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Showing posts from October, 2011

Coming soon: Festival of the Trees 65

Snowy day near Jersey Street in Boston (Nov. 2003) Mark your calendar for November 1, 2011 -- the arrival of the 65th edition of the Festival of the Trees .

5 Things I Like about Montreal

As you might have guessed, we like Montreal's parks.  In September, I wrote about my hike in parc du Mont-Royal .  See more Mont-Royal photos at our Flickr page .  Other enjoyable design elements of the city include its street tree gardens, ( we first wrote about them in August 2010 ); small squares; and infrastructure.  If you followed our Where in NYC? (Subway Series) , you know we like subway art.  Like NYC, Montreal's Metro stations house art. Do you know in which Metro station this stained glass art is located? We like the dual function of this infrastructure: street lighting and sidewalk seating. Square-Victoria, quiet in the early morning, is livened by commuters emerging from the Metro.

5 Things I Like about Boston

When we returned from our trip to Munich and I reviewed our photographs, I realized that they fell into five categories: parks, street trees, transportation, recreation, and architecture.  Parks and open spaces, transportation, and architecture are also the subjects of our photos from a recent trip to Boston but I photographed infrastructure and food places, too. Haymarket, downtown Boston Old City Hall Boston Harbor Hotel, Rowe's Wharf Hubway bike sharing system North End Parks, Rose Kennedy Greenway

Sukkah in Washington Square Park

More than a year ago we reported on the Sukkah City:NYC 2010 exhibition at Union Square Park.  This year, a sukkah was erected in Washington Square Park to celebrate Sukkot.  Sukkot 2011 is celebrated from October 12 to October 19. The basic rules for constructing a sukkah are: The structure must be temporary, have at least two and a half walls, be big enough to contain a table, and have a roof made of shade-providing organic materials through which one can see the stars.  ( Source ) The Washington Square Park sukkah was built by Chabad House at New York University. Located slightly southeast of the Arch, it is made of variously sized wood boards and topped with branches of arborvitae ( Thuja ).  Arborvitae is classified as a tree or a shrub and means "tree of life"; the Morton Arboretum describes it as long-lived with decay resistant wood.

At play in Houston Street Playground

If you are familiar with the Lower East Side of Manhattan you might be wondering about the location of the Houston Street Playground.  It is the northernmost of five playgrounds in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Chrystie Street.  We played at this playground numerous times this summer as it is across the street from a grocery store where we frequently shop.  Yesterday we played there with friends. As in our inaugural At play post about the larger playground in Washington Square Park , this review is based on visits accompanied by a 16 to 24 month old child and the following factors in our assessment: sun/shade, seating, water, safety, and cleanliness. Houston Street Playground is well shaded by large, broad London planetrees.  However, pigeons roost in the trees and their droppings splatter unto most of the play structures and ground.  Yesterday, the structures were the cleanest they have been of all our visits.  A trash bin is located at the entry gate.  There is litter but not

English Elm in the Tree Year, Part 4

In the previous post in this series, we wrote about the  deepening color and thickening canopy of the English Elm  with the onset of summer. Whenever we walk by the elm, we observe squirrels eating, playing, standing, or engaged in other activities.  In the spring, they would likely eat elm buds .  With fewer buds to eat in the summer, the squirrels who frequent the elm are likely eating the nuts fed to them or left there by regular park users and tourists.  Squirrels, so common to us, amaze tourists.  The sheer size of the English Elm is also remarkable which might account for the greater amount of nuts and squirrel activity in this area. Previous English Elm in the Tree Year posts are available at English Elm in the Tree Year, Part 3 English Elm in the Tree Year, Part 2 English Elm in The Tree Year, Part 1 This series is part of The Tree Year project.

Amongst The Core of the NYU 2031 Plan

Image: Existing condition (circled), Washington Square Village courtyard, NYU 2031 ( source ) The existing condition of Washington Square Village's central garden - the 1.5 acre Hideo Sasaki-designed garden and green roof -- in Chapter 6, "The Core" of the NYU 2031 plan is illustrated (above) and described as "while extensive, is elevated above ground level and accessible only by means of the former Wooster and Greene streets, which remain as semiprivate drives isolated from the public realm by the existing buildings through which they pass.  Other green spaces are fragmented and often publicly inaccessible." Image: Aerial view of Washington Square Village courtyard, annotated ( larger image ) The NYU 2031 description and illustration are misleading.  The plan illustration only depicts north-south views but there are west-east and diagonal views. From two points on LaGuardia Place you can see the garden. Image (#6 on aerial): Looking south o