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Week 16: Martin Maca Lecture

The lecture in honor of Martin Maca was both very informative and insightful. I very much enjoyed learning about the history of Martin Maca and his role at SDSU and his influence here. I also was grateful for the in depth description of the of the council it self and its importance to the landscape architecture program here at SDSU. On the lecture by John Royster, I enjoyed his stress for the importance of being able to relate our designs through a variety of ways. His stress for the importance of writing was interesting to me as I really enjoy to write, both editorial and formal writing. This importance is something that I believe will only enhance our design and creative abilities. I look forward to the years to come with this lecture council.

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Week 15: Blog About The Blog

Throughout this semester of blogs I have had the opportunity to learn more about my classmates as well as my field of study in general. I have really enjoyed both the challenge and quest to find new and interesting topics to post about every week as well as the opportunity to explore Landscape Architecture as a whole and expand on the knowledge I have gained in class. The blogs have been a way for me to express myself as a student of landscape architecture and introduce myself in a deeper way to the people I work along side. The blogs have been a great way to expand upon concepts talked about in class in a fun and interesting way, rather than being forced to do the typical term papers. I have enjoyed reading the ideas of my classmates and learning more about their interests as students of landscape architecture.  

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Week 14: Rooftop Gardens

These two designs are from a firm called life greens systems. There are really two reasons why I like this firm as well as the designs that they create. The first reasons is the composition of their designs. They are able to create a composition that is simple yet very complex. The second reason why I like this firm is the fact they always keep in mind the environmental impact that the design has. In these designs a list was provided that stated all of the benefits Things like how the site efficiently removes only excess water, promotes fast and excellent plant growth, reduces Urban Flooding and reduces water contamination by filtering at source.

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Week 13: Sustainable Landscapes

The two images above are from the Pete V. Domenici U.S. Courthouse Sustainable Landscape Renovation. I thought this was an interesting concept of “Material Reuse. This basically means that everything that was left over after the previous building that was on this site was demolished is being reused to create side walks, walk ways, seat wall and many other creative design elements.

This image is from the Steel Yard Park in Providence, Rhode Island. This park is unique because it was faced with many challenges evolving water and water shed. The most important thing for this design was to manage and filter the large amounts of water that make its way to this location. Through a system of permeable surfaces and bios wales, the new park infiltrates 90 percent of annual rainfall. This was very interesting to me because of the immense importance that this site serves yet they were still able to create such a beautiful park full of interesting visual stimuli was well as places to have a tactile experience as well.

These last two images come from Living Breakwaters in Staten Island, New York and this one was very, very cool. This portion of the coast was hit hard by hurricane sandy and there needed to be a solution so this would not happen again. So a landscape arch. firm called SCAPE wanted to build a series of shallow water islands to control that the water coming to the coast. Its a new solutions to see walls that are seen on many coastal shores. This is interesting to me because this firm created a new way to control water at the same time keeping the nature beauty as well as creating a way for community involvement with integrative learning parks so see this work in real life.

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Week 12: Section Elevations/ Plan Graphics

This is a project done by PUPA, a public urbanism architecture firm. I was drawn to this project in particular because of the way that these graphics are arranged. I really appreciate the hierarchy of the composition and the color choices. In the section elevation on the top, I like how they bolded the color in the most foreground portion of the piece and dulled the colors that were fading in the distance. Both images appear to have been touched both with the human hand was well as tampered with on computer applications which I think work very well. In the lower image I liked how they showed the main focus with the choice of the placement of color. Although there is not a lot of color or different color the choices of both placement and shades make this piece come alive and draws me in to a very interesting piece of land.

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Week 11: Meaningful Song - The Same By: Michael Blume

This was a challenge for me to pick a single song that has meaning to me and my life because almost all the songs on my playlist have meaning to me. Finding songs that have meaning or impact on my life is a major consideration in the music that I like. This song by Michael Blume is what I decided to go with mainly because it was closest to the top of my recently played playlist. The song has a message that is applicable to all people as it talks about how we all live and learn in life. The thing that he talks about is that after when experience a leaning experience do we learn and then change for the better. In this case he says that Americans have become so selfish and self absorbed that we have become so complacent. We don't even see the mistakes we make to even learn and change from them. We are to focused on “material, plastic ties” and “commercial satisfaction”. The main point the song is saying is that we have become so complacent in our lives that when something bad happens he say “man that sucks” and then we “STAY THE SAME”.

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Week 10: Find a Firm - Golf & Land Design

Golf and Land Design is located in Steyr, Austria and works almost exclusively on projects in Europe. They are mainly focused on golf course design but as they have shown on their website they are also invested in creating designs for projects that don't fit there exact specification. Based on what research I have done, the group is very invested and hard working. They do anything from one hole designs to full size resort course master planning. The firm is skilled in creating very visual drawings that include very detailed description of their ideas and plans. I like how they use such simple drawing techniques of that of colored pencil but are able to create such eye pleasing designs. I noticed that this firm likes to take on unusual land masses or quantities of land. Some of the land that they have to work with is very unusual for the shape of a golf course but they are still able to creatively solve problems and fit 18 holes into it.

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Week 8: Travel Destination - Scotland

Its always been a dream of mine to visit Scotland, ever since I was a little boy. The things that I like about Scotland go beyond the awesome accents and interesting culture. I like the history of this place. Its a land full of history in more ways than one. The landscape its freeing. It looks like its been untouched. Its history is seen in its historic landscape architecture and its royal and regal building architecture. This is a place that all golfers know and love to love, even though many have not been able to visit. It looks like a place where retreat can be experienced even just with a simple walk down the cost. The landscape is inviting to all. It has so much to offer, a chance to lay in a meadow surrounded by hillside, as well a chance to experience the awesome and powerful beauty of the flat plains. I would love to visit and the bucket list is only expanding.

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Week 7: Residential Landscape

    As you may have been able to infer by now, I am a lover or the sport of golf. Its a game that I am able to find relaxation, happiness and joy... I know surprising right. Naturally I would like to bring this to my backyard landscape design. This residential landscape has many of the essential aspects that I would enjoy in a landscape. Looking into that background, a porch area with seating is visible. A place to host is very important to me as well as area for pets and adaptable green space. Another piece of this residential landscape that I enjoy is the shading that is provided by the canopy trees overhead. Moving to the foreground, surrounding the putting green is natural rock. I really appreciate this look, it provides a very natural way to separate the two spaces. I have adapted a preference for this look in my golf carrier especially going west river, where the use of rock is prevalent in separating teeing areas from other defined parts of a course. Finally I appreciate the space of this landscape. Although this in not exactly a large backyard space, the separation provided by greens and rocks, allows for proper navigation of the space as well as provides for a very usable landscape.

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Week 6: Significant Landscape - Governors Island Park

      Governors Island Park and Public Space Master Plan proposes a dramatic transformation of this once-abandoned island and accentuates the qualities of this unique place, transforming Governors Island into both a destination and landmark. The Master Plan for the Governors Island Park and Public Spaces encompasses 87 acres. The landscapes of the northern Historic District total 33 acres and the new Park and Public Spaces to the south total 40 acres. The Great Promenade, 2.2 miles in length, runs the complete periphery of the Island.

     The Governors Island park is in one of the coolest locations, in sight of the Statue of Liberty and downtown Manhattan. I found it most intriguing that West 8 Landscape Architecture was able to transform a previously unusable piece of land into a beautify destination, full of life and activity. Looking farther into the land, they Architects had the challenge of creating a land that was not a single elevation. They were able to build up the land at the southern portion of the land to include a large elevated peak for a perfect view of the statue of liberty.

The Island was received many awards all of which are listed below:

Built by Women New York City Award, Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation (2014), Honor Award, American Society of Landscape Architects ASLA (2012), Award for Excellence in Design, Public Design Commission of New York City (2012), Center for Architecture Foundation Award, The American Institute of Architects New York (2011), Merit Award, NY Chapter ASLA (2011), Open House New York Award, Open House New York (2011), Special Recognition Award, Municipal Art Society (2010), Special Citation, The American Institute of Architects, New York (2009), AIA NYC Honor Award ,The American Institute of Architects, New York (2008), Green Around Downtown Award, Alliance for Downtown New York (2008)

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Week 5: SDNLA Expo Speaker Overview

After attending two very informative and intriguing speakers at the 2017 SDNLA Expo, it is very difficult to pick a best and worst. Both of these speakers were full of charisma while instilling very interesting information into us, the listeners. If I had to pick a favorite it would be the presentation by Rodger Grothe of Aloha Landscape. He brought to light a very exciting idea and product in TileTech. This product was pitched in association with roof top landscape, the premise of Mr. Grothe’s presentation. I personally thought that this concept of utilizing roof top real-estate is genius. TileTech has created a product to make this concept a reality. They thought through challenges of building on a roof and created a light weight pedestal that would disperse weight while still allowing for basic construction “musts”. It allows for proper drainage as well as holds up to high wind speeds. Although the product and concept may not be exactly applicable to South Dakota, maybe its worth exploring further to make, having these rooftop utopias pop up around the mid-west. This talk gave me thoughts to carry with me and ideas for the future. The second speaker that I attended was David Jerke, who talked about bringing play into landscape. It was funny, as I listen and watched Mr. Jerke present I couldn't resistant to just smile. Its a very nostalgic thing to talk about playing and playgrounds. It was very exciting to see the work that he does and pushes. I especially liked his want and need to create environments that challenged kids but still remained safe. Its another avenue of Landscape Architecture, another example showing me that this career can take you anywhere.

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Week 4: My Favorite Logos

#1: Volcom

   Volcom, Inc. is a lifestyle brand that designs, markets, and distributes board sports-oriented products. The company primarily produces clothing, footwear, accessories, and related products for young men and women. I am and always have been a huge fan of Volcom and I have never actually known that they primarily produce for board sports, I have always just really liked the logo and their product designs. The logo is actually a stone and its very simple yet very effective, interesting to the eye and intriguing for the buyer.  

#2: Corvette

   So we all know what Corvettes are and what the cars that this logo is stamped on look like. These cars are incredible visually and when you see this logo the image of a very sleek, fast and expensive car come to mind. A little back story, as a kid, every time, it seemed that me and my family would travel to Rapid City to visit my grandparents there would be a Corvette car rally going on around the hills. We would be up in the hills and a train of these cars would go by. Ever since I was a little kid I have been a huge fan of these cars. The logo just looks expensive, cutting edge and made to go fast.

#3: GAMECUBE

   So I must just be feeling very nostalgic right now or all the great logos that I remember were from when I was a kid. So this was the lesser known Nintendo gaming system that I had growing up but non-the-less had just as many or possibly more entertaining games as the N64 or Super Nintendo. Ok, maybe not but this console was in fact a cube that had games such as Zelda, Monkey Ball, and Mario. As I look back on the design of this logo I never actually noticed that the negative space in the cub makes a “G” for GAMECUBE. There was also a graphic when you turned the console on that outlined the “G” which makes so much more sense to me know. Again, a very simple logo but obviously was very effective as I still remember it to this day.

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Week 3: My Favorite Things

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#1: Headphones are an everyday need for me and my love for music. I prefer the over-the-ear style of headphones rather than ear buds because of their ability to cancel out a maximum amount of other sounds. This is a way for me to decompress after a long day or simply just enjoy music in general. There are many different styles of headphones that a user can hand pick for their liking. As for me, anything that works and lasts is the best.

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#2: If you don’t already know, based on my profile image, I am a huge fan of golf and as humble as I can, would say that I am pretty good at it. Golf has been a staple in my family since I was a little kid and I have grown to love the game. With my love of golf, I also very much enjoy to travel and explore different courses all over the country or where I can get to, this is where I have really come to love landscape design and architecture. The problem with traveling with golf clubs is exactly that, it’s a problem. This simple yet handy product, makes traveling with clubs a breeze.  

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#3: So this is a solar road, or at this point a solar parking space. No, I do not own this product, but the concept is super awesome. Think about it, heated roads!... in South Dakota! No painted lines, no more hitting deer, and they are solar panels. So the idea is that instead of paving roads you can simply use solar panels. This will use LED’s in place of paint and will also have pressure sensors to know when something has been sitting on the panels for a period of time. This will then display a warning message to drivers, telling them to slow down for animals or stalled cars. Its all run by the solar panels! So I don't know if this will ever be a thing but I hope it will.

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#4: I know what you are thinking, pineapple is the best fruit ever. I would have to agree with you because I am a massive fan of pineapple but the problem is I'm not the best at cutting one up. With this product I no longer have to worry about it. Its amazing, it talks about 2 minutes to complete a job that would usually take three or four times as long. Not only that but you could almost use the remains of the pineapple as some kind of bowl or something. It works just about the same as an apple corer, just with a way better fruit.