Welcome

Lately, there's been a lot of talk around my house about global warming and going carbon neutral, thanks to my daughters' science and social studies classes. This year, it seems, Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth documentary is on the required-watching list at many middle and high schools, sparking many a family discussion about the environment around ye olde dinner table.

Therefore, it seems timely and appropriate that we're featuring landscapes in this issue. These landscapes aren't just lovely and expertly designed (although all three featured projects did win ASLA awards); what links them is that they each somehow give back to the ecosystem in which they are located. Steve Martino's renovation of an older Arizona garden, for example, replaces non-native, thirsty plants with desert natives. At a resort in Idaho, Herb Schaal of EDAW supervised the restoration of a segment of the Snake River's banks and replanted belts of native cottonwoods that had not been regenerating for years due to flood control. In Wyoming, Jim Verdone of Verdone Landscape Architecture planned a golf course community that emphasizes open space, water purity and wildlife conservation.

In their own small way, these projects are helping to stabilize the environment. Now, if only Mr. Gore's film could help me stabilize my environment. My daughters have not quite caught on that leaving televisions or other electronics on in an unused room does, indeed, contribute to global warming…

We're hoping for a warm spring, particularly on May 2 and 3 in Denver, when Sources+Design again cosponsors the annual Rocky Mountain Designers' Market. Last year, despite a sprinkling of snow one morning, the Denver Design District saw a wonderful turnout of design professionals from our region for two days of seminars, panels, presentations and receptions hosted by the district and its numerous to-the-trade showrooms. This year, among many presenters, I'll be looking at portfolios once again, and Colorado glass artist Judy Gorsuch Collins, one of our recently featured "Artisan Profile" subjects, will be discussing her architectural glass installations. See the box for details and please make plans now to join us.

In the meantime, though, enjoy the contents of this issue. Check out award-winning projects from the recent Arizona South Chapter ASID design competition, and discover Z Modern and Zeitgeist showrooms in Denver, a side-by-side business that sells, respectively, iconic Modern and vintage Modern furnishings. And, to help keep you thinking about that global-warming issue, "Green Scene" features an eco-friendly subdivision in Las Vegas.