The Sustainable City

Solving for the Whole

In December 2010, the American Architectural Foundation (AAF), in partnership with UTC, organized a forum of 25 internationally recognized sustainability thought leaders in Washington, D.C., as part of its Sustainable Cities Design Academy (SCDA). The purpose of the forum was to wrestle with a series of questions vital to the evolution of America’s cities:

• What is a “sustainable” city, and what trends yield successful solutions?
• What challenges stand in the way of urban infill projects?
• What incentives will catalyze and support the creation and maintenance of innovative public/private development partnerships?

Let’s put these questions into context. For the first time ever, over half of the world’s population lives in cities; by 2050, world population is projected to rise from 6.9 to 9 billion. The additional demand for energy and food will be daunting, and if we really do care about future generations, inaction is not an option. Building cities will either be a major contributor to the problem or the vehicle to help us solve it.

On the first day of the SCDA forum, Uwe Brandes gave us an excellent description of where we are now, providing statistical information and proposing goals to be achieved by 2050. The conclusion—we must move fast. As Uwe noted, 2050 is only two development cycles away.

What stands in our way? For one, there was general agreement that cities, for the most part, are hindered by the incapacity of government to take on the complexity of their evolution. This simple realization was one of the most striking of the day, and we came back to it a number of times. It was noted that we are missing levels of “governance” (which I might define as effective government) at the scale of the metro area, or region, and at the level of “place,” or town centers. It has been a long time since I have heard the name of Jane Jacobs mentioned so many times.

In my city, Chicago’s Metropolis 2020 is an example of a strong effort to address our regional challenges. I believe that good progress is being made in the areas of transportation, education, and social equity, though movement is slow due to our state’s budget problems. If Metropolis 2020 is ultimately successful, it will be in spite of the fact that we have more than 400 governing bodies to bring into alignment. This could be an excellent model.

During the forum, our discussion of social equity was also compelling. In a supply/demand world built on capitalist underpinnings, mobility and choice are not as available to the underprivileged. So, as we discuss the incapacities that already plague government, we also have to be concerned with who makes decisions and how they make them. As we guide the evolution of our cities, we must not segregate social, environmental, and economic issues. We must instead be holistic in our thinking, basing our decisions on serious consideration for the interests of all stakeholders. This is not business as usual. And to make it the norm will be a challenge.

Looking back on the forum, there was a moment when we all felt a bit like we were chasing our tails. There are as many ways to characterize the challenges we face as there are people doing so. We all had a chance to give our own particular take on these issues…again. And we always seem to have trouble sorting out the relationship between the global and the local.

The challenge of sustainable cities is in fact a global challenge. Yet the world that we ourselves can impact is relatively local. To have a positive global impact, we need to accumulate and share knowledge of successful local outcomes and the processes that brought them about. The presentations at the forum were excellent examples. John Hynes’ and Charlie Reid’s description of the Boston Global Investors’ Seaport Square project in Boston was an example of what can be accomplished if we take the long view and work patiently in public/private partnerships. While challenging, the notion that value is created by assembling capital, time, and stakeholder interest will result in the rebuilding of an important part of Boston. And that interest is generated by connecting with the community groups who truly care about the development and its meaning to the city.

Mami Hara’s presentation about green municipal policies and principles in Philadelphia—and the parks that in part resulted from them—stimulated a fascinating discussion about the unintended consequences of single-purpose actions. One participant suggested a guiding principle from an essay by the poet Wendell Berry: the concept of “solving for pattern.” An investment that creates not single but multiple benefits, and minimizes the creation of new problems, solves for pattern.

The simple, beautiful parks in Philadelphia have allowed property values to increase, thus growing the tax base and reducing the impact of infrastructure costs on the individual. Solving for pattern thus has multiple, positive, and sometimes unintended—or at least unanticipated—consequences. Of course in this example, we also have to be concerned about the impact on the underprivileged. An increase in property value is not all good news.

Our discussion at the SCDA forum was wide-ranging indeed. This was natural given the wide range of focus and constituencies of the individuals present. We tried hard to settle on organizing principles and found, not surprisingly, that there are many. Clive Crook, our perceptive moderator, suggested that if there were one such principle, would it not have to be “quality of life” as it embraces all?

In the end, I was most taken by Kevin Kampschroer’s notion that the organizing principle of the city is the city—that we need to solve for the whole. While energy, water, light, and transportation each pose enormous challenges, our decisions regarding each of these must take into account the others— and be in just service to all people. This service to people and community is a compelling cause that underlies sustainability and gives meaning to the term “sustainable cities.”

John Syvertsen is a senior principal of Cannon Design with overall authority for overseeing the firm’s environmental sustainability and community outreach efforts. He is also secretary of the AAF Board of Regents.

Featured illustration adapted from work by Lauren Manning.