2013 End-of-Year Roundup

image: Alexandra Hay
image: Alexandra Hay

To conclude 2013, The Field is rounding up a few end-of-year, landscape architecture-centric summaries and best-of lists. We hope you enjoy perusing them, and best wishes for a brilliant new year!

2013’s Notable Developments in Landscape Architecture

Written by Charles Birnbaum, President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, this year-end summary is organized by a few key themes of 2013:

  • Assessing the aptness of designs and encouraging dialogues between landscapes and buildings and between old and new
  • Harmonious marriages between landscapes and buildings, such as the Tod Williams and Billie Tsien-designed Lakeside skating complex in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park
  • Credits and designations, including the National Register of Historic Places and National Historic Landmarks designations
  • New York’s ongoing parks projects: Phase Three of the High Line, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Governors Island Park

The Dirt‘s Best Books of 2013

ASLA’s The Dirt compiles an annual list of the year’s must-have books on design and the environment. Among the selections for 2013 are Garden Park Community Farm by Warren Byrd, FASLA, Thomas Woltz, FASLA, Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, and Stephen Orr, and Go: A Kidd’s Design to Graphic Design by Chip Kidd.

Planetizen’s Top 10 Books of 2013 in Urban Planning, Design, and Development

If The Dirt‘s list wasn’t enough for you, Planetizen has its own Top 10 Books of 2013, which includes books on urban design, planning, public life, smart cities, and sustainable housing.

The World Architecture Festival’s Landscape of the Year

At this year’s World Architecture Festival, the award for best landscape project went to a new botanic garden in Cranbourne, Australia by Taylor Cullity Lethlean + Paul Thompson. Dezeen has more photographs of the winning project. The runners-up were the Qunli Stormwater Park in China by Turenscape and the upgrade of  Prince Alfred Park+Pool in Australia by City of Sydney and Neeson Murcutt Architects.

Landscape Architects Network’s Top 10 World Class Architecture Projects of 2013

LAN’s list for 2013 has a special emphasis on urban greening and waterfront revitalization, and the winning projects’ locations span the globe, including Australia, China, Singapore, France, the UK, and the US.

Planetizen’s Top 10 Websites of 2013

Planetizen’s list of top websites covers an array of online resources on urban design and planning, and includes MapBox, a website that lets you make your own maps, and The Trust for Public Land‘s ParkScore website, which rates US cities based on how well they meet the need for parks.

2013: The Year of the Bike Share

Adrian Benepe, Senior Vice President and Director of City Park Development at The Trust for Public Land, has declared 2013 the Year of the Bike Share. With more cities adding bike share programs to their urban transportation options, this looks like one 2013 trend that is here to stay.

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