28
Apr
California coast shows off its wild beauty at Ano Nuevo State Park
A state park since 1958, this spot about 55 miles south of San Francisco is a natural preserve for native wildlife and offers visitors incredible views of the rocky coastline.
24
Apr
Why parks pay off: Green space is good for happiness
People’s life satisfaction did improve when they moved to greener urban areas and decreased in urban spots where nature was out of sight.
04
Apr
San Francisco’s 5 most scenic parks
Put on your walking shoes, leash up the dog, and most importantly, grab your camera. Here are the places you don’t want to miss.
21
Feb
14
Jan
17
Oct
Amazing technology would allow for underground parks in NYC
If you’ve been to Manhattan in the past several years, you may have heard of the Highline in Chelsea. It’s a project that converted an abandoned above-ground railroad track into a park, and it has turned the formerly underdeveloped area around it into one of the trendiest new neighborhoods in the city; if you visit Manhattan, you have to check it out. Anyway, two architects want to build a park that will do for the Lower East Side what the Highline did for Chelsea, but with a twist: they want to build it underground!
If you’ve been to Manhattan ever, you’ll also know that space is at a premium, and there are few open spaces left to grow leafy green things or build a park. Dubbed the LowLine, the project would convert an old underground trolley car station, abandoned in 1948 and untouched since, into a 1.5 acre underground park. But how? This is where the science comes in: they’ve developed the technology to transmit sunlight underground. Using large parabolic mirrors and a fiber optic relay, sunlight from the surface would be shuttled to the park and then redisbursed, allegedly yielding enough light for photosynthesis. As shown in the artist’s renderings above, the park could house trees, grass, farmers markets, or art installations, all year round, rain or shine. The architects raised money on Kickstarter for a proof-of-concept exhibition, happening RIGHT NOW in the Essex Street Market in NYC, and they’re doing battle with the city and the transit authority that owns the underground depot for approval. Here’s to hoping the city bureaucrats see the light! *slaps knee*
Quick Links
09
Sep
Aside from a handful of world-famous greenspaces, most city parks are not on the tourist radar. Even so, many urban travelers end up stopping by a park during their trip. These natural spaces are the perfect antidote to that burned-out, overwhelmed feeling that comes from a day of sidewalk-trekking, line-waiting and sightseeing. Because of the peaceful vibe of many of these parks, they end up becoming a memorable part of many city vacations.
9 of the world’s most impressive city parks
22
Jun
Whether they’re masquerading as alien planets in sci-fi films or starring as heavily romanticized versions of themselves in thrillers and dramas, the units of the U.S. National Park Service — as of 2011, there were 397 of them — have long held an illustrious role in American cinema, providing awe-inspiring, super-dramatic backdrops that even the most advanced CGI technology and the most elaborate soundstages in the world simply can’t replicate.
09
Jun
We’ve created a series of user’s guides for some of the best national, state and local parks in the U.S. (And we’ll be adding more parks all summer.)
via sciencecenter