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Showing posts from March, 2010

London planetree: Brooklyn's most common street tree

Image: Planetrees (Manhattan) The London planetree was not only the most common street tree in New York City (five boroughs) in 2005, it was the most common street tree in Brooklyn , at 24% of the population. The next four most common street trees in Brooklyn were Norway maple (11%), honeylocust (9%), pin oak (7%), and Callery pear (7%). Image: Bud opening, Callery pear Image: Bud opening, Norway maple New York City's 2005 street tree inventory organized by the Department of Parks & Recreation revealed the five most common street trees in New York City's five boroughs. In the Bronx , the top five were honeylocust (13%), Norway maple (12%), London planetree (11%), pin oak (9%), and Callery pear (8%); in Manhattan , honeylocust (23%), Callery pear (16%), Ginkgo (10%), London planetree (8%), and littleleaf linden (6%) were the most common species; in Queens , the top five were Norway maple (18%), London planetree (14%), pin oak (8%), Callery pear (7%), and h

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Manhattan's parks as green infrastructure

We really like attending conferences; we always learn so much. For example, at the recent MillionTreesNYC symposium we learned about the city's Green Infrastructure and Urban Ecology "Sites of Interest" such as Washington Square (#3), Union Square (#5), High Line (#6) parks. These are three of 12 sites in Manhattan. No sites were identified in the other four boroughs. How does the High Line provide green infrastructure and urban ecology? "The High Line is an excellent example of multi-partner collaboration for sustainability and innovate [sic] ecological design....a model for revitalization of existing infrastructure." Another way in which the park is a model of urban ecology - its mostly native species planting palette designed by Piet Oudolf . Union Square hosts "New York City's first, largest and most famous Greenmarket" whose vendors provide local fruits, vegetables, etc. Also, the trees on 17th Street and Union Square West (p

Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle

Our life, of late, has been filled with "bicycle legs." The almost daily activity inspired this post. The "dog" bicycle rack, above, located in front of the AIANY gallery was designed by David Byrne and was entered in the 2008 CityRacks Design Competition . Last summer, I spent some time with Bike Arc designer Joseph Bellomo at his Palo Alto office. (The arc's co-designer is Jeff Selzer.) The Bike Arc is "a modular bike parking system." The arc located outside Bellomo's office, shown above, is the Bus Arc which meshes bike parking and a bus shelter. The product is popular on the SF Peninsula. Another multi-purpose bicycle parking system was spotted on Fourth Street in Berkeley, California. This one doubles as a tree guard. Also from our archives, the BikeLid: What's looks like a boa constrictor that has swallowed an animal and protects and secures bicycles? A BikeLid bicycle parking system! Several weeks ago {August 200

Bird Watch: Papendick's outdoor sculptures for birds

Thanks to Lisa Boone at L.A. at Home for allowing us to re-post her essay about backyard bird feeders . *** *** *** Joe Papendick via L.A. at Home As the leaves have begun to return to the limbs of my ash tree, so have the birds. The chirping has become so enticing lately, in fact, that I have become something of a backyard birder (otherwise known as "a yard work procrastinator"). So in an effort to put off weeding ... I mean, to attract more birds, I have been searching for an appropriate bird feeder. While there are certainly a lot of great-looking modern bird feeders available, I felt those might seem to be slumming it in my neglected, toy-strewn back 40. Yet the ones I found at my neighborhood hardware store seemed too corny. Enter St. Louis artist Joe Papendick, whose sculpted steel bird feeders, shown above, feel just right. They are a little rough, just like my yard, and yet visually striking and colorful enough to be appreciated from a far kitchen window. His new “H

Tree stewardship signs matter

A survey of survival rates of young street trees in New York City revealed that trees associated with at least one stewardship sign had a 90% survival rate compared to a 70% survival rates for trees with no stewardship signs. I attended the MillionTreesNYC Symposium last weekend and heard, among other presentations, the "Survival Rates of Young Street Trees in New York City" by Jacqueline Lu of the NYC Parks and Recreation Department.

Quarantines, or "a brief global history of public-health confinements"

National Geographic , December 2009 Quarantines are the subject of an upcoming exhibit at Storefront for Architecture . The "Landscapes of Quarantine" exhibit, co-curated by Nicola Twilley of Edible Geography (and of The Foodprint Project ) and Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG , opens on Tuesday, March 9 at 7 p.m. and closes on April 17.

Gaslight Mystery "Murder on Washington Square"

Brick houses on Washington Square North For Valentine's Day, I received Victoria Thompson's first two Gaslight Mysteries - Murder on Astor Place (1999) and Murder on St. Mark's Place (2002) - and I am hooked. Recently I bought numbers three and four in the series: Murder on Gramercy Park (2001) and Murder on Washington Square (2002). As you might have guessed from the series and book titles, the mysteries are set in early twentieth century New York City neighborhoods. In Murder on Washington Square, the woman protagonist, Sarah Brandt (Mrs. Brandt), meets a friend in Washington Square. She narrates the landscape as follows: As always when she was here, Sarah's gaze instinctively found the house where she had been raised. It sat on the east side of the Square, perched like a middle-aged woman who still bore signs of her previous beauty but who was beginning to show the inevitable effects of age. Sarah knew the place had become a boardinghouse after her parents

Southwest flora in Albuquerque

While attending a conference in Albuquerque last year, I visited the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science and photographed some of the native plants on its grounds, some of which are labeled. I wish more public agencies labeled the flora on their properties. The city as arboretum!

(Boston) Tea Party

Float, July 4th 2008, Beverly Farms, Massachusetts