Silva Cells were recently installed at the University of South Carolina as part of a larger multi-use tailgate facility. The site, which is across the street from the school’s stadium, formerly housed the South Carolina State Farmers Market.
There’s no arguing that, at first glance, the Silva Cell just looks like a hunk of black plastic. Its humble and basic form definitely doesn’t reflect the extensive design, testing, and engineering that has gone in to it. Here’s a brief overview of the why the Silva Cell is the way it is.
Earlier this year, Silva Cells were installed at the new Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial in Washington D.C. This site will commemorate the legacy of Dr. King but is not solely about the past; it is also about the future.
To kick off 2012, we’re reprinting this great post written by Matthew Gordy for the Boston Society of Landscape Architects back in April 2011. One thing I love about this post is the theme of high performance. We plan and expect for high performance with other types of utilities and urban infrastructure because we want… More
As the year winds down, we’ll be looking back at some of the project case studies we’ve completed in 2011. This case study — written in British English, for those of you in North America — discusses a trees and stormwater Silva Cell project in a Derby car park. You can find the original case… More
As the year winds down, we’ll be looking back at some of the project case studies we’ve completed in 2011. This one examines the new headquarters of Casey Trees, a renowned non-profit dedicated to the restoration, enhancement, and protection of urban trees, where Silva Cells are helping to manage stormwater on-site in one of the first… More
As the year winds down, we’ll be looking back at some of the project case studies we’ve completed in 2011. This case study — written in British English, for those of you in North America — discusses a trees and stormwater Silva Cell project in a Lidl car park in New Milton. You can find… More
The Silva Cell product is designed for use in the urban environment, so integrating Silva Cells and underground utilities is an important topic to us. In a previous post we discussed basic design strategies and construction methods for integrating Silva Cells and utilities. The next question we’re most often asked usually starts something like this:… More
Here are this year’s photos from the Bartlett Tree Lab study comparing different planting methods for urban trees. For comparison, check out last year’s set. And for a fuller chronological picture, you can see all the photos up to that point in this post.
Back in January we posted about a project in Shoreline, WA, where the Silva Cells were being used to extend a sidewalk rain garden underneath paving. This stretch of the project is finally completed! It looks amazing, and we’ve got a case study to tell you all about it.
Occasionally we work on Silva Cell projects where the installation of the product and the soil it contains happen far in advance of any trees being planted. In these instances, we often get asked by concerned designers whether the soil biology can be maintained under sidewalks in the temporary absence of trees — and if… More
In my experience, conversations about utilities usually put everyone a little bit on edge. And once we start talking to folks about sticking a product like the Silva Cell underneath the sidewalks where their utilities run, some people would love to stop the conversation altogether. But using the Silva Cell in areas with utilities isn’t… More
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