"Wouldn’t the city be better if each citizen had a little bit of park woven into their life, their incidental life?" Charles McKinney, principal urban designer at New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, made that observation during a panel discussion titled "Greening the Future City," held at the offices of Grimshaw Architects. On November 12, McKinney was one of four interdisciplinary panelists for Urban Research Unit's latest New York City conversation on innovations in urban design. In the next decade, when the world population is expected to increase to 8 billion inhabitants, McKinney's vision of ubiquitous green spaces would provide necessary relief to urban citizens. But to plan for this shift and make that vision reality, cities must innovate and implement a variety of initiatives. What exactly is "greening"? McKinney and fellow panelists Robert Freudenberg, director of energy and environment at the Regional Plan Association; Ellen Neises, professor of landscape design at the University of Pennsylvania, and Eric Rothstein, managing partner at eDesign Dynamics did not have a unanimous definition. That is to be expected, said Cassim Shepard, discussion moderator and editor at Urban Omnibus, since “greening is embedded in cultural attitudes and broader scales of analysis.” Despite ...
"Wouldn’t the city be better if each citizen had a little bit of park woven into their life, their incidental life?" Charles McKinney, principal urban designer at New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, made that observation during a panel discussion titled "Greening the Future City," held at the offices of Grimshaw Architects. On November 12, McKinney was one of four interdisciplinary panelists for Urban Research Unit's latest New York City conversation on innovations in urban design. In the next decade, when the world population is expected to increase to 8 billion inhabitants, McKinney's vision of ubiquitous green spaces would provide necessary relief to urban citizens. But to plan for this shift and make that vision reality, cities must innovate and implement a variety of initiatives. What exactly is "greening"? McKinney and fellow panelists Robert Freudenberg, director of energy and environment at the Regional Plan Association; Ellen Neises, professor of landscape design at the University of Pennsylvania, and Eric Rothstein, managing partner at eDesign Dynamics did not have a unanimous definition. That is to be expected, said Cassim Shepard, discussion moderator and editor at Urban Omnibus, since “greening is embedded in cultural attitudes and broader scales of analysis.” Despite ...