The Lowline is unveiled

Sometimes it's all about the pictures. Sourceable has a very helpful infograph (seen above), which explains the different types of living architecture.

-Two news items from NY. The Lowline has now entered the proof of concept/experiment phase for what underground, public space could become. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the city will double parks funding to $285 million. What a great way to further build the city's green infrastructure.

-A few folks in the UK would like a Highline. But this one, it seems, would be private. And subsidized by public funds. Many people, including environmentalists, claim this is simply a vanity project and want it kiboshed. With the number of people and groups against it, I think this is going nowehre fast.

-Detroit has 274 acres of vacant land. There are numerous ideas what to do with all that space. The City has some ideas, including dumping 85,000 people on one site to improve the soil.


-Do you live in Austin, Texas? Do you have a fantastic idea for how to turn raw materials into a viable enterprise? Would you like $10,000 to help make your idea a reality? This is your chance!

Mayor Bloomberg loves green roofs so much, he’s helping Pittsburgh!!!

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been a terrific proponent of green infrastructure for New York City. But he can't make other cities put green roofs up. So his foundation is taking the next step by giving the city of Pittsburgh $100,000 for cool or green roofs.

-How can someone get a job in the permaculture field? Whenever someone asks me that question, I can now direct them to this handy guide from the Austin Permaculture Guild.  One suggestion from the permaculture job guide is to join an existing project as an intern. Wouldn’t you know it, there’s an opportunity in New Hampshire right now.

-Two new GILA projects have hit the web, notable for their locations. One is a small vertical farm in Arizona, the other...errm...underground. Where? Anywhere!

-Co.Exist is rapidly becoming one of my favorite websites. Where else can you read about turning firehydrants into bioswales?

-Lastly I must, absolutely must, direct you to see this person's Halloween costume...she's dressed as a green roof!

State of the green roof movement in North America

In light of recent discussions in Toronto and Montreal, I thought that we could take a look at the state of the green roof movement around the world, starting with North America. In about a year we'll take a look at the list again to see what has changed. 

My rating system:

*** = green roof guru

** = green roof supporter

* = green roof newbie

Feel free to let me know your thoughts!

Austin - 

In the Southern United States Austin has been a true green roof pioneer. Starting with a white paper jointly produced by their water protection, conservation and planning departments in 2007, they have experienced slow, but constant growth. Incentives are offered in Austin for the installation of green roofs, however not in the form of direct grants. They still have three more years left in their implementation plan, so I would say the future looks bright in Austin. Although their current mayor is up for re-election. And we all know how important political support for your cause is. 

**

Chattanooga -

Talk about late breaking news, on Monday came the first signs they will begin offering credits to developers.

*
Chicago - 

What can you say about Chicago? It's green roof cred is rock solid. In 2001 Mayor Daley jumps in, sedums a' blazin', and they haven't looked back.

Don’t get me wrong, it would be great if they still gave cash incentives, let’’s hope they do with Rahm Emmanuel at the helm. Ahhm...Rahm?

**1/2

DC -

Get your cash!!! One of the latest big cities to join the party, they offer a very generous $5/square foot, up from $3. Let’s hope in 3 years time it jumps to $8. We can hope, can’t we?

**1/2

Louisville - 

We've got some good signs coming from Louisville. Last fall incentives for developers were agreed to, which is a great start.

*

Milwaukee -

Since 2003 Milwaukee has steadily increased support for green roof (and of course, urban agriculture). Tom Barrett is your man with a plan, but with his entry into the gubernatorial race, if he wins, what happens in Milwaukee?

**

Minneapolis -

Add a green roof and you can receive up to a 50 percent credit (aka reduction) in your stormwater utility fee. Sweet!

**

New York City -

After a comparatively slow start, New York City has gotten serious about green roofs and green infrastructure quickly. A comprehensive green infrastructure plan and $187 million dollars over the next three years with perhaps $2 billion more over 20 years speaks volumes.

The green roof tax abatement is up for renewal this year, but I feel good about its extension considering the city is building “green” playgrounds now and the mayor put a green roof on his foundation. 

***

Philadelphia - 

In 2010 Philadelphia began offering a tax credit for businesses willing to install a green roof, great move!

**

Portland - 

The city is synonymous with green and for good measure. Their program started in 2008 and has been going strong since, installing over 100,000 square feet in 2011 alone! 

**1/2

Seattle -

It appears Seattle had an incentive program back in 2007. Then in 2009 changes were made to Seattle's building code opening the door for developers to get credit for installing green roofs. Then the green roof momentum slowed. Not sure what is happening now. 

*1/2

And last but not least, one small but committed municipality...a 30-45 minute drive from the centre of Vancouver, Port Coquitlam has it’s very own green roof bylaw. 

**

Year 2 of Austin's green roof implementation plan wraps up

-Foodshed planning in California is being taken to a whole new level. San Diego is the latest to give it a go, but San Francisco and Los Angeles were the pioneers.

-It's February and the fiscal year will wrap up in a few short weeks. Austin, Texas is finishing up year 2 of it's 5 year implementation plan. With 26 green roofs documented in the city so far, it looks like they are doing pretty well.

I'm working on a big post for later in the week, so that's it for now!

Mushrooms galore!

Since the last post spring has sprung and things are getting busy. Looking back at the blog last year, this is around the time when the blog production started to decrease. Hopefully not this year. It's weird how the news cycle goes, I don't know if you can even call it a cycle. 10 days ago, there wasn't that much (seemingly) happening in the living architecture world and then an explosion of activity.

-We'll start off with some news from Africa,first in Ghana Greg Knibbs from Australia drops in to run the first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course in the country. Great article. Then a little bit from Tanzania and some great permaculture ideas for the urban environment.



-Speaking of mushrooms, there's a weekend mushroom workshop in late May at the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute. The 5th annual!!!

-Here's a novel idea in LA. How about instead of just serving customers, have restaurant goers become part of the process?
Why not have them source ingredients? Which is what happens at Forage.
If the restaurant wants something specific they turn to urban foragers, not distributors, to get what they want. Communal, local, provocative...and radical.
Oh and there's only one month left in San Francisco to see an exhibit by Exit Art called "Vertical Gardens". I think some Patrick Blanc work should be profiled as well.

Looks like Austin, Texas is trying to make some headway with a green roof advisory panel, hoping, by August 2010, to recommend policies and priorities about where green roofs will make the most impact, what kind of incentive programs to implement, and how city codes should encourage practices consistent with the goals of conservation, and discourage those that are not. And a lot more.