Brilliant exudes character and confidence. Brilliant works across boundaries in support of a greater vision. Brilliant finds the common ground between private and public to close funding gaps. Brilliant performs technically while achieving broader social and economic benefits. Brilliant overcomes obstacles to get essential projects delivered.

Cities can explore eight steps to capitalize on their strengths, address their weaknesses, and achieve brilliance:

Start at the end

Secure a legacy with strategic planning

What will your city be like in 50 years? Understanding where your city is headed—and how you want to shape its future—should guide how projects and infrastructure are prioritized today. Smart long-term planning anticipates social, economic and environmental changes and builds the strategic direction to secure a positive legacy, for cities and leaders.

Draw a crowd

Energize the center through compact urban design

People come to cities to be near other people. Cities need places where people can come together, places that resonate, inspire and excite; a waterfront promenade or central park, a distinctive district or event center, a signature tower or downtown area. A well-planned project can turn the tide and change a city’s fortune. Cities that work to boost business and celebrate life are positioned to compete and succeed.

Renovations at LAX will help Angelinos and world travelers ‘get there together.’

Get there together

Upgrade transportation to move people and business faster

A city’s economy moves at the pace of its transportation network. Efficient transportation speeds the flow of people, ideas and commerce. Airports and seaports are global gateways. Roads and rail establish regional connections. Bike and walking routes make mobility healthy, inexpensive, and fun. In a great city, access is built into the fabric.

Change the flow

Get more from innovative energy and water infrastructure

We depend upon civil infrastructure to meet our daily needs, but the investments we make for these essential functions can yield wider value when we take new approaches. Stormwater managed naturally can improve the urban landscape, increase property values and protect our waterways. Recycled wastewater can green our parks and neighborhoods. Solid waste treated organically can reduce landfill and produce energy for homes.

The restoration of Echo Park Lake is helping LA ‘change the flow.’

Make green pay

Take environmental action that provides an economic boost Investments in the environment can yield financial and social dividends. As cities take measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change, remediate contamination, and protect and restore natural environments, they are finding a wealth of benefits, from energy savings and cleaner air to rising real estate values and healthier people. It creates a better climate for business and community.

Ignore borders

Collaborate across agencies and boundaries for bigger results

Challenges do not follow the boundaries of departments and municipalities. Neither should solutions. To compete at a global level, cities need to advance in step with their supporting regions. This means collaborating across disciplines and jurisdictions, and cooperating and planning at the regional level, to see the bigger picture, connect better ideas and find smarter solutions.

Act now

Identify and address physical and cyber vulnerability

Buildings and bridges are joining the internet of things. This increases the need for cyber security, along with security against physical attacks, violent weather, earthquakes, and decay over time. Proactive solutions begin with a comprehensive vulnerability assessment. Anticipating the most likely points of attack or failure lets a city know where to invest to prevent or mitigate disaster before it strikes.

A public-private partnership for the Gov. George Deukmejian Courthouse helped Long Beach ‘finish ahead.’

Finish ahead

Get projects funded, built and operating sooner

Public budgets are stretched. Roads, bridges, water systems, hospitals, schools and courthouses need maintenance or new structures, but there are new ways around old obstacles. Partnering the public and private sectors and linking the phases of a project’s life cycle can speed construction, reduce cost, increase performance and manage risk. It’s time to take advantage of the alternatives.

Stephen Engblom (Stephen.engblom@archtam.com) is an urban planner and designer, and global director of ArchTam Cities.

The post Eight steps to a brilliant city appeared first on Blog.

But perhaps more important, greenery helps relieve anxiety disorders (stress) and depression, common afflictions associated with our harried urban lives. As one study puts it, “Support for this possibility comes from epidemiological studies which find that individuals living in the greenest urban areas tend to have better mental health than those in the least green areas.”¹

The social cost of anxiety and depression is significant. One report states that “Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers’ compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses”.² And a study by the American Psychological Association indicates that ¾ of the nation’s medical bill is associated with chronic illnesses, a malady that is driven by stress.³

From the perspective of pubic health there is every reason to invest in a greener urban landscape—especially when such greenery can also perform vital infrastructural functions related to, say, stormwater management and energy conservation.

But there is more to the health benefits of greenery than the relief of anxiety and depression. Little discussed in academia or professional associations, and hardly ever proposed in practice, is the spiritual dimension of the landscape. And yet access to natural areas is proven to elicit transcendent reactions that can postively affect our well-being. It has been well documented, for example, that hospital patients who can see greenery from their windows recover more quickly than those who don’t.⁴  There is latent healing potential in the design of any landscape, a matter that is confirmed by the biophylic effects of healing gardens.

As suggested by a weed growing out of a sewer inlet (above), nature’s quest for life and regeneration is as opportunistic as it is boundless. Nature is simply life-affirming—relentlessly so. How can the human spirit not be lifted by such power when our health is on the line? But why wait until a health crisis arises? The places in which we live and work should constitute fitness-inducing, stress-mitigating and life-affirming environments to start with. Like a green view from a nation-sized window, our collective wellbeing depends on it.

Cities, like pristine natural areas, are structured entities. At the scale of the region there are networks of open space that satisfy large-scale needs, such as flood protection, transportation and resource-based recreation. At the community scale there are streets, plazas and parks that provide for active mobility, organized play and social exchange. And at the dwelling scale, such as Friedensrech Hundertwasser’s apartment house in Viena (top), there are dense developments that, like a garden, afford personal and intimate access to foliage, flowers and birdsong (that it is also art will be the subject of a different blog!).

Within such a tiered schema urban greenery must be integrated systematically, not as afterthought but as forethought toward the creation of a healthy environment. To this pursuit the role of Landscape Architecture is not peripheral but central: It is the agency by which cities can become health havens—for the body, for the mind and for the spirit, from the scale of the region to that of discrete buildings and places. Why not regard cities as landscape, communities as park, and buildings as garden? ⁵

Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa leads ArchTam’s landscape architecture practice in the Americas.

NOTES:

1. http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/es403688w
2. http://www.fdu.edu/newspubs/magazine/99su/stress.html
3. http://www.apa.org/monitor/2012/03/stress.aspx
4. http://www.metropolismag.com/Point-of-View/November-2011/Frontiers-of-Design-Science-Biophilia/
5. For a discussion on these three scales of design see “Reconsidering Ian MHarg: the Future of Urban Ecology, Chapter 9; Ignacio F. Bunster-Ossa, Planners Press, 2014.

The post A greener city is a healthier city appeared first on Blog.

In November, I was at an Royal Town Planning Institute conference in London when someone walked onto the stage and opened with the classic line, ‘I have an idea’. I sat up; he went on: “I want to turn London into a National Park”. He said some other things that day, about children, gardens, awareness and biodiversity, but it didn’t really matter. I was hooked on an intuitive level within two minutes. I committed immediately and have spent the eight months since trying to get my brain to catch up with my heart and to try to enlist others with the right skills to support the campaign.

ArchTam has been doing pro-bono work for the campaign to help quantify the economic value of some identified green spaces, using an ecosystem services approach. This is intended to support the business case for the London National Park. Whilst we’ve been doing this work, the broader campaign, led by Daniel Raven-Ellison (the man with the idea), has been gathering pace.

A steering group has been established made up of individuals from University College London, London Wildlife Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, John Muir Trust, Queen Mary University and ArchTam. The idea has been reported in most of the UK national and London newspapers, and Daniel has appeared on the television and radio. High-profile individuals such as Stephen Fry, Bear Grylls, Bill Oddie, Terry Farrell and Zac Goldsmith (perhaps London’s next mayor?) have all come out in support of the idea. And last week a motion was passed unanimously by the London Assembly to call on the existing Mayor to get behind the campaign.

What might have seemed bonkers to some people at the start, is now really starting to snowball.

Last week, I joined Daniel and Matt (editor at large for the Londonist) in an attempt to visit, in just one day, a piece of open space in each of London’s 33 Boroughs. Together we got to 19 before calling it off due to bad light (See #33OpenSpaces on Twitter). By the time we got home another Twitter user (@alanoutten) had turned our photos from the day into a photo collage covering half of London and already posed the question – so when are you guys going to finish the jigsaw? Add two days, and a new challenge had begun on Twitter to photograph green space in each of London’s 629 Wards (#629Wards). One hundred of 629 were completed in the first weekend and a new map popped up to help track progress (@spacedapenguin).

Map by ArchTam’s Anna David

The priority for the campaign now is to raise money to support production and publicity for the London National Park business case and charter – due for release in July. This will set out the benefits that can be delivered by an umbrella organisation for London’s green space. It will also outline what the managing entity will look like, its responsibilities, collaborations, costs and value add.

I’m confident there are a hundred twists and turns left for this idea yet. There will be people who will help lift it up and others who will be keen to bash it down. But to me, it’s already been a huge success. Now when I walk down the street in London, I’m not craving the countryside – I’m seeing it, hearing it and photographing it. Forty-seven percent of London is green space, yet I had become disconnected from it.

Why is it a bonkers idea to create a vehicle that can encourage Londoners to engage with the green spaces that surround them? Now the summer is coming, the birds are singing, the strawberries in the allotment are about to bear fruit, and it’s hard not to feel positive about this great city.

Feel free to add your photos, to support the crowd funder or to spark the idea in your city.

Ben Smith (ben.smith@archtam.com) is director of sustainable development in ArchTam’s London office.

Notes:

1. The following ArchTam staff have given their own time (half an hour or more) to support this campaign: Petrina Rowcroft, Michael Henderson, Lili Peachy, Jennifer Black, Ian Brenkley, Doug McNabb, Mark Fessey, Ryan Burrows, Anna David, Alex White and Christian Bevington. The work has been supported by a number of other senior leaders in our business. Thanks go to Andrew Jones, John Lewis, Tom Venables and Steve Smith.
2. ArchTam opted to support this campaign principally because it aligns so neatly with one of the main recommendations from our own manifesto for the future of London. #London2065.

The post Could a global capital become a national park? appeared first on Blog.

“The most important issue that faces all landscape architects, environmental planners and designers in the 21st century will be precisely the integration, perhaps by shotgun, of current economic and political thinking with ecological reality.” -Garret Eckbo, 1960

“The efforts to make the Heavenly City may be compared to fish eggs, spawned by the million, lost and devoured by other organisms, but occasionally producing a new model which could not have been predicted or designed but may have virtues of its own.” -Scott Greer, Metropolitics, 1963

Introduction

After World War II, American cities were formed without significant evaluation of design, environment, economics, and therefore failed to factor in environmental and social costs. Focusing on Los Angeles and four main themes: connecting the mountains to the bay, a new coast line, smart corridors, eco-grid, and architecture and environmental engineering technology, we will discuss radical shifts in population distribution and demographics, demands for water and energy, circulation options and shifts in social and cultural values.

A new vision for Los Angeles’ future is to reclaim its heritage–an oasis between the desert and the sea–by reversing the impacts of the 20^th century and realigning the configuration of the metropolis with the ecology of the Los Angeles Basin. The plan calls for radical shifts in thinking, bold leadership and passionate citizenry and illustrates necessary steps in 10-year increments.

By embracing this plan, Los Angeles will continue the California dream for the next 100 years.

Vision: Los Angeles, the ecological metropolis, capital of the Pacific age

Imagine what the Los Angeles of 2106 will look like. The enormity of this challenge is best addressed by using metrics that help us understand what happens to a city in 100 years. Like looking at the rings of a tree to see how much growth has occurred over a certain span of time; so it is with a city. The best metric we have is what has happened in Los Angeles in the past 100 years – what decisions influenced the shape of the city and by extension what decisions must we start making now in order to set our vision of a bright future in place.

Looking at the LA of today it’s easy to get paralyzed by any one of its many mega-opportunities or crisis points. The cities we live with today were made by groups of men and women who came before us evaluating and weighing in on design, environment, economics, and planning shaped how we live today – often using economic metrics that failed to factor in environmental and social costs.

Whose version of the future are we living now? In 1939, GM sponsored a pavilion at the New York World’s Fair showcasing new patterns of suburban development, clover leaf highway, and single family houses full of disposable house-wares; nuclear families set the vision of the American Dream. Millions of visitors from across our young country visited this pavilion and saw this vision of the future. Shortly after WWII, they demanded it. Although New York is where this vision began, Los Angeles is where this idealized version of this vision of the future has been most literally realized. Today, this model of the future is being replicated at a quickening pace across Asia.

LA set policies, authored business plans, engineered infrastructure and styled a new way of living to realize this vision. Huge population growth, technology advances and engineering marvels all rose to the occasion propelling the US to unsurpassed economic supremacy – to the point where if California were ranked against national world economies it would be 8th. Yet, as amazing as this economic rise seems, the environmental costs of this dream have yet to be tallied. Socio-economic isolation, environmental degradation, economic and environmental dependence from outside sources typifies the threats to Los Angeles.

Today we are setting a new course toward the future. The world cannot afford to build 1939’s vision of the future; the world now looks at Los Angeles to change the course of History.

Today, using Los Angeles as our test model, we will show you how the city of the future will look in 2106, as well as show you what a time line of planned and unplanned events and decisions might look in order to get there.

Today’s global stage offers some clues as to what may be in store for the metropolises of the world. We see the center of global economic activity shifting to the Pacific Rim and by extension; Los Angeles will become center stage. We believe that Los Angeles will be the metropolitan capital of this era. Advantages in climate, geography, economy, and cultural diversity put Los Angeles way ahead of the strong Asian Cities. However, Los Angeles is hindered by antiquated infrastructure and dependence on imported resources – areas in which Asia is making investments and advancements on a grand scale.

Climate change and natural disasters are also shaping the events of our world – biodiversity implosion, according to NASA, may eliminate ½ of the species on earth in the next century. Mainly due to habitat loss, land fragmentation, climate change, and elevated CO2, largely caused by how we built our cities in the past 100 years, this is particularly tragic: the Los Angeles Plain ecosystem, once one of the world’s richest, is now decimated.

Radical shifts in population distribution and demographics, demands for water and energy, circulation options and shifts in social/cultural values will all take place.

Our vision for the city’s future is to reclaim this heritage and make Los Angeles the place it was meant to be: an oasis of life in an arid land. The City of the Future rejects the city making principles of the industrial age, and calls for realigning the metropolitan configuration with the land instead of against it. This seemingly simple idea will require radical shifts in thinking, bold leadership and passionate citizenry. Like all great ages before us, the City of the ecological age will require great advances in design, environmental understanding, economic strategy, technology and engineering – all of which we believe are already in our midst.

“Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Be bold and mighty forces shall come to your aid.” -Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Four bold moves

1. Repair the watershed – restore the Los Angeles River and the entire watershed, re-charge aquifers and envision a water self sufficient region.
2. Envision a new coastline – plan for and embrace the new coastline due to sea-level rise.
3. Eco-grid: establish and preserve open spaces from the mountains to the bay.
4. Smart corridors: re-invent the transportation infrastructure to support the city’s continued growth

Restoring the Los Angeles Basin watershed

Los Angeles occupies one of the most majestic locations in the world, poetically situated between the mountains and the sea. Few cities in the world have residents who can say they can surf in the morning and ski at night. We believe this statement is critical to the future of Los Angeles and the magic of this lifestyle is why we need to restore the connections between the Los Angeles Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. Los Angeles’ overdependence on imported water is an antiquated idea whose time is gone. Restoring the watersheds means an opportunity to recharge underground resources, provide a local source of fresh water, reestablish part of a once extraordinary desert wetland oasis, and heal our environmentally devastated harbors. Advances in today’s technology can amplify this benefit through fog and cloud farming as well as tidal technology.

Catching the wave

Perhaps the most significant change facing the cities of the future is the rise in sea level– the majority of our cities are near or at the coastline. How this rise in sea level affects Los Angeles will be significant. We embrace this change and believe that there are huge environmental and economic gains in doing so. We must look beyond the short-sighted fear of the unknown affects of this sea-rise and plan how to take advantage of this dramatic new change. Predictions range from one to more than 90 feet of rise, for the sake of our plan we assume a rise of 25’.

In LA, this will result in a harbor to rival New York or Sydney. With bold leadership, radical shifts in environmental priorities and economic strategies, we can transform the inundated industrial areas, made obsolete with new technologies, and many of the adjacent residential neighborhoods that make up the majority of the areas that would be inundated in time to meet the sea rise with a glorious new sea front metropolis.

The new and necessary coastline protection system affords LA the luxury of being able to generate a good proportion of its power need from tide and wave energy. The wave, which long ago was only looked upon as a source of entertainment for the beach culture of the late 20th century, will now be the symbol and pulse of the City.

Adaptive re-use of the freeways

Few people had ever seen a clover leaf exchange before the World’s Fair in 1939, yet today a mere 67 years later, these clover leafs are a symbol of Los Angeles. Advances in technology are already heralding the obsolescence of the combustion engine. Freeway corridors and cars as we know them will be relics within the next few decades. During these same decades, the population of Los Angeles is predicted to double. We believe the need to house 12 million new people within the LA region along with the need to adaptively re-use the freeways of Los Angeles represents one of the greatest economic opportunities of the next 100 years.

We propose that by 2106 25 % of the city’s existing urban sprawl should be reconfigured into smart corridors of urban village developments of high density within and adjacent to the existing freeway right-of-ways transforming development rights in these areas to “smart corridors.” With incentives to encourage public private partnerships in realizing this vision, by 2106 these corridors will be the urban villages: living, working and playing within new urban villages interconnected to each other by new magnetically propelled circulation systems.

Re-inserting the primacy of nature in the city fabric

The development of smart corridors and the restoration of the watershed present the city with an opportunity to create a comprehensive system of interconnected open space. Two of the most successful urban open spaces in the world today, New York’s Central Park and Boston’s “Emerald Necklace,” were both the work of Frederick Law Olmsted. In the 1930s, his sons produced a plan for Los Angeles, prophetically foreshadowing the dire need for a comprehensive open space strategy. In their report they outlined the important decision the city faced: either to commit to the investment in a comprehensive open space system that would become an environmental backbone and development framework – or to choose short-sighted commercial speculation and drive for land as the land pattern of choice. Again in the 1960s Garrett Eckbo made similar suggestions for regional development in and around LA. Unfortunately for the landscape of today’s Los Angeles, the city chose to capitalize on low value development across the urban fabric, resulting in the grid of urban sprawl that stands as the symbol of LA today. Luckily this sprawl is near the end of its useful shelf life and is of such low intensity that it can be relatively easily reconfigured. So we have a second chance to take the advice of the Olmsteds. We believe it is now time to make a decision to implement a framework of open space that we call the eco-grid so that a new generation of economic value can be derived from urban regeneration of the city. Additionally, the eco-grid provides the green infrastructure that the city so desperately needs to rehabilitate its once extraordinary natural ecology.

These regional strategies are specific to Los Angeles but their logic and responses to shifts in economy, the environment and technology are global in their application.

Architecture and environmental engineering technology

Cutting edge technologies in architecture and engineering will usher in a new era of structures that will be smarter, taller, sustainable and more efficient than ever before. An example is presented here today in the form of the Strato-scraper. We believe this building is evocative of many advances being made in materials and systems and will actually provide usable space for many aspects of living but even more importantly it will provide power and water, and regional, global, and inter-galactic travel.

Rising as much as 4,000 feet in the air (4x the tallest buildings of today) its reach will be 62 miles high where it will connect into the (strato) atmosphere with a magnetic catapult/chute facilitating personal space travel, making Los Angeles the gateway to the solar system.

This “skin-smart” building will collect solar energy and will harvest water vapor from the coastal fog, to help quench the city’s water needs. In locations where open space views are desired, this smart skin will provide people with the illusion of seeing through buildings to open space features such as the mountains or the Hollywood sign beyond.

On land, these structures will directly tap the aquifer for water and reach into the earth’s core for cooling and heating; while at sea, as shown here, they will produce massive amounts of energy using tidal mill technology while opening windows to the sea that will lead to enhancements of our marine ecologies. The new off-shore port (POLAX) will also serve as a security screening portal for all ocean traffic.

The skin of these buildings will be made of photosynthetic materials that will harness the sun and produce oxygen and process carbon dioxide. It will literally act as a giant carbon negative organism for the city.

It’s not only what you see (referring to the model) but what you don’t see. Gone are the high voltage power lines that once brought the energy to the city. LA like all other major cities generates what it needs within itself. The only exception is the Hydrogen Lines which crisscross the country linking the cities to the major energy sources located in the desert heart land. The buildings and amenities are clustered to obtain the required diversity of use, and use the standard grid interlinks, to move power, waste and water between them. Waste is processed in local community facilities and LA, like all major cities has become a net exporter of organic fertilizer for the agro-production business. Blessed with a good quantity of sunshine, LA is able to produce much of its basic food stuff using new vertical farms. Our open spaces are both a source of food production as well as a civic amenity in the traditional sense.

Implementation timeline and demonstration

The City of the Future does not start in 2106 – it starts today. For that reason, we have taken the approach that we are not passive futurists observing what might be in 100 years; rather we are active participants mandating moves that can be and must be made in order to get us there.

We have chosen the Los Angeles River Corridor as our demonstration. We have chosen this corridor because it is where the city started, it exemplifies how we can connect the mountain habitat to the sea, it encompasses the low-lying areas that are inundated by the change in sea/ocean rise, and encompasses many of the areas of LA that are most criss-crossed by freeways and yet today remain economically challenged. Harbor City, Torrance, Carson, Compton, and North Long Beach will join San Pedro and Long Beach in becoming vibrant coastal towns and cities.

The scale of this demonstration area (from Downtown LA to San Pedro) is twice the length of Manhattan and equal in depth to metropolitan Chicago.

The river corridor itself is envisioned as a riparian greenway corridor that will provide 100 year flood protection when needed – and a signature green park for the entire city when dry. This park will become a green symbol of LA with the restoration of the native “Eden” that once crossed the LA basin. We see coastal wetlands, stands of live oaks, the re-introduction of swimming, walking and flying creatures of all types which will bring the ecosystem of the LA region back to life.

The terminus of this important watershed will be the new bay. Dramatic in size, the bay represents an amazing economic transformation opportunity for LA. Consider for a moment what LA has done without a natural bay – then for a moment think what is possible with the creation of a bay that will rival New York in size, Shanghai in technology, but trump them all with LA style.

Major swaths of regeneration potential make up this corridor. Industrial areas north of the existing port can be redeveloped into new ecologically innovative technology and research zones. This creates homes for LA’s core industries— shipping, entertainment and technology—while providing much needed land for the new generation of economic development: bio, nano, and info technologies, the space industry, and organics, robotics and next generation animation and server farmers.

Residential neighborhoods of south, central and east LA are now given the unprecedented injection of value in the creation of the new smart corridors that will be delineated as special economic zones for investment. The eco-grid will bring inherent open space, propelling the property values and economic return to the city well beyond the initial investments, while ensuring that the next generations of Angelinos have a sustainable framework in place.

What does it all mean?

We have seen the future: Los Angeles in 2106 is a region in balance; it is the most culturally diverse and successful city-state on our planet, a premier example of social justice; it is carbon negative – imagine how clean and quiet. A place where the buzz of creativity and the laughter of children no longer compete with the frenetic white noise of today. Imagine 20 million Angelinos living the California dream.

Timeline milestones

2010: Los Angeles effectively bans the combustion engine, with legislation stating that if by an act of nature the freeways are ever destroyed, they may never be re-built.

2020: automated magnetic transit systems are installed beneath freeway corridors, a real estate boom along freeway corridors takes place.

2030: LA commits to ZERO or negative carbon emissions. Energy needs for the city are met 100 percent by renewable resources: solar, geothermal, tidal, and wind.

2040: sea level has risen by three feet, causing critical damage during storms and is predicted to rise an additional 22 feet by 2100. The city enacts a comprehensive pull back strategy to the 25 foot elevation above sea-level line by 2106.

2050: low-lying industrial areas are relocated and integrated in higher density industrial areas. New space efficient and ecologically designed industrial districts are constructed.

2060: the new off-shore POLAX will open providing operational areas for the Los Angeles Sea and Space Port.

2070: climate change of three degrees and habitat loss has resulted in one million species being endangered or going extinct on earth. Species native ranges are shifting drastically. LA commits to restoring a fully connected and biologically diverse habitat network across the Los Angeles plain providing contiguous habitat from north to south, and from the mountains to the sea.

2080: all residential areas are aggregated along former freeway corridors or within open space network as clustered villages; habitat areas replace much of today’s low density residential; LA’s native stream and wetland network is 80 percent restored.

2090: sea level has risen to 15 feet with the calving off of a major ice sheet from Antarctica. New port cities are planned and begin to take shape

2100: Los Angeles is heralded as the leader in sustainable design hosting the first ever fully-recyclable Olympic Games, with floating venues in the ocean, inflatable land venues, and new sports introduced to celebrate a new era of environmental balance

2106: the Los Angeles Bay is the new symbol of the City State, a harbor for 20 million Angelinos living the California Dream.

Vaughan Davies (vaughan.davies@archtam.com) and Stephen Engblom (stephen.engblom@archtam.com) are urban designers and vice presidents, Buildings & Places, ArchTam, based in Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively.

The post LA 2106: realizing the ecological metropolis appeared first on Blog.

Our multi-disciplinary team partnered with the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore to provide a sustainable development framework and plan for Marina Bay and the adjacent Greater Southern Waterfront.

Features of the  long-term conceptual study include the addition of unique waterfront districts, incorporating a network of walkable public space, a new reservoir for rainwater harvesting, a continuous 30-kilometer waterfront pathway for walking and cycling, and an ecological corridor for people and wildlife.

We used our propriety Sustainable Systems Integration Model (SSIM) model to assemble and assess various development scenarios, so as to find the most optimal scheme for the project in terms of sustainability and cost.

Watch this video to learn more about this project to contribute to Singapore’s growth  as a major financial hub for Asia.

Scott Dunn (scott.dunn@archtam.com) leads ArchTam’s operations in Malaysia.

The post Singapore’s centrepiece for urban transformation appeared first on Blog.

No matter what city you live in, there is a good chance that there is a buried creek right below your feet. Many people do not know that there was once a creek flowing near their home or business. As our cities developed, many of our natural creeks were placed in underground pipes and culverts for reasons that seemed sound in their day—create more developable land, make way for roadways, or even to bury a creek that was considered a health hazard due to poor environmental regulation and water quality. When I purchased my first home, a search over historic maps revealed that a small creek may have flowed near or even under my house. Today many communities are looking at the benefits of uncovering and restoring these forgotten waterways.

Aging infrastructure, flooding, and the desire for more livable cities is motivating communities to explore creek daylighting, which offers a unique opportunity to restore a historic waterway while also revitalizing the surrounding communities. Creek daylighting allows for the removal of undersized or failing pipes and their replacement with a surface channel that provides better flood protection along with additional environmental, social, and economic benefits.

Renderings by Hogan Edelberg and Blake Sanborn.

What this means to the average person is greater natural space in their neighborhood, better flood protection for their homes and businesses, and additional recreational opportunities through walking and biking trails.

Renderings by Hogan Edelberg and Blake Sanborn.

Over my career, I have worked on a number of creek daylighting projects and know that communities undertake these them for a variety of reasons. A recent project located along Lick Run in Cincinnati is designed to reduce over 600 million gallons of combined sewer overflow per year. Re-engineering this historic waterway is estimated to save the city over $200 million dollars by replacing the previously-planned underground storage tunnel. The creek project was determined to be less expensive and provide valuable community revitalization opportunities.

It’s engineering in reverse—instead of building large pipes to carry our creeks, we are building creeks to eliminate the need for large pipes.

I’m currently working on a creek daylighting project in San Francisco along the historic Yosemite Creek. As part of their 20-year, multi-billion dollar Sewer System Improvement Program, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is planning to uncover and restore a half-mile of Yosemite Creek. This project will demonstrate that creek daylighting is not only a cost-effective tool to reduce combined sewer discharges to the San Francisco Bay, but can also provide valuable community amenities such as habitat creation, recreation, and education.

Renderings by Hogan Edelberg and Blake Sanborn.

San Francisco’s high-density urban landscape coupled with sky-high property values creates a unique set of challenges for engineers and designers. With a creek collecting stormwater from 110 acres of a local park, the team is relying on streetscape right-of-ways, city-owned parks, and innovative design responses. It will be exciting to see this project unfold in its complex context, and we hope it can serve as a model, along the Cincinnati project, for other cities across the country.

Renderings by Hogan Edelberg and Blake Sanborn.

Kerry Rubin (kerry.rubin@archtam.com) is an ecological engineer in ArchTam’s Design + Planning practice.

The post Once and future creeks appeared first on Blog.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding green or living walls in recent years, using plants to create verdant building facades or interior atriums. Increasingly, blank walls and building are being transformed into vertical landscapes, turning dense urban areas from grey to green.  Like all new technologies, however, there have also been spectacular failures, with some unfortunate buildings turning from green to brown as their plants fail and die.  This has led to skepticism among some or the use of expensive custom systems, both responses slowing the uptake of an integrated landscape approach that has huge potential.

Westfield London’s monumental 170 meter / 560 foot long living wall, located in one of Europe’s largest shopping and entertainment complexes, is an example of how when done right these can bring great success to significant commercial developments.  Speaking on the project’s fifth anniversary, the client said: “[The] green wall and landscape are all in excellent and rude health and remain one of the icons of the scheme – a lesson to invest in quality.” This is located on a north-facing wall that receives no direct sun, a tough environment for many plants to grow. Furthermore it leads patrons to the development’s front door, so there was little room for failure. The problem was overcome through the careful selection of native woodland species, which has not only resulted in horticultural success but created an area of wildlife habitat in a very unexpected location.

A fast and simple installation, using pre-planted clip-in panels. Photo by the author.

But the living wall does so much more. From the developer’s perspective it creates a dramatic backdrop for an extensive outdoor dining terrace that has thrived during a time of global economic decline. Its seating and water feature also forms a place for people to relax, encouraging shoppers to stay in the development longer. The evapo-transpiration of the living wall also cools the surrounding micro-climate during summer months – a kind of biological air conditioning system. And from the perspective of existing residents living on its opposite side, the plants and their growing media form a pleasing visual and acoustic barrier to the activity beyond.

Enjoying the cooling effects of the living wall. © ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

With all this success the question is then “what’s next?” Can living walls do even more? The advent of living walls is fascinating in its own right, with buildings integrating and hosting a piece of nature within their skin. A logical next step is to take full advantage of the potential symbiotic relationships between nature, architecture, and its occupants. Not only learning from nature as is the case with biomimicry but directly using plants to perform some of the services typically undertaken by mechanical systems. Air quality is an example, with NASA research demonstrating the filtration abilities of plants in removing toxins from our built environments. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the energy demands arising from conventional air filtration systems in climates where buildings have either high air heating or cooling loads. It should also not be forgotten that building inhabitants need to eat. With the integration of plants comes the choice of what species to grow, with there being no reason why fruit and vegetable varieties could not be used – air filtration that’s good enough to eat.

James Haig Streeter (james.haigstreeter@archtam.com) is a principal in ArchTam’s global Landscape Architecture practice and led the design of Westfield London’s living wall and public realm.

The post What’s next for the living wall? appeared first on Blog.

There has been a lot of hype surrounding green or living walls in recent years, using plants to create verdant building facades or interior atriums. Increasingly, blank walls and building are being transformed into vertical landscapes, turning dense urban areas from grey to green.  Like all new technologies, however, there have also been spectacular failures, with some unfortunate buildings turning from green to brown as their plants fail and die.  This has led to skepticism among some or the use of expensive custom systems, both responses slowing the uptake of an integrated landscape approach that has huge potential.

Westfield London’s monumental 170 meter / 560 foot long living wall, located in one of Europe’s largest shopping and entertainment complexes, is an example of how when done right these can bring great success to significant commercial developments.  Speaking on the project’s fifth anniversary, the client said: “[The] green wall and landscape are all in excellent and rude health and remain one of the icons of the scheme – a lesson to invest in quality.” This is located on a north-facing wall that receives no direct sun, a tough environment for many plants to grow. Furthermore it leads patrons to the development’s front door, so there was little room for failure. The problem was overcome through the careful selection of native woodland species, which has not only resulted in horticultural success but created an area of wildlife habitat in a very unexpected location.

A fast and simple installation, using pre-planted clip-in panels. Photo by the author.

But the living wall does so much more. From the developer’s perspective it creates a dramatic backdrop for an extensive outdoor dining terrace that has thrived during a time of global economic decline. Its seating and water feature also forms a place for people to relax, encouraging shoppers to stay in the development longer. The evapo-transpiration of the living wall also cools the surrounding micro-climate during summer months – a kind of biological air conditioning system. And from the perspective of existing residents living on its opposite side, the plants and their growing media form a pleasing visual and acoustic barrier to the activity beyond.

Enjoying the cooling effects of the living wall. © ArchTam photo by David Lloyd.

With all this success the question is then “what’s next?” Can living walls do even more? The advent of living walls is fascinating in its own right, with buildings integrating and hosting a piece of nature within their skin. A logical next step is to take full advantage of the potential symbiotic relationships between nature, architecture, and its occupants. Not only learning from nature as is the case with biomimicry but directly using plants to perform some of the services typically undertaken by mechanical systems. Air quality is an example, with NASA research demonstrating the filtration abilities of plants in removing toxins from our built environments. This has the potential to dramatically reduce the energy demands arising from conventional air filtration systems in climates where buildings have either high air heating or cooling loads. It should also not be forgotten that building inhabitants need to eat. With the integration of plants comes the choice of what species to grow, with there being no reason why fruit and vegetable varieties could not be used – air filtration that’s good enough to eat.

James Haig Streeter (james.haigstreeter@archtam.com) is a principal in ArchTam’s global Landscape Architecture practice and led the design of Westfield London’s living wall and public realm.

The post What’s next for the living wall? appeared first on Blog.

I first walked out onto the Tar Ponds in 2005. Outfitted in a protective suit with a respirator and face shield, I was there collecting samples of contaminated sediment. Eight years later, I walked the same grounds, then converted into a new green space called Open Hearth Park, with my family and thousands of other residents.

The transformation of what many considered Canada’s biggest toxic mess into a public park is more than just a successful environmental remediation project. It also involves the next chapter in the strong and intertwined economic and social growth that defines Sydney, and in a larger sense Cape Breton itself.

Steelmaking shaped a large part of Sydney’s urban identity. The city grew around the steel mill, first opened in 1901, as workers and their families created a proud and resilient community. At the height of operations, Sydney was producing more than half the steel in the British Empire.

After the industry’s decline and the mill’s closure, the environmental costs were revealed. Years of waste run-off from the coke ovens had polluted Muggah Creek, a tidal estuary of Sydney Harbour. A myriad of toxic contaminants were identified underground and in the sediments of the creek.

The CA$400-million (US$ 387-million) clean-up project, funded in partnership by the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia, remediated more than 700,000 tonnes (771,000 tons) of contaminated sediment, controlled groundwater travelling onto and off the site, restored creeks and created an accessible green space.  In addition to the technical knowledge applied and gained locally through implementation, the project generated significant and measurable local economic benefits. Cape Breton contractors, including First Nations contractors, employed and gained a valuable and unique experience in the remediation of the site and construction of heavy civil and marine works that enabled the clean-up.

At the same time as the clean-up, a new vision of Sydney was also emerging. The steel industry had been the economic heart of the city, as well as its physical centre. Future land-use planning needed to consider how the redevelopment of the old industrial sites could help transform the legacy of Sydney’s steelmaking from one of economic and environmental catastrophe to one of future benefit and prosperity.

The first step of this vision was the new public park. Open Hearth Park offers a significant amount of green space with walking trails, outdoor recreation facilities and art installations, which help tell Sydney’s steel history and the clean-up work to visitors.

The revitalization and redevelopment will continue. The remediation efforts have enabled, in addition to the accessible green space, light commercial development in the adjacent areas. Many other urban centres have gone through similar transformations with brownfield developments and have successfully attracted both new and traditional industries. Will this be Sydney’s future?

For residents, in particular those involved in the clean-up, these possibilities provide exciting prospects. But we also know that future success will depend upon one important factor: the ability and willingness of all stakeholders to share one vision and work collaboratively to achieve it. Solving the environmental challenge of the Tar Ponds is just the beginning. Investing in Sydney’s long-term economic and social prosperity is what comes next.

There is no doubt that the success of the project is attributable to the heart and soul, persistence and patience of the people of Cape Breton; however, don’t take my word for it, come and see it yourself.

The post Cleaning up a toxic legacy appeared first on Blog.

I first walked out onto the Tar Ponds in 2005. Outfitted in a protective suit with a respirator and face shield, I was there collecting samples of contaminated sediment. Eight years later, I walked the same grounds, then converted into a new green space called Open Hearth Park, with my family and thousands of other residents.

The transformation of what many considered Canada’s biggest toxic mess into a public park is more than just a successful environmental remediation project. It also involves the next chapter in the strong and intertwined economic and social growth that defines Sydney, and in a larger sense Cape Breton itself.

Steelmaking shaped a large part of Sydney’s urban identity. The city grew around the steel mill, first opened in 1901, as workers and their families created a proud and resilient community. At the height of operations, Sydney was producing more than half the steel in the British Empire.

After the industry’s decline and the mill’s closure, the environmental costs were revealed. Years of waste run-off from the coke ovens had polluted Muggah Creek, a tidal estuary of Sydney Harbour. A myriad of toxic contaminants were identified underground and in the sediments of the creek.

The CA$400-million (US$ 387-million) clean-up project, funded in partnership by the Government of Canada and the Government of Nova Scotia, remediated more than 700,000 tonnes (771,000 tons) of contaminated sediment, controlled groundwater travelling onto and off the site, restored creeks and created an accessible green space.  In addition to the technical knowledge applied and gained locally through implementation, the project generated significant and measurable local economic benefits. Cape Breton contractors, including First Nations contractors, employed and gained a valuable and unique experience in the remediation of the site and construction of heavy civil and marine works that enabled the clean-up.

At the same time as the clean-up, a new vision of Sydney was also emerging. The steel industry had been the economic heart of the city, as well as its physical centre. Future land-use planning needed to consider how the redevelopment of the old industrial sites could help transform the legacy of Sydney’s steelmaking from one of economic and environmental catastrophe to one of future benefit and prosperity.

The first step of this vision was the new public park. Open Hearth Park offers a significant amount of green space with walking trails, outdoor recreation facilities and art installations, which help tell Sydney’s steel history and the clean-up work to visitors.

The revitalization and redevelopment will continue. The remediation efforts have enabled, in addition to the accessible green space, light commercial development in the adjacent areas. Many other urban centres have gone through similar transformations with brownfield developments and have successfully attracted both new and traditional industries. Will this be Sydney’s future?

For residents, in particular those involved in the clean-up, these possibilities provide exciting prospects. But we also know that future success will depend upon one important factor: the ability and willingness of all stakeholders to share one vision and work collaboratively to achieve it. Solving the environmental challenge of the Tar Ponds is just the beginning. Investing in Sydney’s long-term economic and social prosperity is what comes next.

There is no doubt that the success of the project is attributable to the heart and soul, persistence and patience of the people of Cape Breton; however, don’t take my word for it, come and see it yourself.

The post Cleaning up a toxic legacy appeared first on Blog.