Landscape Architecture

"Vacancy begets vacancy." With more than 1,000 vacant lots adding to the city's running total of 20,000 each year, Cleveland is on an Ultra-Ex mission to prepare these sites for tomorrow's housing renaissance.

August 5, 2011 - The New York Times

Philadelphia is opening its first "parklet" -- a small public park space built on street parking spaces.

August 4, 2011 - The Philadelphia Inquirer

Designing the U.S. embassy abroad is any architect's dream. But a crash between safety imperatives and beautiful design often results in "a dull series of near-identical, boxy bunkers," says The Economist.

August 2, 2011 - The Economist

After years of denial, the Chinese government has admitted that its massive Three Gorges Dam project is destabilizing the land around the reservoir.

August 1, 2011 - The Christian Science Monitor

The moribund state of the Los Angeles River reflects the zeitgeist of the city that it runs through, says The Economist. A mile wide but an inch deep, revitalization proposals are too conceptual at best and too feeble at worst.

August 1, 2011 - The Economist

The creation of a park in downtown Greenville, South Carolina, is credited with helping the city lure new development and stay economically healthy during the recession.

July 31, 2011 - NPR

As Singapore's population booms, officials are working through plans to help the city absorb its people but also provide them with adequate green space.

July 31, 2011 - The New York Times

London Evening Standard columnist Kieran Long takes a tour through London's Olympic Park and finds a new public space that will likely show its importance long after the games are over.

July 30, 2011 - London Evening Standard

This essay from Places looks at the history of "architectural fiction", and how imagined spaces and uses of land enrich understanding of the built environment.

July 30, 2011 - Places

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.

July 29, 2011 - ASLA's The Dirt blog

A variety of unsanctioned urban art projects are scattered throughout Toronto, bringing life and energy to otherwise underused spaces.

July 28, 2011 - The Toronto Star

Small-scale, temporary interventions in urban space have brought the concept of "pop-up" projects into the civic space of cities.

July 26, 2011 - The Globe and Mail

Looking at "urban acupuncture", a recent movement that eschews massive urban renewal projects in favor of smaller interventions.

July 25, 2011 - The Guardian U.K.

Not that it's a real surprise that trees clean the air, but a new study shows that greenery in cities can have a significant effect on air quality.

July 25, 2011 - TheCityFix.com

A new public park in downtown Phoenix is both a venue for artists and performers and a public space that calls to mind a small neighborhood park, according to this piece from Next American City.

July 21, 2011 - Next American City

A recent bid to lease the land that houses Spiral Jetty, the iconic piece of landscape art by Robert Smithson, has raised questions about whether art on land can be owned and where the line between the two should lie.

July 15, 2011 - Reuters

Parking spaces in San Francisco are being repurposed as small patio-like park spaces and out door seating areas. John King of the San Francisco Chronicle looks at how they've become part of the city.

July 15, 2011 - San Francisco Chronicle

Plans to redesign the expanded publicly accessible section of the White House's front lawn combine both walkability concerns and safety concerns.

July 13, 2011 - The Architect's Newspaper

New playground designs are shaking up public parks around the world. So long, slides, hello interpretive playscapes.

July 12, 2011 - Dwell

Scheduled to open in two months on the day after the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, project architect Michael Arad and landscape architect Peter Walker discuss their masterpiece.

July 11, 2011 - The Wall Street Journal