FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Wednesday, November 30,
2005
CONTACT:
Eric Antebi 415-977-5747
David Willett
202-675-6698
SIERRA CLUB NAMES AMERICA'S BEST NEW DEVELOPMENT
The Sierra Club,
America's oldest and largest environmental organization,
today released its
first-ever Guide to America's Best New Development,
which names a dozen
cutting-edge projects that have positively transformed
neighborhoods.
Better known for its efforts to combat sprawling
construction, the group is
making the point that there is a better way to
build and produce healthy and
livable communities.
Profiles of the winning projects can be viewed
at:
http://www.sierracluborg/sprawl/report05/"Too
often local governments accept poorly planned development, and the
traffic
that goes with it, because they believe they have no other choice,"
said the
Sierra Club's Executive Director Carl Pope. "Our hope is that
Americans
will look at these winning projects and demand better projects in
their own
communities."
The Sierra Club applauded a diverse set of projects, from
cities large and
small, to suburbs, to small towns in each corner of the
nation. They
involve economically challenged areas like Fruitvale in Oakland
and
Highland Park in Milwaukee, as well as well-off areas
like
Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts. They also included massive
projects
like Atlantic Station in Atlanta, which encompasses 138 acres and
includes
12 million square feet of retail, office, residential and hotel, and
by
contrast, smaller scale projects like 66 residential homes and
an
industrial building in Hopkins, Minnesota.
To merit consideration
for the Sierra Club's top development honors,
projects had
to:
· Offer a range of transportation choices,
including walking, biking,
and public
transportation;
· Redevelop existing areas, rather
than developing natural areas,
working farmland, or
wetlands;
· Locate homes, retail shops, and offices
close to each other;
· Preserve existing community
assets, by re-using older buildings and
protecting rivers, woodlands, and
farms;
· Minimize stormwater pollution and handle
runoff in an environmentally
responsible manner;
and,
· Be the product of meaningful input by local
citizens and reflect a
broad set of local values.
The Sierra Club also
considered the use of "green building" design and
housing affordability in
compiling its list of the best new development.
"The single, most
important factor in all of these projects is that
neighborhood residents
actually had a say in how they were built,"
explained Pope. "And when
you ask people what they want, they ask for ways
to get to and from work
without sitting in traffic, and they want walkable
neighborhoods, clean
water, and green space."
Much of the development in the United States
today is sprawling, low
density, car-dependent "bigbox" or "strip-mall"
construction, which
produces more and more traffic and harms our land, air,
and water. While
the Sierra Club opposes poorly planned, sprawling
development, built on
natural areas and farmland, it actively supports
quality investment in
areas that already have a history of development to
enhance communities and
the environment. By reinvesting in existing
neighborhoods and creating more
walkable, transit accessible places to live
and work, a select subset of
the nation’s development leaders are raising the
bar for neighborhood
design.
The Sierra Club also noted that these
models for new development could
inform the massive rebuilding effort in the
Gulf following Hurricane
Katrina. In fact, just a few weeks ago, the
Sierra Club applauded both
Mississippi and Louisiana for recruiting the
nation's top architects,
designers, and planners to explore with local
officials and citizens
options for rebuilding ravaged towns.
Said Carl
Pope, "The point for state and community leaders is to not just
rebuild, but
to rebuild smarter and better. We think there is a lot to
learn from
these successful projects."
The projects which made the Sierra Club's
list of America's Best New
Development Projects are:
TACOMA, WA -
University of Washington, Tacoma; Charles Moore, LMN
Architects
PORTLAND,
OR - The Pearl District; Hoyt Street Developers and Gerdling
Edlen
Development Co.
WINDSOR, CA - Town Green Village Project; Orrin Thiessen and
Town Green
Enterprises
OAKLAND, CA - Fruitvale Transit Village Project;
The Unity Council
SAN MATEO, CA - Bay Meadows; Peter Calthorpe,
Architect
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Central Business District Extension Project
and
Gateway Area; Salt Lake City Redevelopment Agency
ALBUQUERQUE, NM -
East Downtown Redevelopment Project; Rob Dickson,
Paradigm and
Co.
HOPKINS, MN - Excelsior Tech Center Redevelopment and Regency Project;
Bill
Beard, The Beard Group, Inc.
MILWAUKEE, WI - Highland Park: Highland
Gardens and Highland Homes; Housing
Authority, City of
Milwaukee
MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, MA - 10 and 12 Summer Street; Manchester
Housing
Authority
GREENSBORO, NC - Southside Neighborhood; Robert "Nate"
Bowman, Bowman
Development Group
ATLANTA, GA - Atlantic Station; Jacoby
Development
To access the full report, visit:
http://www.sierracluborg/sprawl/report05/
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