Exploring Concepts of Landscape Architecture: OKLAHOMA

2011-10-09T11:10:00.002-06:00

I've thought about closing this, but I still get a huge amount of traffic. Hope you can find some useful information here.

Jord

My New Location

2009-07-31T23:12:00.003-06:00

My new blog Eastern Slopes Bulletin
Family Business: Rocky Pointe Landscaping
My Portfolio: Jord Wilson Portfolio

ARRIVAL

2009-05-30T21:10:00.002-06:00

Graduation! Finished! Now What?

Packed up and headed West.

Moved to Pateros, Washington. Population 595.

I grew up in Pateros, and I love the laid back lifestyle of the small community.

Okanogan County Stats:
County covers 5,280 miles
Only 30% is privately owned, the rest is state and federally owned.
Population 38,400 people
Largest city in the county, Omak, has 4,495 people

Stay posted for updates.
I plan to change the name and tune of my blog. Advice would be great.

jlw

A Windshield Tour

2008-09-06T16:24:00.007-06:00

We had to make a flying trip (road trip actually) to Oregon a couple of weeks ago. To keep the kids entertained, I let them use the camera. So these pictures are from my 11 and 13 year old.

Summer Break

2008-06-24T09:46:00.003-06:00

You gotta love summer time!

I should be moving closer to the City.

2008-06-12T19:57:00.002-06:00

Oklahoma's Painful Car Culture

CNNMONEY.COM

Another article passed along to me. I was up most of last night on my soap box writing about streams. I could be up for another two nights writing about the woes of our spread out living.

However, I'll keep it simple. I'm part of the problem. I drive 45 miles north to work, and my kids go 5 miles south to school. While living in Washington, I commuted 60 miles one way to college. I didn't want to move to the city, to go to college, so I commuted from home. I hope to get closer to work, but I'm not sure I am ready to give up the quiet country environment I've grown accustom too. I want everyone else to move to the city, so I can more of the country to my self. It doesn't get any more American than that. I do deal with this subconscious twinge of green guilt, but it hasn't pricked me enough to get up and move closer to the city.

Two Stories in the News

2008-06-11T19:42:00.009-06:00

Leaves Keep Their Cool
NPR had a run a story this afternoon called Leaves Keep Their Cool from the Naturenews magazine. (Interesting choice of leaf on the website. It looks like poison Oak.) Have you ever noticed where snow melts first? Around the trunk of a tree and out from its roots. Trees are living breathing things that create some amount of heat through respiration. How can a Landscape Architect capitalize on this? We all ready do. We suggest trees to moderate street temperatures, cool patios, break wind and create micro-climates for sensitive plants.

I usually grab lunch at a close fast-food place (my waste line is starting to show it, so I am working on changing that habit.) and park at a municipal park just up the road to eat my lunch and take a nap. They are repairing the parking lot, so my favorite shady spot has been taken over by gravel and earth piles. I don't expect any tree islands to go into the new parking lot, which is a shame (I've seen the plans--no new trees). There was four shady spots in the parking lot, and I got the last one. The parking lot probably holds over a hundred cars, but only shade for 4 cars. None of us were parked in designated parking spots; we were parked in the shade. The shade of just one tree allowed me to shut off my engine, roll the windows down and eat my lunch comfortably. That tree, for the 45 minutes I was sitting under it, was doing double duty. It was absorbing carbon from the air through respiration, and it allowed me to stop expelling carbon through my muffler. Shaded parking should be mandatory and written into municipal code. There are a hundred other reasons why trees should be planted in addition to my selfish comfort.

Report: Most Oklahoma Bodies of Water are Polluted

I read this article or heard it on the news somewhere, but was reminded by my "waterhugging" friend to reread it. (thanks Kristina for caring about the our world). In 2002, 76% of Oklahoma's water was impaired and only 74 % of its water assessed was good was the report given to congress by the EPA. This problem just didn't happen yesterday. Unless you consider 1898 yesterday. This should be a wake up call for Oklahoma. I'm not surprised at all by this finding. Oklahoma does not adequately protect it water resource. How can this be acceptable? It was just a few weeks ago I had a professional in the utility industry tell me what a waste of time silt fences are. Sometimes I find Oklahoma so backward when it comes to environmental practices. I worked in the building industry when I first came to Oklahoma, just 7 years ago, and had homeowners tell me just pour my paint waste down into the street drain. Is it time for a Water Conservation Service to step in and do for Oklahoma what the Soil Conservation Service did during and after the dustbowl?

Twin Creek and Brock Creek run through Rotary Park. I suspect that Twin Creek was straightened when the railroad was put in the early 1900s, maybe before 1900. The creek runs straight as an arrow along the tracks from Rotary Park until it dumps into the North Canadian River (The Oklahoma River). Rotary Park was accepted by the city from the Rotary Club in 1924. Brock Creek runs through the center of Brock Park and is "armored" (lined with concrete). Brock Park was added to the city park system very early in the 1900s. The pictures below are of Twin Creek running through Rotary Park, and Brock Park connecting with Twin Creek. These two streams have been under the stewardship of Oklahoma City since at least 1924 (For 84 years). I would say they are typical of creeks throughout Oklahoma City and other central Oklahoma cities. I don't find the stewardship of this stream something to be proud of.

Twin Creek has been straightened, which rapidly erodes the banks. Used concrete and asphalt containing years of vehicle pollutants are used to stabilize the banks. Their is no variation of depth, because of lack of sinuosity, which allows for pool and riffle formation. Sinuosity, pools and riffles reduce water energy, sediment transport and slows erosion. Variation of stream characteristics provide vital habitat for stream creatures.
A winter picture of Brock Creek on the left connecting with Twin Creek flowing under the road. The water from Brock Creek is "armored" and "hungry" when it gets to Twin Creek. There is no sediment in it, no texture or roughness to the ground, no sinuosity, no pools and riffles. So it has maximum energy on arrival and will require constant earth work to maintain its current configuration. Think what happens when you lay a open hose on the ground. It will immediately dig a hole in the ground, then as the stream of water gets further from the hose it loses energy and starts meandering. Any vegetation will greatly reduce erosion, stabilize the ground, and the roots provide openings for the water to be absorbed quickly into the ground.

Lack of tree cover to shade the water; fertilizers washing into the stream; and lack of plant life absorbing nutrients causes this early spring algae growth. Trees and plants protect the water with shade, moderating the temperature. Vegetation also absorbs water and nutrients, stabilize banks and provide habitat for land and aquatic creatures. This creek has been tranquilized for 84 years and is dying or dead. Our hydrological system is the central nerve system of the ecology. We may think we are tranquilizing the stream, but really we are warehousing poisons and pollutions that the environment normally neutralize.

I went to visit the stream with my kids. Streams are for kids. It is one of the most important places we can teach them about how nature works. There are more cycles and processes occurring at the waters edge than anywhere else. I'm not sure that is a true statement, but I believe it to be true. Kids should be turning over rocks, skipping stones, and finding frogs, salamanders and turtles. It was kind of cool when we stepped over the bank of Twin Creek and looked down. There was a Heron (not a type I had seen before) and a pair of ducks I was unfamiliar with. I didn't have my long lense on my camera, so I was unable to get a readable picture of them. There must be some life still left in the stream. It was kind of sad watching them though. It was like watching songbirds bathing in that last little pool of water in the parking lot days after the last rain. It is that little intermittent pool with the oily sheen which collects and stores oils and pollutants off of vehicles.

What is really sad is that this photo is not unusual for streams in the metro area. River and stream banks have been traditionally places to dump. They were lands that were inhabitable, so were suited for fill. What better fill than trash. According to the EPA, Oklahoma has lost 67% of its wetlands since circa 1780. Notice where OKC's landfills are. Norman dumped into the river for years south of campus.

More people should care more about our hydrologic system in the metro. This little blurb in the news about polluted water is just the visible tip of the iceberg. The metro faces a complex problem that cosmetic solutions will not fix. It will take a serious commitment, which I have not seen in the metro. The new wetland downtown is just eye-candy and soul-balm and a cosmetic fix for a terminal problem.

J.B. Jackson

2008-06-08T11:09:00.002-06:00

I picked up Landscape in Site Looking at America Edited by Helen L. Horowitz for my plane ride home from Washington. It is a collection of essays by J.B. Jackson. I'm not sure that I buy all of his notions wholesale, but what great stimulus for the mind. Because J.B. Jackson has a special connection with the Southwest, many of his observations relate to Oklahoma.

I am putting Figure in a Landscape: A Conversation with J.B. Jackson (DVD) on my wish list. Books read much better when you can hear the voice of the writer. You pick up subtle inflections that might normally be missed.

My visit to Virginia

2008-06-07T20:06:00.003-06:00

One of the highlights of my trips was visiting the University of Virginia campus. I had hoped to visit Monticello also, but lost luggage, including my camera, (Thanks United and American Airways) and lack of time, didn't allow it.

Who is interested in Thomas Jefferson's University of Virginia? I found it remarkable that the campus is still used in such a manner. Instead of a museum, it is a University at work--inspiring the next generations. I'm a firm believer in sending our children to buildings that inspire and lift the mind and spirit to a place that allows for dreams to be nurtured. Unlike the steel buildings and dryvit facades that warehouse our young minds of tomorrow. I digress as usual to another of my soap boxes.

The personal gardens that are found behind the Academic Village were delightful, and made the whole trip. The famous serpentine walls that enclosed the gardens were more beautiful than anticipated. The plant pallet was ornamentals, English and agriculture. The theme was exploring the new world.

The early Federalist period did put Oklahoma on the map with the Louisiana Purchase, previously under French rule since the 1700s. The Federalist footprint in Oklahoma can be seen in its grid-iron property lines and road system. On my trip to Virginia I was astounded at the incoherent puzzle of property lines. I find gridded aerials easy to understand and read, aerials east of the Ohio must take on a whole new language.

I have read the history on how roads were laid out according to the easiest possible path from point A to point B, but I was very surprised when I visited my first non-gridded, city-Charlottesville. After living in the Oklahoma City Metro area for 7+ years now, I have lost all sense of north and south if I don't have a grid. Previously, I had used the North Cascades, I-5, the Ocean as my north south bearing line. In Oklahoma I use Interstate 35 as my north south bearing line. I have never had a great sense of direction, but I was almost completely unable to get my bearings in the spiderweb of Charlottesville's road system.

I just got a taste of the east, and I hope to take the kids back and explore more.

Designing the Parks Conference--John Dixon Hunt

2008-06-07T19:25:00.003-06:00

I attended the Designing the Parks Conference in Charlottesville Virginia, May 2008. I wanted to expand my understanding of the park system and found myself immersed in the Centennial Challenge of 2016. It will be a hundred years for the National Park Service (NPS). This conference was a look at the history of the parks and to the past, and conference II will be in December in San Francisco to look to the future. I intend on attending that conference as well.

My grad project includes an old park designed by George Kessler, Rotary Park in Oklahoma City. Although Rotary Park is nowhere in scale to Yosemite or importance as the First Federal Park, I am reflecting on my grad project and my interest in the unique “Place” of Oklahoma.

I took notes of the conference, and I'm going to truncate them into incoherent little pieces of thought in an effort to stimulate thought and exploration.

My notes from John Dixon Hunt's presentation: "Translation of Landscape Attitudes

John Dixon Hunt-Professor of History and Theory of Landscape, University of Pennsylvania

John Dixon Hunt was the most fascinating of speakers. Being naturally drawn to such theory based lectures; I was a little bit star struck by his discussion and prose of the picturesque. I have learned in numerous classes, even back to architecture, about the picturesque. The Oxford Architectural Dictionary defines the picturesque “It was a standard of taste, largely concerned with landscape, and with emotional responses to associations evocative of passions or events…Picturesque scenes were full of variety, interesting detail, and elements drawn from any sources, so were neither serene(like the Beautiful) nor awe-inspiring (like the Sublime).

Early American parks were set up perfectly for the picturesque and somewhat unrefined (un-Beautiful) characteristics. I wonder if part of this is because they were so different that they immediately became associated with America. When I see a pastoral field, an ancient oak and a row of field stone I think of an English farm. When I see a Giant Sequoia, Old Faithful or the famous Yosemite park I think of the U.S. It would be hard to associate these images with Brittan. But I can see numerous replicas of the pastoral field and stone wall and immediately associate it with England and her people and what she represents.

I think the picturesque, the sublime, and the Beautiful ideas may be part of the reason Oklahoma has an identity crisis. ( and I do feel that Oklahoma, especially the Oklahoma City Metro, has an identity crisis associated with lack of "place". ) How do you classify the the Oklahoma landscape? It can be sublime in a strange way with its endless horizon and dramatic sky’s that can bring as much terror as any sea storm. However, I would argue, it is not the sublime or picturesque of Yosemite or Grand Canyon. Pictures of the late 1800s show a much more severe and un-English like landscape. The Oklahoma landscape could also be transformed into a pastoral scene within a few seasons of farming. My ancestor’s farm in Lexington has a gentle rolling topography. It was prairie that no doubt was tilled and transformed as required to obtain the deed from the land run. In rapid succession the pre-landrun prairie was turned into agriculture. My ancestor's farm is now as pastoral as any scene of ‘Capability’ Brown. In true romantic notions it was named Willow View, probably after the willows that colonize the meandering stream.

Oklahoma was not a southwestern landscape with stone and desert plants. It does have unique red sandstone stone, which could be associated with the southwest or mud. The stone is soft and loses its crispness quickly as if melted by the never ending wind that blasts upon it. It looks aged and weathered, but never in a wise or sophisticated way.

I would not have noticed, until going to Virginia, how unique the native Oklahoman oaks are. They are rugged and sturdy. Their branches are stout from battling the wind and anticipating the ice. Their stature is slight in comparison of the mighty oaks of the east. The Post Oak and Blackjack hunker down to the ground in large thickets and brambles. The eastern oak is tall and majestic, stretching its refined branches out to soak up the soft gentle falling rain. The Burr oak of Oklahoma is anything but refined. Its arms flexed; its bark rugged; its stature eminent in preparation for the pounding rain and related weather it will endure.

I jump to Rotary Park with many thoughts. George Kessler would have been well aware of the picturesque and beautiful ideals A.J. Downing described in “Landscape Gardening and Rural Architecture” 1841. The World’s Fair had been designed in elms and natives and picturesque textures. George Kessler was familiar with the Oklahoma landscape, the landscape of Chicago, Kansas City and Dallas. The prairie aesthetics were his specialty. Rotary Park was designed with some of these picturesque principles, even though a more active play park was becoming the next movement. It still would have been seen as a park for improving health and maintaining good morality, embracing many of the Olmsted principals of park design. At this point I haven't had the opportunity to dig through the actual design of Rotary Park. It is shelved until I finish a little more preparatory reading.

A little post conference research:

Kessler, George Edward (1862-1923)

“Pioneers of American Landscape Design”

· Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. recommended Kessler to the Kansas City, Fort Scott, & Gulf Railroad to take charge of the firm’s pleasure park in Merriam, Kansas.

· Designed Kansas City’s first park and boulevard plan for the city—Considered one of his finest works—A vision of the City Beautiful and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

· Fairlawn Cemetery, OKC 1892

· Riverside and Overton Park and park system plan for Memphis, TN 1900

· Louisiana Purchase Expo in 1904

· Boulevard plan for Indianapolis 1905

· Park System for Syracuse, NY 1906

· Cincinnati park system 1906

· Fort Worth park and boulevard system 1907

· Denver Parks 1907

· 1910 starts work for Dallas

· 1911 publishes his proposal, which is showing signs of the “City Practical” movement as well as the City Beautiful

My Definition of Landscape Architecture

2008-04-14T13:08:00.002-06:00

Second year reviews arrived, and the age old question of how do you define Landscape Architecture was asked. Here is my response:

First of all I need to define architecture with a little "a".

Architecture is the purposeful manipulation of space. It is the organization of information, function and systems with regard to aesthetic qualities and social affects.

If Architecture would have been named Building Architecture there would be no confusion about Landscape Architecture. The difference between the two is information, functions and type of systems. The principles are similar.

Just a few weeks left till schools out. I'm counting the days.

jlw

Spring Break

2008-03-20T08:28:00.002-06:00

We have passed hump-day of spring break. Notice my days left at school. I only get busier. For the very acute, I'm adding GIS links this week. Maybe summer break, I'll have a chance to clear my head and do some writing.

jlw

New Year Resolve

2008-01-01T15:25:00.000-06:00

New Year Resolve

2000 was a tumultuous year for me. It was the year I threw everything back into the pot and stirred. I felt life had dealt me a cruel hand, and I was most unhappy. By the end of the year I had hit such a low point that my mind will no longer allow me to revisit. I wrote down several New Year’s resolutions that year, and I have successfully moved forward on many of them.

At 38, I no longer see my life in fragments. All of the experiences of my life are woven together and are interrelated. Everything I have done has made me who I am. One of those commitments in 2000 was to move forward with “me”. (As the preacher back home frequently said, “The hen is dedicated to laying eggs; the pig is committed to ham.”) I have truly kept this commitment close. I have seen moving forward as a steady climb. The goal has been clearly ahead with much rough terrain in between.

It is the first morning of 2008, and I see my resolutions of 2000 maturing. I feel self-confident. I am happy. I continue to move forward in a positive direction. 2008 presents a new challenge. It is time to set new long-term goals. It is time to refocus.

Health: School has been brutal to my routine, and work is only going to make physical activity more challenging. It is time to get back on track. I resolve to develop the habit of movement.

Plan of attack:

Lunch time walks with the camera.

Weekend hiking and exploration of Oklahoma.

Bicycling to get a more intimate view of my rural town, Slaughterville

Gardening as a form of meditation and better eating practices

Family: The keystone of my success has been the support of my family. I resolve to return the support they have given me.

Plan of attack:

Participate more in the educational growth of my children.

Be a Dad. Holler louder at their games.

Get that Civil War tour of the South planned and taken.

More family outings, even if the gameboys are allowed.

Education: I resolve to graduate with a Master’s in Landscape Architecture from the University of Oklahoma.

Plan of attack:

Hang in there, and make it happen.

Career: A career in Landscape Architecture was the top priority of my resolutions in 2000. I felt if I worked diligently and selfishly towards that everything else would fall in place. Now, as new employee of an environmental and engineering firm, with a Landscape Architect as my boss the world looks a little bit different. It is still a surreal moment. The next mountain is to work towards certification. I resolve to work hard towards the preparation and passing of the LARE.

Plan of attack:

Work hard and become an invaluable employee

Recognize my niche and become the master of it

Continue to read and explore the world of LA

Add to my network of professional relationships

Set goals and timelines to wade through the examination process

Personal Goals: Woven into my 2000 New Year’s resolutions were many personal goals—goals that I have met and goals that are still in my sights. I have numerous personal goals looking out into and past 2008 (There are several that are too personal to write here.)

Become more involved my community

Attend town meetings and festivals at Slaughterville

Volunteer and be active in the kids’ school and extracurricular activities.

Write to educate and celebrate Oklahoma and Landscape Architecture on my blog.

Develop the social skills beyond email to match my profession

Go to the Christmas party and talk to people

Continue to work on my professional wardrobe and presentation.

Buy or build a house.

Continue to line the stars up to make this happen.

Pursue hobbies

Add to my genealogy knowledge of my Oklahoma heritage

Take more photos

Maintain my heritage farm stock

Garden more/meditate more

Be an activist

Touch all of my projects with environmental sensitivity

Design for the underprivileged in all of my projects

Educate and promote education

Define Landscape Architect and Landscape Architecture and commit to memory

Fight social discrimination

Promote Oklahoma

Give my education back to the community

Lose some weight

You knew it had to be in this list somewhere didn’t you?

I consider this as a rough draft. It will take me several weeks to get a more polished draft. Of course I retain the right to add amendments as long as they are in keeping with the spirit of the resolutions above.

Best wishes to all in the new year. I hope you have time to reflect on your footprints and the paths before you. All paths have a direction make sure that the path you choose deliberately and with knowledge of where it leads.

The Un-Central Park

2007-12-28T17:42:00.000-06:00

West 8 wins Governors Island

What a great project, and what a great rendering. It looks almost like airbrushed fondant frosting. I am looking forward to more details of the design.

I must say, I go to West 8 to see what top notch graphics are looking like.

jlw

Designing the Parks Conference

2007-12-24T20:03:00.000-06:00

This looks like a conference I would like to make.
Check it out: Designing the Parks

I'm especially interested in the future of park design. How is technology and the mass media changing how we use parks? How should we as designers be responding to the next generation of park users? More high tech? Or much less high tech, and more nature?

Merry Christmas

2007-12-22T16:26:00.000-06:00

A cold blustery day hit us this morning with a couple of inches of snow. We had a Roadrunner move in this fall under the cedar trees just out the back door. He/she is the most interesting creature. He is curious and not real afraid of us. He doesn't mind the cats. I see him most every day I'm home, skirting about from cedar to cedar.

I had to check out some facts on this bird. He looks like one I don't mind hanging out at my back door. As long as he doesn't eat my baby chickens.

Curious Facts

Roadrunners are quick enough to catch and eat rattlesnakes.

Roadrunners prefer walking or running and attain speeds up to 17 mph. hour

The Roadrunner is also called the Chaparral Cock.

The Roadrunner reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion.

The Roadrunner’s nasal gland eliminates excess salt, instead of using the urinary tract like most birds.

The Roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico.

Ice Storm 2007

2007-12-19T22:42:00.001-06:00

I'm trying to think of a good reason to plant pear trees in a region with high winds and ice storms?

The Undaunted Garden

2007-12-13T08:45:00.000-06:00

Ice Storm 2007

If you have watched the news or live in Oklahoma, then you know that we had one of the most devastating ice storms in our history. Power is still off at day 4 for over 200,000 people in Central Oklahoma. Ice storms are frequent to Central Oklahoma and property damage is inevitable. I have driven through north Oklahoma City and Norman and its neighborhoods. There are some lessons to be learned from the storm.

Lauren Springer wrote a book called The Undaunted Garden Planting for Weather-Resilient Beauty. In it she discusses how plants have evolved and adapted to inclement weather common to its place of nativity. Plants have special adaptations that we should take special notice of. When we take plants out of their native systems and use them as ornamentals we are taking them out of context. If we look back at the environment in which they evolved get a much better understanding of what they can do and what their limitations are.

An example is beach plants must be resilient to wind in order to survive. Palm trees can survive hurricanes because of their lack of branches. Banana leaves can shred and still be viable because of their specially adapted vascular systems. Evergreen trees have adapted to snow loads and short summer seasons. We know that succulents can take drought and Cypress trees with their specially adapted breathing knees can grow in a swamp.

Lauren Springer's book talks about the importance of plant origins. She gives the example of the English garden and how the flowers are large and the stalks are soft because of the moderate and tempered climate. There is a reason gardeners do not grow delphiniums in Oklahoma. More importantly she talks about native plants to North America and their special adaptations. The Midwest has special weather--high winds, ice storms, temperature fluctuations, severe hail, humidity and drought. So it would seem that plants native to this climate have special adaptations suited to its unique weather.

This was very evident in our recent ice storm. Yes, Pecans and oaks fell. Most notable damage to native species was on declining trees. Young native trees that had grown to fast due to added fertilizer and care also show severe damage, especially their crowns. A great comparison is the Mexican Sycamore and the native Sycamore. The Mexican Sycamores are completely limbless and crushed. The native sycamore weathered very well loosing only a few limbs. The Lacebark Elm, a non-native were annihilated. Other elms took damage too, especially older elms, but many of the natives faired well and will recover reasonably well. Pear trees--there should be a deposit required for every pear tree that is planted. A deposit that plants good sturdy trees that survive. Many of the Redbuds didn't even sag, and the native Caddo maple faired well.

So when planting in Oklahoma do your homework. Don't plant every new ornamental that comes down the line. Look for ornamentals with roots in the Midwest or be prepared to be devastated the next ice storm or hail storm. Natives aren't immune, but they are resilient.

Still kicking

2007-12-05T21:13:00.000-06:00

End of semester...

New Job....

The flu...

Computer crash...and re-crash...

I'm struggling to meet all of my obligations at the present, and my blog is not at the very top of the list. Actually, I'm postponing one of my most dreaded school projects as I write. I can't say to much about it, except that it is painfully boring. I tend to glaze over when I'm not stimulated.

I did run across a great site today. I read the Larch Serve, I have for many years. I'm a lurker only. However, it seems at work I've been needing good solid info, and the Brick Industry site was listed on the Larch Serve. There is great technical notes: Brick in Landscape, Misc apps, Paver Systems, and Garden Walls.

This is a great resource, especially for us new guys on the job or in school.

Bruce Hoagland

2007-11-05T19:43:00.000-06:00

We did have a great BrownBag meeting with Bruce Hoagland this last Friday. He did an overview of vegetation in Oklahoma and some of the influences like climate and geology. It was a great presentation, and I did not realize how much influence geology had on vegetation.

What I did take away from the meeting was a desire to visit the incredible diversity of Oklahoma. I am just amazed at how different the state is from north to south and from east to west. The state is the transition zone of the great West and the Eastern forest, the Southern gulf and the northern plains.

Oklahoma as a state does not celebrate this enough. It has not capitalized on all of the diversity that it has to offer. My goal is to take the kids and travel more within the state. There is too much to see right here in Oklahoma.

Silence on the homefront

2007-11-05T19:35:00.001-06:00

Lets face it, I've not been in the mood to blog. Blogging does require a certain state of mind. I don't want to get myself in trouble here, but school has been very un-inspirational this semester. Those kinds of semesters tend to drag me down. It is not the work load it is the lack of creative force I thrive on.

Working on paperwork for an internship! YES!
Desktop hardrive crashed. NO!
Laptop in the process of crashing. NO!
Every class is going to wait until the last three weeks to assign their monumental assignment. HOW THOUGHTFUL!
I'm going to be ready for Christmas Break this year!

Posts to come.

Jane Amidon Visits

2007-10-21T20:26:00.000-06:00

Friday was a roller coaster of a day. We had the great privilege to have Jane Amidon visit for the day. She gave a lecture on the modern typology of the park open to the College of Architecture. Better yet, the LA department got to spend an hour with her in informal discussion. We peppered her with all sorts of theoretical and practical questions related to landscape architecture and architecture. Later that afternoon she sat in as a juror for the third studio/Parks. It was a long day. It is amazing how exhausting a day of thinking and mental processing can be.

Some thoughts for the day (a little off topic but greatly stimulated by the day) :

I have really been mentally debating my graduate project. I have two (and I’m very open to suggestions).

One is a mixed use project. 80 acres, residential, commercial, city park runs through it, creek runs through it, water front and marina. It is an abandon airport that needs a “new urbanism” master design.

Second is designing green belts and environmental corridors for Oklahoma City, overlaying the city using Michael Hough’s work as a precedent study.

Jane Amidon’s discussion and presentation was very inspiring. There is something that is very thrilling about having intelligent conversation and debate with someone that you esteem highly. (Thank you Jane!)

Jane P. Amidon

Education

1995 Harvard University, Master of Landscape Architecture

1988 Williams College, Bachelor of Art in History/focus in environmental and land use studies

Publications

· 2006

Source Books in Landscape Architecture 3: Peter Walker and Partners'Nasher Sculpture Center Garden ,
Amidon, Jane (Ed.). (2006). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

2005

Source Books in Landscape Architecture 2: Ken Smith Landscape Architect/Three Urban Projects ,
Amidon, Jane (Ed.). (2005). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Source Books in Landscape Architecture 1: Michael Van Valkenburgh?s Allegheny Riverfront Park ,
Amidon, Jane (Ed.). (2005). New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Moving Horizon: The Landscape Architecture of Kathryn Gustafson and Partners ,
Amidon, Jane. (2005). Basel: Birkhauser Press (English, German and French hardcover editions; Chinese paperback edition 2006)

2002

Ten Landscapes: Stephen Stimson Associates ,
Amidon, Jane. (2002). in J. Trulove (Ed.), Massachusetts: Rockport Press.

2001

Radical Landscapes: Reinventing Outdoor Space ,
Amidon, Jane. (2001). London and New York: Thames and Hudson (2001 hardcover edition); London and New York: Thames and Hudson; Frankfort: DVA; Madrid: Blume, (2003 foreign language hardcover and paperback edition).

1999

Dan Kiley: America?s Master Landscape Architect ,
Kiley, Dan & Amidon, Jane (1999). Boston: Bulfinch/Little, Brown; London: Thames and Hudson.

Teaching

2003-present Assistant Professor and Graduate Faculty Member

Knowlton School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture Section

The Ohio State University

Courses: design studios; contemporary history and theory in landscape architecture; graduate seminars; plants in design.

"Oklahoma Rising"

2007-10-14T20:21:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Oklahoma!

What a great day!

Antoine Predock and Place

2007-10-11T09:07:00.000-06:00

The morning after Antoine Predock’s presentation at the Goff Lecture series .

I don’t have my notes in front of me, which is why I am writing. I really want to express where Mr. Predock’s lecture has inspired me. If you want more about him, then you can read his book.

A. Predock is a charismatic and inspirational person. It is easy to find little pieces of myself in him. His passion and dedication to architecture is evident in his work. I found that his comments on sustainability could easily be misconstrued to give a young person license to dismiss environmentally sound practice. However, I believe he places the environment high, just not at the expense of poetic license and the expression of art. He sees Architects as artist. Everything else we do, business, sustainability, client meetings are supporting roles. I agree. It is easy to forget that, but it is a very important point he made.

This leads me to reflect on several other essay’s I’ve been reading, Frampton’s “Critical Regionalism” and Essays out of the first half of “Recovering Landscape” By James Corner. Mr. Predock helped me formulate some of my thoughts I’ve been having.

Predock really talked about intense and thorough research. It is this huge upfront and in-depth plunge that will give you the power of intuition. He referred to a story about Bruce Goff. He stopped in unannounced as a young man to Bruce Goff’s studio/office, and he asked Mr. Goff the Meaning of one of his famous houses, maybe the Bavinger House. Mr. Goff took a deck of cards and fanned them out and referred to “the gesture”. I took it to mean human gesture and intuition. I am analyzing, dissecting and regurgitating what I heard. But I really took the premise of the lecture to be this plunge and immersion into research. Studying culture, land, geology, strata and extending that land based research right into the spiritual or the sky. “Going from the earth to the sky” he said.

It is this immersion into research, collage, digital representation, drawing and exploration that gives the designer the ability to use gesture and intuition and to have confidence in it. This I believe. Design is then based at a subliminal and an overt level towards the place through intuition. However, we have to develop the support system that informs intuition.

I have been having trouble reconciling place. A part of me wants to hold onto the historical and cultural significance of place. This is where some of my reading this week has helped. Mr. Predock identified with culture and historical significance. However, he really talked about the peculiarities of light, earth, sky, water of a specific place. Specifically he let local materials, light intensity, vegetation, water patterns inform him. He talked about their interaction with our senses. He also talked about how that culture was related to these peculiarities of place. Many times not overtly, but subliminally. He provided numerous examples of how his research guided him to intuitively design. His designs would be informed by his research and his clients would identify with the design in unusual and unexpected ways.

Mr. Predock said that he would sacrifice sustainability for poetic expression, not a direct quote, and I do agree with him. I think that I fall into the trap of the environmental issues dictating the design. They should inform and guide. The understanding of the environment should give me a designer to trust my intuition. However, a design without art and poetic presence is a design without spirit. I will not add to our cultural schema. One of the articles I was reading was about the preservation of farms in Holland. If the farms are preserved, but they are not farmed the same way, the people are no longer using them as life sustaining and they are no longer interacting with the site, then they have become a museum piece.

We must allow change. We must encourage each generation to write on the palimpsest. If not. Preservation becomes a hole in our cultural record. By adding the layer of each generation we enrich culture. I think that I may be skewed in thinking this, because I live in the U.S. and I live in Oklahoma. I live in a place where our history is very short. Where we typically see the land as tabula rasa. Where the Indian foot print, and the early settler’s footprint is very slight. I do want to preserve, but I don’t want to live in a museum. I see the museum option as lifeless.

Mr. Predock talked about his landscape of the art museum in Taiwan. I don’t remember the name, but his landscapes referred to specific regions. They were not a showcase with plaques of names. They were a way to incorporate the identity of other people’s environment into the space. It was about the relationship that the museum was having with the people and the people in return would have with the museum.

As usual these thoughts are off the cuff, they provide a record of thoughts and a jumping off place to accrue more understanding.

Global Climate Change

2007-10-08T20:04:00.000-06:00

I don't like to preach about global climate change. However, those that dismiss it out of hand are irresponsible. I cannot believe that any reasonable and rational person believes that our population boom, altered environment and fossil fuel based energy use since the 1800s has had no global affect. Can you say flat out that millions of cars and trucks and buses and airplanes and trains and cargo and cruise ships, industries and businesses has had no global effects? Can you really look at your constituency, your children, your students and say none?

So if there has been a change, can we predict what the consequences of that change are? I don't think so. But I think it is safe to predict there will be a change.

I personally don't think I'm going to live long enough to see such a drastic change. I'm not completely convinced in the global "warming" predictions. I don't think we have all the answers and I'm not sure we can rule out a self correcting ice age, similar to the "little ice age" of the which could be equally devastating to the world if more severe. I'm not sure we can predict the outcome of our changing climate.

However, are my children and grandchildren going to look back on my generation as being so selfish that we would not sacrifice a little profit and economy that we would leave them a greatly altered world , without regard to their, extreme expense in mitigation, adaption and suffering?

It is such a politically charged issue. Oklahoma's political climate doesn't really acknowledge the problem, especially our infamous senator Inhofe. I was listening to the radio tonight when I heard a program from "Its your World" with John Holdren as speaker. It seems that the evidence continues to pile up pointing towards global climate change. I think it is hard to predict all of the little specifics of the coming changes and hard to quantify all of the current changes. However, this has really been the first presentation that I have listened to that I has got all of the arrows pointed towards global climate change. There seems to me to be a clear trend and it is irresponsible for us as citizens and our leaders of our generation to pooh-pooh it.

So to the believers I say: "Stick to the facts, be rational and not inflammatory." To the non-believers I say: "Stick to the facts, be rational and not inflammatory."

Lets have a serious discussion about this, and lets start today making changes in our lives that will create a better quality of life for us and generations to come.

1939 Warner Oklahoma

2007-10-06T22:06:00.000-06:00

America from the Great Depression to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI, 1935-1945

American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936

2007-10-06T21:37:00.000-06:00

American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936

Item Title

[An] ungrazed and overgrazed Andropogon furcatus prairie [in] July [with] Ptilimnium nuttallii, Muskogee County, Oklahoma

1904 Arbor Day Proclamation

2007-10-06T19:33:00.000-06:00

I love this Oklahoma document I found at the Library of Congress. It is hard for me to imagine in 1900 being so concerned about the loss of the forests. Of course, Oklahoma was very late on the scene, the Eastern forest had been devastated 100s of years previously. The Ouchita's in Oklahoma and Arkansas were hit hard in the mid to late 1800s. The Forest service has a great history on that.

Most interestingly in the document is the Indian's role in the Oklahoma Prairies. This really underscores my new understanding of the Oklahoma Prairie system. It was not a system due to natural processes, but a system dominated by a thriving Indian Culture.

Desoto travels through the Ouchita's in 1542 and finds large fields of maize (corn) and flourishing Indian communities.
The French arrive in the 1670s.
No Indian populations left? Disease?
The practice of burning forest and prairie to encourage large grazers to come and eat the new green spring growth was practiced by the Indians. Sometimes the prairie and forest would burn over 100 miles.
So, my question: If the there was flourishing Indian communities that were devastated and culturally crippled. Did the large grazers increase in numbers due to lack of hunting?
It seems to me that the herds of Buffalo that Lewis and Clark experienced in 1802 or 1804 had to be a result of Indian cultivation.

The Ouchita's today. They are managed (meticulously) by the Forest Service. They are logged, views are maintained, cleared and staged.

My point: The prairies are a man made landscape.

Yes there always were large grasslands, but probably not like the pictures of Oklahoma City and Norman in 1900. It took fire to kill all of those trees. So now we find ourselves in a landscape in central Oklahoma dominated by trees. Oklahoma does not have the deep agricultural roots of Europe. It is a young state and has been more dominated by cattle and failed farms. The layers of land use in Oklahoma are very few.

The Indian cultures manipulated the landscape and when the great prairies are mentioned, it is their landscape that is referred to.

The Sooners and Boomers had a much different vision. One of a more Jeffersonian attitude. They bound it with the grid iron of the survey. They divided it up in a "Democratic" method. (Depending on what side of the ethnic fence you were on.) It was then spoiled and plundered in the exploitative manner that founded the country. Trees were cut; sod was tilled; cattle introduced. The resources of land were used to sustain and garner. The excess of resource were considered as equity and treated as such.

As has happened repeatedly through our history disaster struck. Time and chance, drought and depression. Oklahoma literally blows away. With it the Sooners and Boomers are evicted by the very thing they came for--the land.

Conservation--the years of planting and damming.

Now we find ourselves in an era where the Oklahoma land is not appreciated. It is not understood. We don't have a general maintenance policy. The prairies of the Indian cultures has dissappeared, with only small remenants remaining. The farmer still struggles with most of the land too unproductive to sustain single families. We are not at risk of our soil blowing away.

Where is the landscape of Oklahoma going? I don't want to return to the treeless prairie of 1900, but what about open space? Are farms important? Should we struggle (because it will be a struggle) to honor them, maintain them and celebrate them. What about our forest? What about our forests that make up our rural areas. There are remnants of virgin forest scattered all up the east side of the Sante Fe Rail line that runs up through Purcell, Norman, Oklahoma City and Edmond. Are they worth saving? Should we place a higher value on them? Should we consider them as part of our past culture? Do they reflect times past? What about our forest that took over the fields of the Grapes of Wrath period? The elm and hackberry and mulberry?

So if landscape is a palimpsest. What does the graphical representation of OKC look like on actual paper? How would I do that? Instead of going backwards, what is the next layer going to look like on the land? What needs erased and what needs saved?

jlw

Bored Web Surfing

2007-10-05T21:07:00.000-06:00

It is a desert out there in web world when it comes to Landscape Architecture. Rarely do I come across these little nuggets of very interesting information. Frequently, I meet my bedtime with little to show for my surfing. Google-ing (what a strange word) "Carl Steinitz" off of another lead I came across "Framework for Landscape Planning". So if your bored, stumbled across my site, and you are looking for another lead before bedtime. Check it out.

You never know, you might learn something.

Old Maps

2007-10-04T20:55:00.000-06:00

I love old maps. I learned that I had access to the Sanborn maps today through the University library. Very interesting and I hope to spend a little time going through them. I need to get up to the Oklahoma Historical Society again and dig through their stuff. I have been up there several times and it is always great fun. I especially like digging through their vast collection of newspapers. As a fan (maybe junkie) of maps I wanted to pass along Hipkiss' link I run across on my blogline. I haven't dug through the link page yet, but I'm headed there.

Next Generation Design Competition

2007-10-03T19:14:00.000-06:00

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Next Generation Design Competition

I am hoping that my colleagues in Landscape Architecture are putting their name in that hat in this competition. This is our field! We need to be coming up with the new and provocative answers to our global water crisis.

jlw

Urban Design Theory

2007-09-27T20:50:00.000-06:00

Thursday is theory day. I have a research methods class that meets once a week after lunch for about 3 hours and then an Urban Theory Class that meets once a week around dinner time. It is a mentally exhausting day.

Right now we are discussing Modern Architecture and Post Modern Architecture and how it has shaped our current urban fabric. I am really surprised at the amount of people that seem to support Modern Architecture. I guess in my personal quest for "place" I have realized the absolute destruction that Modern Architecture has done to "place". International Style or Modern Architecture has washed white cultural imprint, regional identity and most anything human. It is not even to human scale.

I was watching a piece on Post Modern Architecture by Prince Charles. I was struck by his mention of the church as the living, beating heart of a medieval city in Italy still to this day. It seems the current trend here in Oklahoma is to use steel constructed churches with metal cladding. The closest we get to the beating heart of a city is at its edges with strip malls and big box stores that morph into churches when their retail life is over.

It is hard for me not to be passionate about this subject. I really believe that Modern Architecture and the whole stylistic philosophy that followed help destroy our downtowns and main streets. I'm not saying that it is solely responsible, but it is responsible for many of the repugnant spaces in our cities. I am not an advocate for another revival of Classical or Gothic architecture, but I am an advocate of architecture that responds to people.

This is a subject that I am continually drawn too. I confess I love Louis Sullivan's work. Look a the Guaranty building and the Wainwright building. Look at Sullivan's attention to craftsmen ship and detail which are important for the character and interest of the building. Notice how he addresses the sidewalk . These buildings build a human scale relationship with the street. They are bringing a ten story plus building down to the scale that we can understand and relate too.

I'm not sure that this is where we should be going in architectural design, but I do believe that there is great value in these buildings and other Sullivan work that we should be studying more. I'm not sure that Sullivan really addresses "place" in this, but he does reach out with spirituality and nature. Organic forms and more human forms are woven into a very square, efficient money making box.

Well, I need to go to bed. I just couldn't sleep without getting this off my chest. The world needs to know and be passionate about bad design. I encourage all to speak out against it. It is not a time to be polite and hesitant. Ask the pertinent questions. "Is it meaningful?" "Is it beautiful?" "Does it fit in my neighborhood?" "Does it speak of my community?" "Does it provide a better life for the user?"

The Cultural Landscape Foundation

2007-09-26T08:25:00.000-06:00

A reader ( I assume) brought this website to my attention. I had visited TCLF before, but it is worth commenting on. I try to focus on issues of Oklahoma, but it seems that many of the famous park designers bypassed the state on the way to either of the two coasts. OKC metro area does not have a great tradition of public parks. I think, and I'm still thinking, reading and studying about this, that part of the problem is the scale of the city. Priority has something to do with it also. There has been some great parks in our past, but they are gone along with many of the historic buildings of OKC. OKC is so horizontal that there is never enough density to justify large expenditure in a small localized place. So the park money's get spent over a much larger area than say a much denser city. I've not done a lot of homework on this, so it is just an assumption.

I had not read about the changes that could happen to the Washington Arboretum until I found it at the The Cultural Landscape Foundation site. The Washington Park Arboretum is one of my favorite places to visit. I took my children this summer and we spent an afternoon of it waiting on my wifes plane to arrive. It is a very active and used space. It is a treasure and I can't imagine a city allowing what is proposed to actually take place. It was 101 degrees in Seattle while I was there and people were sunbathing, walking, running, canoing and even swimming while I was at the park. It is a very successful social place that deserves our attention.

Landscapes speak of the people and the culture of the times. By understanding a landscape we understand a people. I really believe this. I really believe that looking back through Cleveland, Mann, Biddle, Olmstead, Church, Eckbo, Kiley and Halprin's work that we get a sense, a snapshot of the zietgeist. I am really excited about some of the parks that have recently gained a higher degree of appreciation and are being restored or preserved because of their history and their designers. I have not found any parks designed by famous LA's in the Metro, I'm not saying that they are not here. However, their are some great CCC projects that deserve attention, and speak to a time, a place, a people and culture. Check out Charles' essay on historical landscapes and be inspired.

jlw

Library of American Landscape History

2007-09-24T19:59:00.001-06:00

I got my View, Summer 2007 edition in the mail this week. It is from the Library of American Landscape History. It is a great read and I recommend it.

Some of the books in my collection available through LALH are:

Midwestern Landscape Architecture
Edited by William H. Tishler
An easy read that you will want to go through several times.

The Muses of Gwinn: Art and Nature in a Garden Designed by Warren H. Manning, Charles A. Platt, and Ellen Biddle Shipman
Robin Karson
I've not had a chance to read this one yet. I just received it.

Pioneers of American Landscape Design
Charles A. Birnbaum and Robin Karson, Editors
A must for anyone interested in LA History. I can't believe it is out of print.

The Prairie Spirit in Landscape Gardening
Wilhelm Miller
I have read this book and referred back to it on numerous occasions. It is really the theory of prairie landscapes as done by Jensen and Caldwell. I find some of it directed at a more agrarian society of the past. However, there are many clear and simple truths that I find easy to read and understand that Jensen and other Prairie writers didn't write as clear.

Jord's Trophy Wall:

2007-09-24T18:59:00.000-06:00

Ruby Grant Park

2007-09-22T21:34:00.000-06:00

Tonight was a great night. I won a Merit Award from the Oklahoma Chapter of ASLA for my Ruby Grant project. Here was my presentation:

Cross Park is a nature park for the soul and an activities park for the body.

The project encourages active play and regional awareness through a matrix of integrated syste

Cross Park provides the activity space for the community while embracing the vital environmental corridors of the site. It layers the needs of the community, the arts and the environment by celebrating the history and identity unique to its place.

Cross Park/ Ruby Grant Park is located on the Northern edge of Norman.

Cross Park is a nature park for the soul and an activities park for the body.

The project encourages active play and regional awareness through a matrix of integrated systems.

In designing Cross Park I used the dynamics of the environment to engage, direct and mold the geometries of the two major systems

These two major systems are the guiding matrix of the project.

The natural dynamics identified here as

Hydrology

Bottomland forest

Upland prairie

Riparian corridor

Old farm fields

dictate the geometries and layout of the design. They are the guiding framework and structure.

The activity circuits guide the flows of the design

James Corner wrote, “…the meaning of landscaft comprises a deep and intimate mode of relationship not only among buildings and fields but also among patterns of occupation, activity, and space, each often bound into calendrical time.” Activity and human occupation ebb and flow with the time, the day and the season, and the natural dynamics of the site are the foundation of the human experience. Cross Park is not covered in a seductive veil of contrived beauty. It is an expression of spiritual beauty of the raw and regional dynamics of the native cross timber, prairie/forest edge systems. Cross Park is not an idealized picture of the past. It is an engagement in the present. The occupation and activity of Cross Park is the life of the park. The natural dynamics of the park are the spirit.

Environmental impacts and education are at the core of the design. The design establishes a sustainable and healthy framework for present and future water flows. The design preserves healthy plant communities, and uses these communities as the structure of the habitat and educational zones. By protecting and improving the environmental corridors the negative impacts of intense use are reduced.

The design encourages the reintroduction of managed fire to enhance the quality of prairie habitat adapted to fire. The habitat communities including the “farm forest” of the agriculture zones provide specific habitat to local wildlife and environmental education. The environmental solutions proposed in Cross Park teach and raise awareness through demonstration. This awareness is improved by identifying historical agriculture land, and maximizing human use with active play zones of park lawn and trees.

Bradner Gardens, Seattle

2007-08-27T20:37:00.000-06:00

I am still wading through Washington pictures.

Today studio class drove up to Perkins, Oklahoma to take photos for a photo essay. It is going to be an in house photo essay that we will use while working on a comprehensive plan. I am working with the planning department this semester in studio as part of OU's Landscape Architecture curriculum. I was asked what do you want to do with your landscape architecture degree when you graduate?

Bradner Gardens is a space of cooperation. Architect students, volunteers, the City of Seattle and Landscape Architects came together to design a space that makes many in the neighborhood happy. It is easy to spot a garden that is loved. They don't lie! It was blazing hot the day I visited and there were still children playing in the shade of the gazebo. They said their parents were close by working in the gardens, I believed them because they were so young. It is not the lack of weeds in a garden that speaks of love. It is the attention to detail, and the layering of detail. Especially in a volunteer garden.

After a lengthy explanation that rambled on about the environment, people and outdoor public space we moved on. It was when I was describing what I felt was a successful design that I realized a better way to describe what I want to do. I do not care to design glitzy projects. It is not important for me to be in the forefront of landscape architecture theory. I find satisfaction in a design that has many limiting parameters and numerous program requirements. Then add my own person responsibilities to the environment and address the social issues of the site. In the end, if the design is aesthetically pleasing, environmentally responsible and exceeds the needs of many, I have a successful project.

Bradner Gardens has layers issues that benefit the community. The simple design of the structures is pleasant and personal. It does not have a crafty-low-budget feel. It is tastefully designed with the budget in mind. There are components of the gardens that I would expect from such a team of designers and volunteers, like the water catchment device and storage, wetland preservation and water runoff control. It is the basketball court that I find genius. What better way to bring in another social dimension to the garden?

I really think Bradner Gardens is a successful little garden and park. It is aesthetically pleasing. It doesn't just nod to the environment, it actually has teaching components. It reaches out to multiple and diverse groups of people. Sometimes a budget can be the most limiting factor in a design. I think that if it was in this design, which I suspect it was, the design teams did outstanding.

Alfred Caldwell Project

2007-08-27T11:57:00.000-06:00

This is a studio project I finished last semester. We were to identify a Landscape Architect that we wanted to learn more about and we were to copy some of their work onto a board. It was an exercise to become more familiar with the Landscape Architect and his/her design theory. The second part of the project was to re-design the Brick Town Canal system in Oklahoma City as we felt the Landscape Architect would. I am really interested in regional architecture. I chose Alfred Caldwell because I wanted to see how a contemporary of Jens Jensen was designing. I have read much on Jens Jensen and Wilhelm Miller and the prairie style. I was a little disappointed in Caldwell's lack of written theory behind what he was doing. It seemed that he followed directly in the footsteps of Jensen and F.L. Wright, and that was where much of my research ended up coming from. Caldwell was a practicing architect and landscape architect and did some beautiful work like the Lily Pond at Lincoln Park. He was also a professor with Mies Van der Rohe at IIT.

This was a valuable project for several reasons. One, it really allowed me the time to dig deep into the theory of Prairie Landscape Architecture. It also allowed me to step away from myself and let the writings of Caldwell and Jensen dictate the design. Obviously I did influence the design, but hopefully in a manner that represents an interpretation of Caldwell. I really worked on graphics in this design, not because of Caldwell but because of my deficiencies in that area. The whole project really allowed me to explore theory and graphics at a pace I could really learn. This project will have made me a better designer, and I see naturalscapes and the city differently than at the start of the project.

Cal Anderson Park

2007-08-25T14:44:00.000-06:00

First of all, hats off to the Berger Partnership and the redesign of Cal Anderson Park. I did a little bit of web surfing trying to find significant parks of Seattle I should visit and Cal Anderson continually popped up. Cal Anderson park is rich in history. It was design by the Olmsted Bros. in 1904. It is that word palimpsest that comes to mind when describing Cal Anderson. A very modern or new-looking playground and ballfields are part of a historic water reservoir and traditional Olmstedian park, open un-programmed spaces with formal elements. The park is layered with previous design and yet it has a modern, vigorous infusion of art and architecture. The dominant feature of the park is Douglas Hollis's Water Works. It is delightful and has its own gravitational pull that is hard to deny. The fountain is big enough for many to enjoy. The sound of it masks the presence of the surrounding park-goers. I was drawn to the quiet end of the pool first. I walked around the antique water building and smiled and nodded to those sitting on its stone wall. As I was drawn towards the volcanic like structure with its tumbling water I couldn't help but notice the do-not-get-in-the-water sign that was clearly being ignored. One dad had a group of kids and was "filming a movie" of his kids enjoying the water as if it was a water park, and in short order I find Kerri with her pants rolled up following the kids up the cascading stream. Users?!

It is in Seattle that I start to believe that art is a critical component of public landscape. It is not that good Landscape Architecture can't stand on its own or is not art itself. It is that art adds another layer of meaning. Good landscape architecture should engage the user. It should jolt the user out of their typically passive experience of landscape to a level of active engagement. Art can spark active engagement. Art is bold, italics, underlines or quotes in the landscape. It stands out on the page and is not easy to ignore.

Art is a component of culture. Peirce F. Lewis writes in "Axioms for Reading the Landscape" The basic principle is this: that all human landscape has cultural meaning, no matter how ordinary that landscape may be. " Oklahoma City has been building a new park along the Oklahoma River. From the highway, the place Oklahoma has been designed to be viewed from, immense expanses of mowed lawn dwarf a paved running path. The lawn is at the scale of a freeway. I wonder what this new park reads? Culture? History? Cal Anderson speaks of a people that value art, culture and community. It invites the community to enter, to stroll, to sit, to play, to meditate. It engages with the user even when the user is lying down reading a book.

It is not possible to enjoy Cal Anderson park with out touching your level of cultural awareness. Water Works ask the park-user to participate in a dialog. And that starts with "What am I?", "What do I mean?", and "Am I valuable?". Cal Anderson reads "History is important." and "Culture is important." History and art are directly linked with Water Works.

Freeway Park Seattle

2007-08-14T19:20:00.000-06:00

This park lives up to the hype. It is successful enough that it was hard to imagine a freeway underneath. One of the true tests it passed was when the kids both commented that it looked like a canyon with rocks and a stream. I try to listen to the kids response and I try to tease out their reactions. They are not unbiased reactions by any means, because they sit across from me at the dinner table every night and listen to my endless blathering of architecture, landscape, social and environmental issues. It was interesting when we first walked into the park and saw the benches with the wooden dividers. It wasn't until a little bit further into the park that we saw a very uncomfortable person trying to sleep between the dividers. It was like sleeping on the floor board in the back of a vehicle. It was then that I realized they were sleeping lumps for those inclined to camp. I didn't feel it was dignified to take a picture of the person sleeping on the bench.

I never felt my safety threatened. However, I try to be a little more cautious when I have my children present. We were snooping through the nooks and crannies of the park when I turned a corner and was face to face with someone that was camping and in the act of administering drugs or insulin. I'm not sure I would know the difference.

However, overall the park was plenty friendly and safe feeling. It was almost natural feeling in a very built sense. Plant material and water capture the spirit of nature. The concrete mountain stream was a piece of art framed within nature and hovering over a freeway. I'm glad I went.

The kids give a little sense of the scale. It was amazing where the kids could actually climb unrestricted. They could jump up on walls that had huge drops on the other side.

I see these rock doves nesting and I remember my lectures in Architecture History. Prof. Weinel liked to remind us that there were many more users than just humans.

Pioneer Square Seattle

2007-08-14T19:09:00.000-06:00

I love this little park, Pioneer Square. To be truthful, I have never got out and walked through it. However, I have driven through it at all times of day and night. I have been stopped by floods of pedestrians spilling out of the square into the streets. One of the first times I was drove through was in the evening, and I wasn't even sure if I was driving on the road or if I had entered a pedestrian only plaza. This is one of Seattle's iconic treasures.

Garden Arbor

2007-08-13T22:06:00.000-06:00

I know it is very cliche, but the first sketches were drawn on a napkin over breakfast. You have to strike while the iron is hot! I then come home with napkin in tow and put initial idea to 3d sketchup, after I researched a little more Pacific Northwest and Asian Architecture. I really wanted to use bamboo, and my initial plan was to use bamboo as the top. I was going to make indentions for timber bamboo to set in with bolts so they could be drilled and fastened in place. They would need replaced periodically, but the climate is so dry in eastern Washington that bamboo lasts much longer than you would expect. Timber bamboo is relatively inexpensive too. The customer wanted something more permanent. She loves rusty steel and concrete. A steel trellis was to go in the center for climbing plants, but after the construction, the customer may leave it as is. The entire arbor is to hold a fir limb up off the ground and out of the way of the path. A rose and clematis may grace the sides. I think the scale of the piece in the garden is lovely. I got to pour the foundation, but was not present to form the main structure and cross pieces. Yes, those cross pieces are concrete. The report was the customer was extremely pleased with the whole piece. It is very gratifying seeing work go from a concept and drawing to a built structure.

My Sketchup Model I presented to the customer, along with other drawings.

The fir has already found its home on the top of the arbor.

5" steel pipe cut to length, and 10" concrete columns.

Because the garden path is curved the arbor has a slight curve. I expected a little bit more fan in the overhead pipe, but the difference in distance apart were swallowed up by the scale of the pipe and its length.

The customer has a beautiful garden that I helped design in its early stages. It is a true garden that has evolved and matured at the caring hand of its owner.

Summer Work Continues

2007-08-07T09:07:00.000-06:00

It has been an amazing summer for me. With each plan I learn how to better express my ideas. My ideas are generated by the client and how I think they will be using the space. Ultimately it is about the customer! My ego is about how happy the customer is in the end. Of course I get to insert my notions of professionalism. I believe it is irresponsible to not pay attention to such issues as water use, water runoff, safety and environmental issues.

Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

2007-08-06T19:23:00.001-06:00

My first introduction to Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park was newspaper clippings from the Sunday edition of the PI and Seattle Times. They arrived in an envelope from home. obviously my schooling and chosen career spurred the rare arrival of news clippings from home.

So it landed on my list of must-see places on my next visit to the Evergreen State.

SAM--Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park

2007-08-06T19:09:00.001-06:00

This park was very inspirational as a student of Landscape Architecture. It is brand-new and it feels that way. As a student I get an immediate comprehension of the rhythm and sequence of the spaces. It is still severe in places, and that will change as the plant material matures. Headed towards the beach

This little guy had wrecked his scooter going down the gravel paths. His mother was at the bottom. It was not the first time he had wrecked by the looks of his knees. He got back up and headed back down. I think his mother was more concerned about the long term affects of the boys knees as they were being wore off by the gravel. He was having a ball though.

"Eagle" by Alexander Calder

It was 102 degrees in Seattle this day. Unbelievably hot! Joggers, walkers site seers were out in droves.

This really was my favorite part of the park. When I entered, it is just a small little beach, dwarfed by the large expanse of the Sound. It is actually a substantial size beach with room for many to have private play spaces and not overwhelm the feelings of the beach. The Olympic Mountains are in the distance, the Port of Seattle to the left and a group of cottonwood shield the line of site to the right. It is this cottonwood grouping and the Olympic Mountains in the distance that create a sense of wilderness and nature. On this beach, I was no longer in Seattle, but I was in a decade and era that still had wilderness when you walked up to the Sound. Part of this feeling of awe, might be inspired by the very lack of beach access. It is very nicely done, and it has to be a favorite spot of many. If I am back in the winter, I am going to get back to this little spot. I love the Sound and the water with the chill of Winter and all its cool and tempestuous moods.

I appreciate art, I'm not what you would call a connoisseur. Art moves me and I enjoy analyzing the feelings a piece of art invokes. This piece of art, "Wake" by Richard Serra requires that you walk up and touch it, and to my dismay there is a security guard sitting in the shade with signs that say "Do Not Touch " . However, it did strike up a dialogue with the security guard on the iniquities involved in not being able to experience the "Wake" with the sense of touch.

Richard Serra "Vortex" Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

I was first introduced to Serra in Fort Worth. His work is beautiful. His work pulls at your sense of place, almost like gravity with a different down.

The plantings are still very young. It won't be long and they will be a mecca on 102 degree days.

A lesson in staging art.

Simple and powerful

Am I still in Seattle?

It is not just the park, there are outside contextual elements that have a relationship with the park. (whether you want them to or not.)

City and nature, at the large scale. Urban materials and plants at the small scale. This is an eye catching piece full of movement and reflection.

"Please Sir, let me run my hands along these gentle curves." I just wanted to put my face up against this sensual piece.

Curves converted to rhythm and lines.

Truly a beautiful piece of art.

"Split" Roxy Paine
The Landscape Architect plays as much of a role in the expression of this piece as the actual piece. A lesson in collaboration I hope.

Views of pieces are captured throughout the park in staged, and not-so-staged vignettes.

Irrigation problems?

Amphitheater--modern, crisp, simple.
It is a piece of art itself and it is the counter balance or resting place of the "Wake"

Aspen planted rigidly in rows. It will be interesting to see how they maintain this grove. Aspen seem the most unlikely tree to stay rigid and confined.

This is one of the more successful spaces in my view. Simple red chairs that echo the "Eagle" set out in condominium style on the edge of the Sound. This is your opportunity to be a citizen of the Pacific Northwest and take ownership in such a grand place. It is your personal patio.

Art and romance meet.

The size of the park increases the opportunities of activities. The designers took that well into account.

At times you are reminded of the scale of the park.

Joints and connections of all sorts are angular in the park. Rigid and delineated.

Severe Grade changes are part of the experience.

Exhibition of art at every opportunity. I think that is what is so great about art. There is such a wide variety of possible pieces.

Part of the underlying statement, intended or not, is renewal and succession. Rail lines and streets bisect the site. I don't know what it looked like before building but it is not hard to imagine a huge industrial brownfield. Open grassy places such as this are rare in Seattle. I will be interested in following how these spaces evolve and are maintained.

I'm sure I'll be back to visit. It was a pleasure. Thank-you SAM!

jlw

Airport distress

2007-08-06T13:16:00.000-06:00

It is interesting and a bit ironic that I find myself sitting in an airport stranded for the third time in only 9 weeks. The first was a canceled flight to Denver due to high winds and the second a canceled flight to Phoenix because of flooding. Actually, technically I am not stranded, I am waiting on Kerri who is delayed, but thankfully in route, out of Chicago due to severe thunderstorms. Technically I can't say that I was ever stranded as much as I felt hostage to the airlines. It reminds me of my reading of F. L. Olmsted in his journeys of the prewar South.

The Ironic part is the trio of books I have read due to the modern marvel of air transportation:

"A Clearing in the Distance" by Witold Rybczynski

One of my favorite parts of "A Clearing in the Distance" is where Olmsted is traveling the South:

In Norfolk, he found that the only good hotel had been closed down due to insufficient business, and when he did find a room, there was rainwater from a leaky roof puddling on the floor, and no fireplace. t was January, and he was so cold and damp that he was obliged to go down to the warm but smoke-filled and stinking public bar. He sat in a corner and listened to the landlord and his drunken cronies complaining loudly and obscenely about the infidel abolitionists, chif among them the author of "Uncle Tom's Cabin!"

The next morning, as he was abuot to have breakfast, he was told he would have to leave immediately or he would miss his train. He suspected he was being cheated since he had already been charged for the meal--this had happened to him once before. Nevertheless, he hurried to catch the ferry across the river to the railroad station. He and the porter carrying his luggage arrived at the dock just in time to see the stern o fthe departing boat. There was nothing to be done, so he bought some food from a market stall and sat down to wait. Twenty minutes later the ferry returned. His anxiety about missing th train--and having to spend another twenty-four hours in that dismal hotel--was aggravated when, halfway across the river, the paddleboat began to drift with the current because the stoker had gone to sleep. Finally, they arrived at the railroad station, a full half hour late. The train had not left; indeed, the ticket office was not even open. It was another hour before they pulled out of the station.

Olmsted continues on the woes of traveling in the South. Not much has changed in human character and our traveling predicaments. The transportation and hospitality industry has the traveler over a barrel. The airlines are finally starting to turn a profit, and it is at the expense of the passenger. What other company makes its most profits at the discomfort and inconvenience of the customer? Is it the fault of the airlines when bad weather cancels or delays a flight? No. However, not having a contingency plan for the customer is their fault. It seems the less contingency plans made, the higher the profits. Like the stranded of Denver this winter, if you are bumped, you are bumped into a dark hole at the mercy of the airlines where there is very little mercy to be found these days. The standard accepted practice is to cause a commotion and demand which only steels the airlines defences and jades the people behind the counter. I have never experienced such horrible customer service as our air transportation. Traveling has devolved into a shove and scratch mentality. The common traveler has amazing resilience, but the airline employee has been denuded of patience and compassion. I saw an airline ticket agent yell and scream at a group of passengers that were standing in hopes to get on an outbound plane. "SIT DOWN!" and when they didn't she hollered it again and demanded they sit and wait. It was the most uncomfortable feeling as I was being ushered past them by another airline agent because of my canceled flight. Prepare yourself if you fly. It will feel like antebellum South out there.

Where Olmsted peaks in the second half of the 1800s, 1491 is about pre-European settlement of the Americas.

I have been struggling, philosophically about my footprint and the footprint of my designs. Oklahoma, in my mind, has always been this grand prairie system independent of man's hand. I would not say that 1491 by Charles C. Mann flipped my way of thinking, but it helped clarify my design motives and intents. Man has a much longer and deeper connection with Oklahoma than I had previously believed. Man probably has a prehistoric connection with the great plains that is uncelebrated.

A more broad and regional approach to land management should be applied. Man is part of the equation, and regional aesthetics are still a founding principle in direction, preservation and appreciation of landscape.

My final airport read is Scott W. Berg's "Grand Avenues". It is the story of L'Enfant, the designer of Washington D.C.. As a designer it is a very passionate story of grand design, betrayal and emotional vindication. Berg does a fine job of needling out politics of the day. It turned my imaginations of esteemed men upside down and in different light. Thomas Jefferson in particular. In the end Rick Olmsted jr. son of the first American landscape architect sees the vision of L'Enfant and has the ability with the help of others to pull the vision of L'Enfant out of quagmire. Like most Landscape Architecture projects, designs are polluted with the limiting factors of finances and politics. Truly landscape architecture is the art of a sale, the persuasive powers to get finances and the enduring quality of the design.

Daniel Burnam wrote:

Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing asserting itself with ever growing insistency. Remember that our sons and grandsons are going to do things that would stagger us. Let your watchword be order and your beacon be beauty.

With these three books I reflect on the direction and plodding of history. I wonder as I wait for Kerri's plane if our transportation grid of the sky is doomed? Should we have invested more on high speed rail? Am I doing a disservice to my clients by not presenting what their little piece of land is capable of? Of the three books one of the major influence is transportation. I find it ironic that I sit, wait and ramble like so many before me who have traveled.

Seattle Space Needle

2007-08-03T11:34:00.000-06:00

The Space Needle is truly a beautiful park. I always get this sentimental sense of history and of the World's Fair. I do enjoy the progressive additions, like Frank Gehry's work. The kids and I visited on the hottest day of the year for Seattle, it was 102 degrees. It was also midweek, but the park still had plenty of traffic. I like this park because of the vignettes and views that are unexpected and yet surely staged. It is possible to find private space or the hustle and bustle of the Needle itself. It is really a park complex, and it has plenty of attractions for all.

At the fairgrounds in Oklahoma City, there is a view tower that is a fun ride. However, it doesn't have the style and elegance of the Space Needle. I have been to the 35th floor of one of the towers downtown OKC, and it is an experience that should be more available and accessible by the general public. OKC should consider a lookout tower in their new Core-to-Shore planning. Getting a view of the prairie is so rare simply because of the topography. It is a very intense experience to get up where you can see the world.

Finally Home

2007-07-27T22:34:00.000-06:00

It has been 9 weeks since I first left for Washington. It is amazing what goes wrong and needs fixed in 9 weeks. I have am still attempting to catch up.

My last two plane trips have been bad enough to make a person serious reconsider flying. I hope the airlines are making money, because if they aren't, everyone is losing.

I thought I would attach my last to projects. I haven't had anytime to sit, think and write.

So I present pretty pictures:

Busy Summer

2007-07-18T19:57:00.001-06:00

I have churned out the designs in the last 5 weeks. The previous are not all of my designs. I hope to have some pictures of some of the finished product later. I have about 4 more designs to do before school starts. What a great summer!

Almost all of my designs I have used Photoshop, Sketchup and CAD to make my presentation boards. I have become quite fluent in these programs. I also use Google Earth to orientate my projects and do sun studies. I usually do a base plan with CAD and then import it into Sketchup. It is a simple process to extrude from the base map and put my ideas into 3d. I try to add people and furniture to help me understand the scale and size of my projects. If I have a dining patio, I need to have enough room for a dining table and room for people to get around it comfortably. I also do a lot of measuring while out visiting projects I like. If I like a space, I check dimensions so that I can translate it into my own designs.

I got to visit several parks in Seattle, and I hope to get pictures on when I get a chance. I hope my colleagues are having as great a summer as I am.

jlw

Twin Designs

2007-07-18T19:53:00.001-06:00

These houses are neighbors. Same houses with very different landscape solutions to meet the need of the client.

Bungalow Landscape

2007-07-18T19:44:00.000-06:00

More summer work.

Summer work

2007-07-18T19:26:00.000-06:00

A little Italian Villa in Lake Chelan. Just one of the many summer plans I've worked on, presented and sold.

Ruby Grant

2007-06-24T23:22:00.000-06:00

I can only expect the Ruby Grant debate to heat up. I have already voiced my thoughts about the site. My opinion about the site has changed a little bit, but the discussion that is raging is quite interesting. I forget how far apart people are on issues and how opinionated people are. It is interesting to see how political a subject gets. Wow! People!

This is why the city turns over the process to a landscape architect. They are hired to sift through the wants and needs of the overwhelming majority and interpret the design. By hiring a third, un-affiliated party the city parks department is not responsible for the design.

Reading through the above linked discussion is why our professor did not turn our plans out to the public to be critiqued. The public is harsh and unforgiving. I don't think we, as young students, could have withstood the beating the city and landscape architects are going to endure. Just read a little bit about how the OSU Master Plan project is going by Benham. The public forum is cruel and it is absolutely impossible to walk away from a project without inflaming one or more groups.

I wish the best for the LA's hired. They have their work cut out for them. I hope they have the vision of Olmsted and are able to meet and exceed the expectations of the majority.

jlw

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

2007-06-17T22:42:00.000-06:00

Just an odd note: Two Black-bellied Whistling Ducks landed on my lawn today. Their native range is Mexico and Southern Texas. Either they are a ways from home, or they have escaped captivity.

jlw

Sketchup

2007-06-16T23:30:00.000-06:00

I'm really not a salesman for Sketchup, but I think this is a great technique. I do not have the greatest ability to sketch. However, I can do a CAD base, extrude it in Sketchup, and put a one pixel line style on it and have a pretty nice sketch. Actually, all I have to do is spin it around and zoom in on details I want and print. I print to a pdf file because the jpeg when exporting is poor quality. So is the animation. I've just tabbed my views and I'm going to show the client the project using an open sketchup file, rather than a fly-through animation. Definitely not as good as the AutoDesk product when it comes to animation.

Marenakos

2007-06-16T22:37:00.001-06:00

Not nearly as exciting in photos as in person. I don' t think my camera actually got above the ground to get a good overall view. You 'll have to visit in person for that.

jlw

Marenakos

2007-06-16T22:13:00.000-06:00

It is just now that I'm about to head back out to Washington that I'm writing of coming home from Washington. I have been so very busy. The busier I get the faster time goes. If I don't cool down and write a little bit before going to bed, it will be 3am before I'm able to close my eyes.

It has been a successful day. I have made progress on the pile of work before me. I was able to close four projects. Burn CD's, and dump the files on my two hard drives. That is a wonderful feeling. With each project I get more comfortable in my work and I'm confident this last project I've finished is really good. I am getting faster at putting together my presentation material, which gives me more design time. Sketchup is the best program for my residential projects.

Back to Washington, Dad was driving me to the airport, which is about a 3 hour drive from the central part of the state to SeaTac. At Issaqua he asks if I want to pull into Marenakos. I love rock, and I was excited to see first hand this famous little business. I was not disappointed. Men in overalls were lined up three wide on forklifts waiting for orders from salesmen. Numerous well dressed customers, probably designers and architects, with notebooks and cameras were perusing the rows of slate and rock and stone. Dad and I, droolers, headed off into the fray.

I was taking pictures of building details on Marenakos had on display, noting prices and ogling favorite rocks. Dad and I were calculating out loud the cost of shipping, adding that to material cost and labor and translating that into the cost required to charge the client per square foot. Yikes. It is not the material that is the expensive part. Rock is heavy.

I love our native rock, but there is some beautiful rock coming out of Montana and Arizona. Some of these exotic rock would make excellent accents to the native rock we typically use in landscapes. I determined to design in some of these special rocks as accents, stone caps and benches.

I love to walk through the rock yard. It has been a while since I have been here in Oklahoma City, but I'm going to have to go back and compare. Brick out numbers rock here. I didn't see any brick at Marenakos. Just rock, and lots of it.

jlw

Biting off more than I can chew- (typical!)

2007-06-13T21:38:00.000-06:00

I am not especially fond of detail work. I am definitely a big picture sort of person. I love working with concepts and site planning, space association. I love layering seasons, space, circulation and plant palettes. I find planting plans and construction documents tedious. It requires the same level of commitment in order to stay true to the overall concept, but my brain tends to get overwhelmed. I think it is my lack of experience with it that is my problem. Because, the more I have worked at it this summer, the easier it has become. I am getting better at it.

I have in front of me 4 residential designs of various scale and level of detail required. I find myself over working and over producing the details. Site analysis is important but how much does the resident need to know? What does the customer want to see? What do they need? I found my self talking to a customer during a site visit and realized about halfway through the sentence that they probably didn't have a clue what I was talking about and really didn't care. They wanted a beautiful working solution. I want a beautiful working solution that is meaningful. I insist on raising the bar.

I just finished one clients work today, only to find the sketchup and photoshop rendered materials print horribly. I knew that, I had just not adjusted for it. I had forgot. I will reprint tomorrow. I have added a PowerPoint presentation of my sketchup models for one client and I'm considering adding it to the others. They present so much better when back lit by the monitor. Hard copies are so flat and lacking of life--dead.

It is a jumble tonight, as you can see by my misfiring dendrites in the previous writing. Hopefully I will be able to bring the beast of over-achieving under control tomorrow and make some serious inroads into the pile of work before me.

jlw

Sketchup

2007-06-10T23:10:00.000-06:00

I love Sketchup. It is so easy to use. Even better is its links to Google Earth. I am able to build my model, open up Google Earth, import my specific site, orient my model and get exact sun and shadow for my site. It is very quick and useful. I purchased sketchup yesterday and in about four hours I was able to build this model. I down loaded the bonus material and components from sketchup.

The plant material is very weak. However, for hardscapes and conceptual design I think the program is great. I think a client can get a sense of the size of the space and how they might experience it.

I think Sketchup is a must-know tool for the LA or ARCH student. Its link to Google Earth are very useful. I was able to import my plan CAD file and build using it as a template. So it is very quick and easy. I find it much easier to negotiate than AutoCAD's 3d modelling program.

jlw

A Clearing in the Distance

2007-06-10T22:43:00.000-06:00

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Amazon.com has a used copy for only $2.92

A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century (Paperback)
by Witold Rybczynski

If you have not read this book and you are interested in becoming or even interested in Landscape Architecture, it is a must. I just finished it. I had put off reading it, because of F.L.Olmsted overload. However, it is an inspiration. F.L. Olmsted is one of those over achieving people that have a need to change the world and leave their mark. He obviously left his mark. What I found so inspirational about this book was the similarities in my own life to his. (Not to compare my accomplishments to Olmsted.) It is his late start in life and his interest in numerous subjects. Really I think it is what makes an accomplished LA. The wider your base of knowledge the more apt and capable to solve complex problems. LA's really deal with social problems. If it wasn't so, then engineers would suffice for the complex problems they solve. It is an art of human touch on the environment. It is the manipulation of the environment at the pleasure of the client. (water coming into the house from bad drainage is un-pleasureable. So I would consider grading to be at the pleasure of the client.) If pleasure was not required, then simple, engineered formulas could be easily cataloged and called upon to solve problems. Experience the freeway system of Oklahoma, and you have experienced an environment manipulated by engineers. They are efficient, but aesthetically dead. Our 40 minute a day commute is as stimulating as a structural load formula, and that is a topic for a completely different entry. kudos to Rybczynsky. It is a magnificent, enlightening and inspiring account of Mr. Olmsted's life.

jlw

Starbucks in Chelan Washington

2007-06-10T22:37:00.000-06:00

For some reason I did not get my pictures home of the Chelan Starbucks that I helped landscape. That was really my first summer job when I arrived at home. I'll have to add pictures later when I find them.

jlw

Summer Work

2007-06-03T23:22:00.000-06:00

I am not a very dedicated blogger. I get very busy doing other things. I have been in Washington working with Dad's landscape crews the last two weeks. I have been working on a dry-stack rock wall and pouring curbing for a lawn.

I looked at this pile of rocks and I was certain that it was an impossibility that a rock wall could come of it. Much less a half-way straight and flat fronted wall. I was very pleased with the results. Especially for the first time. The largest rocks in the wall required two of us to lift them. I am sure that we cheated, but the bottom half to three/quarters of the wall is dry stack and the top half has mortar. The client wanted the grandkids to be able to run across the top of the wall with out the rocks falling off. Dad and I also felt that it was important to seal the top rocks with mortar to help reduce degradation by freezing and thawing.

Over all, I am quite proud of it.

Watching Cemetery Movements

2007-05-21T14:10:00.000-06:00

I write frequently about cemeteries. I think they are a significant cultural marker. How we bury and honor our dead reveals a little bit of insight in how we percieve our place in the cycle of life.

Garden Rant has an intersting blog entry about a new funeral movement.

Here are some more interesting links on that movement:
Green Springs Natural Cemetery
CBS
AP

National Register

2007-05-20T19:58:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across this, and thought I should share it. The National Register of Historic Places is a gem of a website.

Will Rogers Park Gardens and Arboretum, Oklahoma City
Landscape Architecture Month

National Register of Historic Places bulletin series

Historic Residential Suburbs

Designed Historic Landscapes

Rural Historic Landscapes

Historic Battlefields

Historic Cemeteries

Traditional Cultural Properties

Ferruccio Vitale's Bryant Park

2007-05-18T07:00:00.000-06:00

BRYANT PARK

According to R. Terry Schnadelbach in "Ferruccio Vitale Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era", Vitale wrote an article for House and Garden titled "Village Greens for Town Betterment". In it he touted two park types. The village green of Bryant Park and the smaller neighborhood park. The village green was a new prototype for parks.

It wasn't Vitale who actually designed the park, but it is quite clear that his village greens park prototype was the seed for the design. Bryant Park, designed in 1934, wasn't designed until after Vitale's death in 1933. It was designed by his colleague Gilmore Clarke and Lusby Simpson

This scan is from Schnadelbach's "Ferruccio Vitale Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era"

Village greens, plan for a large urban park. A new prototype of an urban park for American cities features a raised, multipurpose grass terrace surrounded by a double rows of trees. Separation from traffic and street noise is provided by low plantings and balustrades. Flagpoles and fountains are used to articulate the entry plazas from the street. A civic building is meant as an urban backdrop. House and Garden, June 1926

Village greens, perspective of a large park. Vitale pictured the civic buildings typical of the traditional New England village as surrounding his new urban green.

Beaux-Arts formality is very evident in this design. Bryant Park today is a highly successful park. It went through some years of decline, locally called 'Needle Park', but it has been embraced by the community and is a very usable and enjoyed park.

Some great links and pictures of the park:

NYC ADDICT
NYC FINEST PUBLIC RESTROOMS
FORGOTTEN NYC STREET SCENES
Listen to Bryant Park

It is at Dust and Rust where I found my favorite picture of the park.

PPS is a great site to read about successful parks and Bryant park is in their top favorites.
Bryant Park Success Story (80% of the credit is given to good management.)
Bryant Park Hall of Shame (Over management story)
PPS Bryant Park

Bryant Park Official Website
Bryant Park Map

Great City Parks by Alan Tate includes Bryant Park in his book of 20 "well-planned, well-designed and well-managed parks". Bryant Park, 'Needle Park', had become an unusable space because of its over-protection and isolation from the street prior to its rehabilitation in the 90s.

The history of Bryant Park tells us to make park space very accessible and friendly from the street. The test of success is measured by the amount of women using the space. This requires safety and security. People want to feel the green space. They want to get away from the crush of pavement and cars. But they need that visible link to the street and the safety of people. High use provides a safer place for the vulnerable. It is hidden spaces and low use spaces that provide congregating spaces for those on the edge.

Again Bryant Park becomes a prototype and model of success through private funding and management of the park which is somewhat controversial because of the amount of privatization. Check out the Bryant Park Hall of Shame Link.

Vitale's park was simple and powerful. A village green for public gatherings surrounded by shade and strolling space. Beaux-Arts in style and a product of the City Beautiful Movement, the village green has great possibilities still today. My favorite aspects of the village green park is the protected edge that allows permeable access and interaction between the street and the promenade area. The center of the park becomes its own entity and space surrounded by a wall of trees. This becomes a stadium, a platform, a parade, a show, an event.

ABC at Bryant Park

2007-05-18T06:28:00.000-06:00

I was up early this morning to see the kids off to school, and I was watching this mornings headline news. As usual it is a continual drumbeat of bad news coming out of Iraq that was especially hard on the ABC News family this moring. Terry McCarthy was especially moved this morning as he had to report the death of two of his Iraqi team. I have a few favorite reporters that I feel I can trust. Mr. McCarthy is one of those reporters that I believe implicitly. This morning it was especially hard for him to report and his voice was halted and emotional as he reported the death of his friends. My heart goes out to him and the many others affected each day by war.

Sam Champion, my favorite weatherman, was at Bryant Park this morning with the GMA Concert series, and that is really where my blog is starting this morning.

Bryant Park.

Ferruccio Vitale and the Century of Progress Exposition

2007-05-17T13:29:00.000-06:00

Century of Progress

Ferruccio Vitale and Joseph Urban's cheap and dramatic Avenue of Flags. Unfortunately the photos are almost all in black and white.

Meridian Hill Park fountain

Planetarium Today
(It is amazing what we will settle for today when it comes to urban spaces.)

Color Picture of Planetarium

Planetarium then and now. Notice the similarity in the fountains of the Planetarium and Exhibition Garden and Meridian Hill Park fountain.

Century of Progress Exposition
Chicago, Illinois, 1930-1934

Vitale was chosen to represent the ASLA in the development of the second Chicago's Worlds Fair. Vitale would die before finishing this work and Alfred Geiffert, Jr. stepped in to complete the commission. The fair was on the same site that Fredrick Law Olmsted had chosen for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Instead of the Beaux's Arts fair of 1893 the Progress Exposition was "to have a new architecture born out of new technologies, materials, and construction methods, new lifestyles, and a new economy, one that called for sparseness and frugrality..." (Ferruccio Vitale by R. Terry Schnadelbach.) Interestingly the fair was to be about new American Architecture and the Prairie school architects were passed over. Ferruccio Vitale is the Landscape Architect added to the Commission.

It is too bad that Vitale's poor health, untimely death and the great depression hindered his work on the Progress Exposition. The license the fair gave the designers to design at will in this new Modern style was a place for creativity to grow.

I still find some great examples of Landscape Architecture stretching out and adapting to Modern Architecture. Ferruccio Vitale seemed very comfortable expanding out into this world.

A Century of Progress Exposition

2007-05-17T13:20:00.000-06:00

Post cards from "Offical View Book". Photographs by Kaufmann and Fabry Co. The Reuben H. Donnelley Corporation, Chicago

Landon K. Thorn residence and Honey Creek in Davis

2007-05-17T07:14:00.000-06:00

After putting the two pictures side by side, there is less in common than I thought. However, The top picture is a constructed landscape of Innocenti and Webel and the bottom is of Honey Creek at the Turner Falls campground in Davis Oklahoma.

The top landscape is a landscape that can easily be done here and it relates well to the prairie river of Jensen.

Ferruccio Vitale leads me back to Art Nouveau

2007-05-16T21:55:00.000-06:00

I had an study-skills professor when I very first went back to school that insisted that learning was about relationships. So I have this very strange way of learning. I am always searching for the relationships between what I have already learned and what I need to be learning. It is quite compulsive actually.

So I do not wade through the stack of books from the library in a straight line. Many of my topics seem unrelated, but I think that it makes for a much richer tapestry of thought process when layering with many different subjects. Some books I read cover to cover and others I power-read. Invariably I get side tracked on tangents, and I always keep this on-going list of words to look up, and subjects I need to explore more. Every now and then I am reminded of something I have learned and I have to lay down what I am reading and go back to re-inspect a subject.

It is at this point I am reading “Ferruccio Vitale Landscape Architect of the Country Place Era” By R. Terry Schnadelbach that I need to go back into my architecture history and read more about the beginnings of Modern Architecture.

This is triggered by Vitale’s transition from classic or Beaux’s Arts style to abstract or sometimes called stripped-down classical style. The Modern movement is really this transition from a craftsmanship heavy architecture to architecture with new materials like steel that can be mass produced. Buildings like department stores have no precedent.

I think this is a rich era of innovation and imagination. It is fraught with a searching and grasping generation trying to blend the modern machine age with the classical era that is so opposed to it. It would be a very different world if the likes of Le Corbusier, Gropius and Mies van der Rohe hadn’t settled it so decisively.

There is not a straight-line correlation between Architecture and Landscape Architecture at this juncture in history. It seems like many different things are going on at the same time and LA's are still getting their wings.

So back I go, starting with “Art Nouveau Architecture” by Keiichi Tahara. The following pictures are scans and inspiration from the book. This book has beautiful pictures but not a whole lot into the thought processes I find relating to Landscape Architecture.

It is at this juncture in history that LA's and Architects take diverging paths. It seems previously that Architects designed out door spaces. It seems that after the onslaught of Modern Architecture LA's and Architects are on different paths.

Was there an LA that could be considered of the Art Nouveau persuasion? Was Modern Landscape Architecture significantly behind Modern Architecture?

Hmmmm...............????

I have some more reading to do to tie things up in a neat little package.

American Cemetery at Ardennes

2007-05-16T08:27:00.000-06:00

More exploration spurred by "Making a Landscape of Continuity The Practice of Innocenti and Webel", ed. by Gary R. Hilderbrand

Photo by Ernst van Loon

Photos by Mr. Robert Mary

Description of park by American Battle Monuments Commission
Webel understands the power of trees in this design. The soft soldiers of the allee foreshadow the precision of the memorial field. The natural woodland framing the austere field of marble memorials provides a resting place for the eyes. Evergreens symbolically protect and flank the American flag.

It is a simple and powerful memorial.

Evelyn Marshall Field Residence

2007-05-16T07:59:00.000-06:00

Thoughts inspired by "Making a Landscape of continuity The Practice of Innocenti and Webel", ed. by Gary R. Hilderbrand.

The Evelyn Marshall Field Residence and its trees:

"Making a Landscape of Continuity The Practice of Innocenti and Webel" ed. by Gary R. Hilderbrand

It is the field Residence that I find the use of trees precisely articulated. It is with the plan that I start to understand the great vocabulary in trees. Their placement, their rhythm, their edges and their mass speak decisively of space, rhythm and harmony. It is this rhythm and harmony that evoke emotion and set tone.

A review in Land Forum by Dean Cardasis says,

In almost all of these projects we find orthogonal, pictorial compositions on large sites; single species of trees planted regularly on center in straight rows, forming powerful spacial allees; and a clear appreciation for craftsmanship in design.

Making a Landscape of Continuity The Practice of Innocenti and Webel

2007-05-15T19:58:00.000-06:00

An inspirational paragarph from "Making a Landscape of Continuity The Practice of Innocenti and Webel" edited by Gary R. Hilderbrand.

There is one abiding, resounding physical characteristic that is evident in the entire body of work of Innocenti & Webel, a characteristic that is classical and also not classical; it is both modern and timeless. It is the structuring of physical space with trees—trees in rows, closely spaced, often repeating as far into the distance as we can see. For landscape architecture, an activity that always deals with our constructed relation to the natural world, the simple ordering of trees is an extraordinary act, one not to be underestimated. Trees in measured arrangements give expression to a thought about the world, about the human need for measure, for articulation, for clarification. With trees in space, we can sense the horizon, we can understand distance, we can measure the scale and size of objects in our sight. With a canopy overhead, we may sense the ground not as a surface but as a space, a site of inhabitation, a place to move or to rest. With trees in parallel lines, we may perceive a space for movement, a pointing, a suggestion of speed, a path toward a destination. And when we are close to trees, we find a new measure for ourselves, smaller, or larger, but real and physical. With trees we know space.

Reading of Innocenti & Webel I get a sense that they were masters of articulating the tree. Trees are not man-made. But we corral them and turn them into soldiers of the landscape. The spacing and the rhythm contrasts with their organic shape and our inability to control the shape of every last branch. They stand as sentinels to our longing of order.

Trees offer much more than their fundamental characteristic of shape. Trees can speak to region. They can talk of water or the lack there of. They can touch our emotion through scent and texture.

Walking through a grove of cottonwood and willow can transport you to a mountain stream. The chattering water is heard in the cottonwood and the low whisper of the willow masks the sounds of the present.

It only takes a view of a copse of cypress and black marshy water framed with the knees of the oxygen deprived tree comes to mind. If you have experienced the cypress up close and personal, then its fragrant needles, unique pitchy cones and auburn fall color creep into your senses.

It is the pine that touches me with a longing for home. I am immediately taken to a high mountain lake that I use to swim in as a boy. The rushing of wind thru the canopy of needles speaks only of a mountain breeze. But it is the fragrance. The intense fresh smell that only the pine can express. It is the scent of rusty, dry needles under my feet. It is the scent of rough and furrowed bark. It is the scent of cool deep water waiting to be dove into. It is the scent of laying on my back and gazing up through the wispy needles.

Combining the use of form and rhythm with the memory that the tree evokes in each of us is a powerful tool to put in my toolbox (as my friend Brent would say.)

It seems that there is so much that goes into design. I see my designs getting cluttered and incoherent. The designs of Innocenti and Webel seem clear and pure. They are soft and calm. They are delightful and yet restful to the eye.

Ken Smith Landscape Architect

2007-05-14T07:38:00.000-06:00

Book 2 of my summer reading frenzy:

Ken Smith Landscape Architect Urban Project

Source Books in Landscape Architecture

Edited by Nicola Bednarek

Ken Smith has to be a lesson in creative problem solving. The projects presented in the book have a very rigid list of parameters. Smith solves these in creative and vibrant ways.

The graphics and photo montages are beautifully executed and are to be aspired to. Smith’s play with form and color is intriguing. They are very architectural but have the sensitivity of a Landscape Architect.

PLAN OF HIRIYA LANDFILL PARK COMPETITION, TEL AVIV, 2004

My favorite of the three projects is not the East River Ferry Landings with the environmental overtones, but the children’s temporary school yard, P.S. 19 in Queens, New York.

Seemingly inexpensive materials are used to create unique, usable and exciting spaces for children. Vibrant dots and a cloudy blue sky change pavement and fence into what must be a surreal world for a child. The space itself is not altered very much; it is the experience of the space and the way the space is changed to be used that is the genius and lesson. In architecture school I learned to not see color. If you build it and it has to be a specific color then someone will come along behind you and paint it. Smith admits to the temporary qualities of his projects. The school buildings the design is built for is for temporary class rooms twenty years old.

The butterfly and bird garden is beautiful, although not the focus of the garden. It has to be the escape-from-the-pavement and the resting space from the severity of the activity space. Colorful trash bins are changed into plant containers. Growing plants is an important interaction for children. Container gardening requires commitment and responsibility, and there are many lessons that can be taught through it. Cycles, growth, stewardship and science. The whole design becomes a learning extension from the inside to the outside.

Landscape Architecture needs to be that connection from the inside to the outside. It needs to be the human interpretation and transition zone between the built (the decaying) and the nature (life and growth). What better transition than garbage dumpsters becoming locations of growth?

6 am OKC May 13th Morning Pictures

2007-05-13T22:33:00.000-06:00

I had hoped for a more startling sunrise. However, you shoot the sunrise you've got, not the sunrise you want. The Oklahoma sunrise this morning was minutes long. Pinks and lavenders evolved briefly to soft blues and ended abruptly in bright white. For being such an ugly mucky color, the Oklahoma river is a beautiful asset to downtown. It has great reflective qualities in the relatively calm of the morning hours.

Summer Reading--The Granite Garden, by Anne Whiston Spirn

2007-05-13T22:19:00.000-06:00

Summer break is the time for me to do a catch up on reading. It seems the first couple of weeks of summer and the first couple of weeks of a new semester I am really fired up about reading.

I have shelves of books on my to-read list. First up is the Granite Garden, Urban Nature and Human Design by Anne Whiston Spirn.

I found this book to be a pretty quick read. I have read a lot of other books that really covered this same information, so I found it as a broad over view to the city, nature and human activities.

There were several really good points of design I would like to take away and explore. The first is trees in the urban landscape. I know that trees have a very short life span, Spirn says 10 years, in class we learned 7 years. This is a problem. After driving around and looking at trees in this new light, I really believe we have a problem. I don’t think that stunted and dwarf trees are performing the tasks we need them to. We need more from them. They cannot exchange the amount of carbon dioxide for oxygen and absorb the large amounts of pollutants, or increase the amount of shaded surfaces if we mummify them through starvation of vital needs.

What I really wonder, is how come some neighborhoods have trees that cover the streets and some neighborhood trees never get to size? Why? Is it compacted roots? Smaller growing space for roots? Is our building and construction techniques destroying the ground?

Spirn suggests planting trees in groves in plazas and along streets. This gives them more root space. Larger root and canopy provide more shade, a cooler root zone and less temperature fluctuation. Some thought and design needs to be put into this for parking lots, side walks, streetscapes and plazas. I see single trees planted in parking lots struggling to survive. Their thick flaking bark is an indication they are stressed and resorting to survival mode in attempts to reduce the amount of heat baking the cambium layer. Leaves are small and few in attempt to reduce the amount of water transpiring and escaping. Their root zones are circled in molten asphalt and exposed to drying winds. There has to be a better solution. A more aesthetic solution. A solution that is humane to the living organism that cannot escape our prison of pavement and impoundment of persecution.

The urban forest is much more important that I previously had thought about. It should be treated as a membrane to temper incoming solar radiation. To capture and absorb pollution. To make a much more aesthetically pleasing and desirable environment to live and breath in.

I need to explore this more.

After reading Spirn’s book, I would have completely changed my last studio project. My project was a wild and natural park in downtown OKC. I don’t think that it is appropriate. The grid and formality of the urban fabric is too intense and doesn’t relate enough to a complete wild garden. We need more order and measure to the intensely ordered and measured downtown area. I love formal gardens and natural gardens with formal characteristics. There has to be a place that is appropriate to put them, and the downtown area is.

In researching some of the pioneers of the Landscape Architecture during the Country Place Era, I identified with the truly American idea of formality close to the house and less formality as you get further from the house. The city should work in this same manner. Formal and modern gardens towards the core of the city and the outskirts of the city should be natural links like greenbelts and wild gardens that bridge and transition from city to country. The further from the core the more native plants should be used.

Now I just have to reconcile exotic plants within the core of the city with regional identity, which I think is very important. So I will need to explore how the exotics I chose for the core correspond and relate to the genus loci of the place.

The city is of human invention. It is a machine and ecosystem of its own. We control much of the dynamics of the city. Water runoff, heat island effect, vegetation, wildlife and human activity are driven by human activity and only guided by the laws of nature. Our roofs are designed impermeable. We control the amount of urban forest covering our parking lots. So we should use all the tools at our disposal to influence nature in a positive manner in our cities. That means we should plant an exotic species if it will reduce heat island effect better than any native can.

This is kind of a break through for me in justifying the planting of exotics. I so want to be a purist. However, complex problems require complex solutions that are rarely in black and white.

Spirn’s book definitely has helped me resolve and clarify some issues. Modern landscape architecture and a deeper look into the Country Place Era are my next destinations. So much to learn and formulate in my mind--so little time.

Planting Design with Steve Hill

2007-05-04T09:19:00.000-06:00

Planting design pictures:

I have always thought that planting design would be my favorite part of Landscape Architecture. I am finding that it is not. I really prefer master planning and large conceptual planning. I enjoy native plant projects and stream and habitat restoration projects. I like parks and campus planning projects. Residential is really not for me.

I'm counting down the days to end of semester. Good luck out there to all those LA's in progress. Summer is coming.

Fairlawn Cemetery

2007-04-27T08:10:00.000-06:00

I spoke of Fairlawn in a post about George Kessler. I have dabbled in some of my genealogy, and walked through a fair amount of cemeteries. The cemeteries in the area are generally laid out in grid form, a simple gate, a few large monument type stones and family tombs.

I found Fairlawn to be a beautiful cemetery. The entrance is lined with similar family tombs of famous names like Overholser. A WWI obelisk memorial marks the end of the first oval. It is offset, but fits well in the standing family tombs.

It is an Oklahoman treasure--check it out.

Sunshine Nursery

2007-04-24T12:26:00.000-06:00

You don't have to be here in the Metro area and ask about native plants and people working with Oklahoma hardy plants and Sunshine Nursery always comes up. I've not been out there yet, but it is on my Spring trip. They have a great list of elms and list of plants that I would assume to be hardy for the Metro area if they can grow them at Clinton.

Alice Harn Park

2007-04-22T22:26:00.000-06:00

Close to 13th and Shartel, Alice Harn park is a great little pocket park. Most notably is the simple and clever little amphitheater. Its design is simple and elegant using native stone, probably from the WPA era. It is one of Heritage Hills little treasures.

Travelling up Grand from I-35 West, it is apparent it could use some of these same details. It is apparent that a center island of trees and a walking boulevard is not sufficient enough to raise property values. Grand has the potential to stimulate and encourage a thriving community that would increase property values and could stimulate commercial ventures. The greenbelt is already there, now it just takes the initiative of the community.

Spring flowers

2007-04-22T21:29:00.000-06:00

Richard Allen has a nice little gallery of Oklahoma wildflowers.

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium albidum)

Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja indivisa)

The spring rains have come this year and the Indian Paintbrush and Blue-eyed Grass are in full glory. There is also a large colony of vibrant Ironweed on hwy 9 at the pharmaceutical plant. The little Blue-eyed Grass needs to be planted more. Blue is such a rare flower, and this is such a dainty and delightful bearer of Spring.

The Iris

2007-04-22T20:33:00.000-06:00

There is a reason why the humble iris was so loved by my grandmother. "Common" they say. I say resilient, hardy, forgiving and in bloom decadent as dark chocolate and fine espresso.

I cannot look at the iris and not remember her garden of iris, and her carefully quarantined blossoms that held the hopes of an improved color, shape or vigor.

I am sure I owe some of my obsessive behavior to her and her iris collection.

(click the picture to enlarge)

The Sublime

2007-04-21T12:31:00.000-06:00

The following is an excerpt from my history journal. I include it here because the exploration of Oklahoma's sublime landscapes are worth pursuing. As the semester continues to swallow my time, I look forward to pursuing some of these thoughts when I have more time.

The Sublime in the Modern World

April 21, 2007

I wonder if our modern notions of the sublime have changed. We have ferreted out the myths of the deep forest. We understand the brooding of the sky, and we have neutralized the natural cycles of the earth with air conditioning.

I have sat on the edge of the Pacific in winter. Storm clouds eminent and imposing, I have walked to the edge of the sea. Dwarfed by the expanse of beach and sea that recedes into the unknown, I have walked on the sea shore at midnight. The sublime still exists. Reading “Richard Haag Bloedel Reserve and Gas Works Park” edited by William S. Saunders furthered some of my thoughts on this. I have been to Bloedel Reserve. I was in my late 20’s, but well before I headed back to college to get my undergraduate degree. I probably didn’t even know what sublime meant, but I could experience it.

Growing up on the West Coast, I don’t think that the giant trunks of the fallen first growth forest have the same impact as someone that is unfamiliar with them. I remember visiting cousins in the Snohomish and Pilchuck valleys and giant trunks could be found through out the forest floor. Traveling up Steven’s Pass, old trunks littered the roadsides and public parks. Haag’s use of a tight carpet of moss in stark contrast with the immense trunks did not leave a lasting impression. As I look back at the pictures, I see the statement they say. As a lay person it was the large expanse of meadow that contrasted so sharply with the Puget Sounds suffocating forest. Roads of the Pacific Northwest do not seem to have elbow room. Even the long stretches of six lanes of I-5 can have a tunnel effect with the trees tall enough to overshadow the road.

Interchanges off of the wide expanse of freeway to the more narrow side roads are dramatic. I would say even sublime in areas. Saunders refers to our sense of technology as having the ability to threaten and cause subtle terror. Exiting the wide comfortable and occupied expanse of I-5 on to a mere four-lane that disappears into a shaded curve can give a soft sense of the terror and wonder. The road grade lifts softly and the peaks of the snow capped cascades loom. The deep forest green of the fir and hemlock branches grasp the ground and reach for the road. The brazen alder and maple step out of the forest edge and warn of the impeding stampede of vegetation should man hesitate or blink.

At Bloedel the sublime is much more controlled. As an insider that understood the great man power required to maintain such a garden, I was not fooled or overly awed by the moss garden or the reflection pool. I could see that man was in control, and by stating that I am implying that man having control of a situation is at odds with the concept of the sublime. However, stepping through the clearing, I will not forget the sense of diminutiveness and grand scale. The Bloedel Estate is not small. It is a large estate. But it is dwarfed in scale and grandeur by the extensive view off the end of Bainbridge Island. Although I would not say that the weather or the water imposed any immediate threat, there was a feeling of vulnerability. The view is beautiful and grand. I felt very insignificant when even the large Bloedel House seemed dwarfed by the scale of its surroundings.

Haag’s attention to the sublime at Bloedel and Gas Works is notable. It makes me look around to see what in Oklahoma could inspire. The Wichita’s with their unusual rock mountains and large expanses of prairie could incur a feeling of vulnerability and isolation in the middle of great beauty. However, I think it is the tremendous thunderheads that appear on the horizon, march across the prairie and loom at such tremendous heights invoke the greatest feeling of the sublime.

Some Landscapes has a great website that explores some of these issues. The picture I previous posted of the truck with the dust storm over taking it is not a landscape that should be pursued. However, there are some more opportunities to be explored.

Crunch time

2007-04-04T16:27:00.000-06:00

I'm way to busy to be posting right now. School is a downhill slide from here until the first week of May. However, I run across a website that needs mentioning.

Oklahoma

Master Naturalist

Program

It is worth checking out if your interested in Oklahoma.

Oklahoma Nature

2007-03-29T21:53:00.000-06:00

I have to pass this along. It sounds like a great opportunity to get out there and get a feel for some of the heart and soul of Oklahoma.

Arbuckle Simpson Nature Festival 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tishomingo, OK

     Exploring Pontotoc Ridge Preserve; Blue River
Ecology; Nocturnal Creatures; For the Birds and Fish
Production are events being offered during the
Arbuckle Simpson Nature Festival, May 4, 5 and 6 in
Johnston, Pontotoc and Murray Counties.

     This is the opportunity of a life-time,
announced Dr. Bill Pennington and Earl Brewer,
coordinators of the event.  The Nature Festival is
offering a variety of tours and a lecture that should
appeal to everyone.  We have one of the best areas for
viewing nature in Oklahoma and this event will
spotlight a natural resource not seen by most people,
Brewer stated.

     Registration is now open for the 2 day event
which will originate from Murray State College.  Event
fee is $25.00 per tour.   Registration and information
can be obtained by contacting the Johnston County
Chamber of Commerce, 580-371-2175 or by visiting web
site:  www.johnstoncountyok.org. Registration will
begin each day at 7:00 a.m. at the Murray State
College Student Union.  Advance registrations are
recommended, as size of tours is limited.

     The Nature Festival was organized by a coalition
of TREES (Tishomingo Refuge Ecology and Educational
Society), Murray State College, Johnston County
Chamber of Commerce, Chickasaw Nation Enterprises, The
Nature Conservancy, Tishomingo National Wildlife
Refuge, Blue River Hunting and Fishing Area; City of
Tishomingo; Tishomingo National Fish Hatchery and
Chickasaw National Recreational Area.

     Two topic tours are offered twice a day; once in
the morning 9:00 a.m. to 11  a.m. and afternoon
sessions, 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Tours of 50 people
will travel by charter buses to the various locations.

     Opening day, Friday, May 4, the first sessions
offered will be Exploring Pontotoc Ridge Preserve in
Pontotoc County and Blue River Ecology. Both tours
will leave Murray State College Student Union  at 8:30
a.m.,  and travel to their respective sites.

     Exploring Pontotoc Ridge Preserve offers five
different habitat community types: Crosstimbers
Forest, Bottomland Forest, Mixed-Grass Prairie;
Tallgrass Prairie and Limestone Outcrop and
Sinkholes, stated Earl Brewer, president of TREES
(Tishomingo Refuge Ecology and Educational Society).
A variety of species that might be seen include
Painted Buntings, Summer Tanager and Red-eyed Vireo;
Grass/Forbes, Hairy  Grama, Little Bluestem, Purple
Coneflower; buttlerflies, and a variety of reptiles.
This is a guided trail hike led by Jim Herndon of the
Nature Conservancy . Hiking boots and binoculars are
recommended.

     The Blue River Ecology tour will be held
northeast of Tishomingo led by Matt Gamble, fisheries
biologist.  Participants will learn about the crystal
clear waters of the Blue River, formation process,
granite outcrops, fishing opportunities, need for
protection and the Seaside Alders.  Hiking boots and
binoculars are also recommended for this tour.

     A box lunch which includes a logo bag of the
Nature Festival will be available for a $10.00 fee.
Lunch will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the MSC
campus.

     The afternoon tours will leave MSC campus at  1:00
p.m.

     Friday night will feature a special Nocturnal
Event at Pennington Creek Park, Corbin Ranch and the
Tishomingo Wildlife Management Unit. Dr. Doug Wood,
Dr. Tim Patton and Dr. Bryon Clark from Southeastern
Oklahoma State University will lead the group to learn
about bats, nightjars, frogs and frog calls.
Participants will leave the MSC Student Union at 7:30
p.m. and the event is limited to 20.

     Friday night will also feature a dutch treat
buffet meal at the Western Inn Restaurant in
Tishomingo.  Exhibits of  area wildlife photography
will be on display for the public to enjoy.

     On Saturday a full day of events will begin with
an Early Morning Birding/Migratory Banding Station
at the headquarters of the Tishomingo Refuge beginning
at 8:00 a.m. Dr. Doug  Wood and Jona Reasor TNWR
Wildlife Biologist will lead this group.

     For the Birds will be a group session led by
Kris Patton, TNWF manager starting at 9:00 a.m. Patton
will give instruction on how to enjoy the beatufy of
birdlife around your home; improve the habitat: in
your yard; how to attract birds by placing bird
feeders, seed types; homes for birds, using bird
baths, what to plant native versus non-native, winter
shelter, protection from predators and how to use a
field guides.  Earl Brewer will assist Patton on
Refuge Backyard Habitat, which includes the Cumberland
Pool and Cravens Nature Trail.  This session will be
held once in the morning and again in the afternoon
starting at 2:00 p.m.

     Fish Production of the paddlefish, alligator
gar, alligator snapping turtles and more  will be
featured at the Tishomingo Fish Hatchery at Reagan
during Saturday sessions starting at 9:00 a.m. and
again at 2:00 p.m.
Pennington Creek Stream Ecology will give
participants information about aquatic life, Dr. Bill
Pennington stressed.  The ecology field trip will
begin at 10:00 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. Hip waders or
wading clothes are recommended for this field trip.
Ellen Tejan and Andrea Navesky, acquatic ecologists
with the Nature Conservancy will lead the field trip.

     Lunch at noon  will be at Sipokni West Cattle
Trail Restaurant with a chuck wagon style BBQ meal and
fixins for $12.50 per person.  This will be a real
treat for our visitors to the area, commented Janis
Stewart, Johnston County Chamber of Commerce Director.

     The Nature Festival participants will leave  the
Old West setting at 1:30 p.m. to travel for the final
two tours of the day.

     Saturday evening a dinner and program entitled
The Birds of Tishomingo National Wildlife Refuge
will feature Dr. Doug Wood, associate professor of
biological sciences at Southeastern Oklahoma State
University. Dr. Wood teaches a wide range of courses
including ornithology, field ornithology, zoology,
conservation of natural resources, principles of
biology, geographic information systems (GIS) and
bioethics.  The dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a
welcome from Dr. Bill Pennington, President of Murray
State College and Earl Brewer, President of TREES.
The cost will be $15.00 per person.  Seating for the
dinner and presentation is limited to 100 people and
will be held at Murray State College Student  Union
Center.

     Sunday will conclude the event with a self tour
of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area at Sulphur.
In the Nature Center Auditorium you will learn about
the Arbuckle Simpson Aquifer and how its life blood
flows through the springs of the historic Platt
District of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area.

     Presentation at the Nature Center is from 8:30
a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and the field trip starts at 9:00
a.m. until 10:00 a.m.  Hiking boots and binoculars are
recommended.  Tour # 2 begins at9:30 a.m. until 11:00
a.m. and the field trip from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

     Visitors are encouraged to visit local eating
establishments in Sulphur.

     For more information or to register for events
please contact the Johnston County Chamber of Commerce
at 580-371-2175.

The Ten Most Magnificent

2007-03-23T22:45:00.000-06:00

Neatorama has a great post on the ten most magnificent trees. Check it out.

The Lorax

2007-03-23T22:22:00.000-06:00

When I was a young boy, my Mother would send me and my sisters down to the grocery store and the post office. It was down about three blocks, across the highway and railroad to the town center. It is funny, it seemed much further than that. However, one summer, I was probably in middle school, the store was running a special. You bought so much product and you got a Dr. Seuss book. At the end of the special, the owner of the store had a great big pile of books left over. They were actually paper back, like comic books, and he gave us kids a copy of each title he had. In that was The Lorax. This book had a big impact on how I saw the world. I identified with it at a very deep and personal level.

I still have that soft bound promotional copy. I also found a hard back copy to read to my children. Dr. Seuss is the greatest author to read to your children because the words are so fun to roll off your tongue. However, the Lorax, where the grickle-grass grows is my favorite Dr. Seuss.

Doug Dawgz Blog

2007-03-22T20:48:00.000-06:00

I can't say how much I enjoy Doug Dawgz Blog! check it out!

Senator Inhofe

2007-03-22T20:19:00.000-06:00

What planet is Senator Inhofe living on? Even if you don't believe in global climate change and all the hype, is this guy for real? No wonder Oklahoma has such a shining record when it comes to the environment, water quality, landfills, pollution....

City cemetery revival instead of Rural?

2007-03-22T20:06:00.000-06:00

The News-Leader.com posted an interesting project on cemeteries. I think it is a great concept, and we should consider our cemeteries as historical green space that needs preserved. Even if we don't get out and walk the dog through them, which we should, it is a respite for the eyes in our cramped city quarters. Green space for the soul--literally.

Wind Power

2007-03-22T20:02:00.000-06:00

I'm not very happy with OG and E's current advertisement. The underlying tone of it is that we don't necessarily need more wind power because the wind doesn't always blow. That is hogwash! I'm not saying we don't need back up power to fill the gaps, but lets be real!

Here is a little article about a region in Spain I found interesting.

70% Of Navarra's Power Comes From Wind, Solar

Native American Cultural Center and Museum

2007-03-18T23:14:00.000-06:00

Rendering of the new American Indian Cultural Center and Museum by Hargreaves Associates.

I have been watching the progress of Hargreaves Native American project in Oklahoma City. American Indian Cultural Center and Museum has a site update link that gives a little closer look at the site. What is incredible is the picture below of the more than fifty producing oil and gas wells previously on the site.

Learning from the Irish

2007-03-18T23:06:00.000-06:00

I loved this post by Architecture.mnp. What I find so attractive is the cliffs of Moher underground center. Granted, Oklahoma doesn't have a large supply of cliffs. However, with some soft burming and underground purpose I can see some Oklahoma architecture. Soddies at a new level.

Cemetery

2007-03-18T22:23:00.000-06:00

I am reminded of Mount Auburn when I read Pruned's Cemeteries as Major Disaster Response Protocol. Mount Auburn was America's first pastoral or rural cemetery, and the cemetery moves from the city to the country. It also becomes a pleasure ground for the common people to pay tribute to memorials, have picnics and get away from the unpleasantness of the city. It actually was the forerunner of America's parks by Olmsted and Vaux. The likes of Central park and Prospect Park. I saw a picture of Polish women in a National Geographic or similar magazine gardening in family plots. It seemed strange, earthy and yet fitting. It seems that the Mid West has plenty of room to sprawl and bury the dead.

I am interested in the connections with the living. The memorial. The celebration. The morning. Community. Place. Cemeteries are interesting.

Transcendentalism
Among their core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individuals intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. This is one of those deep topics that I haven't studied out to well. However, I have an appreciation for some of the work that followed, like that of Louis Sullivan in the Getty Tomb. The Web of American Transcendentalism.
This is an interesting explanation

Moving along to what spurred this whole post. Look at The Igualada Levee and The Hanging Cemetery of Babylon posted by Pruned.

Then look at Box Cemetery close to where I live. I haven't made up my mind if I'm going to be buried in a Getty or a Box.

As usual, random thoughts.

In the news.

2007-03-18T22:06:00.000-06:00

My natural resource teacher told us that this president was the first since T. Roosevelt to not add to our national park lands in some way. Of course there are a lot of ways for the president to protect lands. He was the first president to actually reduce our park lands. I haven't done my research on that, but I do believe it, and I know that the administration was working at reversing some of the public lands Clinton had preserved. ??? I can't understand that mentality at all.

So, I was very surprised to see $3 Billion proposed by for National Parks. I am glad to see the National Park Centennial Initiative kicked off. The National Parks system is a national treasure of Landscape Architecture, preservation, conservation and public enjoyment. I hope that the next century can see more preservation and more access by the common man. It is still amazingly cheap to visit a national park and I hope that it continues.

Saxon Park Photos

2007-03-09T16:30:00.000-06:00

Here is a raw collection of pictures of the Saxon Park site.

I entered the site on the southwest corner from the neighbor's property (which I thought was city property.) I walked north along the west edge of the property until I got to the main creek bed that runs across the north edge of the property. I followed the creek bed east until I could see 36th street and then I followed the east edge of the property headed south about halfway to the down the property line to the access-road gate.

I had been on the property one other time and didn't think much of it. However, I have a very serious change of heart after this visit. I think it has the "capability" to be a magnificent park, and at this point I will leave it at that.