Archinect - News

The American Bird Conservancy and Yale University issue comprehensive study on the impact of bird-friendly architecture nationwide

2023-08-14T14:47:00-04:00

A comprehensive new study linking the implementation of bird-friendly glass technology to the improvement of wildlife safety has been released by the American Bird Conservancy, offering architects what they say is a first-of-its-kind primer on an issue that still lags in the design of buildings nationally despite its popular civic and environmental appeals.

The study was published in conjunction with the Law, Ethics and Animals Program (LEAP) at Yale University Law School. Yale had previously undertaken its own Bird-Friendly Building Initiative (the study’s commissioner) and now hopes to use its findings to promote a range of policy recommendations in addition to increasing awareness as to the benefits of using fritted glass, reducing the persistence of visually uninterrupted glass curtain walls, installing window screens, and cutting down light pollution, and other practical design changes.

New York City is used as one case study, leading a group of other American cities like Alexa...

The 'healing nature' of Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects' new land bridge in Houston

2023-02-20T18:59:00-05:00

Named the Land Bridge and Prairie project, the new park was unveiled this weekend, when for the first time since the 1950s, visitors were able to cross over Memorial Drive and enjoy 1,500 acres of uninterrupted parkland at Memorial Park. Swelling like soft green mounds over a six-lane highway, the park is the latest example of how cities can mend the tears caused by disruptive roads without necessarily tearing them down.

Nelson Byrd Woltz Landscape Architects' Principal, Thomas Woltz, described his initial visit of the project’s site as a “post-nuclear landscape” when some 66 million trees suffered from a brutal drought in 2011. Since then, his firm has worked with city planners, archivists, and the Memorial Park Conservancy to consolidate the 20 disparate segments that had previously left the 1,500-acre park feeling “subdivided” to Houstonians.

Fast Company reports that "while the civic landscape was designed for people, the gently sloped nature of the mounds allows for small animals to cross over the highway as well (an underground stream allows for aquatic animals to pass under the highway, too.)"

With the addition of the land bridge, Houston joins Los Angeles County and San Francisco as communities aiming to adopt solutions for local wildlife to be able to move about freely. The total costs for the Land Bridge and Prairie project was funded by a $70 million donation from the local Kinder Foundat...

A new study sheds light on pigeons' apparent disdain for modern architecture

2023-01-22T08:00:00-05:00

The abundance of feral pigeons [...] is mostly affected by the presence of modern buildings with low abundance of pigeons found in areas where there is a preponderance of modern buildings. The study confirms the results of international studies which indicate that the densest populations of feral pigeons occur in historic town centres, as the old buildings provide ample nesting sites, while the high human population density of both locals and tourists in historic towns provides constant food

According to the authors, the Maltese study “lays the ground for further research on feral pigeon populations and their ecology in urban environments as well as contributing information for management programmes that are tailor-made to the local situation and circumstances.”

Rat populations are also barometers of recent changes to the built environment, such as outdoor dining and the increase in brownfield sites in some countries. Pigeons' risky lifestyles may nevertheless be a useful educational resource for children.

More in line with human activity, however, the study found that birds also apparently view parks as a source of “feeding opportunities and less stress.”

LA's new 101 Freeway wildlife crossing to break ground on Earth Day

2022-04-21T14:49:00-04:00

The much-anticipated Wallis Annenberg Wildlife crossing will break ground on Friday, which is Earth Day. The bridge will ultimately be 210 feet long and 165 feet wide and will span all 10 lanes of the Ventura Freeway at Liberty Canyon in Agoura Hills. It is meant to promote biodiversity among Southern California mountain lions, which are isolated by the freeway, by connecting them with mountain lions in Northern California.

The groundbreaking ceremony of the much-anticipated, $90 million Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing project will be live-streamed on April 22 from 10 am Pacific Time at savelacougars.org.

Previously on Archinect:

An affluent California town is going to ridiculous lengths to get around affordable housing regulation

2022-02-04T18:00:00-05:00

The well-heeled Silicon Valley suburb of Woodside has come up with a novel way to block plans that would potentially bring in more affordable housing: Declare itself Cougar Town. Last week, officials in the enclave of 5,500 people announced that all of Woodside was exempt from a new state housing law that allows for duplex development on single-family home lots. The reason? The entire town is habitat for potentially endangered mountain lions.

The move is potentially foreshadowing of the ways in which local governments in California will, as predicted before Governor Gavin Newsome signed S.B. 9 into law in September, attempt to brush off the state’s efforts to mandate zoning that would engender an increase in multi-family residential units and affordable housing.

Critics say the pushback stems from the age-old notion of California living as an ever-expanding idyll of freeway-connected suburbs filled with single-family homes that has become outdated and regressive under the modern economy, pushing many to leave the state for greener pastures. The mountain lion population in Woodside constitutes in their eyes an egregious attempt to use wildlife as a shield in the town leadership’s preservation schemes.

“Don’t believe for a second that this is driven by mountain lion habitat concerns,” former town council member Daniel Yost told the LA Times. “It is not. It is resistance by some members of the Town Council to do our fair ...

Brighton passes planning condition requiring new buildings to feature bee bricks

2022-01-24T15:56:00-05:00

An initiative in Brighton aimed at helping protect the bee population could do more harm than good, scientists have warned. The council in Brighton has passed a planning condition that means any new building more than five metres high will have to include swift boxes and special bricks with holes known as bee bricks. They will provide nesting and hibernating space for solitary bees.

The mandate was first proposed in 2019 and then attached to all planning permissions after April 1, 2020. As reported by The Guardian, scientists warn that this move may not result in a notable difference for biodiversity, with some arguing that it could actually harm bees if the holes aren’t properly maintained or if they attract mites.

Others have asserted that the bricks don’t need to be cleaned because there will be beneficial microbes in the holes and bees possess natural hygienic behavior. It is clear that further research is required in order to better understand the costs and benefits to implementing these bee bricks. One professor believes Brighton’s planning condition will provide a good opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of the bricks on a wide enough scale over an extended period of time before thinking of employing it elsewhere.

LA's 101 Freeway wildlife crossing now has a groundbreaking set for spring

2022-01-20T11:37:00-05:00

A much-needed piece of infrastructure is about to start taking shape for wildlife in Los Angeles’ Santa Monica Mountains.

Curbed is reporting that construction for the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which connects a stretch of protected land along California’s 101 freeway called Liberty Canyon will now officially begin this spring following an increase in the state’s funding for the project recently announced by Governor Gavin Newsom.

The bridge was originally announced in 2015 and has been amongst the most vocally-supported public works projects in Los Angeles in recent years. The county’s mountain lion population has been shown to be increasingly fragmented and diffuse since 2002 and will now be protected along with other groups of animals thanks to the new 210-foot crossing from architect Robert Rock.

Rock was selected by the joint National Wildlife Foundation-Caltrans development team to put an end to the high frequency of animal-related collisions that happen about 300,0...

An architect is helping cougars cross the 101 Freeway safely

2021-07-07T13:05:00-04:00

Architect Robert Rock is facing a Herculean task: Design a bridge that will allow mountain lions to cross safely over a stretch of the 101 Freeway that roars with the traffic of 300,000 vehicles each day.

A pedestrian bridge for animals in the region has been proposed for several years. Advocates will now face an uphill climb to raise an additional $27 million for the projected $65 million price tag before August after previously securing $38 million thanks to a #SaveLACougars social media campaign from the National Wildlife Foundation.

Previously on Archinect: Los Angeles is building an urban wildlife crossing

The bridge is necessary to protect gene flow between two small populations of wild cougars that live between Simi Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains. With funding, the bridge could be installed in time for 2025. The LA Times has more on Rock's project here.

Los Angeles is building an urban wildlife crossing

2019-06-13T17:45:00-04:00

A proposed bridge over the 101 would allow mountain lions and other wildlife to cross safely over the freeway and improve their access to food and mates.

Caltrans authorities working in Los Angeles County are pushing toward creating a $60 million wildlife crossing that will allow urban animals to roam throughout the region's mountainous geographies. The 165-foot by 200-foot crossing would span over US Highway-101 and Liberty Canyon in the city of Agoura Hills.

“Freeways are unique in that they can kind of divide up habitat and territory in a way that other infrastructure cannot, and I think that Caltrans wants to play a role in rectifying that problem in the future,” Caltrans structural engineer Ulysses Smpardos told KCRW's DnA.

So far, $3.7 million has been raised for the privately-funded effort, which is being supported by the National Wildlife Federation and the Santa Monica Mountains Fund.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro's Moscow park sparks wild urbanism on another level

2018-08-24T13:58:00-04:00

As Moscow’s Zaryadye Park approaches its first birthday next month, the city’s chief architect, Sergei Kuznetsov, is defending the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed green space for an unexpected feature: its aphrodisiacal properties. Just a stone’s throw from the Kremlin, the firm’s carefully crafted experiment in “wild urbanism” has lived up to its billing, apparently, becoming something of a hotbed for outdoor lovemaking.

Moscow's one year old $245 million public park by Diller Scofidio + Renfro was meant to bring freedom of exploration and a feeling of comfort within the urban setting. The space provides visitors with an amphitheater, flora-covered terraces, green spaces with views of the city, and a 230 foot walkway over the Moscow river. The public space has also seen a high number of couples caught on park cameras having sex. "Wild urbanism" indeed.

Charles Renfro exclaims, “I love this! What freedom our park has brought to Moscow, and what tolerance it seems to be engendering from the authorities.”

RIBA Norman Foster Travelling Fellow will look at the adaptation of urban wildlife to mega-cities

2018-05-15T15:06:00-04:00

The Royal Institute of British Architecture, alongside Norman Foster, has announced the winner of their twelfth Travelling Scholarship. After receiving the highest number of entries of any year thus far, the annual, £7,000 prize has been awarded to Steven Hutt of University of Greenwich for his proposal, ‘East of Eden.’

Travelling to Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, South Korea and Japan, Steven will investigate how urban wildlife has adapted to the rapid rise of densely populated mega-cities in the far east of Asia. Some of the urban environments Hutt will be looking include the ‘Sanzhi Pod City’—a dilapidated city that has become a breeding ground for five new species of orchid—and the wider Pearl River Delta—a rapidly growing concrete jungle with conditions that has also allowed other species to thrive—among others.

Norman Foster, whose Foundation helps support the program, said: "In the end, we all felt the winning proposal dealt with a topic that was extremely relevant given the accel...