urban rhizome

Best Dressed Window in Santa Monica

2011-10-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

An early morning walk for coffee in Santa Monica lead me to this amazing window box. It is perfect, gorgeous, evergreen, California fantastic.

Urban Backyard via New York Times

2011-04-26T08:13:00.000-07:00

It's that slice of green that the urban dweller relishes. A moment to get lost in a nature that feels for a moment no less contrived than the broader countryside or a grander garden.

Unsustainable beauties - the cousin of the green wall - green furniture

2011-02-18T07:57:00.000-08:00

Spring time in San Francisco

2011-02-16T21:02:00.001-08:00

Suburban Cacti

2011-02-16T20:57:00.000-08:00

Topographic Skin

2011-02-16T20:48:00.001-08:00

Tree as structure -appreciation of form

2011-01-23T21:34:00.000-08:00

Siamese Garden

2011-01-23T21:22:00.000-08:00

Ficus Roots

2010-12-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

GREENAID SEEDBOMBS

2010-11-30T21:36:00.000-08:00

SF | BEAUTIFUL DELUSIONS

2010-11-30T21:31:00.000-08:00

DAYS END

2010-11-30T21:26:00.001-08:00

LICHEN WALLS | SAN FRANCISCO MOMA

2010-11-30T21:23:00.000-08:00

www.cmgsite.com

Oscar Imbert's Vacation Home in Punta Cana, DR

2010-10-25T17:28:00.000-07:00

This is real. Or, think the ewoks meet swiss family robinson.
http://www.dmeyerstudio.com/puntacana.html

Land Carpet Series - an amazing floor covering by Florain Pucher

2010-10-25T07:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.florianpucher.com/

Annies Annuals - A love affair

2010-10-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

Lava Landscapes - The evolving Kohala Coast

2010-10-23T10:05:00.000-07:00

Matrix Perfection - Succulents on the Grid

2010-10-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Free Bearded Iris

2010-10-02T18:41:00.000-07:00

I love when I see this kind of giving. Free bearded iris to any lucky pedestrian on Noe Street @ 19th in San Francisco. Planting instructions included.

Lettuce love and other atomic stories

2010-10-02T18:32:00.000-07:00

California Maps and a Blue Golden State

2010-08-25T20:31:00.000-07:00

Century Plant Blooming- California Summer and Mobile Homes

2010-08-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Since we just had three days of summer here in San Francisco, which was quickly resolved by a thick layer of fog and accompanying wind...a toast! Here's to you three days of heat making me remember that it really is August and even though we don't often meet we love each other's company.

Agaves in Pots

2010-08-25T20:15:00.000-07:00

California is the land of beautiful juxtapositions

2010-07-27T22:29:00.000-07:00

Robert Samuel Hanson

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/28/dining/28united.html?hp

Article on Korean Taco's finding there way from L.A. to New York.

dymatism is multidementional

2010-07-25T19:36:00.000-07:00

A tree grows in San Francisco - Graph Server

2010-07-25T19:27:00.000-07:00

http://graphserver.sourceforge.net/gallery.html

Agave Love

2010-07-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

Garden Love

2010-07-01T20:38:00.001-07:00

Food in Pots - It's simple

2010-07-01T20:35:00.000-07:00

Squash Blossom - Grown on my urban deck

2010-07-01T20:29:00.000-07:00

Bay Bridge

2010-07-01T20:24:00.000-07:00

Sidewalk Section

2010-06-24T07:33:00.000-07:00

to finally see some good art again.

2010-06-07T20:46:00.000-07:00

www.peterroot.com

two bridges, a prison, spanish tourists and a rainbow

2010-05-30T11:08:00.000-07:00

Alice Street Community Gardens

2010-05-30T11:05:00.000-07:00

Suburban Wonderland

2010-05-13T21:05:00.001-07:00

Oh My Seat Wall - Is it a wall or a bench?

2010-05-12T21:33:00.000-07:00

Being a Survivor - CA Poppies toughest kids on the block

2010-05-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

Mini Landscapes - Partarres in a Box

2010-05-10T21:19:00.000-07:00

Fruit Trees with Stickers

2010-05-10T21:14:00.001-07:00

pink and green

2010-05-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

Venice Canals - Leisure Landscapes of California

2010-04-26T17:08:00.000-07:00

Bernal Heights Public Library | Low- Water Landscape

2010-04-26T17:00:00.000-07:00

How we visualize our Relationship to Nature

2010-04-26T16:51:00.000-07:00

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN NY TIMES

Tree Form

2010-04-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

San Francisco - Where are the trees? Maybe now we'll see them.

2010-04-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

The Associated press is reporting that the front yards of "new developments or properties that are significantly changed" in San Francisco must have 50% permeability through plantings and or porous materials.

"The board of supervisors, meanwhile, has approved legislation that requires parking lots, gas stations and other places with heavy vehicle traffic to have more trees. The ordinance, passed Tuesday, also mandates that half of front yards in new developments or properties that are significantly changed are permeable to water through the use of in-ground plantings, interlocking bricks or pavers or other porous material.

The goal is to beautify the city and reduce the burden on its aging sewer system by having more rainwater end up in the ground instead of as runoff."

I Heart Plazas

2010-04-13T19:12:00.001-07:00

NEW TREE HERE - friends of the urban forest are out and about, it must be spring!

2010-04-12T11:28:00.000-07:00

Sanchez Street, San Francsico

www.fuf.net

The re-education of the urban farmer - the facilitation of sprouting cotyledons

2010-04-12T11:04:00.000-07:00

sunflower cotyledons in my own patch of earth

sweet pea sprouts

pumkin cotyledons

butternut squash cotyledons

seed starting trays - renegade squirrel's are responsible for the gaps.

I have been starting seeds for 6 weeks in cycles - It has been slow going but my first starts are 6 inches tall and I am about to transplant the remaining flats in the coming days. I have always loved starting seeds. It has been three years since I have been able to have a vegetable and flower cutting garden due to graduate school. I am trying to regain the curiosity I always felt as a child starting seeds - that magic 6 year old moment when you realize you can plant a bean and grow more beans. I was teaching children organic gardening in Olympia Washington as a portion of my education research which led me to believe that there are certain things in us that are innate like the tending of plants. I have always seen the aesthetic of production as beautiful and I love seeing more and move edibles being used in the urban landscape - bridging the gap between production and consumption is curiously gratifying.

Purple kale and red lettuce as decorative plantings under flowering cherry street trees.

SATURDAY 04.10.10 24TH STREET @ CASTRO, SAN FRANCISCO, CA

I came across this oddity while doing some saturday errands. I loved it but was also kind of amazed about the idea of re-education of urbanites about the basic processes of life or a great arts and crafts for adults - starting beans in plastic cups in kindergarten. I am feeling like there is a lot of short-tempers lately in the neighborhood so I am leaving this as only a hippy - woo woo feel good moment.

FEEL THE EARTH MISSION STATEMENT

To educate all communities to grow locally, healthy sustainable food through urban agriculture.

FEEL THE EARTH is actively supporting Gavin Newsom’s executive directive for healthy and sustainable food through “hands-on” interactive workshops in sustainable agriculture, gardening, dance performances, and natural edible artistic projects.

FEEL THE EARTH is uniting people across all genders, regions, ethnicities, social classes, and religions. Our community oriented gardening education programs promote a richer relationship with the land and healthy living.

It’s time to feel the earth and to make our city and our world a better place. We can do this by planting seeds in our community to transform us all to become victory farmers who are able to grow local food.

MORE IMAGES CAN BE FOUND AT -

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoryfarmer2/SeedsOnStreets?feat=directlink#slideshow/5458941574274108626

Window Farming - Out of Williamsburg Brooklyn - Out of Scale?

2010-04-05T07:37:00.000-07:00

I would love for this experiment to succeed - It's fun, it's gimmicky, it's vertical gardening at window scale but will it work? Is it really better than a few small pots on the sill? Are these tomatoes really going to grow and produce fruit? This story featured on NPR feeds the movement to grow one's own and I appreciate it. Yet, there is reality to contend with and I don't know how this will succeed in real windows. I think the scale of the system will also be the death of it. Since all one really can grow are herbs - which does not expand an apartment dwellers possibilities - the only reason for the system is a love of science experiments and an aesthetics. We'll all wait and see.

Public Art and the Vertical Wall

2010-04-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Mission District - San Francsico

Greenwall - Artwork in Japan

Public Photography exhibit in Paris

post apocalyptic architecture - A Look Back to Eden.

2010-04-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

Heat Wall - Cloche system for extending the harvest season in northern climates.

I don't even know what to say. With the reimagining of local food systems, worst case senerios and human survival we are changing the functions and aesthetics of our built objects. I always feel fuzzy with the idea of growing food in urban situations but for some reason right now I feel fear.

Brick has extended seasons in the garden for centuries, the house (above) built outside of Amsterdam by Marc Koehler, capatalizes on the "borning" nature of brick. It acts as a bunker with thick walls and fortress-like look outs. It could be a reconditioned police building in Belfast.

It is such a fearful form. The added edible landscape adds to the post-apocalyptic nature of the structure. I think this may be the first time ever that I am scared of an edible wall.

Always Coming Home

2010-04-03T11:06:00.000-07:00

PRE - FAB CHICKEN FARM?

2010-04-03T11:04:00.000-07:00

What do you think - pre-fab eco friendly or animal cruelty?

Mom is going solar - Changing the Aesthetics and Mindset of Production

2010-03-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

San Francisco, CA Liberty Hill - Dolores Street

Wind Turbines in Spain

Solar Farm in Spain

Dell Computer Parking Lot

PG & E Parking lot in the Mission

Something miraculous happened yesterday while I was stuck in traffic on the Bay Bridge. Things have changed so much in the minds of Californian's that my Mother told me she wants to go off the grid.

Here's a woman who recounted stories to me as a child about closing the library windows at UC Berkeley for fear of tear gas getting in during the protests on campus. Let’s say she is not a radical. She has helped design and formulate the way subdivisions were built over the last 30 years in Northern California. She is a businesswoman; she wears power suits and has a collection of clip-on earrings just to sell property. She has a bottom line.

Even though my Mother is a baby boomer and hates the way wind turbines look – she wants to go off the grid using a photovoltaic system. She saw the benefits in the late 90’s and early 00’s when photovoltaics were being introduced to subdivisions in California as a cost saving measure for the marketability of new homes.

So in her mid 60's she is planning on adding as many panals as possible to the family home - changing the white house with a picket fence to keep up with the future and unplug from the grid.

I Heart Paving Patterns - ALL THIS GORGEOUSNESS WITH NO WATER

2010-03-26T09:05:00.000-07:00

I love paving patterns.

Diagrams on Bottled-Water Consumption

2010-03-26T09:01:00.000-07:00

Metropolis Magazine, March 10. Pg 84

New York Times Book Review June 15

Irrigation and Aesthetics - dork out

2010-03-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

Pocket Fountain

2010-03-25T11:09:00.000-07:00

Mediterranean Climate Bosques - the birth of cool

2010-03-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

Cordoba, Spain Palm/orange bosque at the entrance to the stronghold.

8th Century Moorish Mosque in Cordoba, Spain - Linear irrigation system for fruit trees.

Mosque in Cordoba Spain - Exterior pillars are the trees on a linear irrigation system which supplies water to all the palm and orange trees via a approx. 2% slope across the courtyard. These trees are an extension of the interior pilliars of the mosque. It's the first bosque system of it's kind in the west.

It dates back to the 8th century when Spain was under Moorish control. This is really the indoor/outdoor "lifestyle" that California boosts as its invention being played out 1200 years ago. I will contend that California's birthplace of cool partly has spanish roots.

8th Century Mosque in Cordoba Spain - Interior pillars

Mosque in Cordoba Spain - Interior pillars

Stanford Business School East Building - Courtyard Bosque -PWP

Dominus - fermenting on the down low

2010-03-23T21:26:00.000-07:00

Olive Succession - the next 400 year old tree

2010-03-23T21:18:00.000-07:00

Alhambra - I can't believe this place exists

2010-03-20T10:51:00.000-07:00

Alhambra - circa. 2009

$1.00 at an Estate Sale - Tales of the Alhambra

2010-03-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Half Watt Leaves or Solar Ivy - Samuel Cochran

2010-03-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

I just want to highlight the solar leaves project - it's veggie power.

Article comes from Metropolis Magazine April, 2010

Transitional Plantings - parking lots as incubators

2010-03-19T18:50:00.000-07:00

The Great Park - Orange County, California

Ken Smith's Great Park in Orange County has amazing branding. Even though it is in its infancy the park has an amazing public relations campaign that only Southern California could possibly provide. Since this is such a transitional time the current entrance parking lot is housing future park plantings but labeling them as way-finders back to the car. Thick orange stripes painted on the asphalt of the former landing strip structure the parking and denote the pedestrian walkways.

Tree Nursery Parking Lot - Bay Area, California

The same thing is being done here at a very extensive tree nursery in Northern California where parking is integrated with the nursery stock helping denote rows and parking areas. I love that these trees can be fork-lifted anywhere and within a day the space can change. It's a fantastic way to consider transition.

Mediterranean Climate Green Roofs & Microclimate

2010-03-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

Foothill College - Los Altos Hills, CA

The Alhambra theater offices - Granada, Spain

There is always the question of how a green roof functions in a Mediterranean climate. How is it established when there is a seven or eight month period with no natural precipitation? In both of these examples it is clear that significant vegetation can thrive. The plant choices should define the micro-climate.

I want to stress that the aesthetics of a California garden are shifting dramatically to plants that require little to no water and the results are actually coveted. The roof of Foothill College in Los Altos Hills is that golden brown that only natives of the state love. I say this because the texture and color of the roof juxtapose the deep dusty green of the foothills in a way that signifies place. I know I am home. Green roofs can be signifiers of place and locality.

Lichen of the Santa Cruz Mountain Foothills

2010-03-19T11:44:00.000-07:00

For Saint Patrick's Day - Chicago's Green River

2010-03-17T13:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.greenchicagoriver.com/story.html

• The dye is a fine orange powder that turns bright green when mixed with water.

• The recipe of the vegetable-based dye is a secret. (?)

• Each year on parade day, a crew led by Mike Butler uses about 40 pounds of dye which -- depending on river currents -- turns the river green for about five hours.

There is still something about this that just seems so wrong to me.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2100348,CST-NWS-dyebox13.article

Pots that Glow - human bollards for the intoxicated

2010-03-16T22:00:00.000-07:00

I saw these pots in Paris and thought that in the right highly artificial environment they could be - oh so hip. They are strangely beautiful. Yet, I wonder how this affects the root system of the plant? I should not be so technical these really are bollards for the drunk and highly intoxicated.

Here they are being used with and without plants which highlights the mass produced quality. They must look so cheesy during the day.

Impatiens and a glowing trough- This wants to be in L.A.

Buttes Chaumont

2010-03-16T15:33:00.000-07:00

Butte Chaumont's Picturesque Lookout Point

Built on a quarry and a brownfield site in Paris, Butte Chaumont is a fantastic example of a post industrial urban park circa. 1850.

English style follie where Landscape Architecture Students discuss the park.

Picturesque lookout point and view of working class Paris.

Everything is artificial even the concrete made to mimic rock.

The railing is made to mimic tree branches

The faux grotto and waterfall

Cabbage Patch as Decor

2010-03-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

cabbage patch - Granada, Spain

lettuce patch - Madrid Botanical Gardens

lettuce patch - Dominican Republic

lettuce patch - Cordoba, Spain under Palm Tree

Honestly, who doesn't love the look of heads of cabbage all in a row. It's gorgeous, it's edible, it's strangely calming. I would have to say that I'm a fan.

Skylights

2010-03-16T14:47:00.000-07:00

Roof of the Alhambra covered in Lichen - Granada, Spain

Green roof of the Academy of Sciences - San Francisco, CA

Terracotta - The Love Affair

2010-03-14T23:20:00.000-07:00

Displaying Fruit

2010-03-14T23:07:00.000-07:00

Medici family bowl

Granada, Spain

Markets in Venice, Italy

Dynamic Seating

2010-03-14T22:51:00.000-07:00

Guerrero Park - SF Pavement to Parks Project

2010-03-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

under construction

The park is great once you cross the street of imminent traffic death. San Jose is an awfully busy street. I know traffic calming measures included planting the medians with beautiful low-water flora like olive, agave, cordeline, poppies etc. The medians are helpful, but still drivers remain aggressive.

Both San Jose Ave and Cesar Chavez Streets are large intermediate thoroughfares which act as surface street freeways. I would like to think that vegetation would be enough to calm traffic but perhaps it may also have to include changes in road width, rumble strips by cross- walks and the like. Traffic along San Jose creates such a boundary for the residents.

The surface of the park is a mixture of adhesive and sand that differentiates the asphalt defining the edges of the park. Large planting beds supported by Eucalyptus logs are the physical buffer between people and traffic. I am a fan of this little pocket park. It illustrates how we can re-imagine the built environment- especially the in-between spaces in San Francisco. It injects life and new public space where there was once only asphalt.

I know there has been neighborhood controversy around this project and always people get nervous when their daily environment changes. I hope these fears have eased.
I do see neighborhood kids use it as a front yard, playing basketball and hanging-out after school. I am curious how this space has changed the lives of the immediate neighbors for good or bad?

100 Abandoned Houses Project

2010-03-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

Photographs by Kevin Bauman
http://www.100abandonedhouses.com/

Malaria Mapping - Visually Profound

2010-03-04T11:02:00.000-08:00

This Mapping was created by the University of Sheffield and Mark Newman from the University of Michigan. It is a profound mapping in so many ways.

Judah and La Playa Median Strip Park.

2010-03-01T17:41:00.000-08:00

This new 20 foot wide median strip area is currently being constructed with what seems to be a bocce ball court. Native plants and succulents have been planted and recycled logs, granite and telephone poles are being used for the construction of planters and benches. The neighboring median strip park across Judah Street is a fantastic labor of love and has numerous little spaces carved out of the agaves, crocosmia and oxalis. This space is such a treasure.

Suburban Splendor - Pin Hole Camera Shots

2010-02-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

Mobile Garden Begonias

2010-02-19T11:35:00.000-08:00

Saw these beauties in Madrid, Spain. They are produced with an interior pocket system much like the felt pockets for certain greenwall systems. These garden lumps are mobile and are placed on a wood base with casters. This simple system opens up a world of different possible ideas for usage.

James Turrell - Landscape and Light

2010-02-19T10:11:00.000-08:00

Image from Stonescape website http://www.stonescape.us/index.html

Image from Stonescape website http://www.stonescape.us/index.html

Image from Stonescape website http://www.stonescape.us/index.html James Turrell Work is #2 and the Pavilion is #3.

The James Turrell's Skyscape "Stonesky" was installed on commission at Stonescape Winery in Napa California for Norah and Norman Stone. The pool and landscape were designed by landscape architect Tom Leader (Go Tom Go!!! Two thumbs up for Tom.) and the pavilion was designed by architect Jim Jennings. The more I see this piece the more I also understand it as a contemporary example of another landscape that is uniquely Californian, the Donnell Garden by Thomas Church on a isolated hilltop in Sonoma, CA.

http://www.stonescape.us/index.html

Cardboard Installation - San Francisco Alley

2010-02-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

Detailing the Urban Sidewalk

2010-02-18T21:20:00.000-08:00

Permeable Paving Driveway - Material Indexing

2010-02-18T20:50:00.000-08:00

This may be in fact be one of the most beautiful driveways I have ever seen. It is located in Palo Alto. Wood (railroad ties?), stone, and concrete provide the hard surface required for driving while the grass provides permeability and green allowing the ubiquitous suburban driveway to become part of the garden.

Gum Wall - San Luis Obispo

2010-02-18T20:27:00.000-08:00

On Higuera Street - North of Broad Street in San Luis Obispo

Urban Infrastructure Camo - Culver City

2010-02-12T10:44:00.000-08:00

Landscape Dioramas

2010-02-11T16:30:00.000-08:00

Indexing Movement with Pattern

2010-02-05T21:06:00.000-08:00

Indexing Movement with Pattern - Square

2010-02-05T20:59:00.000-08:00

heart

2010-02-05T20:50:00.001-08:00

San Francisco - where are the trees?

2010-01-27T17:11:00.000-08:00

Freshly poured sidewalk with out tree wells in San Francisco. WTF?

The possibility using water-wise juncus grass and jacaranda trees

This image was taken directly across the street from the freshly poured sidewalk.

We have such an amazing opportunity to have a vegetated urban life in San Francisco. It kills me to see new projects being built without the consideration of vegetation.

Planting and tree wells on Noe Street.

Urban Cactus LOVE

2010-01-27T16:48:00.000-08:00

Publish Post

I heart epiphytic plants

2010-01-26T23:54:00.000-08:00

I heart agave

2010-01-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

Vine and Wall - Back to Basics

2010-01-12T10:53:00.000-08:00

Venice, Italy is dense, the kind of density that is remarkable, and charming. Its elaborate ad-hoc infrastructure is beautifully surprising. The constraints are enormous and quite visible. Very few trees actually live here. It is a situation that mimics a very urban environment. It is akin to trying to grow trees in a median strip or on a parking garage. The soil is densely compacted and the area for roots is constrained. Venice has water and we have asphalt. This gives way to the obvious opportunity that all urban areas have-WALLS.

What about walls, green walls and the like? The fad aspect of them is fascinating. Often it is the green washing, façade planting, high maintenance aspect that drives eco naysayers nuts. The simple solution, the solution that has lasted the ages is to let vines thrive. No green wall gimmicks, no extra infrastructure for epiphytes, bromeliads, and other rock loving plantings but simple vines. It cools, it greens, it’s obvious, it’s simple, and it’s an old trick. Let’s keep on using it.

Calatrava's Venetian Bridge- object argument

2010-01-06T14:06:00.000-08:00

We're all guilty of it; creating an object so beautiful it hurts but sacrificing function in every step. I mean it too. I was awed when I saw this bridge but reality hit when actually climbing the 2-inch risers. I was horrified by how uncomfortable the bridge was to actually cross. Like the most amazing pair of four-inch heels, this bridge was all look and no go. As an aware participant in the formation of circulation in public space this bridge only has a place in the architect's ego. I could look at the model all day long and the bridge itself is simply beautiful to the smallest detail and materiality but utilizing the real thing was a gigantic disappointment.

The Cultural After-Life of Trees

2010-01-05T22:46:00.000-08:00

There is something about a completely dead tree that is still being utilized for another purpose. Here it's Christmas lights. It acts as sculpture that fills the concrete and asphalt voids of the suburban mini-mall parking lot. I say this with no facetiousness. I am truly fascinated by the idea of the cultural afterlife of trees.

New Years Day 2010

2010-01-02T15:52:00.000-08:00