Where Resiliency Hits the Road

I have a new piece in the Fall 2017 issue of Oculus: Should resilience officers focus on preparing for climate change? When it comes to this existential challenge, there’s not even a consensus on this seemingly basic question. “Where Resiliency Hits the Road:  How those at the forefront of adapting to climate change and natural disasters are implementing effective projects at scale.” “No other approach to design encompasses the existential concepts of time and space like resilient design. The response to climate change is necessary at all scales – from the one-acre public plaza to the regional oastline to the multi-state …

NYC Zoning @ 100

I have a piece in the January, 2017 issue of Planning Magazine about New York City’s rezoning, the most ambitious inclusionary housing code in the country. Will it have a real impact? Only if comprehensive community planning comes first. Click the PDF link below. “We designed a process as much as we developed a plan,” says Adam Lubinsky, PhD, AICP, who is a managing principal at WXY architecture + urban design, which was responsible for facilitating the East Harlem steering committee and developing the plan. “The idea was to get ahead of the city’s rezoning and allow people to look …

Vertical Farming Grows Up

More than ten years ago I learned about a professor at Columbia University who was developing an idea with his students to grow crops in urban buildings. Every futuristic idea needs a cool name, and Dr. Dickson Despommier and his students came up with “Vertical Farming” and created a website. It was one of those thought experiments that only a cranky professor and his ingenuous students could seriously consider – plus one excitable freelance journalist. I pitched the story for a couple of years – one publication rejected it saying, “we already covered green roofs” – until it landed in …