Tag Archives: Landscape Architecture

The Work Oddities Daily Cap(s) (354)

Posted on by

2

The day started out with a tree silhouette that I have passed countless times...so much for priding myself in being observant, huh?

Before work, the day started out finding a tree silhouette that I have passed countless times…so much for priding myself in being observant, huh?

At a project site, a monument pier shaft has been drilled - do you realize how difficult it is to set a camera exposure for a hole 12 feet deep?

Then at a project site, a monument pier shaft has been drilled – do you realize how difficult it is to set a proper camera exposure for a hole 12 feet deep?

...believe me, it's difficult even with a trial and error method of skill-less exercise.

…believe me, it’s difficult even with a trial and error method of an obviously skill-less exercise.

Since I couldn't get the right picture exposure, these guys decided to fill in the hole with concrete....

Since I couldn’t get the right picture exposure, these guys decided to fill in the hole with concrete….

And that - a concrete filled hole - I can take a halfway decent picture of....

And that – a concrete-filled hole – I can take a halfway decent picture of…it just has very little personality to speak of. But in a couple weeks…well, I will share that picture of what they put on top of this submerged clump of concrete.

The What’s The Objective Daily Cap(s) (294)

Posted on by

0

I found myself cooped up in a conference room (yes…on a glorious-weather Saturday with all sorts of other pictures in waiting) with like-minded colleagues, trying to come up with a palatable “Strategic Plan” for all our fellow landscape architects in Texas to digest and conduct themselves responsibly in the profession.

We all had our moments, but Barbara (from our National office) had the most. She is an easel-writtin’ fool that girl! One thing discovered in todays proceedings is that I am annoying when it comes to wordsmithing each and every objective statement (and loving every minute of it)

oh my…Am I supposed to be doing that? Kind of sounds political in a way, huh?

One objective accomplished: temptation was thwarted in the pastry indulgence category of our Strategic Planning….not a one donut was consumed (by me) all the damn day long (but don’t you know I was standing over them doing nostril deep-breathing exercises during each break).

 

 

 

 

 

The Hard At Being Halfway Done Daily Cap(s) (279)

Posted on by

2

Some days my favorite part of working this job….

…is when I get to be outside and be a part of making neat things happen.

 

This gateway to the City will soon be in a way-cool roundabout median….

…and should be mostly done in two weeks, weather permitting and traffic patterns learned of course.

Stone has to be the the best to use to make a good project look great, especially when you’ve got talent laying it.

 

Now let there be no worries – the orange water jug is not part of the permanent attractions….

…and this sort-of teaser is of good things yet to come, less the jug of course. Yessiree, why don’t y’all go out and hug your favorite landscape architect this weekend (and mason too)

 

 

 

 

The Professional Choice Daily Cap(s) (270)

Posted on by

2

One fun part of my job lets me best-pick material for various projects. This one needed a letter color picked. Which one did I choose? Classy Brass? Coffee Brown? Brilliantly Black?

The tree hugger in me says “let’s reuse this”…..

I have a niece who, for the longest time, thought I (a landscape architect) did nothing more than design sidewalks. I hope she doesn’t see this and think I had anything to do with it!

River rock in a roadway median? Does that make sense? In the flat lands of Texas? But yes, it does have a nice variety of colors….

Sometimes even the best-conceived site plans simply do not work right….

The Sunday NYC Daily Cap(s) (225)

Posted on by

2

It matters not the size of the camera or the photographer…just as long as the photo is gotten.

this is my landscape architecture photo of the day….it’s a cool spot. The small slivers of green space in this city always amazes me for a multitude of reasons.

Sitting at the Wall Street Bull Sculpture, this guy played the National Anthem over and over and over…he got a buck from me, a smile, and a nod of the head. He did the same back…except for the dollar bill

It’s me and graveyards again….came across this famous gravesite at the Trinity Church (the church that “survived” 9/11 being a couple blocks from Ground Zero and now the sidewalk has the last of the Occupy Wall Street crowd).

I could spend days and days doing nothing other than photographing the neat windows, doors, and building facades of NYC

Attended FD’s matinee performance of “Falling”…she was outstanding, in fact the entire cast did a bang-up job.

I love the bridges of NYC as well…this one is The Williamsburg (and I wasn’t driving BTW)

If anyone has a preconceived idea that NYC is all concrete….well not quite.

NYC cyclists are a creative bunch despite their bike rack craftsmanship being something less than desirable…personal opinion of course

The Brooklyn Flea Market – cool place, wonderful artists, and a couple handfuls of vendors that make you wonder “who buys this stuff?”

Love the NYC street vendors and their character….

This has got to be an Ewok soccer player…no?

History all over the place….one of my favorite authors and wisdom-sayers

And right down the street from the Mark Twain house is the lady’s home that gave us this famous quote….

We did a night-time schooner ride from Pier 62 to the Stature of Liberty…and back. What a cool way to spend a Sunday eve – the Hudson River is quite peaceful at night (or at least this night it was)

We did a midnight stop in Chinatown…everyone ought to give Wo Hop Restaurant (downstairs) a try at least once…anytime of day, but know the midnight crowd is definitely interesting. This is the sign marking the restrooms….

The Saturday NYC Daily Cap(s) (224)

Posted on by

0

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The On Down The Road Daily Cap(s) (219)

Posted on by

1

Juan…love his modified, customized hard hat, duct tape and all!

Juan’s help has just as cool of a hard hat….

Haven’t seen a Buick Sky Hawk…well…since crusin’ main street on a Saturday night back in my high school days. Oh geez, does that make the car old, or me? (has to be the car, right?)

Driving home this evening, we got nothing more than a tease of a storm….

The All In A Day’s Work Daily Cap(s) (207)

Posted on by

1

 

Who remembers that dag-gum baseball complex from a couple months ago? Well looky here….grass is growing!

But grass still isn’t in all places….

In Texas summers, irrigation is a definite must-have for ball fields….

And repairs seem to be never-ending (love this guy’s hat!)

And how I appreciate these guys’ ingenuity when it comes to labor efficiency and just plain ol’ common sense in getting the job done right (I’ve seen one guy do this with 3 wheelbarrows – how many steps did this save the man…in 104° temps?)….

 

 

 

 

The Ingenuity Daily Cap(s) (184)

Posted on by

0

Remember the ball field post from several weeks ago? Look what’s getting redone this week…with much better results! And these laborers are quite the clever bunch when it comes to using what they have to get their work done right…

OK, call be old school or even old fashion, but know this: there are only a few tools that rarely lie, ones where you needn’t worry about losing a battery charge or a satellite link, and were used to build the Egyptian pyramids a few years back. I love string lines!

And ingenuity doesn’t alway stop when you leave the ball field. Here this kid figured out how to befriend an inanimate object to help get his job done….

…now if he could only figure out how to cool the late-afternoon Texas July temperatures (where’s the umbrella?) and silence the smart-alec drivers that honk at him (hey kid, toss a stale pizza pie at them passing by).

This has to be an infomercial idea…or perhaps something for one of those slick sales guy peddling the best home improvement tool at the State Fair. Let’s start a list of the varied uses for the common, everyday toilet plunger (besides it’s primary purpose)

The Work Stuff Daily Cap(s) (179)

Posted on by

0

A good example/reason why trumpet vine should not be planted…and it’s an equally good example/reason why it should be….

It’s a little bit of Jamaica in Denton Texas. But ya know when it’s 105° in the out-of-doors, it matters little how uninvitingly eclectic the place looks…go get some ice water for crying out loud…hey what’s with the airport wind sock here?

“T” for “Tim”? Ha! Nope…”T” for “Town” – work stuff sometimes involves picking stone colors that work best with (and for) the “brass”….

You will most likely find sunflowers growing in the least expected, most inhospitable, and oddly peculiar places…sometimes

The Sketchy Daily Cap(s) (166)

Posted on by

1

Sketches for/from work – so badly out of practice….

 

Fun exercise for the brain, hand, and spirit, even if it’s a long way from being good. A definite reprieve from the daily business grind typical for the day….

The Can’t Play Ball Daily Cap(s) (119)

Posted on by

0

Yesterday, 2 baseball fields received sod. By noon I rejected 1 1/2 of the those fields...because of the workmanship and lack of playability...I was not a popular person amongst the contractors. So today, I brought a soccer ball to the field....

I hoped the laborers would play a quick game of soccer with me on their break. My intention was to prove a point to them on taking pride and ownership in their craft, and what they were doing was not right. None of them took me up on a quick game BTW

So I kicked the ball around by myself, in front of them. Once they saw the ball "bounce" across their newly laid sod, I seized the teaching moment. I rubbed my shaved face and said "smooth for soccer", then rubbed my chin whiskers and said "no good for soccer" - and pointed to sod shaking my head. They all looked at me rather odd (imagine that), but their workmanship improved a little bit. I say it was all my Spanish Hand Talking...we'll see when I'm back out on Wednesday whether the other 2 fields get rejected....

The Foul Ball Daily Cap(s) (109)

Posted on by

0

The field-inspection-before-sodding happened today...we're building it and they are already waiting.

Wait, what? Is that a golf ball on what will soon be a pitching mound? We'll have none of that play here....

So I've got to hand it to the contractor that owns this front-end loader. He has certainly gotten his money's worth out of this set of tires (and even the butterfly likes the tractor tires)

The Nightmare Daily Cap(s) (90)

Posted on by

3

Have I ever mentioned that next to tornadoes, I like snakes best?

The guy I was with today had a golf club shaft and used it to poke at these creatures of questionable value (that is a strictly a personal commentary on my part...although don't try to argue differently with me please - you will not convince me otherwise)...like he wanted me to start screaming and see how fleet-of-foot this big ol' boy is when hightailing it.

My next design project involves dealing with the habitat of these "nasty disposition black water snakes - I say they are Diamoondback Water Snakes - with non-venomous bites" (did I say "bites"? Oh geez). It seems I have been challenged with re-designing a City park boardwalk that traverses over this snake pit/beaver dam. It will require additional field investigation, which in turn will involve countless hours of insomnia, sudden night time awakenings with sheet-soaking sweats, and Indiana Jones type of fear-facing. Am I getting paid enough?

The Daily Backside Cap(s) (65)

Posted on by

1

I think I made the contractors mad this morning...they all turned their backs on me (and walked away)

I think I made the daffodils mad this morning...they all turned their backs on me (and leaned away)

The Today-Yesterday’s Concrete Daily Cap(s) (60)

Posted on by

0

Today: must have been break time...or they needed more concrete

Yesterday: the guy in charge of keeping kids off and out of the new concrete must have taken a break before the concrete hardened....

The Daily Cap(s) (58)

Posted on by

1

Now what these bridge-building guys were doing with a ladder leaning against the crazy thing, I have no clue. But they did have brightly-colored, fashionable safety vests...And just what, you ask, was I doing taking a picture of guys under a bridge? Well don't cha know I'm on the look out for grumpy trolls of course.

Continue reading →

The Daily Cap (16)

Posted on by

2

Can this be an accidental, on-purpose coincidence? Scotch (along with the occasional Kahlua for merely the aroma most certainly) and books of garden design and photography...all on the same shelf. Can life be any grander?