Summer Classes; LAN 177

By Yasmine | Published: April 25, 2013

Villa d'Este, Tivoli, Italy

Interested in how historic events shaped space? LAN 177 is right for you!

Course Description:

This course offers a comprehensive survey of the history of human impacts on environments from Stonehenge to the urban spaces, gardens and parks of the Renaissance. By systematically studying classic examples, students will learn to assess the qualities and relevance of each in their historical context.

Course Prerequisites:

LA 108 (LA 108 may be concurrent) (Students with start terms of Spring 2013 and beyond must achieve a C- or higher in LA 108)

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Summer Classes; LAN 117

By Yasmine | Published: April 24, 2013

General Maister Memorial Park, Slovenia - Bruto Landscape Architecture

Many of you are in search of classes to take this summer. For the next week, we’ll be posting information about the summer courses that are available in the Landscape Architecture department. Take a look at your different options, and sign up!

LAN 117: Survey of Landscape Architecture

Topics covered:

  • Landscape perception; What IS Landscape Architecture?
  • Responsibilities, challenges and potential of the 21st century landscape architect
  • The history and future of landscape architecture
  • The complex role landscape architects have in the shaping of human spaces at various scales
  • How values, ecological processes, and cultural influences can affect positive change in the environment.
  • Control of and compromise with the natural environment
  • Landscape as urban infrastructure
  • Environmental issues as they relate to the profession
  • Relationship of landscape architecture to other design professionals
  • Current practice of landscape architecture in the public and private sectors
  • The Public Landscape: European precedents of urban open space
  • Design of the landscape: land, water and plants
  • Site planning and design: Issues, Inventory and Analysis
  • Regional planning case studies: environmental imperatives
  • The state and national park system in the United States
  • The education and licensure of a landscape architect.
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Red Mountain / Green Ribbon

By Yasmine | Published: April 23, 2013

Red Mountain Park/Green Ribbon Master Plan

Source: American Society of Landscape Architects – Analysis and Planning

Every year, the ASLA grants honors and awards for various Landscape architectural and Land Planning categories.

In 2012 the Red Mountain Park Master Plan in Birmingham, AL, received an honor award and was described as follows:

“Red Mountain Park is the largest urban park in the country reclaimed from a landscape devastated by a century of mining. Located along a ridgeline on the edge of the city, the 1200-acre park will connect the new and old Birmingham — revitalizing the long-disadvantaged northern community left in the wake of mining. Referred to in the press as the Great Divide, the mountain is a vestigial symbol of the city’s formerly divisive historic racial and economic conditions. The park will bridge the two communities, linking the older historically African American communities to newly developing communities on the other side of the mountain.”

—2012 Professional Awards Jury

Click on this link to read the full project description of the project on the ASLA website.

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Student Experience; Urban Hike

By Yasmine | Published: April 22, 2013

Urban Hike Route : Fort Mason to Crissy Field

Written by: Daniel Correia

On a beautiful spring morning, the AAU Student Chapter of the ASLA took its first steps- literally. The start of a series of urban hikes took the AAU Chapter of the  ASLA around the Marina district of San Francisco.

Fort Mason was bustling with activity as San Franciscans were taking full advantage of the weather. We started the hike by trekking through the Fort Mason green, pausing to contemplate the deceptive scale of the Phillip Burton statue while toddlers on tricycles raced around it. Heading over to the community gardens, we admired the ad hoc arrangement of vegetable beds whose natural development over time is nigh impossible to recreate.

Fort Mason Green

Community Gardens

We then moseyed along the water’s edge, pausing now and then to talk about seating, parking, and other areas of interest. At the eastern edge of Crissy Field, we talked about the simplicity of a small gathering area that conceded to the view of the oceans and the Golden Gate Bridge.  Travelling along the tiny peninsula, we headed towards the hidden gem of the Marina- the Wave Organ.  Created by artist Peter Richards in 1986 using washed up pieces of granite well actually, the architecturally cut and detailed pieces of granite comes from the destruction from the 1906 earthquake as well as from a local cemetery, the Wave Organ is a cleverly designed acoustic experience. We stopped for a snack soaking in the sights of  a regatta taking place, listening to echoing sounds of the ocean being piped up from underneath the sculpture, and noting how the Wave Organ is a great place to study human scale and site identity in a design.

Water Organ

 

For our final stop, we looked at the bosque of cypress trees in front of the Crissy Field Center, extolling the underrated ability of trees to frame views. We then parted ways shortly after 1PM, relieving the Marina of the scrutiny we had put it under until another day.

Crissy Field Bosque

 

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TOM LEADER; This Wednesday!!!

By Yasmine | Published: April 22, 2013

Date: Wednesday April, 24th, 2013

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: 601 Brannan, First Floor Presentation Space

 

 

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Big win for BIG

By Yasmine | Published: April 18, 2013

Source: www.archdaily.com

Danish Architecture firm, BIG has won yet another international competition for Europa City. Check out the article below and weigh in on with your thoughts on the project. Happy Reading!

Written by: Irina Vinnitskaya

Source: www.archdaily.com

“Danish architecture firm, BIG - led by Bjarke Ingels – has been announced as the winner of an international invited competition for the design of Europa City,  a 800,000 square meter cultural, recreational and retail development in Triangle de Gonesse, .  Combining city development with an open landscape,  creates a dynamic center of activity for visitors and residents, appealing to the variety of functions of city life.   is situated along the route from Charles de Gaule Airport to Paris and has a wide range of programs that is part of a larger initiative to attract international tourism into the northern parts of Paris.

Source: www.archdaily.com

As seen in the renderings, the project appears as a massive earthwork.  Europa City promises plazas, artificial ski slopes, retail establishments and recreational areas that are hidden under an expansive topography of a landscape-covered roof.  The landscape is a lush and accessible green roof that undulates with the varying heights of the buildings below – which are dictated by local zoning laws – and includes penetrating slices into the levels below.

Source: www.archdaily.com

The renderings indicate an overlap of functions – layers that are stacked and split reveal a dynamic combination of open walkways, expansive green spaces, a golf course, an integrated transit system, and indoor retail space that are stepped back and open into plazas and walkways.  According to Bjarke Ingels, these walkways are designed to imitate the intimacy of Parisian streets and streetlife.  Visual intersections between all of these programs throughout the site make it both a space of relaxation and high excitement.

Source: www.archdaily.com

The boulevards throughout Europa City form a continuous loop around the the development.  It passes through six areas that have been themed as various regions of Europe.  Throughout this somewhat linear passage through the site are orchestrated moments of spontaneity that arise as the various elements – and the activities that these elements promote – are found along the way.

Source: www.archdaily.com

Not only does this indicate a creative approach to retail development that integrates the surrounding neighborhoods by providing leisure, it also addresses a concern for the delicate balance of developing density and open space.  Europa City appears to find that balance.  While compiling a diverse program over a large expanse of land – a proposed 80 hectares – it also successfully provides for the need to retain a open space.  What better way than transforming what could have been up tens of thousands of square meters of roof into a landscape that reintroduces vegetation and trees and incorporates functions within these spaces that attract visitors?”

Design: Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG)
Location: Paris, France
Project: EUR - Europa City
Project Type: Invited Competition
Collaborators: Tess, Transsolar, Base, Transitec, Michel Forgue
Partner in Charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Klok Pedersen
Project Leader: Joao Albuquerque, Gabrielle Nadeau
Team: Maren Allen, David Tao, Salvador Palanca, Marcos Bano, Lucian Racovitan, Ryohei Koike, Camille Crépin, Elisa, Wienecke, Léna Rigal, Tiina Liisa Juuti, Jeff Mikolajewski
Client: Groupe Auchan
Size: 800 000 m2; 80 hectares

Source: www.archdaily.com

Source: www.archdaily.com

Source: www.archdaily.com

Source: www.archdaily.com

Source: www.archdaily.com

Source: www.archdaily.com

 

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Call for Spring Show Entries

By Yasmine | Published: April 17, 2013

The Academy of Art University hosts an annual Spring Show which “offers up-and-coming stars of the art and design world a much-prized opportunity to share their unique vision. Drawing over 150 distinguished guests from across the creative sector, Spring Show enables the industry to keep a finger on the pulse of the latest ideas.”

We are excited to showcase excellent student work from our many Landscape Architecture classes and studios in order to represent the strength of our ever growing student body and department.

If you would like to have your work showcased at the 2013 Spring Show, please follow the guidelines below:

  • Deadline for submittals : May 17th, 2013 
  • Select examples of your best work from any of your Landscape Architecture classes and  studios, including ARH 110 class, from Fall 2012 to Spring 2013. Any work older than Fall 2012 will not be considered.
  • Compose project boards that are clearly labeled and include a title block with the following information: Student Name, Student ID #, Instructor’s Name, Class Name, Class Number, Project Name
  • Create 150 dpi PDF files of your project boards
  • Email your PDF files to Shelley Jacobs: sjacobs@academyart.edu
  • Please note that  projects submitted after May 17th will not be considered for Spring Show.
Don’t miss out on the chance to exhibit your work to professionals in the field of Landscape Architecture/Urban Design, fellow and prospective students, friends and family!
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TOM LEADER GUEST LECTURE!

By Yasmine | Published: April 16, 2013

Date: April 24th, 2013

Time: 7:00 pm

Location: 601 Brannan, First Floor Presentation Space

 

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AIASF Event

By Yasmine | Published: April 15, 2013

Date: 

Location: AIA San Francisco
130 Sutter Street
Suite 600
San Francisco, CA
View on Google Maps

EVENT

Join Eric Blasen for a lecture and book signing for his newly published Living Land: The Gardens of Blasen Landscape Architecture. The gardens in this book are growing on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, in the valleys of the California coastal hills, in tight urban lots, and on spacious residential estates. Each is of a sophisticated and seamless high quality and demonstrates Eric and Silvina Blasens’ ability to intensely intuit and beautifully forge a relevant, contemporary dynamic between architecture and land. Whether a wildflower meadow or a courtyard around a fireplace, the spaces are built sustainably and shine with a single quality: ease with the outdoors. These gardens help their owners live everyday in relationship to the land.

Eric Blasen, ASLA, studied art history at the University of London, England, received his Bachelor of Science in Geography from Oregon State University and his Masters of Landscape Architecture from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He first explored practical design by making furniture and won his first design award for it. In 1993, he cofounded, with his wife, Silvina, Blasen Landscape Architecture, a design studio, in San Anselmo, California. The design team has created landscapes for places of worship, schools, corporate offices, and wineries, but its main focus is large residential gardens, for which it has garnered top American landscape architecture awards. Eric Blasen has taught in the Architecture Department at California College of Art, San Francisco, California, and served on many academic juries.

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Urban Hike

By Yasmine | Published: April 15, 2013

GET ACTIVE! GET CONNECTED! GET INFORMED!

The Academy of Art University Landscape Architecture department’s ASLA Student Affiliate Chapter kicked off their first event this weekend.

Led by Heather Clendenin, students of the LAN department  went on an “Urban Hike” that lasted approx. 2 hour. They wandered up to see the Phillip Burton Memorial  at Ft. Mason, stopped by the great community gardens, walked along the Marina Green, Crissy Field, and ended up at the Wave Organ. 

Interested in upcoming ASLA Student Affiliate Chapter events? Make sure you  join the Facebook group!

Community Gardens

Urban Hike

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