​John Greenan has made it official: He and Brent Brown are going forward with Forwarding Dallas to fill that parking lot behind Dallas City Hall with a self-sustaining building. Says Greenan of his decision to go with the Portuguese architects behind the downtown hillside, “Dallas would be a richer city to have the work of any of these architects represented, but as we went further into our review, we began to see the deep logic of the MOOV-Atelier Data design, Forwarding Dallas. Forwarding Dallas seemed to us to do the best job of incorporating concepts of sustainability into the foundation of the design.”

[Read entire story]

By Tim McKeough

If all goes as planned, a self-sustaining, mixed-use project conceived by a team of Portugese architects will be constructed on a city block in Texas.

In December, Portugal-based Atelier Data and MOOV were named the winners of Re:Vision Dallas, an international competition put on by the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation (CDCDC), an affordable housing organization, and Urban Re:Vision, a national nonprofit group dedicated to responsible city planning.

Read article: Architectural Record Magazine website

Van Jones is an eco-visionary, award-winning human rights attorney and powerhouse speaker. He is the founder of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights (EBC), a strategy and action center, working for justice, peace, and opportunity in urban America.

He has served on the boards of numerous environmental and nonprofit organizations, including the National Apollo Alliance, Social Venture Network, Rainforest Action Network, Bioneers, Julia Butterfly Hill’s “Circle of Life” organization and Free Press.

Van won his first major award in 1998 when he was given the Reebok Human Rights Award. Other significant awards include the international Ashoka Fellowship, selection as a World Economic Forum “Young Global Leader,” and the Rockefeller Foundation “Next Generation Leadership” Fellowship.

In the aftermath of 2005′s Hurricane Katrina, Van helped to found ColorOfChange.org, an online advocacy organization. With more than 100,000 members, Color Of Change is now the nation’s biggest e-advocacy organization tackling Black issues.
[Read more]

Imagine, if you will, a utopia smack in the heart of downtown Dallas. In this green, sustainable building of tomorrow, you might roll out of bed, take a shower and find your runoff water feeding vegetation growing on the roof and walls, upon which you’ll feast later that night. Or maybe you’ll move downtown and become a cattle rancher several stories above the concrete jungle. Or perhaps you’ll grab a bite in the slow-food café downstairs after knocking off your shift working the counter in the holistic pharmacy next door.

Solar panels heat and light your home, and the high-tech and the natural mesh seamlessly in aLogan’s-Run-to-a-kibbutz kind of way. It’s a place so inviting, so self-contained that there’s really not much reason to ever leave home.

The possibilities, say the three architectural firms competing to design this future world, are endless—so much so they can’t really pin down what life in their buildings would be like, which is precisely what makes it so hard to believe one will ever exist. But if local affordable housing advocates Brent Brown and John Greenan have their way—and they insist they will—this world of tomorrow might be a lot closer than you think.

Click here to read the entire article on the Dallas Observer’s website.

“A block is to the city as a cell is to the human body.”

Stacey Frost is an interesting woman, to say the least. When this former cattle rancher, neuropsychologist and options trader decided to focus on renovating historical buildings, she became acutely aware of the need for greater sustainability in the urban environment.

The result was Urban Re:Vision, a two-year, six-part international design competition to stimulate innovative thinking about the components of a sustainable city. After collecting hundreds of original ideas, Frost set out to make her vision a reality.

Last month, a design charrette was held in Dallas, where Urban Re:Vision is leading the creation of a fully sustainable city block, complete with on-site energy, food production and affordable micro-lofts.

TreeHugger: Urban Re:Vision had a big year in 2008, holding the last of six international competitions to redefine the way we build our cities. What were your goals in holding these competitions and what has been accomplished through them?

Stacey Frost: Our goal for the series of competitions was to gather as many ideas as possible, looking at all aspects of sustainable development. We wanted to allow people to share and collaborate on these ideas with the hopes that some of them will become a reality, inspire innovation, and set an example of what the future holds.

Through each of our competitions, we were often surprised at the caliber and approach that entries took – and that for each competition a theme emerged that was unexpected. We have gathered hundreds of inspirational, and realistic, approaches to creating a new way of building sustainably.

[ Read entire interview @ Treehugger ]

For TEDx DBX to host Leo Laporte as its first announced presenter sends a regional message: Leo has never presented in the UAE before. This signals a TEDx that will combine ideas that need to arrive in the region with ideas that need to be exported.

David George-Coch (@itsdgc) just posted this article with The National (UAE) Newspaper:

******* ABU DHABI // A version of a renowned conference that has included such high-profile speakers as Bono, Bill Gates, Al Gore and the Nobel Prize-winning American physicist Murray Gell-Mann is making its way to Dubai this year.

TEDxDubai, affiliated with the Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) talks held annually in California, will take place in October after receiving the green light from its US headquarters.

“The buzz is amazing. It’s like Woodstock in the 1960s,” said Giorgio Ungania, a marketing and new media manager with the Australian firm SAE, who is organising the event with James Piecowye, a professor at Zayed University.

“It gives me a real [sense] of the hunger in the UAE about ideas and forward thinking.”

TED has emerged as one of the world’s most prestigious conferences after beginning more than 20 years ago as an informal gathering of bankers and architects on the US’s west coast. Since then, it has garnered a reputation for attracting the world’s leading thinkers and doers to share their thoughts on global issues.

[Read entire article here]

TEDx Links:

• Website: http://tedxdubai.com/
• Blog: http://tedxdubai.blogspot.com/
• Tweet: http://twitter.com/tedxdubai
• Face: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124613070864
• Linked: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1996524&trk=hb_side_g

********************

Asheville and WNC locals: we’ll be participating in some form or another with Asheville’s TEDx as well. We haven’t heard much since May 17th officially, but things are clearly moving. Check it out in case you’ve missed the buzz so far: http://tedxavl.com/ or follow them @tedxavl

********************

Last but certainly not least, we are still waiting for video to come online from Stacey Frost’s presentation at TEDx San Francisco. Cameron Sinclair wrote Urban Re:Vision a love note on the Huffington Post after her appearance there. Here are a few pictures:

The competition is the brainchild of Urban Re:Vision, founded by Stacey Frost, and is the sixth in a series of competitions to develop a holistic framework for building a more sustainable and equitable city block. Unlike many design initiatives, this one has legs. It is situated on a real site just a stones throw from the Dallas City Hall. Additionally the organization began of the process by holding a workshop with a range of citywide stakeholders all looking at how to implement such a project and garnered buy-in from the city and developers alike.

Today, finalists of Revision Dallas were announced and the trio of winners include;

Project: Forwarding Dallas
Design Team: Atelier Data & MOOV from Lisbon, Portugal

Project: Greenways Xero Energy
Design Team: David Baker and Partners Architects and Fletcher Studio from San Francisco, CA

Project: Entangled Bank
Design Team from Charlotte, North Carolina

It was once said that the best way to predict the future is to design it and these three daring proposals are just that. A vision for Dallas and its’ residents to decide if we can build more sustainably in the decades to come. Perhaps this revolution in building might kick start thegreen job revolution in the heart of the lone star state. So Mayors Adams, Bloomberg andNewsom better take note as their respective cities just got a little competition. 

[Read Huffington Post story here]

[Learn more about Urban Re:Vision here]

To quote Mayor Gavin Newsom’s goal: “We are transforming our Civic Center into a global model for how to achieve a more sustainable future in urban environments.”

The ultimate goal is to enable the Mayor’s vision by generating sustainable design solutions for the Civic Center. Outcomes of this week will ideally include a set of design principles and a series of diagrams that show how the designs will function. Short and long term planning will be addressed in 3-month increments through fruition.

Partners in the revitalization project include The Art Institute, UC Berkely Extension, Art & Garden Cafe, Rana Creek Living Architecture, Jensen Corporation, Greenworks Design, Living Green, San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, SF Botanical Gardens, Sloat Garden Center and others.

Video from the press conference last month:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZcfEDDSMws]

Re:Vision Dallas, the competition which gives creative urban design and community development professionals around the world a solid chance at creating America’s first fully sustainable innercity block, is sweeping social media around the world.

Find out about it at www.revision-dallas.com. Enter the competition at www.urbanrevision.com.

In addition to Italy, Serbia, United Kingdom, Brazil, Russia and Spain, here are a few examples from the American social media PR scene:

• Earth Friendly Magazine
• TreeHugger (Discovery Media) 
• WIRED Online
• Death By Architecture
• Sustainable City
• John Greenan
• Sustainability Digest
• Talk Contract
• World Architecture
• Jetson Green

And don’t forget the news media covering Urban Re:Vision…

• DWELL Magazine
• UTNE Reader
• KXAS (NBC) and KDFW (Fox) TV News
• Dallas Observer
• Dallas Examiner
• Dallas Morning News
• Dallas Public Radio
• Worldchanging
• NBC News (TV)
• The Stacey Frost Interview
• Greener Buildings
• Pegasus News
• Inhabitat

UPDATED – Add Hungary (http://www.architectforum.hu/node/12174) and more from Italy (http://www.architectforum.hu/node/12174) to the fold outside the USA.

“The goal is to create the first fully sustainable block downtown,” said Brent Brown, Dallas architect and founder of the buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. “And by sustainable, we mean a place that is socially, economically and environmentally healthy. We’ll take the first step in that effort on Friday.”

Hosted by the City of Dallas, San Francisco-based Urban Re:Vision and Dallas’ buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, the Charrette will look at the common city block in an uncommon way, examining the impact of this particular city block’s development on the City of Dallas and its surrounding area. In rethinking the city block, experts will re-assess the potential value of available resources like water, waste, and air and how to strike the delicate balance between economy and equality.

“Our job on December 5th is to explore how pivotal the city block is in the urban landscape, and how it can be used as a catalyst for a whole new way of living,” said Stacey Frost, Founder of Urban Re:Vision. “This process is one that puts real people first and promotes sustainability.”

Potential requirements, barriers, and changes will be examined in an effort to pave the way for the implementation of the proposed site. This examination will also serve to aid both site-specific, and regional decision-making. Topics will include: energy systems, transportation, the natural and developed environment, community, the economy and technology.

Additional groups involved include Downtown Dallas, The Real Estate Council, Central Dallas Ministries, The Institute for Urban Policy Planning, Dallas Institute for Humanities and Culture, Enterprise Foundation, Fannie Mae Foundation, Vision North Texas and others. Participants from outside the Dallas area include representatives of the Biomimicry Institute, Architecture for Humanity, ARUP, Organic Architect, United States Green Building Council, and others.

Media attendance will be strictly limited, RSVP required
Location: Dallas City Hall
Date: December 5, 2008

Timeline:
8:30 – 10:30:Registration, Discussion & Mayor’s Welcome
12:00 – 1:30: Lunch / Interviews
4:00 – 5:30: Presentation of Regional Plans / Question and Analysis