May’s issue of Arboricultural Consultant, the magazine of the American Society of Consulting Arborists (ASCA) has side-by-side articles by James Urban, FASLA, and Nina Bassuk, Ph.D. discussing different methods for providing trees with soil underneath paving. Jim’s article is on “Comparing Silva Cells and Structural Soil,” and Nina’s is on “The Why’s and How’s of… More
Google Earth is so much fun to explore. You can really and truly get lost in it, the feeling of “traveling” somewhere on your screen that you’ve never been in person. I recently saw that they’ve applied the same approach to creating a timelapse tool for the earth from 1984 to 2012 called Earth Engine.
In 2010, my colleague Peter MacDonagh attended the American Society of Consulting Engineers (ASCE) conference and emerged with a chart from a presentation given by Bram Gunther and Fiona Watt, of the New York City Department of Parks, that listed the urban tree canopy information for about two dozen U.S. cities. Ever since then, I’ve… More
Earlier this month we hosted a webinar where James Urban, FASLA was the guest speaker. This webinar complemented Jim’s article in the April 2013 issue of Landscape Architecture Magazine, “The Root of the Problem.” During the webinar, Jim spoke about one of the most important points in the process of designing and planting a tree: that moment… More
The Silva Cell has officially been designated as an approved equal for bioretention facilities by the Washington State Department of Ecology. Designers and engineers who want to incorporate Silva Cells in to their projects can now refer to the official document, Using the Western Washington Hydrology Model (Version 4.0) to Size Silva Cells for Runoff… 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
The remaking of Paris fell squarely onto the shoulders of Napoleon I’s grandson, Napoleon III. Napoleon III accepted his new position as Emperor when huge Parisian riots erupted in 1848, and removed the latest crop of monarchists and put the Bonapartes back on top. Unlike his grandfather, Napoleon III had a real flair for remaking… More
This week, all three of our posts are devoted to the history of street trees in Paris – a city that, as we conclude in today’s piece, could just as easily be called “City of Trees” as”City of Lights.” -LM Paris has been around for a long time, too long to cover in only one… More
I spent last week visiting my family in New York City. The city in April can be dicey – you can get blooming trees and flowers, or you can get freezing winds and sometimes even snow. I was lucky to get the former.
Alex Shigo, one of the most famous plant biologists and fathers of arboriculture, is widely credited with making huge improvements to standard industry practices. One of his famous sayings was an exhortation to “touch trees.” I’ve adapted this to my own related specialty, urban trees and soils, which is why I often tell landscape architects and other… More
Back in Fall 2011, the Ontario Association of Landscape Architect’s publication, Ground Magazine (page 8), published an article titled “Best Friends/Worst Enemies: Landscape Architects and Engineers,” by Adam Nicklin and Victoria Taylor. This article started an insightful discussion on the similarities and differences between landscape architects and engineers. Some of the essential differences they point out are:
A couple of years ago, I wrote hopefully about the City of San Francisco’s plans to revamp our main thoroughfare, Market Street. The project, which began in 2009 and planned to improve transit, pedestrian spaces, and business opportunities, represented a tremendous opportunity for Market Street to meet the grandness of its proportions. I hoped for… More
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