Portage Lakefront Pavilion

This is a story about the good, and a lot of tough love between communities.

To date the Portage lakefront is the only location where progress toward realizing the Marquette Plan is visible, and there are significant reasons why this is the case. The predominant reason is that Portage is a solidly white middle-class suburban community with middle-class values and an intact civil society. That is not the case with East Chicago or Gary. The Marquette Plan comes out of middle-class desires to access and utilize the commons on our lakefront.

Portage Lakefront Plan seen in context of the Marquette Plan

[ Summary presentation of the Marquette Plan - pdf]

<Quick History Lesson>

Unlike Hammond, Whiting, East Chicago and Gary, Portage’s industrial history only goes back to 1959 when National Steel opened a plant along Lake Michigan on the very site where the new Portage Lakefront Park now resides. In 1961 the Port of Indiana at Burns harbor, a deep water port, was opened. And in 1963 Bethlehem Steel Company started construction on their large integrated steel facility. 

This eastern expansion of heavy industry along Lake Michigan’s southern shores prompted Senator Paul H. Douglas of Illinois to establish the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in an effort to preserve portions of Indiana’s natural shoreline, including its biodiversity, and unique landscape left thousands of years ago by the receding glaciers of the ice age.

In a few short years Portage went from a farming community with ancient dunes and swales and an expansive lakefront to an industrial community with no lakefront access. While Gary experienced a hollowing-out of its neighborhoods due to “White Flight” and massive disinvestment by Industry, Gary’s new neighbor, Portage was a fast expanding brand new, and mostly white, industrial community. Today, Portage has an estimated population of 36,000, the largest city in Porter County and the third largest in Northwest Indiana, behind Gary and Hammond. Portage is still mostly white with 92% white, ~8% hispanic, and <.2% black. Like most developments during this era Portage was designed on a suburban pattern model. 

</Quick History Lesson>

Building Success:

Portage’s civic leaders not only adopted the Marquette Plan immediately, they expanded on it with their City’s Northside Master Plan. Of the five lakefront communities included in Phase I of the Marquette Plan, Portage is the only community to take advantage of JJR’s (award winning) work. You can see from the diagrams below how Portage has benefitted from a consistent visioning and planning process. Like East Chicago, Portage suffers from very little public access to the lake, and yet they propose to gain additional access by recovering existing brownfields along its waterway - the same strategy proposed in the Marquette Plan for East Chicago. You can see from these plans how Portage is looking to maximize what little they have by leveraging its waterways and River front. Clearly they have a long way to go, and not all the solutions are the most ideal, but this is a very good beginning. It is a testament to what can be done. 

Marquette Subarea Conceptual Plan for Portage Lakefront	Portage Master Plan for Lakefront and Riverfront

In contrast to Portage, East Chicago has traded against the plan for a private development along the lakefront for one of the Mayor’s largest fundraisers (a family member was chief of staff and is now chief of police) and branded it as the Marquette Plan with no public input. The Mayor’s plan completely abandons the Marquette Plan which, like Portage, aimed to recover abandoned brownfields along its waterway - The Indiana Harbor Shipping Canal. Both the Northwest Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) and the Regional Development Authority (RDA) have not only allowed this to occur without objection, but are encouraging and funding it. I will leave this story for another post.

It is important not to down play Portage’s regional identity as a white community as a contributing factor for its success. Unfortunately, “white” is still an important factor in identity politics in this challenged region. I don’t mean in any way to take away from the hard work that went into Portage’s successes, but to clarify the impediments the other communities face. It is just as important to acknowledge Portages ability to pull together a professional staff capable of realizing opportunities, attracting investment dollars, managing resources, and implementing solutions. And this is exactly why Portage poses a formidable challenge for the highly blighted older minority and urban communities along the lake. Because the leaders of Portage are more capable of forging the right relationships to produce results through an efficient process they are afforded more opportunities. Portage isn’t sitting still, in fact, they have begun to cherry pick opportunities slated for the other shoreline communities. 

As an advocate for the older urban Lakefront communities, which dominate the Southern Shores of Lake Michigan, there is a part of me that is insulted that this project spearheads the redevelopment efforts as envisioned in the Marquette Plan. There is also a reality that money’s from the other minority communities, through the RDA, help finance this project. Now that Portage has completed this catalytic project, and jump-started its market by bringing valuable brownfields into productive common recreation use, Portage is set to realize its broader vision. Unfortunately, now that they have realized all this they no longer have a need to contribute to the RDA.

What Portage is able to realize is exactly what we had hope would happen when we first set out to develop the Marquette Plan. That is why we developed catalytic projects in each of our urban lakefront communities. The blighted conditions that remain in East Chicago and Gary are waiting for someone to implement their catalytic project as outlined in the Marquette Plan.

While regional entities praise the Portage project for reclaiming valuable though contaminated lakefront property, they also sight contamination as an impediment to redevelopment in my community. When it comes to redeveloping the Brownfields in East Chicago, all too often we are treated as if East Chicago were Chernobyl. If East Chicago is Chernobyl, and I am serious about this, then the USEPA ought to make this perfectly clear so we can begin abandon our properties and all our industrial facilities. If East Chicago is not Chernobyl then lets get to work and stop avoiding the impediments to change.

With the Portage project success has been gained, but now we need greater success.

This past spring we went out to Portage to take a look at the new lakefront park. Finding the entrance and then realizing that it was the entrance was just plain weird to say the least. It required entering and traversing a poorly marked U.S. Steel facility adjacent and across the river from the park. I suspect this was only a temporary solution, at least until they can construct a more formal and appropriate entrance. The most striking feature of the park besides the feeling of trespassing on industrial property when you enter is the pavilion. The Pavilion provides a very strong silhouette dominating the site and the visual field. By its design it begins to inform your experience in this rather strange setting.

<Recommended Video>

The NWI Times posted a wonderful video introducing the new lakefront and laying out the awesomeness of its achievement:

Former Portage Mayor Doug Olson and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Costa

[ Marquette Plan - Portage Lakefront ] 

</Recommended Video>

<Build it and they will come>

via the [ Post-Tribune ] August 27, 2009

PORTAGE — The park that replaced the former steel mill sewer plant and acid pools at the mouth of Burns Waterway has become a sought-after destination, according to preliminary figures from Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.

The Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk — a former toxic waste site — was dedicated in November as a first-of-its-kind federal-local partnership between the Lakeshore and the city, which manages the 60-acre location under a formal agreement.

Lakeshore Superintendent Costa Dillon said 50,000 people have visited the Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk this year. Park Service public information officer Lynda Lancaster gave a figure of 35,000 for the number of cars that have crossed the traffic counters at the gate from March to July.

The National Parks statistics Web site gives a raw number of 52,094 for the first seven months of 2009, making it one of the Lakeshore’s most visited areas.

But Lancaster cautions that it’s too early for firm totals or comparisons until surveys are done to develop a “multiplier” that can come up with a visitor total.

“The raw numbers are reduced for things like cars entering and leaving and local residents (in Beverly Shores and other parts of the park where people live), and increased for average number of passengers in each vehicle,” she said.

In any case, it’s clear the number of spring and summer visitors to the Lakefront and Riverwalk — the Park Service discourages calling the site a “park,” because it’s inside the Lakeshore — is at least equal to the city’s population.

The summer Lakeshore newsletter “The Singing Sands” lists “What is Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk and how do I get there?” as one of the most frequently asked visitor questions.

Besides educational programs like the spring No Child Left Inside hike and meeting in the “green” pavilion by regional planners and the newly formed Northwest Indiana Paddling Association, people come to swim and stroll along the paved trails and breakwater. They also fish, birdwatch or photograph the dunes.

“We get surfers for the major waves when the wind is from the northeast,” said city park staffer Kate Mitchell, working at the “healthy snacks” concession stand that opened in May.

“It’s amazing. People start coming at 9 or 10 in the morning and leaving around 4 or 5, and then other people come to watch the sunset or take the Riverwalk,” said manager Cindie Cassebaum.

She said the tables on the patio are popular with millworkers at lunchtime and waitresses on break from restaurants on U.S. 20, less than five minutes away.

Portage lakefront draws crowd :: Porter County :: Post-Tribune.

</Build it and they will come>

Thomas Case Studies, Northwest Indiana, View of Lake Michigan

Below is a short Interview I did with wbew Chicago Public Radio out of Chesterton Indiana about the Marquette Plan and the challenges we face envisioning diverse uses on our lakefront.

Thomas Case Studies, East Chicago, Northwest Indiana, View of Lake Michigan

My wife and I lived at the “Spice Factory” (building on the right) for four years. Its nice to see Chicago promoting it as a Creative Industrial District. 

Cermak Road Creative Industry District.

The Cermak Road Creative Industry District is a landmarked historic district comprised of 4 warehouses totalling 800,000 square feet nestled along the Chicago River between Chinatown and Pilsen. It has been re-zoned to include creative industry uses, such as Artist Work Space, Restaurant, Retail, Entertainment, High Tech Office, and Artisan Manufacturing. 

Imagine recording your music in the factory where Muddy Waters worked. Mounting a theater production where The Untouchables was filmed. Creating and manufacturing your fashion line in a shared workspace overlooking the Chicago River, with a view of downtown Chicago outside your window.…

Two open houses will provide opportunities to view the district and learn more about leasing and investment opportunities, financial incentives and other developments. City officials will be present to learn more about what your creative business needs.

Saturday August 15 and Sunday August 16, 2009, 2:00 - 5:00 pm.

Begin at the Wendnagle Warehouse
600 W. Cermak

Update:
via the [ Chicago Tribune ]

Artists courted for idea factories
By Angie Leventis Lourgos

Tribune phot by E. Jason Wambsgans

Historic warehouses that helped launch Chicago’s industrial boom more than a century ago could house the city’s first “Creative Industries District,” sheltering artists and artisans of various media in one spot.

Four factories on Cermak Road once provided the nation with coffee, spices, window treatments, water barrels and wholesale groceries. Thousands of employees crossed the Cermak Road bridge each day to earn their pay at the W.M. Hoyt, Thompson and Taylor Spice, Wendnagle, and Western Shade Cloth buildings.

But the factories once known as the Spice Barrel District dwindled as the industrial age came to a close. The area was designated a landmark district in April 2006, restricting its buildings to industrial uses.

Now the city is trying to turn the corridor into a haven for the arts, centered on creative industries like film production, engineering, fine arts, fashion, and information specialists.

A $15,000 study commissioned by the city found a need for more affordable arts-related space. Roughly 80,000 artists are in Chicago and about 5,000 art students graduate every year, offering a steady stream of new creative workers. Arts-related enterprises add around $1 billion to the city’s economy, according to the study.

“We hope that over the years this can grow organically to become popular, vibrant — a great resource for the creative community,” said Julie Burros the city’s director of cultural planning

But the project hinges on luring artist-tenants — a tough crowd to serve.

What is remarkable about this statement is there once was a thriving artist community here 15 years ago, before the city started their annual eviction campaign of artists for many reasons including using their space as live / work spaces. It was such a wonderful place. I met Jesse Bercowetz, Chester Alamo, Nick Nuccio and an array of other creative people. I remember going down to the 3rd floor theater and being mesmerized by the Michael Clarke Duncan’s performance in ”A Soldiers Story.” It is still one of the greatest performances I have ever seen.

Despite the persistent recession, Mumford and Burros were upbeat about the prospect of attracting tenants, though Burros said it might take 10 to 20 years for the entire area to thrive.

With the right people and the right policies, I could guarantee a thriving artist community with in 12 months - EASY

The city rezoned the district in February 2007 to include office, retail, restaurant, entertainment and other uses beyond industrial.

But residential use won’t be permitted, barring tenants from combining studio and living space — a popular lifestyle among artists.

This is counter productive. It appears they are not trying to create a workable space for artist to develop their craft, but an artist / gallery district for the performance of art making. For those who are already highly capitalized.

The project was modeled after other successful warehouse district reinventions in North America. The old saw mills and steel factories of Granville Island in Vancouver were converted to a public market with galleries and shops. Nineteenth Century factories in MassMoCA in North Adams, Mass., house visual, performing and new-media arts. The Distiller District in Toronto offers 168 predominantly arts-related businesses — including a studio where the movie “Chicago” was filmed.

I find it amazing that this project isn’t modeled after the many successful Chicago or New York models. It’s not even modeled after the once thriving Podmajerski (John Podmajerski II) Artist’s spaces in neighboring ”East Pilsen”

Jazz vocalist Agnes Payne, who lives on the city’s West Side, said a central artistic community could help her look for work. Rather than running around the city, she could reach prospective employers on Cermak Road.

“The idea of the city designating this area for artists is great,” she said. “Now it’s dispersed all over the city. … This would give art one focal point.”

Thomas Adaptive Reuse, Case Studies, Chicago

Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) is conducting a 2040 plan for Northwest Indiana. This includes  Lake, Porter, and LaPorte Counties. On July 15th, 2009 they issued a DRAFT VISION STATEMENT with an outline of goals, objectives, and strategies. I was asked to comment on its 44 pages, which takes a little commitment of time to review it in its entirety. The following is the first page, “A Thriving Economy” along with my comments. My additions and comments are in red.

Response to NIRPC’s 2040 draft vision statement-pg1 (140kb pdf)

Thomas Case Studies, Northwest Indiana, Planning Mishaps

Mythological - - - - Dystopic - - - - Anarchic - - - - Leviathan - - - - Criminal Underworld

Kowloon Walled City has received a significant amount of attention in recent years on the internet, perhaps more than before it was demolished in 1993. It is the kind of place that provokes the shock and the imagination of organized society.

Kowloon Walled City was a tiny Chinese enclave located in the middle of British Hong Kong for decades occuping 6.5 acres with a population reaching as high as 50,000. At some point it evolved into a living, growing, and decaying organism, known for attracting unlicensed Dentists, Doctors, Surgeons, Restaurants, Brothels, Illegal trade, manufacturing, etc. The only physical limits to growth were its 6.5 acre footprint, its fourteen stories due to an adjacent Airport, and perhaps its quality of life. 

[ Greg Girard ]

Greg Girard’s book “City of Darkness - Life in Kowloon Walled City” probably gives us the best insight into what life was like. I think we are bound to learn more about this remarkable place in the coming years.

Thomas Case Studies, What I am Looking at

via [ www.liquidassets.psu.edu ] 

This evening I happened to click on the East Chicago Public Government Channel which for all purposes has been the Mayor’s personal campaign channel. But to my enormous surprise this evening they were running this wonderful documentary “Liquid Assets.” I don’t know who coordinated the broadcast, but I was thrilled to see something of real substance and value to the community on the channel. Very Good.  

Liquid Assets is a public media and outreach initiative that seeks to inform the nation about the critical role that our water infrastructure plays in protecting public health and promoting economic prosperity.

Combining a ninety-minute documentary with a community toolkit for facilitating local involvement, Liquid Assets explores the history, engineering, and political and economic challenges of our water infrastructure, and engages communities in local discussion about public water and wastewater issues.

Thomas Adaptive Reuse, Case Studies, East Chicago, The Water I Drink

The government gave the green light Thursday to four so-called “eco towns,” claiming it is playing a leading role globally in promoting carbon neutral communities.

The green towns are designed as the first of 10 such projects Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government wants to set up by 2020, despite criticism and local opposition in some cases.

“The revolutionary concept of eco towns is a unique opportunity for us to confront two of the most urgent priorities” facing Britain, namely providing more cheaper housing and fighting climate change.

Housing Minister John Healey added: “We are leading the way on the world stage with these developments by radically rethinking how we design, plan and build our homes.”

The towns chosen are in Whitehill-Bordon in Hampshire; Rackheath in Norfolk; Bicester in Oxfordshire, and a development near St. Austell in Cornwall.

Greenlight given for first eco towns - Yahoo News.

Thomas Case Studies, Urbanism

via [ Triplecanopy ] by Joseph Clarke

Tracing the parallel histories of the American megachurch and the corporate-organizational complex.

THE 1980S AND ’90S SAW THE RISE of so-called seeker megachurches, which targeted those disillusioned with religion. Rather than enforcing traditional worship styles, they embraced counterculture and youth rebellion. Chief among them is Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church, in Orange County, California. Built in the ’90s, Saddleback plays down crosses and other conventional Christian signifiers and avoids mention of its Southern Baptist denominational affiliation. Instead of a massive auditorium, the church occupies multiple midsize structures scattered across a lush 120-acre campus. Visitors customize their worship experience by choosing from a range of services: “Saddleback Classic” in the main Worship Center, “OverDrive” for youth, and “Praise!” for gospel-music lovers. 

As Warren’s model gained traction, the ideology of the democratic office was taken to new levels by management theorists associated with the Quality of Work Life movement. They recommended radically open office environments that would give workers control over their environment and dissimulate corporate hierarchy. “Office facility planning should be a systematic process that encourages employee participation, promotes innovation, and champions mobility,” advised a 1985 article in National Productivity Review…

It’s no coincidence that Saddleback mirrors the top office environments of its day. Warren was a good friend of Drucker’s (the consultant died in 2005), and the books he has written for pastors quote Drucker liberally. Drucker, in turn, was so impressed with the business acumen of evangelical leaders that in 1998 he declared the megachurch “surely the most important social phenomenon in American society in the last 30 years.”

Thomas Case Studies, Misc, Visual Culture

At the [ economist ]

IT IS high season for a sliver of sand in Portage, Indiana. A pretty visitors’ centre sells ice cream. Lake Michigan shimmers in the sun. And beside the beach is a roaring steel mill. Swimmers enter the water at their own risk.

The Great Lakes—Michigan, Huron, Erie, Ontario and Longfellow’s “shining Big-Sea-Water”, Lake Superior—comprise one-fifth of the world’s surface fresh water. They have also endured centuries of abuse. But advocates are cheerful these days. Barack Obama’s budget proposes $475m for restoration. In June he appointed a Great Lakes tsar, Cameron Davis, to begin work in July. There is much to do

he 1970s brought reform, such as the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement that sought to restore the lakes’ “chemical, physical and biological integrity”. But problems remain. Sewage systems continue to overflow, forcing many beaches to close. Levels of some toxins in fish have declined, but others pose new risks. Atlantic freighters still bring in foreign species—there are now 185. Regulations are tangled. In 2007 a refinery in Indiana received a permit to increase discharges into Lake Michigan. Only public uproar prevented it.

Better co-ordination would help. The Great Lakes region includes two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec) and eight American states—Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. A report in 2003 counted 148 federal and 51 state programmes to restore the lakes. The region’s many swing states ensure periodic attention. In 2004 George Bush ordered a broad restoration plan to be drawn up. Implementing it would cost more than $20 billion. Little money, however, has been provided. It is still unclear who is in charge.

This may begin to change. On June 13th the secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, announced that a treaty governing the waters between America and Canada would be updated. Mr Obama’s $475m would be the largest single investment of any president yet. Mr Davis, a respected advocate, may bring order to disjointed programmes.

Just as promising, restoration is increasingly seen as an economic boon, not a drain. The Brookings Institution, a think-tank, found that spending $26 billion to clean the lakes would bring benefits of at least $80 billion. As manufacturing dwindles, the lakes may attract new firms and workers. Chicago’s twinkling lakefront has been an important draw, a taste of the Mediterranean in the Midwest. Indiana’s shore is still lined with steel plants and refineries. But Portage’s beach, which opened last year, is the first step in an effort to reclaim the lakefront. The new plans are a nudge in the right direction.

Thomas Case Studies, Environment, Northwest Indiana, Planning Mishaps, View of Lake Michigan

Pittsburgh Boosters: An example for Northwest Indiana 

South Side Works, Pittsburgh LTV Property:

What makes this example enticing is the fact that much of the land in need of redevelopment in East Chicago was also owned by LTV steel. Like the South Side Works East Chicago is located with in 20 minutes from a major city center. In the case of East Chicago, it is 20 minutes from downtown Chicago.

Thomas Adaptive Reuse, Case Studies

via [ TreeHugger ]  “A Convenient Truth” Chronicles Curitibas Urban Innovations

When an innovative Planner becomes Mayor, innovative things can happen. Curitibas has been a favorite subject of many planning academies. It is a place where innovative ideas actually got built into the environment. It is amazing to think how lacking Americans Cities have become since the great mistakes of Urban Renewal. Today our energies are preoccupied with conservative instincts and the return to the idea of creating “livable” communities. 

When over 90% of a citys residents are happy with their city, somebody must be doing something right. In Curitiba, a quaint, mid-sized town in southern Brazil, some forty years of sensitive urban design interventions have created a city that is pleasant and sustainable, and one that has managed to avoid many of the ills that have plagued Brazilian cities.

Countless innovations can be traced back to Curitiba, and over the years the place has become something of a Mecca for architects and urban planners from all over the world. But for those who cant afford the trip to Brazil in these tough economic times, a documentary film called A Convenient Truth is the next best thing.

Curitibas urban revolution began in 1971, when a young architect named Jaime Lerner was appointed mayor. Lerner came to the job accompanied by a team of like-minded innovators, and armed with a heap of original ideas, which he proceeded to implement one by one.

Thomas Case Studies, Urbanism

via [ Daily Dish ]

I knew there was a good reason to have Richard Florida contribute during Andews leave.

Another post on Class and Entrepreneurship by Richard Florida.

Do yourself a favor and check out the Daily Dish for more Florida info. 

Thomas Case Studies, Urbanism

Spatial Costs

via [The Daily Dish ] by Richard Florida

Image via SUNY Stonybrook Department of Geosciences (h/t: Ian Swain, Martin Prosperity Institute). This poster, courtesy of the city of Muenster, Germany, illustrates the different amounts of space taken up by different kinds of transit.

• Bicycle - 90 sq. m for 71 people to park their bikes.
• Car - 1000 sq. m for 72 people to park their cars (avg. occupancy of 1.2 people per car).
• Bus - 30 sq m for the bus.

The Daily Dish

Thomas Case Studies, Infrastructure, Urbanism

[ Gapminder ] Unveiling the beauty of statistics for a fact based world view.

The Activist Cause

I want to look back at Hans Rosling’s now very famous presentation at the 2006 TED-conference for a moment. In this presentation Hans is hocking this “Ah-Ha” moment to the audience. He knows what he is pedaling and he knows its ramifications. Does this moment fit in the history of progressive “Ah-Ha” efforts? I think so.

Many of the great achievements of the “progressive” movement, in America, came from those who answered oppressive conditions supported by neglect, power and wealth with extraordinary discipline of research and evidence. Some examples are found in W.E.B Du Bois’ survey of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward in his 1899 classic book, The Philadelphia Negro work in Philadelphia, and Jane Jacobs’ book The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1961) writtten during height of “Urban Renewal.”

It appears Hans’ visualization tool sits well within this tradition, his scope however, widens out to the early reaches, and future projections of statical analysis of DATA. What I find interesting about Hans’ work is the certain manner in which he strolls through his subject matter. It reminds me quite a bit like Jane Jacobs approach with the Urban build environment. 

Thomas Case Studies, Design, Visual Culture

Via [ Infranet Lab ]

Infrastructure for everyone! – not so fast.

[Money for Public Projects] The New York Times

With the global economy in recession and unemployment levels rising, elected leaders throughout the world are turning to infrastructure projects as a way to put thousands of people back to work.

With this massive forthcoming investment we just had to investigate what’s likely to come down the infrastructure pipeline.  It turns out however, that what me be coming our way are not exactly the forward-looking interventions we are hoping for.  In fact, the stimulus packages proposed potentially threaten the exact projects we should want to succeed.

This risk is a direct result of our current economic situation.  In order for the stimulus to stimulate things need to happen relatively quickly.  Thus, a tension exists between doing things well and doing things quickly.

Unfortunately, federal governments don’t have the best reputation when it comes to spending wisely on infrastructure. In a recent New York Times article “Piling up Monuments of Waste”, David Leonhardt claims:

It’s hard to exaggerate how scattershot the current system is. Government agencies usually don’t even have to do a rigorous analysis of a project or how it would affect traffic and the environment, relative to its cost and to the alternatives — before deciding whether to proceed. 

<Reality Check>
In one recent survey of local officials, almost 80 percent said they had based their decisions largely on politics, while fewer than 20 percent cited a project’s potential benefits.
</Reality Check> 

Road and highway construction is one apparent category of infrastructure spending where politics threatens to trump utility. The Brookings Institution directs our attention at U.S. roads as being and potential investment with a high ROI. The proposed investment needs to distance itself from politically driven projects that lead to things like underused highways in western Pennsylvania, and instead focus on alleviating the financial losses in major US centers due to road congestion.

[Clogged Arteries]

…the places that are most critical to the country’s economic competitiveness don’t get what they need. The nation’s 100 largest metropolitan regions generate 75 percent of its economic output. They also handle 75 percent of its foreign sea cargo, 79 percent of its air cargo, and 92 percent of its air-passenger traffic. Yet of the 6,373 earmarked projects that dominate the current federal transportation law, only half are targeted at these metro areas.

“Clogged Arteries”, Bruce Katz and Robert Puentas, The Atlantic

Ok.  So this is one tangible project.  We’ll keep looking for more.  Hopefully the next one we find will not only offer hard-data by analyzing effect vs. cost (also known as value) but also move beyond the shovel-ready standards rooted in the 1950s fossil fuel paradigm – something that we may lose sight of during this infrastructure spending spree

Thomas Case Studies, Infrastructure

via [ Designboom ]

DSDHA was selected has the winner of the waterloo city square design competition. the contest focused on the outdated area of london near waterloo road and station. DSDHA’s  concept revolves around the IMAX on waterloo circus as a marker of the cultural quarter on london’s south bank. 

DSDHA
Waterloo City Square

Thomas Case Studies

via [ Pruned ] I’ve enjoyed fragments of this map for quite awhile. It is nice to find the whole set inthe archives of Pruned.

Harold N. Fisk’s 1944 geological investigation of the Lower Mississippi Valley available at  USACE site

Thomas Case Studies, Information Graphics

via [ Pruned ]

In the 1940s, archaeologists discovered the ancient city of Seuthopolis, the capital seat of the Odrysian Kingdom beginning in the 4th century BCE.

Unfortunately, the discovery came too late, because under construction nearby was a reservoir dam, which would soon flood the valley and drown “the best preserved Thracian city in modern Bulgaria.”

Now over half a century later, a project proposed by Bulgarian architect Zheko Tilev would uncover and preserve the ruins using “a circular dam wall, resembling a well on the bottom of which, as on a stage, is presented the historical epic of Seuthopolis.”

Thomas Architecture, Case Studies

[ Valcent Products inc. ] 

It appears Valcent has this vertical thing worked out. A weakness, thus far, in architectural versions of vertical farming (I posted about earlier) is that they equate the floor plain with the ground plain of a field and stack that concept. Great! But the brilliance of using Valcent’s solution is that Valcent forgoes the ground plain concept altogether and thinks in terms of translucent vertical plains. Perhaps by combining both solutions one could yield an even greater multiplier per square foot. 

It’s all about spatial geography.

High Density Vertical Growth (HDVG) 

The system is designed to grow vegetables and other foods much more efficiently and with greater food value than in agricultural field conditions. The HDVG system demonstrates the following characteristics:

• Produces approximately 20 times the normal production volume for field crops
• Requires 5% of the normal water requirements for field crops
• Can be built on non arable lands and close to major city markets
• Can work in a variety of environments: urban, suburban, countryside, desert etc.
• Does not use herbicides or pesticides
• Will have very significant operating and capital cost savings over field agriculture
• Will drastically reduce transportation costs to market resulting in further savings, higher quality and fresher foods on delivery, and less transportation pollution
• Will be easily scalable from small to very large food production situations

High Density Vertical Bioreactor (HDVB)

The Holy Grail in the renewable energy sector has been to create a clean, green process which uses only light, water and air to create fuel. Valcent’s HDVB algae-to-biofuel technology mass produces algae, vegetable oil which is suitable for refining into a cost-effective, non-polluting biodiesel. The algae derived fuel will be an energy efficient replacement for fossil fuels and can be used in any diesel powered vehicle or machinery. In addition, 90% by weight of the algae is captured carbon dioxide, which is “sequestered” by this process and so contributes significantly to the reduction of greenhouse gases. Valcent has commissioned the world’s first commercial-scale bioreactor pilot project at its test facility in El Paso, Texas.

Thomas Case Studies

[ BioRegional Development Group ]

The Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED, is the UK’s largest eco-village.

The multi-award winning development is one of the most coherent examples of sustainable living in the UK.

Initiated by BioRegional, BedZED was developed by thePeabody Trust in partnership with BioRegional Development Group and designed by Bill Dunster Architects.

Located in Wallington, South London, BedZED comprises 100 homes, community facilities and workspace for 100 people. Residents have been living at BedZED since March 2002.

BioRegional are working to show that eco-construction and developing green lifestyles can be easy, accessible and affordable, and provide a good quality of life. For example, the heating requirements of BedZED homes are around 10% that of a typical home. We have produced research reports and training to save industry professionals time and money.

I was looking at Bedzed a lot while President of the East Chicago Redevelopment Commission.  I considered redeveloping Marktown and parts of the North Harbor Project into green communities. For Marktown it was a perfect marriage of garden city meets sustainability. Part of the plan was to create renewable energy districts and thus lower the costs for homeowners.

Thomas Architecture, Case Studies