CHICAGO ECO BRIDGE to 1909?

GREAT SCOTT! they must have found the delorean that somebody keeps parked up on 31st. seriously, this is kinda cool. the timetable of this project is.... 100 years! i would suggest it is the longest project in history, but you never know with contractors these days. (i wont even MENTION architects)

(anyhow im talking about the BURNHAM PLAN for CHICAGO, inspiration for the newly proposed ECO BRIDGE across the lakefront downtown. have a look)

THE PROPOSED ECO BRIDGE:


THE 1909 BURNHAM PLAN

(images from inhabitat)

as you can see, our friends at adrian smith and gorden gill architecture have taken over burnham's 1909 idea to finish off the loop as a great big semi-circle harbor-type-thingy. except that they've covered the whole thing with parks, wind turbines and a monorail! (is it truly our very own EPCOT CENTER?! ) perhaps it took 100 years for everyone to realize what the original burnham plan could actually DO. who knew his breakwater could be a power plant? his harbor could be a harbinger? i betcha, if CHICAGO ACTUALLY DOES IT, the great american world might come on down, take a look, and say 'damn that thing looks good!'

then they could finally put turbines in NARRAGANSETT BAY!
happy 2009 people, lets throw enough shit against the wall for a change.

recipe for fixin' a TASTY CHICAGO BROWNFIELD!

(take this...)


"What became known as Stearns Quarry opened sometime in the late 1830s and supplied lime and crushed stone for concrete, fertilizer, and roads until it closed in 1970, at a final depth of 350 feet below street level. The City of Chicago bought the giant hole in 1970 for 9 million dollars to use as a dump for construction and demolition debris (CDD) and for ash from the Northwest incinerator on the West Side which burned Chicago’s garbage for 26 years. Incinerator ash stopped being accepted in 1987, but CDD continued to come in, much of it made, of course, of lime and crushed stone, in shapes"


(add this...)


"The Chicago Park District is now reconstituting the site as an unprecedented type of urban park, with dramatic topography, a fishing hole, a sledding hill, a “natural” amphitheater, and an elaborately engineered water management system. This system includes an underground pump to remove existing leachate draining toxins from the buried incinerator ash, and an overground sequence of ponds that collect and filter surface rainwater and prevent it from contributing to the leachate below."


(get... this?)


looks different, huh?. well, go check out the landscape architecture firm behind it: D.I.R.T. Studios (stands for "design investigations reclaiming terrain") THIS PLAN IS BADASS. if you look closely, it contains a large wetland area designated for water filtration, and a pond for fishing as well as rainwater retention. im not sure exactly how i feel about the large hump/spiral in the center (just because it looks SO much like a landfill) but behind barbed wire, anything looks like prison camp. anyway, D.I.R.T. is worth checking out, i am inspired by some of their work around the country, mostly reworking brownfields.

Although the CITY OF CHICAGO claims that the project has been completed for a few years, you can tell by the barbed wire look and vacant construction machines inside the park that it is actually fairly far from it. when it will ACTUALLY be completed remains to be seen, but needless to say, i am happy to have it around the corner from my apartment. here's to making MOUNTAINS out of LANDFILLS!

check it: WALKSCORE.COM!

SERIOUSLY GO TO WALKSCORE.COM this is a website that is devoted exclusively the rating the 'WALKABILITY' of your neighborhood. it basically gives you a GOOGLE MAP, covered with all of the thing that are useful to everyday life and within walking distance of your home. while it isn't perfect (like GOOGLE maps themselves) it is a really fun way to look at your new (or old) neighborhood in a new way. CHECK IT OUT! im excited that websites like this one are actually out there. for my neighborhood in SOUTH SIDE CHICAGO, i got a 69 out of 100. ya! GET YOUR WALKSCORE!

RECYCLE much? (or, the GREAT TRASH ISLAND)

(image from lastnightsgarbage.com a blog about garbage found on NYC streets... )


Soooo... who here recycles? OOHH OOOOH PICK ME! OOOH MEEEE! I RECYCLE!! YAAAAA!

well... CONGRATS, me too. it might not be working out so hot though. i learned by being a construction worker and bringing loads of garbage to the dump DIRECTLY that all garbage in san francisco is sorted once it arrives there (and they take out all the interesting figurines and sculptures and put them on display on a giant hill behind the dump. its really quite impressive, and im not kidding.)

but the reason they go through it is to SORT OUT RECYCLABLES. thats why we don't have to sort paper from plastic from glass in SF (yes, the planning department is also high) because its all gonna be sorted again when it gets there. now i know your all thinking THIS IS GRRRRREAT! but wait. i have confirmation from an inside source that almost all municiple recyclables on the west coast are SHIPPED TO CHINA for processing.
now think about this for a second:


(image from theferrisfiles.com apparently dude worked out with BARACK OBAMA)

this is an image of the location of the "GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE ISLAND" oh its there, all right. just check out this popular science article: HERE and read all about it. The GIANT TRASH ISLAND IS 80% PLASTIC and occurs where ocean currents converge to create a spot where debris builds up. so here i ask again:

WHO HERE RECYCLES? hmmm. its kinda hard to tell now, isnt it? 2nd question: WHICH PART OF YOUR RECYCLING FLOATS?

this is all very sad. sorry.

on FLUSHING THE TOILET

yes, folks, i FLUSH THE TOILET when i pee. and really, i didn't feel guilty about it at all until just recently. my roommate's girl moved in a few weeks ago, and she lives by the "if its yellow, it can be my fellow" rule. or maybe its "if its pee, let's all see!" needless to say, its not my favorite thing.

HOWEVER, being conscientious myself, i understand the ideology, and appreciate the fact that they have chosen to sacrifice their NOSTRIL CLEANLINESS to conserve water, (it does smell if i haven't been in to flush it for a while, especially when somebody eats asparagus.) or perhaps it is because i'm moving soon, but these differences are not of import to any of us. Although, it is interesting to think about...

IT MUST BE NOTED that i recognize the inherent DESIGN PROBLEM in our toilets, and that we ought to change the status quo. My solution, currently, has been to place several 'pontoons' in the toilet tank (no, not THAT) which are basically filled, capped off plastic bottles, to keep the water/per/flush down. this is not the ANSWER, neither are DUAL FLUSH TOILETS, but its a start.


(image from http://www.toiletology.com and is a diagram of a CAROMA DUAL FLUSH TOILET which i just thought looked pretty rad, go dualies! (they'll be the new fixies for sure)

smart, huh? well, here's a better one: if you ever have FRUIT FLIES, make a paper cone with a small (1/2") hole, and tape it to a glass containing a sip of red wine, pointy side down to within an inch of the wine, fully sealed to the glass' lip with tape (duct is best) and watch it fill with fruit flies! integrated pest management baby! and it feels kind like high school bio lab.

thats all for today. WHATS THAT LITTLE PATCH OF GRASS THAT GOLFERS AIM AT CALLED? sustainable design i think.

on NOT DRIVING

(image from MATT B MEDIA and its pretty dope.)

i didn't start NOT DRIVING by choice. (truthfully, like most of us, i couldn't get to work without my car. so my first day without the old truck was my first day looking for a new job... but i digress) no, it was by accident. well, actually by getting IN an accident. nobody was hurt, the old beauty just lost a wheel on the highway...

well, whatever the original reason, i've stuck to NOT DRIVING for almost a year now. and truthfully not driving sucks sometimes. but you know what? its CHEAP!!

and i don't mean that like low-quality, i mean you save BUNDLES OF CASH by not owning a car. its almost amazing. another amazing thing: its SO easy to rent a car and go on a road trip once in a while (not to mention those 'zipcar' and local carshare groups). they wash it for you! AND you can pretty much bargain on any price they offer if you don't rent at the airport.

additionally, i think its really reduced my stress levels. i love cruisin' down the open road on a sunny afternoon, but driving in city traffic makes me INSANE! road rage probably causes more heart attacks than smoking.

so anyways, next time im out for a cruise, it'll probably be on my bike. so keep your eyes open, a-hole.

GRISTly BEAR

so i was looking for images for a sustainable design textbook i'm helping out with, and i found myself surfing GRIST (www.grist.org) which was an interesting and informative website (i appreciate the 'gristmill' pun)

it seems, though, that GRIST suffers from the same -ITUS as most of the info on this stuff. (can we call it JADEFANTITUS? a.k.a. SEAFOAMING AT THE MOUTH?) and i thought i would share the 15-item long gem of a "green searches" pull down menu:


green actors, green buildings, green business founders, green cars, green chefs, green cities, green colleges and universities, green fashion finds, green fashionistas(WTF?), green movies, green musicians and bands, green politicians, green religeous leaders, and green sports stars


what the hell is a green sports star?!?! sure, and I'M L.E.E.D. CERTIFIED. once again, we are faced with CONSUMERISM AS USUAL ON ST. PATRICKS DAY!!!! the way to make things happen is not to watch more games featuring 'environmental' sports stars! (or moviestars, rockstars, fashionistas, etc) IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE INSPIRATIONAL ROLE MODELS. and SHOULDN'T WE BE INSPIRED OURSELVES?? we are all in this boat together, and rockstars and actors should read about what WE do and be inspired by that. YOU DON'T HAVE TO SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME IN A TOUR BUS TO MAKE REAL CHANGE HAPPEN. YOU CAN INSPIRE EVERYONE AROUND YOU RIGHT NOW. the obsession with celebrity in america should not be confused with a true ability to take action. this is no longer a spectator sport - we don't have to sit on the sidelines and watch. SO DO SOMETHING. AND WHY NOT WEAR PURPLE WHEN YOU'RE DOING IT!!!


(...i cant wait to see how this all pans out!)

sustainableAMERICA

you know its amazing how people are obsessed with color words. green is the new black, pink is the new black, what is 'old' black anyways? (i guess the 'in' thing...?) anyways, its amazing what you come up with when you search for the 'GREENEST' cities in america.

the picture above is from san francisco's ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, a new building in golden gate park. the view from the tower of the new DE YOUNG MUSEUM is breathtaking. you can see the entirety of the academy's rolling, sprawling, porthole-pocked hilltop of a green roof, and it is quite a sight.

but the remarkable thing here is not san francisco, seattle, or portland oregon... its not even really NYC, because we expect them to be at the forefront of whatever the new generation is. its the OTHER cities that are vying for 'EMERALD CITY OF AMERICA' status that are worth remarking about. cities like CHICAGO, deep in the heart of middle-america, surrounded by corn and bible thumpers, or AUSTIN, TEXAS. we all had a feeling austin was cool, but WHO NEW? they have one of the largest SOLAR PANEL COLLECTIONS in the country. eat your heart out, BUSH. minneapolis ain't doin' so bad, neither.

another amazing tidbit here is with a quick google search, i saw lists from mainstream, non sustainability-minded publications like COUNTRY HOME and POPULAR SCIENCE. it makes me proud to see this hustle, especially in places that aren't classically populated by beatniks. good show, AMERICA!

That 'G' Word

it all started at 8th and brannan in SAN FRANCISCO. i had accepted a job to hand flyers out at a conference held there. The conference was called "GreenFest" and the company i was flyering for was called "GreenHome" (http://www.greenhome.com). don't get me wrong, i was willing to swallow the initial irony of handing out disposable paper flyers advertising sustainability, but what i was not ready for, not in the slightest, was the approaching tidal wave of the word 'green.'

i mean, the term had become a bit hollow at that point anyway. it wasn't really that bad.... until Wal-Mart opened a 'green' superstore. so i entered the conference expecting to hear my fair share of 'green' rhetoric. it just turned out that GreenFest fed me more 'greens' than a cow could stomach.
never before have i heard any word so many times over and over. each side of the papers i grasped said the g word several times, and it was my ear-hook to passers-by as well: "tips on greening your home? green products for sale!"
after a few hours, I really began to feel like i was in the 'malkovich' hallucination scene in 'BEING JOHN MALKOVICH.' (If you haven't seen it, you should. Its the only accurate analogy for the situation.) it was a 'green' overload. i nearly fell over, and completely lost my ability to communicate with passers-by, just muttering the g word over and over again.

i had to leave the conference, and as i walked towards BART, i realized what the issue was: we've got to get over that 'g' word!

and it really is about the word. there is no place for superficial descriptors in the enumeration of important world issues. just like it's not gonna all be black and white, its not all 'green' either! if there is one thing we do not need to be right now, it's exclusive!

by commodifying green and economically and socially separating it from other systems of thinking, green becomes a 'niche' market - profitable, yes. but far reaching? NO WAY. sustainability, responsibility: these are lenses through which to view every aspect of our world and our society, not closed off 'profit sectors' with target markets who love olive-colored block prints!







Maybe its just me, but I'm tired of 'Green'.