The Architect's Lair

recent reads

- U.S. gas: So cheap it hurts - this right here is why Clinton lost my vote with this 'summer gas tax relief' baloney. I did the math: my family refills the tank once a week. A tank of gas is 12 gallons, times 18 cents a gallon is $2.16 per fill up or $8.64 a month. Figure four months of summer and that's just under $35. You know what? I would much rather have our $35 go to developing alternative energy and high efficiency transportation than actually giving it back. And compared to other countries, we are still so lucky at $4/gallon, we should be thankful, not complaining!

- Outdoor 'Living Rooms' Bring Touches of Cheer to Central Los Angeles - now this is a cool idea. It is something I would like to do as an art/architecture project around town - to build shelters and/or seating at bus stops. Could be a wonderful way to encourage our city to be colorful, funky, and beautiful. There are a number of hurdles - money is a big one, then volunteers, liability... but what a cool idea.

- Sprawl belies Oregon's rep for planning - this pretty much sums up my impression of the urban growth boundary. It seemed like the boundary was supposed to be a distinct line where a city ended and nature began, but in reality I just saw most cities sprawling as far out as the boundary would go first - and in some cases started at the boundary and filled in with very low development to the city. The actual built form has not changed in the suburbs of Portland, and that's the problem.

recently read (online)

• Maybe Only God Can Make a Tree, but Only People Can Put a Price on It - fascinating article on the value of trees in NYC. "Factoring in the costs associated with planting and upkeep, New York City’s street trees provide an annual benefit of about $122 million, according to the Parks Department. The study concludes that New York receives $5.60 in benefits for every dollar spent on trees."
• New development will offer many energy-saving features - a development in Salem, OR that is (finally!) built how I think houses should be built. For starters: "Instead of felling most trees, the developers saved 80 percent of them -- then milled the rest for boards and put the sawdust on the community garden." Really the only bad thing is that it is such a narrow, and high, income level required to live there.
• Local Energy Generation System in England Draws Admirers - story of a city that is off the grid
• A stimulating tool to help children grow - the benefits of children playing outside, garden design

long time/no posting

Well, that was quite a break, wasn't it!

Almost a year later now. Our son is keeping us very busy, and the days just flew by. In addition to our time with him, I've taken on some volunteer work that is occupying a lot of my free time. I am currently the vice-president of our local chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and I organize events, attend board meetings, issue a bi-monthly electronic newsletter, attend conferences, etc. It's quite a handful.

Anyway, I'll be posting here again on a (hopefully) weekly basis, mostly to get back in the practice of writing. I have big dreams for our garden this summer, though reality will no doubt bring it down to something much smaller. More photos and posts to come...

Garden update

I had a baby on May 18th, so as you might imagine, our house and garden took a backseat for a while there. However now that we are more adept at this parenting thing, we're focusing again on our garden while the weather is nice. Besides, I would feel lazy if I didn't accomplish something while on maternity leave.

So what have we been up to?

Jack has been digging, mostly. He removed several old tree stumps, then tackled the far back yard so that we can start planting beds along the fenceline. Along the back fence for the entire length of our yard is, apparently, solid with cobblestone-sized round river rocks. Unfortunately it was also a location for bonfires by teenagers, long before our house was built, so he is also finding glass bottles, broken glass, random bits of metal, and fused rock. Still, our rock pile has increased dramatically, and includes more boulders. We are now planning on a Japanese rock garden back there to use all these rocks effectively.

Meanwhile I installed a new planting bed in our front yard. I was gripped with the 'nesting' fever in the weeks before my son was born - not to clean our house, but to garden instead. This bed was the result. It is near our front porch and includes several varieties of blue hosta, a white astilbe, a couple of oakleaf hydrangea (which are in bloom now and gorgeous), a couple of dark heucheras 'Cathedral Windows' and 'Black Beauty', a dark-leaved eupatorium, and, happiest of all, a redbud tree. I've also been going through and filling in our beds with native plants from other areas in our yard. I have a lot of Jack-in-the-pulpit relocated, as well as our two surviving red twig dogwoods, trillium, wild geranium, and Solomon's seal.

This past Wednesday I weeded our southern backyard bed, and attacked the patches of false lamium and buckthorn. Evil stuff, both of them! and I found poison ivy, too. Luckily I was dressed to deal with it and I don't get reactions to it anyway (knock on wood that continues to be the case). I moved the Virgin's bower clematis - almost tore it out as I mistook it for poison ivy at first! - and hope that it bounces back alright.

Next we will cut down a dead tree in the backyard (that I think was ash), start the Japanese rock garden, and plan a bed along the ridge in our yard. My parents bought me a ligularia dentata, an amazing looking plant. It has these gigantic leaves that look tropical, yet it is a native plant that does well in wet shady conditions. Boy do I have a perfect yard for them! I haven't figured out where I want it or what to pair with it yet, but it will be fun to figure out.

And lastly, I ordered more plants today, thanks to a gift certificate from my parents. I bought a blue Hydrangea for our front woodland bed, a bright peach heuchera for the same bed, and a whole bunch of crocus. Not sure where I'll put the crocus yet; probably the front corner bed near the mailboxes, because that is the most visible bed and is the only space in our yard that gets decent sun.

Jane Jacobs, Planning Icon, Has Passed

Urbanist and economic author Jane Jacobs died in Toronto this morning at the age of 89. Jacobs was the author of several books, including The Death and Life of Great American Cities, The Economy of Cities, and Cities and the Wealth of Nations. She was credited with one of the most forceful indictments of mid-century urban renewal in Death and Life, which is now a canonical work in discussing urban revitalization. Its emphasis on mixed uses, diversity, and density in cities are now axioms in much of contemporary urban planning.

Online interviews with Jacobs are available here, here, and here.

I'm sad to say that I've only read parts of Death and Life, and none of the rest of her work. Yet even from the chapters I read, I loved her writing style and where she was coming from. She loved cities, thoroughly and whole-heartedly, and wanted to protect them. It's a fight worth having.