Reports: Environment

New Urban News Article with images, 1/1/2008
Torti Gallas tells how it incorporated sustainability traits into its projects.
“Is New Urbanism inherently sustainable? Only partly,” says Tom Gallas, partner and chief business strategist at Torti Gallas and Partners. That’s why the Silver Spring, Maryland, planning and design firm has tried for the past several years to supplement its new urbanist orientation by adding specifically “green” techniques.

Chapter 21 of the New Urbanism Best Practices Guide

Urbanism can greatly benefit the environment — by concentrating development in compact patterns that use natural resources more efficiently. These patterns make it possible to preserve more land as natural, agricultural, or open space and to reduce auto emissions, energy use, and stormwater runoff. This chapter looks at New Urbanism’s rapidly advancing practices in sustainability and the environment.

New Urban News Article with images, 12/1/2006
Natural drainage systems and other ecologically advanced technologies are coming to walkable communities.
A new urbanist-led charrette in November recommended that New Orleans be redeveloped with “natural drainage systems” — techniques allowing stormwater to soak into the ground rather than be piped, sometimes full of pollutants, to bodies of water like Lake Pontchartrain.

New Urban News Article with images, 12/1/2006
How to handle rainwater in ways that accentuate placemaking
In times past, engineers often integrated elements of civic art, architecture, and history into a city’s parkways, bridges, and other public necessities. In doing so, they enhanced the character of the urban environment. Today, when engineering often deals with the environment, there is an opportunity once again to serve civic purposes — by handling rainwater well.

New Urban News Article with images, table, sidebar, 1/1/2007
In a South Carolina case study, “light-imprint” infrastructure reduced anticipated engineering expenses 31 percent.
In the December issue, we reported that new urbanist developers are increasingly turning to “natural drainage systems” — techniques that allow much of a community’s stormwater to soak into the ground rather than be piped to rivers, lakes, treatment plants, or large, unsightly detention ponds. A newly completed study led by Tom Low shows that these more natural methods could sharply reduce engineering costs for traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs).