Rybczynski, author of
The Look of Architecture (2001) and
A
Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and North America in the
Nineteenth Century (1999), offers this short essay on ‘greening the metropolis’
for
The Atlantic Monthly. There’s really nothing completely new here, nothing
radical in terms of writing about green design or new urbanism. Still, he
addresses, compactly and eloquently as always, some of the big – and obvious –
issues of the day: the pros and cons of LEED rating system; green (grass) roofs
versus white (painted) roofs; and, most importantly, the everpresent problem of
suburban sprawl.
The most sustainable approach to green cities, he writes,
lies in urban density…and the ultimate low carbon footprint is the high-rise
tower versus the low-rise office campus:
“The problem in the sustainability campaign is that a basic
truth has been lost, or at least concealed. Rather than trying to change
behavior to actually reduce carbon emissions, politicians and entrepreneurs
have sold greening to the public as a kind of accessorizing. Keep doing what
you’re doing, goes the message. Just add a solar panel, a wind turbine, a
hybrid engine, whatever. But a solar-heated house in the burbs is still a house
in the burbs, and if you have to drive to it, even in a Prius, it’s hardly
green.”
Read the rest of “The Green Case for Cities”.
