Feb

16

I ♥ Copenhagen

Filed Under Cities, Copenhagen, Events, Innovation, Sustainability, Transportation, walking | 2 Comments

Upcoming Event: Seattle’s Public Life – How it Can Become the Most Walkable City in America

Hell_SoholtGreat City is pleased to co-sponsor the following upcoming lecture by Helle Søholt of Gehl Architects in Copenhagen!

Time: 6:00pm

Date: Tuesday, February 23rd

Location: Seattle Art Museum (Enter at First & University Street in Downtown Seattle near the Hammering Man Sculpture (the main entrance will be closed). Click for Map

Cost: Free

RSVP: Please RSVP via email to info@i-sustain.org or PublicLife@downtownseattle.org

Seattle has just completed the most in-depth study of public spaces Downtown ever conducted in a U.S. city. Don’t miss this free forum about how to turn Down­town into a world-class pedestrian-friendly experience.

The forum will feature findings from nearly three years of re­search in Seattle presented by Helle Søholt, managing partner of Gehl Architects. The City of Seattle and the International Sustain­ability Institute retained Gehl to audit Downtown’s streets, alleys and public places with students from UW’s Green Futures Lab.

The Copenhagen-based Gehl firm has worked on every continent and in more than 400 cities around the world. Søholt is a founding partner with Jan Gehl and has extensive experience world-wide in urban design including master planning, public life surveys, urban quality analysis, development of strategy plans, public space plans and the design of public spaces.

Sponsored By: AIA Seattle, The City of Seattle, The Downtown Seattle Association, GEHL Architects, Great City, The International Sustainability Institute, The Scan|Design Foundation, and The University of Washington Green Futures Lab

Feb

8

Green Alleys Competition (Submissions Due Feb. 22nd)

Filed Under Design, Innovation, SDOT, Streets For People, Sustainability, walking | 3 Comments

Great City is Pleased to co-sponsor the Green Alleys Competition!

Seattle’s alleys offer intimate, small-scale spaces that, properly staged, invite people to walk and promise a host of sustainability benefits. Introducing greenery to Seattle’s forgotten spaces can create a small ecological system of its own by filtering city runoff before it hits the Puget Sound.

How green is your alley? The City of Seattle, the International Sustainability Institute, People for Puget Sound, and the AIA Seattle is sponsoring a contest on how to green our alleys. An all-star cast of designers, planners, residents and other alley-lovers will judge the entries for their originality, cost-effectiveness and practical implementation.

Join us in a unique design competition to green Seattle’s alleys

For more information send an email to:
green_alleys-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

OR email darby.watson@seattle.gov

Here is a PDF document containing project info, submission requirements and maps of the project area: Green_Alleys_info.pdf (836 KB)

greenAlley

Image by Gehl Architects

Interested parties can get more information by subscribing to (emailing): green_alleys-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Official Press Release Follows:

Guiding Principles

Alleys are a key resource in Seattle. Traditionally restricted to service uses, the Clear Alleys Program has opened up opportunities to use alleys in different ways. This design competition is focused on potential new uses that in combination could add functionality to our transportation and ecological systems as well as improving the aesthetic and community-building elements of our City. Below are some guiding principles to help you in your design of Seattle’s best Green Alley:

Green alleys should:

  • Welcome pedestrians, both as walkways and places to visit
  • Incorporate green stormwater infrastructure in both functional and aesthetic aspects
  • Encourage building design to provide doors, windows, and other elements that support non-service uses
  • Continue to provide access for service vehicles

Judging Criteria

  1. Design innovation and quality: 40%
  2. Thoughtful integration of green stormwater infrastructure: 20%
  3. Response to culture, community, and context: 20%
  4. Transferability of ideas and approach to other alleys: 20%

    5. Submittal Requirements

    Registration fee $10, payable at the time of submission to International Sustainability Institute, (ISI) (cash or check only)

    Up to two (2) 30″x40″ presentation boards (orientation may be landscape or portrait), include a CD with electronic versions of all boards in PDF or JPG format

    Address specifically the Nord alley within the project area (see project area information packet)
    Design on one side only of presentation boards, backsides should list submitters’ name(s), contact information and submission category

    Graphics may be any combination of sections, plans, and sketches that helps to convey your design
    Limit one submission per individual or team
    Submission Categories
    Submit under one category only:

    Student or New Professional: include current quarter enrollment information or proof of graduation from a degree or certificate program within the last three years.

    Non-affiliated designer: include a personal statement that you are not currently employed with a firm or agency where your primary role is design work.
    General: includes individuals, firms, or groups that are currently employed in a design field.

    Assumptions and notes:

    For this exercise assume that soils beneath the alley right-of-way are sufficient for stormwater infiltration (1″/hour permeability)

    The use of the Nord Alley does not preclude designs that may not comport with the Pioneer Square historic guidelines, the judging criteria includes the ability of a design to be transferable to other alleys within the City

    Designs may be proposed for within the right of way of the alley as well as retrofitting the existing buildings as those designs support the Guiding Principles for creating a Green Alley

    All electronic submissions become the property of the City of Seattle

    All submission materials will be available for pick up at ISI offices on March 5 during regular business hours

    Prizes:

    Grand Prize: Open to general submissions
    Best Student/New Professional:
    Best non-affiliated designer:
    People’s Choice: Winner selected at the alley party – see schedule

    We are awaiting confirmation of a cash award for each prize along with a super-cool trophy!
    All submissions will be published on the SDOT blog.

    Schedule

    Week of January 11: Release schedule, regulations, and base information on Yahoo Groups

    February 22: Entries due to ISI offices by 5 pm PST (314 1st Avenue South, 206-381-1630)

    February 24: Judging panel reviews and selects winners

    March 4: First Thursday Alley party, all entries displayed and winners announced in the Nord Alley

    Co-sponsored by:

    Great City, AIA Seattle, Pioneer Square Community Association, People for Puget Sound, City of Seattle, Great City, Downtown Seattle Association, Feet First, and the International Sustainability Institute.

Sep

9

I ♥ Copenhagen

Filed Under Cities, Copenhagen, Innovation, Sustainability, Transit, Transportation, Zoning | 1 Comment

I-Sustain Report on Transportation in Copenhagen

Continuing along with our recent theme of Copenhagen sustainability envy, we want to give a shout out to our friends at International Sustainable Solutions (www.i-sustain.com), a local non-profit that strives educate urban professionals and decision makers about the best sustainability practices happening around the globe.

I-Sustain has loaned some reports documenting some best practices from their recent sustainability tours that took place in, you guessed it, Copenhagen! We’ll be posting on our blog over the next few weeks.

The first one focuses on transpiration. You can download it here:
Solutions at a Glance: Can Reliable Efficient Transit Limit the Numbers of Second Cars? (PDF, 353K)

Thank you I-Sustain for lending us your report and hooray for Copenhagen!

Mar

16

Affordability, Sustainablity and Livability: Thoughts on how we debate our future

Filed Under Innovation, Politics, Sustainability, The Bottom Line, Zoning | Leave a Comment

Originally posted on Facebook

After spending a lot of time in 2008 watching local land use debates and discussions I found myself feeling more than a little frustrated. Where was all this going? Council discussions seemed to lack focus on a broader agenda for the city. That agenda could be the Comprehensive Plan but that document has become a repository for ‘good ideas’ and political statements. One would often hear “sure put it in the Comp Plan; it doesn’t mean we actually have to do it.”

But what if someone asked me “what should our larger focus be, Roger?” I felt as though I needed to at least think through my answer. At the time it seemed to me that it all came down to making the city affordable to a wide range of people, supporting a self-sufficient and sustainable city and making the city livable.

So I proposed that we create a series based on these three ideas and solicit people’s best and most succinct thoughts on each topic. The Affordability, Sustainability, Livability series was born. Thanks to Shawna at the DJC we were on our way to at least sparking some discussion about the bigger picture. Seattle is missing a determined effort define what we want and measure our progress toward getting it–whatever it is.

That is why the whole series ends up being about definition and measurement. My experience thus far is there isn’t much enthusiasm out there for defining and measuring anything. Defining and measuring doesn’t make for great campaign slogans.”Vote for me and I will work to get us a clear idea of how far we have to go to effectively address the issues we face as a city!” Not exactly “I Like Ike!”

Unfortunately discussion on zoning, for example, tends to fall along party lines, not Democrat or Republican, but various interest groups claiming they will lose if certain legislation passes. Whether its a parking lot in Capitol Hill or incentive zoning its always a scrimmage between the developer who needs to get the project moving, the local neighborhood and parties on either side that see this particular project as representative of “what’s wrong with Seattle.”

If this does not substantially change our city will not be able to make progress on addressing big issues like the viaduct, climate change and the health of Puget Sound. And our city simply cannot prepare for coming growth amid such economic turmoil by having a house to house fight (see Edith Macefield) on issues like land use and housing. It will simply be a case of Bambi Meets Godzilla. We will be crushed by events and we’ll just have to live with whatever happens to our natural and built environment and our economy.

I hope that doesn’t happen.

If you have thoughts on livability (50 words) please submit to them to Shawna (shawnag@djc.com) by Thursday of this week. It would be great to have you and others you know weigh in.

Feb

6

Public Street Utilities and Citywide Transit-Pass Programs

Filed Under Innovation, Streets For People, Transit, Transportation | Leave a Comment

Thank you for the opportunity to blog with you.

We all want progressive and practical solutions to our transportation woes, and that is why we should pay close attention to a bill recently introduced in the state House of Representatives, HB 1947. The legislation would permit Washington municipalities such as Seattle to establish public street utilities. That’s right, a public utility for building and maintaining streets.

At first glance, this notion of a public utility for streets might repulse environmentalists and advocates for walking, biking, and transit. But the bill has lots of interesting wrinkles, and ultimately a public street utility could be a tool for balancing the uses of our streets so they are better places to walk, bike, and ride transit. A street utility could even give all of its users free transit passes and help pay for new transit service. To understand how this could be, it’s necessary to understand how a public street utility would work.
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