Inhabitat

West Loop Park Infuses Chicago With Green Urban Space

by Olivia Chen, 08/31/09

West Loop Park, Perkins + Will, urban planning, chicago city planning, urban park, urban design, sustainable urban design, landscape architecture, urban revitalization, urban expansion, urban restoration, city building, chicago sustainable building

As the construction process for Hudson Yards drags on in New York, we’re glad to see green urban design is alive and well in Chicago. The windy city is no stranger to sustainable building, and this urban park, located on the fringe of the city’s downtown, will certainly give Chicago even more green cred. Perkins + Will, the architects behind the design, developed the park to create more open space for the city, but the greenway also proves to be a pedestrian-friendly gateway that connects the existing downtown to any future development across the Kennedy Expressway.


READ MORE >

email this email this tweet this tweet this facebook this facebook this 4

Louis Vuitton and FIT Team Up for Bike in Style Competition

by Olivia Chen, 06/14/09

jessica velasquez, fit student competition, fashion institute of technology nyc, nyc summer streets, bicycling active wear, cycling active wear, stylish activewear

Are you a cyclist who bemoans the fact that comfortable biking clothing isn’t stylish? NYC’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennesy (LVMH) teamed up to present a challenge to FIT’s students to create stylish and practical activewear for cyclists. The students worked for a semester to develop designs for a poncho, jacket, and travel bag under the mentorship of their professors and designers at Donna Karen New York (DKNY). The top three finalists and their designs were honored at a conference in early June; read on for more, including the winner!


READ MORE >

email this email this tweet this tweet this facebook this facebook this 1

Uninventing Suburbia and the American Dream

by Abigail Doan, 07/17/08

California suburbs, Uninventing Suburbia, Dot Earth Andrew Revkin, Dot Earth Suburbia, Suburbia and Sustainability, Suburbia and the American Dream, The End of Suburbia documentary film, Grist, Worldchanging, Worldchanging Alex Steffen, sustainable suburban planning, sustainable urban planning, suburban retrofillingphoto by Jill Fehrenbacher

With alarming reports of crude oil prices now hovering close to $145 US dollars per barrel, and home mortgage lending going bust, it is increasingly apparent that the 1950’s inspired American Dream of cul-de-sac ‘oases’ and paved highway transport is really on the verge of an all-out collapse. The environmental costs of suburban life were starkly highlighted in a feature story in the NY Times earlier this spring – a harbinger of sorts to the summer of 2008 where cries about SUV-fill-up costs have supplanted soccer-mom chat. Andrew Revkin at Dot.Earth also addressed the topic with a provocative blog piece that suggested ‘retrofilling’ suburbia as a means to ‘uninvent’ the mindless sprawl. Whatever the strategy to come, it is more apparent than ever, that reinventing our consumption habits and our notions of living ‘the good life’ will be a vital action item as we search for new ways to define sustainability in lieu of behemoth malls and suburban plots of American neighborhoods.


READ MORE >

email this email this tweet this tweet this facebook this facebook this 6

LOTS MORE GREAT GREEN DESIGN STORIES HERE... KEEP READING!