Climate Buildings
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Repairing our broken cities by transforming infrastructure
Can landscape architecture fix the blight created by outdated and destructive transportation infrastructure?
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As suburban office parks lose steam, Apple unveils the ultimate example
Back to the future in the Apple spaceship.Screenshot: Apple via YouTube The old-school suburban office park seems to be having a midlife crisis. A special report in Crain’s about Chicago-area businesses such as Sears, AT&T, and Sara Lee looking to relocate from the suburbs to the urban core — along with the news that Swiss […]
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How to fight obesity and climate change at the same time
In Louisville, Ky., projects that might normally pitched as good for the planet are being funded because they're good for people, too. Money from private and public investors is going towards building bike lanes, funding community gardens, and increasingly walkability in low income neighborhoods. The motivation behind the investments is not to reduce carbon emissions, […]
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An Indian boom city grows without planning, at its peril
In Gurgaon, gleaming residences, malls, and office buildings are like islands unto themselves.Photo: iamgurgaonYou hear a lot of people talking these days about small government. About letting the free market drive development. About how city planners are trying to do some kind of sinister social engineering. About how the feds and the states should just […]
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Which part of Detroit really needs to be ‘right-sized’?
Photo: Trey CampbellCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. At the bottom of this post are two short videos about Detroit, both featuring architect and planner Mark Nickita, principal of the city’s Archive Design Studio and a lifelong Detroit resident. In a very refreshing change from the mind-numbing negativity one usually hears about the city, Nickita […]
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A new generation says Dallas doesn’t have to suck
Yesterday I wrote about an emerging “new New Urbanism” — solutions for cities that are fast, cheap, nimble, flexible, and open-source. What does that look like in action? Let’s look at a specific example. Some cities have great public buildings, designed at a grand but human scale, that foster civic engagement and a sense of […]
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No, green buildings will not harm your health
Tuesday, Julian Pecquet published a howler of a story on The Hill's energy and environment blog, E2 Wire. The headline says it all: Report: 'Green' buildings could harm your health The piece is based on a lengthy report from the National Academy of Sciences, so it must be accurate, right? Yeah, well, don't start ripping […]
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The new New Urbanism: Fast, nimble, flexible, and tactical
Creating the new New Urbanism, on the street in Madison, with plenty of beer.Photo: Aurash KhawarzadLast week, the Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) held its 19th annual meeting in Madison, Wisc. You may not have heard of the CNU, but you have almost certainly seen its influence in American development. The movement — which […]
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Europe’s ‘solar tunnel’ is a high-speed rail line with solar panel topping
Europe’s new rail innovation is the solar equivalent of a Good Morning Burger. We take two miles of Belgian high speed rail tunnel, soak it in rich creamery butter, and then we cover it with a shelter to protect it from nearby old-growth trees, eliminating the need to cut them down. Then we top it off […]
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‘Walkerville’ tent city springs up in shadow of Wisconsin’s grand Capitol
The Wisconsin State Capitol Building.Photo: Sarah GoodyearI wrote back in January about the importance of public space and urban design in the Egyptian revolution, and more generally about the role it plays in the ability of people to protest the actions of their governments and demand political change. Well, last week I was in Madison, […]
