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A Model of Integrated Design: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus

January 19, 2012 by The Dirt ASLA
with 243 views
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In the heart of Seattle, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the wealthiest private foundation in the world, with assets of more than $34 billion, opened a new campus with little fanfare last year. Winning a rare LEED Platinum rating from the U.S. Green Building Council, the building is a model of integrated design.... [read more]

6 Trending Urbanist Themes for 2012

December 30, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 1,196 views
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The Urbanist calendar published on Monday was, admittedly, a visual provocation, setting a stage for thought about important urban issues for 2012. I see great merit in such urban exploration with a descriptive, rather than prescriptive approach. But there is another provocation—from 2011 professional experiences and featured articles—... [read more]

Seattle Metro’s New Bus Stop Signs

September 21, 2011 by David Levinson
with 309 views
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Seattle Transit Blog: Metro’s New Bus Stop Signs. This is what I am talking about. While not perfect (London still seems a bit better), Seattle is hands over fist better than what Twin Cities Metro Transit uses at the vast majority of its bus stops in the Twin Cities (see video below from The Transit Camera). Transit mode work share in... [read more]

Growing Community Gardens in Cities

August 4, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 612 views
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An eighth excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at some cities who have created parkland by adding community gardens to underutilized spaces. Community gardens are a vastly underappreciated and underprovided... [read more]

12,000 Rain Gardens in Puget Sound Campaign

June 30, 2011 by Kelly Brenner
with 355 views
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Everyone knows it rains a lot in Seattle and with the Puget Sound on our doorstep, stormwater runoff can have a huge impact on the aquatic ecosystem. In the Puget Sound there are octopus, sharks, harbor seals, sea anemones, sea stars, crabs, clams, salmon and something called sea cauliflower. This multitude of wildlife is important... [read more]

What Does Community Mean To You?

June 10, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 299 views
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Kaid Benfield, Director, Sustainable Communities & Smart Growth, Washington, DC This production crew interviewed (mostly) young adults in Seattle, asking them to share their thoughts about community.  Toward the end, the logo for the development Thornton Place, about which I posted yesterday, shows up, so maybe it's a bit of an... [read more]

Seattle's Ballard Locks and Botanical Garden

May 30, 2011 by Kelly Brenner
with 172 views
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The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks in Seattle, have been moving boats and other vessels from the Puget Sound to Lake Washington and beyond since 1917.  The Army Corps of Engineers built and maintains the locks, garden, grounds and buildings. To the east of the locks is Salmon Bay, a freshwater bay connecting to the rest of the... [read more]

Making Big Urban Ideas Happen Through Idea Management

May 25, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 426 views
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Lately, there is no shortage of reporting about big urban ideas and visions of what will make places great. For David Roberts, writing in Grist, the answers are conceptual, e.g. assurance of ecological sustainability and density, while Crosscut contributor Mark Hinshaw lauds great projects in the making through citation to the “... [read more]

11 US cities honored as "walk-friendly"

May 4, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 906 views
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  After evaluating applicant communities in several categories related to walking - including safety, mobility, access and comfort - the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center last week announced the selection of eleven Walk Friendly Communities across the US.  They are ranked in categories of achievement, as follows:... [read more]

In the City, We Cannot Live by Social Science Alone

March 10, 2011 by Chuck Wolfe
with 352 views
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On March 8, Professor Edward Glaeser, a currently popular author on the subject of cities, applied his template for success to Seattle in a New York Times blog piece. He found our city to exemplify an ideal urban model, a former one-industry wonder now both economically varied and culturally cerebral. According to Glaeser, we avoided... [read more]

The value and practice of smart growth endorsement

February 22, 2011 by Kaid Benfield
with 419 views
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We’ve had some interesting recent conversations at NRDC, still unresolved, about whether and when to support smart growth development.  Some of my colleagues are understandably concerned that our support, particularly if qualified or based on assumptions that fail to be realized during the course of further design and construction,... [read more]

Beyond Rezoning: Strategies for Urban Redevelopment

February 9, 2011 by Next American City
with 705 views
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Jamaica, Queens. Credit: NYCUrbanScapeGlance at any headline, and prevailing wisdom would seem to argue that overbuilding (and a glut of unsold units) has been the norm for development-minded downtowns of late. Seattle , for example, took just three years to build or approve 23,000 new residential units, half its stated goal of 47,000... [read more]