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green infrastructure
Lessons from the Africa Urban Infrastructure Summit
summit attendees
Imagine a future for urban Africa in which free thinking reigns supreme, roof tops are adorned with urban parks, and the streets are littered with electric powered scooters.[read more]
Beyond PR: Services and Disservices of Urban Green Infrastructure
urban green infrastructure
How do the benefits of urban green infrastructure stack up against the costs? We need to better understand the services and disservices of green infrastructure for improved planning and management of urban ecosystems.[read more]
European Commission: Boost for Green Infrastructure
Building green infrastructure is often a good investment for nature, for the economy and for jobs. We should provide solutions that work with nature instead of against it, where that makes economic and environmental sense.[read more]
Wilderness South of Chicago: Beauty Amid Industry
wilderness amid industry
An alliance of nearly 270 organizations, which have banded together under the name Chicago Wilderness, are working towards improving green infrastructure and creating access to nature for children, among other things.[read more]
Green Infrastructure as Parks: How Need, Design, and Technology Can Make Cities Better
cities and green space
Over the last decade, but particularly over the last five years, the concepts of sustainable design and its sub-genre, green infrastructure, have entered into the design, construction, and renovation of urban parks.[read more]
Philadelphia's Latest Green Innovations [VIDEO]
innovations in Philadelphia
Philadelphia is pushing it in terms of incorporating green stormwater management infrastructure into urban revitalization efforts with an ambitious $2 billion, 25-year program for urban neighborhoods.[read more]
Urbanism Speakeasy Podcast: Traffic Engineering is a Matter of Life and Death
Show notes from this episode are available at Urbanism Speakeasy. [read more]
Create a New Vision for Toronto’s Green Line
The many organizers of the new Green Line international design competition seek visionary proposals from landscape architects, architects, designers, planners, artists that will revamp the public green space and bicycle and pedestrian access of Toronto’s 3-mile-long transmission line corridor (a.k.a. hydro corridor). The goal is to “...[read more]
The Coolest Green Infrastructure You Are Likely to See
Just yesterday, I was making the case for bringing more nature into urban environments, to soften the perceived and real effects of density and thus make density more appealing. Today, I came across maybe the best example I have seen. It is certainly the best I have seen integrated into a vertical wall; this is key in...[read more]
The Utilities of Cities
The care and feeding of cities is likely the world’s largest business; it’s certainly one of the fastest growing. With an additional 2.5 billion people headed to cities in the next 30 years, providing these ‘customers’ with energy, water, transportation and waste management is critical for local government, as well as a huge opportunity...[read more]
Multi Use Infrastructure at Its Most Innovative
New York City is certainly willing to pay top dollar for excellent design. A new $3 billion water treatment plant is taking shape in Van Cortlandt park in the Bronx. The Croton water treatment by Grimshaw Architects and Ken Smith Landscape Architects includes some $250 million in new buildings, plazas, wetlands and meadows, and a...[read more]
New Bike Racks from David Byrne
Who knew? David Byrne, famous for ”burning down the house” as lead singer of iconic NYC band The Talking Heads, is an avid bicyclist and now policy wonk on transportation policy, giving power point presentations in D.C. Just a few years ago he wrote a book on his tours of global cities by bike: The Bicycle Diaries, a book...[read more]
Sustainable Cities Collective
What's New on
“I agree I think that the nature of human interaction and involvement depends on the nature of the actual facility itself. Getting people in and around fossil fuel burning power plants is seen as a security risk, but that still leaves many components of our infrastructure that could benefit from being noticed (and that citizens could benefit from noticing). I think of examples like John ...”
“I thinks it's provocative. In Florida, we were given tours of muncipal water treatment facilities as children, less so access to energy facilities. There is a cogeneration facility at MIT that sits comfortably in the urban context, as thousands pass by daily. But I'm always concerned that critical systems and humans should not mix for the most part. Educational programs may make the same point ...”