parks posts, articles, and infographics | Sustainable Cities Collective

Parks Breathe Life (and Jobs) into Cities

December 23, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 261 views

The South Platte River has become a cherished recreational asset for residents and visitors to Denver. Thoughtful, visionary planning and public-private partnership have restored and transformed the city’s waterfront from what was once called an “urban dump” to refuge for wildlife and people alike. Local efforts to improve the river have... [read more]

Report: Despite Funding Cuts, Urban Parks Grow

December 9, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 90 views

The Trust for Public Land has released its most recent data on city park systems from across the country, showing that the 100 largest cities added more than 120 parks in the past year.Despite aggregate increases in acreage and facilities across the U.S., many city park departments are struggling with funding shortages. Operational... [read more]

5 Things I Like about Montreal

October 25, 2011 by Georgia Silvera Seamans
with 209 views

As you might have guessed, we like Montreal's parks. In September, I wrote about my hike in parc du Mont-Royal. See more Mont-Royal photos at our Flickr page. Other enjoyable design elements of the city include its street tree gardens, (we first wrote about them in August 2010); small squares; and infrastructure. If you followed our Where in NYC? (Subway Series), you know we like subway art. Like NYC, Montreal's Metro stations house art. [read more]

Visions for an Urban National Park

October 18, 2011 by Daniel Nairn
with 44 views

I'll admit that I had no idea a reasonably large national park existed within the boundaries of New York City. Even after a short-lived but legitimate childhood obsession with national park trivia, and after having worked in a national park in Wyoming for a little while, this urban recreational area escaped me. That is until opening... [read more]

An Urban Playscape for Grown Ups

September 2, 2011 by The Dirt ASLA
with 385 views

Strootman Landscape Architects, a Dutch firm, transformed a set of courtyards in a conventional office building in Arnhem into an escape for grown ups. There, playful, textural design elements are abstractions of iconic Dutch rural scenes. “Giant pebbles refer to a river beach, pines refer to... [read more]

The High-Line Upside Down

August 10, 2011 by The Dirt ASLA
with 958 views

Like the High Line Park in Chelsea, a new esplanade along New York City’s East River smartly reuses transportation infrastructure. However, instead of taking shape on top of existing rail infrastructure, this new promenade on the water follows a path directly underneath and along side the F.D... [read more]

Growing Community Gardens in Cities

August 4, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 612 views

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]

Solving the Real Estate Crisis with Parks

June 17, 2011 by The Dirt ASLA
with 384 views

Mike Messner, the investment fund manager, is the primary force behind the budding “Redfields to Greenfields” movement, which has been picked up by more than 10 major cities in the U.S. The basic idea, which makes great sense, is to turn toxic real estate into parks, elevating nearby property values, and turning a downward spiral of... [read more]

Pavement in the Park: How Removing Parking Adds Acreage

June 2, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 214 views

A seventh 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 removing excess parking spaces. Do you park in your park? Does it seem to be a parking lot more than a park, a lot?... [read more]

Learning to Share: Designing Schoolyards for More Than Just Recess

May 2, 2011 by City Parks Blog
with 549 views

Schoolyards are large, flat, centrally located open spaces with a mandate to serve the recreational needs of schoolchildren. Great schoolyards–the rare ones that have healthy grass, big trees, a playground, and sports equipment–seem a lot like parks. But they aren’t. [read more]

Mercer Plaza: Make way for NYU green initiatives

October 22, 2010 by Georgia Silvera Seamans
with 480 views

Image: Pre-construction, 251 Mercer Street, facing south (source)About four years ago, residents of the 250 Mercer Street co-op protested against NYU's underground heat and power plant renovation because approximately 18 mature trees would have to be removed. An incomplete slum clearance/ urban renewal project in the 1950s... [read more]

Land Matters: Where Do I Play?

November 9, 2009 by The Dirt ASLA
with 105 views

What makes a successful public space, the design or the program? Of course, programmers believe it’s the program and designers believe it’s the design, and the debate reverberates throughout our profession and in the pages of this issue. In reality, the answer is “everything”: location, constituency, quality of materials, and, yes,... [read more]