David Ramos
@imagineterrain.bsky.social
Designer/design educator in Washington, D.C. Making maps/systems to help us imagine landscapes past + future. Lost streams,🚲🛶🌊 On the web — imaginaryterrain.com
Paint is textured, too.
November 17, 2025 at 11:04 PM
Paint is textured, too.
Ah yes, another bike rack that was designed by someone who had never seen a bicycle before, just read descriptions of them written by small, innumerate children.
November 17, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Ah yes, another bike rack that was designed by someone who had never seen a bicycle before, just read descriptions of them written by small, innumerate children.
Euclidian Zoning, as in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. zoning, is structured in a remarkably complicated way.
November 17, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Euclidian Zoning, as in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co. zoning, is structured in a remarkably complicated way.
The line isn't wrong. Might be missing one adjective.
November 17, 2025 at 3:08 PM
The line isn't wrong. Might be missing one adjective.
Gave a talk about this at UCDA back in 2019, arguing that it was time to teach Grid-based layout methods rather than whatever people thought was most common in industry. But that was about a detail, and I didn't see the choice in such fundamental terms.
November 16, 2025 at 6:20 PM
Gave a talk about this at UCDA back in 2019, arguing that it was time to teach Grid-based layout methods rather than whatever people thought was most common in industry. But that was about a detail, and I didn't see the choice in such fundamental terms.
Learned that, in the 2000s, the Historic American Engineering Record worked with the US Maritime Administration to document some important ships within the US reserve fleets. www.loc.gov/item/tx1092/
November 15, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Learned that, in the 2000s, the Historic American Engineering Record worked with the US Maritime Administration to document some important ships within the US reserve fleets. www.loc.gov/item/tx1092/
Looks as if the Fenty for Mayor campaign is kicking off, over on Adams Mill Road.
November 14, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Looks as if the Fenty for Mayor campaign is kicking off, over on Adams Mill Road.
I'm struck that, more than most buildings, large modern theatres really are machines, machines for moving scenery and curtains around and throwing light on them. (This is a plan of the basement of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago — it's mostly hydraulic lifts.)
November 14, 2025 at 10:27 PM
I'm struck that, more than most buildings, large modern theatres really are machines, machines for moving scenery and curtains around and throwing light on them. (This is a plan of the basement of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago — it's mostly hydraulic lifts.)
The Potomac gouges its way through a good five Level III ecoregions. Most of these rivers are not usefully navigable (see the American invention of the long-distance railroad), and California has put paid to the importance of managing water resources basin-by-basin.
November 14, 2025 at 10:08 PM
The Potomac gouges its way through a good five Level III ecoregions. Most of these rivers are not usefully navigable (see the American invention of the long-distance railroad), and California has put paid to the importance of managing water resources basin-by-basin.
I like the idea of US states that are built around watersheds, in some romantic sense, but the notion really only works west of the Appalachians, and it's arbitrary even then. (Why wouldn't the Roanoke River get a state?)
November 14, 2025 at 10:03 PM
I like the idea of US states that are built around watersheds, in some romantic sense, but the notion really only works west of the Appalachians, and it's arbitrary even then. (Why wouldn't the Roanoke River get a state?)
DDOT is engaged in improving all the city's streetlights, except for the historic Washington Globes, which get a dispensation to be awful in every respect.
November 14, 2025 at 7:59 PM
DDOT is engaged in improving all the city's streetlights, except for the historic Washington Globes, which get a dispensation to be awful in every respect.
Was talking w. DDOT team at tonight's event—MoveDC does show Irving + Columbia as transit priority streets. I note that Harvard and Kenyon/Park are the bike priority streets going all the way through, though there are stubs of bike facilities on the plan btwn 14th and 16th.
November 5, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Was talking w. DDOT team at tonight's event—MoveDC does show Irving + Columbia as transit priority streets. I note that Harvard and Kenyon/Park are the bike priority streets going all the way through, though there are stubs of bike facilities on the plan btwn 14th and 16th.
Columbia and Irving are narrow in Columbia Heights, 28' and 30' curb-to-curb for most of the neighborhood, so there's little room for bus lanes, adequate sidewalks, and bike lanes, plus a travel lane, even if DDOT's willing to remove street parking.
November 4, 2025 at 2:36 PM
Columbia and Irving are narrow in Columbia Heights, 28' and 30' curb-to-curb for most of the neighborhood, so there's little room for bus lanes, adequate sidewalks, and bike lanes, plus a travel lane, even if DDOT's willing to remove street parking.
Houses here came close to the riverbank and even hung over the edge, and the 1950s flood control channel took away the margins that remained.
November 3, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Houses here came close to the riverbank and even hung over the edge, and the 1950s flood control channel took away the margins that remained.
Looking up Wills Creek toward the Narrows, Cumberland, Md. We're on the former Western Maryland line.
November 3, 2025 at 7:55 PM
Looking up Wills Creek toward the Narrows, Cumberland, Md. We're on the former Western Maryland line.
Little Seneca Lake on Sunday. We have no naturally-occurring lakes in Maryland or Virginia, so I appreciate these freshwater environments with rushes along the fringes of a still body of water.
November 3, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Little Seneca Lake on Sunday. We have no naturally-occurring lakes in Maryland or Virginia, so I appreciate these freshwater environments with rushes along the fringes of a still body of water.
TIL that the Oxbow, in Northampton, Mass., no longer exists as painted by Thomas Cole — just a few years after Cole finished his painting, the Connecticut River cut through the meander's neck, leaving an oxbow lake.
November 3, 2025 at 2:59 PM
TIL that the Oxbow, in Northampton, Mass., no longer exists as painted by Thomas Cole — just a few years after Cole finished his painting, the Connecticut River cut through the meander's neck, leaving an oxbow lake.
The Potomac River at Great Cacapon, W.Va.
November 1, 2025 at 11:11 PM
The Potomac River at Great Cacapon, W.Va.
Mt. Pleasant. I like to think that the squirrel has been waiting politely.
November 1, 2025 at 5:14 PM
Mt. Pleasant. I like to think that the squirrel has been waiting politely.
[Deleted earlier post; uncivil.] It's hard to walk the line between big idea and gimmick once there is no client involved.
October 31, 2025 at 4:24 PM
[Deleted earlier post; uncivil.] It's hard to walk the line between big idea and gimmick once there is no client involved.
Just noticed, the Underground cranks make some wild claims that just flatly contradict the 2011 drainage study and later reports.
October 31, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Just noticed, the Underground cranks make some wild claims that just flatly contradict the 2011 drainage study and later reports.
When I talk about lost streams, people go to thinking about flooding from underground rivers — but there aren't any underground rivers! It's the legacy of those streams, the valleys that they leave, that puts you at risk.
October 31, 2025 at 2:13 PM
When I talk about lost streams, people go to thinking about flooding from underground rivers — but there aren't any underground rivers! It's the legacy of those streams, the valleys that they leave, that puts you at risk.
A year ago, the account featured earnest and slightly unpolished account takeovers by individual units, who showed the work that they did and the enormous trust that the USCG put in its people's skills and professionalism. Now it's operators in masks w. M240s.
October 31, 2025 at 2:01 PM
A year ago, the account featured earnest and slightly unpolished account takeovers by individual units, who showed the work that they did and the enormous trust that the USCG put in its people's skills and professionalism. Now it's operators in masks w. M240s.
The US Coast Guard Instagram account's another loss. A year ago, the account was distinctive, characterized by its attention to the service's 11 wide-ranging missions, incl. environmental protection and aids to navigation. Now it's all drug busts and skeezy "be on the lookout for narco boats" posts.
October 31, 2025 at 1:54 PM
The US Coast Guard Instagram account's another loss. A year ago, the account was distinctive, characterized by its attention to the service's 11 wide-ranging missions, incl. environmental protection and aids to navigation. Now it's all drug busts and skeezy "be on the lookout for narco boats" posts.