History of Street Trees
This was originally published on the landscape architecture blog The Field. When we talk about low-impact development and design today, the term “suspended pavement” comes up a lot, but it occurred to me recently that this term is rarely defined. Here is my attempt to do that by walking through suspended pavement’s history, uses, composition,… More
After finishing college in 1973, James Urban and his wife, Bonnie, enlisted in the Peace Corps. They were stationed in Iran, where they lived until 1975. Jim worked for the state planning office in Masshad, designing small parks and doing city planning for small cities with populations below 30,000. His work brought him back and… More
This is Part 3 in the History of Street Trees – British Isles series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. The lack of costly infrastructure as defensive walls, previously discussed at the beginning of part two of this series, allowed British cities to expand piecemeal into the countryside, with lower population densities…. More
This is Part 2 in the History of Street Trees in Britain and Ireland. Read Part 1 of this series here. The cultural, religious, medical and agricultural vacuum that followed the collapse of the Holy Roman Empire led directly to the establishment of independent, self-sufficient catholic monasteries. The dominant monastic culture came directly from Britain, specifically… More
Despite modest amounts of annual precipitation, Ireland and Britain are among some of the most perfect places to grow trees. The high latitudes and moderating Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean has insured an exceptionally temperate environment is ideal for most trees, even sub-tropical ones such as palm trees. Never too hot, never too cold,… More
When Shawn started working here, he mentioned that while he was in graduate school he had completed an assessment of Providence’s urban tree canopy, and promised to dig up the original document for us. And he did! (It’s a rough draft – we couldn’t find the final one – so ignore the occasional missing image… More
This is the fifth and final post in Peter MacDonagh’s series on the history of street trees in Holland. Today, how an ancient Dutch barge made its way to a Midwestern living room. -LM In my Midwestern living room in the U.S., we have hanging on the wall a small blue and white plate. This… More
Today is the second to last post of Peter MacDonagh’s five part series on the history of street trees in Holland. In this one, the Dutch expand their master planning to their pesky colonies. -LM Eventually the Dutch East India Company (VOC) controlled colonial trading cities in Asia, Africa, South America, and New Amsterdam in… More
Here is Part 3 of Peter MacDonagh’s series on the history of street trees in Holland. Things are starting to heat up! -LM The Low Country cities (which included both Holland and Belgium until 1830) went all in on the spice trade from the 1200’s forward. Most of these spices were harvested from the fruit… More
Here is Part 2 of Peter MacDonagh’s series on the history of street trees in Holland. Peter’s knowledge is incredible; I promise you don’t want to miss this unusual history of Holland through its trees. -LM The Low Countries, as one would guess, were perpetually wet – abounding with swamps, marshes and bogs. To increase… More
Every Monday for the next five weeks, we’ll be running a blog entry by Peter MacDonagh about the history of street trees in Holland (to see Peter’s fantastic series on the history of street trees in Paris, click here). Peter’s knowledge is incredible; I promise you don’t want to miss this unusual history of Holland… More
During the reign of French King Henry IV (“Henry of Navarre”) from 1579 to 1610, he and his Duke of Sully remade French infrastructure with tree-lined highways. At the palace of Fontainebleau, rows of pines, elms, and fruit trees were added to the landscape. After the assassination of Henry, his widow, Queen Marie De Medici,… More
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