VODA Landscape + Planning

James Corner: Urban Dreamscaper
TIME Magazine interviews landscape architect James Corner on the power of public space and quality urban design.  He defines our profession: “Landscape architecture is basically the planning and design of space under the sky.”

Sedentary lifestyles are killing Americans. Many of us sit at a computer all day, drive a car to work, and spend our evenings sitting in front of a TV or computer. This lack of activity is built into the very framework of our cities, when we should be designing our communities around activity and physical exercise. Recent studies have shown the neighborhood quality can directly correlate to obesity and diabetes rates.

Here’s a quick video on the best medicine for reducing these epidemics: 30 minutes of walking daily.

Choosing where to live is a complex decision. We evaluate the cost of the home vs. transportation costs, the quality of local schools, the proximity to parks and trails, the crime rate, the “perception” of the neighborhood, etc. Almost no one considers how that neighborhood will affect their health. The “walkability” of a neighborhood has very real, and lasting effects on every one of us. Does your neighborhood encourage (or even allow) you to walk and bike to your destinations like work or school? Can you walk to the store? Can you bike safely to the park? What’s the “Walk Score” for your neighborhood?

Wangari Maathai, Nobel peace laureate, Photograph: Martin Godwin for the Guardian

“Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree, you water it and make it survive, you haven’t done a thing. You are just talking.”

The Green Belt Movement announced last week that their founder, Wangari Maathai, died last Sunday night after a struggle with cancer.  She was a fierce environmental and social activist who recognized that social and environmental issues are inextricably linked. Maathai was the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, which she did in 2004.  She said at the time:

“I believe the Nobel committee was sending a message that protecting and restoring the environment contributes to peace; it is peace work. That was gratifying. I always felt that our work was not simply about planting trees. It was about inspiring people to take charge of their environment, the system that governed them, their lives and their future.”

Maathai organized a movement of individuals, mostly women, who planted more than 30 million trees across Africa, and encouraged people to require their elected officials protect the environment as a public good.

“We have a responsibility to protect the rights of generations, of all species, that cannot speak for themselves today. The global challenge of climate change requires that we ask no less of our leaders, or ourselves.”

Everyone seems to be talking about “sustainability” and how communities can become more sustainable. Sustainability is NOT just about solar panels and recycling, its also about social and economic sustainability.  The video below showcases Bellingham, Washington as one of the country’s most sustainable communities, thanks to its “local, living economy.”  With a majority of the businesses in Bellingham owned locally, a larger percentage of their citizens’ consumer spending stays in their community, for reinvestment in the local economy.  As you can see from this video, not only does this encourage development during a sluggish economic period, but it also engenders SOCIAL sustainability with increased concern and buy-in from citizens in their community.

VODA is excited to announce that we’ve been selected to develop a community food assessment for Salt Lake City. We are teaming with Robin Carbaugh, of Carbaugh Associates, and Scott Murray, of Murray Farms to analyze the food systems of Salt Lake City, including all producers, processors, distributors, and consumers of food within a 200 mile radius of the city.

The food we eat, where it comes from and how it is produced has a large impact on our community and our quality of life. Assessing the current situation of Salt Lake City’s food system is a vital first step in establishing the methods necessary to make the system sustainable. This analysis process will help ensure the vitality of the food systems in Salt Lake City, the health and well-being of its residents and the ability for future generations to continue with sustainable practices and living.

The video below features Scott Murray, an organic farmer and agricultural consultant teaming with us on the Salt Lake City Community Food Assessment, talking about the farm he helped develop for San Pasqual Academy, in San Diego County.

Cities are made livable by their parks and open spaces. Known as one of the densest cities in the world, New York City is famed for its grand Central Park, which is skirted by some of the most expensive real estate on the planet.  A lesser known park project in NYC, the Highline has had a similar impact on the value of the land surrounding it.  The Highline was a raised rail line running into lower Manhattan, built during the 1930′s. Abandoned in the 1960′s, the Highline lay dormant for more than 40 years, until the community organized “Friends of the Highline” to convert the raised rail corridor into a long, linear, neighborhood park. The first phase of the Highline opened in 2008, and has been wildly successful in improving the neighborhoods that it runs through.

With Phase 2 of the Highline opening on June 8, 2011, a New York Times article focuses on how the Highline has been an economic development tool for the city, improving a once down-trodden neighborhood:

Follow the links below for more images of the Highline

Highline Slideshow

New York Times Article

The Highline official website

Here’s a quick video from ASLA outlining a few basic design concepts landscape architects use to help home-owners improve the energy efficiency and livability of their homes. We talk a lot about improvements inside the home that will improve energy efficiency, such as properly insulated windows and energy efficient water heaters and furnaces, but the choices you make out in the yard can significantly impact the overall efficiency of your home. Landscape design using properly selected and placed trees, shade structures, green roofs, and wind-breaks can reduce the amount of energy needed to cool a home in the summer, and heat a home in the winter.

Energy Efficient Home Landscapes from American Society of Landscape Ar on Vimeo.

Last week VODA attended a public seminar on the Complete Streets movement, hosted by Salt Lake County and the SLCO Bicycle Advisory Committee. The main presenter was Michael Ronkin, of the Complete Streets coalition. Quite simply, Complete Streets is a policy concept that mandates “on every road, street, or highway project, bikeways and walkways SHALL be included.”  For far too many communities in the US, streets and roads are wastelands, basically designed as automotive sewers, merely a utility meeting the needs of cars only, ignoring all other users. The Complete Streets movement sees streets as public places that must accommodate and plan for everyone to use safely. It encourages bike lanes, pedestrian sidewalks, and accessibility for all users, regardless of disability.

The seminar included a great discussion on community, and how streets can work to build, rather than degrade the quality of our communities. Salt Lake County adopted a Complete Streets policy in 2010, and Salt Lake City adopted a Complete Streets policy in 2006.

If you’re interested, the video below shows Ronkin giving a similar presentation in Virginia in 2010.

Helsinki, Finland has developed the world’s first Underground Master Plan, locating facilities that don’t need to be “seen” in an extensive network of subterranean tunnels. The short video below shows some of the facilities that they’ve found can be efficiently located deep below the city, including coal storage silos, utilities, and even a data center.  While not every city may find an underground master plan relevant to their city’s planning, Helsinki’s example shows how context-sensitive solutions can be found in every city. Helsinki has taken the specific physical attributes of their city, and used them to their advantage in very specific solutions. They use the quality of the bedrock the city is built on, the proximity to cold water in their harbor, and the local attitude toward centralized planning to create a type of master plan unique in all the world.

Helsinki is unique among European capitals in that it was a master-planned city, almost from the beginning of its existence.  Established as the outpost Helsingfors in 1550 by the Swedes, it was intended to be a trading rival to the city of Talinn, Estonia, then controlled by the powerful Hanseatic League. It remained a tiny village until the area now known as Finland was conquered by the Russians in the early 19th century. In order to reduce the influence of Sweden on the Finns, the Russian Tsar moved the capital of the Finnish people from Turku to Helsinki, relocating all of Turku’s most important institutions to Helsinki.  At that point the tiny town was redesigned after the pattern of  nearby St. Petersburg, today a stark contrast to the organic, complicated, narrow-streeted old towns of most of Europe’s capitals. With a coordinated grid of streets, and forward thinking planning long established at the heart of the city’s operations, it should come as no surprise that Helsinki continues to be a trailblazer in the planning world.

Yesterday I spent the morning at the First Annual Mayor’s Symposium hosted by Mayor Ralph Becker of Salt Lake City and the College of Architecture + Planning at the University of Utah. Entitled Riverscape: Salt Lake City Meets the Jordan River, the discussion focused on the Jordan River and how the communities lining its banks can better address the river. Professionals from across the country were invited to discuss similar projects across the country, from rehabilitation of the riverfront along Boston’s Charles River, to economic development in Denver along the Platte River with the TAXI project.

The Jordan River has a major influence on the Wasatch Front, although it has been largely forgotten in the minds of many residents. In the words of Dean Brenda Scheer from the University of Utah’s College of Architecture + Planning, the river influenced the very form of development along the Wasatch Front, the “moving up and down, moving north and south.”  According to Scheer, the “river begat the railroad, the railroad begat the Interstate.” Seen as a “dangerous” area, the river and its paralleling trail system are in need of thoughtful and deliberate planning to develop the corridor into the amenity that it should be for our community. In 2008 the “Blueprint Jordan River” document was completed by EnvisionUtah, outlining the goals and objectives of the communities along the river for the future use of the Jordan.

The video/slideshow below shows images from EnvisionUtah’s 2008 process of visioning for the River.

Imagine the Jordan River (2008) from Envision Utah on Vimeo.