Rule Change Would Permit Weapons in National Parks – NYTimes.com

• By JIM ROBBINS

  Published: May 30, 2008

  YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. — The federal government is considering a proposal to allow visitors to carry loaded, concealed weapons in some national parks, wildlife refuges and monuments.

• The National Rifle Association favors the proposed rule, arguing that it would help keep crime down and protect visitors from potentially dangerous wildlife.
• Seven former National Park Service directors have written a letter saying the new rule addresses a nonexistent problem.

Wildflower Week in New York City? : TreeHugger

• by Bonnie Hulkower on 05. 7.08

• 

• At Union Square this past Sunday, a quizzical look appeared on many New Yorkers’ faces when they encountered volunteers publicizing the 1st New York City Wildflower Week. Wildflower Week started on May 3rd and continues until May 10th, with evening lectures, plant walks, and activities for kids. Though celebrating wildflowers in the urban jungle may seem incongruous, New York City is actually home to more than 40% of the state’s rare and endangered plants, and New York City has more open space than any other large city.

• New York City Wildflower Week is a part of the national Wildflower Week, which was started at the national level by LadyBird Johnson. The New York City version was an idea cooked up by botanist Marielle Anzelone. The week is hosted by the eminent Torrey Botanical Society, the oldest botanical society in America, and promotes an exploration and study of plan life with a focus on the New York metro area.

• Jennie Nevin, one of the founding members of the NYC Wildflower Week team, and also co-founder of Green Spaces, spoke to me about the need for an appreciation of New York’s native plants. Jennie talked enthusiastically about New York’s wealth of native plants

• So on Sunday, to celebrate Spring and NYC Wildflower Week, Marielle and her crew of rosy-cheeked volunteers gave out free wildflower plants, including golden asters and zebrasneezes, at Union Square, and gave tours of the native plant garden on the Western side of the Park. Many people visiting remarked that they had often walked by the garden and admired it, but had been unaware that the plants there were native.

  Wildflower week continues through the weekend. Highlights include: a plant walk in Battery Park Friday afternoon which will be followed by a talk on landscaping with native plants by Dr. Clemants of the Brooklyn Botanical Garden; plant walks on Saturday in both Staten Island’s Greenbelt, and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park; and, also on Saturday, sowing seeds and other kids’ activities in Manhattan, presented by the East River educational center, Solar 1. For event locations and times see www.nycwildflowerweek.org.

• Ladybird Johnson said she believed that “where flowers bloom so does hope.“

• 

Whitney Museum Unveils Its Downtown Sanctuary – New York Times

• Mr. Piano’s project for a site on Gansevoort Street, west of Washington Street, is a striking departure from the ethereal glass creations that have made him a favorite of the art-world cognoscenti.

• Mr. Piano has created a contemplative sanctuary where art reasserts its primary place in the cultural hierarchy.

• In a recent interview Adam Weinberg, the Whitney’s director, said the curators had yet to define the relationship between the two buildings. (One possibility is that the Breuer building will be used for exhibitions that focus on one aspect of the collection or a single artist, with the core of the collection relocated downtown.)

• Mr. Piano’s design is certainly distinct from Breuer’s, presenting a strange, even forbidding aura. The building’s faceted surface seems hewed from a massive block of stone. Its main facade is slightly angled to make room for a small public plaza. The roof steps down in a series of big terraces on one side; on the other, it forms an impenetrable block facing the West Side Highway.

  But as you study the form more intently, more layered meanings emerge. The stepped roof, for example, both supports a series of outdoor sculpture gardens and allows sunlight to spill down onto the High Line, the elevated rail bed that is being converted into a public garden. The angle of the facade allows people walking along the High Line to catch glimpses of the Hudson River down Gansevoort Street.

• The feeling of a structure being carved apart to facilitate the flow of light and movement is magnified at ground level. Part of the structure rests on a glass base that houses a bookstore and cafe, so that you feel the full weight of the building bearing down. The underbelly of the building tilts up at one end, providing shade for the plaza and adding a sense of compression as you approach the entry.

• This experience abruptly changes as you cross the threshold, for a window at the back of the lobby opens onto a view of the water and the height of the lobby space suddenly lets you breathe again. From there elevators whisk you up to the auditorium, library and galleries.

  The new museum will have 50,000 square feet of gallery space, compared with 32,000 uptown. The third-floor gallery, at 17,500 square feet, will be the largest column-free space for viewing art in Manhattan, Mr. Weinberg said.

Olmsted’s Legacy: Parks for American Cities : NPR – Annotated

• Listen Now [12 min 36 sec] add to playlist

• The Bryant Park Project, April 25, 2008 · This weekend marks the 150th anniversary of Frederick Law Olmsted’s winning the contest to design New York City’s Central Park. Biographer Charles Beveridge says Olmsted’s work became the template for urban parks throughout the United States.

Forest Fire Scorches 3,000 Acres in Ulster Park – New York Times – Annotated

• By CARA BUCKLEY

  Published: April 21, 2008

• A fast-moving forest fire that twice jumped trenches dug to hold it back has scorched 3,000 acres of the Minnewaska State Park Preserve near New Paltz, N.Y., an official said on Sunday.
• Only minor injuries were reported in the fire, which started on Thursday in the northeast quadrant of the park, about 90 miles north of New York City in Ulster County.

• Helicopters were dumping 500-gallon tanks of water drawn from a park lake onto the leaping flames.

  Sunday’s cooler weather, higher humidity and foggier conditions helped slow the blaze’s advance, said Capt. Dan Walsh of the rangers.

  All roads into the 20,000-acre park were closed, Mr. Roy said.

  He said it was the largest forest fire there in nearly 60 years.

Natural Phenomenon: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com – Annotated

Via Archinect.com.

• This fall, after eight years and almost half a billion dollars, world-famous architect Renzo Piano will complete the greenest museum ever built—the new California Academy of Sciences, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park—housing its aquarium, planetarium, and natural-history museum under a two-and-a-half-acre “living roof.”

• by Matt Tyrnauer May 2008

• 

• The Kimball Natural History Museum’s “living roof” with Jules Verne porthole skylights. Photographs by Todd Eberle.

• “Talk about Moses coming down from the mountain,” says Greg Farrington, the academy’s director. “He just nailed it. It was inspiration. His vision was to lift up a piece of the park and slide the museum underneath.”

• 

• The rain forest inside the new academy building is enclosed in a glass dome.

• Few, if any, buildings of this stature come close to making their sustainability programs comprehensible as well as visually inspiring components of their design.

• “The building,” says Piano, “had to be green and sustainable to go with its purpose—study of the earth and science. It is also in a very unusual place, the middle of one of the most beautiful parks in the world. You almost never get a chance to build something in the middle of a great park, so it needed to be transparent. You needed to see where you are.