Neighborhood Design Center, Inc.

On September 17, Doug Farr gave a lecture on Sustainable Urbanism at Monona Terrace in Madison. Doug is the author of Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature, a Principal with Farr Associates in Chicago, and the Chair of the Core Committee for the LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) Certification program. His presentation can be viewed on WisconsinEye Television’s website.

Sustainable Urbanism is defined as “walkable and transit-served urbanism integrated with high-performance buildings and high performance infrastructure.” High performance buildings meet LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification standards. In otherwords, they are “green” buildings that reduce energy consumption, are highly energy efficient, use recycled and non-toxic materials, use natural lighting, etc. High perferformance infrastructure refers to streets and other public infrastructure that restores and enhances natural hydrologic (water) systems, reduces energy, provides habitat, etc.

Sustainable Urbanism brings together the three movements of Smart Growth, New Urbanism, and Green Building to create a holistic approach to the built environment that takes into account location, urban design, and building design. LEED-ND is a certification program that establishes measurements to determine if a project qualifies as sustainable urbanism. As such, it seeks to create a brand for sustainable urbanism.

How can we achieve sustainable urbanism in the Madison, Wisconsin area? According to the definition, sustainable urbanism projects would need to be:

Walkable - requires compact (8 dwelling units per residential acre or more) communities with a wide range of housing types within walking distance (1/4 - 1/2 mile) of many daily activities, connected by pedestrian-friendly streets.

Transit-served - LEED-ND defines “adequate transit service” as “during weekday peak periods (5:30 to 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 to 8:30 p.m.) , at least 4 buses (including bus rapid transit), streetcars, or light rail trains per hour OR at least 5 heavy passenger trains or ferries per weekday peak period.”

High Performance Buildings - buildings that meet LEED Certification requirements.

High Performance Infrastructure -  Public infrastructure that maximizes stormwater infiltration, greywater recycling, solar reflectivity, creates landscapes for people and wildlife, and adheres to best management construction practices to minimize erorsion and environmental damage.

There are examples in the Madison area of each of those 4 components of sustainable urbanism, but nowhere as far as I know that combines them all. We have some walkable, transit-served neighborhoods with energy consuming buildings and impervious surfaces that pollute our lakes. We have green buildings that are not located in walkable, transit-served areas. And we have a growing number of green infrastructure examples such as rain gardens, rain barrels, pervious pavers, green roofs, and bio-swales; although nowhere near enough to improve water quality.

Sustainable urbanism is great at the site or project level (of varying sizes or scales). But for a city or metro area it needs to be tied to a robust regional transit system that is supported with policies to tie development to transit nodes. A merging, if you will, of sustainable urbanism with Phil Lewis’ vision of regional design.

How can our existing neighborhoods better achieve all of the elements of sustainable urbansim? How can we come together to create visions for new projects that will significantly raise the bar to achieve and set the standard for sustainable urbansim? Should we:

• hold more community meetings to lay out a sustainable urbanism/neighborhood agenda?
• hold design sessions to create visions and designs for sustainable urbanism?
• start neighborhood level conversations about how to make our neighborhood more sustainable?

Are you interested in any of these or other efforts?