Nature as the city: Why it’s time for a new framework to guide development
NBBJ leaders Jonathan Ward and Margaret Montgomery explore five inspirational ideas they are actively integrating into projects to ensure more healthy, natural cities.
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NBBJ leaders Jonathan Ward and Margaret Montgomery explore five inspirational ideas they are actively integrating into projects to ensure more healthy, natural cities.
Denver’s e-bike voucher program that helps citizens pay for e-bikes, a component of the city’s carbon reduction plan, has proven extremely popular with residents. Earlier this year, Denver’s effort to get residents to swap some motor vehicle trips for bike trips ran out of vouchers in less than 10 minutes after the program opened to online applications.
In 2023, New York City recorded its safest year for pedestrians since record-keeping began in 1910. In a city of 8.5 million people, 101 deaths were due to vehicles striking pedestrians, less than one-third the number of the early 1990s. New York City ramped up its efforts to make walking and biking safer in 2014 when the city reduced its speed limit to 25 miles per hour.
Boston has placed significant aspects of its plan to protect the city from rising sea levels on the actions of private developers. Amid a post-Covid commercial development slump, though, efforts to build protective infrastructure have stalled.
Having made considerable strides to make streets more accessible to pedestrians and bikers in recent years, New York City is continuing to build on that momentum. Ya-Ting Liu, the city’s first public realm officer, is shepherding $375 million in funding earmarked for projects intended to make the city more environmentally friendly and boost quality of life.
Creating a meaningful academic and student life experience on university and college campuses does not always mean adding a new building. A new or resurrected campus quad, recreational fields, gardens, and other greenspaces can tie a campus together, writes Sean Rosebrugh, AIA, LEED AP, HMC Architects' Higher Education Practice Leader.
Arizona will no longer grant certifications for new residential developments in Phoenix, it’s largest city, due to concerns over groundwater supply. The announcement indicates that the Phoenix area, currently the nation’s fastest-growing region in terms of population growth, will not be able to sustain its rapid growth because of limited freshwater resources.
Central Business Districts are under pressure to keep themselves relevant as they face competition from new, vibrant mixed-use neighborhoods emerging across the world’s largest cities.
What makes a city walkable? Shepley Bulfinch's Omar Bailey, AIA, LEED AP, NOMA, believes pedestrian focused cities benefit most when they're not only easy to navigate, but also create spaces where people can live, work, and play.
As climate change is linked with biodiversity depletion, fostering biodiverse landscapes during construction can create benefits beyond the immediate surroundings of the project.
Gensler's Stacey Olson breaks down the pros and cons of the "20-minute city," from equity concerns to data-driven design.
Isabel Castilla, a Principal Designer with the landscape architecture firm James Corner Field Operations, discusses recent changes in clients' priorities about urban design, with a focus on her firm's recent projects.
Eric Corey Freed, Director of Sustainability, CannonDesign, shares how established designers and recently-emerged chief heat officers (CHO) can collaborate on solutions for alleviating climate change risks.
Gensler Co-CEO Andy Cohen explores how the global pandemic affected city life, and gives three solutions for revitalizing these urban centers.