The City of Detroit, along with nonprofit organization Greening of Detroit, will plant tens of thousands of trees in two, quarter-square-mile vacant city spaces to demonstrate how greening strategies can improve life in the city.
The city’s goals for the program include creating jobs for city residents as landscape workers, reducing air pollution, and minimizing stormwater and snowmelt runoff. Vacant lots will either be planted with trees or given some other green features, such as rainwater gardens, flowers, or urban farms.
City officials said they will decide what will be done with each space after getting buy-in from nearby residents. Philanthropic organizations will fund the initiative.
A city official says that the effort is expected to boost property values in the city. Detroit has an estimated 20-30 square miles of vacant space.
Related Stories
Sustainability | Jun 28, 2017
Mohawk College will have one of the region’s first net-zero energy institutional buildings
The project’s net-zero goals led to the development of a new curtain wall system.
Building Team | Jun 27, 2017
Bruner Foundation announces 2017 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence gold and silver medalists
The SteelStacks Arts and Cultural Campus in Bethlehem, Pa., receives the gold medal and $50,000.
Green | Jun 23, 2017
Want a healthy building? Follow this primer on two new wellness standards
Since its development in the 1990s, the LEED rating system has been applied to over 19.1 billion total commercial square feet.
Codes and Standards | Jun 21, 2017
World Green Building Council: All buildings must be net zero by 2050 to avert 2°C rise
Building efficiency essential to tempering global climate change.
Green | Jun 16, 2017
Could this become London’s greenest building?
Curl la Tourelle Head Architecture wants to create a school powered by the River Thames.
Green | Jun 15, 2017
45-meter spiraling tower lets you walk above the trees
A 600-meter treetop path culminates with a 45-meter-tall spiraling observation deck.
Green | Jun 14, 2017
After Paris: What’s at stake for the building industry
In the wake of President Trump’s unilateral decision to withdraw the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, many in the building industry have optimistically pointed to unstoppable market forces pushing the sector towards a post-carbon future.
| Jun 13, 2017
Accelerate Live! talk: Next-gen materials for the built environment, Blaine Brownell, Transmaterial
Architect and materials guru Blaine Brownell reveals emerging trends and applications that are transforming the technological capacity, environmental performance, and design potential of architecture.
Office Buildings | Jun 8, 2017
Take a look at the plans for Google’s new 1 million-sf London campus
Heatherwick Studio and BIG are designing the 11-story building.
| May 30, 2017
Accelerate Live! talk: Health-generating buildings, Marcene Kinney, Angela Mazzi, GBBN Architects
Architects Marcene Kinney and Angela Mazzi share design hacks pinpointing specific aspects of the built environment that affect behavior, well-being, and performance.