Landscape Design Software The Useful Landscaping Tool For Property Owners

Landscape design software will be the device used to sketch landscape ideas and view landscaping projects with the assistance of the computer. Each DIY fans and professional landscapers make use of this kind of instruments for maximizing work outcomes and attaining their goals. Because of expert software applications, it is not only possible to decrease the quantity of work, but also to get rid of plenty of inconveniences. You can make modifications, get yourself a common idea about how exactly the house will look like and so forth.

You can discover landscape design software both free of charge download or in pay-for-program packages. If you need something simple to assist you to draw a landscaping plan or make sketches, a free device could be the right thing to make use of. Google has such a sketching program, but it is not the only one. The greatest factor to do would be to lookup for the best-reviewed landscape design software and examine the corresponding attributes of each program. This will give you an concept about how exactly easy it would be to operate with the device and what it can do.
Then, paid landscape design software is normally categorized in expert groups. Landscaping designers may always have some top-notch tools to operate with. They cost a big deal of money but they could make wonders in terms of landscaping program drawing. Yet, the average house proprietor will not go to the extent of buying such applications: it might be as well higher a good investment for too low requirements. However, if you check on the web, youll identify that you will find fairly many landscape design software programs that receive negative reviews and suggestions from customers.

How easy is it to operate? This is the primary query you have to find an answer to before purchasing some landscape design software. Too complicated configurations or capabilities and difficulty to set up are just two of the common issues encountered with some items. And the web abounds in tales regarding unfortunate options. Examine the functions and try a demo model of a plan, if some free landscape design software doesnt meet up with your needs.

Its in discussion boards and specific web sites that youll locate hyperlinks to nicely esteemed software developers. The very advanced forms of the programs permit for landscaping plan sketching in related circumstances with architectural design. Most often the format is CAD-like, and also the operation of the program requires specific coaching or work expertise.

These are just a few issues to keep in mind while looking for landscape design software, and also you must go more in depth when you have to meet some high specialized requirements.

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DESIGNING IN THE PRAIRIE SPIRIT

The Library of Landscape History film on one of my heroes, Darrel Morrison.  Mr. Morrison, FASLA, is one of the first advocates of the use of native vegetation, processes in landscape design and ecological restoration work.

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The outdoor fireplace

A lot of times I am asked by clients if I can incorporate an outdoor fireplace in my designs for them. It is usually the thought of having a lovely open log burning fireplace with a beautiful stone hearth and elaborate mantle piece to create some cozy little corner in the yard that brings in this request.
Unfortunately in some urban areas, the fire code bylaws prevent open flame burning in this manner...check with your local bylaw office on regulations in this regard. Now, having said that...there is nothing against having an outdoor gas fireplace...provided that it is installed by a certified installer! When you consider this option, the possibilities are endless in terms of the outdoor living room you can create..... the particular fireplace in the above picture is a gas unit made to look like a wood burning installation....perfectly safe and bylaw compliant!

The Toronto Fire Bylaw says that open air burning is not permitted unless used for cooking purposes... click here to read more

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EVOLUTION OF THE ROOF GARDEN IN NEW YORK CITY

The evolution of the roof garden may have a significant precedent in ancient Pompeii... in the most preserved villa from the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79, The Villa of the Mysteries.  “There are elements from atrium style houses that remain in its plan, including the preference for axial symmetry, but the ordering of the rooms differ.  The entranceway led to the peristyle, followed by the atrium and finally the tablinum, while extensive terraced gardens surrounded the villa on three non-entrance sides.  Based upon the original inward-focused house, the architectural developments at the Villa of the Mysteries begin to suggest a building in which the exterior elevations and their connection with the surrounding countryside were becoming more important.”1  

reproduced from "Roof Gardens", Theodore Osmundsun

Theodore Osmondsun, designer of many roof gardens and author of the essential treatise on roof gardens, believes that “while little is known of individual roof gardens during the reign of Roman emperors, roofs were commonly used as outdoor living spaces throughout the Mediterranean world.” 2

The desire to create an aerial oasis recreationally at the Villa of the Mysteries could possibly be the same as at a firehouse 2,000 years later.  In an article from the year 1912, New York City Firehouses were being built in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan with roof gardens to provide for physical exercise, health and comfort for our brave firefighters. Outdoor gardens were to “resemble those to be found on the roofs of residences in ancient Rome.”3 

It also became commonplace for apartment buildings and schools to create gardens, playgrounds or refreshment areas on their rooftops. Beginning over a hundred years ago, New Yorkers have enjoyed their rooftops. These rooftops became the pleasure gardens of the middle classes, creating a true sense of community, as described in the Brooklyn Eagle…

“They get clean, fresh sea breezes off the water and plenty of sun, so that to look at the young people of the family one might imagine from their tanned cheeks that they have spent the Summer cruising on some luxurious yacht instead of living on the ninth floor of a New York flat. The young children play dolls and marbles upstairs in the shadow of the awning all morning. The older women bring up their fancy work and sew there, write letters at one of the tables or read novels swinging in the hammock. Five oclock tea is brought up there and partaken of out of doors, and when the sun gets low enough to have lost something of his vigor the young people play tennis, having set up a net and marked out a court on the roof, with tall nets swung up around it to keep the ball from plunging over into the street below and startling some cab horse into hysterics. All the family lounge there after dinner, chatting, smoking, singing choruses to a banjo accompaniment and breathing in salt winds from the bay over which they can see the silver path of the moonlight and the gleam of Libertys torch."

“All evidence suggests that the first use of a rooftop as a commercial garden environment was at Aronson’s proposed theatre building which opened in 1882 as the Casino theatre.³” This garden above a Broadway theatre was quickly copied by the second recreation of Madison Square Garden (on 26^th street), which successfully came into competition with the Casino.  Subsequently several more roof garden theatres opened up do to their enormous success.

Oscar Hammersteins theatre and roof garden

“From the 1890’s to the beginning of the depression, roof gardens were attracting a new wealthier middle class in search of open air amusement.  With extravagant décor and lighting and financially backed by the Vanderbilts and Morgan’s.  Because there was no air conditioning at that time, the theatre season was closed during the heat of summer… therefore the opera, theatre, dining and dances w. huge orchestras all took place up on the roof."4

early hotel roof garden

 previous six images reprinted from "The Roof Gardens of Broadway Theatres", Steven Bruge Johnson.

As the Broadway theatre roof garden became commonplace, the idea struck other builders and developers.  On the same date, June 16^th 1908, two rival hotels opened their roof gardens. An orchestra played within a huge pagoda on the roof of the Waldorf Astoria as guests sipped mint-julips in wicker furniture.  Over on Times Square, metal cupolas covered with geraniums, vines covered pergolas and bay trees contributed to an Italian landscape on the roof of the Hotel Astor. , so did this exert an influence on the rest of society.  New office buildings began to install open-air restaurants and “within a minute of their office desks they may find better air and probably an extended view of water and open country.”5   Upscale apartment buildings in Manhattan and ritzy hotels, turned to their terraces and rooftops to create their own interpretations of aerial gardens.  As is historically common, the lifestyles of the wealthy and high society had an impact on the cultural mainstream.  Newly created apartment buildings set aside roof space for their owners and renters. This trickled down to masses as “the settlement workers of the slums count their roof garden as one of their most valuable assets.”6   Roof Gardens were used for baseball, basketball and tennis games; at night there were classes for gymnastics and folk dances.  The floors were covered with smooth tiles, parapets were raised or extended with the addition of wire netting, stone furniture and pergolas were added, too.

very early 19th century 5th Avenue roofgarden, House Beautiful

reprinted from "American Review of Reviews"

Other New Yorkers with limited financial means found creative ways to enjoy their roofs.  “Every summer the roof garden develops more and more in popularity and attractiveness among the stay-at-homes.  Residents carry up a load of beach sand on the elevator, cover the concrete with a layer of it… those that can afford it have a glass screen erected on one side to keep off the winds, then an awning is created above palms and potted plants, shrubs and boxes of growing flowers disposed about attractively.”7 

^1.A World History of Architecture, by Marian Moffett, Michael Fazio, Lawrence Wodehouse, McGraw-Hill Professional, NY 2003) 

2. Roof gardens, by Theodore Osmundson, Norton, NY.NY. 1999

3. NYTimes, December 16, 1912)

4. (American Review of Reviews)

5. (American Review of Reviews)

6.(American Review of Reviews)

7.(Brooklyn Eagle 7.14.1889)

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