GreeNOLA

As part of their recovery process, the City of New Orleans is utilizing ideas about sustainable and smart urban development while establishing a comprehensive approach to its recovery.  The city is rebuilding both, its physical and administrative infrastructure.  "Our objective is not merely to recover, but to recover smarter, greener, and better than we were before."

"In New Orleans, sustainable development means establishing resilient settlement patterns based on a thorough understanding of flood risk; adopting better building standards that include energy efficiency, design for climate change, and alternative energy sources; finding more effective uses for materials that are currently being discarded as waste; and protecting and restoring the urban and natural environments."

Proposed buildings under the GreeNOLA plan

"GreeNOLA" is the roadmap used for making New Orleans sustainable while rebuilding the destruction caused by hurricane Katrina.

The GreeNOLA action plan consists of three major steps:
1.  Revive environmental programs and policies that were lost as a result of Hurricane Katrina, including environmental conservation practices within City Hall, the green council, and a green building ordinance.
2.  Reorganize city government so that it can more effectively implement new initiatives related to energy, development, and environment.  Establish an Energy Office, a Disaster Mitigation Office, and expand the existing Environmental Affairs Office.  Create a Consortium of Gulf Coast Mayors to collectively address regional issues along America's Gulf Coast.  Establish a Green Team to recommend sustainable green building practices for ongoing recovery projects as they are being implemented.
3.  Establish specific, measurable, and attainable sustainability goals to be achieved within the following timelines:
Short-term = 1 year
Medium-term = 3 years
Long-term = 10 years

The six broad program areas covered in this roadmap are:
1.  green buildings and energy efficiency
2.  alternative energy
3.  waste reduction, reuse, and recycling
4.  transportation and clean fuels
5.  environmental outreach and justice
6.  flood risk reduction

Please refer to http://www.louisianahelp.org/documents/greenolawithldrfcoverpage.pdf for the full length document of the information presented above.  

An alternative to automobiles in communities



Milagro Cohousing Community



Milagro, which means miracel in Spanish, is practicing a cool alternative to automobiles in their cohousing communtiy.  Located in the Tucson  Mountains, this community is only 12 minutes from downtown Tucson, AZ.  There are "twenty-eight, energy efficient, passive solar, adobe homes" located on this 43 acre site.  Only 3 of 28 homes in this community are accessible by automobile.  Broad footpaths are designed into this pedestrian friendly community in order to accommidate the electric golf car, as seen in the image below, to carry small loads and groceries from their cars to their homes.  This information, plus more, about Milagro cohousing community please see thier website at: http://www.milagrocohousing.org/milagro.htm.

Electric car used by Milagro residents

Project 2- Milagro Cohousing Precedent Sheet

I used this particular cohousing community as one of my precidents for project two in Grad Studio III.  The poster can be seen to the right.

  

Burning Man Festival

Image courtesy of: http://thenewsoftoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Burning-Man-2010.jpg

Residents in Costume

Burning Man Exhibit

Before attending the Burning Man Presentation this afternoon, I did some research to gain insight on the subject matter.  The festival began on a small beach in San Francisco, but has evolved to become a city of 43,000+ residents.  Burning Man is an experimental community functioning for one week in the Black Rock Desert.  The experimental community, "challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life. There are no rules about how one must behave or express oneself at this event (save the rules that serve to protect the health, safety, and experience of the community at large); rather, it is up to each participant to decide how they will contribute and what they will give to this community. The event takes place on an ancient lakebed, known as the playa. By the time the event is completed and the volunteers leave, sometimes nearly a month after the event has ended, there will be no trace of the city that was, for a short time, the most populous town in the entire county. Art is an unavoidable part of this experience, and in fact, is such a part of the experience that Larry Harvey, founder of the Burning Man project, gives a theme to each year, to encourage a common bond to help tie each individual's contribution together in a meaningful way. Participants are encouraged to find a way to help make the theme come alive, whether it is through a large-scale art installation, a theme camp, gifts brought to be given to other individuals, costumes, or any other medium that one comes up with.  
This "experimental community" seems like it would be a wonderful experience for anyone with an open mind.  


For more information about Burning Man, check out: http://www.burningman.com/whatisburningman/


Examples of public art and spaces seen at Burning Man can be seen below:






4pyre²
by Christopher Schardt, Oakleyville, CA
4pyre² is a 12 ft pipe with propane burners on each end. When the burners fire, the pipe is propelled around on two axes, tracing out the surface of a 12 ft diameter sphere.

(4πr² is the formula for the surface area of a sphere of radius r.)

Aeolian Pyrophonic Hall & Whispering Wall
by Capra J'neva, Portland, OR
The Aeolian Pyrophonic Hall and Whispering Wall conjures the millions of things that are happening within the metropolis at any given time. A sound installation incorporating a wind harp, fire organ, and the voices of the citizens of Black Rock City, the hall envelops citizens in dappled sunlight during the daytime, shadowy effects at night and surrounds them with sounds evocative of the desert and the Burn. Nightly performances of the fire organ with dancers, stilters and musicians will take place after dark. 


The Crossroads
by Iron Monkeys
The Crossroads is a community gathering space. Six blacksmithed, scroll-work columns (a la Iron Monkeys) encircle a 10' stainless steel fountain flowing with both fire and water. Inside the circle of columns a courtyard awaits. Benches and a sculpture gallery invite the participant to look and linger, inspiring a public place to rest and recharge during the journey from place to place. The Crossroads is also a curated sculpture gallery, providing cultural real estate for some of the playa's often overlooked sculptures.

Public Art

Public Art in Chattanooga, TN

Public art is something I struggled with during the infill development project.  I have done some research to try and clarify, or resolve this personal design hurdle.  


The following information can be found at:
http://nnpaf.org/what_is_art.html


"Public art fits a much broader definition than art in a gallery or a museum. In simple terms, public art is any work of art or design that is created by an artist specifically to be sited in a public space. It can tower several stories high, or it can call attention to the pavement beneath your feet. It can be cast, carved, built, assembled or painted. Whatever its form, public art attracts attention. By its presence alone public art can heighten our awareness, question our assumptions, transform a landscape, or express community values, and for these reasons it can have the power, over time to transform a city’s image. Public art helps define an entire community’s identity and reveal the unique character of a specific neighborhood. It is a unifying force."

Public Art in Chattanooga, TN

"The impact of public art on a community is priceless and immeasurable and once experienced it only appreciates. Public art has the power to energize our public spaces, arouse our thinking, and transform the places where we live, work, and play into more welcoming and beautiful environments that invite interaction. Public art can make strangers talk, children ask questions, and calm a hurried life. It enhances the quality of life by encouraging a heightened sense of place and by introducing people to works of art that can touch them and generations to come."


The following shows how one city, the City of Chattanooga, is trying to implement more public art into the design of public spaces.  This information can be found at, http://www.chattanooga.gov/PRAC/30_PublicArt.htm


In 2003 the City of Chattanooga, TN held public forums on the issue of public art.  "These forums resulted in an adoption of an exciting Public Art Plan, the establishment of a mayoral appointed Public Art Committee and a partnership between Allied Arts of Greater Chattanooga, the Hunter Museum of American Art, the RiverCity Company, and the City of Chattanooga to oversee and implement the plan."  

Public Art in Chattanooga, TN

The Public Art Committee has begun many new projects which include:

Bi-annual Sculpture Exhibit:  through an international juried competition, large-scale sculptures are selected for placement along First Street and the downtown area to create a rotating outdoor exhibition space.  Several works are purchased each year for inclusion in the city’s permanent public art collection.

Art on Main: a series of juried rotating outdoor sculpture exhibitions installed along the sidewalks of the newly refurbished streetscapes on Main Street in Chattanooga’s urban core. 

Art in the Neighborhoods:  With generous support from the Lyndhurst Foundation, this new initiative offers matching grant money to each of the city’s council districts to acquire public art for neighborhoods. 

City Design (carfree.com)

Innsbruck, Maria Theresienstrasse

Aranjuez, Jardines de la Isla

I found an excellent reference for anyone interested in city design.  This reference can be found at: http://www.carfree.com/design/index.html

This book-length website is based on the works of Christopher Alexander and Camille Sitte.  The website consists of 34 chapters and 325 pages, covering subjects ranging from gates to various forms of streets and squares to elements, such as entrances, arcades, galleries, courtyards, singularities, waterfront, and canals.

Spa, Le Pouhon

The author utilizes images, such as the ones seen on this post, to break down city design, one element at a time.  This site is very interesting because old images are used to describe each elements.  The author believes, and I agree, that the automobile has deteriorated all modern day urban areas, including the ones used on this website.  "I believe that much has been lost in the realm of city design, a feeling that had overcome Camillo Sitte more than a century ago. The situation became much worse during the 20th Century. It is for this reason that I have used only old images on this site. Except for a very few places that have not changed materially during the past century, I believe that virtually no modern urban area can claim to be as well designed as the best examples from a century ago. In fact, most ordinary scenes from 1900 are better than virtually all urban settings created since then" (carfree.com).

The images used are actually from postcards, mainly from the period of 1897 to about 1920.  The author describes each image in detail, even getting off the particular subject, for a moment, to fully describe what is happening, either good or bad, in each image.  I recommend this website for   leisure or research in the area of city design.

Pedestrian Cities

One of the most important aspects of New Urbanism is to design spaces for the comfort and enjoyment of the pedestrian.  In many regions throughout the world, pedestrian cities are increasing in popularity.  "The incredible beauty, enjoyment, and convenience a network of connected pedestrian streets and squares provides to the residents on a daily basis is unsurpassed. Being able to walk to a mix of shops, restaurants, newsstands, coffeehouses and open-air markets within car-free neighborhoods and work centers delivers the highest quality of life, and adds great variety and vitality to an area" (New Urbanism website).  Jane Jacobs refers to this as, "an intricate and close-grained diversity of uses that give each other constant mutual support, both economically and socially."  There is an increasing demand to convert entire city districts into pedestrian areas, directly connected to a train line.

Because it has a very large pedestrian street network, completely free of cars, Venice, Italy (figure ground image seen to the left) is considered to be one of the greatest pedestrian cities in the world.  This very dense city is pleasant and relaxing because it does not have any vehicles operating on its streets.


Copenhagen is another of the world's great pedestrian cities.  In the 40 years following its main street, Stroget,  being converted into a pedestrian thoroughfare, the city has constantly sought to improve the quality of its street life.  Planners and designers have taken steps to convert the city from being a car oriented place to a people oriented place.  The following 10 step program, proven to create four times more public life, has been adopted by the city to create a more pedestrian friendly environment:


1. CONVERT STREETS INTO PEDESTRIAN THOROUGHFARES 

The city turned its traditional main street, Stroget, into a pedestrian thoroughfare in 1962. In succeeding decades they gradually added more pedestrian-only streets, linking them to pedestrian-priority streets, where walkers and cyclists have right-of-way but cars are allowed at low speeds.

2. REDUCE TRAFFIC AND PARKING GRADUALLY

To keep traffic volume stable, the city reduced the number of cars in the city center by eliminating parking spaces at a rate of 2-3 percent per year. Between 1986 and 1996 the city eliminated about 600 spaces.

3. TURN PARKING LOTS INTO PUBLIC SQUARES

The act of creating pedestrian streets freed up parking lots, enabling the city to transform them into public squares.

4. KEEP SCALE DENSE AND LOW
Low-rise, densely spaced buildings allow breezes to pass over them, making the city center milder and less windy than the rest of Copenhagen.

5. HONOR THE HUMAN SCALE

The city’s modest scale and street grid make walking a pleasant experience; its historic buildings, with their stoops, awnings, and doorways, provide people with impromptu places to stand and sit.

6. POPULATE THE CORE

More than 6,800 residents now live in the city center. They’ve eliminated their dependence on cars, and at night their lighted windows give visiting pedestrians a feeling of safety.

7. ENCOURAGE STUDENT LIVING

Students who commute to school on bicycles don’t add to traffic congestion; on the contrary, their active presence, day and night, animates the city.

8. ADAPT THE CITYSCAPE TO CHANGING SEASONS
Outdoor cafes, public squares, and street performers attract thousands in the summer; skating rinks, heated benches, and gaslit heaters on street corners make winters in the city center enjoyable.

9. PROMOTE CYCLING AS A MAJOR MODE OF TRANSPORTATION

The city established new bike lanes and extended existing ones. They placed bike crossings – using space freed up by the elimination of parking – near intersections. Currently 34 percent of Copenhageners who work in the city bicycle to their jobs. 

10. MAKE BICYCLES AVAILABLE

The city introduced the City Bike system in 1995, which allows anyone to borrow a bike from stands around the city for a small coin deposit. When finished, they simply leave them at any one of the 110 bike stands located around the city center and their money is refunded.




This information, as well as more, regarding New Urbanism was gathered from the New Urbanism website, located at http://www.newurbanism.org/pedestrian.html

Cohousing

After doing some research on cohousing I realize that it is a pretty cool concept to gain ideas from, even if you don't agree with the entire design model. Below is my poster listing the 6 defining characteristics of a cohousing community.  The information can be found at the cohousing.org website.

I think the idea of clustering houses to form multiple courtyards is a great idea.  Orienting homes toward a  pedestrian corridor or courtyard, with parking located along the periphery of the development, is also a wonderful design idea that will provide many opportunities for a person to interact with his or her neighbors.