Unlike many so-called ‘green’ buildings built in greenfields that require driving to get to, LEED standards rating of 66 out of 69 points, the highest rating ever achieved by a commercial building, it’s justifiable in aspiring to be called the world’s greenest building.
As a sign of the times that driving is considered less and less a right than a privilege, the newest LEED standards (Version 3) have
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Who says it doesn’t pay to walk?
A new CEOs for Cities study, Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Housing Values in U.S. Cities, surveying 94,000 real estate transactions in 15 metropolitan areas, concluded that homes in more walkable neighborhoods were valued $4000 to $34,000 more than less walkable ones.
Walk Score, profiled previously, has become a dependable resource for providing walkability ratings, from 0 being the least to 100 being the most walkable. In the study, a one-point
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It’s not just a grassroots effort anymore. Fast Company Magazine’s September 2009 issue takes a look at how the most innovative government agencies and corporations are “enticing urbanites out of using their cars.“
NYC DOT: Possibly the most innovative government agency in the U.S., New York City’s Department of Transportation closed several miles to cars in their annual Summer Streets program last year, and made Times Square and Broadway Boulevard pedestrian only this year. What’s next?!
New Orleans is attracting scores of entrepreneurs and small businesses, and there hasn’t been a better time to be a creative. “There has never been a better time in Louisiana for the creative class to thrive,” says state lieutenant governor, Mitchell J. Landrieu. Why such a bold statement?
First of all, the evidence.
- New Orleans’ metro area gained 100,000 nonfarm, post-Katrina jobs from October 2005 to June 2009, and by 2016 is expected to grow 24% from 2006 levels to 98.8% of
Real estate development is one of the slowest to react as an economy and culture evolve, but office parks are gradually making the transition. From Urban Land Magazine’s June 2009 article, Reworking the Office, here are the key trends to be aware of as outdated office parks are overhauled and retrofitted to leave behind the industrial economy and fully meet the needs of the knowledge economy, and further on to the creative economy...
Mixed uses, walkability and amenties - “Young professionals
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Yes, they do exist. Here are 7 favorite car-free cities as selected by the Mother Nature Network, which reminds us that a mere 100 years ago just about every city in the world was car-free. Large to small:
The Medina of Fes-el-Bali, Morocco (bottom image) - pop. 156,000. One of the largest contiguous car-free urban areas in the world, if not the largest, and the most pedestrian-scaled as well, where cars simply wouldn’t fit on most of the streets, sometimes not even bikes!
Venice, Italy -
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