Replacing Billboards with Trees...Sort Of

Artist Stephen Glassman and a team of engineers and planners have developed a plan for transforming L.A.'s ubiquitous billboards into floating, globally connected urban forests. All that's needed for the first prototype are a few generous strangers.

November 6, 2012, 9am PST | Michael Newton

"Urban air transforms existing urban billboards to living, suspended bamboo gardens. Embedded with intelligent technology, Urban Air becomes a global node - an open space in the urban skyline," artist/installationist Stephen Glassman posits on his studio's website.

Los Angeles Curbed's Adrian Glick Kudler informs: "Eventually they hope to turn Urban Air into a "kit" that can transform any standard billboard. The project is all ready to go and now has a Kickstarter to raise funds for the first billboard."

Glassman's studio hopes to launch the first installation next year. But, Glassman notes, "...it doesn't stop there. Upon successful launch, the steel and wood billboards will become the infrastructure of urban sustainability in cities around the globe – actively, publicly, and collectively generating a green global future." What ever happened to just planting trees in communities lacking them?

Full Story:

Urban Air Would Make LA Billboard an Aerial Garden With WiFi

Published on Friday, November 2, 2012 in Curbed LA