Since loads of us love Christmas trees and all things that bring Christmas cheer, here’s a way to indulge in your tree without killing it (strange tradition we’ve had all these years, eh?) The city of San Francisco has launched a program offering live local trees that you can take into your home. Then after the holiday cheer has run its course the tree lives on where it belongs — in the ground! Better yet, these non-traditional trees have been specifically selected to live in San Francisco’s climate, so your tree is sure to thrive long after it’s christening.

Read the rest of San Francisco Offers Christmas Trees that Live on After the Holidays

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Post tags: dreaming of a green christmas, friends of the urban forest, Green Christmas Tree, living christmas tree, public space, San Francisco, sustainable design

Re-inventing ordinary street dividers and concrete balls, Liesbet Bussche creates larger-than-life jewelry pieces for the streets of Amsterdam. The Belgian designer makes small interventions to the street scape, a charm to a chain or earring backs to a concrete ball. However, altogether the jewelry can easily make any passer-by smile upon finding a serendipitous change in the uniform vocabulary of the urban landscape.

READ MORE AT ECOUTERRE >

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Post tags: art interventions, public art, public space, Street art, street scape, streetscape, urban planning

San Francisco’s Bay Bridge is currently undergoing a massive renovation as an aging section of the East Bay span is replaced with a new one, and the old conduit has fired up architects’ imaginations for new ways to use the soon-to-be abandoned space. Inspired by the success of New York’s recently opened High Line Park, Rael San Fratello Architects haver proposed a hanging neighborhood and sky park complete with 1.92 miles of bicycle paths, climbing walls, gardens, and meadows.

Read the rest of Bay Line: A High Line Park for San Francisco’s Bay Bridge

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Post tags: bay bridge park, bicycle park, green design, Green renovation, green space, high line, paths, public space, San Francisco, sustainable design

For those New Yorkers who look forward to the first Thursday of each month for the DUMBO Gallery Walk, now there is even more reason to head that direction: the DUMBO archway renovation is complete! Although the archway has been open since the fall of 2008, the DUMBO Improvement District and NYC Department of Transportation recently invited pedestrians in to view the structure’s upgraded interior. Designed by Rogers Marvel Architects and Jim Conti Lighting Design, the “beautification” project introduces wooden benches, lighting, and street improvements.

Read the rest of DUMBO Archway Beautification Complete!

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Post tags: dumbo art gallery, historic preservation, manhattan bridge, new york city department of transportation, nyc dumbo, nyc landmarks, public space, public space renovation, urban beautification, Urban design, urban revitalization

For most people, bicycles represent a means of transportation, a fun activity, or even objects of affection. For David Byrne they’re much more – they offer a unique opportunity to experience the culture, history, and vitality contained within our built environment. Due for release today, Bicycle Diaries is a freewheeling travelogue that finds Byrne pedaling through the cities of the world as he expounds upon architecture, infrastructure, and life within the world’s great cities.

Read the rest of Bicycle Diaries: David Byrne Bikes the World’s Cities

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Post tags: Art, bicycle diaries, bike, culture, david byrne, Green Transportation, infrastructure, public space, Urban design

Heads up all engineers, architects, and designers in NYC! The urbanSHED design competition is looking for a better sidewalk shed, and they’re giving away $25,000 in prizes plus the chance to construct the winning design! Anyone who’s every visited a dense city is likely to be familiar with these unsightly scaffolded spaces – sure, they may protect your head from falling construction debris, but they tend to be plastered with posters, blot out the sky, and are downright fugly. If you have an idea for a better sidewalk shed that’s sustainable, economical, meets safety requirements and makes New York City a better environment for it’s residents then submit your design today – there’s only three days left to register and submissions are due on October 2nd.

+ urbanSHED Design Competition

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Post tags: Architecture, Competition, green design, public space, sustainable design, Urban design, urbanshed

This week the Architecture + The City Festival took us to Treasure Island for an upclose view of the proposed sustainable development plan and a not so shabby panoramic view of the whole San Francisco Bay Area. We found that the entire place is steeped in future plans and the island is a keystone in what will become a center for green living in the Bay.

Read the rest of Treasure Island Reveals New Sustainable Development Plan

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Post tags: green design, public space, san francisco bay area, sustainable design, Treasure Island, Urban design

This past spring, New York City’s Architecture for Humanity chapter (AFHny) partnered with Parsons School of Continuing Education in the spirit of volunteerism to offer a design studio for high school students. Under the tutelage of Parsons teacher, Nick Brinen, and several AFHny volunteers, the students developed concepts for two park shelters located at the entrances of the soon-to-be-reopened High Bridge. Having gained real-world experience and an appreciation for public service, we weren’t surprised to hear that several of the participating students earned scholarships for various design majors at Parsons, FIT, and Pratt. Read on to learn more about their designs!

Read the rest of Students Design Shelter for High Bridge

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Post tags: Architecture for Humanity, community engagement, community service, design mentorship, high bridge manhattan bronx, open space design, park design, parsons, public space, student mentorship, voluteerism

On Monday, July 13, 2009, Diana Balmori and her NYC-based landscape and urban design firm hosted a forum that was part-academic discussion, part-social media experiment. The forum, called Making Public Places, was hosted in the Meatpacking District (MPD) while it streamed live online via Twitter and Ustream. The design firm was joined by 40 landscape architecture and urban design students from the Netherlands. Photos and tweets were updated throughout the event and yours truly was there to see it in action and provide you with highlights. But for more in-depth information, you can check out Balmori Associates‘ recently launched blog focused on public places.

Read the rest of Making Public Places: Forum on Placemaking in Cities

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Post tags: Landscape Architecture, placemaking, public place, public space, social media, Urban design

The Deadline to enter the REBURBIA Design Contest is FRIDAY – July 31st!

If you’ve been reading Inhabitat this summer, by now hopefully you have heard about our REBURBIA contest. If you are interested in entering the design contest for a chance to win fortune and fame – the deadline is TOMORROW!

Anyone who has been watching the subprime mortgage meltdown take over sprawling suburban communities while greenhouse gas emissions continue to accelerate would say that the future of suburbia looks bleak. That’s why we want to remind you about our REBURBIA contest to re-imagine the suburbs, and encourage you to GET YOUR ENTRIES IN TODAY!

Read the rest of DEADLINE to enter ReBURBIA Competition is TOMORROW!

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Post tags: green design, public space, reburbia design competition, suburbs, sustainable design, Urban design

How does urban space become a public place? How does design impact a space’s civic liveliness? On Monday, July 13, 2009, from 10 am to 1 pm, Diana Balmori and her NYC-based landscape and urban design firm Balmori Associates, will be unpacking these questions and other issues that surround place-making. 40 landscape architecture and architecture students will join Diana Balmori and Balmori Associates on Monday in the Meatpacking District to use the area as a case study to frame their discussion about public places. The conversation will stream online via tinychat and Twitter as Diana Balmori moderates along with Dutch landscape architect Erik de Jong. Balmori Associates is inviting everyone to share their insights on public places — so share yours today and see what others have to say on July 13!

See more information on facebook and join the conversation by following @balmorilab on Twitter with hashtag #mpplaces.

+ Making Public Spaces

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Post tags: Balmori Associates, event, green design, Making Public Places, public space, sustainable design, Urban design

It seems virtually everyone—from Wall Street bankers to small business owners—has been affected by the economic downturn. Now, the recession’s latest victims may be American cities. The Obama administration is reportedly considering plans to raze sections of 50 economically depressed US cities, condensing these towns’ shrinking populations and city services to smaller areas. The plan, dubbed “shrink to survive,” may seem kooky, but it could be big news for environmentalists: In many cases, bulldozed districts would be returned to nature via forests or meadows.

Read the rest of US Government May Bulldoze 50 Cities; Create More Green Space

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Post tags: bull dozed, destruction, green design, public space, raze, shrink to survive, sustainable design, tear-down, united states cities, urban space

If you live in a city, you know that the apartments are tiny and there isn’t a lot of green. That means you have to rely on the public, open spaces for a little breathing room. We <3 public space because it means we are sharing space, which means we are building a community that cares about its neighborhood. This week, we are looking back on some pretty cool initiatives, and looking forward to something immensely exciting — the OPENING OF THE HIGH LINE ON JUNE 9TH! We absolutely can’t wait, look for coverage next week!

Designspotter ponders how this colorful public seating would change our perception of public space.

Re-nest reminds us that you can rent a bike for free in Downtown New York City all summer long, courtesy of Bike Around Downtown!

The NY Times covers the Bike in Style Challenge sponsored by LVMH, asking students at FIT to design activewear for urban bicyclists.

We’ve rather been enjoying core77’s coverage of metropolitan/municipal design, especially London’s Design Museum’s latest exhibition which examines how interventions can be made to enhance the experience of Londoners on public streets.

Yours truly was excited to see that Treehugger supports these NYC block parties.

Core77 features this unusual and thought-provoking eye candy on the High Line.

And, what is this? Curbed reports that Frank Gehry’s design for Brooklyn’s Atlantic Yards is being ditched and replaced by something simpler. Read the full story at the NY Times.

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Post tags: atlantic yards new york city, bicycling, bicyclists, bike in style, gehry atlantic yards, high line new york city, open space, public space

This past Thursday, April 23,  four teams made up of third-year Master’s of Architecture students from Columbia GSAPP, Parsons The New School, Pratt Institute, and City College of New York (CCNY) competed against each other in an hour-long design competition to propose a sustainable design solution for the DUMBO archway. After several years of being used as a storage facility, the archway has re-opened for public use. The competition challenged the students to create a link between the archway and the adjacent lot in light of its re-birth as a public space. The event took place in Raumlabor’s Spacebuster, an inflatable and mobile dome which has been hosting events around New York City this past week. Read on for more about the eco-design competition and for the winners!

Read the rest of IRON DESIGNER: THE WINNERS!

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Post tags: architecture competition, city college new york architecture, columbia architecture, dumbo brooklyn, eco design, open space, parsons design architecture, pratt architcture, public space, public space competition, Urban design

Located in Rijeka, Croatia, this urban design incorporates public indoor and outdoor spaces into a modern example of a multi-functional city center. Designed by architecture team 3LHD, the project is characterized by ribbon-like linear strips that stretch north-south over the site. Linear green roofs are located on alternating strips alongside a large, hard-scaped plaza, and a central community center will be used primarily for sports events, but will also offers the visitors a library, fitness area, and retail locations.

Read the rest of An Urban Oasis for Rijeka, Croatia

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Post tags: 3lhd architecture, community design, green roof urban design, open space design, public space, public space design, Urban design, urban design croatia, zamat centre, zamet center