David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 1hGood that this is happening, and nice that it's a nonprofit developer. Bad that the new building's been delayed by 9 years of lawsuits by self-righteous NIMBYs. The worst is the DC appellate court decision that says easements can be created w/o explicit agreements or putting anything in writing. 030
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 08/10/2026The 51st writes about the Washington Sun's marketing campaign that takes aim at the Washington Post. 51st.news/washington-s...51st.newsThe Washington Sun launches an aggressive local ad blitzThe outlet is pitching its newly robust metro section with ads and activations around town 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Amaranth and sweet potatoes at the National Museum of the American Indian. 0100
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Available in print or as a free PDF. www.extension.umd.edu/programs/env...extension.umd.eduNative Plant GuidesAbout the GuidesThe Piedmont guide is the first in a series of three native plant guides covering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Level II ecoregions in Maryland: Mountain, Piedmont and Coas... 040
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026The UMD Ag Extension native plants garden guide for the Coastal Plain is out. I think that's Asclepias tuberosa, buttonbush, and American beachgrass on the cover. 2142
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Seems like it needs Berlin Brigade urban camouflage. www.tankograd.com/cms/website....tankograd.comBritish Infantry Brigade Berlin<br>Armoured Vehicles in Berlin Urban Area Camouflage<br>Reprint - TANKOGRAD Publishing - Verlag Jochen Vollert - MilitärfahrzeugBritish Infantry Brigade Berlin<br>Armoured Vehicles in Berlin Urban Area Camouflage - After World War 2 the British Army, as one of the four Allied victors, took... 010
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I think the horse is meant to be a fall-seasonal decoration, but I do appreciate how rainstorms have driven a costume modification that's steered this well into horror territory. (Streets market, Mt. Pleasant, DC.) 270
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026See also text.npr.org and lite.cnn.com, originally built for the aftermath of a hurricane—I don't remember which one, we've had so many massive storms—so that survivors on limited power and limited Internet connections could still see news.text.npr.orgNPR : National Public Radio 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026BBEdit. daringfireball.net/2004/09/bbed...daringfireball.netBBEdit 8Version 8.0 is the biggest update to BBEdit since 6.0, four years ago. 130
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Un Je Ne Sais Quoi sells macarons, yes? I think those are the model of the negligible sandwich. 120
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I.E., "negligible transit is non-reportable." Well, some of these urban spaces have nothing but negligible transit, that's what their function is. 220
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026For 2024, GWMP shows 6.7M rec visitors and 35M non-rec; NCP-East 1.3M and 39M; NCP-Central (i.e. the Mall, plus) 1M and 0; and the Jefferson, 2.9M and 0. I have doubts about the counting methodologies for urban parks. irma.nps.gov/DataStore/Do...irma.nps.gov 210
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I used to quip that Dupont Circle was probably the highest-visited piece of NPS property. Back-of-the-napkin estimates put it way up there, but it is wild how many people drive to the Blue Ridge on a busy day, and also GWMP and BWP. 131
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I think the Kansas Ave. medians, transferred 1937, are gone. Across the city, many are now travel lanes or parallel parking. 010
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I'll take a site that I do know: on Adams Mill Road NW, central parking is the term of art for the landscaped ("landscaped") median. www.google.com/maps/place/A... 010
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026i recognize the psychological drive that makes small restaurant owners create eldritch-horror AI menu illustrations; it's the same worry that causes design students to spend hours finding terrible stock illustrations of the wrong thing instead of taking two minutes to take a decent photo. 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026There are an astounding number of spaces managed by NPS, but it was even larger before a series of land transfers (mostly to District agencies) c. 1930 and prior to Home Rule. 061
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 05/10/2026I would say that the history of DC is the history of federal "Reservations." The closest one to me, I could hit with a rock from the roof of my building. Neil Flanagan fills in the story of how NPS came to manage so much of the city. 160
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to demarcate tree protection areas by nailing 2x4s into trees, but YOLO. 000
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026And there is the Canadian Housing Design Catalog of 50-odd designs, tailored to regions. www.housingcatalogue.cmhc-schl.gc.cahousingcatalogue.cmhc-schl.gc.caHousing Design Catalogue The Housing Design Catalogue provides standardized designs to make homebuilding easier. It features accessory dwelling units, townhomes and multiplexes. 000
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026Meanwhile, Toronto is adding fourplex and sixplex designs to its library. bsky.app/profile/jaso... 130
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026About 40 US cities have similar programs, and California for ADUs, and they have led to increases in new homes. www.pew.org/en/research-...pew.orgPreapproved Building Plans Help Cities Improve Housing AffordabilityA growing number of mostly small and midsize cities struggling with new housing production have begun providing preapproved building plans to developers as part of a broader effort to lower the cost o... 100
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 03/10/2026In DC, Councilmember Robert White's proposed bill would create a library of pre-approved plans for rowhouses, duplexes, and small apartment buildings. dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blo...dc.urbanturf.comA Proposed DC Bill Would Offer Library of Pre-Approved Housing PlansA new bill would give builders a shelf of ready-made housing plans that the city has already checked. 3122
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Remember, this man can have ICBMs flying in about 18 minutes. 021
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 01/10/2026I got interested in different arrangements/renditions of Semper Paratus, the US Coast Guard march. There's a recording of it from Obama's 2009 inauguration, and the echoes and crosstalk and cheering capture that day's energy and optimism, now bittersweet. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Se...en.wikipedia.orgFile:Semper Paratus, January 2009.oga - Wikipedia 000
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 01/10/2026"Nature always has a way." (Plants teacher and ag extension specialist on the sterile varieties of butterfly bush.) 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 29/09/2026My college did some things well, including deciding to eliminate Greek life when it admitted women in the late 60s, as part of a series of reforms. 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 29/09/2026In the woods just above Piney Branch, a colony of snakeroot, flourishing in the area burned by a brushfire a couple of years ago. 060
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Interesting grade problems going on with this Dupont circle bioretention. (It's definitely designed to accept rainwater; someone came through and cut scuppers in the curbs between planter and sidewalk.) 021
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026New apartment buildings on the way in Adams Morgan—all of these in Reed-Cooke, except for the SunTrust Plaza building, which is finally scheduled to break ground next year. dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blo...dc.urbanturf.comFrom Mansion Conversion To SunTrust Plaza: The 280 Units Coming To Adams Morgan And Mount PleasantThe past year has been one of progress for the residential pipeline in Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant. 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 28/09/2026Periodic reminder that a typology is a study of types, not a word that means the same thing as "type" but with extra syllables so you seem smarter. No one building is a typology, though Greenfield Village, Skansen, and the National Park Seminary might count as typologies. 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Never mind history students, engineers do history; writing about their stuff since 1850, founded the whole field of industrial archaeology. I work with an engineering team to produce historical research, and practitioners love it. www.npr.org/local/2021/0...npr.org70% Of D.C.'s Streams Have Disappeared. Where Did They Go?There were once deep, clear swimming holes near what's now Union Station. As D.C. developed, creeks were paved over or piped. 0303
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 26/09/2026A Canadian flag flying over a very tall rowhouse in Adams Morgan that's long hoisted flags that seem to symbolize protest and celebration. 031
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 26/09/2026I note, USGS doesn't have a complete collection of its maps, and nor is there a complex index. It's possible that a very old map is the only copy. (I don't know about other countries and agencies; hope that isn't the case too widely, but from the BBC tape archive fiasco I suspect it must be.) 020
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 26/09/2026That's a lot of maps. I've got a bunch of topo quads, given away by the geology department library in the late 90s. (Reminds me, I need to check my current university's map library—there are a lot of NOAA nautical charts turning up on people's walls.) 110
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 26/09/2026There's something interesting about the role of dimensionally-stable supports in science and engineering, sometimes massive objects (granite slabs and cast iron plates), though sometimes lighter (mylar drafting film). 120
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026A fine drift of asters and goldenrod (I think, white wood aster and wreath goldenrod) in a shady spot at American University. 070
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Not a hiring shibboleth, but I have had interviews derailed by (a) the CTO coming on the PA and telling everyone to unplug everything immediately b/c he installed a worm; and (b) an early 2020 campus visit where we had to stop my job talk b/c the university shut down for Covid (got the job!). 180
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026And Alexandria maps at the Library of Congress. (I thought there was a slightly older Coast Survey chart.) www.loc.gov/maps/?q=alex...loc.gov 120
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I see some good answers—don't particularly know Virginia sources myself. Coast Survey (via NOAA Historical Charts) gets you to the 1860s. 230
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026An occasional series about interesting words. From the Foreign Service to Sanborn maps: persillade, orchard ladder, crush block, packout, fall zone, highwater houses, and paster. imaginaryterrain.com/archive/word...imaginaryterrain.comDavid Ramos / Words I like, orchard ladders and crush blocks 000
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026There's light snow on the ground and I'd think the Swiss railways were all business, but the potted plants say otherwise. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yczc...youtube.comAlltag einer Bahnwärterin (1968) | SRF ArchivYouTube video by SRF Archiv 000
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 25/09/2026I'm particularly appreciating the houseplants in this railway grade crossing keeper's cabin, show in a 1968 Swiss short documentary. 110
David Ramos @imagineterrain.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Also, notice how you can't see the station name on this new pylon design? You won't be able to read the name if you come at the sign from the wrong direction. 040