Lurie Garden

Landscape Architecture: Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd
Perennial Planting Design: Piet Oudolf
Location: Millenium Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Size: 1,2ha
Check out: Lurie Garden video
Photos: Linda Oyama Bryan, Mark Tomaras
Construction: 2004

above: spring

above: autumn

above: winter

This entry was written by admin, posted on June 8, 2010 at 7:07 pm, filed under Gardens, Parks and tagged Chicago, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Crack Garden

photo: Tom Fox

Landscape Architecture: CMG Landscape Architecture
Area: 75m²
Location: San Francisco, CA
Cost: 500$
Awards: ASLA 2009 award

photo: Tom Fox

photo: Tom Fox

photo: Kevin Conger

photo: Nancy Conger

photo: Kevin Conger

photo: Tom Fox

photo: Tom Fox

photo: Kevin Conger

photo: Tom Fox

photo: Kevin Conger

This entry was written by admin, posted on April 4, 2010 at 8:48 pm, filed under Gardens and tagged San Francisco, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Not Garden / Not Again

Landscape: PEG

‘PEG has recently initiated research exploring geo-textile customization. Our ‘Not’ prototypes are the first in a series of installations to evaluate the versatility and performance of fabric as the substratum for innovative ‘cleaning and greening’ strategies in Philadelphia’s vacant properties.

Philadelphia is a perfect laboratory for experimental greening techniques given its immense stock of vacant land - over 60,000 properties. Approximately 3,000 abandoned lots have been cleaned and planted over the past six years through the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (2002). This interim land-management program has succeeded in providing neighborhoods with relatively low-cost ways to lessen unsanitary conditions and garbage dumping on abandoned sites. The current greening strategy involves re-grading, lawn installation, a perimeter picket fence, and several trees.

Our goal is to derive a cost-effective alternative to achieve the same aesthetics of care but provide more expressive diversity with lower maintenance. Playing off of the traditional knotgarden’s intricate geometric patterns, our ‘Not Garden’ prototypes are made using parametric software and laser-cutter fabrication to precut customized patterns out of weed-control fabric, which is then laid on site and seeded. This produces diverse configurations with very low investment, effort, installation expertise, or long term care.

With generous support from PennDesign, PEG and PennDesign students installed two test-plots, “Not Garden” & “Not Again” in West Philadelphia. The first version tested the basic limits of control held by the fabric. The latter larger version experimented with a more intricate pattern and expanded the planting choice to include flowering drought-tolerant groundcover.‘

Not Garden

Not Again

This entry was written by admin, posted on October 15, 2009 at 10:38 pm, filed under Details, Exstalations, Gardens and tagged Patterns, Philadelphia, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Teardrop park

Landscape Architecture: Michael Van Valkenburg Associates, Inc

Location: Lower Manhattan / NYC / USA

Area: 1.8 acres, less than a hectare

Teardrop Park is a public residential park surrounded by buildings higher than park’s width. It offers places for people of all ages, especially children can enjoy playing in sand, climbing the rocks, hiding in high shrubs etc. Special feature is a stony wall with ice water-fall, which crosses the park and divides it on two different parts. The first is more grassy, classy, chill-out meadow surrounded by shrubs and small trees and a bit elevated on the edges. The other part is structured in different smaller playgrounds, very exciting for children, with many features for stimulating their minds and bodies. Design (with all it’s physical elements, materials) refers to a landscape of Hudson River Valley as a wild, stony, green, natural landscape.

All images via ASLA

This entry was written by admin, posted on July 30, 2009 at 8:08 pm, filed under Parks, Playscapes and tagged NYC, Public space, Residential Park, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Aerial Suburbia /Drawings

Design: Ross Racine

via People and places

Ross Racine draws fictive urban patterns, mostly suburbias, surrounded by a desert or agricultural looking environment. All artworks are produced freehand, no scans or photos are included in the process. Drawings are printed on high-end inkjet printer.

This entry was written by admin, posted on July 29, 2009 at 7:04 pm, filed under Artscapes and tagged NYC, Suburbs, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Presbyterian Church

Westminster Presbyterian Church: Urban Columbarium and Courtyards
Landscape Architecture: Coen+Partners
Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota
Image Credits: Paul Crosby Architectural Photography
Images via: Archinect

Excerpt from designer’s website:

Westminster Presbyterian Church is a prominent institution in downtown Minneapolis with far-reaching community service and social justice programs. The Church retained Coen + Partners to complete a new design for the landscape surrounding the 110-year-old building; the firm was challenged to create a modern presence for Westminster along adjacent streets, a meaningful courtyard for receptions and ceremonies, and a new memorial columbarium for ash inurnment.

Views of the reception and columbarium spaces are obscured from the street by a patinaed copper screen, fretted with patterns abstracted from those in Westminster’s original stained glass windows. A long stone columbarium contrasts and complements the materiality of the church itself, while groundcover gardens are interspersed throughout the landscape spaces, providing seasonal color and texture. The columbarium is accessed by sloping procession from the street level. The reception and ceremony areas consists of masonry paving, a garden of honey locust trees, and a series of ipe-wood and stainless steel benches. A narrow water rill parallels the street, extending the linear form of the columbarium wall into the adjacent space.

Collaboration: Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle Architects

Recent Awards:  2009 ASLA General Design Honor Award and MASLA Award in General Design

This entry was written by admin, posted on July 27, 2009 at 2:29 pm, filed under Gardens, Parks and tagged Minneapolis, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Micro Garden Installation / USA

Design: Patrick Weder Design Inc.

Image credits: Patrick Weder

This entry was written by admin, posted on July 12, 2009 at 11:45 am, filed under Artscapes, Gardens, Green roofs & walls and tagged New York, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

New York’s most famous terrace

image source

High Line was constructed in 1930’, in order to put dangerous and unpleasant freight traffic 30 feet above pedestrian sidewalks, 75 years later, pedestrians are put 30 feet above the dangerous and unpleasant traffic conditions, to have a moment away from city’s fast vibe.

image source

Elevated park was designed by landscape architecture studio Corner Field Operations. In New York, where urban structure is very dense, High line plays a very important role in people’s everyday life.

image source

In a relation to urban context High Line is probably a total success, one could walk the user-friendly pavement, rest on a long and comfortable benches, or explore vegetation.

Designing High Line:

This entry was written by admin, posted on June 27, 2009 at 11:27 pm, filed under Parks and tagged High Line, NYC, USA. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.