livagreen » Best Practice

Rebranding the Solution?

Billy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 14:26:12 +0000

Very informative Pedestrian Summit today at the Bay Area’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC): http://www.mtc.ca.gov/meetings/events/ped_summit.htm One of my colleagues, Bob Schnieder was able to speak about research UC Berkley has done on developing bike and pedestrian count and modeling methods and Meghan Mitman from Fehr and Peers shared her expertise and discussed a best practice website her firm has put together: http://coolpedestrianenvironments.org/

In other news, it’s interesting that two transportation oriented organizations have decided to rebrand themselves recently: TransLink the Bay Area’s regional transit fare card will change itself to Clipper (http://2cu2.sl.pt ; see also the post by the Bay Area’s Akit) through a $500,000 rebranding campaign; and the UC Berkeley Traffic Safety Center will become SafeTREC, the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center. (http://www.safetrec.berkeley.edu/)

Both names are about as interesting as the iPad; would not have been my choices since one sounds like people are riding trains like pirates and the other big Vulcans fans who walk around saying ‘live long and prosper.’ Both still have great things going for them but in an era of fiscal crisis, it makes me wonder if rebranding transportation is responsible? It doesn’t seem to address or be the solution to ridership or research issues. It is money well-spent on changing transportation mode shift or doing good transportation research?

Cool Ped/Active-Living Planning from NYC

admin — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:46:00 +0000

After a week of becoming pedestrian oriented the NY Times is reporting that Times square is becoming a place filled with activity where it’s hard to find a seat. This activation of urban space for pedestrian and social uses hearkens more to European cities that many in the US, and provides an opportunity for art and architecture, social and environmental connection, and fitness through incidental exercise. If only it added some trees and green spaces like another recent New York revitalization projects like the New High Line, it would be a quintessential example of the positive human response to the natural world (See: ‘biophelia hypothesis‘).

The Design of Spectacle – Stefan Al

admin — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Article featuring Stefan Al.

TATA Does Housing in India – Micro Units in Mumbai

admin — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:46:00 +0000

Comparable to George Hauser’s Cubix SF in San Francisco (see also SF Curbed Discussions), now an entire development of very small residential units–as little as 283 square feet–being developed in India by TATA – the same company that makes the tiny and affordable “Nano” automobile. Similar to British ‘eco-cities’, it’s an “Eco-friendly green development with water harvesting facility” and “medicinal plantation” on the grounds. My question is if the pledged rail connection is enough to actually make it sustainable with all the cheap auto’s the company is spewing out and the lack of info about provisions for parking on the companies website.

Two Building Typologies to Mitigate Sea Rise: OMA + Studiomobile

admin — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:45:00 +0000

Although the concept for one is more agricultural it could provide concepts for new development…

OMA’s residential tower in Singapore provides a model that not only could mitigate sea rise but also expand on potential in capturing ‘air rights’ for development.