21 May 2008

Sustainable Urbanism Responds to Market Needs

Part one of an interview with Douglas Farr, architect and urban designer

Architect Douglas Farr (Courtesy of Farr Associates)

By Andrzej Zwaniecki
Staff Writer

Douglas Farr, an architect and urban designer, is the founder and president of Farr Associates, a Chicago-based firm focused on sustainable design in architecture and urban design. He has served as co-chair of the Environmental Task Force of the Congress for the New Urbanism, chair of the American Institute of Architects Chicago Committee on the Environment and chair of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Neighborhood Development Core Committee.

Farr has published a book, Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature.

Following are the excerpts from an April 9, 2008, interview with Farr.

Question: Sustainable has become a hip word people use to describe so many things that sometimes it is hard to get its meaning. What is sustainable urbanism about?

Farr: Yes, almost everyone is suddenly interested in sustainability and many bite off some corner of it. But so far we make progress mostly through half measures.

For example, what’s the point of building a green building in an auto-dependent location? Some environmental benefits of such a building are cancelled out by its dependency on car access. A green building, energy efficient light bulb or Prius car are all important. But each by itself won’t lead us to sustainability. We need to start by looking at, and often questioning, the basic assumptions of urban settlements. Sustainable urbanism combines principles and standards of smart growth, new urbanism and the green building movement to create compact, walkable and transit-served settlements with energy- and water-efficient buildings and infrastructure.

If you’ve got a settlement pattern right, go wild on green buildings, go wild on Priuses, go wild on energy-efficient light bulbs. But much of America hasn’t got the settlement pattern right.

Q: What you propose seems no less than a revolution not only in city planning and architectural design but also in the prevailing lifestyle. You attack the car culture, which is deeply ingrained in the American culture and American Dream…

 

A diagram of a sustainable neighborhood included in Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature (Courtesy of Farr Associates)

A diagram of a sustainable neighborhood included in Sustainable Urbanism: Urban Design with Nature (Courtesy of Farr Associates)

Farr: It may sound heretical or revolutionary but the demographic trends suggest otherwise. The baby boomers who at this stage in their lives are empty-nesters [couples whose adult children moved out of the family home] do not want to live in suburbs any more. Many prefer to live in the urban environment close to restaurants, culture and shops. So are their kids when they get the first job. They want to be close to other young professionals, meet people and go to bars. Americans also are becoming more sensitive to environmental issues. This influences their consumer choices.

Sustainable urbanism tries to respond to these trends. So it doesn’t strive for a revolution, but serves the market. As to cars, in light of uncertainty over oil exporters, skyrocketing gasoline prices and climate change concerns, our dependence on the car as the primary mode of transportation is just not sustainable.

Q: The concept of sustainable settlement probably can apply only to new developments. … If so, we are far away from making significant progress toward the ultimate goal.

A: It is probably easier to get everything right when you conceive a new community. But the existing cities and neighborhoods are not unchangeable. Different parts of urban infrastructure are maintained and regularly replaced. And every time we repave the streets or change the street lights we have an opportunity to retrofit pieces of urban infrastructure. So we can make the existing neighborhoods and cities more sustainable in increments. You are going to do things you would do anyway, just in a different way. But you have to have a vision.

Q: I understand there is a great role for new technologies in this concept.

A: Yes, I am a great believer in innovation and technologies. For example, there are several exciting innovations in transportation that can get us off the auto-dependency. One is shared-car, a car owned by a public group, private company or not-for-profit organization that can be used for a per-mile fee. A lot of families in America own one car per adult, which is an incredible financial burden for families as well as a significant burden for roads, cities and climate. The shared-car program allows families to own at least one car less. Another idea is trolley. Portland pioneered a trolley system, which does the same job as light train at a fraction of its cost. A green building integrates all sorts of technological innovation. A sustainable neighborhood does even more.

GLOSSARY

Smart growth -- An urban planning concept that promotes growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl, and advocates compact, transit-oriented and walkable land use.

New urbanism -- A U.S. urban planning and architectural design movement that promotes walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods organized around “urban” centers with a diverse range of housing, businesses and public spaces.

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) -- A voluntary rating system developed by the U.S. Green Building Council that provides the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.