Rick Abelson
Rick Abelson is a Director at Online Land Planning, LLC.
Contributed 11 posts
Rick Abelson is a recognized leader in creating culturally significant land planning developments worldwide. His peers regard him as an original thinker and an internationally respected designer of destination attractions, mixed-use town centers, urban infill and new communities. In many cases, Rick’s projects have become the catalyst for civic revitalization and his early participation and strategic forward-thinking adds immediate financial value to properties seeking optimum land definition. Rick is a regularly featured speaker and panelist at national conferences and has published many articles and blog entries on land planning and urban design issues.
Rick received his Masters of Landscape Architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and Bachelors of Landscape Architecture from the University of Oregon where he awarded the Pennell Architecture Prize. His professional affliations include the Milken Institute, National Association of Home Builders, Forum on Science and Innovation for Sustainable Development, The Urban Land Institute Commercial & Retail Development Council, Lambda Alpha International, Business Week Exchange, Harvard Graduate School of Design Alumni Council and the California Marine Parks & Harbors Association.
Prior to joining Online Land Planning, Rick was Vice President of Aperion Companies, a land development company headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was a Design Director and Firmwide Practice Area Leader of Planning & Urban Design at Gensler and Director of Landscape Architecture at Gruen Associates in Los Angeles, California.
Rick is a licensed Landscape Architect and CLARB certified. Each spring, Rick teaches a popular advanced design course at UCLA Extension Department of Landscape Architecture entitled, 'The Recovery and Transformation of Man-Made Sites'.
Sustainability Allows Us to Manufacture Time
<p style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 10pt" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: small"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman">Go ahead, define sustainability.<span> </span>Everyone knows countless, tangled and unconvincing definitions for this word which is quickly losing steam.<span> </span>The problem is that we’re not sure about how sustainability relates to us except in planetary ways. We’re bombarded with many concepts that if we reduce this by 20% <span> </span>then we’ll get that in 30 years which helps the earth survive. All’s well, except we’re almost numb because we won’t feel the aggregate effects for quite some time. Obviously, we’re an impatient lot.<span> </span></span></span> </p>
Bringing New Value to Wastewater
<p> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt">Much of the inefficiency surrounding our use and misuse of water derive from entrenched habits formed during previous eras of presumed inexhaustibility of water supplies. Our wastewater treatment approach has traditionally relied on an infrastructure of centralized municipal water plants where tertiary effluent is recycled.<span> </span>These plants consume considerable energy and cost to restore all of the water they process. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt"> </span> </p>
The Beauty of India
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Value-Based Land Planning
<p style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0in 10pt 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"> <span style="line-height: 115%; font-size: 12pt">A few years back, I was involved with helping a land owner master plan a 30-acre parcel in Las Vegas just off the Strip, near the MGM Grand Hotel.<span> </span>The parcel was zoned for casino uses and also had potential for hotel, residential towers and other retail uses.<span> </span>The land owner paid about $9 million for the underutilized and nearly vacant property and received minor residual income for lower intensity uses that were currently operating on the site.<span> </span>Initially, the land owner tried to flip the land using a prestigious national real estate brokerage that marketed the property with a glossy aerial photograph, a large red b
24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference & Exhibition
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