Jun

10

The Code of Hammurabi

Filed Under Design, Development | Leave a Comment

He’s no Bob Loblaw, but Foster Pepper Attorney Colm Nelson dives into case history and comes up with some salient points for designers and developers:

Eye for an eye, really? Irresponsible developers pay heed to the Code of Hammurabi!

Since the dawn of civilization, irresponsible builders did not survive in the marketplace. They did not survive, period. Under the ancient Code of Hammurabi of Babylon circa 1800 BC any builder who negligently built a home that later collapsed and killed the home owner “shall be put death.” Recently, citing to the Code, the Supreme Court of Washington recently, sternly reminded owners, engineers and contractors of their responsibility for worker safety.

In 2004, a digester dome at Spokane’s sewage treatment plant collapsed, killing one City of Spokane employee and injuring two others. The massive digester had a capacity of 2.25 million gallons. Its purpose was to take raw solids, circulate them for several weeks at a high temperature in an anaerobic process, and turn the solids into fertilizer. The injured parties, who were standing on and adjacent to the digester when it collapsed, sued CH2M Hill Inc., the project engineer that had contracted with the City as a consultant for the 10-year capital improvement project to upgrade the plant.

The Plaintiffs alleged, in part, that CH2M had failed to properly advise them and the City, in writing, of the downstream effects of altering the direction of sewage flow at a valve-like transfer station leading to the digester. Prior to the accident, the workers noticed pressure rising in the digester and, in an attempt to relieve that pressure, began conducting a transfer to move sludge from that digester to another. However, CH2M had recently suggested a design change for that valve and related system, which had been implemented, and the effect of that change was significant. Instead of transferring sewage out of the digester, the new system simply transferred the sludge to a “deadhead”, causing no relief in pressure whatsoever. Unfortunately, the City workers did not know this and believed the transfer would relieve pressure. Ultimately, the digester’s dome collapsed, causing one of the workers who was working on top of the dome to fall into the digester and die, while the other two were blown clear by a wave of sludge and suffered serious injury.

via Eye for an eye, really? Irresponsible developers pay heed to the Code of Hammurabi! : Better Building: The Responsible Developer’s Blog.

Mar

24

What’s an Eco-City?

Filed Under Cities, Design, Sustainability | Leave a Comment

The American Society of Landscape Architects’ blog, The Dirt, asks What’s an Eco-City? You can find out or decide for yourself and explore the evolution of this concept through a new UW symposium “Next Eco-City.”

The University of Washington’s landscape architecture department has put together a symposium that will explore the idea of the Eco-City. In ”Next Eco-City,” a range of leading landscape theorists and practitioners like Kristina Hill, Affiliate ASLA, Pierre Belanger, ASLA, and Yu Kongjian, International ASLA, will cover how the Eco-City concept has evolved with increased urbanization and rapid globalization.

The conference organizers argue that “urban environments worldwide are in the midst of multiple shifts, driven by interconnected flows in capital, people, and resources at local, regional and global scales. It impacts not only cities but also the network of social and ecological systems well beyond their borders.”

Despite the fact that a true Eco-City has never really existed, the idea continues to have legs, and has persevered as a potential solution to global challenges. “In contrast to the complexity of today’s urbanization, the concept of the ‘Eco-City,’ arguably dating back to the ideal of the 19th Century Garden City, seems like an overly simplistic and utopian vision. Yet, the imagery and language of an idealized ‘Eco-City’ continue to shape the planning and design of contemporary cities while disregarding the vital complexity of contemporary urban conditions and issues.”  More…

Nov

19

The Secret Life of Small Urban Spaces

Filed Under Cities, Design, Parks | Leave a Comment

One of the all time best urban design studies is now available online. William “Holly” Whyte’s Secret Life of Small Urban Spaces is a tour de force cinematic study of how people actually use urban spaces in New York.

whyte styles from chris woebken on Vimeo.

Oct

18

Green Infrastructure: Hero of Budget and Earth

Filed Under Cities, Conservation, Design, Development, Environment, SDOT, Seattle, South Lake Union, Streets For People, Sustainability, Transportation, Utilities | Leave a Comment

Even though we won’t win a free trip to Portland for saying this, you should really be reading Sightline Daily. We like the regional round up of sustainability topics they find from all over the region, like this from the Tyee:

Road and stormwater infrastructure often destroys the ecological function of the land that supports it and burdens home buyers and taxpayers through its cost to install, maintain and replace. Since the end of the Second World War, the per dwelling unit cost for providing, maintaining and replacing infrastructure (defined here as the physical means for moving people, goods, energy and liquids through the city) has increased by nearly 400 per cent according to some estimates.

Most of this per capita increase has been the consequence of ever more demanding engineering standards for residential roads, coupled with the gradual increase in per capita land demand over the decades (or at least until the year 2000), a consequence of universally applied sprawl patterns throughout the United States and Canada.

The first costs of these ever more odious engineering standards and ever more exclusive zoning regulations were often invisible to the taxpayer, buried as they were within the costs of the original home purchase. More…

Jun

1

Capitol Hill Community Council’s Complete Streetcar Campaign

Filed Under Bicycling, Capitol Hill, Design, Environment, Gas prices, Parking, Pedestrians, SDOT, Seattle, Streets For People, Transit, Transportation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Great City volunteers and sustainable transportation advocates on Capitol Hill have been conspiring and brainstorming together for years.  We’ve been thrilled to see the great traction our friends on the Capitol Hill Community Council (CHCC) are getting with their innovative “Complete Streetcar” concept.  Here’s an update from the CHCC’s Mike Kent:

On Tuesday, May 4th, more than 50 transit advocates and active community members joined the Capitol Hill Community Council’s Complete Streetcar Campaign at Capitol Hill’s Sole Repair lounge in celebrating the group’s recent successes.

Million Dollar Nile regaled Capitol Hill Complete Streetcar fans with the world premiere performance of "My Streetcar's on Broadway" -- a twist on the Sir Mix-a-Lot classic.

The day before, the Seattle City Council voted into law legislation that brought the proposed First Hill Streetcar closer to completion.

Complete Streetcar Campaign supporter Web Crowell created the animations which ran on a loop throughout the event on Sole Repair’s flatscreen monitors throughout the night


The party honored the group’s success in advocating for an alignment that would run in both directions along Broadway north of Union Street, instead of looping around Cal Anderson park.

The group’s next steps include calling for an extension of the proposed streetcar route beyond Denny Way to the northern end of Broadway near East Aloha Street, as was originally envisioned, and pushing for a streetscape plan that includes, among other things, a separated two-way cycle track.

If you are interested in becoming active with the Complete Streetcar Campaign, send an e-mail to chcc.streetcar@gmail.com.

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