Green ArchiTEXT

Jeanne Gang: Building A Wilder City

By Caroline Winter

Studio Gang Architects—run by Jeanne Gang, 48, and her husband, Mark Schendel—moved into the gritty Chicago neighborhood of Wicker Park in 2002. Initially, they shared their floor, above an Aldo shoe store, with a personal injury lawyer, a communist bookstore, and a poetry group. As these neighbors moved on and Gang’s reputation grew—she won a MacArthur Fellow “genius” grant in 2011—Studio Gang took over. Inside, research specimens line several of the orderly studio’s walls and windowsills: mushrooms, rocks, bent baseball cards, and various samples of wood. “A lot of the stuff we do involves testing materials or making big, giant mock-ups,” says Gang, who is slim with light gray eyes, a wavy chestnut bob, and an uninhibited laugh. “There’s a lot of craftsmen out here, people who fabricate things for us. It’s almost like a whole ecology.”

Among Gang’s intentions is to invite a “more wild version” of nature into cities, using what she refers to as “green infrastructure” to support and enhance urban landscapes. “Nature as we see it in cities is created, it’s man-made, it’s redesigned in a certain sense,” says Gang. “I think it’s important not for romantic reasons, but for practical and experiential reasons, to extend biodiversity within the ecosystem.”

This fall, Chicago broke ground on Gang’s biggest designed wilderness to date: Northerly Island. The plan, devised by Gang in collaboration with the landscape architecture firm SmithGroupJJR, fashions a public park out of Meigs Field, a former airport on a 91-acre man-made peninsula just off the southern tip of downtown Chicago. READ MORE >>

via www.businessweek.com

360 View of Wetlands Around Oberlin's Adam Joseph Lewis Center

A great tool to view and monitor the newly rebuilt wetlands adjacent to the Adam Joseph Lewis Center at Oberlin College - still one of the greenest buildings in North America (even after more than 10 years). This panoramic view is made possible using Microsoft Photosynth - an onsite, on-line camera feed.

More on this special restored landscape is available on the college's AJLC site:

"Wetland restoration entails three tasks: reestablishing wet hydrological conditions, reintroducing native species and selectively removing invasive and non-native plant species. With time, a complex set of relationships between living and non-living components develops and results in a resilient ecological system that is resistant to invasive species and to disturbance. The reconstructed wetland at the Lewis Center was initially planted with a diverse community of wetland vegetation in the spring of 2000. Fish and painted turtles were added. Song birds, ducks, toads, frogs and a wide variety of insects also inhabit the wetland but have come of their own accord. In 2010, in response to a breach in the lining the wetland system was rebuilt. The new wetland restoration was expanded in size in order to accommodate a more diverse and representative aquatic ecosystem at a scale that better matches the building. A number of the original plant specimens were saved and reused."

Edaphic Effects: Using geo-cells for stormwater capture and treatment

By Damian Holmes

A prevalent problem facing cities and regions is inadequate stormwater infrastructure. Sixteen billion gallons of raw sewage get dumped into Philadelphia’s rivers and streams each year after rain events. Because wet-weather flow is a dispersed problem, it has become increasingly clear that it requires a dispersed solution. Consequently, cities have started to explore alternatives for stormwater capture and treatment that are decentralized and incremental, rather than a system-wide upgrade. Individual lots in aggregate can have a significant impact on water quality. With funds being directed towards infrastructure rather than recreational or public space per se, we must explore creative ways to use infrastructural improvements as open space amenities.

This project explores the efficacy of customized substrates to develop alternatives to conventional on-site stormwater collection. Utilizing digital modeling and computer-controlled fabrication, we were testing whether or not manipulating geo-cells (three dimensional in-grade structures filled with gravel, soil or plants) can produce innovative infiltration features that combine their functional requirements with a visibly expressive surface that can add color, pattern and texture to vacant sites. Geo-cell configurations are currently limited by their uniform geometry. By varying the cellular shape, density and profile, we can fabricate them to produce a greater degree of variety and thus be more responsive to the opportunities of small urban sites. READ MORE >>

PHOTOS: World Landscape Architecture

via www.worldlandscapearchitect.com

Next Generation of Net-Zero Park Design

By Dakotah Bertsch

John “Bill” Taylor, ASLA, of Carol R. Johnson Associates, and Mark Walsh-Cooke and Tom Kennedy of Arup, gave a talk on “The Next Generation of Net-Zero Park Design” at the 2011 ASLA annual meeting.

Problem: the earth’s resources are finite. The amount of usable freshwater, air, and, of course, oil, make up a very small amount of the planet. And, with the population growing, scarcity is bound to increase. Complicating matters, climate change is real. We will continue to see more flood events as the amount of rain is concentrated in fewer, stronger storms. More and more, our lives will be interrupted by unpredictable weather patterns. Tom Kennedy with Arup asked, “Where do we draw the line?”

“Net-zero” parks may be part of a global effort to deal with these changes. Bill Taylor, a landscape architect with Carol R. Johnson Associates, said that “the next generation of parks will be part of a massive urban and regional retrofitting.” Net-zero is a term used to quantify sustainability by paying close attention to a project’s impacts and resource consumption – usually in terms of water, carbon, and energy. When it comes to designing net-zero parks, however, there are more questions than answers. How is net-zero defined? According to Kennedy, net-zero is a lot like the term “sustainability” in that there are almost as many definitions for it as there are references to it. For landscape purposes, should net-zero refer to operational or lifetime costs? Does it involve offsetting carbon or energy expenditures? Does it consider the carbon impact of deliveries made to the site, or of importing water? ”Net-zero is not really well defined yet,” said Kennedy. He proposes that while the definition is flexible, one should decide on their own definition of net-zero early on in a project’s lifespan. READ MORE >>

via dirt.asla.org

Designing the Building-Landscape Interface

By Bill Millard

Nature has been prototyping designs far longer than humans have. And as architects strive to keep up with the rapidly evolving world of green-building standards, some of them are looking to exploit that experience by bridging the gap between nature and the built environment. The end goal: creating a functional interface between the two that improves building performance.

In the second half of the 20th century, buildings and landscape became disconnected. Many architects saw nature as an unruly force to be excluded at all costs. Nonetheless, a small but vocal group maintained interest in the interplay of the built and natural environments. And today, architects increasingly see biomimetic and biophilic approaches as practical strategies.

Contemporary systems that exemplify this interplay include green and blue roofs, green façades, living greenwalls, porous pavements, and associated systems for managing water and soil. But putting these green machines to work isn’t plug-and-play; it calls for patient cost-benefit assessment. Well-deployed natural features can improve water management and thermal control and reduce operating costs, but they are not a panacea. READ MORE >>

via www.architectmagazine.com

Building Better Metrics: The Synthesis of Economics, Environment, Community and Art

Low Impact Development

LID is an alternative, cost-effective method for those who want to be sensitive to sustainability, but lack the resources to pursue LEED certification.

Q&A with James Anderson, LEED AP, of Llewellyn-Davies Sahni – from ArchNewsNow

Q: What is low impact development?

JA: Low impact development (LID) is a term used to describe a land planning and engineering design approach to managing stormwater runoff. LID emphasizes conservation and use of on-site natural features to protect water quality. This approach implements engineered, small-scale hydrologic controls to replicate the pre-development hydrologic regime of watersheds through infiltrating, filtering, storing, evaporating, and detaining runoff close to its source.

Q: Where did you first encounter the idea of LID and what attracted you to the concept?

JA: I was first introduced to LID by a design competition sponsored by the Houston Land/Water Sustainability Forum. It was focused on a 15-acre area in East Downtown Houston. The notion of environmental stewardship was what initially attracted me to it, but the financial and possible social aspects made it all the more attractive. The competition made us focus on creating a usable public space while applying LID design strategies.

Q: What factors do you need to consider in designing according to LID?

JA: LID practices should work on a site-by-site basis. Each site's land use, hydrology, soil type, climate and rainfall patterns should be taken into account when designing with LID in mind. There are several variations on LID practices, so all of them may not be suitable for a given site. However, many of them are practical for retrofit or site renovation projects, as well as for new construction. Frequently used practices include:

• bioretention cells, also known as rain gardens
• cisterns and rain barrels
• green roofs
• pervious concrete or permeable paving
• bioswales
• manufactured (proprietary) devices that capture pollutants and/or aid in on-site infiltration

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW >>

via www.archnewsnow.com

Milan’s Urban Regeneration Project Adds a Public Park

Bustler writes that London-based landscape architecture firm Gustafson Porter won the Milan CityLife international park design competition. The park is a key component of the new CityLife urban redevelopment scheme, a 3.2 million-square-feet, 532 million Euro project in the historic Fiera Milano quarter of Milan. The project’s 170,000-square-meter park will take up a good-sized chunk of the site; the rest of the space is dedicated to new skyscrapers and private spaces designed by Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Daniel Libeskind. The new park will help “identity of a grand new quarter in Milan, an area of living, work and culture,” said Letizia Moratti, the mayor of Milan.

Neil Porter said the new park will define the green, public part of the broader urban regeneration project and also connect with the city’s existing green infrastructure. “We are delighted to have been chosen to create a green and sustainable open space. Our aim is to achieve the set goals of devising a park which is environmentally sustainable, symbolic of the city’s transformation and connective within the existing and future green infrastructure of Milan, the ‘Green Rays’. We wish to create a design that will set new standards for future urban parks and gardens – particularly with regards to issues of biodiversity and sustainability within a complex urban context.” READ MORE >>

via dirt.asla.org

Trees grow in Brooklyn | The Economist

A natural form of relief for overworked city sewers.

LIKE other post-industrial areas in the city, New York’s Gowanus neighbourhood is getting stylish. But those who venture there after a heavy rainstorm might rethink their plans to buy that loft. When the city’s ageing sewerage system is overwhelmed, untreated storm-water and sewage flood into local waterways, including the Gowanus Canal. The resulting whiff is sure to keep property prices at a level starving Brooklyn artists can afford.

New York has a serious sewer problem. The city spills more than 27 billion gallons (102 billion litres) of untreated overflow into its harbour each year, according to Riverkeeper, a local advocacy group. And New York is not alone. Nearly 800 American cities rely on decrepit systems that collect storm-water run-off, industrial waste and human sewage in the same pipes. Usually these pipes take waste water to treatment plants. But any overflow is released into rivers and streams.

...

New York recently unveiled a grand plan to clean up its waterways. Instead of spending billions on new tanks and pipes (ie, “grey infrastructure”), which take years to build and never quite address the problem, the city intends to invest in “green infrastructure”, such as roofs covered with vegetation, porous pavements and kerbside gardens. The scheme involves a fundamental shift in approach: instead of treating rainfall as waste to be whisked away as quickly as possible, New York will let it sink usefully into the ground: thereby helping to make the city greener, improve air quality, raise property values, increase jobs and lower water and energy costs, according to studies by the EPA and others. READ MORE >>

via www.economist.com

Quantifying the Benefits of Beauty

Barbara Deutsch, ASLA, Executive Director of the Landscape Architecture Foundation (LAF) hosted a panel [at 2010 ASLA Annual Meeting & Expo] on landscape performance, covering how to measure both the environmental benefits of sustainable sites and the cultural benefits of site aesthetics. Heather Withlow, LAF, Susan Olmsted, ASLA, Mithun, and Elizabeth Meyer, FASLA, University of Virginia, discussed the connections between hard data and aesthetics.
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Mithun’s Focus on Math and Beauty

Mithun, a Seattle-based landscape architecture firm, is guided by a set of principles that form its integrated approach to sustainable design, says Susan Olmsted. One principle is “do the math”; another is “create beauty / spirit.” Olmsted said metrics and aesthetics were interdependent — it’s the mix that creates a “sense of purpose.”

As opposed to solely measuring maintenance, management, and monitoring data, Olmsted argued that there is a great opportunity to apply performance ideas in the beginning during the design and construction phases.

In an example of a high-performance landscape, Olmsted pointed to Mithun’s well-known High Point affordable community project in Seattle (see a case study). High Point features a range of sustainable landscape elements, including some 15,000 feet of bioswales, but Olmsted focused in on some benefits that had been quantified.

The overall “green” aspect of the project cost just three percent of the total, but yielded 20 of the annual utility savings for the residents, many of which have low-incomes. Additionally, the decentralized green infrastructure system used throughout the housing community enabled the designers to use a smaller detention pond, which freed up land that could be sold, expanding economic gains. In five years, the Seattle Housing Authority “broke even.” Through their work, there had also been a 433 percent increase in density in the community and a 300 percent increase in trees.

via dirt.asla.org