You are going to the Museum of the City of New York (up near the Harlem Meer) to see Eric Sanderson's Mannahatta exhibit, right? (E.S. is a former and future speaker series speaker)

On July 14th the Hispanic Society of America in Harlem has an experience about how sound can organize the experience of space.

You can wait until Fall to visit Storm King to see the new Maya Lin installation and the temporary exhibit.

Here on our side of the Hudson you could head down to the Princeton Art Museum for a free exhibition signaling the retirement of former speaker series speaker, Yoshiaki Shimiku called Memorable Encounters from Hōnen to de Kooning: In Honor of Yoshiaki Shimizu.

Peek at the progress at Brooklyn Bridge Park

And, of course, you have to lounge around Times Square.

Walking Berlin by Fantastic Nroway

2009-07-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

Fantastic Norway recently implemented a project called Walking Berlin where they dressed up as a building and walked around. Dezeen has the pictures (which is good, because my description is a bit weak).

Weekend catch-up

2009-07-06T05:38:00.001-04:00

There was plenty of news in this weekend's papers. Much I was happy to overlook or forget in the spirit of the holiday, but here were a few of varying interest:

Newark has to give back the money for Military Park
ASLA's The Dirt is tracking the Climate Change Bill
Cumberland County is moving forward with its county open space plan
Should Fairfax be a City or County and what should it be like?
The NYTimes has reviewed the Mannahatta museum exhibit with a slideshow
New Orleans tops the list of fastest growing cities along with Round Rock, TX (an Austin suburb that wasn't even in the Top 25 last year) complete with slideshow

Fall Studio: Sea Level Rise

2009-07-03T14:31:00.008-04:00

When you think of Cape May, you probably think of old Victorians and great beaches, not a community at risk. This fall in studio, we will be changing our perspective a bit.

While I am still unprepared to reveal all of the final details, I wanted to share the basic outline of our fall studio project for Intermediate Landscape Architecture I (11:550:331). The entire semester will be spent exploring design interventions and implications of sea level rise and global warming in Cape May County, New Jersey with funding assistance form the New Jersey Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The project will be building on the results of the Spring 2009 Advanced Environmental Geomatics class. CRSSA has already created some great research on the Vulnerability of New Jersey's Coastal Habitats to Sea Level Rise that will give you a sense for both the seriousness of the threat and the diversity of issues wrapped up in this seemingly simple problem. SEBS researchers and Rutgers alums are all looking into the problem.

Cape May County has become the high profile location of an ecological decline that is represented in the falling populations of the interconnected populations of red knots and horseshoe crabs. This got some national attention when PBS aired an entire episode looking at the problem, but has been the focus of research here at Rutgers and at the NJ DEP for some time. It is also a great spot for ecotourism, which would presumably decline quickly as the natural landscapes are degraded.

One of the clear challenges would be to start building an infrastructure now that will better support the future residents of Cape May County. What would high performance infrastructure guidelines tell us about where we should be looking? We aren't the first people to explore these topics, so we need to learn from past studies if we are going to accomplish something new.

The certain threat and the uncertain details make sea level rise, and the larger patterns of climate change, an interesting problem for designers. In the San Francisco Bay Area, concerns about sea level rise (as shown in their local paper) led to the Rising Tides Competition this summer. Hopefully we'll get to see some results this fall before we are too far along in our project. I strongly encourage our students to look back at the IFLA 2008 Student Competition, which gives some great ideas about both the imaginative and serious aspects of this as a design issue.

You should also take a little time to peruse both popular portrayals and serious discussions of climate change and sea level rise. Keep an eye on regular news accounts about the science. How are going to communicate the complexity of the issue? How are we, as a class and a team, going to resolve uncertainties? Do we need to educate the public or are they fairly aware? We'll be sifting through countless agency reports, like the recent EPA report on Adaptation Planning for the National Estuary Program, and trying to organize the things we learn from them. We are also going to start paying attention to more and more mundane things like maps of sidewalks. Keep your eyes (and browser) open for these and keep careful records of what you see.

If you can get out and explore, it would be great. But if you can only get to Trenton, that would work too. The New Jersey State Museum in Trenton also has an exhibit called Rising Tide: Climate Change & Sea Level Rise in New Jersey.

But take some time to get to know Cape May County. Think about the landmarks and people. What is it known for? What is it like for tourists? But what is it like for year-round residents?

Finally, Places and Spaces will now be an active focused source with at least 3 tags for this project: cape may, JrStudio, sea level rise. Use them to keep up.

Data.gov

2009-07-02T08:15:00.001-04:00

The federal government has started posting its datasets on engines at Data.Gov and the raw data catalog includes shapefiles, KML/KMZs, and maps (is it really over 100,000?). But it also has a separate Geodata Catalog that may be of greater interest to our readers. But it isn't done yet. And now the challenge is to make something out of it.

Always on the move

2009-07-01T11:44:00.007-04:00

“A restless temper seems . . . one of the distinctive traits of this people”

- Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy in America

ISS Photos

2009-07-01T06:33:00.001-04:00

The Big Picture has some great new photos from the International Space Station.

Bellevue Park

2009-06-30T11:36:00.004-04:00

The latest issue of View included a story on Warren Manning's 1909 design for Harrisburg's Bellevue Park as well as a plethora of other projects in this often overlooked city. Aside from the article in View, http://www.bellevuepark.org/, has an image of the plan and old photos (below) that are useful in understanding the place. (mapped)

Simple

2009-06-30T07:04:00.002-04:00

Be as simple as possible,
But not more so.

- Albert Einstein
as quoted by Carl Steinitz at UCGIS 2009

Everyone loves a good map

2009-06-30T05:10:00.000-04:00

It turns out that Ken McCown isn't the only one using Flickr...

Now the White House Official Photostream is on flickr too.

Handel in the news

2009-06-29T10:54:00.003-04:00

When we reported on Steven Handel's ASLA awards weeks and weeks ago, it turns out that we had the scoop on the Home News and Tribune which finally reported it this month: Bridgewater ecologist's work honored and Bridgewater Ecologist wins award for work in California. Clearly the new media wins again ;)

Portland Parks job

2009-06-29T09:48:00.005-04:00

Since a couple of our alums had recently mentioned an interest in West Coast work, I thought this was worth sharing:

PARKS PROJECT MANAGER (SENIOR OR PRINCIPAL REGIONAL PLANNER)
Metro Sustainability Center, Portland, Oregon
Closes: July 16, 2009 at 5:00 pm
Recruitment number: SC-0356/0357-June09

We are seeking an exceptional professional to join our team of landscape architects and planners. Within our division, we work on a variety of projects, from site-specific nature park master planning and development, to regional trail planning and implementation, to strategic planning for the agency. Our park planning work revolves around the relationship of people to nature, and how that relationship informs regional planning for population growth, and the associated development of transportation systems and town centers. In addition to collaborating with land use planning, we are leaders in the development of an outstanding, interconnected regional system of trails, parks and natural areas.

Salary range:
Senior level $61,293.85 - $82,002.89 annually
Principal level $64,313.92 - $86,086.13 annually

The Parks Project Manager performs complex regional planning and intergovernmental relations activities including research and analysis. The person in this position will develop, organize and coordinate design, planning and construction projects and will frequently serve as project leader.

This position requires a seasoned project manager with a great deal of independent thought, creativity, and good judgment. Some experience in working with natural resource systems and scientists is a distinct advantage.

The ideal candidate will:
• Be comfortable working on a variety of project types, working collaboratively with other staff, elected officials both within and outside this agency, and the general public.
• Have professional training and experience in planning and landscape architecture.
• Have relevant work experience in parks, trails, and natural areas.

Minimum Requirements:

Senior level:
A Bachelor's degree in urban planning, landscape architecture, or related field and three years experience in land use planning, landscape architecture, project management or public policy development; or any combination of experience and education which provides the applicant with the desired knowledge, skills and ability required to perform the job.

Principal level:
A Bachelor's degree in urban planning, landscape architecture, or related field and five years experience in land use planning, landscape architecture, project management or public policy development; or any combination of experience and education which provides the applicant with the desired knowledge, skills and ability required to perform the job.

For a complete job description and application instructions, go to:
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=30709

Portland has some great planning and some great parks. I bet they get a lot of applicants for this.

4 Corners

2009-06-29T07:44:00.001-04:00

I hope that this doesn't screw up your summer vacation too much, but it turns out that the Four Corners is in the wrong spot.

StreetView Virtual Tour - Places I haven't been

2009-06-26T07:02:00.001-04:00

On our trips to Spain, we never managed to get down to Seville. So today's virtual tour starts there but then wanders off unpredictably. This is the last (planned) entry in our virtual StreetView tours.

Giralda Tower - a great landmark

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Plaza Nueva - Seville has some notable public spaces

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Torre del Oro

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Plaza de Espana

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Puente de la Barqueta Bridge

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Calatrava's El Alamillo Bridge Bridge

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And in Valencia you could see Calatrava's City of Arts and Science

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And I still long to visit these linear parks

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And as long as we are looking at Calatrava bridges I haven't see, how about his Trinity Bridge in Mancester

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And once we get to Mancester I would walk over to see Exchange Square

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StreetView City Tours - Rome

2009-06-25T11:31:00.005-04:00

The Pantheon
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Piazza Navona
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Another great public space is Piazza de Popolo

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The Tiber

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Vatican
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Trevi Fountain

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Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana

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Tivoli

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Sketch. Now.

2009-06-24T23:00:00.001-04:00

Teaching in Europe gave me the chance to take students great spaces and say, "Sketch. Now." Since I've been virtually taking our readers to European places this week I feel obligated to do the same, "Sketch. Now." Your brain will thank you.

StreetView City Tours - Paris

2009-06-24T09:38:00.010-04:00

Ah, Paris, the city of lights. well, not many lights in StreetView since they make their drives during daylight hours.

The Lourve

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Place de la Concorde

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The amazingly elegant base of the Eiffel Tower

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Notre Dame

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Place des Vogues

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Palais de Versailles

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You can even drive into the garden and see The Grand Trianon

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Parque de la Vilette

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Euro Disney

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Par Andre Citroen

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Finally, some lights in the infamous tunnels along the Seine right underneath the torch

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Moving Quote

2009-06-24T09:10:00.000-04:00

Americans are always moving on.

- Stephen Vincent Benet