Eighteen months ago, the National Park Service (NPS) in conjunction with the Trust for the National Mall, created the 2010 National Mall Plan, a vision for the kinds of resource conditions, visitor experiences, and facilities that would best fulfill the purpose of the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Stretching west from the U.S. Capitol to [...]
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A thirteenth excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at some cities who have added parkland by closing streets and roads to automobile traffic. In every city there are hundreds of acres of streets and roadways potentially available as park and recreational facilities. While parks [...]
Filed under: planning, programming, transportation | Tagged: atlanta, houston, new york city, portland, road closures, washington dc | 1 Comment »
Washington, D.C.’s Union Station is a major destination for tourists and commuters, with about 29 million people visiting it each year. As a first glimpse of the city for many people traveling by rail or car, Union Station was designed as a grand entryway to the nation’s capital. It’s classical Beaux-Arts architecture influenced other popular [...]
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Urban rivers, though cities often owe them their very existence, are accustomed to neglect. The enduring image of the 1969 inferno on Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, a catastrophe that helped launch the modern environmental movement, is perhaps the most striking example, though many others have suffered through less dramatic but equally devastating decay. Washington, DC has [...]
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Last week, Washington, D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare celebrated its one millionth ride, just in time for its one year anniversary. The nation’s capital is the first community in North America to offer a government-sponsored bike sharing system. Capital Bikeshare is extremely popular, attracting over 18,000 members in the past year. This milestone warranted a party, so the [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, transportation | Tagged: bikes, national mall, national park service, washington dc | 1 Comment »
A ninth excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at some cities who have created parkland by converting abandoned railroad corridors into rail trails. In 1963 famed Morton Arboretum naturalist May Theilgaard Watts wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Tribune. [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning, renewal, transportation | Tagged: chicago, minneapolis, new york city, seattle, st. louis, trails, washington dc | 1 Comment »
Called “America’s Front Yard” by Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the National Mall is the beating park heart of the Nation’s Capital and draws over 24 million[1] visitors a year. The National Mall stretches west from the foot of Capitol Hill at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial to encompass the Mall itself, the Washington [...]
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There are many stories across the country of neighborhood groups working together to reclaim blighted and underused space. Marvin Gaye Park, in Northeast Washington, D.C., is exemplary of how a revitalized park can catalyze change in a long-struggling neighborhood. Originally named Watts Branch Park, for the nearby stream of the same name, Marvin Gaye Park [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, partnerships, renewal | Tagged: playgrounds, washington dc | 1 Comment »
Every year, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,000 cherry trees from the city of Tokyo to the city of Washington, DC. Originally planted along the north bank of the Tidal Basin in West Potomac Park, the cherry trees bloom each spring and can now be found throughout the entire Tidal [...]
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A second excerpt from the recently released book published by Island Press called Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities. In this post, we look at cemeteries used as parks and some best practices. In the past, before official parks came into being, cemeteries were the principal manicured greenspaces for cities – most famously Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, [...]
Filed under: green infrastructure, planning | Tagged: atlanta, hartford, portland, washington dc | 7 Comments »
