Trees are important for cities. Environmentally-speaking, trees provide important environmental inputs and outputs. Aesthetically-speaking, trees can provide a sense of beauty to a city. Planners and landscape architects have long-recognized the importance of trees and other plants in urban design.Tampa, Florida has a long-established grassroots organization that has helped bring trees to the city. The [...]
Brownfield sites prime for building. Derelict architecture crying out to be regenerated. Both are common sites up and down the United Kingdom, but why? With a long standing housing shortage only predicted to get worse, what are we doing to utilise these potentially valuable resources? The value of the land on which they sit is [...]
Considering New York City, New York (NYC) contains 5.2 billion ft2 of built space parceled out among a million buildings, and that the building sector emits 79% of the city’s greenhouse gases, the importance of sustainability in its built environment is paramount. The Bloomberg administration’s 2007 PlaNYC effort, a comprehensive plan for the City’s largest issues [...]
With the United Kingdom committed to producing 20% of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2020, there seems to be an acceptance within the general public that sustainability has become a key issue in everyday life. But with around 50% of planning applications for new wind farms rejected in 2010, is the country [...]
Shigeru Ban, a renowned architect with an international design firm, is most famous for his novel use of recycled and low cost materials in design. Ban studied at the Cooper Union School of Architecture under famed Architect John Hejduk. Using his background in Japanese architecture, and influenced by Hedjuk’s western school of thought, Ban embraces [...]
The University of South Florida (USF) is a university system in the Tampa Bay area. The main campus, located in Tampa, ranks as the 9th largest university in the country. In 2005, a class from the MBA Sustainable Business track did a sustainability audit for a class project, which caught the attention of administrators. Since [...]
How can a world-renowned ski resort town attract world-class athletes in the summer time? The answer is a top-notch sports field facility. For Mammoth Lakes, California this project is called The Whitmore Park Track and Sports Field Project, a joint effort by the High Sierra Striders and the Town of Mammoth Lakes to be completed by [...]
Frequently cited as an indicator of an emerging economy, bicycles are becoming the symbol of sustainable and productive communities. From Copenhagen, Denmark, to Portland, Oregon, bicyclists represent a considerable portion of daily commuters. Will the Motor City (Detroit, Michigan) ever relinquish its auto-centric ideals for the benefits of pedal power? A combination of rising gas [...]
One of the nice things about living in Florida are ample beaches and water. Besides possessing your typical tourist attraction, Florida’s beaches and waterfront allows transportation and urban planners to be creative with public transit. Water taxis are gaining popularity in the state, and the Tampa Bay area can utilize water taxis to connect two counties [...]
Looking for an environmentally friendly, quiet, workspace surrounded by the serenity of nature? The Swall Institute is your answer. A small residence designed for flexible use, located outside of Mammoth Lakes, California, The Swall Institute acts as an incubation space for individuals and groups who work better when they have access to the great outdoors. [...]
Ithaca, New York in the Finger Lakes region is known for its natural beauty. Its dramatic landscape of pastoral hills and valleys, deep gorges, rushing waterfalls, and glittering lakes have created many faithful residents and visitors passionate about protecting the area’s scenic resources. In places like Ithaca, urban planners, architects, and developers must be especially [...]
An urban heat island (UHI) is an urban area that experiences warmer temperatures than its surrounding areas. UHIs occur because buildings block the surface heat from radiating, which lets heat continue to build up in the area. The UHI effect can also be caused by the lack of vegetation in urban areas and changes in [...]
The Turcot Interchange is a major highway junction in Montreal, connecting the north-south Autoroute 15 and the east-west Autoroute 20/720. The elevated interchange accommodates about 280,000 vehicles a day. It is located near several working-class neighbourhoods, and is next to a rail-yard as well as the Saint-Jacques Escarpment. Hastily constructed in 1966-67 in time for [...]
Renewable Heat Incentives are the most recently launched incentive scheme, so far announced by the United Kingdom Government in March 2011. The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is designed to provide financial support, and encourage investments from individuals and communities. This is all in order to switch from fossil fuel heating to renewable energy. The Energy [...]
Less about urban planning and more about the forgotten interstitial margins created by architecture, this article links scattered reports about fishing in basements beneath New York City with the cisterns of Istanbul, the home of Global Site Plans’ principal, Renée van Staveren. Istanbul is home to several hundred ancient cisterns that, when built during the [...]
Sustainablewaste management, climate change, and renewable energy are three significant issues becoming increasingly important worldwide, especially in Europe. Incidents of spills, land & water contamination, biodiversity losses, and health concerns have triggered thresholds for policy makers of European Union (E.U.) to ensure implementation of feasible waste management systems throughout the Europe. Various landfill, waste minimization, [...]
Sustainable tourism may seem like an oxymoron. Historically, tourism has resulted in environmental and cultural degradation across the globe. While a diversified economy remains optimal, many places depend heavily on tourism. Locations with delicate natural environments such as the rain forests of Brazil, the coral reefs of Australia, and the plains of Africa often suffer [...]
A big Global Site Plans welcome to our newest blogger, Ubaid Khan in England, United Kingdom. Ubaid Khan has over six years of operational, development, technical and environmental experience in the Waste Management and the Environmental Industry sectors in the Middle East and United Kingdom. During his career he liaised with various municipalities and undertaken [...]
Many communities across Maryland do not think of sustainable improvements when it comes time to make road improvements. But the town of Edmonston saw the road’s expiration date as a time to put a new lease on the roadways. Leading by example, the town created an innovative green street that creates environmental and transportations improvements [...]
If the oil spike a couple years ago – and the one we are in the middle of now – has taught us anything, it is that something drastic needs to be done about our dependence on oil. Eventually, the price reaches a point that demand falls as people look for other ways to travel; [...]
