March 26, 2024
Community Green is Planning's quarterly spotlight on innovative projects that are climate win-wins: they benefit both the environment and the communities who use them to gather, entertain, and relax. Cities across the country have integrated aesthetic style with sustainability goals and community needs — like housing and parks — to produce unique places worth visiting. For Earth Day, we've rounded up a few of our favorite planning successes to inspire your next big green idea.
Biodiversity, well-being, and other local needs blossom in this garden in Strawberry Mansion. Just behind it is the mural Stay Golden, part of Mural Arts Philadelphia. Photo by Natalie Cohen.
Vacant Lot Pollinator Garden
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
In the City of Brotherly Love, butterflies, bees, and caterpillars live among dense rowhouses and well-worn sidewalks. Fifty vacant lots across North and West Philadelphia were transformed into colorful public spaces designed to prevent extreme heat and flooding while welcoming back ecologically important pollinators. Native perennial plant species, which do not require pesticides and fertilizers, help improve air quality and enhance water filtration. The Philadelphia Horticultural Society's Philadelphia LandCare program hires local residents to build and maintain the lots, making them both a community effort and asset.
New sand and native plantings act as wave attenuators, safeguarding vital freshwater wetlands while creating a new, much-needed tidal wetland. Photo courtesy of NYC WATER/Flickr.
Living Shoreline at West Pond
Queens, New York
Climate resiliency was top of mind in the development of the living shoreline, located in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, a sanctuary that parallels John F. Kennedy International Airport. What looks like an artist's rendering is actually an intricate web of 200,000 native grasses and shrubs. The plant network was installed — along with sand, biodegradable oyster shell bags, recycled trees, and other natural materials — in 2021 to create nine acres of wetland and upland marine habitat, providing protection from extreme weather events and promoting biodiversity. After Hurricane Sandy, 2,400 linear feet of natural shoreline were rehabilitated by a coalition that includes the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, the National Park Service, and the Jamaica Bay-Rockaway Parks Conservancy.
Crossing a bridge over the Bayou, visitors learn about the natural wetlands and swamps of Houston. Photo courtesy of Design Workshop.
The Bayou at Midtown Park
Houston, Texas
In the redeveloping Midtown District of Houston, a mixed-use hub for living, shopping, and recreation, a newly reimagined park offers space to gather in a previously inhospitable concrete jungle. This downtown greenspace also helps preserve urban wildlife and habitats by addressing water conservation needs. The constructed water channel — nicknamed "the Bayou" after Houston's Buffalo Bayou waterway — and detention system is surrounded by bioswales and rain gardens, protecting the area from flooding and enhancing water quality. A 70,000-gallon subsurface cistern stores rainwater, which is then reused for irrigation throughout the park.
BLOCK homes are constructed with sustainable materials, including local Juniper wood and wool insulation. Photo courtesy of Facing Homelessness.
The BLOCK Project
Seattle, Washington
The accessory dwelling unit (ADU) boom landed early in Seattle, where innovative community housing solutions met sustainable building practices. Enter the BLOCK Project, which has built 15 tiny accessory dwelling units for people experiencing homelessness in volunteer homeowners' backyards. The father-daughter team of architects behind the project says that solving the homelessness crisis requires a healthy natural environment. So, BLOCK Homes are Living Building Challenge certified with 10 solar panels and a rainwater harvesting plumbing system, making them energy net positive. Using locally sourced materials, each home costs just $75,000 to build, a quarter of the cost of a traditional affordable housing unit.
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