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Showing posts from June, 2012

Gems of the Greenwich Village superblocks

Inspired by Untapped New York's new weekly series titled "5 Spots in 5 Minutes" , we'd like to share 7 gems you can see in 15 minutes on 2 blocks in Greenwich Village . 1. Alan Sonfist's Time Landscape Location: Laguardia Place and Houston Street The Time Landscape park was created by landscape artist Alan Sonfist.  The landscape was proposed in 1956 "as a living monument to the forest that once blanketed Manhattan Island" prior to the arrival of Dutch settlers in the early 17th century.  Sonfist conducted "extensive research on New York’s botany, geology, and history."  The 25' x 40' forest park is composed of native trees, shrubs, wild grasses, flowers, plants, rocks, and earth.   Image: Time Landscape (Sonfist's conceptual/land art peers are Martha Schwartz ("The Bagel Garden"), Robert Smithson ("Spiral Jetty"), and Richard Serra ("Spin Out (for Robert Smithson)). Image: Time Lands

Trees of Tot Playground, Washington Square Park

Image: Tot Playground, Washington Square Park Ever wonder about the trees in your local playground?  We've written a series about the trees in five Manhattan playgrounds for ioby .  Read the first installment at http://ioby.org/blog/recipes-for-change-the-trees-of-tot-playground .

10 Most Common Street Trees in NYC

In 2005, the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation organized a street tree inventory. Surveyors counted 592,130 trees which represents a "19% increase" in the population over the 1995-1996 population count of 499,130 trees.  The 10 most common street trees in New York City in 2005 are listed below and annotated with quotes from  Arthur Plotnik 's  The Urban Tree Book  (2000). 1. London Plane 15.3% "The London planetree is widely considered to be the world's most reliable city tree."   We wrote about the planetree for our  Tree Walk: London planetrees of Washington Square Village . Image: London Plane bark   2. Norway Maple 14.1% "The very shade that endears the tree to some planters is bad news to others....The resulting shade can seem as refreshing as a forest glen or as somber as a Norwegian winter--even menacing, depending on temperament or the neighborhood situation." Image: Norway maple leaf 3. Callery pear 10.9% "A charmi

Eating your urban forest

Image: Sidewalk plum tree, Berkeley  On the east coast of the U.S., juneberries are ripening, Berkeley's plum trees are already full of ripe fruit, and at the end of May, black locusts near the Spree River in Berlin were in bloom.  local ecologist is a long-time advocate of the edible urban forest and we've eaten its fruits, too.  You can learn about our Eat Street Trees! project here . The existence of edible trees on streets and in parks and other public spaces can be a result of informal practices, sanctioned tree planting, or both.  In Seattle, it is unlawful under Park and Recreation code to pick fruits, flowers, or other parts from shrubs and trees which de facto bars foraging.  Planting fruit trees in the sidewalk is also prohibited under Department of Transportation policy.  Research recently published in Urban Forestry & Urban Greening (McLain et al., Vol. 11, Issue 2, 2012) find that the dominant official vision for Seattle's urban forest is environmen

Animal art in the subway

Image: Model of a fish at the Whitehall R Station Check out our newest Flickr photoset: a collection of animal art at subway stations .  The model of a fish at the Whitehall R Station - shown above - is part of Passages by Frank Giorgini installed in 2000. For the restoration of the Whitehall Street subway station, Frank Giorgioni designed elements in ceramic, stone and metal to blend with the historic fabric of the station, such as the original bands of mosaic tile work. The cityscape begin at the entrance of the station with a view of the city today and then travel backward through time, through the age of steamships, a montage of New Amsterdam, the arrival of the first settlers, and finally the era before European settlement, with Native American canoes and a marshland of flora and fauna. In another area, schools of fish are seen, in both two- and three-dimensional form, accompanying a mosaic of sea and sky. Railings in the area are in the form of cattails, capping Giorgio

Market Street clock, San Francisco

Matt's of I'm Just Walkin writeup of the Steinway Street Clock in Astoria reminded me of our photograph of the Albert S. Samuels, Co. clock on Market Street in San Francisco. The Samuel's clock was installed in 1915 and is a registered San Francisco landmark . It figures that Mr. Samuels was a watchmaker. One, he installed a clock for the sidewalk in front of his business. And two, according to Forgotten New York, most street clocks - in New York - were placed outside jewelry stores to attract customers. Learn more about New York City's street clocks on the Street Clocks page of Forgotten New York.

Landscape Architecture: A Guide for Clients by Landscape Institute

Image: Front cover of "Landscape Architecture, A guide for clients" ( source ) "Landscape Architecture, A guide for clients" is brilliantly executed.  The guide begins with the Landscape Institute's definition of landscape architecture.  The profession "is rooted in an understanding of how the environment works and what makes each place unique.  It is a blend of science and art, vision and thought.  It is a creative profession skilled in strategic planning, delivery and management.  Landscape architects...create delight with beautiful designs, protecting and enhancing our most cherished landscapes and townscapes." Divided into three main sections, the first two -- What landscape architects offer and The landscape architect's role -- describe a landscape architect's skills and roles, respectively.  Criteria for selecting a landscape architect and summaries of the projects featured in the report make up the third section.  The project summa