flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Detroit plans massive effort to convert vacant properties to green spaces

Green

Detroit plans massive effort to convert vacant properties to green spaces

Effort aims to improve property values, city life.


By Peter Fabris, Contributing Editor | December 13, 2015
Detroit plans massive effort to convert vacant properties to green spaces

Vacant lot in Detroit. Photo: Stephen Harlan/Creative Commons.

The City of Detroit, along with nonprofit organization Greening of Detroit, will plant tens of thousands of trees in two, quarter-square-mile vacant city spaces to demonstrate how greening strategies can improve life in the city.

The city’s goals for the program include creating jobs for city residents as landscape workers, reducing air pollution, and minimizing stormwater and snowmelt runoff. Vacant lots will either be planted with trees or given some other green features, such as rainwater gardens, flowers, or urban farms. 

City officials said they will decide what will be done with each space after getting buy-in from nearby residents. Philanthropic organizations will fund the initiative.

A city official says that the effort is expected to boost property values in the city. Detroit has an estimated 20-30 square miles of vacant space.

Tags

Related Stories

| Apr 27, 2012

Hampton Bays Middle School winner of the first National Green Ribbon Schools Program

School was the first LEED-certified public school in the state of New York.

| Apr 26, 2012

USGBC announces inaugural Green Apple Day of Service

On Sept. 29, 2012, participants from all over the world will volunteer to make the schools and campuses in their communities healthier and more sustainable.

| Apr 26, 2012

Orange County, Fla. high school receives NAIOP “Public Development of the Year” award

School replacement designed by SchenkelShultz Architecture and constructed by Williams Co.

| Apr 25, 2012

Bubble skyscraper design aims to purify drinking water

The Freshwater Skyscraper will address the issue of increasing water scarcity through a process known as transpiration

| Apr 25, 2012

Thornton Tomasetti/Fore Solutions provides consulting for Biologics Support Center

Project receives LEED Gold Certification.

| Apr 25, 2012

McCarthy introduces high school students to a career in construction

High school students from the ACE Mentoring Program tour the new CHOC Children’s Patient Tower in Orange, Calif.

| Apr 25, 2012

J.C. Anderson selected for 50,000-sf build out at Chicago’s DePaul University

The build-out will consist of the construction of new offices, meeting rooms, video rooms and a state-of-the-art multi-tiered Trading Room.

| Apr 24, 2012

ULI Real Estate Consensus Forecast, projects improvements for the real estate industry through 2014

Survey is based on opinions from 38 of the nation’s leading real estate economists and analysts and suggests a marked increase in commercial real estate activity, with total transaction volume expected to rise from $250 billion in 2012 to $312 billion in 2014.

| Apr 24, 2012

McLennan named Ashoka Fellow

McLennan was recognized for his work on the Living Building Challenge.

| Apr 24, 2012

AECOM design and engineering team realizes NASA vision for Sustainability Base

LEED Platinum facility opens at NASA Ames Research Center at California’s Moffett Field.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Sustainable Design and Construction

Northglenn, a Denver suburb, opens a net zero, all-electric city hall with a mass timber structure

Northglenn, Colo., a Denver suburb, has opened the new Northglenn City Hall—a net zero, fully electric building with a mass timber structure. The 32,600-sf, $33.7 million building houses 60 city staffers. Designed by Anderson Mason Dale Architects, Northglenn City Hall is set to become the first municipal building in Colorado, and one of the first in the country, to achieve the Core certification: a green building rating system overseen by the International Living Future Institute.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021