Landscape Renderings (Part I)

Hey Everyone,

Today is a gorgeous, but nippy day in Atlanta. Even though it's cold and the official day of Spring has come and gone, I'm still glad the sun is out. During the fall season, I took a little time out of my schedule to focus on improving some of my rendering techniques. For those of you who aren't familiar with what a rendering is, let me define it according to Wikipedia.

Rendering: in visual art and technical drawing means the process of formulating, adding color, shading, and texturing of an image.

This is the one part of my career that I love the most. Not only do you have to be creative, but you can add color, shading and texture to a plan drawing to make it come to life. The way I like to do this is by using markers, color pencils and a touch of photoshop. I usually present these rendering to clients as a concept plan to give them an idea of what I'm thinking. Once the client let me know that they like the concept then we move forward into preliminary design. I will talk more about that on a different blog. Anyway, below are a couple of concept renderings for a couple clients. Enjoy...Until next time.

Courtyard Concept Rendering: Markers and Color Pencil

Plaza Concept Rendering: Markers, Color pencil and Photoshop on AutoCad Aerial photo.

What's the name of that beautiful tree?!?!

spring has official sprung as of March 20th. Now, that the days are longer and the sun is shining I've been taking long walks and getting back to running outside. Before you know it the yellow dust monster will be here, better known as pollen. On my walks through my favorite park, I ran across this beautiful magnolia tree...Pink Star Magnolia to be exact. It's white and pink flower is very beautiful and makes this tree stand out.

 

This small low-branched tree has large saucer-shaped flowers. Early-spring blossoms are pinkish-purple outside, white inside. Medium fast-growing, good pollution tolerance. Likes moist, deep, acid soil and full sun. Grows to 20' to 30', 25' spread. Great tree to be planted by itself as a show piece...see picture below.

 

Common name: Magnolia Saucer

Botanical name: Magnolia x soulangeana

 

 

Go get out and enjoy the sun until next time.

 

 

 

 Pink Saucer Magnolia-Centennial Park

 

 

Saucer Magnolia flower

Spring is coming...Spring is coming....

It's been awhile since I've blogged about any of my landscape fetishes. Well, I'm back and going to do better. First up...14 more days until spring. That's right March 20th is the first day of spring. If your anything like me, your tired of the cold, wind and rain. Let's not even mention the snow storms that we've had here in Atlanta. I could care less to see anymore snow for the rest of my life, but I digress. As I get up in the morning and take my dog for a walk, I look up at the trees and see the Red Maples are starting to bloom. All I can do is smile because those red blooms are giving me life. Yes, you read that right.. giving me life in knowing that the sun will be out and stay out...hopefully. Mother nature is a little bipolar, but at least she's giving us 65-70 degrees on the weekends. As we gear up to spring forward, I realized that my future blogs will be dedicated to color...color renderings that is. I need to get back to what made me fall in love with this profession. called landscape architecture. I love transforming landscape designs into creative spaces through color renderings. So be on the look out...until then embrace this last bit of winter because spring is definitely coming :-).

3-D Renderings are exciting....

Hey everyone...I've been playing around with 3-dimensional renderings programs and fall in love with design all over again. Design just transforms all things to be lovely. The 3-d photo below is a before and after of a residential property that I designed. I love to add color, texture and height to landscape design. In the project below, color and height was added in the front as well as near the wall. Texture and height were added on the side landscape strip by the garage. The landscape lights are an added feature to add some pop. A simple design can give your home the curb appeal it needs. Hope you like...stay tuned for more designs.

Before

After

Cities with the best parks

If you can't tell by now, I love parks. The main reason that I love parks are because they provide physical activity, which allows individuals to stay and to start becoming healthy. Parks provide economic benefits by improving property values. They provide social interaction that help maintain community cohesion. The leisure activities in parks improve moods, reduce stress and enhance a sense of wellness. More people have come to realize that they achieve the feeling of relaxation and peacefulness when in contact with nature, recreation and exposure to natural open spaces. It's proven that people go to the park to get in a better mood and to decrease the anxieties of daily life. Parks also promote recreational programs which provide organized, structured, enjoyable activities for all ages. One of the goals for public parks is therapeutic recreation. Therapeutic recreation is an outlet that individuals have to be physically active and socially engaged. Overall, parks improve physical and emotional mind sets for people. Americans love their parks, historical sites, national monuments, recreation areas and public open spaces because they bring joy and pleasure. Even if your park isn't on this list or whether it's big or small... go be active and visit a park close by you. Test the theory and see.

The Cities with the BEST parks:

 

 

 

The Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

 

Minneapolis' parks ranked number one thanks to the services it offers, like its management of community sports leagues, and ease of access for residents. No matter where a person lives in the city, they are no more than six blocks away from one of the city's 197 parks.

 

 

 

New York's Central Park

 

New York's green spaces receive well over 100 million visitors a year, Central Park is the showstopper, hosting 40 million park goers annually. New York devotes nearly 20% -- more than 38,000 acres -- of its land to green use.

 

 

 

San Francisco Golden Gate Park

 

San Francisco's moderate climate and seaside location help make it an exceptional place for recreational activities. The city offers plenty of space for them, too: Nearly 18% of all land in town is park land. Golden Gate Park, which stretches for three miles

 

 

 

Sacramento California State Capitol Park Rose Garden

 

Sacramento's parks made this year's "best city parks" list thanks to the area's strong culture of volunteerism,the city's parks have one of the highest utilization rates in the country.

 

 

 

 

Boston Public Garden

 

Established in 1634, historic Boston Common is the oldest park in the U.S. But it's just one bead in an "Emerald Necklace" of parks, that hopscotches south through the city neighborhoods to Franklin Park.

 

 

My favorite Atlanta Park

Hey everyone! I hope that you guys are enjoying the sunshine as much as I have these days. The best thing about living in Downtown Atlanta is the ability to walk to various things. Such as, restaurants, work, and of course the wonderful parks. One of the closest parks is Centennial Park and it's one of my favorite parks in Atlanta.
 
Here are a few facts about Centennial Olympic Park. Centennial Olympic Park was created in 1996 and is 21 acres. The park was built as part of the infrastructure improvements for the Centennial 1996 summer Olympics. The park has hosted several events, such as popular music concerts and Independence day fireworks display. The park is surrounded by many major Atlanta landmarks, the Georgia World Congress Center, CNN Center, Georgia Dome, World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium. One of the key features and my favorite are the interactive fountain rings.The fountain rings are computer controlled lights and jets of water that are synchronized with music. the fountain splash pads are designed for children and some adults to play in on a hot summer day.
 

 

Centennial Olympic Park is absolutely beautiful with the open greenspace to play or to just sit and relax. There are smaller space to sit and just enjoy a nice ice cream with children or a significant other. As a landscape Architect, it makes me proud and excited to know that our designs have a positive affect on people. Being outside and being active can change your mood for the whole day. I sat down and watched children and adults play in the fountain rings and thought how the small things can put a smile on people's faces. If you haven't been to Centennial Olympic Park then this should be on your to do list when you come to Atlanta or if you already live here. You won't be disappointed. Don't take my word for it... just watch.

 

 

Kids enjoying fountain rings

 

 

Centennial Park entrance

 

Centennial Park Art

 Centennial Park Christmas lights

Fountain ring lights at night

Centennial Park Art

 Centennial Park Art

 



Overview of the park

Independence day celebration

 

Guess what's one of my favorite trees...

On a side note from the design process, let's talk about one of my favorite trees. The pretty Japanese Maple also known as Acer Palmatum. The Japanese Maple is a woody plant native from Japan, China, North and South Korea. It can be used in the landscape as a small tree or a deciduous shrub. It can reach a height of up to 20 feet, but grows as an understory tree. I love this tree to be planted as a single ornamental tree that stands out in the landscape.

There are many different cultivars or varieties of this maple which attract people with its leaf shape and colors. My favorite cultivar is called "Bloodgood" because of it's bright red leaves that stay red for most of the summer and the grey picturesque muscular-looking trunk. This may not be your favorite tree, but the pictures below may change your mind. Until next time....

Bloodgood cultivar leaf

Various leaf pattern

 

 

Multi-trunk Japanese Maple