Every week, we bring you the latest news in placemaking, landscape architecture and urban planning, the nature-mental health link, and much more. Check back each week for new roundups and items.
Living on the Edge
“Everyone wants to live next to a park. Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. and his civic patrons knew this early on. Olmsted also saw it as the landscape architect’s duty to carefully orchestrate the relationship between what he termed the “main park” and the “outer park,” thus the adoption of generous setbacks, for example, along the edge of New York’s Central Park from the contiguous high-rise development.”
Does Beauty Still Matter?
“There was a time, not too long ago, when the quality of urban landscapes was determined by what they looked like and what it was like to be in them. Their ecological and human health benefits were well known, but these were seen mainly as positive by-products of what was more important: improving the quality of life for people living in cities by providing them with access to nature, or at least some semblance of it. The desire for urban parks was rooted in a simple, yet deep appreciation for the beauty of landscape.”
Out of Desert Dust, a Miracle on a Shoestring
“At St. Anthony’s, bluejeans dry on chain-link fences, and futile daily chores include watering the dust. So many promises for improvements have come and gone over the years that doubt, an unwelcome neighbor, made itself at home. So when Chelina Odbert, the 36-year-old co-founder of the nonprofitKounkuey Design Initiative, based in Los Angeles, showed up two years ago and asked residents to propose ideas for a park that they might design and build collaboratively, most assumed she was yet another do-gooder bearing “muchas promesas” that would come to naught.”
ASLA Kicks off Chinatown Green Street Demonstration Project
“The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announces that a contract has been signed with landscape architecture firm Design Workshop to serve as lead consultant for a project greening the streets surrounding ASLA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.’s Chinatown. The firm has a long history of designing landscapes that combine environmental sensitivity, economic benefits, artistic vision, and community input.”
