Landscape Architect Articles

High Performance Landscape Guidelines Releases01-14-11 | News

High Performance Landscape Guidelines Releases

Adrian Benepe, NYC Parks & Recreation Commissioner. ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The New York City Parks Department, with the Design Trust for Public Space, a nonprofit organization that helps create sustainable guidelines for NYC buildings, has released the 273 p. document High Performance Landscape Guidelines: 21st Century Parks for NYC.

The guidelines, touted as a comprehensive, municipal design primer for sustainable parks and open space, can be downloaded www.nycgovparks.org/sub_about/go_greener/green_capital.html

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The guidelines document covers every aspect of creating sustainable parks, from design to construction to maintenance, and feature many best practices for managing soil, water, and vegetation resources.

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Deborah Marton, the executive director of the Design Trust for Public Space described the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

The guidelines make available state-of-the-art park design practices, and create a base of common knowledge for the parks department?EUR??,,????'?????<

Landscape Guidelines builds on the Design Trust's previous publications, High Performance Building Guidelines (1999) and High Performance Infrastructure Guidelines (2005). These two publications led directly to the enactment of local laws that encourage high performance construction, and also paved the way for Mayor Bloomberg's recent sustainability initiatives.

In composing the guidelines, NYC Parks landscape architects and operations specialists collaborated with Design Trust project fellows: Michele Adams, Meliora Environmental Design; Steven Caputo, NYC Mayor?EUR??,,????'?????<