Landscape « World Landscape Architecture – landscape architecture webzine

5 greening master plans to launch in Sept in Hong Kong

Greening master plans for Sheung Wan, Wan Chai, Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei will be implemented in September, the Development Bureau says. It has proposed creating a directorate post to boost professional landscape architectural expertise within Government.

In a paper tabled to lawmakers, the bureau said at present, the New Territories’ green coverage ratio is 74% and that for urban areas, 46%. Another study for developing greening master plans for the remaining urban areas is in progress for completion in early 2009. In view of the public aspiration for more greening in the New Territories, the development of the region’s greening master plan will start in mid-2009.

5 greening master plans to launch in Sept – Hong Kong Government

Madrona Woods creek again flows free

For decades, the cool, clear water from springs in the city-owned Madrona Woods flowed through stormwater pipes into Lake Washington.

But no more. Madrona residents are taking back their creeks.

Seattle landscape architect Peggy Gaynor, who has worked on rerouting creeks from pipes at Thornton Creek, Meadowbrook and Ravenna, said the Madrona project “is the most ambitious and complex project I’ve been involved with.”

Madrona Woods creek again flows free.Seattle PI – Debera Carlton Harrell

Congress Centre to get NCC scrutiny

couple of weeks ago, the Congress Centre team met with NCC design advisers, including an architect and landscape architect who raised concerns about the design of the project. But the centre has received generally positive reviews from community leaders and has won commitments of $50 million each from the federal and Ontario governments, and $40 million from the city.

NCC approval is essential because the commission has authority over development changes in the core of the capital. As well, the building plan includes reducing the NCC’s scenic Colonel By Drive from four lanes to two at this location, to accommodate a bigger development footprint.

Congress Centre to get NCC scrutiny – Ottawa Citizen – Patrick Dare

Force of nature weighs in on Presidio plan

If you don’t like Gap founder Donald Fisher’s proposal to erect a modern-looking modern art museum in San Francisco’s Presidio, Lawrence Halprin is on your side.

Colorful and commanding, the 91-year-old landscape architect is no stranger to the Presidio: He designed the romantic terrain that enfolds the Letterman Digital Arts Center at Lombard Gate. And when he saw the conceptual design for Fisher’s Contemporary Arts Museum of the Presidio – a glassy stack of white cubes by New York’s Gluckman Mayner Architects – he didn’t mince words.

“The proposed design … is absurdly inappropriate,” Halprin wrote to the Presidio Trust

PLACE / Force of nature weighs in on Presidio plan.

SPG Solar Installs 69 Kilowatt Solar PV System

MCA Architecture Planning Interiors, Payroll Masters and vanderToolen Associates, in partnership with SPG Solar, Inc., announced today the completion of a 69 kW roof-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) powered energy system at their headquarters in Napa.

“As a landscape architectural firm that’s involved in projects which promote energy conservation and efficiency it only made sense for vTA to convert our office to take advantage of solar technology which further strengthens our commitment to minimizing vTA’s carbon footprint on the environment”, Phil vanderToolen, ASA – Principal.

SPG Solar Installs 69 Kilowatt Solar PV System for MCA Architecture Planning Interiors, Payroll Masters, and vanderToolen Associates in Napa.