The series of images shown are photo manipulations of a large infrared aerial in MSD’s office. Their image shows the developed part of the city in white/blue while the more heavily vegetated part of the metro area is shown in red. The map never carried much weight for me since what we value about a city, it’s density, came off as unassuming white. And what we value about open space and rural quality was red, not a color we associate with vegetation. So by changing the image where the developed part was in red and the vegetation in green, it demonstrates more of the city’s impervious quality. It illustrates how insidious an urban inner city can be without open space and parks. That’s why having Park(ing) Day – a day with temporary parks built in parking spaces – can be so good at raising awareness to the need. It’s interesting to note apart from the parks that surround downtown, Churchill Downs’ infield is the largest open space…
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Promoting landscape architecture http://asla.org/design
A group of landscape architects were out promoting the profession today.
Saturday, August 06, 2011
Art Car parade on Frankfort Ave (then to St Marks) at 3pm today
There is an art car parade on Frankfort Avenue around 3pm that will end at St Marks for a barn dance. More info here: http://www.kentuckyartcarweekend.com/
Only in Louisville…
Friday, August 05, 2011
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Announcing Olmsted Parks Photo Contest: http://www.olmstedparks.org/contest/
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Saturday, May 21, 2011
Loss of canopy
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Drought outlook: not good for Texas (cooler/rainier in Lou for coming month)
The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center indicates more persistent drought for Texas and surround areas.
Louisville will have below average temps and above average rains for the next month…
Friday, May 06, 2011
Drawing Water: Where it falls and where it's used
David Wicks has made a very lovely illustration of water from where falls to where we use it. The farther it's "pulled" to where our cities use it, the darker the line.
Friday, April 22, 2011
Sustainable stormwater landscaping on the Louisville Belvedere
Verdant Design and Diane Secor have been working with MSD to develop sustainable stormwater features to the Louisville Belvedere. Currently, the rain water from the elevator building has been redirected to a rain barrel (called a Raintainer) and out to a rain garden made up of local, native plants. The mayor’s, MSD’s Bud Schardein, and Waterfront’s David Karem’s speeches can be found on Verdant Design’s website.
A public meeting on May 10th at 7pm at KY Center for the Arts will showcase the upcoming project phases. The city’s website will have updates and more information on the meeting.
John Pacyga, ASLA, RLA, LEED AP
502-794-8519
Sustainable stormwater landscaping on the Louisville Belvedere
Verdant Design and Diane Secor have been working with MSD to develop sustainable stormwater features to the Louisville Belvedere. Currently, the rain water from the elevator building has been redirected to a rain barrel (called a Raintainer) and out to a rain garden made up of local, native plants. The mayor’s, MSD’s Bud Schardein, and Waterfront’s David Karem’s speeches can be found on Verdant Design’s website.
A public meeting on May 10th at 7pm at KY Center for the Arts will showcase the upcoming project phases. The city’s website will have updates and more information on the meeting.
John Pacyga, ASLA, RLA, LEED AP
502-794-8519
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Spring has sprung!
weeks! I hope these will brighten your day.
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
What does a landscape architect do anyway?
Well, if you’ve wondered what a landscape architect does, here is a movie that shows the work, capabilities, and effort that a landscape architect brings to a project:
Monday, January 17, 2011
New Verdant Design website
We now have a new website built around the client’s projects.
Come and see it for yourself:
John Pacyga, ASLA, RLA, LEED AP
502-794-8519
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Louisville chromium-6 level exceeds CA "safe limit"
Hexavalent chromium (or chromium-6) is the substance made famous in the movie “Erin Brockovich.” Louisville’s measurement of 0.14 parts per billion exceeds the California “safe limit” of .06 parts per billion for tap water. Cincinnati was tested at .03 and nothing was detected in Indianapolis. Other communities (like Nashville) were not included in the study. The Study’s methodology can be found at: http://static.ewg.org/reports/2010/chrome6/html/methodology.html
The full study can be found:
http://static.ewg.org/reports/2010/chrome6/html/home.html
Monday, December 20, 2010
Urban density increases in Louisville in 2010 Census
(Map courtesy of Sustainable Cities Collective)
Using the mapping tool on the New York Times website, one can see an increase of density in the urban core of Louisville. (Dark yellow means double digit increases in density, dark blue means double digits decreases in density) This is all fine and dandy until one realizes most of the community had a decrease in density. So it would seem that we need to find ways to retrofit all parts of our community where we are already living with more housing, preferably affordable housing. There is a book called Retrofitting Suburbia: urban design solutions for redesigning suburbs that could prove useful. We need to think about making allowances for mother-in-law rooms, basement apartments, and garage apartments. Our community has allowances for carriage house apartments in the urban core from the 19th century and it is probably time for us to consider how the suburbs better fit into our city.
Monday, December 06, 2010
Edible Schoolyard
The Edible Schoolyard at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School in Berkley, CA involves children from tending the garden through to preparing nutritious meal. The work in the garden is a part of their core curriculum: math, social studies, and science.
To see it in action, visit their website or see a video on the Edible Schoolyard on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/09/29/natpkg.alice.waters.edible.ed.cnn?iref=allsearch
#End
John Pacyga
Monday, November 15, 2010
Bike touring trails in Wisconsin
If you plan on visiting Wisconsin, I would recommend stopping off to ride any number of bike trails located throughout the state. Janet is going biking and reviewing each of the trails, some of which were newly opened late this summer! Take a look at her blog and enjoy the ride!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Google Earth: Louisville Loop route .kmz
Some have asked, "Where is the Loop?" "Is it built?" "Where do I get on it?"
Well, I've attached file that shows the location of the built portion of theLouisville Loop. The file is a .kmz file which will plug into Google Earth,
a free mapping program. First, download Google Earth at
http://www.google.com/earth/index.html. Then take the file and click on it.
It should fire up the program, insert the Loop into Louisville, KY, and then
you will see the loop as a purple line along the Ohio River. There are many
places along the path where you can jump on and do a short portion or ride
the whole thing. A word from our sponsor:
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city to city, even country to country. Get Google Earth. Put the world in perspective. (http://www.google.com/earth/index.html)