Living City Block’s March 2010 Charrette

On March 18th and 19th, Living City Block held its first Charrette, or innovative workshop, bringing together residents and tenants from the Living City Block, as well as architects, planners and a variety of sustainability experts from across the country. The one and a half day educational/participatory workshop focused on opportunities for community-scale energy and resource efficiencies within a thriving, regenerative, vibrant city block.

Thursday’s Charrette focused on transportation and place making, while Friday was devoted to buildings and infrastructure. Each day the participants were divided into breakout groups that brainstormed ideas on topics which included mobility, creating spaces and livable communities, waste and water, and energy efficiency and renewables.

Moving forward, the Living City Block team and the participants of the charrette will expand on the ideas formed in the breakout sessions and incorporate them into the development of the LoDo Living City Block through work stream groups. The LCB team will set up five groups focusing on mobility, marketing outreach, energy efficiency and renewables, livable communities and materials flow.

A charrette report detailing the two day workshop and the next steps to be taken by the Living City Block team will be available soon.

Links to the presentations from the charrette can be found at right.

A sketch of Living City Block’s vision for Wazee Street in 2016

Presentations:

Final Charrette Report

Thursday, March 25th
Living City Block Charrette Introductory Presentation, by Llewellyn Wells from Living City Block

Mobility + Vehicle Efficiency, by Hiroko Kawai from Rocky Mountain Institute

Livable communities and Placemaking, by Buffy Andrews from Living City Block

Mobilizing America’s Transportation Revolution, by Dave Muyres from OnGoing

Friday, March 26th
Finding Opportunities: Whole System Integrative Design, by Elaine Adams from Rocky Mountain Institute

Living Buildings, Lessons Learned, by Vaibhov Potnis from Green Building Services

Geothermal Earth Coupling, by Josh Doerge from Geo-Energy Services

Biophilia, by Bill Browning from Terrapin

The ecoDistricts Initative, by Naomi Cole from Portland Sustainability Institute

Review of the two days:
Each day the participants voted on their favorite ideas from each of the breakout sessions. Below are the results from the votes, compiled by PlaceMatters.

Charrette Big Ideas Voting Results, from PlaceMatters