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Archive for September, 2010

High Line Designers Take on Seattle’s Waterfront

Posted in Public Spaces, Smart Growth, Sustainable Transportation, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 09/29/2010 | Leave a Comment »

James Corner Field Operations created a compelling vision for a new nine-acre park on Seattle’s waterfront, a $50 million-plus project that will be one of the most important civic projects in the city’s 150-year history, writes the The Seattle Post-Intelligencer. City officials thought Corner showed “an understanding of Seattle’s grittiness and an affinity for it, and was able to [...]

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Metropolis and GSA Launch Next Generation Design Competition

Posted in Green Buildings, Opportunities, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Technology on 09/29/2010 | Leave a Comment »

Metropolis magazine and the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) announced the launch of a new design competition, NEXT GENERATION 2011: GET ZERO, aimed at taking an ordinary government office building in Los Angeles and transforming it into an environmentally-sustainable showcase that will have “zero environmental impact.” GSA, which manages some 350 million square-feet of office space in 8,000 buildings in 2,000 [...]

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How Can You Put a Price on Air? Who Would Buy It?

Posted in Climate Change, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Forests, Policy and Regulation on 09/29/2010 | 2 Comments »

It seems a price on the CO2 in air can be determined, and lots of people will buy it, said Denise Farrell, Environmental Capital, at a meeting of ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability USA. In a session that explored how cities and local communities can access voluntary carbon markets to finance landfill gas elimination, wetland restoration, or reforestation projects, experts [...]

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How to Create a Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Plan

Posted in Climate Change, Green Buildings, Policy and Regulation, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Sustainable Transportation, Technology on 09/27/2010 | 1 Comment »

At a meeting of ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA, sustainability officers from cities and communities across the U.S. heard from two communities that created combined climate climate adaptation and mitigation plans, Chula Vista, California and New York City, but had very different experiences with the process. While New York City has an abundance of staff and access to some of [...]

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Livability to the Rescue

Posted in Environment, Policy and Regulation, Residential Design, Smart Growth, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Transportation on 09/23/2010 | 2 Comments »

The Partners for Livable Communities organized a forum in Washington, D.C. to explore how federal and local governments are applying strategies that enhance livability in order to rebuild communities. Paris Glendening, former Governor of Maryland and one of the first major proponents of smart growth and livable communities, kicked off the meeting by saying for the first time an administration is focused on ”place-based outcomes” for [...]

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The Hirshhorn Museum’s Blue Bubble Plans Move Forward

Posted in Education, National Mall, Technology, Urban Design on 09/23/2010 | 1 Comment »

At a conference on livable communities yesterday, Richard Koshalek, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. said Diller, Scofidio + Renfro‘s 145-foot-tall sky-blue bubble will inflate itself out of the Hirshhorn’s central plaza by October 2012. The bubble, however, is just one piece in an ambitious new plan for “curating public [...]

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Engineers Without Borders: A Platform for the Next Generation of Engineers

Posted in Climate Change, Renewable Energy, Sustainable Design, Sustainable Materials, Technology, Waste, Water Management on 09/23/2010 | 1 Comment »

Engineers Without Borders (EWB) won the National Building Museum’s prestigious Henry C. Turner prize for innovation in construction technology for its work connecting engineering students with international development projects. NBM President Chase Wynd said EWB, which has more than 250 local chapters across the U.S., provides sustainable, low-cost critical infrastructure in the areas of water, energy, sanitation, [...]

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Interview with Fritz Haeg, Author of “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn”

Posted in Agriculture, Smart Growth, Sustainable Design, Urban Design, Urban Revitalization on 09/22/2010 | 1 Comment »

Fritz Haeg is an artist, designer, gardener, and writer currently on a 2010-11 Rome Prize Fellowship; his book “Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn” was just rereleased in a second expanded edition by Metropolis Books. www.fritzhaeg.com In the new edition of your book, “Edible Estates: Attack On The Front Lawn,” you argue that ripping [...]

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Creating Safe, Low-Impact Access to the Waves

Posted in Environment, Landscape Architecture, Public Spaces, Sustainable Transportation, Wildlife on 09/21/2010 | Leave a Comment »

Safe Trestles is a competition that seeks to create a new design for a safe path surfers can use to cross wetlands and traintracks and get to the beach in California’s San Onofre state park. The competition also asked designers to create a plan for restoring and preserving the wetlands that have been damaged by the surfers’ makeshift pathways. The two-stage [...]

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Restoring Wetlands to Save the Gulf

Posted in Climate Change, Forests, Water Management on 09/21/2010 | Leave a Comment »

According to Places, Louisiana State University’s interdisciplinary Coastal Sustainability Studio has been exploring the post-Katrina landscape of Louisiana and the Gulf South. The group has found that New Orleans and other local communities won’t be safe from future storms and flooding until the delta is allowed to function, natural soils are allowed to build up, and the region’s extensive wetland ecosystem is restored [...]

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