479 Green Infrastructure Case Studies Released

30 09 2011

The American Society of Landscape Architects recently released 479 Green Infrastructure Case Studies. The case studies provide an informative snapshot of the type of green infrastructures are being implemented across the country. We are excited the two projects we submitted (The Pinnacle at Symphony Place green roof and Deaderick Green Street) were included in the list. You can check out the entire list here.

-Brian Phelps





Video Tour of ASLA’s Green Roof

4 01 2010

Back in October 2009 in our post “Green Roofs Address D.C.’s Environmental Problems”, we covered the research the American Society of Landscape Architects was doing with the green roof on its National headquarters and the many benefits it provides. I recently came across this well produced video tour of ASLA’s green roof (see below). It does a wonderful job of showing off the space and the diverse habitat that has been created. I particularly love the areas that use the steel grating to span some of the green roof areas. Enjoy.





Sustainability Resource Guides from ASLA

14 12 2009

The website for ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) has a fairly new section devoted to resources for sustainable design and planning. If you haven’t wandered across it already you should take a minute to see what it has to offer. It is aimed at national and local policymakers, government agencies, design professionals, planners and students. Resources include hundreds of project case studies, research papers, organizations and other government resources on sustainable design.

The following description of the five resource categories is taken from an announcement by ASLA, they include:

  • Green Infrastructure (www.asla.org/greeninfrastructure) covers park systems, wildlife habitat and corridors, urban forestry and green roofs.
  • Sustainable Transportation (www.asla.org/sustainabletransport) covers sustainable transportation planning, siting sustainable transportation infrastructure, designing safe and visually appealing transportation infrastructure, green streets and reducing the urban heat island effect.
  • Sustainable Urban Development (www.asla.org/sustainableurban) covers fighting sprawl, sustainable zoning, reusing brownfields, investing in downtowns, open spaces and sustainable urban design.
  • Livable Communities (www.asla.org/livable) covers sustainable land use, place making, green schools, sustainable housing, sustainable employment growth and health, safety and security.
  • Combating Climate Change with Landscape Architecture (www.asla.org/climatechange) covers site planning, open spaces, plant selection, stormwater management and other areas.

While the site is a little hard to navigate, (if you like what you see, I suggest you bookmark the above links to be able to find them again) this is a good resource that pulls a lot of varied information together into one area. It has potential to be not only helpful for designers, planners and people who speak the sustainability language, but also to be useful to vastly wider audience. I understand they are also always looking for new projects, research, case studies, etc. to highlight, if you want to contribute you can contact ASLA @ info@alsa.org

-Sara Putney