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U Va. students to map green spaces

A group of students from the University of Virginia School of Architecture will be mapping green spaces in Strauton to decide how to manage and restore the spaces. The class dubbed Greens Lands is sponsored by the Urban and Community Forestry Program of the USDA Forest Service and the Virginia Department of Forestry. The students will use GIS as there main tool for mapping and assessment.

SOURCE: Newsleader.com – Staunton, U.Va. students team up to map city green spaces

Seeing the tree from the forest

SERA Simulation of Tree Canopies - Credit: Sean T. Hammond

Sean Hammond and Karl Niklas have published a paper in the August 2009 edition of American Journal of Botany presenting an algorithm that could be used to predict plant communities. The algorithm known as spatially explicit, reiterative algorithm, or SERA explores whether changes occurring in plant communities, such as self-thinning and the competitive displacement of one species by another, can be attributed to the characteristics of the individual plants that comprise the community.

“Remarkably, our model predicts the behavior of real plant populations, and thus suggests to us that many ‘complex’ ecological interactions emerge as a result of a few very ‘simple’ processes,” commented Dr. Niklas. SERA may be very useful in predicting changes in community development and composition as environmental and climatic variability increases.

The full article is available for until the 20 September 2009 at www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/full/96/8/1430. The SERA program can be accessed at www.botany.org/downloads/HammondandNiklas.zip.

UNM Dean to step down in 2010

UNM Today announced that Dean and Professor Roger Schluntz, FAIA, will resign as dean of UNM’s School of Architecture and Planning on June 30, 2010.

UNM Today quoted Schluntz as saying

“a number of truly remarkable accomplishments as well as many critical incremental transformations” at the School.

A national search will begin this fall and intends for a new dean to be hired when Schluntz steps down.

SOURCE: UNM Today

New Bridge Design competition for Calgary

The Calgary Municipal Land Corporation(CMLC) has announced a bridge design competition for St.Patrick’s Bridge.

CMLC has been charged with the responsibility of implementing public infrastructure improvements that will be the catalyst for private and public sector development in the Rivers District with a focus on East Village. The design and construction of a pedestrian/bicycle bridge – St. Patrick’s Bridge – is an important component of the infrastructure improvements in the Rivers District. CMLC has initiated a competitive process for the conceptual design of the pedestrian/bicycle bridge which crosses the Bow River and provides crucial links between the communities on the north and south of its banks with city attractions, amenities and pathway systems.

CMLC is committed to ensuring that the revitalization of the Rivers District provides the city, the province and the country with an excellent asset for Calgary to remain among the best places in the world to live, work, play and visit.

Closing: Sept 14, 2009

For more information go to the competition website.

WORLD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT is not involved in this competition please send any enquiries or requests for information to the organisations via the competition website..

Glenn Murcutt speaks out about Newcastle University

Glenn Murcutt, the Pritzker prize-winning architect has spoken out about the new and revised architecture and landscape architecture at Newcastle University. Murcutt, particlarly points out that he is amazed at the cutting down of trees and the change in plant material used on the site. He goes on to online that the design process should have been different and consultation with the original architects and masterplanners.