LARCH-L Digest - 10 Jul 1996 to 11 Jul 1996
Toney Lowery
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 00:01:12 -0400
Reply-To: Landscape Architecture Electronic Forum <LAR...@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Sender: Landscape Architecture Electronic Forum <LAR...@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
From: Automatic digest processor <LIST...@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
Subject: LARCH-L Digest - 10 Jul 1996 to 11 Jul 1996
To: Recipients of LARCH-L digests <LAR...@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU>
There are 13 messages totalling 567 lines in this issue.
Topics of the day:
1. digital thought
2. DesignNet Journal (3)
3. Subject: digital thought
4. DesigNet Journal
5. DesignNet Journal Abstract 1.1
6. DesignNet Journal Abstract 2.1
7. DesignNet Journal Abstract 3.1
8. Computers and practice (2)
9. Electronic Journal
10. Interdisciplinary Campus Design
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 07:45:00 -0400
From: Tamela Dawn Michaels <t...@WAM.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: digital thought
Mike Morgan et. al.,
<I too have begun to become enmeshed
in programming and scripting and in particular, for the world wide web. The
more I see, the more I believe that the WWW is going to change the way the
post-modern world functions.>
I am fine tuning my HTML and have curled up with a new Java Text/CD,
other than increasing my proficiency at PhotoShop what other tools do I
need? My SysAdmin husband assures me C++ is in my future. Please share
your "resource library" so I can round out my education.
Should I ever participate in one of the "white board" collaborative
projects, I'm sure I would want to be the on-site Powerbook with the
videocam.... and I can't let the computer interface interfere with work!
Thanks for your postings and your advice.
Tam Michaels
Grad Student
University of Maryland
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 10:34:54 -0500
From: Joshua F Walter <jowa...@PLAINS.NODAK.EDU>
Subject: Re: DesignNet Journal
I disagree with Prof. MacDougall's comments. If there is anything that
this profession needs it is not only an increase in the number of
publications but exposure to a broader and more in-depth range of
knowledge. This applies to both practicing professionals and academics.
To confine a publication merely to the relationship between design and
technology, in my mind, reduces the potential for practical research to
impact those very issues -- from whatever quarter.
Perhaps Mr. MacDougall has a much broader definition of technology than I
but if we are in any way to bring allied disciplines closer together
(much less utilize information they might offer)then it behooves us to consider
topic areas related to this goal. It is not necessary to
become expert in the sciences but I think it very important that, as a
deductive discipline (vs reductive), we are able to clearly demonstrate
the practical use and demonstration of any information that may prove of
value to the profession -- which, in turn, influences design and technology.
Josh Walter
North Dakota State University
On Wed, 10 Jul 1996, E. Bruce MacDougall wrote:
> As an observor of the landscape architecture profession for thirty years
> and an occasional participant in its affairs, I find this list quite
> remarkable. I had the sense that the major current issues centered on the
> relationship between design and technology .
>
> I also note that page charges are proposed. I believe that this is
> inappropriate for a landscape architecture journal.
>
> _____________________________________________
> E. Bruce MacDougall, Professor
> Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning
> The University of Massachusetts at Amherst
> e...@larp.umass.edu
> http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~abhu000/
> 413-545-6608 (voice) 413-545-1772 (FAX)
>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 11:40:31 EDT
From: Rob Smyser <smy...@MIT.EDU>
Subject: Re: Subject: digital thought
Mike Morgan points out some interesting collaborative possibilities in
this Web technology that removes barriers of time and distance. Some thoughts:
"Time" as used above refers to instantaneity, not synchronicity.
The network makes things that are far away seem as if they're right here, and
it lets get at resources any hour of the day. But in the physical world the sun
still comes up and goes down at a specific rate.
In Mike's triangle of trade one of the participants in Egypt, the Cayman
Islands, or Chicago is likely to be up in the middle of the night to be
online at the same time as the others who are working during their local
day. I can imagine designers who use teleconferencing will start
to complain about "web lag".
On the other hand, time-shifting creates some opportunities. An interesting
semester-long studio/charrette was held that included MIT's Architecture Dept.
and universities in China, Ithaca NY, and Spain. Participants used a 24-hour
design technique -- designers had meetings via email and internet chat, and
posted their sketchbooks as home pages on the Web; they
traded their work in the form of data files (autocad models, photoshop
paintings/sketches, word documents of design intent, etc.) with ftp from one
site to the next as the workday ended in one part of the world and began in the
next. The project was literally worked on at all hours of the day and
night as each new team of designers woke up for the day.
The efficiency of this method is still open to debate. But the
process did reveal sharp differences in design philosophy and so on that seemed
cultural in origin. It may be that this technology which unites us in almost
real time really clarifies what makes us different as a result of where we are.
I take a dimmer view of the happy end state that Mike portrays, in which all
resources are "out there" and not in the office itself. No firm will wants to
rely on a public carrier (the internet) for its means of production and profit.
Using Email and file transfer will certainly cut down on bicycle courier charges
and on telephone tag, and maybe on face-to-face meetings for transfer of
information, especially over long distances. But access to network resources
outside the building will always cost $ per hour -- a hard-to-control
per-transaction sort of charge that firms will always be trying to reduce. For
that reason, the web will never replace fixed-cost in-house tools (which can
be amortized, as hourly costs cannot) for doing daily work.
-----------
Rob Smyser Computing Help Desk, MIT Information Systems, 11-226
smy...@mit.edu (617) 253 1358
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 17:27:03 -0400
From: Jon Bryan Burley <bur...@PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: DesigNet Journal
I greatly appreciate E. Bruce MacDougall's comments and insights. I do not
wish to defend the categories that were developed and possibly as Bruce
suggests they should be changed. E. Bruce MacDougall makes some very valid
points. In contrast, both Jo and myself considered the following.
1. Suppose someone did address the issue of technology and design in some
sort of effort. Suppose they conducted a survey, then the investigation
could be reported in the environmental survey category.
2. In addition, suppose someone conducted some sort of environmental
psychology study concerning design activities and technology in a
particular setting, possibly the manuscript from such a study could be
published in the environmental science category.
3. If an investigator created some artifact or product in some new way
with technology, they could report their case study in the environmental
design, theory, and critiques section.
I hope that the word "environment" is not too limiting, as we do not
consider the word with the limited perspective as some in natural science
might. In addition, suggestions concerning alternate categories or
classifications are welcome.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 08:03:43 +1000
From: Michael L Steven <M.St...@UWS.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: DesignNet Journal
>I disagree with Prof. MacDougall's comments. If there is anything that
>this profession needs it is not only an increase in the number of
>publications but exposure to a broader and more in-depth range of
>knowledge. This applies to both practicing professionals and academics.
>
>To confine a publication merely to the relationship between design and
>technology, in my mind, reduces the potential for practical research to
>impact those very issues -- from whatever quarter.
Josh
If I read Bruce MacDougall correctly, I suspect what you have failed to
appreciate is some subtle sarcasm on Bruce's part levelled at the recent
technological preoccupation of this list. I too was beginning to wonder of
anything else mattered to the profession.
______________________________________________________________________________
Mike Steven
School of Horticulture
Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture
University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury
Locked Bag 1, PO Richmond NSW 2753
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: m.st...@uws.edu.au
Ph: 61-45-70 1991
Fax: 61-45-70 1314
______________________________________________________________________________
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:23:09 -0400
From: Jon Bryan Burley <bur...@PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: DesignNet Journal Abstract 1.1
Agricultural Productivity Model for Reclaiming Surface Mines in
Mercer County, North Dakota
Jon Bryan Burley
Landscape Architecture
Department of Geography
College of Social Sciences
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517/353-7880
FAX 517/353-0006
E-mail: bur...@pilot.msu.edu
Gary Fowler
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Kenneth J. Polakowski
Landscape Architecture
School of Natural Resources and Environment
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Submitted: July 1995
Accepted: August 1995
Abstract. Planners and land managers are constantly seeking methods and
procedures to evaluate and predict landscape capability, especially in
areas such as landscape reclamation where measures of landscape capability
are often mandated by federal, state, and local governments. In this
article, we review the rise of landscape predictive measures and describe
their relationship to landscape planning and design. In addition, we
present the development of an empirically derived agricultural prediction
model (regression equation) for reclaiming surface mines in Mercer County,
North Dakota. The regression equation includes percent slope, percent rock
fragments, hydraulic conductivity, electrical conductivity, topographic
position, and percent organic matter as highly significant regressors
(p<0.001). The equation contains an overall p-value less than 0.0001 and a
coefficient of multiple determination of 0.82. The equation can predict
general plant performance for Juniperus virginiana L., Picea glauca densata
Bailey, Picea pungens Engelm., Pinus ponderosa scopulorum Engelm.,
Fraxinus pennsylvanica Marsh., Populus deltoides Bart. ex Marsh., Ulmus
pumila L., Caragana arborescens Lam., Prunus americana Marsh., Prunus
virginiana L., Triticum aestivum L., Hordeum vulgare L., Avena sativa L.
and a grass/legume mixture.
Key Words: Agroecology, landscape architecture, prairie forestry, soil science
DesignNet Journal: Demonstration Version
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:25:35 -0400
From: Jon Bryan Burley <bur...@PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: DesignNet Journal Abstract 2.1
Pigeon River Country State Forest Horseback Rider Survey
Jon Bryan Burley
Landscape Architecture
Department of Geography
College of Social Sciences
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517/353-7880
FAX 517/353-0006
E-mail: bur...@pilot.msu.edu
Submitted: June 1995
Accepted: August 1995
Abstract. Recreation resource managers and scientists are interested in
the preferences and behaviors of distinct users groups. One user group
that has not been studied in great detail is associated with horseback
riding. In 1992, a survey was conducted which examined horseback riders'
visitor behavior, campsite preferences, and trail preferences for the
Pigeon River country State Forest in Michigan. The results of the survey
indicate that respondents (n=196) visit the forest for horseback riding one
to three times per year, often participating in large groups, riding five
to six hours per day and visit the forest in more than one season of the
year. The respondents indicated that they prefer campgrounds containing 31
to 70 campsites for 31 to 70 camping/horse rigs, near a good road, near a
stream, in a stand of mixed trees, and riding trails should terminate at
campgrounds. They prefer drive-through campsite configurations.
Predominately, respondents traveled from 51 to 300 miles to reach the
Pigeon River country State Forest. Respondents suggest that trails should
be separated from roads and that they preferred a scenic trail setting that
contained a mixture of landscape types. The respondents indicated that
they preferred scenic riding, viewing elk, a feeling of remoteness,
viewingother wildlife, and photography. Activities associated with
hunting are
the least preferred activities. Respondents indicated that they ranked the
trail system characteristics as the most important feature of their
recreational experience. Experienced riders were less concerned about
locating a campground near a road.
Key Words: Questionnaire, survey research, equestrian facilities,
horseback riding, environmental behavior, environmental design, parks,
forest recreation, campground design
DesignNet Journal: Demonstration Version
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:27:25 -0400
From: Jon Bryan Burley <bur...@PILOT.MSU.EDU>
Subject: DesignNet Journal Abstract 3.1
Anasazi Site Planning: Historic Precedents, Modern Constructs, and
Multi-cultural Dynamics
Jon Bryan Burley
Landscape Architecture
Department of Geography
College of Social Sciences
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
517/353-7880
FAX 517/353-0006
E-mail: bur...@pilot.msu.edu
Submitted: July 1995
Accepted: September 1995
Abstract. Anasazi landscape architecture represents the prehistoric site
design and regional planning traditions of modern Southwestern Pueblo
cultures. This Puebloan tradition delineates the oldest intact set of
functional cultures in North America. Anasazi landscape architecture may
be more complex and diverse than initially described. Cultural
misinterpretations, loss of knowledge to pandemic events, rights to
cultural privacy, cultural diversity, and interacting cultures have helped
to disguise a thorough understanding of Anasazi design intent and
principles. Descendants of the Anasazi provide insight into the possible
spatial ordering of the Anasazi landscape which included a variety of
structures, village layouts, roadways, and agricultural features,
illustrated by prehistoric sites within the greater four corners region in
the American Southwest.
Key Words: Landscape history, pre-Columbian studies, American antiquities
DesignNet Journal: Demonstration Version
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 18:33:37 -0400
From: Madis Pihlak <MP...@UMAIL.UMD.EDU>
Subject: Re: Computers and practice
Jot, Kevin Ed and the list.
There does seem to be some concern about sarcasm and the concern with
technology. Yet I have not answered some of these concerns because I was
away on meetings. One day long meeting with EPA in Annapolis brought
environmental scientists together to focus on the coastal bays of
Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. The relatively small but biologiaclly
important part of this mid atlantic region that drains into the Atlantic
ocean. Carl Steinitz, Steve Ervin et al at Harvard GSD with their amazing
GIS/environmental planning work for Monroe county and Camp Pendelton (sp)
were featured at the meeting. I think Carl Johnson of Utah State was also
a major player.
The reason I mention this is because Carl is one of the pioneers of GIS
and here is a major opportunity for a young LA program at maryland to
make its mark. The information is digital and satellite based. There is
tremendous opportunity. The computer will allow the researchers and
students to bring toghether tremendous Mchargian overlay information. The
computer adds tremendous value. This does not mean that you do not
produce beautifull color plots of the data. This afternoon we took a
Minicad 6.0 file into photoshop and produced a convincing watercolor.
Yes, having a machine do a watercolor is weird even for me. But the
student produced beautiful work and the lerening lights really went off
in her eyes. As an educator that is my job.
I agree with Jot and his years of experience. The studio culture matters.
I just finished an unoffical tour of our new electronic studios with two
students and we are making a big jump. We are standing on the shoulders
of people like Carl, Steve, Bill Mitchell, the swiss ETH, the Toronto
people (John, Rob, Shannon, Rodney and people i have not met) and less
know examples like John McIntosh at ASU CAED. The potential is to put the
entire US Federal visual data base on line linked to the Tronot Virtual
LA Library. This includes the weekly GPS drive the US Park Service takes
of the Virginia shore line. Real time data. how can you ignore this rich
visual data?
We intend to report how we do. The technology is not the problem. The
Sociology is the problem. (NY Times article on the US West on line
university. Every governor except California has signed a letter of
understanding to begin giving degrees on line.) This is big news and of
course we all have concerns, but think of the PR abilities for LA, design
and the evironment.
Madis Pihlak
Associate Professor and Coordinator
Landscape Architecture
University of Maryland
USA
<mp...@umail.umd.edu>
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 15:53:49 -0700
From: patrick condon <pc...@UNIXG.UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: DesignNet Journal
> Josh
> If I read Bruce MacDougall correctly, I suspect what you have failed to
> appreciate is some subtle sarcasm on Bruce's part levelled at the recent
> technological preoccupation of this list. I too was beginning to wonder of
> anything else mattered to the profession.
>
MacDougall sarcastic? ? ? ?
IMPOSSIBLE!
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 21:39:32 -0400
From: Ear...@AOL.COM
Subject: Re: Electronic Journal
>1. This electronic journal is not a replacement for other journals but
rather provides an opportunity for non-professional writers and young
scholars to develop their craft of writing as they work towards eventually
publishing in higher quality prestigious journals like Landscape Journal. How
do you feel about this perspective?<
I think the electronic journal could replace the "prestigious" Landscape
Journal. What does being a non-professional or a young scholar have to do
with having good ideas and writing skill?
Is there a place for this intermediate level electronic journal? To avoid a
conflict between journals, if an author submitted a very high quality journal
article, the manuscript could be forwarded to Landscape Journal instead of
being considered for the less prestigious electronic journal. Is this an
appropriate action?
>I think it makes an inappropriate pre-judgement about what the hierarchy of
information exchange should be. Why are you making a hierarchy? Material is
either worth reading or it isn't. The difference is when one gets to read it
-- today or six months to a year from now.
>.... The difference between this electronic journal and a person putting
their paper on a web site isthat the electronic journal is peer reviewed and
thus not a vanity press. <
Who cares? If it is on the web it is reviewed by hundreds of peers who have
the ability to make up their own minds about its worth and quality. I think
the days of "selected" peer review are drawing to a close. Personally, I like
the freedom of the web and the chance for people to get their ideas out
without the restriction of "the peer review". You may call it vanity press. I
prefer to think of it as a free exchange of ideas and a chance for forward
and alternative thinkers to break though the limitations of journal
publication.
> .....to financially support the more prestigious Landscape Journal. Is
this an appropriate use of the page
charges?<
No. Let those who publish in the "prestigious" Landscape Journal pick up
their own page costs. After all, publication there might help them get
promoted.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 1996 11:59:58 +1200
From: Michael L Steven <M.St...@UWS.EDU.AU>
Subject: Re: Computers and practice
Madis et all
I have followed this (interminable?) debate with some interest. Yes,
technology is exciting stuff and I hope that in time my students can share
in some of it. Having spent some 5 years in the computer industry, I think
I can claim a distinctly non-luddite background when it come to discussing
the role of computers in landscape architectural practice, yet I have to
take issue with Madis' view, as expressed in his latest posting:
>The technology is not the problem. The Sociology is the problem
Technology IS the problem, or rather our obsession with it. The thought of
us as LA professionals designing in a virtual world, closeted away in an
electronic studio working with data originating from satellites is a
frightening one. Just as e-mail and IRC is becoming a substitute for direct
interpersonal communications, so too, it seems, is digital data becoming a
substitute for direct, first hand knowledge of the world. The reason, I
suggest, is that we mistakenly believe it is easier to comprehend the world
in digital terms. Digital data, by its nature is black or white, on or off.
We no longer have to deal with ambiguity, subtlety or those annoying things
in life which we cannot quantify, like sense of place, spiritual
attachments to the landscape and the rich, though often hidden evidence of
history. Unfortunately the landscape is full of these things, largely due
to the fact that people inhabit the landscape, interact with it and
experience it in rather different ways to satellites. We are trading a
deeper understanding for what we mistakenly believe to be the plain and
simple 'facts'. Madis, where does the direct experience of landscape fit
into your digital studio? Do you and your students ever experience the
smells, sounds and sensations of real landscape? Do you ever walk across
fields, climb hills, dig holes and finger the soil, or gather leaves and
seeds off the ground and marvel at nature? How do you digitise awe and
feelings of the sublime? How do you digitise the experience of being alone
in a remote wilderness (or the stress of main street or central station at
rush hour, for that matter)?
Let's not lose sight of the fact that for all their power, computers are
simply tools. It will reflect poorly on graduates of the future when the
best we can say of them is that as landscape architects, they are great
computer programmers. We shall not be judged by the colour of our overlays,
but by the quality of the environments we create.
______________________________________________________________________________
Mike Steven
School of Horticulture
University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury
Locked Bag 1, PO Richmond NSW 2753
AUSTRALIA
E-mail: m.st...@uws.edu.au
Ph: 61-45-70 1991
Fax: 61-45-70 1314
______________________________________________________________________________
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 19:10:22 -0700
From: Bob Scarfo <sca...@WSU.EDU>
Subject: Interdisciplinary Campus Design
Interdisciplinary teaching, learning, research, and service to the
community, that is the premise for a design studio project that looks at
the master planning of a new urban campus in Spokane, Washington. If anyone
can suggest people, organizations, or readings that might help my students
and I to better understand, what I chose to call, the interdisciplinary
geography of education, I would be grateful for your help.
Washing State University's Interdisciplinary Design Institute (IDI) is
located in Spokane. The architecture, interior design, landscape
architecture, and construction management senior students come to Spokane
for their senior year from the main campus in Pullman. In interdisciplinary
teams they work on actual projects drawn from around the city. The IDI is
currently housed in the second building of what will become a 40+ acre
campus set along the Spokane River. We have thus far begun working on
projects that involve public health, criminal justice, and medical research
as applied to the health of the public at the neighborhood scale.
WSU-Spokane is in the unique situation of building a new campus. The
powers-that-be have recognized the possibility of a new type of physical
campus, as opposed to the traditional campus of discrete buildings housing
discrete departments and programs. Our associations with nondesign
professions, and the application of our work to the benefit of the city's
residents, has brought a unique request for my students and I to apply the
concept of interdisciplinary education to the development of the new
campus's master plan: the interior spaces, the structures organization and
layout, and the over all landscape planning. The campus is primarily a
graduate research school that services the public and a spectrum of medical
and other professional disciplines.
You suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
------------------------------
End of LARCH-L Digest - 10 Jul 1996 to 11 Jul 1996
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--
Toney Lowery
Soon to be graduating (MS Landscape Architecture)...
and Sooner to be a Dad! (begging for congrats)
alo...@tiger.lsu.edu
tlo...@intersurf.com
http://www.intersurf.com/~tlowery
"Easily Distracted by Shiny Objec... Hey! What's That!?!?