‘Heart of the Garden’ Blooms in New York

By Todd Forrest, Vice President for Horticulture and Living Collections, The New York Botanical Garden

 
Known around the world as a museum of plants with far-reaching botanical science and educational programs, The New York Botanical Garden also is the steward of a 250-acre National Historic Landmark landscape in New York City. The Botanical Garden’s historic landscape features 50 gardens, plant collections, and displays developed over the past 120 years to serve our research and education programs and to delight the public with the beauty and diversity of plants.

Over the past decade, we have been restoring the Garden’s historic landscape, with an emphasis on the 85-acre “Heart of the Garden,” a unique mosaic of old-growth native forest that pre-dates the Garden and naturalistic gardens created during the implementation of a 1920’s master plan, developed by the Olmsted Brothers firm. Working with renowned landscape architect Laurie Olin of Olin Partnership, we created a plan to restore and enhance the Heart of the Garden with the goal of celebrating the unique qualities of the natural landscape while providing exciting new horticultural spectacles to inspire and delight our visitors.

 
The new Azalea Garden, which opened on May 7, is the first major project completed within the Heart of the Garden. This 11-acre garden features encyclopedic collections of azaleas, rhododendrons, and extensive sweeps of woodland perennials, planted amidst some of the Garden’s most dramatic topography and venerable native trees. From 2009 to 2011, horticulturists planted more than 2,500 new azaleas and rhododendrons, 1,000 other trees and shrubs, 40,000 bulbs, and 30,000 perennials in the shade of ancient oaks, tulip trees, and sweet gums. A dazzling diversity of azaleas and rhododendrons now provides flowers from March through July (with a peak in late April and Early May), while the companion plants extend the flowering season and provide touches of subtle beauty throughout the year.

The new plantings are massed so they can be enjoyed from along nearly a mile of new pathways that wind through the stands of centenarian trees and traverse slopes that rise 55 feet from valley to peak. New gathering circles, overlooks, and benches provide opportunities to rest and enjoy long views of the landscape. Interpretive signs and plant labels teach visitors about the plants, the natural features of the site, and the design of the new garden.

The completed Azalea Garden is the first step in ongoing efforts to restore the historic heart of The New York Botanical Garden. Future projects include the creation of a new Native Plant Garden and the ecological restoration of the 50-acre Native Forest, the largest remnant of natural forest in New York City. Together these projects will create an 85-acre oasis of natural beauty, great “plantsmanship,” and informed stewardship that is unique to New York City.

(Photography by Ivo M. Vermuelen)

Designing Back to the Future: 2011 WT Awards

Design is always evolving, and while the latest Salone Internazionale del Mobile, which ran from April 12 – 17 in Milan, may have come to close this weekend, it’s no question that the designs presented at the 2011 WT Award exhibit at the exhibition’s Well-Tech Observatory pavilion will continue to inspire.

Now in it’s 11th year, the program presented to Salone attendees 60 design innovations that address the values of innovation, accessibility, sustainability, and quality of life. Nine winners in total were chosen across the range of categories, but here are a couple of the designs that directly apply to architecture and interior design:

 
"Masdar City, the Oasis of the Future,” a planned underground city in Abu-Dhabi, designed by LAVA, will rely solely on solar and wind energy. The town will occupy 6 sq. km. (20,000 ft. sq.) of space and offer a system of shuttle stations and tracks, in light of cars, for a zero carbon transportation system, as well as house 50,000 people, 1500 businesses, and the new Masdar Institute of Science and Technology University. http://www.l-a-v-a.net/

 
Designed by Tarta, this ergonomic backrest is lightweight, flexible, and elastic but also compact and durable. The modular dish style of the design allows for a custom build and individual fit that can improve the posture of users, from disabled people in wheelchairs to office workers. The system is convenient for application in lounge, sofa, or armchair seating, as well. http://www.tartadesign.it/

But why stop there? View all the 2011 WT Award winners and entrants at the WT Awards Web site. Some of the other entrants you may like to check out include:

 
Combining technology with sleek design, Heimdall presents a new outdoor speaker system. The luminous and wireless design is freestanding and solar-powered, with an operable remote transmitter control that can be synced to Smartphones and laptops. The aesthetic cylinder can be made from an assortment of materials—including resin, marble, wood—and features a touch screen. http://www.heimdall.it/

 
The new Energy-Photovoltaic Walkable Pavement from Onyx Solar is comprised of photovoltaic glass ceramic is integrated into the floor. The innovative product, which stores solar energy to be used inside nearby buildings, is pressure-resistant to weathering and performs like a normal floor tile. http://www.onyxsolar.com/

 
The Revolution Door by Fluxxlab modifies the traditional revolving door. Consisting of three main elements—an central pivot (that can replace each new or already installed port), a mechanical/electrical system to collect the rotary kinetic energy, and an electrical energy device that displays the amount of energy generated. http://www.fluxxlab.com/

What are your favorite design innovations? Share your thought with us in the comments below.

 --Stacy Straczynski

Video: Evidence-based Design in Action

It seems like evidence-based design has been the talk of the A&D town for the last couple years, and why not? When research proves that design designed around actual data points and user functionality pays off, evidence-based design is a “no brainer.” As one of the top firms advocating the Evidence-Based Design Accreditation and Certification (EDAC) program, sponsored by the Center for Health Design, HDR Architecture has launched a series of case studies on the subject, as a follow-up to its Evidence-based Design for Healthcare Facilities book.

“It’s important that we stress the importance of designing healthcare environments based on research, not old processes,” says Cyndi McCullough, director of clinical services for HDR, in a statement. “Hospital administrators are continually searching for proven, cost-effective strategies when it comes to design. These videos show completed projects where clients implemented evidence-based design principles and experienced success.” 

Here’s a peek at one of the videos:

Episode 1: The New Hanover Regional Medical Center segment explains how design solutions like private patient rooms, family amenities, decentralized nurse stations, and new technology significantly increased patient and staff satisfaction scores.

Episode 2: St. Mary's Medical Center North in Knoxville, Tenn., case study looks at how features such as tracking boards, hands-free communication systems, room service dietary, and bedside admission make the care giving process more efficient.

Episode 3: Case study of Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Ida., shares the results of a noise study conducted on a patient unit.

View them all at www.hdrinc.com.

--Stacy Straczynski

Designs to Reverse Aging?

 
What if we could design buildings that change and evolve as we do? Ones that could help us monitor our own state of wellbeing and adjust temperature, color, and even texture accordingly to make us more comfortable and optimize our health? Designs that ultimately could reverse the aging process? While such concepts may seem a bit, correction, exceptionally farfetched in A&D today, this type of knowledge and technology is coming. Such introductions will have profound effects on design as we know it.

Last night, I attended “The 9 Visual Rules of Wellness” preview event, sponsored by Frito-Lay and Quest Diagnostics, at the Steelcase Showroom in New York City, that showcased to healthcare, wellness, and media professionals the upcoming personal health initiative TheVisualMD.com. Created by Deepak Chopra and Alexander Tsiaras, TheVisualMD.com presents a combination of digital technology and medical scans that for the firs time allows for the complete visualization of body’s constant processes (both growth and decay) to demonstrate the impact of our personal choices and give a tangible diagram to finding a more sustainable way of life.

Chopra began the presentation by discussing how our current models of wellbeing are flawed as “the mechanisms of illness are not the origins of illness…At the deepest level, our bodies are not structures but processes in the midst of change. It’s always changing but maintains a balance.” He went on to point out that since our bodies are just a recycling of elements (citing that 60 percent of our DNA is the same as a banana, while 98 percent is the same as a chimpanzee, which garnered a stir of laughter from the audience) there are those markers that can be changed, such as slowing the progress of aging, by taking control of our biological turnover through, for example, sugar tolerance, hormone levels, and fat content. “We have data that shows one person reversed their ‘age’ by 30 years in four months.”

After a short video that depicted the process of human life from conception to birth, Tsiaras detailed the ideas behind TheVisualMD.com. “We were using the term “marvel.” As we watch the design of the body...it’s so perfectly organized in structure and architecture, it’s a miracle…We tried to figure out programs where physician and patient could be responsible to measure their biomarkers back to health.”

Here are Chopra and Tsiaras’ “9 Visual Rules of Wellness:”

1. Baseline Your Health: Pick a start date. Have your physician define your current biomarkers with a simple blood test. This is the first step toward analyzing and quantifying your current health and lifestyle.
2. Define Your Wellness Mission: What are your goals? Identify them, and create an action plan.
3. Develop and Maintain Nutritional Balance: Taking in the right combination of nutrients is key to your success.
4. Get Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise: You can improve your strength, brain function and body image at any age.
5. Never Smoke. If You Smoke Now, Quit: Smoking decreases your quality of life and life expectancy.
6. Take a Moderate Approach: Excess in anything you do, or consume, upsets the balance between body and mind.
7. Make Sleep a Priority: Healthful sleep patterns positively affect all aspects of wellness.
8. Manage Your Stress: Chronic stress robs your body of its ability to heal and maintain health.
9. Embrace Joy: A joyful outlook in daily life improves your health in ways that may surprise you.

So what does all this have to do with design? Everything. Whether you are a designer for healthcare, corporate spaces, hospitality venues, educational buildings, etc., the ideas and concepts of wellbeing must be taken into account. Designers must ask themselves, “Is this material sustainable?” and “How can my design help to improve the quality of life for those within and those in the surrounding community?”  In our Healthcare Environment Awards this year, our Conceptual category winner, Patient Room, proposed what hospital rooms might be like 10 years from now, incorporating high-tech displays and communication tools to increase doctor-patient interaction to better the level of service healthcare providers could give, thereby increasing healing time.

Similarly, I see TheVisualMD.com, while not inherently design-related, as a stepping stone or even a building block to an overall improved well being in our built environments. It proposes significant potential for expanding the capabilities and ideologies of design to a point where each element in a building has a direct affect on the quality of life for those within; potential for designing “living” buildings that change and adjust to those who occupy them to optimize wellbeing and, quite possibly, slow aging. Are such ideas really that farfetched afterall?

Just imagine the possibilities! What benefits and changes do you see more advanced visualization technology (and a greater understanding of the human body) bringing to design?

--Stacy Straczynski

Launching today: Green & Design

Today marks the debut of a new digital publication from the Contract family: Green & Design. Focusing on sustainability in the built environment, the digital publication is the first of a three-prong initiative that aims to give the A&D community the latest must-read news on all things green. A sister publication for Contract, Green & Design pulls from the expertise of the design and real estate titles of our parent company, Nielsen Business Media, which include Contract (of course!), Commercial Property News, DDI, Hospitality Design, Multi-Housing News and Kitchen & Bath Business.

To debut in the coming months are an extensive web portal and virtual events. But you don't have to wait to check out the new magazine here.

Science + Design

I've a confession from my inner-nerd. When I'm at the airport and browsing through the offerings at Hudson News, while most people's in-air guilty pleasure reading tends to lean toward, say, In Touch or Star magazine, I usually find myself ending up with a copy of SEED magazine, which is odd considering I am not a science buff. I do, however, find the intersection of science and design to be a more useful tool for keeping myself awake on flights. And so, I share this food for thought: SEED magazine has just posted The Seed Design Series, a collection of videos from the magazine's science and design conference held in conjunction with the Museum of Modern Art, where a selection of speakers explored, among other things, the intersection between science and design and architecture. Click through to see the full roster.