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And why not? As with other broad, societal transformations, there are a plethora of factors driving these housing trends. Apartment developers and managers are offering residents a great many new amenities and lifestyles in their complexes. Gone are the days when a weight room and a small swimming pool were the main amenities of apartment buildings. These are still big draws no doubt, though you will likely find a fully equipped gym sporting the latest in fitness equipment and flat screen technology. But that’s not all. The new apartments now offer doggie parks, hummingbird and butterfly gardens, vegetable garden plots and more. The facilities and landscape have changed quickly to keep up with the new life of the apartment denizen.

EMI’s landscaping has been a leader in these types of maintenance upgrades and in adding new lifestyle-driven landscape features at many area apartment complexes. Many of our clients have been demanding features such as community gardens so tenants can grow their own vegetables. Bird watching areas and butterfly gardens have been popular as well.

Many of the new apartment projects are located in areas close to restaurants and shopping and offices. The new tenants, it would seem, prefer walking or biking to work and use automobiles recreationally. This explains the many single building, multi-story complexes in busy areas of the city. Such developments are also driving the trends in city planning and streetscapes, causing a boom in commercial landscaping as well. After all, if you are walking to work and along local streets for your shopping and entertainment, it’s not a concrete and asphalt jungle that is most enticing.

So watch for streetscape and other transformational commercial landscaping projects to blossom around these developments. The new tenancy attracts small restaurants, shops, upscale grocers and florist, not just bars and coffee shops.

A significant portion of the apartment construction boom centers around new building catering to new residents; Columbus is still attracting new residents at a brisk pace and the metro area population crossed the 2 million mark in 2015 according to an article in The Dispatch. However, many older area apartments are feeling the squeeze and are upgrading their facilities and adding new amenities and features both in order to compete with the new apartments developments for new tenants as well as to retain existing residents.

The building boom is slated to continue for the for seeable future. Significant development projects are in the works in several areas of the city including the downtown areas of East Franklington and the Scioto River Peninsula as reported in Columbus Underground.

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There are literally hundreds of tree species available for planting in North America. However, when it comes to streetscapes and plantings, a good arborist will tell you, there are just a dozen or so which are ideal or suitable for the purpose. In the big cities like Chicago and New York, just a few species make up most of the trees planted along the street,

One has to consider the mature size of the tree and choose a type that will be suitable for that specific street, the width, the location and height of the buildings. Large canopy trees are usually preferred, growing 30 – 50 feet tall. The spread of the tree must be considered. The type of leaves and the canopy are also important.  Debris and leaf removal is a very important consideration. Some trees such as hornbeam drop a lot of small dead branches, which makes them quite unsuitable for streetscapes. Others trees have fruit which drop and rot on the pavements and streets; the most extreme example of this being a female ginko tree. Some have a lot of pollen. Some trees even drip sap, at certain times of the year, which is harmful to  the paint on automobiles and bikes. These and other characteristics must be taken into consideration when selecting trees for planting along a city street. Appearance and beauty are very important but selecting trees  for this purpose based on appearance alone is bound to lead to problems  in the long  run.

The most important factor is the ability of the species to survive and thrive in urban environments and handle air and ground pollution as well as compact soil. Site-specific factors such as soil moisture, wind factors, shade and others should also be considered. Hardiness and climate zones will further factor in to your decision. Since so many factors come into play, commercial growers focus on a few sturdy and suitable species. This sometimes limits what is available locally in sufficient numbers for the street in question.

One factor that is often ignored is diversity. As mentioned earlier, in many cities, just a few species make up the vast majority of the trees planted along the streets. This leads to monocultures andmakestrees susceptible to disease and pests, which can wipe out large numbers of trees in a city. It is advisable to scout the adjacent streets and try to avoid the same species as everyone else. Alternating along the same street can also be a useful and quite attractive strategy.

Armed with a bit of research and the help of a good arborist,you should be able to make a choice that will serve you well for several decades.   Here is our go to list for Central Ohio species that will thrive and serve well for streetscapes and pavements.

The following lists of recommended trees may be helpful but are not intended to be comprehensive.

Large Canopy Trees with mature heights over 40’

Medium CanopyTrees  with  mature heights of 25’ – 40’