In October of 1862, with the country still reeling from the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Antietam, Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape architect and a chronicler of the Southern slave economy, published a pamphlet that called for a nationwide effort to assemble provisions to care for sick and wounded soldiers. The recent battles East and West have completely exhausted the reserved stock, he wrote, and it is found now not only impracticable to accumulate supplies, but impossible to meet even urgent demands daily made by hospitals within sight of the very dome of the Capitol. His plea has a familiar ring today, as does the title of the publication, What They Have to Do Who Stay at Home.

Olmsted is most beloved for his work on New York Citys Central Park and Prospect Park, which he designed and built with Calvert Vaux before and after, respectively, the War Between the States. In recent weeks, New Yorkers have ventured out for strolls and sits among the blossoming landscapes that Olmsted wrought from unscenic acreage a century and a half ago. But Olmsteds service to the country during the Civil War is what makes him especially relevant just now. In 1861, Olmsted gave up oversight of Central Park to run the newly created and privately funded U.S. Sanitary Commission, a predecessor to the American Red Cross. The Civil War was a public-health emergencymore soldiers died of disease than of battlefield wounds, owing partly to the miserable condition of the Armys medical apparatus. Olmsted oversaw the creation and operation of medical boats and field hospitals, and set up new triage and quarantine procedures for infectious patients. The emergency tent hospital in Central Park and the U.S.N.S. Comfort parked on the Hudson were probably the Olmsted-iest things weve seen in a while.

The United States had a relatively small standing army at the start of the Civil War, one that was further divided, in two, by secession. Volunteer regiments were raised and equipped in an enthusiastic but ad-hoc manner, and, when the first test of the new Union forces came in July of 1861, at Bull Run, the result was a disorganized melee. Olmsted, wanting to document and cure the deadly lack of discipline, morale, and medical preparation that he and his front-line responders had witnessed, deployed a team of Sanitary Commission inspectors to conduct a meticulous seventy-five-question survey of the soldiers. Armed with those insights, Olmsted compiled a Report on the Demoralization of the Volunteers, a document the commissions board scuttled for fear that it would have hurt recruiting efforts. The Sanitary Commission was generally a thorn in the side of the federal government, the leaders of which did not immediately appreciate the meddling of wealthy New York lites, or the implication that the war was not under control. Lincoln himself referred to it as a fifth wheel.

So, that October, Olmsted went straight to the people, specifically to the Loyal Women of America, with a direct plea for badly needed supplies for the winter, asking that every woman in the country knit or buy a pair of woollen stockings. Existing sewing societies and reading clubs were prevailed upon to gather blankets, drawers, splints, and pillows to support wounded limbs. Seeing morale as key to health, Olmsted called for jelly, booze, and backgammon boards. Books, for desultory reading and magazines especially if illustrated will be useful, he wrote. (Side note for desultory readers: the Internet Archives National Emergency Library currently offers two very worthwhile biographies of Olmsted: Witold Rybczynskis A Clearing in the Distance and Lee Halls Olmsteds America.)

Olmsteds appeal was printed in newspapers across America, and carried a pithy endorsement from President Abraham Lincoln, who said, lukewarmly, that there is no agency through which voluntary offerings of patriotism can be more effectively made. The White House itself wasnt much help, as Olmsted pointed out a few paragraphs later: For the means of administering to the needs of the sick and wounded, the Commission, he wrote, receives not one dollar from Government.

The welfare of the casualties would be up to the people and to the states, many of which launched their own robust supply drives aimed at equipping native sons. This deeply frustrated Olmsted, who complained, a year later, What real patriot can wish or be willing, even, to have soldiers from his State, or from his town, or his kindred, enjoying extra comforts and luxuries, while wounded men by their side, or on the distant battle-field, are, perhaps, in actual stress of life for want of the very supplies which a better distribution would secure to them? Olmsted was a big fan of democracy doing big things for everyone, including future generations. Whether scenic beauty or war, hospital or park, Olmsted believed that we were all in this together, like it or not. Incompetence wouldnt do. Short-term thinking wouldnt do. It seemed to Olmsted that the entire point of the war was for the states to come together as a country. In union is strength. In disunion is weakness and waste. Can we not, in this trial of our nation, learn to wholly lay aside that poor disguise of narrowness of purpose and self-conceit, which takes the name of local interest and public spirit, but whose fruit is manifest in secession? he wrote.

He was out with the Army as often as he was in Washingtona Fauci and a front-line worker. After the Battle of Seven Pines, in June, 1862, Katharine Prescott Wormeley, one of the Sanitary Commissions top nurses, wrote a letter to her mother, saying, Mr. Olmsted is everything,wise, authoritative, untiring; but he must break down. . . . To think or speak of the things we see would be fatal. No one must come here who cannot put away all feeling. Do all you can, and be a machine,thats the way to act; the only way. Closing the letter, she noted that she was sitting on the floor with Olmsted, resting, with a pitcher of lemonade between them.

At the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single day of the Civil War, some twenty-three thousand Americansfrom the North and Southwere killed, wounded, or missing. The Sanitary Commission agents arrived three days after the battle, and, according to Olmsted, within a week the commission had delivered to the hospitals ten thousand shirts and drawers, five hundred bottles of stimulantsboozetwo thousand sponges, several tons of soup, and other nice articles of nutriment.

That list suggests the current contents of a restaurant called Olmsted, on Vanderbilt Avenue in Brooklyn, which this magazine called an urban sanctuary back in 2016. Its truly one now. The chef, Greg Baxtrom, and his co-owner, Max Katzenberg, had to furlough their staff after the stay-at-home order, but decided to turn their kitchen into a food bank for neighborhood restaurant workers. Soon they started feeding hospital workers, too, and then whoever needed a meal. And now, having received donations of baby formula, diapers, bras, and toothbrushes, Baxtrom is giving away more than food. Were basically a bodega now, he said by phone the other day, in the midst of opening boxes. He was converting the restaurants private dining room into the Olmsted Trading Post, selling bread, organic vegetables, bottled cocktails, and wine, to help fund their food-bank efforts and rehire some of his furloughed employees. To ward off demoralization, flower boxes and a rainbow pennant banner frame the front window, on which the Trading Post logo is nicely painted, as though the pop-up may stay for a while.

Read the original here:
Frederick Law Olmsteds War on Disease and Disunity - The New Yorker

The new World War I Memorial replaces Pershing Park. Courtesy GWWO Architects.

Pershing Park, a secluded pocket near the White House, is being converted into a national World War I memorial. At the behest of its promoters, the memorial removes the active spaces for people that made the park popular, while keeping secondary elements that close off the park from the city and keep it desolate.

The previous park was built around features meant to encourage social activity before budget cuts and poor management left it in disuse. Already isolated by berms meant to shield it from Pennsylvania Avenue on the south, it became an underused hole in the urban fabric.

The $46 million memorial conversion only slightly alters the physical spaces, but completely reverses the use of the park. Gone are its two core active uses, the pool that doubled as an ice rink and concession stand. A sculpture wall, quotations, and other educational elements take their place.

The new memorial. Image from National Captital Planning Commission (NCPC).

This set of isolated tweaks looks nothing like the first visions for the memorial, unveiled in 2015. In entries to a design competition, designers proposed razing the entire park and building anew. However, the memorials backers rushed to bypass the politics of its design. In doing so, they threw their designers into a grinding bureaucratic process that, at the end of the day, was not able to save what made the park an attraction.

Defenders of the existing park used historic preservation to save the physical landscape, and won, in a way. But that forced officials to only balance important physical features, with war commemoration. Any consideration of creating a useful, lively urban space was completely squeezed out.

All of the conference-room politicking and meetings couldnt make up for the shambolic competition and the anti-urban ambitions of its organizers. Worse, we lost the opportunity to adapt the park to changing conditions, and rethink the car-centered assumptions that led to its biggest deficiencies.

Ultimately, the new design illustrates how, when it comes to urban spaces, process is not a substitute for the right goals.

Pershing Park started with a good design but declined due to poor operation

Pershing Park was built in 1981 by the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC), an organization set up to revitalize Pennsylvania Avenue as a monumental but still vibrant live-work area. The Market Square complex, containing apartments, offices, retail, and the Naval Memorial, embodies the balance of urban uses the PADC sought.

The original park design by M. Paul Friedberg, whose firm also designed Yards Park, consisted of three elements: a sunken pool that could convert to an ice skating rink, a small memorial to General Pershing, and a glazed concession stand.

A diagram of the three elements of existing park design. Images from NCPC.

The pool was separated from the noise of 14th, 15th, and E Streets by imposing berms topped by walkways and benches. The park was more open to the northeast, towards the hotels and theaters north of Freedom Plaza.

Why the berms? Remember that in 1979, that part of Pennsylvania Avenue was busy. E Street south of the White House was open to traffic as a direct route to I-66. At the same time, the Willard Hotel and theater and restaurants on the north side of Freedom Plaza were big draws so the designers logically opened the park to the busier street.

Pershing Park in front of the Willard Hotel. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith. Ice rink licensed under Creative Commons.

The park and its ice rink were popular into the 1990s, when competition from spaces like the National Gallery Sculpture Garden ice rink drew people away and Congress disbanded the PADC. Maintenance of the park was turned over to the National Park Service (NPS).

Pershing Park. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, photograph by Carol M. Highsmith. Image licensed under Creative Commons.

That agencys chronic budget problems, combined with poor oversight of the parks notorious operator, Guest Services, Inc., led to a slow decline until 2012, when neither the fountain, concession stand, nor ice rink worked.

The WWI memorial bypasses regular process and gets mired in controversy

At the same time, a group trying to build a National World War I Memorial was blocked from appropriating DCs World War I Memorial, south of the Reflecting Pool, for national purposes. With some encouragement from NPS and other groups, memorial promoters got Congress to unilaterally pick Pershing Park in the 2015 military budget.

This authorization from Congress to enhance the existing site let them skip the lengthy site selection process most memorials go through, meaning that if nothing went wrong, they could break ground in November 2017. However, this jump meant they also skipped due diligence about other planning objectives like livability or historic preservation, not to mention the politics of DCs limited space.

As a result, planners conducted the open-ended historic preservation analysis at the same time as the memorial was soliciting ideas through a design competition. The rules given to entrants and judges are critical for getting good results. The World War I Memorials design guidebook discouraged active uses and food sales while downplaying the significance of the existing landscape. Its no surprise that so many submissions were extravagant knockdown schemes.

The Honor proposed placing a reflective Brodie helmet on a plateau above the street. Image by WWI Centennial Commission.

The problems with this became apparent quickly as planners issued warnings, and groups like the Cultural Landscape Foundation rallied to defend the existing park. Then one of the competition judges, the respected landscape architect Laurie Olin, resigned in protest over the level of demolition. By 2016, finalists already had to significantly rework their designs.

Joe Weishaar, Sabin Howard, and GWWOs winning design "The Weight of Sacrifice" would have demolished most of the park.

Skipping site selection clearly became a mistake in July 2016, when the Historic Preservation Office determined that Friedbergs design was indeed historically significant. The Park Service and the various design review agencies were now obligated to follow strict rules in the Section 106 process, while the existing parks defenders, like the Cultural Landscape Foundation and the Association of Oldest Inhabitants of Washington, gained the upper hand.

By Fall 2016, the alterations were limited to the core of the park. Image from National Park Service.

The memorial organizers shortcut had sent their designers to a bureaucratic Donner Pass, where three years of long meetings stripped the design to the bare bones of what the congressional mandate of enhancement could justify in the face of preservation law.

By June 2017, the Section 106 process had led to the preservation of the fountain.Image fromNational Park Service.

In the end, the park will reopen by the beginning of next year, but the bronze sculptural centerpiece will not be completed until 2024.

In the final design, approved in October 2019, the memorial wall is freestanding.Image fromNCPC.

The park keeps the forms, but changes the function

In the new design, the basic layout remains but the use is fundamentally altered. A long wall of sculpture and a stone plaza now occupy most of the pool. A large stone fountain, which doubled as a zamboni shed, is gone. In its place, water features on the sculpture wall pick up the slack. Likewise, the concession stand is gone, replaced with an overlook outlining the history of the war.

The preservation process left the walls and statues of the Pershing Memorial itself largely intact, with minor adjustments.

The kiosk is replaced with a belvedere with history exhibits.Image fromNCPC.

In the remaining areas of the park, the renovation adds quotations, bronze QR codes that cue up online exhibits, new lighting, and a number of accessibility improvements.

However, the large berms that separate the park from passersby remain on three sides. Rather than a balance of activity, reflection, and commemoration like an urban Neapolitan the memorial is three scoops of the same flavor, buried in the same tough shell. Its a departure from the original vision.

Historic elements got protection; an active park lost out

Framing the impacts on the park around narrow federal preservation rules left the active uses only lightly protected. While some people on the National Capital Planning Commission and the Commission of Fine Arts lamented the loss, they had little leverage. The dialogue was structured as one of preserving the historic fabric versus commemoration. It was accepted that the social function could go.

In this sense, I would consider the new memorial an adaptive re-use, but not one the park needed. Remember, the berms that seemed to close off the park from the city existed to shield traffic coming to and from I-66. But that traffic isnt there anymore, and we shouldnt be planning Pennsylvania Avenue Americas Main Street as a noisy, polluted traffic sewer anyway.

The memorial park will still be pulled back from the street.Image fromNCPC.

Wouldnt a design that made those edges more inviting but preserved the core functions be better from both urbanism and preservation perspectives? We will never know, because the World War I Memorials organizers rushed to squeeze their dour vision onto a once-thriving park. The preservation process saved its stones, but institutional inertia left one of the few lively places on Pennsylvania Avenue to be embalmed.

Neil Flanagan grew up in Ward 3 before graduating from the Yale School of Architecture. He is pursuing an architecture license. He really likes walking around and looking at stuff.

Originally posted here:
As downtown DC's Pershing Park becomes a World War I memorial, process preserves a landscape but doesn't save the park for people - Greater Greater...

This article was first published on July 31, 2018. Its interesting to look back at the regions history, so we are sharing it again.

It may be a place where street musicians, unsung poets, and self-styled orators perform for transient audiences. Artists will come with their easels and paints. The pigeons will come and people will come and feed the pigeons. Lovers will come. Fathers will come with children. Intellectuals will come with their notebooks.

Thats how planners described the vision for Freedom Plaza, the square along Pennsylvania Avenue NW between 13th and 14th Streets, in a document unearthed by DC Council public information officer and @councilofdc tweeter Josh Gibson. Instead, its anything but.

Gibson said, None of this came true. Not even the pigeons. Michael Neibauer described it in the Washington Business Journal as an imposing concrete expanse with little to offer the public.

One of the projects designers, architect Denise Scott Brown, agrees. In a phone interview, she described the original design as a lovely success, but said, I see the execution as a failure.

What happened? To understand this, we must start with what the site was originally planned for, which was something much different.

An aerial view of Freedom Plaza from the Old Post Office Pavilion, dated June 1985. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

It started with the goal to rejuvenate Pennsylvania Avenue

Pennsylvania Avenue is more than just the address of the White House. Its a national symbol, reflecting the ceremonial and commercial center of the District. After World War II, though, economic decline caused the avenue to deteriorate to the point that it needed presidential intervention.

At the request of President John F. Kennedy, an organization known as the Presidents Council on Pennsylvania Avenue was formed in 1963 with the goal to improve the avenue, especially its appearance. The council was made up of architects, urban planners and other experts. A year later, the groups first report proposed several changes with street furniture, raised terraces for parade viewing, broad setbacks, and a shared cornice line.

An aerial photo taken of Pennsylvania Avenue NW. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

The centerpiece of this vision: National Square, between 14th and 15th Streets (where Pershing Park is now), with a 150-foot-wide fountain at the center, a memorial to General John Pershing to the south and 600 parking spaces underneath.

An illustration of National Square. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

The report voiced high hopes for this planned project. It said the square would symbolize and serve as a reception area for White House visitors. According to Thomas Luebkes publication, Civic Art: A Ceremonial History of the US, the square was modeled after The Place de la Concorde in Paris.

These plans changed over time with four alternative schemes brought to the federal Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) in January 1966. While the CFA approved a reduced version with the fountain moved to the west, the organization said that the plan still contains numerous unsolved problems, including the failure to clearly define the avenues terminus.

A rendering of National Square. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

National Square faded once Congress created a temporary federal agency, known as the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation (PADC), which produced a comprehensive plan in 1974 after working with the CFA and other agencies.

A rendering of National Square (left), and arendering of how National Square would have changed the look of Pennsylvania Avenue NW (right). Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

Congress approved the plan a year later for the development of five public open spaces, the first of which would be Pershing Park and an adjacent square, Western Plaza, now Freedom Plaza.

Miniature White House and Capitol and 100-foot pylons

By March of 1978, Western Plaza was planned to be a large, rectangular plaza incised with Pierre Charles LEnfants map of DC, lined by low landscaping with two 100-foot-tall marble pylons framing the Treasury Building. Eventually, the design shifted with the terrace raised and with flagpoles, a pool of water, and statue of Casimir Pulaski added.

A model of Robert Venturis Western Plaza with pylons, dated 1978. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

Also added were miniature, three-dimensional marble models of the White House and US Capitol, but these would soon prove the most problematic.

In September of that year, the DC government officially objected to Western Plazas design. The Districts Director of Planning, Ben Gilbert, described the pylons as an unnecessary complicating factor and the miniature buildings and other sculpture pieces not appropriate for this location. Not too long after, DC Mayor Marion Barry also rejected the design, and The American Society of Landscape Architects asked for a more landscape-oriented scheme.

In 1979, the CFA had the incised LEnfant plan pulled closer to the center, the paved area in front of the John A. Wilson District Building enlarged, large urns for seasonal flower displays added, and the pylons replaced by flagpoles.

When mock-ups of the miniature models of the White House and US Capitol were temporarily installed, Scott Brown said, Immediately, tourists came there with their kids, put them in front of the buildings and took photographs of them with the big buildings in the background, which was exactly the thing that we wanted them to do.

A model of the USCapitol miniature planned for Western Plaza. Image by The Commission of Fine Arts used with permission.

Despite the interaction with the mock-ups, Scott Brown said that then-Architect of the Capitol George White looked at them very carefully, both up close and then back 150 feet or so. He came back and he said, I dont know what to say. Close up, I love them, and far away, I dont like them.

It wasnt until all vertical elements were removed that the CFA approved the design in September 1979. In 1980, Western Plaza was complete.

Eight years later, it was renamed Freedom Plaza in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Into the 1990s, the space was further modified with a fountain incorporated into the plazas pool.

Freedom Plazas present and future

The final product, according to Scott Brown, is It had no shade. It didnt have much interest. It had no scale.

It also has no single entity to watch over its wear and tear. The PADC dissolved in 1996. There was a bill in September 2014 by DC Councilmember Jack Evans to create a District Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation to ensure suitable development, maintenance and use of the vital area of local, as well as federal, importance, but it never passed.

Occupy protesters at Freedom Plaza in 2011 by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons.

One group of people do use Freedom Plaza regularly: skateboarders. The open hardscape and railings of Freedom Plaza make an excellent and popular skate park, though skating there is not actually allowed and Park Police regularly chase skaters from the park.

Scott Brown said, They came from all over the country to wreck our plaza, which they nearly did, and all those inscriptions on the floor and everything else, thats ruined by roller skating. Others, like GGWash contributor Dan Reed, point out that designing public spaces to welcome skaters can reinvigorate public spaces.

Over the years, Freedom Plaza has at times had more activity than just skateboarders. In October 2011, scores of protesters occupied Freedom Plaza, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, and its a favorite spot for local activists to hold rallies.

2015 Protect Trans Women Day of Action by Ted Eytan licensed under Creative Commons.

There have also been much lighter, less politically charged events, including an outdoor movie screening in June 2017 and a pole vaulting competition that same month.

Events like these have caused others like Birnbaum to see the merits of the emptiness. I think whats great about the space is the fact that its open, and it can be programmed, he said. You have to think about it also in relation to when Pershing Park was created Imagine that you have the option that you want to be in dappled light in a more intimate space in an elevation that is sort of screened from the cars, you go and you have your lunch on the waters edge at Pershing Park. If you want to be in the middle of the city and have that powerful visual connection to the Capitol and feel the bustling traffic around you, then youre in Freedom Plaza.

Pole vaulting on Freedom Plaza by Joe Flood licensed under Creative Commons.

In 2016, eighth-graders at Two Rivers Public Charter School to proposed new uses for the public space. Amanda Kolson Hurley of Washington City Paper reported that students said the space was boring, cold, gray, and it doesnt know what it wants to be. After reimagining the space or designing public art for the plaza, the students presented their designs to panels of experts in architecture and urban planning.

The designs, Hurley wrote, included using lighting to set off the quotes in the fountain, adding a stage to the east for large events, moving the fountain to the middle, adding a small cafe and public bathroom, and installing two rows of large sculptures representing the different cultures of the world. Surprisingly, one of the students also proposed adding large models of the White House and US Capitol in the plaza, with a unique detail that visitors could write on them or drop postcards into them.

As these students did, we must also rethink unsuccessful public spaces. While fallen in stature, Freedom Plaza is still capable of becoming a positive presence in the city. The DC Councils Gibson said in an email, My main gripe is that the fountain hasnt worked in forever. Just having that work would make a bit of a difference, make sitting in the shade-less baking sun a bit more tolerable, etc.

Whether Freedom Plaza can and will regularly bring together street musicians, unsung poets, self-styled orators, artists, pigeons, lovers, fathers (and mothers), and intellectuals, still remains to be seen.

Michelle Goldchain is a Washington, DC-based journalist, photographer, podcaster, YouTuber, and visual artist. Her bylines have been seen in Washington City Paper, DCist, Curbed, Eater DC, Racked, Recode, Vox, and Whurk Magazine. She is the founder of the newsletter and podcast, called Capital Women, which is focused on women in DC. She is also the co-creator of the YouTube show, Artsplained.

Continued here:
How the execution of Pennsylvania Avenue's Freedom Plaza failed - Greater Greater Washington

VANCOUVER -- Pictures of people flocking to parks and beaches during the COVID-19 crisis have caused waves of frustration on social media, but sometimes there's more to seemingly outrageous crowd photos than meets the eye.

That's the point Vancouver landscape architect Jeff Cutler set out to prove late Sunday afternoon when he headed down to Kitsilano Beach with a number of different camera lenses and a drone.

"There can be a lot of people on the beach and it can look quite crowded," said Cutler. "It's not until you get into the air and look down that you can really start to get a true picture of how people are behaving."

Cutler took pictures of the beach using a 35 mm lens, a 70 mm lens and a 200 mm telephoto lens the latter capable of compressing a scene and making faraway objects appear closer than they are and compared the results.

The shorter the lens, Cutler noted, the more spaced out beachgoers looked.

"A 35 mm is closer to the human eye, and that's a much wider angle view. When you look at that, you can start to see spaces between people a little bit more," he explained.

But the starkest contrast came when Cutler captured the beach from the skies using his drone. The image shows people by and large maintaining a safe physical distance.

Of course, not everyone was following the rules diligently. While British Columbians were supposed wait until the Victoria Day weekend to begin increasing their social interactions and meeting a select few friends or extended family members for physically distanced picnics, there were some large groups congregating in Vancouver on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

The park board said rangers handed out nearly 2,000 warnings to people who weren't keeping their distance over the weekend, which led officials to reverse their decision to reopen parking lots.

But provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry said she believes most people were following her recommendations.

"The vast majority of people are doing the right thing and taking this to heart, and I thank them because that's how we're going to get through this," Henry said during her daily virus briefing on Monday.

"I think we can sometimes get caught up with the small minority of people who are maybe having too much fun and are disturbing those of us who are trying to keep a little bit separate."

California decided to close some of its beaches after images surfaced showing huge crowds of people out enjoying the sunshine. Cutler, who designs parks and other public spaces for a living at space2place, said part of the reason he shared his images was to avoid an outcome like that in B.C.

"It's of particular interest to me, and I've just watched during the pandemic how valuable public spaces are," he said. "If they were closed I think that would be really difficult on people."

Original post:
Just how crowded are B.C. beaches? Pictures highlight how perspectives can mislead - CTV News

Future phases could include a hotel and up to 100,000 sq ft of offices

18 May 2020, 16:24Dan Whelan

Scarborough International Properties has submitted an application to Salford City Council for 189 new homes, as the latest phase of the 25-acre Middlewood Locks development.

The Middlewood Locks residential project close to Salford Central station is being delivered by a joint venture between Scarborough, China-based Hualing Group and Metro Holdings, a property development and investment group based in Singapore.

The schemes third phase, designed by Whittam Cox Architects, is to provide 176 one- to three-bedroom apartments in two blocks. The blocks are to reach 10 storeys and 12 storeys respectively and are situated on the northern side of the Manchester Burt and Bolton canal, opposite the 275-home first phase of the scheme.

There would be 13 canalside two- to four-bedroom townhouses.

The scheme will feature more than 2,000 residential units once complete

The project will also feature 5,150 sq ft of ground floor commercial and retail accommodation, and an additional 5,000 sq ft of offices.

Subject to planning approval, work will start in early 2021 with completion expected in the summer 2023, according to Scarborough, whose chairman is Kevin McCabe.

The landscape architect for the scheme is Planit-IE and the lead contractor is expected to be BCEGI, which delivered the first two phases.

The second phase, comprising four buildings of up to 10 storeys in height and a total of 546 apartments, topped out in February and is set to complete in 2021.

Phases one and two were bought by a joint venture between Delancey Oxford Residential, fund manager APG and developer Qatari Diar for 180m in early 2019. The apartments are being rented under the ventures Get Living brand.

Once complete, Middlewood Locks will provide a total of 2,215 new homes and 900,000 sq ft of commercial space, including offices, hotel, shops, restaurants, a convenience store and gym.

Overall, the site has a gross development value of more than 700m, according to the developers.

Paul Kelly, development director of Scarborough, said:This is the next step in creating a reality of our vision forMiddlewoodLocks.

This development is providing much needed homes and will provide quality office space capable of attracting major organisations alongside further retail and leisure space all in an environment that recognises that people come first.

Continued here:
Plans in for third phase of Middlewood Locks - Place North West

The existing car park would be reconfigured to offer more levels

18 May 2020, 10:06

An outline application to increase spaces at a ground floor car park at Kelvin Close to 718, from 474 spaces, by building a multistorey facility has been submitted to Warrington Council.

The project seeks to reconfigure the existing park by constructing a new, five-storey car park.

The applicant for the scheme is North West Portfolio, a special purpose vehicle owned by developer Emerson Group.

The group, which owns two office buildings off Kelvin Close one partially let and one vacant is taking advantage of the current low occupancy to build the car park in preparation for when the buildings become fully let, according to the planning documents prepared by Emerson Group.

The applicant is concerned that, should the buildings become fully occupied, there would be insufficient parking provision.

The first building, partly occupied by Carphone Warehouse, spans 42,500 sq ft while the vacant building two is 50,000 sq ft.

It will be extremely difficult to attract new tenants to these buildings without appropriate additional parking provision, the application documents state.

At full occupancy, these buildings can accommodate a very significant number of employees.

Orbit Developments, part of Emerson Group, is the agent for the offices and Appletons is the landscape architect for the scheme.

Read the rest here:
Car park expansion mooted for Birchwood offices - Place North West

Photo: ASLA

With April dedicated to World Landscape Architecture Month (WLAM), landscape architects across the globe took to the internet to share their stories and photos of their favorite green spaces.

Students of landscape architecture also took this time to show their support for the industry, as well as showcase why they love being part of this field. While interest in this field has grown over the years, its true that many middle, high school and undergraduate students are still unaware that this career option is even available by the time they get to college.

Its such a small profession, and it doesnt get a lot of notoriety, says MichaelRadner,ASLA, principal at Radner Design Associates, Inc. in Framingham, Massachusetts. But I have seen that change over the course of my career, so I think weve done a pretty good job as a profession with getting the message out.

Maria Bellalta, ASLA, dean of the school of landscape architecture for the Boston Architectural College (BAC), chairs the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) education committee and has wondered time and time again how they can better spread the word about landscape architecture.

One of the most notable discoveries Bellalta says ASLA has made is that the best time to introduce landscape architecture to students is while they are in middle school.

I would say for many years we have also been subsumed by the architecture industry or architecture and engineering, says Bellalta. Thats something were trying to grow out of, and were also trying desperately to advocate for landscape architecture to become a STEM discipline.

Most landscape architects say they didnt learn about this field of study until well into their college years or even after graduating, and this is a problem Radner, Bellalta and Andrew Wickham, ASLA, project designer at LPA, Inc. in Sacramento, California, desperately want to fix.

From her time in the academic world, Bellalta notes that many students who are introduced to this field young come from families of landscape architects or landscape architect educators, as opposed to learning about it in school.

Bellalta says ASLA is continually working to visit more schools and career fairs to really expose students to this industry as early and as often as possible. This outreach, ASLA says, is going to be a critical component in growing the field.

Photo: ASLA Instagram

The BAC is a design only institution with approximately 700 students. Bellalta says design thinking is at the core of the college, and training designers on how to understand and actually build is paramount.

Due to COVID-19, the school has transitioned to online learning for the foreseeable future.

My programs are fairly young, but were doing great work and Im very excited about it, says Bellalta. My students are really diversifying the profession because I get students from all walks of life, not just diversity of ethnicity or culture but also of economic diversity. That means that its no longer a white mans profession; its many thinkers putting their heads together and addressing real issues that affect communities worldwide.

Bellalta notes that half of her students are female, which is a notable spike compared to previous years, and 22 percent are international students from Latin America, the Middle East and China.Twenty-five percent of Bellaltas students are undergraduates and 75 percent are graduates.

Since starting at the BAC, Bellalta says she has seen a shift in the age range of the graduate students. For instance, she notes that graduate students used to be older or second career changers. Now, she says more are either coming directly from the undergraduate track or are taking a gap year before pursuing the graduate program.

Graduate students now range in age from mid-20s to mid-30s, as opposed to mid-40s, as it has been in the past. This, Bellalta says, proves that awareness is getting out.

Landscape architecture can be a part of the solution for social justice inequities, environmental justice, economic issues, climate change, resilience, fires and more, says Wickham. Landscape architects are dealing with these on a daily basis and their projects are helping to alleviate or provide solutions for those problems.

Photo: ASLA

When trying to recruit to your career field, its imperative that you fully understand why the path is worth traveling.

When I first started, I knew that it was construction-related industry, and my attitude was always that I was in it for the environment and the people, says Radner. I would rather be working on the inside of a profession in an industry that if were going to build something, lets build the best thing that we can that can help heal the earth.

Radner says hes been in this industry for 30 years and has never been bored a single day. Every day and every hour, he says theres something new, and no two projects are ever the same. He adds that he is constantly learning something new in this field, and he enjoys the teammates he gets to work with.

Its a constant evolution for me as a professional, says Radner. Whether youre working with a team that youve worked with 20 times before or you meet somebody new, a new energy comes from that. I find that very gratifying.

For Wickham, landscape architecture spoke to him because it is all about the end-user. Working with LPA, Wickham says hes gotten to see true sustainability in practice, as the firm works to be as sustainable as possible with all of their projects.

Wickham says a large part of his work is K-12 education design, and he loves seeing the impact outdoor learning spaces have on both the teachers and students.

Its just so rewarding to see how they light up, how excited they get and how passionate they are to learn about that connection they get with nature, says Wickham. Knowing that Im a part of that, that I am making the world a better place is incredibly rewarding as well. For me, I know that Im doing all that I can to make the world a better place every day.

When the landscape architect comes to the table, we bring the green and were able to talk on both the artistic side of it and the engineering side of it, says Radner. I think that gives us more authority. When we come to a meeting with a client, were seen as good guys, and if theres going to be an impact on the community, we can help mitigate those impacts or make a project better.

Photo: ASLA

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The importance of working in landscape architecture - Total Landscape Care

By: Desi Isaacson May 10, 2020

Course routing is the architecture behind your Sunday stroll.

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As you wander through a golf course, its easy to forget about the importance of routing. Routing is the layout of (and connection between) golf holes on a property. Its a lot like a puzzle, and its up to the architect to find the best way to arrange the pieces.

A great golf course tells a story. The round has peaks and valleys, easier and harder holes. The routing is the basis for all of itthe bones of a course. Without good routing, a course is likely doomed. Its hard to make a great course out of a poor routing.

Of course, these decisions depend on the landscape and on the intentions of the owner or architect. If theres an interesting spot on the property, you might see three or four different holes end up using that same landscape, or circling back to it. The best courses have routing strategies that encourage variation. They take attention-grabbing twists and turns.

Golf course architect Bill Coore says a well-routed course should feel like a Sunday stroll. How would you walk around the property if there wasnt a golf course there? You would likely be drawn to dramatic points on the property, odd land shapes or high points with beautiful views. The sense of the property is the first step in finding a routing that feels natural.

The importance of routing becomes much more obvious when walking a course. One important element is the distance from one green to the next holes tee box. In the Golden Age of golf course architecture, it was imperative to avoid long walks between holes. At classic Raynor, Mackenzie, or Ross courses, the next tee is often only steps away from the green youre exiting. Another factor that has made routing more difficult is how far the ball travels. Older courses are now forced to add tee boxes further back than was imagined when they were originally built. A sign of great routing is rarely having to walk back to a tee box. The entire routing process is aided by the use of topographical maps, which show different land formations and allow architects to see the entire property at once.

A vital aspect of course routing is making sure holes dont all play in the same direction. Courses that have several holes playing in the exact same direction simplify the round, making it less of a challenge. One great strategy for this is the triangulation of holes. When three holes form a triangle, it means that the wind will affect each hole differently. Some of the worlds best courses use this method, including William Flynns Shinnecock Hills.

Most golf courses start with a clubhouse or central point that the first hole leaves from and the last hole to returns to. Many courses want smaller loops of holes that return to the beginning in case players dont have time for all 18 holes.

An architect must also consider what type of golf course he is building. For a public course, traffic, walks and holes need to be far enough apart to keep people safe. The holes also need to be designed so there wont be large buildups of groups waiting to play.

For years, golf courses strove to build toward a traditional par-72 design. But now, architects are given the leeway to build what the land gives them, regardless of par or other standards. Some owners or architects dont want their course to have oddities like consecutive par-3s, while others are willing to break these conventions in the name of great and creative golf.

There are also some practical concerns that must be considered in the routing process, like drainage. Technology has made drainage easier to tackle, but the best courses are designed to drain a lot of water naturally.

At the end of the day, good routing is all about variety, in every sense of the word. The course should ask the player to answer many different questions. Can you hit every club in your bag? Can you play with the wind behind you, or with a crosswind? As long as every hole asks new and exciting questions, the routing is a success.

The puzzle pieces dont always come together perfectly. Sometimes an architect has to make sacrifices for the greater good of a course. Walking the land before beginning the routing is another important step in the process because it gives the architect an idea of what landforms he has to work with. If natural topography can be utilized, the course will feel natural and less dirt will have to be moved. This is the great challenge of course routing: matching holes to the land.

It can be frustrating when it feels like you have to walk up steep hills or over tough terrain when getting from one hole to the next. One trick of great routing is to integrate these spots into holes rather than in between them. If you have to climb a big hill to see where your ball landed on the green, it wont feel as intrusive.

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What is course routing and how does it affect your round? - Golf.com

The merry month of May usually brings beautiful spring flowers and warmer weather but the recent cold snap could hurt those azaleas and roses.

Jeff Hershberger is a landscape architect with David J. Frank, one of the largest landscape contractors in the nation, headquartered in Germantown.

Working in Wisconsin, Jeff has seen it all when it comes to the weather.

Mothers Day can be a tough one because it can be 70 degrees on one Mothers Day and then the next it could be 30s, said Hershberger.

Cooler temperatures can bring uncertainty for the life of flowers and plants and according to Hershberger. The roses seem to be one hardest hit so far.

From his decades of experience, Hershberger believes that southeast Wisconsin is behind 2 to 3 weeks from seeing the beautiful blooms this season because of some of the impacts of last year rainfall.

We received a tremendous amount of rainfall, probably about a foot above average last year, said Hershberger. He is expecting to see root rot or fungal damage to plants due to the excessive rain.

Many flowers are just starting to break bud right now but there are ways for you to save or protect them even if you cant bring them inside.

The best thing to do on those is to cut them way back and fertilize them and see what comes back, said Hershberger.

He recommends being patient and not trying to get all those colorful blooms at one time. Hershberger suggests planning on have a progression of color through out the whole season- from late spring to summer and summer to fall.

If we do get a late season freeze or frost in the area, he recommends continuing to make sure plants and flowers get plenty of water to help insulate them from a freeze. One final tip is to cover your perennials with blankets instead of plastic to protect them from the cooler nights ahead.

Even if its a couple of degrees it might make a difference, said Hershberger.

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Protecting flowers, plants from the late season cold snap - WTMJ-TV

The renovation of the Mirror Pond, perhaps better known as the Duck Pond, in Manito Park went on hiatus last month and people noticed.

Spokane Parks Department landscape architect Nick Hamad said he got several emails from residents asking about the project. The shutdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic meant that some needed supplies werent available for the project to keep going.

While our contractors were authorized to continue to work, some of their suppliers were not, he said.

The project to clean up the murky pond started last fall and was originally planned to be finished by now. But work resumed this week and the project is on track to be done by early June, Hamad said.

The old pond had many years of nutrient buildup, some of which came from duck feces and some from leaves that fell in the pond every autumn. Weve been able to reset that, Hamad said.

The first order of business was to drain the pond and dig out accumulated sediment. We actually deepened it a couple of feet to give us more volume, he said.

The Friends of Manito, a group of citizens that raises money from two annual plant sales, contributed $75,000 toward the project, Hamad said. Theyve been fundraising quite a while, he said. Without them, I dont know that we could have done it.

The heavy construction work on the project is finished. What remains is the construction of a treatment wetland that will help keep the pond water clean. Its about half full right now, Hamad said. Its been naturally refilling.

When work on the pond started last year, several turtles and ducks living there were relocated to the Cannon Hill pond. Now that the heavy construction has finished, wildlife has started to return. We have noticed some ducks taking up residence now that the pond is refilling, he said. Its good to see the ducks come back. It will be interesting to see what moves back in.

The Parks Department only wants native wildlife in the pond. When it was drained, goldfish and catfish were found in the water. The goldfish were likely dumped by people who no longer wanted them and Hamad said hes puzzled about the presence of the catfish. I couldnt tell you how they got there, he said.

The pond will have educational signs around the edge that ask people not to dump their unwanted fish in the water, he said.

Though the water will be cleaner, people shouldnt expect crystal clear water in the pond. We are looking to construct a native looking, healthy pond, Hamad said. The treatment wetland will really help us keep the nutrients in check. Our goal is to keep it as natural as possible.

The pond will remain fenced off until the work is finished. Hamad said he knows people are eager to visit it again. We see a tremendous amount of walkers around the pond, he said. Its a really great aesthetic.

Original plans called for a rededication ceremony when the pond was finished, but Hamad said there are no plans for that right now. Its likely that the fencing will simply come down so the people and ducks can come back to enjoy the water.

Were excited to deliver a pond, he said.

Link:
Manito Park Mirror Pond renovation expected to complete in June - The Spokesman-Review