Green ArchiTEXT

Driving Green: New Freeway Cap Parks for L.A.?

  IMAGE: AECOM

Plans to develop four so-called freeway cap parks have recently been announced in Los Angeles. The cap concept, which essentially covers a portion of a freeway with a planted concrete lid, has gained popularity in the last decade as an urban “greening” solution. The multibillion-dollar projects are meant to knit together previously disparate neighborhoods, theoretically creating cohesion and larger-scale community gathering places without having to destroy or displace existing infrastructures.

The four projects are spread across Hollywood, downtown LA, and Santa Monica. Hollywood Central Park would be built atop the 101 Freeway on a proposed 44-acre site between Santa Monica Boulevard and Bronson Avenue.

via www.archpaper.com

Envisioning Sustainable Communities

Parts 1 and 2 of a diagloue on building community.

By Pamela Courtenay-Hall and Gary Clausheide

The question of how to build sustainable communities is essential to surviving the predicaments of climate change, peak oil, environmental degradation, global imperialism and economic collapse that are upon us. So it is good that questions about community have entered Energy Bulletin discussions.

But so far, recent EB discussions of community have focused on the question of how to “create”, “build” or “organize” community in general terms, without examining what we mean by “community”, and without examining the fundamental features of the vision of community that we want to move toward. Instead, the focus has been on the understandably pressing concern, how do we motivate existing communities to make the transition toward sustainability, or at least to move to more sustainable practices?

We want to take the discussion further by arguing that the best way to motivate people to adopt the profound changes that real social change would require is to show them a successful model in action. This is likely a goal of Transition Towns and many other sustainability movements, but most of these are framed within the existing economic and social structures of mainstream U.S. society. Unasked is the question of how such reform initiatives can resist the centralizing and hierarchy-inducing influences of corporate America.

via www.energybulletin.net

In Minneapolis: Rezoning for More Density Around Trails, Parks

There is a symbiotic relationship between parks and population density. For those living in compact housing around a park’s borders, there is respite, a place to recreate, a back yard where little private outdoor space exists and an amenity that increases property values. For the park, there’s the “eyes” that make it safer, more property taxes to keep it maintained, nearby users to keep it vibrant and able to maximize its value as a public amenity.

While many parks are historically located in dense urban surroundings, the relationship of compactness and green space has not been an area of much attention in urban planning circles.

That may be changing to some extent. In Minneapolis, the city appears to be close to rezoning land along the Midtown Greenway, a 5-mile crosstown trail and linear park that links the city’s lakes to the Mississippi River.

via cityparksblog.org

Beyond Green Buildings: Creating Sustainable Communities

By Barbara Kessler

Defining a sustainable master plan for St. Charles, Maryland

If you had the money and connections, you could build a snappy green house these days. Sink a geothermal heat pump to tap Mother Earth’s energy, slap up some solar panels, finish it out with non-toxic drywall, cork floors, denim insulation, recycled glass countertops and floors made from sunken ship decking.

But does a green house a green home make? The answer to that is….of course not. Green builders, and those who live in green houses, soon bump up against what some land planners have known all along: It takes a village to bring green to its fullest expression.

via www.greenrightnow.com

Forget eco-towns - real green house-building is already happening

By Eifion Rees

Cambridge University's expansion plans could change the face of sustainable building in the UK. In 2012, construction begins on the greenest development of its size and scope in the UK

As far as trailblazing green building initiatives go, the development known as North West Cambridge (its official name as well as location) looks rather uninspiring at the moment, merely fields bounded by busy roads on the outskirts of an East Anglian university town. There aren't many clues to suggest that, when construction begins here in 2012, it will change the face of sustainable building in the UK.

via The Ecologist

TreeHugger: What Makes a Great Green City?

Plentiful parks, green buildings, smart energy policy, biking and more. See all "10 Things that Make a Great Green City" at TreeHugger.

CREDIT:TreeHugger

Returning the Urban Forest

A nice interview with Wangari Maathai, 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and global advocate of reforestation, in the November/December 2009 issue of Resurgence Magazine. Professor Maathai is founder of The Greenbelt Movement (GBM) and backed by the Billion Tree Campaign, which was launched in Nairobi in 2006 in association with the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

Reflecting on her upcoming trip to the COP15 Copenhagen Climate Conference next month, she commented in the interview:

“I also encourage the protection of standing trees. We have not yet appreciated the true value of the tree: it stabilises the soil; it gives us shade; if it is a fruit tree it gives us fruit. The tree fixes carbon for us; gives us oxygen; regulates the composition of the air… Trees are a wonderful gift to humanity!”

Read the full interview here.

While much of the Greenbelt Movement’s work is focused on massive tree-planting projects in Kenya and the Congo Basin Forest, her message extends beyond Africa. The organization has extended its work internationally to Europe and the U.S. Although not connected directly with GBM, urban reforestation – the power of habitat corridors and greenbelts within cities – seems to be a theme gaining momentum worldwide, such as with ReForest London and “Return to the Forest Where We Live”, the PBS series about the devastation on urban forests in New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast caused by Hurricane Katrina. Among the most extensive restorative designs devoted to this idea currently, at least within the urban environment, is Mithun’s Lloyd Crossing Sustainable Urban Design Plan & Catalyst Project, an AIA COTE Top Ten winner in 2005.

Regenerating Places: ASLA’s New Sustainability Guides

IMAGE (left): Port Lands Estuary: Reinventing the Don River as an Agent of Urbanism, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. IMAGE (right): Mia Lehrer + Associates, Civitas, Inc., Wenk Associates, Tetra Tech, Inc. Copyright City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (2007).

The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) just released a terrific new series of resources for sustainable design and planning at its 2009 Annual Meeting and EXPO in Chicago. This year’s conference theme – "Beyond Sustainability: Regenerating People and Places" – offered the perfect setting to launch these five online guides:

• Green Infrastructure covers park systems, wildlife habitat and corridors, urban forestry and green roofs.
• Sustainable Transportation covers sustainable transportation planning, sitting sustainable transportation infrastructure, designing safe and visually appealing transportation infrastructure, green streets and reducing the urban heat island effect.  
• Sustainable Urban Development covers fighting sprawl, sustainable zoning, reusing brownfields, investing in downtowns, open spaces and sustainable urban design.
• Livable Communities covers sustainable land use, place making, green schools, sustainable housing, sustainable employment growth and health, safety and security.
• Combating Climate Change with Landscape Architecture covers site planning, open spaces, plant selection, stormwater management and other areas.

See the full press release here.

Bringing More Livable Streets to Des Moines

   CREDIT: Gēnus Landscape Architects

Not every one likes it – the “roundabout”, that is – but the city, citizens and Gēnus Landscape Architects are progressing with dramatic ‘complete streets’ improvements in the Beaverdale neighborhood of Des Moines, Iowa. The Des Moines Register calls the “Beaverdale plan a model for other neighborhoods”:

“Des Moines' new bicycle-friendly streets policy that has stirred controversy on Ingersoll Avenue may be tested next in the Beaverdale neighborhood on the city's northwest side. It would be a good case history in how improving the appearance of streets, and how they are used, can have a visible impact on a neighborhood.

Des Moines is striving to make travel as safe and convenient for pedestrians and bicycles as by car with a new "complete streets" policy. Some neighbors and businesses objected to the concept on Ingersoll Avenue west of downtown, but the city is pressing ahead.”

The rest of this 1.5-mile Beaver Avenue streetscape will include new planters and lighting, signs, public art and more visible pedestrian crosswalks. Gēnus is part of an integrated design team that also includes Veenstra & Kim Engineering and Sayles Graphic Design. Goals of the plan are to improve safety, enhance connectivity, create  visual unity, and revitalize local businesses.

Read the full story here.

Visions of a Sustainable Village

Interesting collaborative project that brings together leading figures in architecture, interior design, art and many other disciplines: the CLEAR Village Foundation aims develop “sustainable living solutions at the village scale.” And now, the group is sponsoring a contest to conceive of an ideal sustainable village. The The CLEAR Village Visualisation Competition envisions:

“a place where you would want to live, study, work and experience the challenges and rewards of an ecologically durable lifestyle. In other words: to define the future of living.”

According to CLEAR Village, you can draw, sketch, take photographs, paint, use digital design tools to create  images, or even submit poetry. Contest deadline has been extended to Wednesday, September 23, 2009 at midnight. Read all about it here.

The goal of the Foundationʼs is to construct a real life CLEAR Village, but also to benchmark and advise others. “The ‘village scale’ of the project addresses the growing need for sustainable mid-sized developments to revive rural and peri-urban areas and aims to let businesses test innovative technologies and services and people experience the future of living.”