When Mayor Eric Adams named a commissioner last week to oversee New York’s parks department, he spoke of how important the city’s green spaces were for recreation and contemplation, especially during the pandemic. But he also acknowledged having no particular agenda or master plan for the more than 30,000 acres of parkland under his control. — The New York Times
In response, all five of New York’s borough presidents have come together calling for Mayor Adams to plant a million new trees by 2030, reviving former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Million Trees NYC initiative. In addition, they also asked Adams to honor his campaign pledge to allocate 1 percent... View full entry
AECOM has announced that its Compass Production and Technical Services Joint Venture (Compass PTS JV) has been awarded a contract from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to provide production and technical architectural and engineering services... View full entry
Just days after the firm’s extraordinary Super Bowl design fully acquitted itself on the national stage, HKS in collaboration with Narrative Design Studio has taken the SoCal spotlight again under the guise of a new, mid-century-inspired modern clubhouse retreat now completed in Joshua... View full entry
An online space called Virtual Bradford is set to be completed this summer that would provide a high-resolution 3D online “brick-for-brick” digital twin of Bradford, England’s city center. The project is a collaboration between the University of Bradford and the Bradford Council. It is... View full entry
A diverse consortium of architects has been announced for a massive new development called Cultural Terrace on the site of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in Irvine, California led by IBI Group and MVRDV. The firms will be joined by landscape architects Agency Artifact and the local... View full entry
Heatherwick Studio has unveiled their proposal for a public waterfront development in Seoul, South Korea. The proposal forms part of a wider sports and cultural district close to the site of the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games. Named The Leaf, the Heatherwick scheme consists of a multi-level pier sitting... View full entry
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... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Azure Magazine The 2022 AZ Awards is now accepting entries into its eight major categories, from architecture, landscapes and urban design to interiors, product design and the A+ Award for best student work. It welcomes submissions until February 25 and – as ever... View full entry
The eyes of the sports world will soon be on Studio-MLA’s award-winning landscape design as it takes center stage during SoFi Stadium’s turn as host of the 56th Super Bowl in Los Angeles next month. Around 100 million viewers are expected to tune in to this year’s version of the big game... View full entry
MVRDV has unveiled its vision for a major masterplan in the Gagarin Valley in Armenia. The 34,000-hectare area is home to 11,000 people spread across several villages, with about one-third of the landscape consisting of patches of land owned by the local community. MVRDV’s masterplan seeks to... View full entry
In December, developers closed on $30.3 million in financing for the first phase of Arverne East, a master-planned community and revitalization project within a 116-acre oceanfront site in the Arverne and Edgemere neighborhoods in Queens’ Rockaway Peninsula. Led by real estate firms L+M... View full entry
Early into his second term, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $10 million initiative, led by his wife, that would break the bronze ceiling by introducing seven new statues of historical women to New York City’s commemorative landscape of mostly men. It was to be one of Mr. de Blasio’s signature marks on the landscape.
Days from the end of his administration, with only $1 million dedicated, none of those sculptures has yet materialized.
— The New York Times
The failure mirrors de Blasio’s much-hyped but ultimately fruitless promise to remove some $1 billion from the police budget, which critics say was an insincere attempt to assuage the Black Lives Matter movement at a time when activists were taking to the streets nationwide to protest the... View full entry
The fate of one of the most iconic artworks in the nation’s capital has been officially resolved months after The Cultural Landscape Foundation assured that its future would be set in stone. Artist Elyn Zimmerman’s massive granite Marabar installation has found a new home... View full entry
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Monday that it would begin performing maintenance and emergency repairs on areas of the unfinished border wall with Mexico that runs along Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California. — Construction Dive
Following President Biden’s executive order in January to halt the construction of the border wall, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is in the process of terminating the construction contracts for the projects. As part of this process, unfinished projects were handed over to the Department of... View full entry
The Prospect Park Alliance and Mayor Bill de Blasio are announcing today that the city will allocate $40 million in the city budget to Prospect Park. This is the largest single allocation of funding from the city in the park's history and will be used to make much-needed upgrades and restorations in its northeast corner, known as the Vale. — The Gothamist
The $40 million in capital funding will help to restore the historic Children’s Pool and former Rose Garden, originally constructed in the 1890s, that have fallen into states of disrepair. The project plans for the creation of a sensory garden and rustic arbor, a nature play area, and a... View full entry
