Designing the City We Want

Calls to action from the Van Alen Council

in response to COVID-19

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

ABOUT VAN ALEN INSTITUTE

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Van Alen Institute helps create equitable cities through inclusive design.

In an equitable city, communities are engaged in the conception and creation of their built environment, regardless of income or personal circumstances.

Community-driven decision-making builds resilience, social infrastructure, and ultimately, more just cities.

For more than 125 years, the Van Alen Institute has catalyzed profound transformation in the public realm of New York City and beyond. Regardless of scale or geography, we center with communities to help them achieve their vision for their own built environment.

We do this by building on more than a century’s experience in urban systems related to the built environment, by forging strong local partnerships, and by leveraging collaborations with our global network of designers and interdisciplinary experts.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

ABOUT VAN ALEN COUNCIL

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As an international community of systems thinkers, the Van Alen Council welcomes leading professionals from the design disciplines and the fields of art, science, law, policy, finance, and technology.

Members serve as ambassadors of Van Alen and our signature approach to inclusive design.

Throughout the year, the Council enjoys opportunities for visibility and engagement with our work and with one another. Members explore, learn, and forge connections in ways that enrich their perspectives and practices and advance our mission. Their global dialogue brings designers and professionals from other disciplines together with decision-makers and ordinary citizens around how to foster more equitable urban futures. Common challenges come into clear focus and creative ideas emerge that can be shared with peers and a wide public audience.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

10 LETTER FROM VAN ALEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DEBORAH MARTON

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LETTER FROM VAN ALEN COUNCIL

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LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC FOR GREEN SPACE 21 Mark Johnson | Civitas A LAWYER’S RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR HELP Carol E. Rosenthal | Fried Frank

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LISTENING, LEARNING, AND TAKING ACTION 31 Denzil Gallagher | Burro Happold FINDING A RESTORATIVE “MIDDLE GROUND” IN CITY STREETS 35 Daniel Elsea | Allies and Morrison LEARNING RESILIENCE DURING COVID-19 41 Amy Whitesides | Stoss Landscape Urbanism BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES THROUGH LANDSCAPE-LED CITIES 45 Gary Sorge | Stantec DESIGNING FOR URBAN HEAT 53 Kishore Varanasi | CBT COVID-19 AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE 57 Barbara Wilks | W Architecture and Landscape Architecture TRANSIT AND PUBLIC SPACE IN A VIBRANT NEW YORK 61 Nat Oppenheimer | Silman PLANNING FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE 67 Carl Bäckstrand, Monica Von Schmalensee, Margaret Steiner | White A PITTSBURGH RESPONSE 71 Steven Baumgartner | Baumgartner Urban Systems Strategy SUPPORTING URBAN CLIMATE HEALTH 79 Claire Weisz | WXY Studio HOW CAN ENGINEERS CONTRIBUTE? 83 Erik Verboon | Walter P Moore RETHINKING SOCIAL SPACE IN SWEDEN 87 Helena Toresson, Kajsa Dahlbäck, Gert Wingårdh | Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor TELEMEDICINE AS AN URBAN SYSTEM 91 Tyler McIntyre | Fairstead REMAINING COUNCIL BIOS

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

LETTER FROM VAN ALEN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DEBORAH MARTON DEAR FRIENDS,

Van Alen Institute is committed to building equitable cities through inclusive design, by sharing our network and knowledge of urban systems with under-resourced communities and people. We all have an important role to play in this work. This compilation of ideas for a better post-pandemic world captures our optimism for the future. Each and every member of the Van Alen Council brings a humanist, global perspective that holds immense value for communities—and for Van Alen as an institution.

The built environment profoundly influences our health and long-term wellbeing.

Housing stability, access to open space, and transportation choices are part of the fundamental infrastructure of just and dignified communities. Too often, this infrastructure results from design, planning, and policy processes that ignore the perspective of the very people and communities whose lives they will form.

How decisions are made and whose voices shape the built environment matters. Without meaningful cocreation, the result can be generation-spanning inequities that impede human health and economic opportunity.

12 As we’re all now painfully aware, the pandemic exacerbated long-term systemic inequities, devastating low-income communities and communities of color. In New York City, these communities—many home to our essential workers—were unable to purchase the design support needed to reopen safely, even as more well resourced neighborhoods quickly did so. Our program Neighborhoods Now (in collaboration with the Urban Design Forum) connected hard-hit neighborhoods with designers and other interdisciplinary experts to support reopening and recovery efforts. With our community partners leading in defining their needs, together we created inclusive, culturally sensitive COVID awareness campaigns and signage, legal resources clearly describing regulatory constraints, and flexible, affordable design solutions for outdoor dining, education, and cultural programming. Since May 2020, Neighborhoods Now has supported more than one hundred small businesses and cultural organizations. Placed throughout this book, you’ll see photos, captured over the summer of 2020, of our partner organizations and teams on the ground.

This mode of collaboration can serve communities beyond moments of crisis. Neighborhoods Now demonstrates it is possible to forge alliances and build trust across historically siloed demographic and professional boundaries. Over the long term, these alliances help communities boost resilience—physical and social—not only to weather future crises, but to build a more just and inclusive society.

Many thanks to everyone who participated in the urgent Zoom-bound conversations we shared this year. They have been immensely helpful in pointing ways forward. Special thanks to those directly involved in our work in 2020 through Neighborhoods Now. We are so grateful, and look forward to continuing our conversations this year. With any luck, we will meet in person before year’s end, and hope to welcome you to Van Alen’s new Brooklyn home (more on that to come. . .).

In the meantime, we wish you good health and a wonderful 2021.

Warmest regards,

Deborah Marton Executive Director, Van Alen Institute

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

LETTER FROM VAN ALEN COUNCIL CO-CHAIRS DEAR FRIENDS,

Events of 2020 challenged us all to rethink the status quo—with huge implications for cities.

Not least, the pandemic and associated global political unrest underscored the importance of groups like the Van Alen Council. Bringing professional excellence in the fields of science, law, policy, technology, and all aspects of built environment design, the Van Alen Council came together to share insights and ideas in response to the pandemic.

It is our honor to share some of this work with you here. This compilation of research, completed projects, and proposals, reflects our commitment to the creation of spaces and systems that serve everyone’s needs and are equally accessible to all—work that’s at the heart of Van Alen’s mission. It illuminates how structural inequities that predated COVID-19 were grossly exacerbated.

Systemic and established modes of operating, from food supply chains, to modes of working, to streetscape design, buckled under colossal stress.

These sobering realities were offset by hopeful responses. With speed inconceivable before the pandemic, cities repurposed the public realm and streets as places for

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people. Countless stories emerged of communities working together to provide critical neighborhood-based support, from check-ins on housebound elderly to home food delivery.

Optimism can be found in creating new systems and environments rooted in this humanistic approach that allow us to gather safely and to support one another. In these pages, Council members recount the lessons that have emerged from this crisis and their visions for the future—one in which regenerative urban landscapes replace roadways, cycles of inequity are broken through new ways of working, and investments are made in cities’ long-term resilience.

As a community, we are uniquely situated to bring meaningful change.

We offer this compilation in that spirit of optimism, and invite you to join us in this honest effort to improve human lives through design. This is the central conversation of our professions and of our age.

Best,

Carl Bäckstrand

Mark Johnson

Alfredo Caraballo

Monica von Schmalensee

Daniel Elsea

Claire Weisz

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

VAN ALEN COUNCIL

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

COUNCIL MEMBERS

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CO-CHAIRS

COUNCIL

Carl Bäckstrand Partner & Vice President, White

Mark Johnson President, Civitas

Alfredo Caraballo Partner, Allies and Morrison

Monica von Schmalensee Architect and Partner, White

Daniel Elsea Director, Allies and Morrison

Claire Weisz Principal-in-Charge, WXY Studio

Steven Baumgartner Director, Baumgartner Urban Systems Strategy

S. Bry Sarté Founder, Sherwood Design Engineers

Jonas Edblad Partner, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor Denzil Gallagher Partner, Buro Happold Engineering Tyler McIntyre Partner, Design and Construction, Fairstead Nat Oppenheimer Vice President/Principal, Silman Chris Reed Founding Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Susanna Sirefman President, Dovetail Design Strategists Gary Sorge Vice President, Director of Landscape Architecture, Stantec Kishore Varanasi Director of Urban Design, CBT Erik Verboon Principal, Managing Director, Walter P Moore Amy Whitesides Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism

Carol E. Rosenthal Partner, Real Estate, Fried Frank

Barbara Wilks Principal & Founder, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture

Benjamin Garcia Saxe Executive Director, Studio Saxe

Gert Wingårdh Architect, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

LESSONS FROM THE PANDEMIC FOR GREEN SPACE

Mark Johnson President, Civitas Mark Johnson illustrates how a spike in park use during the pandemic points the way towards a greener approach to planning cities.

22 Cities are always under scrutiny. New observations, followed by new ideas and theories, constantly flow into the intellectual realm of thinkers trying to improve conditions or trying to make a name for themselves. Most of these assertions get a new label, then disperse and fall flat. Occasionally, an idea sticks, and with enough momentum, leads to small changes. The basic form, pattern, and function of most cities has changed little since the advent of the automobile, despite decades of demands that cars not be the dominant residents of our streets.

THE PANDEMIC DEMANDS MORE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES TO CITY FORM THAN ANY OTHER FORCE IN LIVING MEMORY.

This pandemic, however, reveals basic weaknesses in city form, pattern, and function, just as it exposes many other weaknesses of urban policy and theory. The pandemic demands more fundamental changes to city form than any other force in living memory. Suddenly, without warning and with little disagreement, our city spaces are too small, too disconnected, too hardened, and too anonymous. Every person needs more space and room to move in a physical, visual, auditory, and olfactory environment that offers comfort and calm.

Our preference, almost universally, has been to move to spaces that offer an experience that emulates nature.

The use and visitation of parks, greenways, waterfronts, and local streets has exploded. In our public-realm projects we have seen measured, increased use more than twice, and even three times, that of 2019. In one case, there were more than one million users this year, as opposed to 500,000 last year. Most of these users come by car, not public transit, as they fear the congestion of people and contagion on the train or bus. Green spaces of all types have become prized destinations, largely for strolling with family or friends in small groups. This phenomenon is not confined to dense urban centers where green space is always at a premium. It is taking place globally in cities of all sizes, as well as suburbs, towns, and villages. As we have suffered personal loss, fear, isolation, boredom, or depression, we have sought experiences where we can be outdoors safely in the (general) presence of others.

This need will continue beyond the pandemic and will increase again the instant that another health threat emerges. The next step that we will take in retrofitting our cities must be to introduce green pedestrian

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Mark Johnson Mark Johnson, FASLA, is a thought leader in the regeneration of inner-city areas. Examples include regeneration of Denver’s Stapleton Airport, since 1988; the Rivers District in Calgary and the South River District in Brno, Czech Republic. Mark is known for the design of complex projects involving green infrastructure as catalyst to economic, environmental and social change. He is a prominent designer of public space, completing the North Embarcadero in San Diego; St. Patrick’s Island in Calgary; and Riverfront Park in Tampa.

He has received many awards for planning, design and service. In 2016, Curbed magazine named his Larimer Square “One of the 11 best streets in America” and the Canadian Institute of Planners named his St. Patrick’s Island “Greatest Public Space 2016” in Canada. Mark is a frequent lecturer at universities, ASLA, ULI, and other institutes on the role of design for public health. He is also a board member of the Van Alen Institute.

24 space at the microlocal level. Today’s street-closing experiments around the world have shown that people need and will use this space, and that cars can find other routes. Initially taken as emergency closures where it was logical and convenient to block traffic, we now need serious plans for every neighborhood in every city to prepare for long-term redesign of street, park, and other green spaces, with the goal of establishing multiple levels of interconnected routes—walking loops with many choices—that everyone can access by walking from home. This redistribution of the public realm from cars to people and green space; from dedicated single-use open spaces into multiuse, unprogrammed space; and from large parks to chains of small green places and connections, is the foundation to regenerate our cities as places of people and health, not traffic and commerce. Every city needs to develop a mosaic of green as the field in which we live—not a figure/ground vision, but a green/figure/ground vision where nature reasserts itself, by design and with force.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

A LAWYER’S RESPONSE TO THE CALL FOR HELP

Carol E. Rosenthal Partner, Real Estate, Fried Frank Through her firm’s experience assisting neighborhood-based recovery efforts, Carol Rosenthal illustrates how land-use law enabled communities to navigate unfamiliar terrain.

26 In the summer of 2020, every resident of New York City was struggling, in different ways, with the constraints, tragedies, and challenges of a pandemic. The Neighborhoods Now program employed the expertise and energy of its members in order to donate planning and design efforts to some of the communities most in need of those resources.

Might land use regulations impact this goal? If so, what is a land use lawyer to do? My team of attorneys at Fried Frank looked for the best ways we could help.

One of the first issues we needed to address was whom did we represent—an important issue for attorneys who have very specific obligations to individual clients and need to avoid conflicts. Did we represent Van Alen Institute and the Urban Design Forum?

Or the planning or architectural firms with whom we worked?

Or the businesses we were trying to help? After some thought, we determined the answer was none of these. Because the program was to partner with the community-based organizations, we focused on serving those organizations, and entered into retainer letters for pro bono services with each of the five neighborhood-based organizations.

Internally, we divided our legal team into five groups, each one dedicated to a particular organization. We met (virtually) as a group once or twice a week to discuss work division and common issues we were seeing, and we brainstormed for solutions. We found the following needs as some examples for the “legal” role.

TRANSLATING AND ADVOCATING IN THE REGULATORY ARENA New York City, through executive order and individual agencies, developed a series of programs to allow restaurants and certain other businesses to use the public streets. The city’s programs for this use were tremendously helpful, but sometimes difficult for owners and communities to sort through, as the programs involved navigating applications and parsing multiple similar-sounding options such as “Open Streets,” “Open Restaurants,” and “Open Streets: Restaurants.”

Our first task was to create a two-page “cheat sheet” of the programs to highlight their overlaps and differences in applicability.

A second project involved working with our clients to identify, first, areas in which the programs included regulations that did not work, and second, areas where there were regulatory obstacles to achieving the short-term planning goals for the pandemic.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Carol E. Rosenthal Carol E. Rosenthal is a partner specializing in land use and development at Fried Frank. She has guided developers, businesses, and nonprofit institutions in some of New York City’s most significant development projects and through numerous discretionary land use approvals.

She also advises on city and state public-private initiatives, housing, transportation, and other development, and regularly represents clients in the transfer of development rights, government acquisitions, and turnkey developments. In addition to her legal practice, she is trustee and on the executive committee of the Citizens Budget Commission; a council member of Van Allen Institute; and serves on the Advisory Board for Cityland, a publication of The Center for New York City Law of New York Law School. She is also on the board of the Citizen’s Housing and Planning Committee.

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NAVIGATING HOW TO APPROACH MUNICIPALITIES WHO ARE BALANCING COMPETING GOALS IS AN AREA WHERE PLANNERS AND ATTORNEYS CAN WORK TOGETHER TO ADVOCATE.

Thus, in some cases we met with city agencies and our client to advocate for a particular program, and in others, to press for different, longer-term fixes. Navigating how to approach municipalities who are balancing competing goals—such as fully public use of our streets and parks versus private use to sustain businesses that serve as community engines—is an area where planners and attorneys can work together to advocate.

FACILITATING PRIVATE PARTY ACTIONS In addition to government-based initiatives, we saw issues in the private sector where we could be helpful in addressing legal and other hindrances. For example, there were a number of vacant storefronts in the communities we advised. Social distancing for the businesses that remained open could be enhanced if they were able to use those spaces, but the owners of the vacant areas were reluctant to allow this. We developed a form of license agreement to demonstrate how concerns about liability and about inadvertently creating long-term property interests could be addressed. The license also became a mechanism to allow designers and planners to use vacant space to assemble and make outdoor furniture prototypes available.

INFORMING LEGAL RIGHTS/BUSINESS NEEDS In many neighborhoods, the need for rent relief to allow local businesses to survive was and continues to be overwhelming. To address this issue on a community basis, we are currently planning an “info-seminar” for both small businesses and their landlords on the legal and business concerns of each during this period, and how to negotiate successfully.

Our hope is that by approaching these negotiations as a problem that can be solved collectively, businesses and owners will be more successful in their discussions.

While Neighborhoods Now primarily engaged the realm of design and planning, we were able to help address regulatory, advocacy, business, and other legal needs.

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

LISTENING, LEARNING, AND TAKING ACTION

Listening, Learning, and Taking Action

Denzil Gallagher Partner, Buro Happold Engineering Denzil Gallagher recounts the ways his firm responded to the evolving challenges of COVID-19 and subsequent social uprisings of 2020.

32 The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every single one of us at some level—from our families and jobs to our everyday routine. It has also challenged and continues to challenge many companies’ operations as each has had to adapt to new ways of working during this extraordinarily difficult year.

As a company, Buro Happold has tried to help our colleagues and clients react quickly to the evolving situation. For example, we spent time designing rapidly deployable measures such as temporary testing facilities or teaching spaces to provide educational facilities where students and staff could meet in person but remain socially distanced. Throughout this process, however, we learned that no matter how agile we were, the changing state of the pandemic outpaced these rapidly deployable responses.

As a result of the pandemic, the wider public is starting to understand the need and focus on better health and wellbeing strategies within the built environment—from office buildings and hospitals to schools and universities. Far too many spaces simply lack the appropriate level of indoor air quality to limit the transmission of the virus. As more evidence becomes available, building codes will need to be rewritten to improve indoor air quality.

Since the pandemic began, Buro Happold has been working with a number of clients across all sectors in designing and detailing all necessary adjustments to MEP services, data systems and building management systems to ensure building operators maintain focus on the health and wellbeing of all who use these spaces.

LIVING WITHIN OUR LOCAL RESOURCES AND SUPPORTING OUR LOCAL COMMUNITIES NOW AND IN THE FUTURE CAN HOLISTICALLY DELIVER A HEALTHIER WORLD.

Equally, the pandemic has brought localism as a necessary movement to support our daily lives. This was forced when logistical supply chains failed us. Living within our local resources and supporting our local communities now and in the future can holistically deliver a healthier world. One of its biggest potential benefits is the impact on reducing climate change, poverty and inequality. We must embrace localism as an urban planning necessity. At Buro Happold, we undertook a series of Design Sprints and

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Denzil Gallagher Denzil Gallagher is a partner of Buro Happold, where he specializes in integrated environmental solutions. A leader in delivering ground breaking design and technologies, Denzil helps forge new models for collaborative design by engaging the full project team—clients, architects, consultants, and builders—to enhance building performance. His creativity and passion has contributed to pioneering integrated, high-performance buildings worldwide, including the recently finished Sustainability Pavilion “Terra” for EXPO 2020, a net zero energy and water building to help educate sustainability and the impacts of climate change.

As an expert in the field of high-performance buildings and cities, Denzil frequently speaks at industry events and symposiums on integrated environmental design and innovative engineering methodologies for a wide range of projects from commercial buildings and mixed-use urban developments to higher education and cultural institutions.

34 consulted with local communities on the promotion of wellbeing and an inclusive economy, as well as bringing social justice to the fore to repair climate inequity while protecting biodiversity.

The pandemic has also put a disproportionate amount of stress on Black and brown communities. On top of that, the country witnessed what may be the largest movement in US history: Black Lives Matter.

The protests and activism of millions of people in hundreds of cities large and small was and continues to be so critical in helping many to sit up, listen, participate and reflect. Our response will define our society for future generations. At Buro Happold, we enacted an all staff anti-racism learning development process for all our offices in the United States in collaboration with our employee-run diversity and inclusion forums.

While this is just one small step, Buro Happold is committed to focusing our efforts to reduce the inequalities in this world.

Buro Happold is also committed to giving our staff the ability to help their local communities in the ways in which they choose. We have in place a “Share Our Skills” program where staff can pitch their ideas and skills to help others during their regular work hours. The program has been running for several years and has supported local communities around the globe where we have offices.

Buro Happold is thrilled to be participating in Neighborhoods Now’s expanded efforts, supporting community organizations in Lower Manhattan. Through our own experiences, we have realized it can be challenging to find areas where our professional skills can be used most meaningfully in our communities. As a translator and facilitator, Van Alen Institute can place the help and professional skills in the areas where they are needed most.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

FINDING A RESTORATIVE “MIDDLE GROUND” IN CITY STREETS

Daniel Elsea Director, Allies and Morrison Daniel Elsea makes the case for why the creative uses of streets seen during the pandemic deserve to be permanent features of our cities.

36 As in any crisis, whether chronic or acute, city dwellers have been spurred to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic. Evidence shows that, while it’s not a perfect solution, being outdoors can do much to reduce the spread of respiratory illnesses. So into the streets, the parks, and the “between” spaces we have gone.

In the warmer months of 2020, whether you were in Brooklyn, New York, or Hackney in East London, you’d see restaurants serving in the streets. The authorities expanded sidewalks and closed off roads, expanding the dominion of the pedestrian. Pop-ups abounded.

Promenading had a comeback. Millions stuck at home in one of a series of rolling lockdowns, with no shops to shop in, no pubs or restaurants to congregate within, no cultural attractions to visit, had nothing else to do but go out for a walk. Shopfronts may have gone comatose, but viva the park.

So, out of necessity, and a good bit of boredom, there proliferated many temporary occupations of the outdoors. We should make them permanent.

Take a typical city street. Some days, and during some periods of a single day, it could function like any other street. But at key moments, it could come alive as something else, something peopled—more than a mere route or conduit for traffic. It could become a place for lunch, for local workers to enjoy at midday. It could be a football pitch for kids on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons; an outdoor cinema on Friday nights; a marketplace on Sunday afternoons. With the deployment of outdoor heating, or just a bit of human grit and perseverance on sunnier days, we could keep activities going a bit in the colder months. We could enliven the street at different levels in diverse ways and across temporalities: hourly, daily, weekly, and seasonal.

Each city’s or country’s planning system is different, but effectively what would need to happen would be for authorities to give road surfaces the status of essential public realm, and then do two things: First, relax regulations so it would become legal (and encouraged) to occupy the street in inventive ways. Think of a sort of super-shared street. Second, make occupation of the street profitable. Get local businesses in on it. Make it affordable for them to take over their local road and make it easy for them, whether it’s the movie theater seeking

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Daniel Elsea A multidisciplinary urbanist and branding specialist, Daniel is a director and head of communications at Allies and Morrison, the London-based architecture and urbanism practice. Daniel works on many of the practice’s international projects, especially at the early or competition stages. He blurs boundaries as a writer and editor, urban designer, and art director. He writes frequently, especially on public realm and landscape, architecture in the developing world, and on the built environment in contemporary art, having contributed to The Architects’ Journal, Architectural Record, Art Review, Building Design, Landscape Architecture Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, The South China Morning Post, The Wall Street Journal and The World of Interiors. A student of architectural history, politics and sustainable urban development, Daniel holds degrees from Williams College and the University of Oxford.

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INSTEAD OF BEING JUST THE FOREGROUND OR BACKGROUND OF URBAN LIFE, THE STREET COULD, FROM TIME TO TIME, OCCUPY THE MIDDLE GROUND—AN EASY REMEDY TO HELP BRING CITIES BACK TO LIFE.

to attract people back to watching films or the start-up bakery looking to reach new customers. Provide some basic kits for these businesses to make occupation possible. No need for complicated urban surgery, just a few chairs, tables, and stalls on hand for every road that participates. Seasonal, walkable, flexible—this kind of street is the perfect place to let local businesses rebuild.

Instead of being just the foreground or background of urban life, the street could, from time to time, occupy the middle ground—an easy remedy to help bring cities back to life.

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

LEARNING RESILIENCE DURING COVID-19

Amy Whitesides Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism Amy Whitesides argues that the pandemic provides insights for future disaster-preparedness—and that we must prioritize flexibility and adaptation.

42 The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored and compounded systemic issues within nearly every sector of society, from healthcare to transportation to supply chains. It has forced disruption in previously inflexible systems and exposed the deeply rooted inequities and systemic racism that place people of color, immigrants, and lower-income individuals at significantly greater risk of economic and health impacts from disruptive events.

Climate change—an ongoing, yet slower-to-arrive threat—will have similar effects. Increased storms, coastal flooding, excess heat, drought, and other impacts will further expose and exacerbate the vulnerability and inequity created by our historic actions unless we begin now to dismantle these systemic patterns and realign our values to include and prioritize the most vulnerable members of our community. What we learn now through our failures and successes in response to COVID should serve as a lesson in adaptation and flexibility—in other words, a lesson in resilience Our collective COVID response has shown that we can be flexible, that we can adapt and shift systems to new conditions and set aside regulatory and other limits in order to create new systems in a time of crisis. We have seen these adaptations across scales.

Cities have made way for outdoor dining, redirected traffic to expand dining capacity, and created pedestrian-focused “shared streets” for community access and exercise. Restaurants have adapted in numerous ways, from shifting to outdoor dining and partial service to changing their menu entirely, depending on community need and the resources on hand. Others have gone so far as “burning it all down” and moving away from the cook-and-serve restaurant model entirely, as Irene Li of Mei Mei in Boston chose as the most appropriate “pivot” to make.1 Hospitals and health care facilities built critical-care centers in parking lots and manufacturing companies rapidly shifted operations to produce critically needed PPE. And textile-based companies added masks to their repertoire, often donating masks to critical communities for each mask purchased.

These shifts showed us that we have greater range than we have previously allowed for. Regulatory change is generally slow.

Emergency-response projects undertaken due to COVID offer insight into moving such projects more rapidly through pilots and ongoing adaptation. Crucial to the future relevance of these projects

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Amy Whitesides Amy Whitesides has developed and led resiliency and research initiatives at Stoss for over ten years. She brings a background in landscape, ecology and biology—as well as interests in food and landscapes for swimming and surfing—to a wide range of projects and efforts, including a firm culture that values generosity, collaboration, and mutual support. She has directed numerous award-winning projects that focus on environmental sustainability and resilience, including Vision Galveston on Galveston Island, North Shore Promenades in Edmonton, and various Climate Ready Boston district studies. She is currently overseeing multiple waterfront design and redevelopment efforts, as well as a major renovation to Moakley Park—Boston’s most significant open-space investment since Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace. Amy is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She currently serves as a design critic at the GSD and previously taught landscape history and studio courses at Northeastern University and University of Toronto.

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is the scale at which they operate. Altering an entire block as an experimental response allows us to envision a new normal in a way that a single property or business making change does not. Similar to a pop-up store going online before opening a brick-and-mortar shop, these efforts can be a temporary means to gather data, experience new modes of interaction, and troubleshoot failures before we make wholesale regulatory transformation or spend decades planning to get all the pieces into place.

It would be short-sighted of us not to learn from these temporary measures and imagine how our cities could be structured to favor pedestrians over cars, to focus resources on the neighborhoods that are most in need, and implement systems that prioritize flexibility and community wellbeing over individual gain.

IT WOULD BE SHORT-SIGHTED NOT TO LEARN FROM COVID AS A TEST FOR THE UNSTABLE FUTURE THAT CLIMATE PREDICTIONS FORCE US TO ANTICIPATE.

It would similarly be short-sighted not to learn from COVID as a test for the unstable future that climate predictions force us to anticipate. Climate change will intensify the social and environmental challenges of communities that are already struggling with drought, food insecurity, housing insecurity, poor air quality, and high unemployment.

When COVID made it painfully clear that our health and our lives depended upon creating flexibility in healthcare and food-distribution systems, many communities responded creatively to test ideas and prioritize livelihoods and connection. We should approach creative solutions for the ongoing issues and climate-based risks, particularly those faced by low-income, historically disenfranchised populations and the farms and farmers that produce our food supply, with the same urgency, as though our health and our lives depend upon them.

They do.

CITATION

1. Irene Lei, “This Is Not a Restaurant,” Mei Mei Boston, September 30, 2020, www. meimeiboston.com/blog/2020/9/30/this-is-not-a-restaurant. www.meimeiboston.com/ blog/2020/9/30/this-is-not-a-restaurant.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

BUILDING BETTER COMMUNITIES THROUGH LANDSCAPE-LED CITIES

Gary Sorge Vice President, Director of Landscape Architecture, Stantec For Gary Sorge, COVID-19 has further highlighted the imperative for a landscape-based approach to urban design that prioritizes space for people over cars.

46 Of the many community planning issues that have gained attention as part of the emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the most striking to me is that our public realm and policies are far too constrained by the dominance of vehicles. Communities need the flexibility and space to allow people, businesses, and the local natural environment to thrive.

In many cities, urban living revolves around vehicle-congested corridors, marginalized pedestrians, and excessive urban heat exacerbated by wide expanses of unmitigated pavement. Though these corridors lead us to the public spaces that we cherish—some more accessible and reachable than others—traversing them is part of a daily routine that we have learned to tolerate. As we seek how best to cope with COVID, we have an opportunity to rethink our communities for the better.

In Washington Heights, for the Community League of the Heights (CLOTH), we looked at ways to expand pedestrian thoroughfares so residents could traverse their neighborhoods safely. With more than 150 people per acre, Washington Heights is a particularly dense area where daily needs require residents and visitors to be in close contact with each other. Available public spaces are disproportionately small compared to the community’s population, and larger parks are located outside of the neighborhood core.

Access to these places requires greater exposure on narrow streets and across major traffic thoroughfares.

The experience of Washington Heights—insufficient public space with an abundance of real estate dedicated to cars—is mirrored in neighborhoods across the country. This is unacceptable in our current reality, where the impact of the ongoing pandemic has pushed us outdoors to exercise, socialize, and find normalcy in our lives. While we’ve taken back some of our public space from cars out of necessity, the danger is that these changes will be temporary if we return to pre-COVID norms. Is that really where we want to go?

I would argue that our future approach to public space design—particularly streets and sidewalks—should be a landscape-based solution that creates an interconnected public realm of amenity-rich pedestrian corridors with integrated and naturalized landscape. The evolution of micromobility and autonomous vehicles will decrease the need for excessive traffic lanes, thus providing the opportunity to convert our streets and avenues

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Gary Sorge As Director of Landscape Architecture for Stantec’s multidisciplinary practice, Gary is proud to be part of one of the most sustainable corporations in the world—fifth globally and first in North America. Gary’s influence spans a broad range of transportation, civic infrastructure, public realm, ecosystem restoration, and resiliency projects, leading professionals across all design disciplines. In his capacity as a hands-on principal, strategist, designer, and multidisciplinary planner, Gary brings to our clients a comprehensive approach to building resilient infrastructure and communities, creating and rehabilitating public space, creating and preserving natural habitats, and inclusive community engagement. Over his thirty plus years with Stantec, Gary has led the restoration and design of prominent and highly vulnerable landscapes and transportation infrastructure, leveraging the strength of systems-based design, innovation, and technology.

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WE DON’T NEED TOKEN GESTURES; RATHER, WE NEED QUALITY, PARK-LIKE SETTINGS THAT COOL, CONNECT, INSPIRE, AND GREATLY ENHANCE LIVABILITY.

to green corridors. Interconnected public space will enhance the movement of people, while vehicle traffic lanes are prioritized for the transport of goods, public transportation, and emergency services. In New York and other US cities, we can build on comprehensive planning underway in Barcelona1 where advocates aim to reclaim more than half the streets now devoted to cars for mixed-use public spaces. We don’t need token gestures; rather, we need quality, park-like settings that cool, connect, inspire, and greatly enhance livability.

Cities are successful because of people, not cars, and there are urban elements that cater to people that contribute to that success. Available open space provides residents the most essential recreation and social amenity: a place to go within a five-minute walk from their front door.

Green corridors result in cooler surface temperatures and mitigate the impact of urban heat. Expanded soil regimes improve storm water quality; lessen the burden on our infrastructure; and improve our natural water resources. Expanded public space and urban green corridors enhance year-round neighborhood programming opportunities—an especially important component for the way we experience our northern cities in the winter months. And fewer vehicles mean less congestion, emissions, and pedestrian/vehicle conflicts.

What are the critical first steps to bring about these improvements?

First and foremost, people must have a safer, better, faster, and cheaper means to traverse our cities—public transit enhancements are a must. Second, we need bold policy, tailored strategies, and design visualization that clearly conveys the pros and cons, and transforms public perception of what a less car-centric city means. Third, we need to develop a picture of the economic argument, including projected outcomes of the do-nothing option and a range of interventions and prototypes. This past year provided a glimpse of what is at stake if we do not provide adequate public space for people. Fourth, we need to establish how to fund the work. In New York, congestion pricing will be a solid start. Finally, we can’t do all of this without aligning the myriad stakeholders, including utility providers and city agencies, who operate and maintain vital infrastructure in our roadway corridors.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Gary Sorge

50 While this transformation won’t happen overnight, our COVID experience is already accelerating our need to get there. Emergency solutions should be the foundation of permanent and long-term remedies to longstanding urban challenges. Interconnected, quality open space and public realm are critical infrastructure and essential to the livability of our cities, as vital as the utility networks that run below and above our streets. The automobile is a flawed necessity with an uncertain future. Cars had their chance. Let’s focus on a landscape-led solution.

A conceptual rendering for Neighborhoods Now of an improved public realm in Plaza de las Americas and Wadsworth Avenue, Washington Heights, New York City. Courtesy: Stantec

CITATION

1. David Roberts, “Cars Dominate Cities Today: Barcelona Has Set out to Change That,” Vox, September 11, 2019, www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2019/4/8/18273893/ barcelona-spain-urban-planning-cars.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

DESIGNING FOR URBAN HEAT

Kishore Varanasi Director of Urban Design, CBT With extreme heat posing yet another urgent public-health threat for cities, Kishore Varanasi makes the case for the power of evidence-based design to help create more livable public spaces.

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AS THE THREAT OF EXTREME HEAT CONTINUES TO GROW, THERE IS AN URGENT NEED TO DESIGN CITIES THAT ARE HEAT-RESILIENT AND COMFORTABLE THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, extreme heat waves claim the greatest number of lives in the US of all weather-related hazards.1 Exacerbated by climate change year after year, summers are getting longer and heat waves deadlier. As the threat of extreme heat continues to grow, there is an urgent need to design cities that are heat-resilient and comfortable throughout the year. A key anchor of our built environment is the public realm. With the pandemic ravaging communities across the US, the importance of public spaces for the overall public health of our cities has never been higher. More than ever, an improved and comfortable public realm has significant health and wellness benefits, both physical and psychological.

Urban heat islands (UHI) are a direct consequence of the built environment of our cities and are responsible for the extreme heat stress we experience. While the tree canopy is an effective universal solution for combating urban heat islands, it is only one element of creating comfortable public spaces—a process with many nuances.

Studies conducted in a number of cities, including New York, have found a direct correlation between low-income, at-risk communities that bear the brunt of the urban heat island effect and neighborhoods that lack investments in streetscapes and public spaces.2 Over the past two years, I have been involved in tackling such a problem in the hot climate of Abu Dhabi, creating comfortable public spaces using evidence-based design. It started with Masdar City, which is a greenfield site, but then shifted to downtown Abu Dhabi—an incredibly complex urban environment from a heat perspective. We combined both meteorological data and human thermal factors such as metabolic rate, activity, and clothing factors to understand thermal stress levels that are a direct result of the surrounding urban environment in each of the spaces. We looked to nature and history for inspiration: the desert snail with its highly reflective skin, thermal mass and metabolic response, and traditional courtyards that are designed to incorporate shade, water, and wind. It became clear that while individual strategies of planting trees, providing shade, or creating highly reflective pavement surfaces are universally adopted, it is important to create a layered strategy where a combination of appropriate shade,

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Kishore Varanasi Kishore Varanasi is an award-winning urban designer, strategist, innovator, teacher, and writer, and brings over 15 years of professional experience in architecture and urban design. The Director of Urban Design at CBT, his work in both the public and private sectors has shaped countless cities and communities locally, nationally, and internationally.

Kishore’s innovative contributions stem from his ability to create viable and sustainable mixed-use neighborhoods, converging the interests of residents, government entities, and developers by inspiring creative collaborations and fresh approaches to community building. Honored by the American Institute of Architects and the Urban Land Institute, Kishore’s work embraces emerging societal forces such as climate change, environmental consciousness, the sharing economy, and innovation culture to create an unparalleled quality of urban life.

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materiality, vegetation, and wind screening interact with each other to produce truly comfortable spaces in a sustainable manner.

As we transitioned to design in the Abu Dhabi project, an important parameter came to light: One needs to be intentional in one’s response based on the program of the space, time, and day of use, for it is nearly impossible to design a passive strategy for public spaces for all days and times of the year. For example, a park in a hot climate may not be designed to be comfortable in the middle of the day, but perhaps it is comfortable in the morning and evening hours. Take the example of play equipment that is highly reflective and releases heat as soon as the sun strikes it. This structure is very hot in the middle of the day, but cools down when children come to play in the evening. On the other hand, if the structure absorbs heat during the day and keeps it cool, it releases that heat later in the day when it is being used, which is not the outcome that is expected. Similar outcomes have been felt in Los Angeles’s Cool Streets LA program, where streets were paved with highly reflective white paint. The ambient temperatures during the day were seen to be much higher than air temperature during the day, but cooler at nights. We also discovered the power of the night sky to cool spaces, even in the hottest climates.

Intentional design, grounded in environmental analysis and tailored to the unique character of the public space, has proven to be effective in providing a much-needed respite for vulnerable sections of the society, as well as creating inviting spaces that integrate livability and promote public health.

CITATIONS

1. “Extreme Heat,” Ready.gov, www.ready.gov/heat., www.ready.gov/heat.

2. Clifford Michel and Ese Olumhense, “Looking for Relief as Sumer Heat Wave Hits Black and Brown Neighborhoods Hardest,” The City, June 29, 2020, www.thecity.nyc/ health/2020/7/29/21347387/new-york-city-summer-heat-wave-black-neighborhoodspandemic.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

COVID-19 AND OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE

Barbara Wilks Principal and Founder, W Architecture and Landscape Architecture Looking past the pandemic, Barbara Wilks encourages us to radically reevaluate our relationship with the natural environment in order to forge a path forward.

58 “An ethic to supplement and guide the economic relation to land presupposes the existence of some mental image of land as a biotic mechanism. We can be ethical only in relation to something we can see, feel, understand, love, or otherwise have faith in.”

Aldo Leopold A Sand County Almanac

THIS LAST YEAR SHOULD BE A DRESS REHEARSAL FOR LARGER UNDERTAKINGS WHICH WILL BE NECESSARY TO SLOW OR REVERSE CLIMATE CHANGE, AND PROOF THAT WE CAN ACT COLLECTIVELY FOR THE GREATER GOOD.

The COVID-19 pandemic, like climate change, is the result of our interactions with the environment, and it has brought into relief some of the same issues—racial inequality, equity, and tensions between our market economy, human values, and life as we know it.

By increasingly forcing us outside, the pandemic is awakening a recalibration of how we live with nature and each other.

This last year should be a dress rehearsal for larger undertakings which will be necessary to slow or reverse climate change, and proof that we can act collectively for the greater good.

I do not feel that the lessons learned during the pandemic are the same ones that we need to move forward—we need even more radical changes to our systems and infrastructures involving long-term thinking, promotion of diversity, and a commitment to regenerative rather than extractive systems. However, the refocus on the local may be a first step in realigning our thinking for needed focus on regenerative and resilient communities and ecologies going forward. Making this visible and palpable should be our charge as design professionals. Our long-term response should build on our unfolding understanding of our communities’ relation to each other and to nature.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Barbara Wilks Barbara Wilks, FASLA, FAIA, principal and founder of W Architecture and Landscape Architecture, is a leader in the field of design. As an architect and a landscape architect, Barbara uses her leadership skills to realign nature in the city. Barbara has won many awards for her work and has been published nationally and internationally. Her designs range from urban public spaces to infrastructure to architecture, and her goal is to use design to create access and a means of participation—a route to discovery and engagement. In addition to opening her projects for participation, during the design process Barbara continues the spirit of inclusion to the surrounding communities and government agencies.

She is a board member of Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park in Ohio as well as the Design Trust for Public Space and the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation in New York City.

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A FEW SUGGESTED RULES FOR THE FUTURE • Think long-term.

• Put a moratorium on forest clearing. New forests need to grow, but mature trees sequester the most carbon.

• Build only on infill sites—no greenfields. (See above, plus consider use of existing infrastructure investment).

• Connect fragmented ecosystems. This will help strengthen them and provide greater resilience.

• Give agency to nature, even on urban sites. Build it into your maintenance plans.

• Use building and maintenance projects to build communities. Social resilience is critical.

• Promote walking, nodal development, and local resilience.

• Respect life in all its wonderfully diverse forms!

• Let’s not miss this warning and opportunity for collective change to create a more resilient world for ourselves and future generations.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

TRANSIT AND PUBLIC SPACE, IN A VIBRANT NEW YORK

Nat Oppenheimer Executive Vice President/Principal, Silman Nat Oppenheimer explains why stakes are so high for New York City and how the municipal response to COVID-19 will shape our public realm well into the future.

62 In New York City, the convergence of streetside dining—a government response to economic hardship—and increased car ownership, a behavioral response by many that often came at the expense of public transportation, could change the feel, energy, and tempo of the city for years to come. Left unattended, the siloing of cars and people could push toward a darker and more isolated version of urban life. However, thoughtfully considered, proactively planned, and creatively financed, the shift could breathe new life into our urban fabric.

As New York flattened the curve in the early months of the pandemic, the local government recognized the economic need to allow streetside dining at levels never before seen. This widespread loosening of age-old regulations likely staved off certain bankruptcy for thousands of restaurants and, in so doing, created an energy within the city that is, in many areas, unique and wonderful. At the same time, COVID-19 living resulted in people abandoning public transportation in favor of individual cars throughout the five boroughs.

ONE COULD EASILY IMAGINE WAKING UP TO A CITY OF CAR THOROUGHFARES, WALLEDOFF PEDESTRIAN MALLS, AND A BROKEN AND BROKE PUBLIC TRANSIT SYSTEM—AN OUTCOME THAT WOULD SEPARATE PEOPLE FROM EACH OTHER EVEN FURTHER THAN THE OBVIOUS WEALTH GAP HAS ALREADY DONE.

Left to evolve unchecked, one could easily imagine waking up to a city of car thoroughfares, walled-off pedestrian malls, and a broken and broke public transit system—an outcome that would separate people from each other even further than the obvious wealth gap has already done.

Heading down this path of further isolation could bring us perilously close to the death of the vibrant energy that makes New York one of the most remarkable urban centers in the world.

We cannot let that happen.

As Jane Jacobs noted almost sixty years ago, the energy that comes from mixing urban ingredients together, enabling neighborhoods to grow organically, and allowing all facets of our lives to intertwine is what breathes life into a city. In January 2022, the new mayor, who will probably face both reduced resources to support massive

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Nat Oppenheimer Nat Oppenheimer joined Silman in 1988 and is presently one of the firm’s two Executive Vice Presidents. He leads projects in all aspects of Silman’s work. Nat was the Principal in Charge of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Grace Farms, The Rise at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, and the Powerhouse Arts District in Brooklyn, among numerous other projects. In addition to practice, Nat is devoted to engineering education and teaches at Princeton University and the Cooper Union. He is on the Executive Committee of the Architectural League, is a member of the Van Alen International Council, and is an Emeritus Board member of the Salvadori Center.

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infrastructure initiatives and a public wanting to return to some semblance of normalcy, may see a Hobson’s choice: Aggressively control the new forces seeded during the pandemic through heavy-handed management and simplistic engineering and carried out on the cheap, or simply give up and cede all control or planning, allowing those best-positioned and most aggressive to take advantage of the situation.

There is a third choice: Generate self-sustaining revenue (congestion pricing to support mass transit at a large scale, finally!); leverage the latest thinking in the psychology of space; benefit from the insights that can be gleaned from big data; and celebrate the example of neighborhoods that have already seen successful intertwining.

While it is true that the design world carries its own negative baggage—urban renewal and the loss of neighborhoods to the promise of the utopian ideal—the best of design would not lord it over such a plan. Rather, designers could help a new mayor gain the confidence to carve out the mental and physical space to ensure that new seeds of organic meshing find the light and grow.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

PLANNING FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

Carl Bäckstrand Partner & Vice President, White Monica von Schmalensee Architect and Partner, White Margaret Steiner Project Manager, White For the team at White, the pandemic has put a spotlight on the need for equitable planning and a renewed focus on cities’ outskirts.

68 RETHINK THE STATUS QUO Looking at our roots gives us the tools to develop and move forward.

We try to understand what we come from and we try to speculate about what we think the future will be, but the future is a determined rower without a clear sight of the finish line. The agricultural, industrial and technological revolutions have all changed our lives dramatically.

We need to rethink our current state of affairs to know what to take with us and what to leave behind while we row into the unknown.

CONNECTIVITY IS THE NEW NORMAL When the pandemic hit the world, we were instructed to social distance and reduce physical contact to halt the rapid spread of the virus. We decreased traveling on both a local and global level as borders closed, flights were canceled, and many of us started working from home. More or less simultaneously, the world over, we embraced new ways of working. Use of digital tools accelerated at lightning speed, which has enabled us to stay in touch, keep dialogues running, and interact and cocreate as never before.

TIME, SPACE, AND WELLBEING We’ve gained time by avoiding commuting and traveling. However, time is an asset inextricably linked to our environment and health.

For those fortunate enough to do away with the need to rush from point A to point B, the human experience is enhanced by replacing a speed-driven lifestyle with extra time to reflect, but this reality looks different for everyone. For many, the spatial conditions of their home environment are not conducive to working or online education.

When creating built environments in the future—both our homes and our places of work—time, space, and human health will need to be fused together. How can we design environments which literally and perceptually slow down time?

REVENGE OF THE MIDSIZE Migration out of large cities such as Stockholm is now greater than the influx. This trend gained momentum because the pandemic has encouraged us to reconsider our lifestyles. As architects and urban planners, now is a good time for us to reevaluate, too. In the 1950s, urban planning efforts in Sweden were focused on decentralizing an overly populated Stockholm by turning rural land into modern suburbs for working, living, and consuming—to offer everything residents needed. Planning was a careful response to the sleepy “dormitory”

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Carl Bäckstrand Over the past ten years, Carl Bäckstrand has held various management positions within White. Strategic development is fundamental to Carl’s role, both in his former position as Regional Director and in his current role as Director of White International and Vice President.

In addition to his role at White, he is also a board member of the Sustainable Business Hub of Scandinavia, member of the Board of Directors’ ARQ Research Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Swedish Association of Architects.

As Director of White International, he manages international projects, mainly in urban areas. During these projects, Carl has developed structured management processes that can support innovative planning of green areas. This model has been used successfully throughout various projects.

Monica Von Schmalensee Monica von Schmalensee is an architect and the CEO of White Arkitekter. Monica has a great interest in the changing urban landscape and the interplay between society and place. She applies a strategic approach and drives the leadership for a sustainable future, partly as her role as the Chairman of Sweden Green Building Council. Collaboration and inclusive processes have been the key to her success in managing complex projects for the practice such as the urban transformation of moving the city of Kiruna, the urban development in Rockaway Beach in New York, and the completion of a forty-thousand-spectator arena in Stockholm. Monica is also often engaged as a keynote speaker at a wide range of internationally renowned conferences.

70 suburbs. It is possible that we can take inspiration from our midcentury roots as we currently look at revitalizing the outskirts to balance the density in large inner cities. We even see a new dynamic in the form of a demographic shift that bridges the gap and reduces the polarization between large cities and smaller towns.

THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING MOST IMPACTED BY COVID-19 ARE THOSE WHO CAN LEAST AFFORD TO NAVIGATE ITS STORM.

EQUITABLE AND GREEN Health and sustainability have become key issues for the public realm. The people who are being most impacted by COVID-19 are those who can least afford to navigate its storm. Accessibility and proximity to green spaces were being discussed before the pandemic, but now the urgency has been highlighted. We need a variety of less densely populated exterior spaces where we can meet easily and safely, cycle and skate, or pause amid biodiverse urban greenery. New ways of collecting and analyzing data will enable us to optimize planning and urban change with a wider outreach. Equitable planning of the public realm means considering the needs of children, especially safe places for girls. Codesigning public space will be one of the most important future contributions by close-knit crews of urban planners, landscape architects, and architects.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

A PITTSBURGH RESPONSE

Steven Baumgartner Director, Baumgartner Urban Systems Strategy To foster shared learnings, Steven Baumgartner distills the successes of Pittsburgh’s COVID response—transparency, agility, and a focus on equitable outcomes.

72 To learn from systems deployed for emergency response that can advance wellbeing in the long term, I engaged a sample of leadership in Pittsburgh, and also reflected on my personal and professional experiences in the Pittsburgh community.1 During the COVID-19 era, Pittsburgh has taken important steps to support the mayor’s “Pittsburgh for all” charge. System solutions have emerged here to address public health and business continuity challenges during the pandemic. They show a community that is building agility, increasing transparency at city and neighborhood levels, and demonstrating intentional approaches and investment in addressing Pittsburgh’s inequities.

AGILITY Through the uncertainty of COVID and the resulting pressures our communities continue to face, Pittsburgh has shown great flexibility in operations, initiatives, and partnerships. Many of these examples of agility provide models for future resilience: • Pittsburgh’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI) assembled a multi-perspective task force that was able to identify challenges and opportunities for reopening Pittsburgh’s businesses and develop actionable templates and strategies that businesses can use as a resource.2 • Our city relaxed programmatic requirements on the use of parking lots and outdoor yards, which affected numerous businesses and livelihoods.

• The city’s foundations and food-related nonprofits acted quickly, deeming farmers markets an “essential business” to remain open, which allowed them to remain hubs of communication and key access points for neighborhoods.

• Institutions, BIDs, and community development groups activated open spaces, finding flexible working, learning, and entertaining opportunities.

PITTSBURGHERS REMAIN CONFIDENT THAT OUR CITY WILL FIND LARGER SYSTEMIC INTERVENTIONS TO CREATE MORE ACCESS TO OPEN SPACE.

These first steps taken to address our city’s challenges have strong momentum for future action. Pittsburghers remain confident that our city and other urban actors will find larger systemic interventions to create more access to open space and transition our active corridors to more complete street or fully pedestrian models.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Steven Baumgartner Steven is an engineer and planner specializing in integrated systems solutions for campuses, communities, and cities. He founded Baumgartner Urban Systems Strategy (BUSS) after two decades with global integrated design, engineering, planning, and architecture firms. He uses his experience, evidence (data), and empathy to find innovative solutions for his clients. Core to his passion is the belief that urban systems need to be continually reexamined, reengineered, and reimagined to advance our biggest challenges. Through his work, Steven has seen the power of bold, elegant solutions that strengthen our neighborhoods, build economic prosperity, and ensure health and wellness—all while working in concert with (not against) our natural systems. Steven lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and supports several local initiatives, including Riverlife, Higher Education Climate Collaborative (HECC), and p4 Pittsburgh. In addition to the Van Alen Council, he is an active member of ULI’s Sustainable Development Council.

74 TRANSPARENCY As Pittsburgh pivoted on existing efforts and built new initiatives, several of its public entities and private institutions raised awareness through new platforms and programs—many of which will be sustained to advance public health in the longer-term.

The city’s Department of City Planning (DCP) has shown leadership in online engagement during the pandemic, using the Engage PGH site.

Pittsburgh still struggles, as many cities do, with the mechanisms and resources to reach all of our neighbors to achieve true community engagement. As we look to find ways to bridge the digital divide, racial diversity, and age and gender, Pittsburgh relies heavily on the work of the Gender Equity Commission in Pittsburgh’s Inequality Across Gender and Race report from 2019.

Anecdotally, neighborhoods that have strong local community groups have seen their hard work pay dividends, as these neighborhoods were quicker to adopt new ideas and coalesce around larger plans for community wellness. Pittsburgh remains a city of neighborhoods that needs strong central political leadership to advance larger systemic change to bridge those neighborhoods, sectors, leaders, boundaries, and community entities.

EQUITABLE OUTCOMES As there are many outward-facing, action-oriented commitments to addressing racial inequities from public and private voices, foundations, and institutions, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Pittsburgh’s economic development agency, must be highlighted here.3 The URA showed unflagging dedication and resilience during early transmission of COVID, transforming itself into an agile, tech-savvy organization that was needed not only to meet the community in complex times, but to lead it.

The URA issued over three hundred small business loans (up from about fifty in the previous years), prioritizing minority and women-owned businesses. Funding for the microloan program originated through the CARES Act but was sustained through generous local foundational support. The URA has focused on the need for affordable, stabilized, and healthy housing alternatives in Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Steven Baumgartner

76 Pittsburgh continues to address the challenge of how to effectively balance retention of its long-standing culture and communities while attracting newcomers who bring economic opportunities to our region. Pittsburgh will bounce forward stronger based on our agility, transparency, and trust, and intentionality to ensure investments are prioritized to create equitable outcomes for all Pittsburghers.

CITATIONS

1. For this essay, I spoke to the following members of Pittsburgh’s leadership: Andrew Dash, Director of the City of Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning (DCP); Ray Gastil, Director, Remaking Cities Institute at Carnegie Mellon University; Beth McGrew, Associate Vice Chancellor, Planning, Design and Real Estate; Georgia Petropoulos, Oakland Business Improvement District (OBID); Dawn Plummer, Executive Director at Pittsburgh Food Policy Council; Dr. Aurora Sharrard, Director of Sustainability at University of Pittsburgh; Councilwoman Erika Strassburger, City of Pittsburgh, District 8; Diamonte Walker, Deputy Director, Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA); Chris Watts, Vice President of Mobility, Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership (PDP) 2. “DOMI Covid-19 Response,” City of Pittsburgh, pittsburghpa.gov/domi/covid-19.

3. Greg Flisram and Diamonte Walker, “The URA’s Greg Flisram and Diamonte Walker on the COVID Crisis and Recovery in Pittsburgh,” PublicSource, December 16, 2020, https://www. publicsource.org/the-uras-greg-flisram-and-diamonte-walker-on-the-covid-crisis-andrecovery-in-pittsburgh/.

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

SUPPORTING URBAN CLIMATE HEALTH

Claire Weisz Principal-in-Charge, WXY Studio Clair Weisz argues that making meaningful strides in environmental justice comes down to collaboration and a mandate to promote urban climate health.

80 Unlike many fields in the public realm, the sign of success in public health is that nothing happens. Why isn’t this the case for successful public design and policy? As designers, our current emergency responses to the still-raging pandemic indicate that change in the built environment only happens through disaster response and reaction, addressing the problem after the fact. How do we make a case for providing good design and planning before disaster strikes again?

A public health system’s mission and purpose become evident when witnessing what happens when it is not maintained and supported. At the beginning of 2020, as deaths and suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic mounted, hospitals, agencies, governments, and businesses, without a plan or shared vision, struggled to act.

Employing an urban climate health mandate would introduce the mechanisms to create equitable and sustainable growth. Imagine if waste systems and multi-benefit developments were redesigned to prioritize the health and wellbeing of individuals and the environment, with the reward of better financing and political support. That is a future with a purpose: no deaths or illnesses caused by where you live, who you live with, or where you work. To make nothing happen, we need to shift to preventative care, known in the built environment as planning and maintenance.

WE MUST RECOGNIZE AND SEE RESTITUTION THROUGH ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AS THE WAY FORWARD TO HEAL THE IMPACT OF SYSTEMIC RACISM.

We must also recognize and see restitution through environmental justice as the way forward to heal the impact of systemic racism.

Places are scarred by racist policies made to prioritize certain people’s freeway driving, while investments in shared transit and access to safe walking and cycling are still not at the top of many climate action lists. For too long, architects have been relegated to typological boundaries: housing instead of communities, hospitals instead of neighborhoods. There is much to be learned from neighborhood-focused environmental groups. We need local knowledge and community-based planning to achieve a zero-carbon city.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Claire Weisz Claire Weisz is an architect and urbanist, and a founding principal of WXY. With her partners Mark Yoes, Layng Pew, and Adam Lubinsky, Claire focuses on innovative approaches to public space, structures, and cities. WXY has received the League Prize from the Architectural League of New York, as well as being selected as one of the League’s Emerging Voices practices in 2011, in addition to numerous awards from AIA National, AIANY, and the American Planning Association.

Recent and ongoing work in New York City includes the redesign of Astor Place, the Spring Street Sanitation Garage, the redesign of the Rockaway Boardwalks, Pier 26’s Boathouse/Restaurant, Battery Park’s SeaGlass Carousel, a pedestrian bridge in lower Manhattan, a design to better accommodate both pedestrians and elevated trains in Harlem, a study of Brooklyn’s growing commercial tech sector (The Brooklyn Tech Triangle), The East River Blueway Plan, and a finalist proposal for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rebuild by Design initiative. With Andrea Woodner, Claire cofounded the Design Trust for Public Space, and has recently been on faculty at New York University’s Wagner School of Public Service and a Visiting Critic of Urban Design at Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning in New York. Claire received her professional degree from the University of Toronto with honors and her master’s in architecture from Yale University.

82 At WXY, we are seeing a growing need to collaborate on urban design initiatives that extend into all aspects of life, reimagining both public realm and building usage. For this reason, the public work that we are doing in cities affects our building clients as well. Collaboration with fellow designers, planners, and city and economic development policy makers will be needed to help support more nature, less car traffic, and vibrant local economies in cities. The challenge is to grow the support for urban environments, and to preserve the habitats adjacent to and outside of where we live and work.

This is where a federal program with the scope and lasting impact of the Works Progress Administration needs to be enacted to address the needs of environmental justice. A leading program can be the foundation for an urban climate health approach to all development going forward. Every neighborhood has an example of single-purpose highways that divided and stole from individuals’ futures. But the future is now, and it is in dire need of both new local techniques and visionary policy, with our support as protagonists in the national urban climate health movement.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

HOW CAN ENGINEERS CONTRIBUTE?

Erik Verboon Principal, Managing Director, Walter P Moore Through his team’s on-the-ground assistance, Erik Verboon recounts how engineers have a vital role to play in helping hard-hit communities’ confront their pressing pandemic recovery needs.

84 The COVID-19 pandemic corresponded with a time of intense sociopolitical unrest. Like most other businesses around the world, we at Walter P Moore were grappling with strategies to operate remotely at the same time that surges in movements like Black Lives Matter made our company as a whole reconsider how we address diversity, equity, and inclusion in our practice, our industry, and our communities.

This period of self-reflection caused us to ponder, “How can we as structural engineers contribute to aid our communities need?” As professionals tasked with problems of physics and “nuts and bolts,” how could we be of service in solving problems which, at first glance, given the pandemic, were biological, or at closest proximity to our industry, mechanical? Having deep expertise in deployable, operable, and lightweight structures, our initial thoughts focused on the need for rapidly deployable and transportable shelters for first responders.

However, our contribution early in the pandemic ended up coming in the form of employing underused tools lying dormant in our empty offices. Later, it came through our involvement in the Van Alen Council and Design Advocates Group.

Fueled by the shortage in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), engineers and designers in our Los Angeles office found an opportunity to put the 3D printers lying dormant in our recently closed offices to use. In collaboration with UCLA and USC we helped launch “Operation PPE”—an initiative to replenish depleted protective equipment for healthcare providers through digital fabrication.

Through a regional network of design firms and universities, the operation printed thousands of NIH-approved face shields that were distributed to local drop-off locations. The initiative became an early example of how we could use our expertise and capabilities in a way that reaches past typical industry boundaries to serve a global good.

Later, through the Van Alen Council, we were introduced to the Neighborhoods Now initiative and the work Design Advocates was doing with the NYC Open Restaurants program. By leveraging our knowledge of structures and materials, we saw an opportunity for involvement from two distinct trajectories: First, we could provide insight and guidance on the use of various materials currently being used for shelters, barriers, or dividers; second, we could offer structural guidance with the goal of providing safety and residency

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Erik Verboon Erik Verboon is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of the Walter P Moore New York office. Trained in both architecture and engineering, Erik brings a deep global experience with a focus on the design of complex and high performance building envelopes for a wide range of building types.

Erik has experience working with a wide variety of facade applications including high-performance double skin facades, geometrically complex composite facades, and custom unitized enclosures for both new buildings and existing building retrofits and extensions.

His experience in digital design, geometric rationalization and environmental analysis allows him to bring superlative value to his clients, helping designers deliver projects to the highest level of design sophistication while maximizing performance and minimizing cost. Erik is currently working to develop resilient building enclosure strategies for flood-prone buildings and master plans.

Erik’s portfolio includes both national and international work with extensive experience in the New York market, bringing expertise in buildings old and new, across academic, commercial, and cultural sectors. In addition to Erik’s professional accolades, he also teaches enclosure design and environmental analysis at a number of leading universities.

86 where speed and cost of erection likely took precedent over verified and validated structural systems.

Our first contribution was the Open Restaurants Winterizing toolkit, which provided restaurant owners with clear recommendations for outdoor dining shelters that could be used while still protecting their patrons and staff. Our team created a communication program to help owners understand the increased loads that the shelters would experience in the winter—including snow, hanging space heaters, and increased lateral wind loads. With the same graphical clarity, we were able to help owners enhance their shelter structures’ safety, providing an understanding of the material options and material sources most likely to be available to them.

WHILE OUR FOCUS HAS BEEN ON THE IMMEDIATE COMMUNITIES IN WHICH WE WORK AND LIVE, THE POTENTIAL FOR APPLYING SUCCESSFUL INITIATIVES IN OTHER COMMUNITIES HEIGHTENS THE VALUE THAT DESIGNERS OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT CAN PROVIDE.

Emergency response is not a new concept in our line of work. We have a number of engineers trained in post-disaster engagement. However, this training most often gets triggered by a singular event without the global impact of the pandemic. What has given us added drive in this response is its novelty in our line of work, and the idea that our efforts have the potential to affect entire communities and cities on a daily basis, potentially in perpetuity.

And while our focus has been on the immediate communities in which we work and live, the potential for applying successful initiatives in other communities heightens the value that designers of the built environment can provide.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

RETHINKING SOCIAL SPACE IN SWEDEN

Helena Toresson Interior Architect and Vice Managing Director, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor Kajsa Dahlbäck Community Strategist, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor Core members of Gert Wingårdh’s team in Sweden recount the pandemic’s impacts on social life and lessons to inform the future.

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Helena Toresson Studies say that people live close to 90 percent of their lives indoors, and in Sweden that is certainly no exaggeration. For more than half the year it is dark and cold. Our climate conditions do not naturally foster meetings and socializing outdoors.

Perhaps that’s why the interiors of our buildings are particularly important to northern people like us. Our homes are often large with generous spaces for socializing. It is our safe haven but also our meeting place.

We put an enormous amount of time, commitment, and energy into decorating and renovating it. We invite family and friends. We hang out, have parties and dinners. We are happy to share gardens, laundry rooms, and other functional spaces with each other. Coliving—absolutely!

Our workplaces are frequently both functional and support wellbeing.

We work together in teams, often in open office layouts. Proximity, flexibility, and efficiency have been the keywords when planning our offices, while “identity” and “brand values” have been the keywords when designing them. The workplace as a meeting place is a given: Innovation requires physical meetings. Coworking—gladly!

IN THE YEAR OF THE PANDEMIC WE CAME TO QUESTION EVERYTHING WE HAD LEARNED.

In the year of the pandemic we came to question everything we had learned. We now know that being close to each other is connected to a risk; that our eldest and sick died when the people that tried to care for them infected them with the virus; that their homes, carefully planned and decorated, became the venue of isolation, loneliness, and death.

I have spent twenty years as an interior architect trying to design physical environments that bring humans together. I believed that innovations and creativity, identity, and wellbeing, are born when humans interact; that we need to feel that we belong to something greater than ourselves, and that carefully designed buildings and interiors can help us do so. Now, several of these venues that once brought us together are empty. Offices, restaurants, concert halls, theaters and hotels are just empty shells, waiting for us humans to come back and interact.

I believe in a future where we continue to cowork, colive and coexist.

To meet, work, talk, touch, share, and care. Otherwise, what’s the point?

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Gert Wingårdh Founder, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor Born in Skövde in 1951, Gert Wingårdh spent his early years in Gothenburg. After studying history and theory of art, he quickly settled on architecture. Soon after graduation in 1975 he started his own practice. It has grown steadily, and Wingårdh Arkitektkontor AB today is one of the largest architect practices in Sweden, with about 169 employees and with projects in several continents. The firm’s high artistic aspirations have earned it numerous accolades.

Parallel to his architectural practice, Gert Wingårdh has also taken part in the public discussion of architectural issues and has been actively involved in teaching as Artistic Professor at the School of Architecture, Chalmers University of Technology.

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Kajsa Dahlbäck

In Sweden, as in many other countries, there is an ongoing debate about what urban development and planning will look like beyond COVID-19.

Although tougher restrictions have been in play for the last few months, our constitution does not allow outright lockdowns. The rather different strategy and approach to the pandemic might have allowed some shifts in urban development that are not necessarily seen in other countries where the freedom of movement is temporarily restricted.

Parks and recreational areas have become our new living room where we can socialize in a safe way. There is an increasing focus on the development of parks and green areas which now is of greater relevance to a lot more people. In our cities, businesses are struggling, especially in the culture and food industry. Many municipalities try to meet their challenges by subsidizing fees, extended outdoor seating possibilities, and lower or eliminated parking fees for visitors.

The National Board of Housing, Building and Planning has been commissioned to investigate possibilities to transform commercial buildings into residential housing, as experts predict a decreased demand for commercial real estate.

In general, there is a shift in the planning discourse from a regional commuting approach to focusing more on local areas and neighborhoods. Consequently, some experts predict a revival for small and medium-sized cities. The pandemic has already started to change the preconditions for architects and planners and will continue to leave us with new insights. People’s strong desire to meet physically is constant. Perhaps this is one of the clearest outcomes that this pandemic leaves us with.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

TELEMEDICINE AS AN URBAN SYSTEM

Tyler McIntyre Partner, Design and Construction, Fairstead Tyler McIntyre explains why the system of telemedicine has an important role to play in advancing our goals of a more resilient urban future.

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A HEALTHY PUBLIC REALM SHOULD INCORPORATE TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ADVANCES OUR PUBLIC HEALTH GOALS, WITH ATTENTION ON THOSE HISTORICALLY UNDER-RESOURCED COMMUNITIES SUBJECT TO THE DIGITAL DIVIDE.

The varying attempts and levels of success in deploying and scaling widespread use of telemedicine and its associated infrastructure to curtail the pandemic will have lasting impacts on public health in cities throughout the world. For national or regional communities with access to great telemedicine, curtailing community spread was far more attainable than those with primitive policies and infrastructure too dependent on in-person interactions.

Alongside design and geographies, a healthy public realm should incorporate technology infrastructure that advances our public health goals, with attention to those historically under-resourced communities subject to the digital divide.

Numerous emergency response systems deployed to control the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 attempted to use telemedicine to accomplish public health initiatives outlined by epidemiologists. These recommendations included contact tracing, quarantine monitoring, public health messaging, appointment scheduling, and self-monitoring of symptoms. Many of these recommendations by leading public health experts varied in effectiveness based on a population’s pre-pandemic implementation of healthcare technology software and systems.

For forward-thinking healthcare systems, telemedicine became the backbone for their fight against COVID-19. These systems were ready and in use prior to COVID-19 arrival. Patients were familiar with telemedicine and had usernames and passwords. Government guidelines provided structure for these systems to be developed efficiently and in concert. Due to these systems being ready prior to 2020, appointment scheduling, contact tracing, quarantine monitoring, and universal public health messaging were more successful in controlling outbreaks and limiting cases. The mature telemedicine networks of Japan, South Korea, and Singapore ensured remote medical advice was readily available to the masses, effectively keeping more mild cases from being admitted into hospitals and preserving capacity and focus for the most severe cases.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Tyler McIntyre Tyler McIntyre is the Director of Design and Construction for Fairstead. In this capacity, Tyler oversees the development, construction and rehabilitation of multifamily housing projects in twelve states across the US. Previously, Tyler held positions at Tetra Tech, Lendlease, and RockFarmer Capital, where he focused on the design and ground-up construction of commercial, multifamily, and healthcare facilities. Tyler earned two undergraduate degrees from Dartmouth College: a BE in Mechanical Engineering and a BA in Economics. In addition, Tyler graduated from the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University with an MS in Urban Planning and Construction Management.

94 In contrast, fractured telemedicine systems that had not been widely implemented or adopted in cities around the world lead to exponentially worse outcomes from COVID. Contact tracing was largely a failure, quarantine measures were difficult to enforce, long lines for testing were commonplace and doctor’s visits for those who contracted the virus were mainly done in person risking further spread.

These inefficiencies in delivering care were painfully evident during a pandemic but those same inefficiencies existed prior to being exposed by the challenges of 2020.

As we reach what we hope may be the beginning of the end of this pandemic, in-home telemedicine, as a critical piece of urban infrastructure, should remain in focus. Supportive housing projects for residents in need of additional care should ensure high-speed internet and the infrastructure to allow for regular doctor video calls and data communication. Senior supportive housing should be built with cameras and interfacing screens to allow for more routine doctor check-ins to occur. Family-centric properties with higher populations of young children more susceptible to childhood diseases can be better regulated with less burden on working parents. The inefficiencies of outdated medical systems and the benefits of telemedicine demonstrated in the pandemic should resonate with cities, as we strive to build resilience and prepare for future disruptions.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

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DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

REMAINING COUNCIL BIOS

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Alfredo Caraballo Partner, Allies and Morrison An architect, Alfredo is a partner at Allies and Morrison, the London-based architecture and urbanism practice. He leads on the design of a broad range of projects from conceptual stages through to completion both in the UK and abroad. This work includes the ongoing development of several innovative high-density neighborhoods in different parts of London. Alfredo has been in charge of several of Allies and Morrison’s international projects, leading commissions and competitions in India, Lebanon, Denmark, Germany, Oman, Italy, Canada, and the US. In Beirut, he oversaw District//S, a new residential quarter on the fringe of the Lebanese capital’s historic center. Alfredo is also at the helm of the multidisciplinary team designing Muscat’s urban extension, a new low-carbon city which will have a resident population of sixty thousand; and most recently, he has been involved in the practice’s first works in North America. Alfredo studied at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, and London Metropolitan University, receiving commendations for his studies in both Venezuela and London.

Jonas Edblad Partner, Wingårdhs Arkitektkontor Jonas Edblad, Architect SAR/MSA, has extensive experience in urban design and planning of public buildings, universities, schools, cultural centers, commercial complexes and offices. As project architect for award-winning projects such as Aula Medica, Spira performance arts center, the Chalmers student union building, and Aranäs high school, he has a key role in the project implementation. He is particularly involved in issues of logistics, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Edblad is currently chairman for the Academy of Architecture at the Association of Swedish Architects.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

Chris Reed Founding Director, Stoss Landscape Urbanism Chris Reed is Founding Director of Stoss. He is recognized internationally as a leading voice in the transformation of landscapes and cities, and he works alternately as a researcher, strategist, teacher, designer, and advisor. Chris is particularly interested in the relationships between ecology and landscape and infrastructure, social spaces, and cities.

His work collectively includes urban revitalization initiatives, climate resilience efforts, adaptations of former industrial sites, vibrant public spaces that cultivate a diversity of social uses, and numerous landscape installations. He has overseen riverfront work in Green Bay, Wisconson, Little Rock, Arkansas, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Louisville, Cape Cod, Dallas, and Grand Rapids, Michigan. Chris is a recipient of the 2012 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Landscape Architecture, a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects, and the 2017 Mercedes T. Bass Landscape Architect in Residence at the American Academy in Rome.

Ben Saxe Executive Director, Studio Saxe Ben’s belief in the positive role architecture can play in society around the world stems from his studies in Costa Rica and the US, as well as his work in Europe on a number of large international projects. This experience is combined with a long-held desire to use design to “do more with less” and ensure that craft and technology work seamlessly together to create buildings and spaces for all. While studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, Benjamin explored how different materials could be used in construction in new and exciting ways.

In 2007, Benjamin moved to London to work for the world-renowned Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, drawn in part by their commitment to sustainable and socially aware design. In 2012, Benjamin Garcia Saxe was formally opened as a design studio in Costa Rica.

The practice was renamed Studio Saxe in 2017 to acknowledge the growing role of many of its multidisciplinary team members.

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S. Bry Sarté Founder, Sherwood Design Engineers S. Bry Sarté is an author, professional engineer, academic, and nonprofit founder. He established Sherwood Design Engineers 18 years ago, which now has six offices in the United States. He has worked on hundreds of leading national and international engineering projects that have set new standards for innovation and project excellence. His work significantly influences contemporary global urban transformation around issues of infrastructure, urban design, resilience, and ecological stewardship. He regularly serves as a lecturer at top universities and conferences around the world where he discusses applications of sustainable engineering to planning, design, and construction. He is the author of the book, Sustainable Infrastructure: The Guide to Green Engineering and Design, published John Wiley & Sons, and the book, Water Infrastructure: Equitable Deployment of Resilient Systems, published by Columbia University in collaboration with United Nations Habitat III. Bry with his family in San Francisco, where Sherwood Design Engineers was founded.

Susanna Sirefman President, Dovetail Design Strategists Dovetail Design Strategists is the leading independent architect selection firm in the United States servicing developers, civic, cultural and educational institutions looking for world-class architecture and design excellence. Dovetail’s founder, Susanna Sirefman, is trained as an architect and draws from extensive knowledge of the latest design and building trends and unmatched access to both emerging and acclaimed talent in the architecture field. Dovetail’s signature methodology and competitive selection process, tailored to each project, thoughtfully leads its clients to inspired architect shortlists and winning designs as they prepare for growth and enhanced visibility.

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

VAN ALEN INSTITUTE BOARD AND STAFF

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EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Chair Carla Swickerath Studio Libeskind

Secretary Jenn Gustetic Public Sector Innovation Expert

Vice Chair Jared Della Valle Alloy

Jessica Healy Seven Willow Collaborative

Treasurer Mark Johnson Civitas

BOARD MEMBERS

Raymond Quinn Arup

Michael Bednark Bednark Studios Inc

Sandy Lee Eight Seven Capital

Robert Bernstein Holland & Knight

Nnenna Lynch* Xylem

Raudline Etienne Daraja Capital / Albright Stonebridge Group

Daniel Maldonado Skanska

Allison Freedman Weisberg* Recess Mark Gardner Jaklitsch / Gardner Architects Casey Jones Perkins and Will Mikyoung Kim Mikyoung Kim Design May Lee The Seelig Group

STAFF

Hana Kassem Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Elaine Molinar Snøhetta Hunter Tura WE ARE SYNDICATE Sarah Williams Goldhagen Turf Advisory Byron Bell (Emeritus), Byron Bell Architects & Planners *VANguard member

Deborah Marton Executive Director

Andrew Brown Acting Director of Programs

Naomy Ambroise Finance and Operations Coordinator

Annie Ferreira Development Coordinator

Stacey Anderson Associate Director, Business Development and Special Initiatives

Scott Kelly Graphic Design Coordinator Alisha Kim Levin Director of Communications

Diana Araujo Project Manager, Programs

Kate Overbeck Director of Development

Elissa Black Managing Director

Ren Reese Director of Finance and Operations

DESIGNING THE CITY WE WANT

ADDITIONAL CREDITS

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PHOTOGRAPHY

SPECIAL THANKS

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