Architecture & Urban Planning

What do people living in Boston, Baltimore, Miami, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Phoenix, and Los Angeles have in common? From coast to coast, prairie to desert -- residential lawns reign. But, according to a new study, beneath this sea of green lie unexpected differences in fertilization and irrigation practices. Read more

A team of university researchers from California wrapped up a weeklong intensive study and report on Portland’s India Street neighborhood Monday, telling area residents it could be revitalized as an internationally known “ecodistrict.”

Different patterns of urban development may have widely varying long-term effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To investigate such effects, we used UPlan geographic information system–based software to model three 2050 urban-growth scenarios for Yolo County, a predominantly agricultural area near Sacramento, Califor- nia. Two scenarios correspond to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s A2 and B1 storylines.

Baltimore doesn’t have enough trees. Arborists say cities should have a tree “canopy” of about 40 percent; Baltimore’s is 27 percent. A lot of people are doing good work encouraging tree planting in the city, but according to Morgan Grove, a social ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, “We do best in reaching groups where there’s already a lot of trees. We’re not doing so great in places where there’s not a lot of trees.”

This paper builds on a dialogue between barrio planners and municipal planners on spatial and economic changes in San Francisco’s Mission District. The Mission is a predominantly Latino neighborhood with vibrant streets that have reflected and been transformed by the investments and displacement of recent decades. Though the Mission has seen tremendous upheaval with the influx of new capital and communities, this paper contends that efforts of community members shaped the development of the neighborhood with street-level planning expertise.

On December 11, 2013, we released the report Changes to the Land: Four Scenarios for the Future of the Massachusetts Landscape (link will download report) to an overwhelmingly positive response.

Energy efficiency is particularly critical in affordable housing developments, says Jeremy Hays, Chief Strategist for State and Local Initiatives at Green For All, a sustainability advocacy group with offices in Oakland and Washington, D.C. According to Hays, apartment buildings built before 1970 use 55 percent more energy than those built after 1990, while low-income residents spend 400 percent more of their monthly income on utility bills than the average American.

The Technion has inaugurated a brand new visualization laboratory, the first of its kind in Israel, in the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. The new visualization lab is a research and learning facility, which allows one to “enter” a three-dimensional digital simulation (model) of buildings, cities and landscapes, whether they physically exist yet or are in only in the planning stages.

HOK Healthcare Sustainable Design Leader Mara Baum, AIA, LEED AP BD+C, has been selected to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED Fellows Class of 2013. Baum oversees sustainability implementation, research, consulting and education across HOK’s global healthcare practice.