Category: Environment|Sustainability
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Lavasa: The Tumultuous Progress of an Aspiring Eco-City
India is urbanizing at an unprecedented rate; it is predicted that its urban population will grow from 308 million to 750 million by 2050. However, India’s current cities are ill-equipped to accept such large numbers of migrants. Plagued by inadequate social and physical infrastructure, congestion, pollution and therefore poor livability and expensive real estate, these…
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International Urban Development and Transportation
T.O.D. should not only be about transit-oriented development, but about transit-owned development. When I was a child, I was the first in my classroom to notice that the World Trade Center (Tower 1) had been struck, and I later helped to close our windows, watching as it collapsed. The World Trade Center was a transit-owned, transit-oriented development,…
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Thinking Beyond Buildings
Public transportation authorities often do not control zoning and land use laws, and they also operate amidst a sea of privately-owned land. In fact, America’s land use laws are arguably reflected by its LEED incentives. The LEED Neighborhood Development Rating System rightly incentivizes LEED construction in transit-oriented communities by prioritizing an access to quality transit, with…
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Feeding the Sun Corridor: Exploring Arizona’s Zero Sum Game
Perceptions of Sustainability Sustainability is the paradigm of our age.i Architects, urban planners, real estate developers, technology companies, college campuses, food distributors, nearly everyone is doing it. Regrettably, conversation surrounding sustainability is commonly directed at one, shallow resolve: proclaiming whether something is or is not sustainable. Use these biodegradable sponges, they’re sustainable! Don’t buy a…
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Enabling Communities to Build Their Own Plazas
All over the country more and more cities are catching on to the idea that public space can be created quickly and cheaply; expensive master plans are becoming a thing of the past. Typically a community partner—a business improvement district or non-profit community organization—can apply through the municipality to transform an excessive roadway into…
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Glimpse: NYC Harbor
“Glimpse” is a new PYC series for on-the-go readers interested in concise, image-laden posts… Water is NYC’s 6th borough. Our water defines our social, economic, political, environmental, and physical infrastructures. Think about it: NYC would definitely not be NYC without our islands of density and diversity, interconnected by world famous structures, and interconnected to the world by…