Immanuel Kant, in 1790, described beauty as ’sensory, emotional, and intellectual,’ a synthesis of data which we as humans process when evaluating objects. More recently Abraham Moles, Frieder Nake and Jurgen Schmidhuber, leaders in the field of aesthetics and information theory, described beauty as ‘the option with the shortest description, given the observer’s previous knowledge [...]
Environmental Racism: Baltimore’s Toxic Tour by Urban Environmentalist Glenn Ross
Baltimore has a vocal champion for urban environmental issues. His name is Glenn Ross and he has only recently embraced the label of ‘environmentalist.’
You see, Mr. Ross had spent the previous 20 years dealing with sanitation, public health and decent housing as a community activist on the behalf of his East Baltimore community (and other [...]
Ivanhoe Reservoir: Solving a problem / Illustrating another
Problem
Ivanhoe Reservoir (Los Angeles, California) has a problem. Bright sunlight, chlorine and natural bromides combined together to form the carcinogen bromate and now Ivanhoe Reservoir is contaminated. The only way to effectively remove the chemical is to drain the entire body of water and clean the bottom surface to remove all the bromate. In the [...]
The Vulcan-Project: Carbon Dioxide Generation and Movement Visualized
The following film, produced by the Vulcan-Project, superimposes carbon dioxide emissions onto a map of the United States and animates them over time. It is fascinating to see the areas where carbon dioxide is produced and have a short description of their source. Watching the emissions over time, especially the implications shown for daytime vs [...]
An Overview of SPeAR by ARUP
SPeAR, the Sustainable Project Appraisal Routine, is a sustainability performance evaluation tool developed by ARUP for use in their projects. The software was developed by ARUP as a way of breaking down sustainability into constituent parts so that issues could be dealt with on a discrete per instance basis rather than as a conceptual ideal. [...]
Greenwashing: Thoughts and How It Is Changing the Industry
Greenwashing is everywhere these days. It is hard to pick up a magazine without being introduced a myriad of products, services and opinions that are tainted green in one way or another. Let’s be honest, it is good to be associated with the latest trend. At the moment it happens to be sustainability. I for [...]
Walk Score - New Web Site Helps Locate Walkable Communities
A fellow architect here at Ziger/Snead tipped the green team off to this great new web site. Go to www.walksite.com, type in an address and watch as it tallies up amenities within walking distance to calculate your “walk score.”
Testing out our office’s location near downtown Baltimore revealed what I already know — We’re in [...]
Catholic and Sustainable?
Absolutely! In a wonderful example, the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) used the concepts of sustainability to renew the vision of their community. In clear and purposeful words the Sisters proclaim:
“[that] Today’s IHM community is at a unique and historical moment. Through research, discernment and study, we came to a [...]
James Fallows on China’s Pollution Problem
The arrival of a new Atlantic Monthly is an eagerly awaited event in my household. Well written articles on a variety of domestic and foreign issues, a nice collection of book and entertainment reviews, listings of esoteric current events and a letters section full of inside-the-beltway politicos battling things out in public all generally [...]
The Terrifying Beauty of Waste
Artist Chris Jordan photographs mounds of discarded soda bottles, piles of crushed cars, scrap heaps, discarded cell phones, heaps of sawdust and old computer circuit boards. They all do a good job hamming it up for the camera, looking as composed as the subject of French pastoral landscape painting or a Dutch still-life :
The [...]
Bicycle Testimonial
Mary Beth Kelly’s story is as inspirational as they come.
In June 2006, she and her husband Dr. Carl Henry Nacht were bicycling home from dinner on the Hudson River Greenway in Chelsea when an NYPD tow truck turned sharply into the bike lane at 38th Street and 12th Avenue. Despite signs telling drivers to yield [...]
Google Earth for Air Emissions
(above) Air Polluters in Baltimore - Can you guess where the Constellation Energy plants are?
Now along with mountain ranges, roads, restaurants and tourist destinations, you can search for air pollution production levels around the United States! That is right, the EPA has created an dataset for Google Earth which allows you to map the six [...]
Defining Sustainability: Five Statements
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs.”
-World Commission on Environment and Sustainability (Brundtland Commission, 1987)
“A dynamic process which enables all people to realize their potential and to improve their quality of life in ways that simultaneously protect and [...]
Green Restaurant Association
The Green Restaurant Association (GRA) is a national non=profit organization which provides research, consulting, education, marketing and community organizing services to restaurants and a variety of other food service companies. Their mission is to “create an ecologically sustainable restaurant industry.” The organization was recently highlighted in a New York Times article titled “Going Out to [...]
e² on PBS: The Economies of Being Environmentally Conscious
For those of you interested in sustainability in a global sense (triple bottom line etc), we would like to highlight the ongoing PBS series called e². The television series is touching on multiple topics to show a general state of sustainability today and forecast its future. Subjects of the program include: design, energy, water, food, [...]