This past weekend I attended the Puget Sound Bird Fest in Edmonds, Washington. Part of the schedule was a wildlife habitat demonstration garden as well as a tour of five backyard habitats. The demonstration garden was the first stop and has it’s own story which I will post separately about soon. This post will focus [...]
Seattle University sits on 48 acres in the middle of Seattle, a five minute walk east from the middle of downtown. It’s in between the First Hill and Capitol Hill neighborhoods and is surrounded by hospitals, medical centers, stores, restaurants and housing. The campus has had a long commitment to sustainability dating back to the [...]
These two courtyards are in my neighborhood in Seattle and present dramatically different landscapes. One is in the center of a U-shaped, tall building and faces north while the other is a short building with an L-shaped courtyard and opens NW. The first one has minimal trees, only small ones in the courtyard and entrance [...]
What started as an artists sketch four decades ago has now become a working product. In 1970 artist Robert Smithson, perhaps best known for his ‘Spiral Jetty’ earthwork, created a sketch showing a tugboat towing a vegetated island on a river and called it “Floating Island“. During his lifetime he was never able to see [...]
The Nighthawk is a bird that used to be abundant throughout the US but has been in decline in recent years. There are many potential reasons for this, among them is a change in the construction of roof tops. Nighthawks have been known to nest on roofs with gravel tops, but since most roof construction [...]
The Wildlife Design Competition from the Holbeck Urban Village in Leeds has just closed and the winners will be announced next month. This is the second year of the competition and before the winner is announced, let’s take a look at last years winner. A wildlife high-rise skyscraper was the winner last year by Garnett [...]
By contrast to the previous post, here is a design by the firm BAM that takes an existing building and creates a green roof dedicated to birds in lower Manhattan. The roof is designed as a ‘refueling station’ for migratory birds along the Atlantic Flyway and is an intricate design aimed at maintaining insect populations [...]