More Good Economic News for Landscape Architects

Piggy backing on my last post about the increasing demand for landscape architects, Landscape Architecture and Specifier News published another industry survey. In fact it was hard to tell if they were not the same survey. I could not find any indication if it was. Regardless, it had a lot more information than the ASLA press release. LASN reported forty three percent of firms surveyed a ten percent or more increase in 2007 revenues as of the third quarter. Fifty-two percent of the firms anticipated a better year next year. This is good news. I hope they are right. LASN predicted growth in all listed non-residential sectors. This included an increase of 12.5% for Hotels in the Commercial/Industrial Sector and 9.8% increase in Public Safety within the Institutional Sector. (link to entire list). I found it surprising that LASN was much more optimistic than the consensus figures between McGraw-Hill Construction, Global Insight, Portland Cement Association, Moody's, FMI, and Reed Business. Collectively, they predicted a 5.2% increase in Industrial facilities and a 5% increase in healthcare facilities as their top 2 sectors. They predicted a net decrease in retail by -0.9%. I would lean toward these more conservative figures. I may be pessimistic but the current credit crunch has to be a big factor. On the flip side, I was talking to an architect recently and they said many of their clients had thought they could wait out the construction price increases before making commitments, but are now realizing the high prices are here to stay, so they are now moving forward on projects. A recent report from Reed Construction Data confirms that construction cost have slowed, but rose 1.4% in November. Of course, all of this talk about the economic outlook is about the US market. For those working abroad, particularly in red hot China, things may look much different.

Massive Pedestrian Bridge Crossing

During my recent visit to Memphis, I stumbled upon this massive pedestrian bridge (see map) that spanned over a railroad. I thought it was crazy enough to share. Even though it does connect the adjacent neighborhoods, it seems like overkill. Especially if you have to navigate the winding ADA ramps. I am sure there is a story behind it. I wonder how much it cost? We will be including more photos of it in our January 2008 update.

Mural Paving and Sculptural Bench At Parque de la Paz

While visiting Escofet's website, I was reminded of the Parque de la Paz in Barcelona (see map). The mural paving and xurret system "bench" from Escofet have always intrigued me. The "bench" is definitely crazy looking. It probably is considered more of a landscape sculpture than a bench. However, for the right space, it could provide a dramatic addition. I am sure the mosaic paving wasn't cheap nor easy to do. I would love to know more about it. Every since seeing it, I have wondered if the quilting software Photo Xpress software could be used to facilitate the same effect. I hope to try it someday.

Parc Central of Nou Barris Wins Urban Landscape Award

Parc Central Nou Barris, one of my favorite parks in Barcelona, recently won the 2007 Urban Landscape Award. The park was designed by Andreu Arriola Madorell and Carmen Fiol Costa. Their inspiration for it is described as:

"the park design came from the early cubist and very colourful pictures of Pablo Picasso, which the young artist painted in 1909 at La Horta de San Juan (in Catalonia). The triangle was chosen as the creative guiding theme of the park because it is the most flexible of the geometric forms. Triangular wooden structures resembling artificial palms are therefore also the symbols of the park. They stand – singly or in groups – at key locations, giving shade during the day and illuminating the park at night."
(Source: Eurohypo AG Website)

I never knew it was Barcelona's second largest park. The award was sponsored by Eurohypo AG, a leading specialist bank for real estate and public finance. The project is sited on a steep sloping site adjacent to Barcelona's La Guineueta neighborhood (see map). My favorite features (photos above) are the old bridge (I am not sure it was originally a bridge or if it was another type of structure that was reused) and the large jet fountains. It offers a wide variety of spaces throughout the design and successfully integrates the park into the difficult topography.

Landscape Architects Are In Demand.

I recently wrote about landscape architecture economic anxiety caused by the credit crunch, sub-prime melt down, and the resulting downturn in the construction industry. This week more bad news was released by the Commerce Department that showed housing construction had dropped to the lowest level in more than sixteen years. But it looks like the immediate economic outlook isn't so bad for landscape architects. In November, the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) released the results of their business survey showing landscape architectural services were in demand. More than three fourths of the 251 firms who responded reported steady or increased billable hours. There was no indication as to how much they had increased. Forty percent of the respondents said they were planning on hiring in the fourth quarter, which good news for landscape architects looking for work. If you are wondering, as of this writing there were 82 job postings on ASLA's joblink in the last 60 days. Unfortunately, there is no data for comparing with other time periods. ASLA's survey was conducted during the third quarter of this year, so it may have been before the big credit fiasco in August and September. I wish the data released was more comprehensive. Breaking it down by region, office type, specialty, and other factors would have been helpful. ASLA should consider using the format of AIA's Component Survey of Business Conditions. It is much more informative. ASLA is expected to conduct another survey in Mid-January and release it the following month. So we will wait and see if all the doom and gloom about the economy will settle in on landscape architecture. Hopefully not, but we are all in this together, so we are effected by the global picture. With only 30,000 landscape architects in the US according to the press release, the law of supply and demand should be in the LA's favor.

Cool Playgrounds

Cool Hunter recently posted a playground by CARVE in the Netherlands that offered a refreshing alternative to the typical, stale playgrounds found in the United States. Even though the children must feel like caged animals when they are playing within the wall-holla structure, they look like they are having fun. It reminded me of the interesting playgrounds that I have run across in Barcelona, which offered interactive playgrounds for children. My favorite allowed children to play music (i.e. whistle, chimes) by jumping on various elements (i.e. levers, metal grids), spinning on their own personal merry-go-round, and wobbling around in an aluminum dish. They sure looked like they were having a great time. The aluminum slide integrated into the hillside also looked like fun, but it must have been hot. Safety of children is important when designing playground, but it seems something has been lost in the U.S. when designers have to follow such strict regulations and choose from the monotony of off the shelf play structures.

Beautiful Cafe Chair

The photo above is from our recent visit to San Antonio, TX and is included in our December update. We ran across these cafe chairs at the Hemisphere Park. The chair is called Stax and is made by ORIGLIA , an Italian site furniture company located in Savigliano, Italy near Torino. The chair's frames are aluminum. The company's literature states that they are 100% recycled. The wood components are Acacia in a teak finish. I am not familiar with this type of wood though it looks beautiful. However, I didn't see any information in regard to the wood being certified. Looking for a US distributor, I ran across EuroFurniture, a distributor in Chicago. They run between $390-$430 depending if you add the arm rest. Not cheap and they probably won't contribute toward your LEED regional materials points, but definitely furniture that will accent any space.

Barcelona + Vancouver Exhibition

The Nashville Civic Design Center is holding an exhibition of selected photos of Barcelona and Vancouver from sitephocus' image library. The show began December 1st and will continue until the end of January. The Design Center is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 am– 5:00pm. The exhibit includes fifteen photographs of each city. They were chosen for their distinctly different approaches to urban design. The selected photos capture Vancouver's use of tall slender residential towers on residential podiums often referred to as "The Vancouver Model" and Barcelona's defining l'Eixample repeating grid of mixed use mid-rise blocks. I have put together a companion photo book with over 50 photographs. I will be receiving a proof copy of it in the next week. If everything goes right, it should be available around the first of the year.

Growing Feeling in AEC Industry: Sustainable Buildings Cost More

The October 2007 Green Building Research White Paper (AEC Industry Continues to Embrace Green Building But Is It Only a Niche?)by Building Design+Construction revealed that an overwhelming majority of respondents (86%) felt that green buildings cost more. Twenty-eight percent (28%) felt the additional cost was less than 5%. While forty-one percent (41%) felt it was over 15%. What surprised me more is that despite the marketing campaign by the USGBC and others that those who responded to the question, “What are building owners and developers saying about barriers to incorporating sustainable or green design into their projects?”, the response “Adds significantly to the first cost” has grown from forty-four percent (44%) in 2003 to Seventy-eight percent (78%) in 2007. The real increase in cost depends greatly on the type of project, project site, and the market of the project. This is particularly true in relation to LEED certification. The reason for this is that if it is an urban site verses a rural site, there are obvious point differences that cost more than others. A well chosen site encouraged by LEED will garner a number of “easy” points. There is no indication where the respondents were practicing or working other than it represented a cross section (631 responded in 2007, their professions ranged from design professionals to developers to contractors). I agree that a building that did not exhibit site characteristics encouraged by LEED would cost more because you will have to rely on other points such as increase in energy efficiency that would likely cost more on the front end. In addition, this would be true if it only includes the building cost itself and not the property cost (assuming land is cheaper outside urban areas).

When it comes to stormwater, I have seen sustainable approaches cost less or the same when compared to conventional methods. But it is not often that you can directly compare project strategies. Rain harvesting first cost is more than connecting to the municipal water system, but in places where water is expensive, you can see a payback over time or if harvest the condensate from the HVAC system you can often have water in times of drought while other conventional developments do not. Unfortunately, when making design decisions during a project, the first cost are often the focus primarily because of that is the way the system works. Over time hopefully this will change. Long-term building owners are more likely to value the longer term savings. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of the respondents in the BD+C survey felt that it was hard to justify these cost. Of course there are benefits that are hard to quantify and/or do not have a lot of research. Because of this, building a case for sustainability on this alone is difficult when dealing with short-term building owners or those that are not convinced of the benefits. More research in all benefits of sustainable buildings is an important part of making the case and reducing the barriers.

The encouraging news is that the market for green building is growing and firm’s are recruiting design professionals with green building experience in order to meet this need. Forty-three percent (43%) of respondents said acquiring sustainable building expertise has attracted new clients or projects. Though only ten percent (10%) said significantly more and forty-one percent (41%) said some new business. Still this is encouraging.

Backless Bench for Large Plaza

BEEK design in Belgium has put together a cool bench series. As far as I can tell the series is called ensemble. They are not as flexible as I would like but I think their arrangement offers a variety of seating and social options. The design would complement almost any large open plaza. They need to offer options for backs and armrest. If I used them, I keep thinking that I will need to have a least 50% of them meet ADA which could be a whole other post, but a reality designers must grapple with time and time again.

Planter + Bench

Mixing two different garden elements together, in this case a bench and planter, make for refreshing design when done well. I have not seen this item in person which is always a bit dangerous, (I have been burnt before on poor quality furniture that looked great in the photos) but this looks like a fun garden bench. The planters seem a bit too small for boxwood's long term survival in the garden and depending on the location maybe through the winter, but I could easily see annuals or perennials working as well. As for the small table, I think the grass needs more soil to survive (The current photo is computer generated), but I like the idea. I always thought it would be fun to do something like this to create a vegetated pool table. I found these items at MadinDesign.