Altered Land

Recently the Farmland Report reminded us that our most productive land used to sustain our growing populous is continuing to be swallowed up by new developments, roadways, malls etc.  The rate at which we are losing this land is staggering, an acre of farmland per 60 seconds.  That's pathetic.  Especially in a country that is in need of it's local agriculture, in need of trimming some obese fatness.

But what could be the flip side of this coin?  Are we building future shrinking suburbs?  Are we building a structure that will one day cradle the agricultural diversity our country needs?  Detroit is a common example as are numerous other rust belt cities who are demolishing vacant and foreclosed houses at an astonishing rate.  The ideas for these new vacancies?  Take the Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative's concept called Biocellar published in the school's third series of "urban infill" titled Water|Craft.  Here is an idea that promotes reusing houses and their valuable foundations for environmental education, food and crop production, soil and compost production, and fish hatcheries.

I can imagine that common aerial that we see of suburbia, lawn, driveway, cookie cutter house multiplied by 10^100.  They are stale, they are boring, they are susceptible like a mono-culture.  I could easily believe that, just as Motown lost hundreds of thousands to a flailing economy, these suburbs could become vacant lots where economic shifts and environmental changes sent people look for the new American Dream.  And I can also see, from what we are learning now, that these divisions could become beautiful tapestries of crops.

In effect, the suburb is much like a living system, it grows out into our mono-culture fields, makes all kinds of shapes and eventually in some cases fails to take hold and dies.  Its physical structure is left behind and the opportunistic creatures amongst us move in.

In 20 to 30 years we may see the work that came from the fine students and professors at Kent State during this time and realize they paved the way for biological diversity in the most unlikely places.



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On Ohio State's Sea of Garage Rooftops

Back in June of 2008 I took the opportunity to explore the majority of Ohio State's parking garage upper decks.  I went with the hope to see over some of the adjacent neighborhoods and gain perspective on the distance I traveled as I went garage hopping.  It struck me that, these large seas of concrete are impressive and even worth programmatic study.  In Fall, known to all of Ohio as Football Season brings moderate activity to the perimeter edges of some garages -usually Tuttle and the North West garages where fans look down on the heavy crowds tailgating and enjoy gameday preparation.

What then are these top layers of parking garages when football is not at home, when school is not in session?  To me, a recent graduate, I dreamed of lost opportunities, I dreamed of the perfect makeshift date or the site of many fine "bean-bag toss" aka. cornhole tournaments in the late summer heat before commencing our rigorous studies.  But I also had more important dreams about these beautifully barren deserts.  From a modest standpoint these top layers could be designed for a porous parking system, one that grows and shades it's surface while still available for the high demand of parking during peak times.  Perhaps these top levels should not be for parking at all.  Take the 12th Avenue garage on the north edge of the OSU Medical campus, the top two levels are enclosed structure.  There you can find researchers working in desert and tropical greenhouses.  

Decks could vary in potential use, perhaps in more residential areas they could be used for community movie screenings, or the site of intramural sporting events: winter hockey, summer basketball.  On decks like the Cannon Drive garage, which is easily 1.5x the length of a football field and located next to...more parking, perhaps the upper deck is shielded with an array of photo-voltaic cells to aid the energy consuming med-campus.  Or perhaps with light-rail in the city's future a top deck can be given to the Colleges of Engineering, Architecture and Environmental Resources where the deck could be the testing ground for future solar decathlon projects, different green-roofs could be studied and a sure icon to boast to the nation for taking such a bold measure to give more to the students!

To refer to the writings in A City is not a Tree by Christopher Alexander, and make a point of my own, we can take an important step in adding diversity to our cities by making catalytic implementations to our existing urban fabric.  The ideas are out there, the money can be found, the volunteers can be drawn up, the studies can pay dividends, and the car commuters can move closer to where they work and try public transit for a change!

The open plains of the North West garage

The view east from North West garage looking onto engineering campus

View looking at Ohio Stadium from the North West garage

The Arps garage-scape

View looking east from the Arps garage looking onto University District

View east from Cannon Drive garage

View west from Cannon Drive garage

View south from Cannon Drive garage

View looking southeast from Hospitals garage

View looking west from the Hospitals garage

View looking east from the tallest OSU garage, Hospitals garage

View looking south at the 12th Ave garage with research facility on upper deck

View looking east across the new Neil Ave garage

View from the new Neil Ave garage looking southeast across campus

Cannon Drive garage view east to medical campus 

Cannon Drive Helipad

Ohio: 88 counties

The first testing ground for what shapes and guides our physical imprint on the ground in the United States.  Here different land ordinances were tested, eventually leading to the square mile parcel which can be seen in much of the original Northwest Territory and throughout the mid and western U.S.  Natural land forms now compete against an orthogonal matrix, an imaginary and political matrix, that now expresses itself physically.  Through fence rows, agriculture fields, highways, nearly everything works from the grid.

Ohio divided by watersheds

How would our nation look, how would our government work if the nation's states and counties were divided by its watersheds?

Ohio rivers and streams

Water

As important as water is becoming and as poorly as the arid west has paid attention, what will the future hold for the fresh water of the Great Lakes? John Wesley Powell who did much work to uncover the truths of the west found that eastern land management -and abuse for that matter- would not last in the wild west. He pushed for a different land ordinance in the west, one cognizant of the landscape rather than Jefferson's grid which failed to work at rivers, lakes, mountains, swamps etc - uh the earth is a lopsided sphere and the grid is well, orthogonal! Powell imagined a land divided with the understanding that less rain fell in the region. Today a lake in Arizona, Lake Powell, reminds us hopefully of his historic debate with Frederick Turner who glorified the western culture and spewed lies about the real west.

Today an incorrect decision made in the 1800s seems nearly irreversible, as populations increase, as our society becomes increasingly litigious. Perhaps just as politics and the desire to get rich led to the disbelief in Powell, the same will happen to the Great Lakes region. Perhaps a pipeline of fresh water to the wealthy arid regions such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Diego, L.A. and so on... Acknowledge a mistake? This is the United States.

The Green Apple

Yale's Environment 360 recently reported on NYC's status of green in the United States. Hoping to surprise some people by the findings: a dense city, with a majority unknowingly living greener than their sub-urban counterparts...well doesn't it seem obvious?

• Fill people into a small area - people/sq mile
• give them an established metro system among other transportation alternatives - energy efficient transportation
• make everything expensive -based on spatial constraints and demand the prices generally go up - less electricity useage

And you've got at least three simple reasons for people living more efficiently.

But this report raises questions about how much better NYC could be, and if New Yorkers knew how and tried to improve their environmental impact what kind of role model would the city then become?! Owen remarks that "unconscious efficiencies are the most desirable ones, because they require neither enforcement nor a personal commitment to cutting back." Why is it so difficult to get people to care a little more for the environment? How is it possible that other countries and cultures can care and give so much more back to the environment than us?

Imagine something like Bjarke Ingels Group's "Perfect Denmark" a redesign of the built environment around us to work with energy cycles. People begin moving into these urban ecosystems designed for balance, designed to help the environment recover from the past century and a half of humankind's utter disregard for its health.

With time the once gridded out land envisioned by Jefferson where the country is occupied by people spread across those massive 640 acre parcels (which continues to subdivide) are now moving back into urban centers, letting the land return to its previous state. Policies now shift to look after the land with factors included that weren't conceived when Hamilton, Jefferson and others debated the Land Ordinance. Satellite imagery begins to show these more progressive policies taking effect as certain geopolitical entities regrow into lush forests and grasslands. Now documentation proves that living in a clean, dense city with our block by block landscape acting more like living cells, improves the land and environment we inhabit. And through the development of this environmental awakening an American culture hatches, one that glues the people together stronger than that of a victorious outcome in war or terrorism. Rather than bumper stickers claiming United We Stand with a virile lung inflation whenever read, the true actions of a people shine -an archetype if you will.

Potential is the greatest thing we have, and in the case of improving our natural and built environments, and reversing the damaging human impact on earth - we have plenty to look forward to.