THE DIRT

In a lengthy interview with ASLA's blog, The Dirt, Robert Hammond, Co-Founder of the High Line, details the birth, life, and lessons of the phenomenally successful park.

Mark Hough laments the chronic, debilitating inferiority complex afflicting Landscape Architects and the crutch that Frederick Law Olmsted provides.

The Dirt profiles three recent projects that play with the ideas of landscape, nature, and the eye of the beholder.

A key ruling on whether and/or how to allow the High Volume Horizontal Hydraulic Fracturing (or fracking) method of extracting natural gas is imminent in New York State. The decision could set a nationwide precedent.

Kevin Conger is CEO and one of the founding partners of Conger Moss Guillard (CMG) Landscape Architecture. A recent redevelopment project was labeled as a "climate positive." Conger explains how it meets those standards along with other projects.

In Washington, D.C., a huge parking lot that parallels the southwest waterfront is slowly being transformed into a 4.2-acre park. Developers and architects are "turning community input into actual park concepts and designs," said to The Dirt.

Danish Architect Bjarke Ingels discusses his new approach of "hedonistic sustainability... which improves the quality of life," as well as other ideas he often features in various projects.

Transplanting the wildly popular pilot projects in NYC and SF across the northern border, the City launches VIVA Vancouver program that converts parts of eight streets into public spaces.

Got what it takes to revamp the Union Square, Washington Monument Grounds, and Constitution Gardens? The design competition is now open to anyone who has the vision of making this revered space in D.C. the "best park in the world."

A post at ASLA's The Dirt predicts that the next "crisis" to be debated in Congress will be that of the need for a comprehensive transportation bill to repair this country's "vulnerable infrastructure."

The projects across the country having the biggest impact on the feel and function of cities are more often than not the work of landscape architects, according to the American Society of Landscape Architects.

Campaigning blindly to encourage people to relinquish cars and take public transit is not enough. Policymakers need to develop business school marketing strategies to brand their campaigns, experts say.

Jumping on the climate change bandwagon, the newly appointed CEO of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Robert Ivy underscores the need to find a healthy medium between sustainability and architecture.

The idea of tuning toxic or polluted sites into parks has been creating new green spaces in cities throughout the country. It's also re-starting the real estate market.

At the National Building Museum's Intelligent Cities Forum, one participant compared creating healthy cities to creating healthy animal environments in zoos.

Crows are seemingly everywhere, including cities. A new book looks at the relationship between people and crows in urban areas and what it says about modern cities.

A new public plaza is being built in Washington D.C., and this rundown from The Dirt highlights its people-focused design.

Joyce Lee discusses NYC's Active Design Guidelines and how they address the relationship between urban form and public health.

NYC is reusing materials from a construction site in Queens to redesign the area's streetscape with pedestrian safety in mind.

The city of lakes ironically gets a redesigned riverfront, as was unveiled by the city's Park and Recreation Board. Click for more and the video of the winning design.