SERIES:
Kevin Lynch Award




More videos in this series


(eco)Logical: Greening the 21st Century City
April 7, 2005
6:45 PM

LOCATION:
Stata Center
32-123

SPONSOR INFO:
The Kevin Lynch Award was established in 1988 to honor Kevin Lynch, an MIT professor and one of the twentieth century’s foremost urban thinkers. It honors someone whose work is “centrally responsible for expanding our understanding of the human environment or exemplifying the creation of an environment with the participation of the people who use it.”. His books, including Image of the City (1960), remain some of the field’s most influential texts. Previous winners include sociologist Manuel Castells and distinguished urban designer Allan Jacobs.

ABOUT THE LECTURE:
Without much national fanfare, Chicago has transformed itself into a paragon of green virtue. The remarkable achievements cited by Mayor Daley include: converting nearly every inch of the city’s 26 miles of lakefront to public use, including parks, fountains, bike paths, theatre and concert space; planting 1.6 million square feet of gardens on the roofs of city hall, city schools, parking garages, museums and stores like Target and Walmart, thus lowering temperatures in the summer and energy needed to cool buildings; transforming brown fields into new industrial facilities, affordable housing, green spaces, and generating three thousand new jobs; creating environmentally sensitive construction standards for all public buildings, and helping private enterprises achieve similar standards, including the use of recycled materials and solar panels.

Ken Greenberg notes across the U.S. a new “understanding of the cohabitation of nature and society of humans in cities,” one which “cuts across class and political divides” because of the “powerful allure of natural features.” Hillary Brown observes among urban designers “a new shared language based on ecological metaphors and whole systems thinking.” She champions “demystifying sustainable practices, making the benefits of greening comprehensive and transparent to everyone,” including those who pave city sidewalks and roads, build sewers and treat water. Robert Campbell admits “green looks better” but warns that “green buildings are largely symbolic,” because “they won’t solve the world’s energy problems by a long shot.” People are obsessed “with the Eden of the natural world, which blinds us to reality.” The only long-term green solution involves “reorganizing the patterns by which we inhabit earth” -- compact settlement in cities, versus suburban sprawl. Doug Foy says, “Anything we do to put things in cities…and to keep them off of green landscapes… is a win.” He concludes that all great cities require useable water front, transit systems for dense habitation, neighborhoods and nonprofit organizations that sustain the economy through ups and downs.

NOTES ON THE VIDEO (Time Index):
Video length is 1:48:29.

MIT Chancellor and Professor of City Planning Phillip L. Clay introduces the event.

At 2:53, Adèle Naudé Santos, Dean of the School of Architecture & Planning and Professor of Architecture and Planning, discusses the significance of Kevin Lynch and his impact on the urban design.

At 10:28, Lawrence J. Vale, head of the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, describes the selection process for the Kevin Lynch Award, thanks the award jury, and introduces Mayor Richard M. Daley.

At 19:23, Daley begins.
At 38:51, Dennis Frenchman, Chair of the Joint Program in City Design & Development, Professor of the Practice of Urban Design and Chair of the Master of City Planning Program, opens the panel portion of the event.
At 47:10, Ken Greenberg begins.
At 1:00:16, Hillary Brown begins.
At 1:12:15, Robert Campbell begins.
At 1:21:06, Doug Foy begins.
At 1:34:31, there’s a brief black hole in the video due to a tape change.
AT 1:34:34, the video resumes with Q&A in progress.
At 1:45:11, Dennis Frenchman thanks the panel and closes the event with a quote from Kevin Lynch.