Environmental Designs is a boutique landscape design firm located in Laguna Beach, California. We specialize in coastal landscape designs, native gardens, and low water use plants. We can provide you with all your landscape design needs including, Preliminary Landscape Plans, Fuel Modification Plans, Computer renderings, 3-D renderings. Tel:(800)811-3010 Fax:(800)811-3014 e-mail: craig@environmentaldesignslandscape.com
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
rendering with fan palmsLaguna Beach Landscape daily Published by Craig de Pfyffer
| Craig de Pfyffer, ISA, ASLA Associate Environmental Designs P.O. Box 247 LagunaBeach,CA.92652 Tel: (800) 811-3010 Fax: (800) 811-3014 Mobile: (949) 288-3010 |  |
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
Surfers, The Healthiest Athlete
http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/publication/?m=12240&l=1 Surfers, The Healthiest Athlete Surfing. To all of us who have tasted this gift, we unanimously agree there is just something about it. For years I would count on the post nasal drip joys to send me into a euphoria, sufficing any inquisition into the real health benefits of surfing, until now. Our oceans contain a high amount of beneficial negative ions. “The action of the pounding surf creates negative ions where people report lightened moods,” says researcher Michael Terman, PhD, of Columbia University in New York. These studies show negative ion generators relieve Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), or winter depression, with the same effectiveness as antidepressants. This sea of negative ions also protects us from free radicals. A free radical, a tool the body uses to ward off disease, is an unpaired electron looking to steal back its missing electron from a neighboring atom. Once that free radical robs an adjacent atom of their electron, it creates another free radical, causing a reactive domino effect. This type of oxidative stress is much like the stress felt surfing Brooks in a south swell on a summer’s day. There are more surfers than waves and ‘neighborly’ takes on a new meaning. Exposure to the ocean’s negative ions is like cash in the bank. Negative ions have electrons to spare and can generously give them to free radicals, neutralizing them once they have done their job. The next time you are sitting in a crowded lineup, pay it forward, give someone your wave and watch the atmosphere change. Surfing is also a road to the fountain of youth. As a type of interval training, surfing involves bursts of high intensity movement between periods of low-intensity movement, hoping there are not too many of the latter. Interval training’s magic lies in its ability to protect our telomeres. Telomeres are our biological time clocks that keep us young by protecting the ends of our chromosomes much like the taped ends of a shoelace.When we neglect sleep, eat poor food or maintain high amounts of stress,Our cells divide to increase membrane surface in order to manage the removal of waste. The more our cells divide, the shorter our telomeres become and the faster we age. Research by the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UC San Francisco has shown this type of physical training buffers the telomere shortening process, which keeps us biologically young. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was known to have taken note of fishermen who had soaked their injuries in seawater seemed to have fewer infections.A study on this treatment, known as thalassotherapy, by the Department of Clinical Medicine at the Federal University of Rio Grande in Brazil, shows women suffering from fibromyalgia improved after performing seawater exercises. There is nothing more unique to surfing than the post-nasal drip. There were many times I would be leaning over a spreadsheet in an important meeting only to unveil my morning’s adventures over an embarrassing pool of nose drool. We can find appreciation for this saline nasal irrigation as not only is this a great way to clear out mucus, clinical evidence shows it relieves symptoms of sinus conditions. More commonly known are the abundance of ionic minerals in seawater we both breathe in and absorb. Along with water itself, seawater consists of sodium, chloride, sulfate, magnesium, calcium, potassium and bicarbonate ions. These minerals are important in brain and nerve function, healthy metabolism and strong bones. Add in the valuable vitamin D you soak up from the sun’s rays and you can count on feeling revived after a long surf. The last thing a surfer needs is an excuse to surf. And whether you are a swimmer, skimmer, bodyboarder or bodysurfer, one thing we all agree on is spending time in nature and breathing the fresh Laguna Beach ocean air will do a body good. We cold water soldiers can take pride in knowing we are knocking on the frontiers of human health doing what we love. I’ll see you in the water Laguna. Laguna Beach resident Molly Morse is a holistic health therapist.
| Craig de Pfyffer, ISA, ASLA Associate Environmental Designs P.O. Box 247 LagunaBeach,CA.92652 Tel: (800) 811-3010 Fax: (800) 811-3014 Mobile: (949) 288-3010 |  |
Monday, December 5, 2011
The Drake equation
The Drake equation states that:
where:
- N = the number of civilizations in our galaxy with which communication might be possible;
and
- R* = the average rate of star formation per year in our galaxy
- fp = the fraction of those stars that have planets
- ne = the average number of planets that can potentially support life per star that has planets
- fℓ = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop life at some point
- fi = the fraction of the above that actually go on to develop intelligent life
- fc = the fraction of civilizations that develop a technology that releases detectable signs of their existence into space
- L = the length of time for which such civilizations release detectable signals into space.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Interesting contemporary wall in landscape
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Sensational Earth.wmv
Uploaded by chuckfberg on Sep 19, 2011
A time-lapse filmed by James Drake from the front of the International Space Station as it orbits our planet at night it begins over the Pacific Ocean and continues over North and South America before entering daylight near Antarctica. Visible cities, countries and landmarks include (in order) Vancouver Island, Victoria, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles. Phoenix. Multiple cities in Texas, New Mexico and Mexico. Mexico City, the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, Lightning in the Pacific Ocean, Guatemala, Panama, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and the Amazon. Also visible is the earths ionosphere (thin yellow line) and the stars of our galaxy. Raw data was downloaded from;
The Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth"http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/mrf.htm ". Credits: Photography, Nasa, James Drake Soundtracks Final Momentums, Sensations, Chuck Berglund
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
PORTFOLIO
/craigdepfyffer/frame
My profile page
http://www.behance.net/craigdepfyffer
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Monday, July 11, 2011
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Faux Bois
Friday, June 24, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Friday, June 10, 2011
Thursday, June 9, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Relief of Primordial Switzerland, Franz Ludwig Pfyffer
Relief of Primordial Switzerland, Franz Ludwig Pfyffer
Site Model Making
Site Model Making
History
Between 1762 and 1786, Franz Ludwig Pfyffer built a scale model entitled “Relief of Primordial Switzerland’ This was the first three-dimensional landscape model that topographically represented a specific area. The alpine region around Lucerne with Lake Lucerne and the neighboring Cantons is replicated at a scale of 1:12,500, with light vertical exaggeration and great detail. Shortly after its completion, the 26 m2 model became a popular attraction in Lucerne. Discerning travelers such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe were delighted to be able to look at the mountains from above. Hot air balloons and alpine tourism were still unknown at this time. One can imagine the fascination that this model landscape exerted on viewers: until then, the landscape had only been seen from the perspective of a foot traveler, or from a carriage. And as such, only as segments, which were often rather threatening or tiresome to the traveler. Pieces of wood, coal, brick, plaster and sand, covered with a painted layer of beeswax were the materials used to create this first landscape model.
Digital Model Making
Today, specialist computer programs and plotters have taken over the role of making landscape models, naturally using digital models as input data. Contour lines must be closed and each have its own layer for a specialist CAD/CAM system to be able to import DXF or DWG format.[1]
[1] Peter Petschek, Peter Walker, Grading for Landscape Architects and Architects, (Birkhauser Verlag AG 2008) 125.
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