DIY Urbanism is a movement or concept that is a deliberate phased approach at instigated change. Basically you can have a one man group or a group of 30 people who use tactics that can be viewed as drastic, disruptive and dangerous by some and by others can be viewed as revolutionary, visionary and thought provoking. In any case it brings focus and attention to the relationships we as people have with our communities or the lack there of. This movement is a reaction to the slow pace of bureaucracy and cut backs/prioritization of government funds when it come to the improvements of our neighborhoods and communities.
The movement is basically made of people who are trying to connect people to the city showing that it can be a beautiful place to live and enjoy if we reconnect with it again. Projects can range from small neighbor hood beautification projects like Guerrilla gardening, intersection repair and depaving– a Portland-born volunteer project to improve storm water treatment by removing unneeded driveways and concrete ground cover. To larger more elaborated and planed projects like pavement-to-parks and street yoga. One of the most popular projects using tactical urbansism was done to an area that you might be very familiar with. Time Square's outdoor sitting arrangement is a project that was officially adopted by the city of New York. I myself have spent several minutes just sitting on Broadway Ave taking in the sounds, smells and sights of the Big Apple on a trip to New York city last summer.
As Generation X start to replace some of the older officials in both government and big business I believe that we will start to see more drastic changes in policy and corporate behaviors. A great example of that change is reflected in the event that happened on November 8, 2008. Some of Americas finer moments in history have come from civil arrest: The Revolutionary War, The Civil War, Civil and Women's Rights. Change often comes from upsetting the balance of things. I think the movement is doing a great job to plant seeds of a better way of life.
If you want to find out more about Tactical Urbanism there book called Tactical Urbanism 2:Short Term Action Long, Term Change
Trinity River Vision
Trinity River Vision Authority is the agency that is set to over see the development of 88 miles of the Trinity River. Goal is to strengthen the bond between Fort Worth and the Trinity River which flows through it. The major focus point is going to be the area called Trinity Uptown. The thinking of this is to bring a large variety of mixed use building that will have waterways and narrow streets that will channel throughout the new development. The narrow streets, winding waterways and close proximity of retail to residential units should promote a more pedestrian friendly environment were people are walking, cycling or taking paddle boats or other forms of low emission transportation.
Re-use and reconditioned
The development will re-use some existing items such as the flood water retention pond which is now the home of the new Cowtown Wakepark. An area that was once a landfill will be modified to accommodation a new sports complex. As well as building an outdoor amphitheater and fishing lake will be built once a decommissioned water sewage treatment plant has been completely removed. In all over 72,000 trees will be planted. Unfortunately, currently, there isn't any set policies in place to ensure that there are affordable housing options that allow for home ownership. I'm very excited to see how the finished product will look.
Jerry Bubridge
Jerry works for The Cherokee Nation in the division that constructs federal building primarily for the Office of Home Land Security. When he is looking for a site for a future building he uses a concept that he has coined as 6666.
The first 6 is for the land. You have to take into consideration other things other then just whats north, south, east and west. You have to consider once under it - the mineral rights, and what on top - air rights.
The second is the skin of the building it has a foundation system and it has four walls and a roof.
The third 6 are the rooms. In this case you have to consider where the switches are. Where the duct work is located with in the grid
The fourth 6 is covers furniture, fixtures and equipment. All of these things have 6 sides. You have to take these things into consideration when accounting for sqft.
So when you are planning you have to seat down with the people who you are buy or building a property for. So you build according to job function not title.
LAB21 is the green building part for forensic labs. Correctly there aren't any guidelines within LEED that cover laboratories due to the fact that they have certain environment conditions to preform the jobs such as lighting, future material and air quality.
An alternate to becoming a LEED designation professional is a LEED Green Association designation This usually sufficient enough for non planners. A down side to the LEED program is that they don't have enough money to continue to monitor and follow up on the properties after they have been giving a LEED designation. Very often companies don't maintain or running property in accordance to the LEED level that they have received.
He goes on to talking about how efficient Telemarketing is. First off you can state the obvious there is going to be less carbon being produced do to commuting, a smaller building can be built or bought which reduces the amount of energy needed to heat, cool and light that space. The financial benefits can be astounding.
Based off of actual numbers from a project he completed for a company the effects reducing 28 work stations, 1 first line manager station and reducing the executive manager's office by 75 sqft has saved 3000 square feet.
construction cost 160,000
future 155,000
lease cost 75,000
operating cost 30,000
Total $420,000
When asked what improvement are needed to the LEED system he mention that it needs to be cheaper offer some benefits to those who chose to meet certain sustainable levels and make them aware of the financial savings of some of the techniques through Life Cycle Costing.
Laura Blaylock, TRWD Annex Building
Tarrant Region Water District is a non profit organization that supplies water to over 1.7 million people in North Central Texas. Water conservation is the biggest return on any investment with the Water district. For ever dollar spent on water conservation in collaboration with Dallas Water District they receive $6 back. TRWD 2009 was the counties first LEED gold building. Among some of the basic changes is the flooring which is made from a rapidly replenishing resource,cork. The walls and cabinetry are made of low VOC materials. HVAC and lights operate on a central control system. In fact with the overcast we were having made it a little cool and dark because the system was on the weekend programing. As a part of TRWD water conservation they only water the shrubs, which are heat and drought tolerant by soaker hose. The grass doesn't receive manual watering and is allowed to go dormant during the summer months. Many of my neighbors allow their lawns to go dormant during the summer too. I doubt its due to water conservation though. I however, water my lawn about three times a week thanks to a water conversation ad featuring a "lawn whisperer". This ad is part of a collaborated conservation project with TRWD and the Dallas county water district. I water three times a week instead of the twice a week suggested, because I have 5 trees on my property and they seemed to have first dibs on any water that hits the lawn. Previously my lawn would get watered every other day sometimes multiple times a day. I believe this was due to ignorance about lawn care. The commercials educated me about good watering techniques. The water provided for watering the shrubs is rain water runoff from the 19k sqft roof that collected in 3 2500 gallon cisterns that are placed at different locations around the building.. Only 1 inch of rain is needed to fill TRWD's cisterns. The exterior light fixtures on the building and in the parking lot are hood and pointed downward. to reduce light pollution. The solar panels provides 50%-70% of the facilities electrical demand. One interest clash between necessity and conservation is in order to get water out of the reservoirs and to the water treatment plant TRWD uses 5k hp engines to pump the water.
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