Brownfields

Brownfields to Green Golf Courses in Michigan

A former industrial corridor in Benton Harbor, Michigan is being transformed into a resort community complete with golf course.

20 December 2011 - 11:00am

The New York Times

Outrageous Skate Park Planned for Under Manhattan Bridge

Architecture for Humanity has asked 9 design firms to dream up an upgrade for Coleman Oval Skate Park, which is located directly underneath the Manhattan Bridge.

8 October 2011 - 9:00am

The Architect's Newspaper

A Highly Unique Brownfield

Beckholmen, an island off Stockholm, has been an industrial and shipping center since the 1600s. Today, the city is looking at ways to revitalize the island while preserving the industry that has dominated it for so long.

7 September 2011 - 6:00am

POLIS

Repurposed Railyard Becomes Award-Winning Park

The City Parks blog looks at Santa Fe Railyard Park and Plaza, one of the winners of this year's Rudy Bruner Awards for Urban Excellence.

6 July 2011 - 5:00am

City Parks Blog

Squeezing Juice from Brownfields

Communities across the country are trying to reuse contaminated brownfields as sites for the production of clean energy.

3 July 2011 - 5:00am

Yale Environment 360

Reviving the Real Estate Market with Parks

The idea of tuning toxic or polluted sites into parks has been creating new green spaces in cities throughout the country. It's also re-starting the real estate market.

22 June 2011 - 9:00am

THE DIRT

Rust Belt Mayors Are Greening Brownfields

With the unlikely help of a group called the Mayors Automotive Coalition, down-at-the-heels towns are reinventing themselves - in various shades of green.

15 June 2011 - 12:00pm

OnEarth

Fixing "A Hole in the Urban Fabric"

That's how Christopher Hume describes the Toronto area that will soon be Underpass Park, a mixed-use, mixed-income neighborhood for 6,000 people.

8 June 2011 - 11:00am

The Toronto Star

New York City Brownfields Program Clean But Flawed

A citywide brownfields recovery program in New York City has been cleaning up polluted sites, allowing new developments to move in on formerly vacant areas. But some worry the program is fueling gentrification.

1 June 2011 - 11:00am

Gotham Gazette

Brownfields Become Solar Fields

Cities across the country are re-utilizing brownfield sites as solar farms.

15 April 2011 - 5:00am

Sustainable Cities Collective

Struggling Communities Ignored by NY's Brownfield Cleanup Program

An environmental watchdog group reveals that funds from New York's Brownfield Cleanup Program are not going to clean up the lower-income communities they were intended to help.

4 February 2011 - 12:00pm

readMedia

Developers Find Cash in Brownfields

According to this article in Area Development Online, developing a brownfield is a no-brainer: infrastructure is in place, governments have redevelopment funds to support it, and "the PR flip is huge."

21 January 2011 - 7:00am

Area Development Online

Plants Do The Dirty Work

"Phytoremediation" is a growing field (pun intended) of practice that uses particular types of plants to leech toxic materials out of the soil in contaminated sites.

30 December 2010 - 12:00pm

ASLA's The Dirt blog

A Natural Way to Green Brownfields

With more than 11,000 acres of brownfield sites in New York City sitting underused due to contamination, officials there want to get things cleaned up and reused. Urban designer Kaja Kühl offers this field guide to small-scale bioremediation to help.

7 November 2010 - 5:00am

Urban Omnibus

Nate Berg

Halloween Costumes for Urban Planners - 3rd Edition

Mon, 10/25/2010 - 07:32

It's Halloween time again, the day when dressing up in silly costumes is required of every conscionable person. Some opt for the scary ghost or the sexy nurse, but others, more thoughtful others, make more of this opportunity. Others like you, my clearly intelligent and attractive reader, who use this opportunity to spread a message with their costumes. Costumes that make an impact. Costumes that enlighten. Costumes that are, uh, related to urban planning concepts. What better way to celebrate this annual day of costuming than with an outfit that tells the world that you are interested in urban planning? Obviously there could be no better way. And so, it is with only a small amount of shame and embarrassment that I present this third edition list of Halloween costume ideas for urban planners.

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New York City Given Power to Clean Up Brownfields

New York City has garnered new powers to institute cleanups on moderately contaminated sites, which could help revive hundreds of spots in the city that have sat empty or unused for years.

5 October 2010 - 7:00am

The Architect's Newspaper

Warehouses to Urban Farms

Yesterday's infrastructure can become tomorrow's agriculture, says Ed Harwood, by converting underused industrial warehouses and factories to hydroponic and aeroponic growing.

27 September 2010 - 10:31am

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1 comment

The Essential Principles of Brownfields Regeneration

With "brownfield" (former industrial or commercial sites) development on the rise, it is essential for planners to have a clear process for approaching this tricky development type, say Justin B. Hollander, Niall G. Kirkwood and Julia L. Gold.

20 September 2010 - 10:28am

How Fungi Can Restore the Land

Mycologist Paul Stamets believes that mycelium, a fungi, could be integral to restoring damaged soil, repairing habitats, and even cleaning brownfields.

5 April 2010 - 7:00am

Design Under Sky

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1 comment

Putting Good Energy with the Bad

Facing resistance when siting green energy projects like wind turbines, energy companies are considering brownfields like the Leviathan Mine in California's Alpine County.

5 March 2010 - 8:00am

Next100 (PG&E blog)