Context Sensitive Solutions in Practice: Places29

Phil Erickson of CD+A presented a paper to a panel at the annual ITE Meeting in Pittsburg, PA on August 6th. The paper summarizes the work that CD+A and Fred Dock of Meyer Mohaddes Associates have been undertaking for Albemarle County. Places29 employs a CSS approach that flows from careful planning of land use patterns and development of a network of multimodal roadways throughout the area with a strong basis in community involvement and multi-agency cooperation. A pdf of the paper can be downloaded here (1.1 MB). A pdf of Phil’s presentation will be posted soon. To find out more about the Places29 project click here to go to the Albemarle County website.

Las Lunas NM Planning Project Receives Raves

The News-Bulletin, a Valencia County New Mexico local paper, published a favorable article on our current TOD planning support project for the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG). Go here to read the whole article.

Clark’s UCB Students Win ULI Urban Design Competition

A team of U.C. Berkeley graduate students taught by CD+A Principal Clark Wilson has won the fifth annual ULI (Urban Land Institute) Gerald D. Hines Student Urban Design Competition. The competition is open to graduate students who are pursuing real estate-related studies at a North American university, including programs in real estate development, city planning, urban design, architecture and landscape architecture. The graduate student teams, competing in a student ideas competition, were charged with forming a quasi-public agency to redevelop the East First Street corridor in Los Angeles, considering connections to neighborhoods, to a revitalized Los Angeles River proposed in the newly- issued master plan, and to the new Gold Line Eastside Extension.

Clark Wilson was asked by a UC Berkeley Team entering the ULI Hines competition to be their professional advisor. Clark has been teaching at the College of Environmental Design for several years and was happy to participate. He gave focused input on creating sustainable systems, open space design and, in particular, how to effectively present the project verbally. He accompanied the students to Los Angeles and was pleased to see, first hand, the terrific job the team did.

The Berkeley team's entry, by Christopher Lollini, Andrea Gaffney, Robert McCracken, Aditi Rao, and Brooke Ray Smith, was selected over plans submitted by other competition finalist teams from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and two teams from Harvard University. The winning team was announced after the final round of the competition, which was held in Los Angeles on March 30, 2007. As the winner, the Berkeley team was awarded a $50,000 prize.

Their winning redevelopment plan, "Tectonics," refers to the metamorphic process of creating new landscapes by forming connections between disparate fragments of Los Angeles' neighborhoods. The urban plan for East First Street encourages a flow of green spaces towards a new park decked over the railyards along the west side of the river, and connecting to the greenway along the east side of the river. This urban-scale swath of green space continues into the residential neighborhoods in Boyle Heights, up to Mariachi Plaza, which is redeveloped with residential rental and ownership units, both market- rate and affordable, above neighborhood-scale retail spaces.

Jury members commended the winning team for its boldness in reconnecting the river to the communities and for designing a scheme that ensured connectivity to the surrounding neighborhoods, both East and West. "The initial proposal was very bold and clear," said Mark Johnson, president of Civitas in Denver. "It addresses what is widely known as a problem with Los Angeles; a very poor distribution of open space available to people of mixed means."
Visit the Urban Land Institute’s competition website here.

CD+A Selected for LEED-ND Pilot Review

CD+A and KEMA have been selected as pilot project reviewers for the new LEED for Neighborhood Developments (LEED-ND ) rating system. LEED-ND is a joint project of the U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism , and the Natural Resources Defense Council — three organizations which represent that nation's leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, planners, developers, and the environmental community. This rating system will integrate the principles of smart growth, New Urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design. Whereas other LEED products focus primarily on green building practices, with only a few credits regarding site selection, LEED-ND will emphasize smart growth and neighborhood design aspects of development while still incorporating a selection of the most important green building practices. Guided by the Smart Growth Network 's ten principles of smart growth and the Charter for New Urbanism, it will include compact design, proximity to transit, mixed use, mixed housing type, and pedestrian- and bicycle- friendly design. In short, LEED-ND will create a label which could serve as a concrete signal of, and incentive for, better location, design, and construction of neighborhoods and buildings. Applications for pilot projects are due by April 6, 2007.

Tim Is Now a LEED Accredited Professional

CD+A Principal Timothy Rood is now a LEED Accredited Professional. LEED Professional Accreditation distinguishes individuals who understand and can interpret and apply the LEED Rating System to green building projects. LEED Accredited Professionals also must possess the skills necessary to coordinate an integrated project team and guide the documentation process required for successful facilitation of the certification process. This credential is earned by passing the LEED Professional Accreditation exam.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System™ is the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. The LEED Rating System was created to transform the built environment to sustainability by providing the building industry with consistent, credible standards for what constitutes a green building. LEED promotes a whole-building approach to sustainability by recognizing performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the nation’s foremost coalition of leaders from every sector of the building industry working to promote buildings that are environmentally responsible, profitable and healthy places to live and work.

Tim is also a member of the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Corresponding Committee. The U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council—three organizations which represent that nation's leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, planners, developers, and the environmental community—have come together to develop LEED for Neighborhood Development. This rating system will integrate the principles of smart growth, urbanism, and green building into the first national standard for neighborhood design. Whereas other LEED products focus primarily on green building practices, with only a few credits regarding site selection, LEED-ND will emphasize smart growth aspects and neighborhood design of development while still incorporating a selection of the most important green building practices. Guided by the Smart Growth Network's ten principles of smart growth and the Charter for New Urbanism it will include compact design, proximity to transit, mixed use, mixed housing type, and pedestrian- and bicycle- friendly design. In short, LEED-ND will create a label which could serve as a concrete signal of, and incentive for, better location, design, and construction of neighborhoods and buildings. LEED-ND is currently in a pilot program and is expected to be finalized in 2008.

CD+A Welcomes Tim Rood to the Firm

We are pleased to announce the addition of a new Principal. Tim Rood, AICP, joins us after many sucessful years of experience in transportation, land use, and regional planning and policy, as well as architecture and urban design. View his bio to see his many accomplishments.

CCAPA Award for East 14th Street

The East 14th Street South Area Development STrategy won a 2005 CCAPA Award for Excellence a few months back. The plan will be the subject of a presentation at next week's national APA conference in San Antonio called "Corridor New Urbanism".

We're Moving

We're moving this weekend, but only around the corner. Same phone, fax, and email.
All the details here.

New Urban News

There's an article in the "New Urban News" from October/November (just released) about the Context-Sensitive Design for Major Urban Thoroughfares project co-sponsored by ITE and CNU. No on-line edition, but check out p. 20 of the print version for some of the work we've been doing.

Bend, OR

Phil was in Bend, Oregon last week to give a lecture on Smart Growth as part of the "Building a Better Bend" lecture series.[Article from Bend.com].