Landscape Architecture

I'm sure your mother had good reason to tell you not to eat on the run. But times have changed, and one group in London is utilizing the city's public transportation network to help popularize the benefits of healthy eating and urban greening.

July 31, 2012 - The Guardian

Singapore de-channelizes an urban river as part of a plan to preserve more of its rainwater, creating a park in the process.

July 27, 2012 - THE DIRT

This weekend's opening of the 12-acre park stretching from City Hall to the L.A.'s cultural acropolis marks the maturation of a downtown transformed from office park to vibrant neighborhood, reports Sam Allen.

July 26, 2012 - Los Angeles Times

Last week, San Francisco's supervisors approved new legislation intended to jump-start urban farming throughout the city, reports John Upton.

July 25, 2012 - Grist

The Wall Street Journal profiles the astonishing $45 million renovation of Queens Plaza, where "a wasteland of potholed roads, a parking lot and elevated subway tracks" has been transformed into an urban oasis.

July 24, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

As you roast in the record summer heat, here's hoping that Henry Grabar's slide show of improvised urban beaches from across the globe gets you motivated to create one in your city. Hop to it, global warming isn't going away any time soon!

July 24, 2012 - The Atlantic Cities

Michael Kimmelman paints an idyllic picture along the Bronx River in New York, where the waterfront along "one of the most blighted, abused waterways in the country" is being transformed park by park.

July 21, 2012 - The New York Times

As the U.S. experiences its worst drought in over half a century, Kaid Benfield questions the connection with the country's suburban growth patterns over that same period.

July 20, 2012 - Switchboard

Last week, landscape architect James Corner presented a transformative vision for remaking Seattle's waterfront after the removal of the Alaskan Way Viaduct. Lynn Thompson describes Corner's plan, and its accompanying funding challenges.

July 18, 2012 - The Seattle Times

With skyrocketing maintenance and repair costs gobbling up the Hudson River Park Trust's reserve fund, the HRPT has been pushing to change the park's enabling legislation to allow a wider variety of development types.

July 17, 2012 - The Architect's Newspaper

Jane Armstrong tours Queen’s Quay with the two individuals leading the $110 million effort to transform a 1.5-kilometre stretch of Toronto's downtown waterfront into "a North American version of the Champs Élysées."

July 16, 2012 - OpenFile

Frank Bruni pens an appreciation for the incredible transformation New York City has undergone in the last 15 years, as Mayor Bloomberg's "greenest of thumbs" has expanded the lush life across the city's five boroughs.

July 16, 2012 - The New York Times

Upending the adage that nothing gets done in D.C. these days, last week the National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) released their long range plans for remaking the Southwest area of the capital, capping two years of intense debate.

July 16, 2012 - THE DIRT

As the number of completed parklets in San Francisco nears three dozen, after debuting only two years ago, "the latest trend in urban placemaking" has entered the planning mainstream without losing its grassroots origins.

July 16, 2012 - San Francisco Chronicle

Only a decade after the last family farm in the city closed, commercial agriculture is mining "the last slice of untapped real estate in the city" to reap a bounty of benefits - from locally grown basil and bok choy to lower greenhouse gas emissions.

July 13, 2012 - The New York Times

Leda Marritz notes that renderings of proposed landscape improvement projects often feature beautiful mature trees intended to spruce up streetscapes. But the associated plans regularly overlook a crucial element: room for the trees to grow.

July 10, 2012 - Next American City

A new park and plans for increased waterfront access seek to reintroduce Newark's residents, and even tourists, to the Passaic River, the longtime industrial dumping ground that flows through the city, writes Sharon Adarlo.

July 10, 2012 - The Wall Street Journal

Seattle's innovative Residential RainWise Program provides tools for stormwater management at home, in the hopes of reducing flooding, safeguarding property, and restoring the area's waters for people and wildlife.

July 8, 2012 - Global Site Plans - The Grid

The Dirt looks at some new European public plazas that use interlocking paving materials with success.

July 7, 2012 - ASLA's The Dirt blog

A new anthology gathers writings on New York's Central Park, which includes an observation by the artist Christo that the park is "the most unusual and surrealistic place in New York City."

July 7, 2012 - The New York Times