While the article just barely scratches the surface of the opening question -- "Is it a monumental way to adorn the planet - or just arrogant vandalism?" -- the article is still worth a read.

Article: Guardian - This epic Earth

Other land art links:
Link: Richard Long
Link: Irish Sky Garden - James Turrell
Link: Lightning Field - Walter De Maria
Link: Robert Smithson
Link: Spiral Jetty - Robert Smithson

Reference: Andy Goldsworthy (Land+Living)
Reference: Satell(s)iteseeing (Land+Living)

[The birdhouses] are hand-made of sustainably harvested teak and finished with an oil that protects against water, mildew, and UV rays. The roofs are constructed of sandblasted 1/4" thick aluminum plate and aluminum dowels.

...city officials, generally speaking, are not visionaries. Although their most important role is to safeguard history and nourish a distinct sense of place, they're like heroin addicts when it comes to retail.

They'll bulldoze the past, raffle off the last precious parcel of open space and build parking garages over their mothers' graves for a quick hit of sales tax revenue.

Today is Festivus, and just before we take off for some Festivus r+r, we would like to share in the traditions of the season with you, our dear Land+Living readers.

Both of us here at Land+Living would like to thank you for visiting our site. We hope you like what you have seen, and please continue to visit as we grow and evolve. And, of course, please free to contact us with any suggestions or tips. And to our design blog compatriots, thank you all for your support and professionalism. Happy Festivus to you all! And now... on with the Festivus for the rest of us.....

We recently visited three of her recent projects in Pasadena, California. She was chosen by Frank Gehry to work with him on the remodel of the Norton Simon Museum where she reworked the extensive gardens. At the new Art Center South Campus by Daly Genik she created a meadow-like roof garden. And just last week the first phase of the new Kidspace Museum designed by Michael Maltzan was opened featuring a range of outdoor exhibits, spaces and interactive gardens.

Also, an article in last week's LA Times covers the work at Kidspace and provides a detailed look at her life and career.

Firm: Nancy Goslee Power & Associates
Link: Norton Simon Museum - Garden
Link: Art Center College of Design South Campus
Reference: The Wind Tunnel (Land+Living)
Link: Kidspace Children's Museum - Back 40 garden
Article: LA Times - An artist of the alfresco

Locations: Local+Living : Pasadena

Designed by Jeremy Pyles, the lights are available in colors such as smoke, dark grey, and amber. Prewired installation is required.

Link: Niche NYC

Link: Bliss
Via: Urban Spy

Because the "lifestyle center" continues to spawn and spread across the country... and the more that open, the more alarmed the we are by the trend. The Plain Dealer features a critical look at the good and the bad of Crocker Park in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake. The article touches on many of the same issues that we have been stewing over in recent commentary posts.

Article: The Plain Dealer, Cleveland.com - Westlake's new center, half-done, feels hollow
Link: Crocker Park
Firm: Bialosky + Partners Architects
Via: Archinect
Reference: Reality bites (Land+Living)
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part I (Land+Living)
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part I (Land+Living)

Featuring:

Glass is fluid too. These glasses are reminiscent in what they contain. DROOPLETS are handmade of strong Pyrex glass and are available in S, M, or L. The unique design also insulates hot or cold liquids. Use them rightside up or upside down.

Designer: John Paul Plauche
Link: Plodes Studio

Granted, I don't know much about IV poles but after seeing the problem they presented with existing IV poles and comparing it to the one they've designed, it's pretty obvious that IV poles were in dire need of some rethinking. Nice work!

Link: IV Pole [Thanks, Yu and Dan!]

This house in Breckenridge, Colorado by Denver based Faleide Architects is comprised of two boxes. One is glass to open to the views and the forest and the other is more cozy, sheltered and closed. To us... this is what a mountain house should be like.

Firm: Faleide Architects - Crowder House
Link: Architectural Record - House of the Month, December 2004

Link: Museo di Castelvecchio
Design: Eisenman Architects
Via: Architectural Record, 12-04 print edition

"Making Ceramic art is like working with flesh that becomes bone. It enlists every element: earth, water, fire, and wind to become what I ask of it. It awkens all the ancestry of vessels or rejects hollowness and is massive. It is strenuous to work with as well as easy. My body learns from the feel of it, and the puzzle that is the process, helps my head."

While McDonough is not reflexively anti-regulation, a key Cradle to Cradle tenet is that regulation itself is evidence of design failure. In other words, if you can build a factory that emits nothing harmful, there's no need for heavy regulation.

A good chunk of today's environmental law, McDonough argues, doesn't aim for this ideal. Instead, he says, it sets out to make something less bad--reducing pollution and so on--rather than encouraging a fundamental redesign to turn the bad thing into something good.

Article: Forbes - Cradle To Cradle To Washington
Reference: Cradle to Cradle (Land+Living)

First, MoCo shows new beer packaging by Philippe Starck for 1664, a European lager by French brewer Kronenbourg. The packaging includes a bottle in the shape of a traditional pilsner/lager glass (pssst... Harry, it's beer, not champagne), the can has a screw top and then there is, of course, a pilsner/lager glass to pour the beer into.

Next Treehugger points us to an article at Satya Magazine where Brooklyn Brewery co-founder Stephen Hindy talks about social responsibility, green design and his organically brewed Brooklyn Sustainable Porter.

YAY BEER!

Link: MoCo Loco - 1664
Link: Kronenbourg
Designer: Philippe Starck

Link: Treehugger - Brooklyn Sustainable Porter
Link: Satya Magazine - A Brewery Grows in Brooklyn
Link: Brooklyn Brewery

The products are porcelain cast in plaster forms or hand thrown and are glazed with non-toxic glazes. Many of the designs feature a graphic red silk screened design.

Beautiful.

Link: Anne Black

Through design we transform sites (spaces) into places for our clients. Our places embody a philosophy of strong simple design that responds to the environmental and cultural processes influencing each site. Our philosophy is based upon respect - for our clients, for the environment, and for the power of design.

Designer: Susan Kralovec
Link: Everyday Studio
Via: Design Sponge

Link: Scrapile
Link: Bettencourt Woodworking

[Thanks, Carlos!]

Like most American cities... [Los Angeles] has had to cope with increasing pressures from developers and urban planners, who tend to see urban space as nothing more than a vast machine for middle-class consumers. In this context Mr. Mayne's revamped Modernism has a refreshing honesty.

Article: NY Times - A Building as a Beacon for a City's Plans
Firm: Morphosis
Reference: Reality Bites (Land+Living)

Today's breed of mall, dubbed, "lifestyle centers," may want to serve as surrogate town centers, but strip away the facades, the faux layers of history and the rhetoric, and they are private malls. Just ask the guy in Texas who tried to circulate a petition at one of these "town centers".... errr, malls. The developers may love the fact that their malls somehow fulfill the function of a downtown, but only so far as consumption is concerned. Make no mistake, the open space amenities of these centers are only masquerading as public space. The sidewalk is private, the "town square" is private. Free speech does not necessarily have the right to occupy this realm. No longer is fantasy contained within the box of the television set, or in the theatre, or behind the ticket booth at the theme park.

How about a chair that accepts the reality of its multi-functions? Austrian designers Bruckner/Klamminger/Moritsch have come up with an elegant solution.

Falb is a chair which offers some space to place one's personal things. One stays near it and still has enough room. Its shape differs from the symmetry of usual chairs. Its back carries jackets, [bags], etc. In order to take weight its right chair-leg makes a side-step. It show its individual character.

Link: BKM

Every tile has similar sectional characteristics derived from a process of double pleating a continuous surface. The inherent complexity of the terrain's contours originates a dimensional logic of construction that through a process of subdivision, allow every tile to adjust to its site specific condition while maintaining its prototypic geometry and morphological qualities.

Designer: Patterns

Article: The Economist - The rise of the green building

Updated and refreshed on a budget, this house in San Gabriel, California is an example of significant cosmetic transformation on a budget... specifically my budget.

Building on the simple stucco box form, the design is clean, modern and simple. Throughout the house and property, the key was to get the most bang for the buck by using a minimal palette of materials and to reuse much of the existing material on site.

Design: Studio J2L

Link: Susanne Lorenz (German)