2

When Cities and Wetlands Collide

The integration of natural flora and fauna into the cities has been a challenge for architects and planners since the beginning of buildings. The task becomes even more difficult when the urban spaces in question are part of our country’s neglected, post-industrial landscape. The winning entry to the recent Gowanus Lowline Competition explores the process of mending broken pieces of aged, urban fabric while dealing with not only the vacancies created by absent industry, but sites riddled with the environmental scars of a previous era.

The scheme probes at the possibility of new urban spaces, utilizing both natural systems of remediation and the active density of a modern city. Wetlands and cityscape: two realities commonly assumed to be so diametrically opposed that their overlap is all but implausible. The former harnesses natural processes to provide an ecology with no net waste or squandered resources and supports a myriad of species in close proximity. The latter is the function of fabricated infrastructural systems that levy an indisputable tax on natural resources as it bleeds energy to support a single species in close proximity. The prospective benefits of synthesizing the accolades of both environments are far-reaching, but given their respective needs of space and circulation the question becomes, how can these ecologies co-exist without one decimating the function of the other? Continue Reading…

Urban Planning 
2

Could Earth Capacity Trump the Severity of Climate Change?

Lots of PeopleJust as advocates of sustainability and the environment promote the notion of an evolving society, so too must their message be open to evolution. With the amount of connotations–good or bad depending on where your views are–it may be time to question the usefulness of climate change as the weapon of choice used to induce our need for change. Not to say that climate change is not a real phenomenon, but it is certainly not the only phenomenon or the only reason we have to reassess our societal norms. On the contrary, we have no shortage of reasons. Continue Reading…

Economic 
9

Renewables Give Us More Power Than Nuclear

green power productionFor the first time in a while, our portfolio of renewable power sources has surpassed power production from nuclear generation. According to the latest Monthly Energy Review from the Energy Information Administration, the most sustainable forms of energy now produce more for us than the most hazardous, largely due to rises in wind, solar and hydro production. Continue Reading…

Infrastructural 
3

Recycling, Demand and Digital Media Slash Paper Waste

waste paper recycling bailsRecycling + Digital Media + Demand for Sustainable products = Results

These three societal components make fast friends in the goal of reducing paper consumption. After peaking in 2000, disposal of paper products is finally showing the wear of a more conscious effort to curb the amount of paper that finds its way to landfills and reduce the amount of virgin trees harvested for new stock. Continue Reading…

Economic 
2

Sobering Fact: Untreated U.S. Wastewater Could Fill Every Residential Swimming Pool 5 Times

CSO OutfallDespite the advances that the United States has made in building technology, urban infrastructure systems and sewage treatment, waste water management still comprises one of the larger portions of our antiquated infrastructural network; namely in the form of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs).

While some communities and cities have separate systems to collect and divert stormwater and sewage, many older American cities were built on the model of a combined system, meaning that rainwater flows into the same pipes that carry waste from your home for treatment. Given that there is half as much pipe, CSOs are certainly easier and cheaper to install but their long term function brings an environmentally expensive drawback. When the rate of rainfall reaches a certain threshold (sometimes as low as 1/4″ per hour), the system of pipes becomes overwhelmed and treatment facilities can no longer handle the excess load. In these storm events, overflows are utilized that dump the combination of stormwater and untreated sewage directly into natural bodies of water. Pretty disgusting. Continue Reading…

Infrastructural Sobering Facts 
0

Most Man Hours for Rooftop Solar Are Desk Hours

Roof top Solar InstallMost of the time, when we think of things being built the majority of hours it takes to complete a project revolves around construction. It is rare that an architect will spend more hours drawing a project than a contractor will take to build it. For residential solar installations, the growth in demand is being met by a regulatory system not fully prepared for the expanding market. As a result, a large portion of the cost for new PVs pays for people sitting at a desk rather than throwing up panels.

Continue Reading…

Political 
0

Sustainable Systems Survive Convention-Sized Value Engineering

New York Convention CenterThe behemoth of black metal and tinted glass known as the Javits Center is awaiting its long-needed renovation in an attempt to boost the functionality, size and appearance of New York’s largest convention center. Much like Penn Station and Madison Square Garden, the project needed help from the moment it was completed in 1986. In the current economic climate, the budget for the work shrank drastically from its intended funding levels, but amazingly enough the sustainable systems of green roofs and high performance walls—treated as novelties by some—were deemed priorities by the project team and survived cost cutting. Continue Reading…

Architectural 
4

Unreleased Masterplans Show Sustainable Roots for Low Income Housing

Eat Harlem Low Income HousingIn 1972, one of the most ambitious government-funded, low income housing projects in history broke ground in Harlem on the upper East side of Manhattan. Spanning an entire city block, the Taino Towers complex boasted four-story base with various integrated amenities supporting four 35-story towers of concrete and glass to stand over the surrounding neighborhood. The project was known as a “pilot block”, meant to serve as a new urban model for the integration of low-income housing into large cities like New York. However, there also exists a little-known master plan for future phases of low-income development in Harlem that were drafted as a model for sustainable urban growth. Continue Reading…

Urban Planning 
0

Saying We Need More Drilling Doesn’t Make it True

Once again we have arrived at a familiar place of rising oil prices and once again we can see the momentum building behind the line of oil companies as the discomfort for high gas prices sets in. Only days ago the House of Representatives passed a bill to expand offshore drilling and expedite new permits with proposed legislation right behind it to open access to new reserves in ANWR and the Outer Continental Shelf.  These familiar conversations also have familiar anticipated repercussions that all point to new drilling wells having no affect on short term pricing and the expanding of drilling outside of current federal areas having miniscule long term affect on price and supply. Continue Reading…

Political 
1

Will Greener Domain Names Lead to a More Sustainable Internet?

Green TLDsWe are on the verge of a new dimension to the virtual land grab of the net as the powers that be clear the way to receive applications for new Top Level Domains (TLDs) that will stake out fresh territory for how people can lay claim to cyberspace. While new websites now have choices such as “.com”, “.tv” or “.info”, we are only a short time away from the opportunity to have anything you want at the end of your web address. Two of the most anticipated in the bunch are “.eco” and “.green”, both seen as new umbrellas for the image of sustainability to get a more meaningful foothold in the digital ether. Will these new domain names be the start of a more ecologically conscious sea of web surfers and end up greening the web itself or are they merely just another way to slap a green label on a product? Continue Reading…

Infrastructural