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Green Roof Design Awards 08

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a not-for-profit industry association that promotes the construction of green roofs throughout North America, has announced the winners of its 2008 design awards.

All of this year's winners are quite spectacular -- whether they are intensive or extensive green roofs. If you're not clear on the difference, intensive green roofs are roof gardens with a soil depth anywhere from one to 15 feet that can support many types of plants, including trees and shrubs, and require irrigation and maintenance.  Extensive green roofs are self-sustaining, planted with low-lying groundcovers up to six inches high that can be supported in just two to four inches of soil.

This Chicago roof garden on Michigan Avenue -- The Residences at 900 -- won an "Intensive Residential" award for Hoerr Schaudt Landscape Architects LLC, also of Chicago. Ornamental grasses, perennials and annuals bloom at different times and offer seasonal color and winter interest while evoking a natural Midwestern landscape.  Residents can enjoy the roofscape year-round, under a shady pergola or out in the open on a sizeable deck with barbeque grills, tables and chairs.  A grove of Japanese tree lilacs helps block the views of office workers in taller surrounding buildings.

This extensive green roof has been installed atop an eight-story parking garage that connects the tallest apartment building in Kansas City, Missouri, and another building under refurbishment next door. In just six inches of soil, award winner Jeffrey L. Bruce & Company included lawn and lush plantings in a 17 thousand square foot garden that includes a special area for dogs, and cabanas where residents can socialize with their neighbors.  According to Green Roofs, the design concept provided tenants with "the same amenities you would find in a luxury European hotel or resort with small spaces for privacy and relaxation."  No wonder the building has a 90% occupancy rate -- almost 20 percentage points higher than buildings in the rest of the city. 

The Big Moores at NYBG

Henry Moore Sculptures at the NY Botanical Garden

Summer is the best time to appreciate outdoor sculptures, so head to NYC before November for this special showing of monumental works by British sculptor Henry Moore.  It's the largest exhibition of his huge pieces ever presented in the United States. 

Twenty of Moore's large sculptures have been placed around the New York Botanical Garden, including "Locking Piece," shown here outside the NYBG Rock Garden.

The show includes several of his famous reclining figures, as well as simple abstract forms, and three of his mother and child sculptures.

Moore was born in a small coal mining town in Yorkshire in 1898, and after serving in World War I, he received an ex-serviceman's grant to attend the Leeds School of Art.  After two years, he won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London.  His first exhibition was held in 1928, and the rest is history.  Moore, who died in 1986, was one of the 20th century's most prolific and celebrated sculptors.

According to the Henry Moore Foundation, Moore intended his larger works to be displayed in expansive landscapes where they could be seen from different angles, in different kinds of light, and in different seasons.  So there is no more appropriate setting for this show than the NY Botanical Garden.  And check the NYBG calendar for special programs and tours related to this exhibit.

(image © Anita Feldman, Henry Moore Foundation)

Happenings June 08

Through Sept 28  Totally Terrific Treehouses, Media, PA
Tyler Arboretum, Exhibit of 17 treehouses (610) 566-9134
Through Oct 13, One Planet, Ours! Washington DC
Exhibit on Sustainability for the 22nd Century, US Botanic Garden (202) 225-1116
Through Nov 2, Moore in America, Bronx, NY
Exhibit of Monumental Sculptures by Henry Moore, NY Botanical Garden (718) 817-8700

June 1 Garden Tour, Baltimore, MD
10AM-4PM, sponsored by Hort Society of MD (410) 821-5561
June 1, Garden Conservancy,  Garden Tours, CT, NY
CT: Burlington, Farmington, Plantsville, Meriden, Middlebury; NY: Rosendale, Saugerties
June 1 & June 8  Garden Tours, Santa Fe, NM
9 gardens, Tesuque & Old Santa Fe, (505) 988-1234
June 1, Wallingford Garden Tour, Seattle, WA
10AM-4PM, tour of 10 private gardens (206) 632-3165
June 5 World Environment Day , "CO2--Kick the Habit" Glencoe, IL
Chicago Botanic Garden hosts an International Climate Change Forum, lectures, demonstrations, children's events & much more (847) 835-5440
June 5-7 "Native Plants in the Landscape," Millersville, PA
18th annual symposium, Millersville University. Lectures, workshops, tours, & more (717) 872-3030
June 6-7 Garden tour, Concord, MA
9AM-4PM, 19th annual tour of 8 private gardens (978) 369-9763
June 7, Garden Conservancy  Garden Tours, NJ, CT, NY, WA
NJ: Montclair; CT: Greenwich, Ridgefield, Riverside; NY: Cortlandt Manor, North Salem; WA: Graham, Orting
June 7 Water Wise Garden Tour , Dallas, TX
9AM-3PM, 13th Annual Tour, 26 gardens (214) 670-5378
June 7-8 Garden Tour, Atlanta, GA
12 private gardens, GA Perennial Plant Assn; 10AM-5PM on the 7th; noon to 5 on the 8th; (406) 637-0977
June 7, Garden Tour, Bardstown, KY
9AM-4PM  5th annual tour of 8 private gardens (502) 348-4877

June 12 Invasive Plants Symposium, Stamford, CT
9AM-5PM, Bartlett Arboretum & Gardens, Education Bldg (203) 322-6971
June 12 Invasive & Native Plant Workshop, Washington DC
9AM-4PM, Conservatory Classroom, US Botanic Garden (202) 225-1116
June 12-15 Cactus & Succulent Conference, Grand Junction, CO
12th Biennial Mid-states Conference. Lectures, fields trips, plants sales & more.
June 14 Garden Tour, Putnam County, NY
10AM-4PM. Tour of 12 private gardens plus lectures, plant sales & more (845) 278-PARC
June 14-15 Garden Conservancy  Garden Tours, KY, NJ, NY,OR, CT, MA
KY: Louisville, Prospect; NJ: Ridgewood, River Edge, River Vale; NY: Claverack, Copake Falls, Craryville, Hudson, Livingston, Amenia, Ithaca, Lansing, Cold Spring; OR: Portland; CT: East Windsor Hill, Simsbury, Vernon; MA: Beverly Farms, Gloucester, Marblehead, Manchester-by-the-Sea

June 19-20 Gardening with Native Plants, Denver, CO
Symposium, Denver Botanic Garden with AHS (703) 768-5700 x 137
June 20, Creating a Sustainable Landscape, Washington DC
12-1PM, Lecture, Steve Windhager, Director of Landscape Restoration at the LadyBird Johnson Wildflower Center, Conservatory Classroom, US Botanic Garden (202) 225-1116
June 20-21 "Gardens by the Sea," Stonington, CT
10AM-4PM, Garden tour of 10 Private Gardens (860) 535-3356
June 20-22 Secret Garden Tours, Newport, RI
10AM-5PM As many as 10 private gardens (401) 847-0514
June 21 "All About Roses," Bronx NY
10AM-5PM, 6 Different Rose Classes, NY Botanical Garden,Watson Bldg (718) 817-8747
June 21-22, Garden Conservancy Garden Tours, CA, MA, NY, CT
CA: Belvedere, Corte Madera, Kentfield, Mill Valley, Ross, Sausalito, Tiburon; MA: South Natick, Dover, Medfield, Needham; NY: East Hampton, Riverdale; CT: Stonington

June 22, Garden Tour, Boise, ID
10AM-5PM, 8 private gardens, ID Botanical Garden (208) 343-8649
June 26-30 National Rose Convention & Show, Denver, CO
American Rose Society. Lectures, Tours, Trade Show & More (303) 691-2790
June 26 Garden Conservancy Garden Tours, MA
Nantucket Island
June 27-29 Flower Show. Newport, RI
"Explore Botanical Passions," Rosecliff, 548 Bellevue Avenue.  Lectures, Workshops, Demos, Shopping & more (401) 847-1000 x 131
June 27-29 Artists' Studio & Garden Tour, Brown County, TN
9AM-6PM & 10AM-5PM on Sunday. 20 Studios & gardens. (812) 988-7303
June 28-29, Garden Conservancy Garden Tours, CT, IL, NY
CT: Falls Village, Litchfield, New Hartford, Washington, Glastonbury, Manchester, Rockville, S.Glastonbury; IL: N.Barrington, Evanston, Winnetka, Highland Park, Lake Forest; NY: Brewster, Bedford Hills, Katonah

LOOKAHEAD:

July 18  12th annual Woody Plant Conference, Swarthmore, PA
8:30AM-5PM, Scott Arboretum (610) 388-1000 x 507
July 26-27 Gardenwalk, Buffalo, NY
More than 260 open gardens

Edible Front Yards at Descanco

Architect Fritz Haeg has recently installed one of his edible front yards at Descanso Gardens in La Cañada Flintridge, CA. You can read an article about it in the Pasadena Star News (scroll down for article), or see pictures of the installation here from Descanso itself,  and decide for yourself whether you should try it out on your own landscape.

FYI, I reviewed Haeg's book in a post earlier this year.

A Rare Garden Film

Film Previews Open This Week --
"A Man Named Pearl"

Pearl Fryar has a love of plants, an eye for the unusual, and a fierce determination to succeed.  The son of a sharecropper, he was born in rural North Carolina in 1939.  He lived in New York City and Atlanta before he and his wife decided to move to Bishopville, South Carolina in 1976 to be closer to family.  The Fryars looked at a house for sale in an all-white neighborhood -- and, as the story goes, they were notified they were not welcome in that part of town because "black people don't keep up their yards."  So the Fryars bought property in the "black" part of town, and Pearl began his quest to win Bishopville's "Yard of the Month" award.

One day, he cut up a holly that was in his front yard, and the rest is history.  After a 12-hour shift in the soda can factory where he worked, Pearl would work until late in the night, under street lights and spotlights, fashioning topiaries from plants discarded by local nurseries. He finally achieved his goal to win the town's top yard award in the early 1980's.

Pearl's abstract topiaries now fill more than three acres of his property and attract more than five thousand visitors a year. Pearl has also worked as an artist-in-residence at Coker College, near Bishopville, to teach students there how to create works of art in the garden.

The Garden Conservancy is working to ensure the preservation of the Pearl Fryar Topiary Garden, and Pearl is the subject of a new documentary film by Scott Galloway and Brent Pierson, to be released nationwide by Shadow Distribution.

Pre-release previews:

May 23  Washington DC (Avalon Theater)
            Santa Fe, NM (The Screen)
June 13-16    Detroit MI (Detroit Institute of Arts)

OPENING:

July 18    New York City (Angelika Film Center)
July 25    Encino, CA (Laemmle Town Center)
             Irvine, CA (Regal Westpark
             Laguna Niguel, CA (Regency Laguna Niguel)
             Los Angeles, CA (Laemmle One Colorado)
Aug 1     Pleasantville, NY (Jacob Burns Film Center)
            Seattle, WA (SIFF Cinema)

(image: Shadow Distribution -- click to enlarge)
   

National Design Awards 08

The Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum has announced the winners of its 9th annual National Design Awards, and the Olin Partnership of Philadelphia is this year's winner of the Landscape Design Award. 

Pictured left is the firm's design for the Gap Headquarters in San Francisco.  Olin, founded in 1976, is one of the leading landscape architecture firms in the United States, and it was cited by the museum for its dedication to "sustainability and green design." Some of the firm's recent projects include the Fran and Ray Stark Sculpture Garden at the J. Paul Getty Center in LA, and in New York City, the restoration of Bryant Park, and the reconstruction of Columbus Circle.

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd of Seattle was a landscape design finalist, cited for its high-use landscapes in complex urban contexts.  The practice is led by partners Katherine Gustafson, Jennifer Guthrie and Shannon Nichol.  Shown here is Seattle's City Hall Plaza designed by the firm.

Stoss Landscape Urbanism of Boston was also a landscape finalist, for its practice "at the juncture of landscape architecture, urban design and planning.  Shown here is Stoss's Perkins Park in Somerville, Massachusetts.

(images: top, Marion Brenner; center, GGN Ltd; bottom, Stoss Landscape Urbanism)

In the Magazines May 08

American Gardener May-June

• Designing with Vines, including a list of invasives to avoid.
• Fruit trees for the back yard
• How to protect yourself from mosquitos and ticks (other than moving to a state with an arid climate, which might be a better idea)
• A book review by yours truly on page 52
• A nice profile of Rhododendron occidentale, native to the Pacific Northwest and California.
• Interview with plant breeder Harold Pellett, who has brought us 'Northern Lights' azaleas, 'Center Glow' ninebark, 'Silver Star' clematis and many other trees & shrubs.

Coastal Living May
This magazine is obviously about a lot more than gardens, still, a couple of very useful articles in the current issue.

• GREAT article on outdoor fabrics that are colorful & stylish, water & mildew repellent, and fade resistant. Plus listings of websites and phone numbers where you can order them.
• The coastal garden of Jack and Kay Keohane overlooking San Francisco Bay -- carefully chosen plants that will survive high tides and winter rains.

Garden Design May

• Garden antiques dealer Barbara Israel (author of Antique Garden Ornament, Abrams 1999) has a new business called Garden Traditions replicating some of her classic antiques -- and wow! - made in the USA.
• Profile of Connecticut's Maywood Estate in Litchfield Country  -- 16 gardens in one.
• The French "rock" garden of interior designer Wendy Owen in Sonoma, CA.

Horticulture May

• Profile of the Missouri Botanical Garden's director Peter Raven
• Tony Avent's mountain-top garden
• Author Valerie Easton on the mocha plants at  Chocolate Flower Farm

Land Art

You have to applaud the hort students at Cornell.
This "turfwork" covers more than one acre and is to be unveiled today, on Mother's Day. "Passengers flying in and out of Ithaca and people flying in to the East Hill Flying Club Mother's Day breakfast will have the best view," says Marcia Eames-Sheavly, Senior Extension Associate in Cornell's Dept. of Horticulture.   

Under the guidance of Eames-Sheavly and artist Jeff de Castro, the hort students "painted" their design onto the landscape using mulch, straw, and black plastic to turn the grass yellow in certain places.  It took them an entire semester, using a field at a hort research facility adjacent to the Robert Trent Jones golf course. Eames-Sheavly said the goal was to "create a simple, powerful, sensory surprise with maternal overtones nestled into the landscape."

I'm not sure about the maternal overtones, but this is pretty spectacular.  Wonder what you could do on a good-sized suburban lawn -- to view from a second or third-story window.

(image: Peter Cadieux)

Ideas for Designers

Quick Solutions All in One Place

Need an idea, fast, for a fence, a walkway, a fountain or gate? Then you might want to consult 1000 Garden Ideas: The Best of Everything in a Visual Sourcebook (Artisan Books, 2008) by designer Stafford Cliff.

This book is heavy on traditional and/or British garden style, so don't go here looking for modern ideas.  But there are plenty of ideas throughout the book to get you started on design details.  It's a photo book -- with hundreds of photos in each section to get you thinking about design in a serious way.

I particularly liked the sections on gates and fences, paving patterns and edging ... where you can always benefit from looking at photos of a pattern you might not have seen (or noticed) before. There are also sections on pools, fountains and bridges; pergolas, gazebos, and follies; garden seats and benches; containers; hedges, parterres and topiary; and color.

It's a good book to leaf through before you start to design -- but the how-to is up to you.

(click on image or link to purchase book)

Harvard Fountain - Landmark Award

Harvard's Tanner Fountain is to receive this year's Landmark Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Designed by landscape architect Peter Walker of the SWA Group, it's the first project for an institution in the "Landscape as Art" movement.

When the fountain was commissioned by then-Harvard president Derek Bok, he asked the designer to come up with a fountain without a basin.  Past fountains at Harvard had all been eventually filled with soil by maintenance crews and turned into planters. This fountain is roughly a 60-foot diameter circle formed by 159 granite boulders that were cleared from regional farms around the turn of the century. 

The water for the fountain comes from 32 nozzles imbedded in and around the stones, and they produce a mist that hovers above the circle spring through fall, producing rainbows when the sun falls just right.

After the fountain was installed, some critics suggested that it is a symbolic representation of the Big Bang.  Whatever the maintenance requirements, this fountain is not likely one day to be filled with plants.

(image: Alan Ward)