@alexialandarch

Spring is …..

Come on a journey with me. I have a tale of butterflies, native plants community-based designed landscapes, and soil life. It is a story of beauty and abundance, design legibility and soils health. I will talk about how to shift the landscape maintenance paradigm to stewardship gardening, and how, on a location with a 30-plusContinue reading “Spring is …..”

Walk the site with me

Please enjoy this tour of a Re-Ecology LTD project! Contact us if you would like more details about this project, or if you would like to transition your corporate site to a sustainable and beautiful landscape! This video was made in December 2018. My role on this project was design and oversight for a specialtyContinue reading “Walk the site with me”

Urban Tree Roots – take a journey

Urban trees are part of our infrastructure. They must co-exist with all the curbs, paving, utilities, and our movements. Various soils and media are available to help address issues like compaction of the growing media, and heaving of paved areas due to tree roots. I have done projects in the past where we spec’d CU-StructuralContinue reading “Urban Tree Roots – take a journey”

Work in progress…. thinking through some HOA improvements

People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…. and people with glass garage doors shouldn’t have to mow the grass and have broken glass to fix….. Re-visiting the issues with the Residents to : reduce mown grass increase stormwater infiltration create beauty and get butterflies!

If we build it, they will come… but we shan’t wait too long… much to do!

Magic tree, magical beach….

Years and years ago, I was asked to design “bird-friendly” native plantings for a parking lot for one of Chicago’s Harbors. It wasn’t quite the first time I was asked to do something like this – all native plants – but it was still memorable. That particular design never was installed, but since then, theContinue reading “Magic tree, magical beach….”

sketch ideas for an “activated river” in a really great little town

Landscape Architecture

Landscape Architecture creates our built spaces by harmonizing the dialogue among science, culture, and environment. Everywhere there is human culture, there is landscape architecture, formally or informally. Interested in expanding your purview? The Department of Landscape Architecture at Illinois is hosting an Islamic Landscape Symposium on September 13 to explore the design of contemporary Islamic gardens andContinue reading “Landscape Architecture”

Fools and Dreamers indeed… and the weeds may redeem us all

Magical place nurtured back to nature. Great lesson here about gorse. Soil wishes to be covered, so, there are always plants up for the job. Some of them, and most of them in places we disturb, are likely considered weeds. Perhaps we need to be clearer in our intention, step back in our understanding, andContinue reading “Fools and Dreamers indeed… and the weeds may redeem us all”

All-Season Beauty + Texture

(Christmas in July??? Or just understanding your landscape year-round?) Plant combinations, massing, and matrices, are chosen for their ability to play off one another with timing and textures, for their ability to hold interest during multiple seasons, and because they “get along” well culturally. This video was made during the second winter for this corporateContinue reading “All-Season Beauty + Texture”