Landscape Architect Articles

LASN PMBR News August 200708-03-07 | News

Virile Bollards

Hey, they?EUR??,,????'???re just bollards! Some Keizer, Ore. residence, however, have complained they look ?EUR??,,????'??? too virile.

Bollard shapes are fairly standard, as these lighted ones in St. Petersburg, Fla.

It?EUR??,,????'???s not everyday that television news stations do a report on bollards. KATU-TV in Portland, Ore., and KOMO-TV in Seattle, Wash. have both reported the city fathers of Keizer, Ore. are getting complaints from some residents for the installation of 52 cement bollards at a busy intersection. It?EUR??,,????'???s not that the locals don?EUR??,,????'???t appreciate the city installing bollards to protect pedestrians from cars, it?EUR??,,????'???s, well, an issue of aesthetics.

Some folks complain the posts look too phallic. We?EUR??,,????'???re fairly certain the city is not worshiping Priapus, the Greek god known for his prominent male member, or making any other statement with the bollards, other than public safety.

City Manager Chris Eppley admits the bollards were ordered from a catalogue and look a bit different in person than depicted in the catalogue. Perhaps it?EUR??,,????'???s the way they?EUR??,,????'???re cut?

Although most bollards are this general shape, the city may do a bollard make-over?EUR??,,????'??+putting metal collars on them and connecting the bollards with chains. Hmmm?EUR??,,????'??? sounds pretty kinky.

The city spent $20,000 on the bollards.

Tear Down that (Retaining) Wall

A residential four-foot retaining wall holding back dirt is at the center of a border ?EUR??,,????'??controversy.?EUR??,,????'??

The International Boundary Commission has ordered a property owner in Blaine, Wash. to take down the retaining wall on the property. The reason? It violates “the clear boundary vista” agreed to by the U.S. and Canada along the 5,525 mile border across North America. A 20-foot cleared swath of ?EUR??,,????'??open vista entirely free of obstruction and plainly marked at the border?EUR??,,????'?? (white markers) was agreed to by both countries. The keeper of the boundary vista is the International Boundary Commission. The commission is composed of a Canadian section and a U.S. section, each with a commissioner, deputy commissioner and three field engineers (the U.S. also has an administrative assistant for the deputy commissioner).

The commission told the property owners (the Leus) it would take the wall down (i.e., at the tax payers expense), prompting the Leus to sue the commission, the first time the commission has been sued in its 100 years?EUR??,,????'??? existence. Shirley-Anne Leu told the media the wall is not only holding the dirt back, but keeping her 12 show dogs from running across to Canada.

The commission asserts (no kidding) the small retaining wall gives border runners, drug smugglers and terrorists a place to hide. The wall is also allegedly close to a recently discovered ?EUR??,,????'??marijuana tunnel?EUR??,,????'???EUR??,,????'??+no kidding.

LASN will keep you abreast of this vital, international, retaining wall controversy.

Stone Memorial Underway at Virginia Tech

Virginia Tech stone mason Tudor Lang, an employee at the quarry where Hokie stone is mined, applies his shaping skills to a memorial stone.
Photo by Josh Armstrong

On June 7, 2007, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger announced plans for an “intermediate” memorial to the 32 students shot and killed on April 16, 2007. A temporary memorial was placed on campus the same day of the massacre by the student group Hokies United.

The intermediate memorial will be at the same location as the impromptu memorial, fronting Burruss Hall, and consisting of an arc of crushed gravel upon which will sit 32 Hokie stones etched with the names of the deceased. An adjacent walking path with be the memorial viewing site. Campus Landscape Architect Matthew Gart expects the memorial will be complete by the end of July.

The intermediate memorial is expected to remain on campus for three or four years, at which time the stones will be offered to the families of the deceased and a permanent memorial constructed.

Boral Expands in Kent. and Tenn.

Boral Bricks Inc. has new outlets in Clarksville, Elizabethtown, and Bowling Green, Ky., and in Cookeville and Jackson, Tenn. Boral?EUR??,,????'???s new plant in Terre Haute, Indiana will supply from the north, while plants in Gleason, Tenn. and in Alabama and Georgia will supply from the south.

Boral report earth tones and some reds are still the most popular colors.

You might file this in your ?EUR??,,????'??Why??EUR??,,????'?? file, but Acme Brick, based in Fort Worth, Texas celebrated its 116th birthday by making a 6,400-pound brick named ?EUR??,,????'??Clay.?EUR??,,????'?? Clay is 3,000 times the size of your typical puny brick and took 13 months to make at Acme?EUR??,,????'???s Denton plant. Jamie Panas, marketing assistant with Guinness World Records, reports Guinness has no world?EUR??,,????'???s largest brick listed.