somethingaboutMaryman

If you live within about a mile of our house in Washington’s 37th legislative district then you have a chance to vote for my lovely wife Bridgette.

For Democratic PCO, but still…pretty cool.

cross posted at the Great City blog

When the Seattle Green Factor went into effect in January 2007 there was considerable skepticism from many quarters. Developers, used to setbacks and open space percentages, were concerned about the financial impacts of the new ordinance. Neighborhood and open space advocates worried that the ordinance might lead to more lotline-to-lotline development. And the decision makers who actually had to make the ordinance law just hoped that it would work the way that DPD staff said it would. More than a year on, 60 plus projects have gone through permitting and preliminary numbers are showing amazing results

Othello Station South by Othello Partners one of the Green Factor projects that was reviewed

When the Seattle Green Factor went into effect in January 2007 there was considerable skepticism from many quarters. Developers, used to setbacks and open space percentages, were concerned about the financial impacts of the new ordinance. Neighborhood and open space advocates worried that the ordinance might lead to more lotline-to-lotline development. And the decision makers who actually had to make the ordinance law just hoped that it would work the way that DPD staff said it would.

More than a year on, 60 plus projects have gone through permitting and preliminary numbers are showing amazing results. Today, Dave LeClerque from DPD presented the findings from UW Urban Planning student Liz Stenning, who audited 42 Green Factor projects as they were submitted at MUP for her thesis. Dave did note that while the results are promising, it remains to be seen how what is built differs from what was submitted at MUP. Regardless, some fascinating things have emerged:

• The projects that have been permitted have ranged from 5,850sf to 400,000sf. Dave noted that the larger projects thought it was easier to reach the Green Factor targets if you had a smaller parcel. Smaller parcels, of course, thought the same about the large projects. Dave thought the “ease” factor really had more to do with length of adjacent right-of-way.
• In terms of which credits have been used, the visible landscape credit is most used, and the water feature credit is least used. Green roofs were used in about 50% of projects (turning over the conventional thinking that city’s need to subsidize green roof installations), and green walls in about 75% of the projects.
• Green roofs, despite being used in only 50% of the projects, resulted in almost 3 acres of new green roof area in the city.
• Liz Stenning also interviewed various designers/developers who used the green factor. 9 people had a positive response. 4 were neutral. 3 were negative.
• The Green Factor resulted in landscape architects being involved earlier in the project (yes!).
• Other concerns were about the original credits rankings for lawn and for water features. As well as some frustration regarding a disconnect between DPD and SDOT.

Dave also gave a preview of a revised Green Factor spreadsheet that will be implemented this summer and which will also be used in the revision of the Multi-family Housing Code. For multi-family residential, the Green Factor percentage is proposed to double to .6 per parcel.

Pretty great stuff all in all.

A few new posts up on the Great City blog…

http://www.greatcity.org/blog/ecodensity-passes-in-vancouver

http://www.greatcity.org/blog/adaptation-thru-innovation

http://www.greatcity.org/blog/where-have-all-the-green-gurus-gone

Arrives July 11…

cross posted from the Great City blog…

The Cultural Landscape Foundation has been engaging the community in Springfield, MO to try to preserve Park Central Square, a Lawrence Halprin designed park. As part of that effort, they posted their first video to YouTube of one of the Halprin Associates, project manager George McLaughlin, recalling the story of the design. Check it out!

It is very interesting in that it talks about the authenticity of a Halprin design. McLaughlin notes that while he was the project designer, it was very much in the formal vocabulary and following the philosophy of Halprin’s design language that had been developed over the preceeding 15-20 years.

The other thing that strikes me is that how similar some of the issues and the framing of those issues is analogous to the story that I co-wrote for the April Landscape Architecture magazine about Seattle’s Occidental Park. The context and connections seem almost more important than the design itself.

A few years back, I had the distinct privilege of doing a design/build in Auroville, India (which Jason King wrote recently here). We were making a rammed earth building for other American students to come to in order to help build this intentional community just north of the former French colony of Pondicherry, on India’s southeast coast.

All of that is secondary, though, to the creative genius of our videographer, Gabe Reed, who made our own Bollywood video. (And I was so sick that day…luckily all I had to do was sit by the pool).

More images from the project below all via the BaSiC Initiative’s website, formerly at UW, now at the University of Texas at Austin and run by Sergio Palleroni.

Last night, the King County Landmarks Commission unanimously voted to make Herbert Bayer’s Earthworks the very first historic landmark in the City of Kent. In nearly two hours of presentation and testimony, the commission heard from a cadre of landscape architects, artists, arts commissioners, councilmembers, preservation commissioners and architectural historians. At the end of it, the commission quickly approved the legislation to make the Earthworks a landmark.

The fact that everyone in attendance and everyone on the Commission all spoke about their unequivocal support for granting landmark status, speaks volumes for the power of this place. In fact, landmark designation was a bit of a coup given that the work had to be deemed “exceptional” because it had not yet passed the 40 year threshold that is typically required for landmark status. King County Landmark Preservation Board’s Historic Preservation Officer Julie Koler noted that it was only the second review of a property for “exceptional” significance that she recalled. She also noted that to have the first City of Kent landmark also be one of the very first designated as exceptional was a very special accomplishment.

With some of the civic leaders who make the Earthworks possible in attendance, including past Mayor Isabel Hogan, the hearing was also quite emotional. Many had learned about the site as students or had lived close by and used it as their neighborhood park, but universally they were connected to the power of that place. It was an evocative reminder that what I get to do daily, as a landscape architect, really does profoundly influence people.

As soon as the nomination is posted online, I’ll link to it.