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Showing posts from September, 2010

Curating the Urban Cemetery as Bird Habitat

Our thanks to landscape designer Aaron Odland for this creative consideration of the habitat potential of urban cemeteries. Images courtesy of Aaron Odland. When we think about the urban forest, its street trees and parks that often first pop into mind as prime constituents. But there are other institutional land uses that contribute a great deal of square footage to the urban tree canopy. According to the 1994 study "Chicago's Urban Forest Ecosystem: Results of the Chicago Urban Forest Climate Project", 49% of Chicago's 4.1 million trees at the time were on institutional land dominated by vegetation. This category includes parks, forest preserves, golf courses, and cemeteries. This study also found that the tree composition throughout Chicago was dominated by the pioneer species green ash (12.9%) and cottonwood (15.8%). While any type of tree canopy might contribute to the infrastructure tree benefits of stormwater retention, air pollution removal, energy

New Bowery Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue

A sliver of land filled with conifers and surrounded by a low blue wall and lovely wrought iron caught our attention during a recent walk along West 11th Street. This triangular parcel is the New Bowery Cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, one of three cemeteries of the Congregation Shearith Israel. According to the Cemeteries of Congregation Shearith Israel website , the cemetery was a large, square plot when burials began in 1805. The cemetery was reduced in size in 1830 with the construction of West 11th Street.  Grave sites affected by the new street layout were moved to a Shearith Israel cemetery at 98-110 West 21st Street. In 1847, the Rural Cemetery Act legislated the establishment of cemeteries in rural areas of New York State such as western Queens.  Thus, when the Common Council of New York City banned new burials within Manhattan (the only borough of NYC at the time), subsequent interments of Shearith Israel congregants were made in Queens.  Stay tun

London planetree walls off decay

Did you know that trees can build walls?  In fact, trees respond to bacterial, fungal, and other attacks by constructing four walls, first modeled by Dr. Alex Shigo and named CODIT or compartmentalization of decay in trees. CODIT via "Tree Decay" -- Figure 15 ( image source ) The first wall is formed by plugged xylem cells which prevents the vertical spread of decay while late-forming cells are plugged to create the second wall which resists the inward spread of decay.  The third wall, formed by ray cells, prevents the radial spread of decay.  Together, these three walls are known as the reaction zone.  The fourth wall, also known as the barrier zone, inhibits the outward spread of decay.  This wall is "an anatomical and a chemical wall" formed by the cambium.  CODIT pattern via "Tree Decay" -- Figure 41 ( image source ) Review more patterns of compartmentalization here . The photographs used in this post are of a London planetree round show

Sukkah City in Union Square Park

A dozen sukkahs were on display on September 19 and 20 in Union Square Park. 600 designers entered the Sukkah City international design competition.  12 finalists were selected.  We went to the Sukkah City village on the first day.  One of the sukkahs, Shim Sukkah by Tinder, Tinker of Sagle, Idaho was still being constructed; it is our favorite.  The designers used unassuming wooden shims to create an intricate and beautiful structure.    A sukkah, quoting the Sukkah City poster, is Biblical in origin...an ephemeral, elemental shelter, erected for one week each fall, in which it is customary to share meals, entertain, sleep, and rejoice....the sukkah's religious function is to commemorate the temporary structures that the Israelites dwelled in during their exodus form Egypt....The Sukkah is a means of ceremonially practicing homelessness.... Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello's Sukkah of the Signs is a literal interpretation of "practicing homeless

urbancanvas Design Competition, or beautifying temporary protective structures

Urban Umbrella urbanSHED In February, we reported about the urbanSHED International Design Competition on exhibit at the AIANYC Gallery on La Guardia Place. Three proposals were selected as finalists: Tripod MOD(ule) (XChange Architects with Ex Nihilo Studio, Rider Levett Bucknall, and Weidlinger Associates), urbanCLOUD (KNEstudio with Arup), and Urban Umbrella (Young Hwan Choi, University of Pennsylvania student, with Agencie Group). urbanSHED was sponsored by several local institutions including three City agencies: Department of Buildings, Department of City Planning, and Department of Transportation. Green Screen urbancanvas design via nyc.gov ( source ) In June, the Department of Buildings and the Department of Cultural Affairs with support from The Rockefeller Foundation announced the urbancanvas Design Competition . Urbancanvas goes beyond urbanSHED in the number of structures it aims to beautify. Four (construction fences, sidewalk sheds, supported scaffolds, and

Dominique Browning's new garden book recommendations

Readers of House & Garden will recognize Dominique Browning as the editor-in-chief of the now defunct magazine.  Browning has authored six books including her newest, titled Slow Love . I miss House & Garden and Browning's editorials but a local bookseller, McNally Jackson , is providing some Browning love.  The bookshop has created a display of seven garden books recommended by the author: Gardening for a Lifetime Garden Guide New York City Edible Estates   Talking Dirt vegetables, herbs & fruit The Seasons of Henry's Farm The Locavore's Handbook . Here is our list of new garden/food books: The Green Roof Manual: A Professional Guide to Design, Installation, and Maintenance (Edmund C. Snodgrass and Linda McIntyre) Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food (Jean Ann Van Krevelen) In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite: 150 Recipes and Stories About the Food You Love (Melissa Clark) Kitchen Literacy: How We Lost Knowledge

Don't have a seat

Fire hydrants on Broadway

Revolution at New York's storm drains

Given yesterday's severe storm in the New York, we thought we would repost about the Curbolution entry to the Minds in the Gutter exhibit.  The original essay was published on September 13. The cleverly named runoff solution - Curbolution - was submitted by Team Sang-ayuna to the 2010 Minds in the Gutter "sidewalk as an opportunity for stormwater management" exhibit.  Team Sang-ayuna was composed of Cornell students Gregory Falco ('10), David Afable ('12), and Christian Paunon ('12).  Falco, Afable, and Paunon are from the New York City area.  Experience with combined sewer overflows -- clogged streets with "nasty stuff laying around" -- inspired the young men, plus their interest in sustainable design. Falco, in an interview with local ecologist , described his team's approach as the "best solution for the urban environment" in contrast to conventional typologies such as a wetland or a bioswale.  In fact, Curbolution is a m

Bustling Jefferson Market to passive Garden

Jefferson Market Garden, Greenacre Park, The Conservatory Garden (Central Park), and The Heather Garden (Fort Tryon Park) are "tucked-away gems," wrote Jeryl Brunner in the September 2010 issue of Delta's Sky magazine.  Jefferson Market Garden borders the very busy Sixth Avenue aka Avenue of the Americas, but the garden is easy to overlook for two main reasons.  One, the garden does not have an entrance on Sixth Avenue.  Its entrance is on Greenwich Street.  Two, the garden's Sixth Avenue fence is covered in vines and climbing roses partially obscuring views into the space. Before there was the Jefferson Market Garden there was the Jefferson Country Market founded in 1833, then the Womens House of Detention built in 1927, and finally in 1974, the land was transferred to NYC Parks and has since been stewarded by the Jefferson Market Garden Committee, Inc.  (The standing 1877 courthouse is now a public library.)  The garden was designed "in the spirit of Fred

An orchard grew in Brooklyn Heights?

When we came across several fruit-named streets in Brooklyn Heights, I immediately thought that the area was historically an orchard.  I was wrong.  It would have been challenging to maintain a tropical fruit orchard in New York.  And where would a cranberry bog fit into the landscape? Read about creating a bog garden on the Brooklyn Botanic Garden website.  Also, note the cross street -- Willow Street.  The Brooklyn Heights's streets Orange, Cranberry, and Pineapple were originally named for aristocratic families, a practice that nineteenth century resident Lady Middagh found "pretentious," so she renamed the streets.  These streets influenced the name of a nearby sitting area -- the Fruit Street Sitting Area . In researching for our post about parks in the movies, I learned that Cher's character in Moonstruck lived in a house on Cranberry Street.  Cinematic Parks found this amusing as Cher's character was from a working class family and that house on Cr

Reel affairs with New York City parks

Gramercy Park image via Wiki Commons author Dmadeo Watching Woody Allen's "Manhattan Murder Mystery" recently, I recognized Gramercy Park and Stuyvesant Square!  A quick search of the internet confirmed my guesses.  More recently, the Bowery Boys wrote about the World Trade Center in movies which convinced me to write a post about the city's parks in movies.  Another internet search revealed a NYC Parks webpage - Cinematic Parks - which lists films that feature city parks. As you might expect, Central Park has been featured in many well-known films such as Love Story (1970), Annie Hall (1977), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), Tootsie (1983), and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986) and the park has been the subject of movies including Central Park (1932). Scenes of Washington Square Park  can be seen in When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Kids (1995).  The park's chess playing area - a "battleground for chess enthusiasts" - was famously portrayed in S

Stormwater management revolution at the curb

We would like to thank Gregory Falco for his interview with local ecologist in May 2010. All images courtesy of Gregory Falco. The cleverly named runoff solution - Curbolution - was submitted by Team Sang-ayuna to the 2010 Minds in the Gutter "sidewalk as an opportunity for stormwater management" exhibit.  Team Sang-ayuna was composed of Cornell students Gregory Falco ('10), David Afable ('12), and Christian Paunon ('12).  Falco, Afable, and Paunon are from the New York City area.  Experience with combined sewer overflows -- clogged streets with "nasty stuff laying around" -- inspired the young men, plus their interest in sustainable design. Falco, in an interview with local ecologist , described his team's approach as the "best solution for the urban environment" in contrast to conventional typologies such as a wetland or a bioswale.  In fact, Curbolution is a modified bioswale.  Falco admitted that there is not one solution to s

Even books can be delivered in New York

McNally Jackson Books offers free local delivery of books by bicycle within the following zone: north of Canal Street, south of 8th Street, east of Hudson Street, and west of Avenue B.

Floral retail

If you were expecting photographs of flower shops, stay tuned for a write-up of local florists. In the meantime, these nodding potted flowers decorated Fred Perry's SoHo boutique in August.

Flower power in the Montreal Metro

Well, not exactly.  Montreal's Metro is not florally-powered but the system has been 100% powered by electricity since 1966.

A hectare of urban trees is worthwhile for birds

Black throated blue warbler.  Source : Wiki Commons / mdf Landscape ecologists Stephen Matthews and Paul Rodewald of the Ohio State University found that even a small patch of urban trees, like a hectare-large arboretum, provides valuable stopover habitat for migratory birds, though the authors noted that larger, contiguous patches of tree cover are better.  Read more at the BBC News Science & Environment website. [ Hat tip : The Metropolitan Field Guide ]

Green-It-Yourself roof garden at 594 Broadway

You've heard of do-it-yourself, or DIY.  Designers Atom Cianfarani and Lori Gibbs of Green Roof Workshop have coined the phrase Green-It-Yourself to describe their affordable and accessible approach to green roof design-build. I attended the last day of a two-week extensive* green roof garden installation at 594 Broadway, a Newmark Knight Frank building in SoHo (Project 594 Roof Garden), the home of the project organizer, Flavorpill.com . The work that had occurred prior to my attendance included the installation of a polyethylene root guard (Atom recommended using another product, EPDM); a recycled Geo-Textile, USA-made roof protection mat; recycled wood perimeter; an Optigreen drainage layer (resembles egg crates); a recycled Geo-Textile, USA-made drain/filter cloth; wood chips at the perimeter, and GaiaSoil enclosed in burlap sacks. On the final day of the project, two types of compost were laid down -- one for the sedums and one for cuttings and seeds. In addition, the