Latest news with #Superbloom
Fast Company
29-07-2025
- General
- Fast Company
How a growing demand for drought-tolerant, local plants is changing the landscaping industry
As the Western U.S. faces more damaging droughts, local governments—as well as an increasing number of homeowners—have been successfully promoting landscaping practices that eschew the stereotypical water-hungry grass lawn for more resilient choices. The average U.S. family uses roughly 50 gallons of water per day for outdoor plants and lawns, per statistics from the Environmental Protection Agency; a third of residential water use, or about 9 billion gallons per day, goes toward lawns, plants, and irrigation. Whether it's called native planting, xeriscaping, or drought-tolerant landscaping, the push to use more local plants has gained significant momentum. But many landscape architects are finding that the plant industry is straining to keep up. 'We're trying to create designs with plants that use less water, have deeper root systems, and are more resilient,' said Tyler Krob, a senior associate and landscape architect at Denver-based Superbloom. 'And the reality is, the nursery market just isn't capable of supplying those.' The growth in demand for native plants has skyrocketed in recent years, as developers and landscapers have pushed to reduce water usage and promote local flora and fauna. But despite this significant growth in demand, supply remains lacking, and the growers who do specialize in these plants aren't necessarily nearby; it's becoming harder and harder to find native plants locally. Putting pressure on the plant industry It's causing many landscape architects to alter projects and even rethink the supply chain for flowers, bushes, and shrubbery for future projects. It's also putting pressure on the massive plant and nursery industry, a $13.8 billion-a-year sector of the economy that employs as many people as the clothing retail sector. It's a very concentrated and top-heavy industry consisting of a number of massive players making significant sales with popular, non-native species, along with a number of smaller, regional nurseries that face economic pressures such as high land prices and aging ownership. According to Garden Center's 2024 state of the industry report, only 42% of sellers focus on native plant species. Superbloom, which works primarily in cities throughout the West, said the supply of local native plants has become such a challenge that it's forced to order plants from out-of-state nurseries and work directly with local nurseries to grow its own native species for its projects. Diane Lipovsky, cofounder and principal, said the shortage is forcing the company to swap out certain species and can even delay projects. Los Angeles-based landscape architecture firm Terremoto opened its own plant store to help expand the supply of local, native plants. 'I started that shop because I believed that there should be independently owned, mostly native plant shops sprinkled through all cities and communities, so that they're easy, affordable, and accessible,' said Terremoto principal/owner David Godshall. Superbloom has even persuaded clients to agree to grow their own plants at the onset of a large real estate project to avoid shortages later on. For the firm's current work on city and county buildings in Denver, for instance, the city has agreed to grow native plants in its own greenhouse to avoid having to pay to import plants from nurseries in the Midwest. Much of this push comes from good faith efforts to cut water usage and conserve natural resources, as well as emerging legislation to cut down water usage. The Colorado Legislature already passed SB 24-005, a bill that prohibits local entities from using non-native plant species on commercial, institutional, industrial, and common-interest community properties, as well as public spaces and state facility projects. It goes into effect January 1, 2026, and will likely exacerbate the shortage. States including Illinois and Delaware have also passed legislation encouraging the use of native plants, and in 2022 the federal Native Plant Species Pilot Program Act, which establishes native planting pilots for federal land management, was signed into law. Superbloom's Krob and Lipovsky said the real budget challenge in relation to using native plants is that designers often face delays and potential design compromises via substitution requests. Due to lack of availability, sourcing native or water-wise species might require a custom contract to grow, which can push a project out by a full season or more. That's just not feasible for many public or developer-led timelines. Where do we get more native plants? There are significant challenges to ramping up native plant production, said Deryn Davidson, a sustainable landscape specialist at Colorado State University. Native plants haven't been specially bred to grow in standard nursery-style containers, making it hard for larger contract growers to provide them to large commercial nurseries. You can't ask a manufacturer to crank out more products; plants need a lot of time and planning to grow. Lipovsky said she's seeing the industry gear up to expand, but it's still far behind what's needed. The pressure coming from government land managers and others seeking to restore natural habitats has caused a native seed shortage across the country. A 2023 report from the Committee on an Assessment of Native Seeds and Capacities found the industry was small and uncertain, with demand fluctuating wildly, while a 2022 report from the National Academy of Sciences found that nationally the supply of native plant material was 'severely insufficient.' Years with significant wildfire damage, for instance, can put sudden demands on dwindling seed stocks. In addition, many landscapers aren't as familiar with the intricacies of watering and caring for native plants, making it crucial to educate more workers on maintenance. And there's also consumer perception, which has been altered by the ready-to-grow nature of plants found at stores like Home Depot. 'These native plants can be slower to shine, and people will see these plants, which can take a year to really grow, and it's not what they're used to,' Davidson said. 'There's a bit of managing expectations that needs to take place.' Superbloom has found that specific species such as prairie dropseed, little bluestem, and pasqueflower have been particularly challenging to find on the current market. Krob found that even buying blue grama, Colorado's state grass, for use in his own front yard meant importing from a nursery in Illinois or Oregon. There are other key market forces at play. Landscaping, especially on a large, commercial scale, is intimately tied to the construction and real estate development industries, which continue to see declining new business. The American Institute of Architects Billings Index remains in negative territory after years of slow and even negative business growth. Despite those issues, this supply-and-demand imbalance is in many ways a good problem to have, and a sign that the trend toward native plants that support pollinators and cut down on water usage are very much taking root. And in a market as volatile as construction, greater availability of diverse, drought-tolerant native species from local nurseries would benefit the entire industry, especially when factoring in increasing pressures around water use. It would help reduce costs, improve access, and support compliance with emerging policies and legislation. 'Demand is probably just going to continue to go up,' said Davidson. 'It's industry growing pains, but it's exciting that we're at this point.' The early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, September 5, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
The Independent
25-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Queen's memorial design shortlist includes Lord Foster, who once criticised King
The shortlist of teams vying to design the national memorial to the late Queen has been unveiled – and includes a renowned modernist architect who once criticised the King for using his 'privileged position' to intervene in a development. Lord Foster of Foster + Partners – the famous British architect who was responsible for The Gherkin in London – is among the five finalists. His team also features British artist Yinka Shonibare, whose work explores cultural identity and the post-colonialism world, and ecologist Professor Nigel Dunnett, who was behind the Superbloom planting scheme in the Tower of London's moat to celebrate the late Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Hailed as one of the most significant design initiatives in modern British history, the tribute in St James's Park, close to Buckingham Palace in the heart of London, will provide the public with a permanent memorial to the country's longest-reigning monarch. The shortlisted teams have been asked to create a masterplan which celebrates Elizabeth II's 'extraordinary life of service' and also provides a space for pause and reflection. In 2009, Lord Foster was one of a number of architects who publicly criticised the then-Prince of Wales over his lobbying and wrote a letter to a newspaper accusing Charles of using his 'privileged position' to 'skew the course' of the planning of the former Chelsea Barracks. The prince, who championed traditional approaches to architecture, had reportedly privately contacted developers Qatari Diar, backed by the Qatari royal family, to recommend more classical plans by architect Quinlan Terry, rather than those by another modernist architect, Lord Rogers. In 2023, Lord Foster told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he would 'love the opportunity' to talk to the King about the 'benefits of change' in architecture. The King has not been involved in the shortlisting process, which is said to have attracted a wide range of 'excellent creative talent' from across the UK and internationally. The task was carried out by the Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee, headed by the late Queen's former private secretary Lord Janvrin. The five teams now have to submit their designs later in the spring, with the winner announced this summer. The final design will be submitted to the King and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for approval and announced in 2026 to coincide with what would have been Elizabeth II's 100th birthday year. The Foster + Partners bid also involves the firm's joint head of design, architect Spencer de Grey, French landscape architect Michel Desvigne Paysagiste, who is known for his contemporary designs, and glass structural engineering firm Eckersley O'Callaghan. The project, which has a provisional construction budget of between £23 million and £46 million excluding VAT, includes a replacement of the Blue Bridge in St James's Park. An artist or sculptor with the key task of depicting a likeness of Elizabeth II will also be appointed by the lead designer in consultation with the committee. The other shortlisted teams are: – Heatherwick Studio with sculptor and ceramicist Halima Cassell Architect Thomas Heatherwick is one of the UK's most prolific designers and known for the Olympic cauldron at the 2012 London Games and the redesign of London's famous Routemaster buses. He also worked on the plans for the ill-fated Garden Bridge across the River Thames, which was backed by Boris Johnson as London mayor but abandoned after being labelled a waste of taxpayers' money. Heatherwick created the 21-metre high living Tree of Trees sculpture staged outside Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations. Cassell, who was born in Kashmir, Pakistan, and grew up in the north west of England, is known for her intricate carvings. 'This fusion of cultural environments as well as my love for Islamic art and historical British architecture has shaped my identity and underpins my practice,' Cassell has said. – J&L Gibbons with production designer Michael Levine, and William Matthews Associates Johanna Gibbons has been hailed as a visionary landscape architect, recognised for her 'pioneering and influential work combining design with activism, education and professional practice'. J&L Gibbons partner Neil Davidson was responsible for the Urban Nature Project at the Natural History Museum. The five-acre green space in central London wraps around the building with a Discovery Garden and an Evolution Garden and was backed by the Princess of Wales last year. Levine is a Canadian set and costume designer, known for his opera work, while William Matthews Associates designed the Tintagel Castle footbridge in Cornwall. – Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects and artist Adam Lowe of Factum Arte Stuart-Smith is a landscape architect, recognised for his numerous gold medal-winning Chelsea Flower Show gardens. He also created the Jubilee Gardens at Windsor Castle in 2002 – the first to be completed at the ancient royal residence for nearly 200 years – and he joined the late Queen and Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh for a stroll through the finished landscape. His work is described as combining 'naturalism with modernity and built forms with romantic planting'. Jamie Fobert was responsible for the redevelopment of the National Portrait Gallery. Adam Lowe, who trained in fine art, has dedicated himself to merging new technologies and craft skills, setting up the multidisciplinary workshop Factum Arte and later the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation to create digital documentation of cultural heritage sites and global artworks. – WilkinsonEyre with artists Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clarke The firm restored and repurposed the Grade II listed Battersea Power Station and designed the Sky Bridge at Hong Kong International Airport and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. Architects Jim Eyre and Sebastien Ricard are leading the pitch.
The Guardian
25-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Norman Foster on shortlist to design Queen Elizabeth II memorial
The shortlist of teams competing to design a national memorial to the late Queen Elizabeth II has been unveiled and includes an architect once highly critical of King Charles. Five finalists are in the running for what has been described as one of the most significant design initiatives in modern British history, in tribute to the UK's longest-serving monarch. They include Norman Foster, of Foster + Partners, responsible for the Gherkin in London, who was one of a several architects who publicly criticised the then Prince of Wales over his lobbying and for using his 'privileged position' to 'skew the course' of planning of the former Chelsea barracks redevelopment. Charles, who championed traditional approaches to architecture, had reportedly privately contacted the developers Qatari Diar, backed by the Qatari royal family, to recommend more classical plans for the site from the architect Quinlan Terry, rather than those from Richard Rogers, a modernist like Lord Foster. Foster's team for the memorial features the British artist Yinka Shonibare and the ecologist Prof Nigel Dunnett, who was behind the Superbloom planting scheme in the Tower of London's moat to celebrate the late queen's platinum jubilee. Heatherwick Studio with the sculptor and ceramicist Halima Cassell are also on the list. Thomas Heatherwick is one of the UK's most prolific designers, known for the Olympic cauldron at the 2012 London Games and the redesign of London's Routemaster buses. J&L Gibbons with the production designer Michael Levine and William Matthews Associates are finalists, as are Tom Stuart-Smith with Jamie Fobert Architects and the artist Adam Lowe of Factum Arte. The fifth is WilkinsonEyre with the artists Lisa Vandy and Fiona Clarke, whose firm restored and repurposed the Grade II-listed Battersea power station and designed the Sky Bridge at Hong Kong international airport and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge. The shortlisted teams have been asked to create a masterplan that celebrates Elizabeth II's 'extraordinary life of service' and also provides a space for pause and reflection. The king has not been involved in the shortlisting process, which is said to have attracted a wide range of 'excellent creative talent' from across the UK and internationally.
New York Times
29-01-2025
- General
- New York Times
How Big Tech Mined Our Attention and Broke Our Politics
On April 15, 1912, shortly after the Titanic collided with an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, the ship's radio operator issued a distress call — a formidable display of the power of the radio, a new technology. But a lack of regulation in the United States meant that a cascade of amateur radio messages clogged the airwaves with speculation and rumors, and official transmissions had a hard time getting through. It was an early-20th-century form of information overload. 'The false reports sowed confusion among would-be rescuers,' Nicholas Carr writes in 'Superbloom.' 'Fifteen hundred people died.' Carr has been sounding the alarm over new information technology for years, most famously in 'The Shallows' (2010), in which he warned about what the internet was doing to our brains. 'Superbloom' is an extension of his jeremiad into the social media era. Carr's new book happens to be published the same day as 'The Sirens' Call,' by the MSNBC host Chris Hayes, which traces how big tech has made enormous profits and transformed our politics by harvesting our attention. Both authors argue that something fundamental to us, as humans, is being exploited for inhuman ends. We are primed to seek out new information; yet our relentless curiosity makes us ill equipped for the infinite scroll of the information age, which we indulge in to our detriment. 'Social media is not successful because it goes against our instincts and desires,' Carr writes. 'It's successful because it gives us what we want.' He lays some of the blame with tech companies, which ply us with the digital equivalent of junk food. They engineer how we relate to one another online by selecting for content that whips up strong emotions to draw us 'deeper into the feed.' But Carr also suggests that regulation can only do so much: Blaming the technology industry lets us off the hook. This is a book that gestures repeatedly to a tragic, if nebulous, concept of 'human nature.' More communication does not necessarily lead to more understanding. The title refers to a rare 'super bloom' of California poppies in typically arid soil, an episode that drew selfie-taking influencers, flower-trampling crowds and a frenzied backlash. Left to our own devices, so to speak, we can get vain, careless, resentful and cruel. There's an unmistakable skepticism of progress in this book, at least when it comes to modern communication technology. Our antisocial proclivities were once kept in check by more effortful methods of reaching out to one another. 'The deliberate, reflective practice' of composing a handwritten letter, Carr laments, has been superseded by the 'short, snappy' idiom of texting. By removing barriers to communication, social media has enabled us to let loose our worst instincts and transmit to a huge audience whatever thoughtlet comes to mind. (Mostly avoiding the subject of Donald Trump, he glancingly mentions 'the election to the presidency of the United States of a malevolent coxcomb with a tweeting habit.') Abundance, in this case, stokes conflict. 'Different points of view are seen not as opportunities to learn but as provocations to attack.' Instead of the curation imposed by 'the public-interest standard' and 'the fairness doctrine,' a deteriorating media ecosystem selects for clicks. Consider Mark Zuckerberg's explanation of Facebook's bespoke News Feed: 'A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.' The grotesque comparison was an early salvo in our informational war of all against all. 'News, entertainment, conversation and all other forms of human expression would from now on be in direct competition,' Carr writes, 'angling for both the consumer's fleeting attention and the algorithm's blessing.' It's a phenomenon that Hayes, as a TV news anchor, knows all too well. 'The Sirens' Call' is mostly about the social and political deformations wrought by the new attention economy. But Hayes has also been parsing the predicament of attention for a long time. 'Every waking moment of my work life revolves around answering the question of how we capture attention,' he writes in the book's early pages. And the marketplace has been getting ever more ruthless. 'Increasingly over the course of time I've been on air, my competition isn't just what other cable news shows are on during that time, but literally every single piece of content available in any media: every movie ever made, every TV show ever made, every video on TikTok or Instagram, every app and video game available.' Of course, it's not as if there's been a dearth of attention paid to the subject of attention. Books like Tim Wu's 'The Attention Merchants' and Shoshana Zuboff's 'The Age of Surveillance Capitalism' have traced how our attention has been measured and monetized — sliced and diced into salable packets so that it's now commodified like never before. A raft of memoirs and self-help books have explored what those markets have done to our individual psyches. What Hayes offers in 'The Sirens' Call' is an ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by online life have degraded not only our selves but also our politics. Where Carr's tone is elegiac and mournful, Hayes's is more pragmatic. He makes ample use of social science studies that parse how human attention works. We get overstimulated when bombarded by stimuli, but we become restless when left alone with our thoughts. Our phones — 'little slot machines we hold in our pocket' — pull us in both directions, providing us with a simulation of sociability while exacerbating our loneliness, and capture our attention on the cheap. Book publishers and Hollywood producers may have always been preoccupied with the question of how to sustain an audience's attention, but social media entrepreneurs don't have to bother with anything so mysterious (and expensive): 'They can simply throw a million little interruptions at us, track which ones grab our attention and then repeat those.' It turns out that a reliable way of grabbing people's attention is to ping that deep need inside all of us, carried over from our helpless dependency on our caregivers in childhood: Someone is paying attention to me! We typically crave positive forms of attention and shrink back from negative ones — except for people like Trump, whose 'psychological needs' are 'so bottomless,' Hayes says, 'that he'll take attention in whatever form he can get.' Trump has intuited that we live at a time when fortune favors the brazen: 'He'll take condemnation, rebuke, disgust, as long as you're thinking about him.' Attention isn't a resource like coal or oil, which exist outside us; attention is what makes us human, Hayes maintains, and this particular stage of capitalism is fueled by a fracking of our minds. It's not as if Trump is keen to regulate any extraction industry, let alone the one that helped bring him to the White House. So it isn't surprising that both 'The Sirens' Call' and 'Superbloom' end by emphasizing the need for each of us to reintroduce the friction of the physical world into our informational lives. Instead of submitting to the endless scroll, Hayes now makes a point of sitting down with a print version of the newspaper. Carr, for his part, extols a 'more material and less virtual existence.' I think they're both right, even if trying to change one's own behavior feels small next to the structural forces delineated in their books. But for now, yes — it's going to take willful acts of sensory deprivation for us to come to our senses.
