ASLA's The Dirt blog

Brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay team up with Brooklyn-based developer, Bradley Feldman, to create a "location-aware album" app for Central Park.

At the recent ASLA Conference in San Diego, a panel of noted landscape architects discussed whether New York City's hit park The High Line is a replicable model for other cities.

Prof. Suzanne Preston Blier of Harvard unearths the ancient plans of Yoruban towns, which were laid out as early as 350 BCE.

That's what Janette Sadik-Khan said New York is striving to do on their streets, speaking last week at a two-day conference at Harvard.

Lonely Planet has just released a book highlighting the "1,000 Ultimate Sites." ASLA looks inside, and marvels at the natural scenery and the ways humans have chosen to frame them.

Neil Chambers talks about his new book, Urban Green: Architecture for the Future. He says that "[w]e are basically still dealing with water, energy, and buildings the same way we were 150 years ago."

A new biography of Frederick Law Olmsted pulls together letters and collections from five separate archives to paint him as a pioneering environmentalist and landscape architect.

Manhattan's High Line is a new model for reclaiming underused spaces and turning them into successful public spaces. Phase 2 of the ambitious park opened yesterday to much fanfare.

Those are the building blocks of landscape architect Piet Oudolf, leader of the "new perennial movement" that strives to use only perennial plants. A new book showcases his work.

Despite the continued struggles of the U.S. economy, green roofs have proliferated with the market increasing 30% from the previous year.

Does public art make a difference, and how? ASLA's The Dirt blog looks at all the ways public art is effective, from job creation and real estate value to cultural cache and tourism.

Jan Gehl talks about the problematic history of architecture, landscape architecture and yes, planning, when it comes to building cities for people rather than celebrating form for its own sake.

The Planters company has revealed plans to assist cities in designing and building urban pocket parks in underused land. In return, the parks will include branding from the company, including a Mr. Peanut statue sitting on a peanut bench.

"Phytoremediation" is a growing field (pun intended) of practice that uses particular types of plants to leech toxic materials out of the soil in contaminated sites.

Harvard comes out on top for their master of landscape architecture program, while the best bachelor's degree, according to DesignIntelligence, is from Louisiana State University.

Architecture critic Sarah Williams Goldhagen says that streets can't create public interaction in the way that unstructured spaces like urban parks can.

Leni Schwendinger says that cities don't pay enough attention to the way lighting effects the built environment. She's currently working on the lighting for Times Square's new pedestrianized streets.

100 Acres is the name (and size?) of a new park in Indianapolis that is a "hybrid of landscape, art, and architecture," according to Edward Blake, of Landscape Studio, the designers.

A U.S. ambassador is proposing a novel approach to helping Afghanistan -- since opium crops are rampant, why not find a way to turn poppies into biofuel?

Non-profit TerraformOne held a design contest for ideas for creating productive green spaces in cities. Winners include plans to put seniors to work as farmers and a global system of levees.