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Category Archives: The Built Environment
Travis Beck Interview with The Metropolitan Field Guide
Kelly Brenner, from The Metropolitan Field Guide, spends a few minutes with landscape architect, Travis Beck.
Travis Beck is author the newly published Principles of Ecological Landscape Design, which I recently reviewed. He kindly agreed to an interview so I could ask him some questions about his book, what inspired him and his views on the current state of Landscape Architecture.
What inspired you to write this book?
For a long time I asked myself, “What would a designed landscape that was truly based on ecological principles look like?” I kept looking for a book that would answer that question. Eventually I set out to write it myself.
What ‘natural’ landscapes inspire you most?
Right now I am fascinated by the dunes along the Atlantic coast. I love their spare beauty and the tough plants that inhabit them—beach grass, seaside goldenrod, beach heather. Plus, in the wake of Superstorm Sandy we’ve seen how well dunes performed at protecting the communities that had preserved or developed them. And, for me, their shifting durability is a living metaphor for ecological design more generally.
#ForewordFriday: Sustainable Cities Edition
This week’s #ForewordFriday excerpt comes from Reshaping Metropolitan America, by Arthur C. Nelson.
What do you think cities will look like in ten years? What about in fifteen years? Nelson asserts that most of the buildings that will be standing then don’t even exist yet.
In Reshaping Metropolitan America, Nelson provides statistics about key factors that are shaping the built environment in the hope that designers will take advantage of the opportunity to make urban areas more sustainable and livable for future generations.
Enjoy!
Travis Beck on Landscaping & Writing
In a new post on the NY Botanical Garden blog, Travis Beck talks about his experience as a landscape designer and writing his new book, Principles of Ecological Landscape Design.
Travis Beck humbly recalls his first gratifying experience as a landscape designer, a xeriscape project he planted with his own company in Colorado. “It was a small border,” he says, “but we finished on time, on budget, and it grew in very nicely.”
Years later, walking through the multi-tiered landscape of the Native Plant Garden, his ego still keeps to a small space–though his undertakings seldom do. The words Beck uses to describe his work are efficient and to-the-point, even as our tour group skirts the massive water feature he’s helped realize at the center of this latest NYBG revision. But his pragmatism has a purpose in this near fairytale landscape, just as it does in his recently published book: Principles of Ecological Landscape Design.
Not one to settle for the “green” aphorisms being passed along in today’s design industry, Beck’s book captures his approach to environmentally sound landscapes with practical examinations of the before, after, and in between of each project. Thoroughness is key and few aspects are left to chance. More than a simple source of inspiration, Principles of Ecological Landscape Design is a compendium designed to address every consideration for the professional or student designer. Plant selection, competition and coexistence, wildlife interaction, biodiversity, and stability are only a sampling of the many topics tackled.
Presidential Reading List – 2nd Term Edition
Well, it’s officially President Obama’s second term in office. And with his commitment to addressing climate change, we have compiled a list (in no particular order) of ten books our staff believes he should read for inspiration.
- Resilience Thinking, by Brian Walker and David Salt
This introduction to resilience is a short, quick, introduction to an important new way of thinking about natural processes that will have far-reaching implications for conservation policies in the future.
- The Case for a Carbon Tax, by Shi-Ling Hsu
As a recent Washington Post editorial pointed out, a carbon tax kills three birds with one stone: it lowers carbon emissions, raises revenue for the federal government, and reduces our dependence on foreign oil. The Case for a Carbon Tax fleshes out why this policy is one Democrats and Republicans alike can support as we seek to build a new era of cooperation and effective governance. - State of the World, by The Worldwatch Institute
The 2012 edition, which focuses on Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity, is a prescription for how we should all be thinking about the future of not only the environment but the economy. This April, the 2013 edition will ask “Is Sustainability Is Still Possible?” - The Agile City, by James S. Russell
James S. Russell provides a wide-ranging look at how our cities can be more resilient in the face of climate change while still growing our economy and jobs—an objective of the President’s second term.
- Climate and Conservation, by Jodi Hilty, Charles Chester, and Molly Cross
In his inaugural speech, President Obama stated failure to act on climate change “would betray our children and future generations.” This book offers case studies from around the world of leading-edge projects focused on climate change adaptation. It will inspire the President to see the myriad ways we can work to protect biodiversity by protecting landscapes and seascapes in response to threats posed by climate change. - Unquenchable, by Robert Glennon
We can’t talk about energy without talking about water. Unquenchable reveals the heady extravagances and everyday inefficiencies that are sucking the nation dry. New demands for water, particularly the enormous supply needed for ethanol and energy production, will only worsen the crisis. Glennon proposes market-based solutions that value water as both a commodity and a fundamental human right.
June Williamson on CBS Evening News
Author June Williamson talks about retro-fitting the US shopping mall in this piece on the CBS Evening News
The Megatrends for 2013
Author Jerry Yudelson predicts the 10 green building megatrends for 2013 and it looks like a good year for LEED.
Green building will continue its rapid expansion globally in 2013 in spite of ongoing economic difficulties. More people are building green each year, and there is nothing on the horizon that will stop this MegaTrend or its constituent elements. However, the continuing slowdown in commercial real estate and the lower level of government project development will continue to put a crimp in new green building projects. In putting together my Top Ten trends for 2013, I’m taking advantage of conversations I’ve had with green building industry leaders in the U.S., Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Australia during the past year.
Yudelson Associates’ Top Ten Green Building MegaTrends for 2013:
- Green building in North America will rebound strongly in 2013, using LEED project registrations as a proxy for this growth. The reduction in commercial real estate construction has not been offset by other sectors such as government construction, which continued to falter, and so the growth rate of new green building projects fell dramatically from 2010-2012. Even so, in 2012, new LEED construction accounted for about 20% of all put-in-place space, with domestic LEED project registrations up significantly from 2010. However, we continue to foresee faster growth in green retrofits, and note that surging college and university projects, along with NGO activity, are serving to backstop the fall in commercial and governmental construction. In addition, LEED growth has been and will be rapid in China, the Middle East, Latin America and other fast-growing regions for new buildings.
- The focus of the green building industry will continue to switch from new building design and construction to greening existing buildings. For the past three years, LEED for Existing Buildings Operations and Maintenance (LEED-EBOM) has been fast-growing rating system, with cumulative floor area in certified projects now greater than in new construction. My book, Greening Existing Buildings, documents the strategic and tactical components of this trend. One driver of this MegaTrend is that “‘green’ buildings have rents and asset prices that are significantly higher than those documented for conventional office space, according to recent major academic research studies on new and retrofitted commercial buildings in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, institutional owners and investors are increasingly focused on the sustainability performance of real estate in their portfolios, as evidenced by the GRESB annual survey.
Read more at Sustainable Industries and Grist
Stephanie Mills on C-Realm
Stephanie Mills, author of Epicurean Simplicity and the new E-ssential, Simple Pleasures, is interviewed in this C-Realm podcast.
KMO talks with bioregionalist author Stephanie Mills about grounding activism within a spiritual practice, ceasing to cherish opinion, memorizing poetry, making peace with religion, and learning to listen to and find common ground with Tea Party people. The collapse of industrial civilization may be at hand, and that means that it’s time to make haste… slowly.
Listen here.
The Beauty of Beauty: Aesthetics’ Power in Design
Lance Hosey, author of The Shape of Green, wrote an article for GreenBiz.com in which he reflected on the idea that technology’s design could potentially reduce its manufacturing waste.
According to Hosey, most people fail to consider how many materials and how much energy are wasted in the constant production of new technology. They will often succumb to marketing campaigns and replace their “old” (but still-functioning) items with the latest and greatest gadgets.
Every year, Americans get rid of more than 300 million computers and electronics — and recycle almost none. Ultimately, recycling doesn’t completely solve the environmental problem, anyway. When a computer is recovered, typically only the basic materials are salvaged, while the precious metals in the energy-intensive circuitry are destroyed. So the challenge has less to do with the efficiency of production than it does with the frequency of it — not how we produce things, but how many things we produce, and how often.
If you’re the average person, every year-and-a-half you replace your phone, and during your life you will have owned three dozen. The market encourages us to buy lots of stuff but replace it almost immediately, because the economy thrives on how much we buy, not on how much we use or enjoy the things we buy.
Hosey identified the factor that makes the difference between keeping and discarding an item: aesthetics. The more beautiful someone finds a piece of technology, the more likely he or she is to hang on to it:
Manufacturers and marketers spend a lot of money trying to understand why we buy things, but they rarely investigate why we keep them. However, over the past couple of decades, a growing body of scientific research has revealed a universal, biological basis for visual preferences that often transcend individual and cultural differences. To some degree, all of us are drawn consistently to certain shapes, patterns, and colors.
We don’t love something because it’s non-toxic and biodegradable. We love it because it moves the head and the heart. If design doesn’t inspire, it’s destined to be discarded. A more attractive design discourages us from abandoning it: If we want it, we won’t waste it.
Read the whole article on Greenbiz.com to learn more.
#ForewordFriday Resilience Edition
First, there were droughts this summer; then Hurricane Sandy; and a week after that, there was a snowstorm in the northeast. It seems we just can’t catch a break from Mother Nature.
Lately, news outlets like the New York Times, the StarTribune, and Slate have been throwing around the word “resilience:” as in, new urban designs must demonstrate resilience, must be able to withstand future extreme-weather incidents. Will this word — and this idea — become as ubiquitous as “sustainability” is?
Brian Walker and David Salt explore how cities can achieve both resilience and sustainability in their book, Resilience Thinking.
Happy reading!
DC’s Green Lane Project
Courtney Lix, Assistant Editor, on DC’s latest effort to improve cycling infrastructure for commuters like her.
Fall weather has enveloped Washington DC over the past couple of weeks—crisp, refreshing air that urges the trees to change color and puts a little flush on your cheeks as well. I’ve been a bit chilly on my bike rides into work lately—cruising along the walking/biking Custis Trail that borders Interstate 66 as I ride from Arlington into downtown DC. And yet, I’m always sweating by the time I’ve made it from Pennsylvania to L Street, and it has nothing to do with the weather. It’s stress.
DC has made impressive investments in cycling infrastructure over the past two years and there are more exciting opportunities on the horizon. I mention the challenges of my commute to emphasize that bike lanes are important, and make a huge difference in increasing safety, for both drivers and people on bikes. Penn and L are wide streets and major commuter arteries into the city. This means lots of cars, and cars that drive faster than on narrower, residential streets. Throw in a garbage truck or two, and the occasional cab swerving to pick someone up for an early morning meeting, and if you don’t feel vulnerable on a bike, you should probably be in a line of work that requires something like swimming with tigers.
To help address these kinds of gaps in the bike lane network, DC is getting a boost from the attentions of the Green Lane Project, an effort launched in 2012 by the Bikes Belong Foundation. It aims to help the city elevate its cycling infrastructure to being world class. As part of its outreach, Bikes Belong has released a short, engaging, well-illustrated guide to implementing bike lane networks, called Explain Your Lane: Lessons for Cities, from Cities, on Building Green Lanes. It’s available for free download and I encourage everyone to read it—whether you bike or not—to understand what the future of commuting in our country looks like, and what it will take to implement much-needed changes.
Although I love commuting by bike (danger and all), and appreciate that it is “environmentally-friendly”, one thing needs to be clear: cities like DC aren’t making investments in bike lanes out of the goodness of their sustainable hearts. Offering alternatives to driving is increasingly seen as a way to attract corporations looking to create jobs in places that will offer high quality of life for their employees. I’m grateful that I can spend 4.5 miles of my ride on protected paths, and look forward to the day when anyone, anywhere in the city can hop on a bike and cruise around worry-free. The work that Bikes Belong is doing resonates with me for personal reasons, but on a larger scale, they’re working to create safer, greener, and more economically vibrant cities— and that should interest everyone, no matter what kind of transportation you prefer.
