Sustainable Communities: The New Federal Role
Shelley Poticha
The US departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), transportation (DOT) and the Environmental Protection Agency, (EPA) have joined forces to form the “Partnership for Sustainable Communities” to help improve access to affordable housing, more transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment in communities nationwide. Through a set of guiding livability principles and a partnership agreement that will guide the agencies' efforts, this partnership will coordinate federal housing, transportation, and other infrastructure investments to protect the environment, promote equitable development, and help to address the challenges of climate change. The “livability principles” guiding this agreement include: providing more transportation choices; promoting equitable, affordable housing; enhancing economic competitiveness; supporting existing communities; coordinating and leveraging federal policies and investment; and valuing communities and neighborhoods. Poticha will address how this federal partnership will lead the way to develop resilient, sustainable communities and regions.

Resilient Cities and The New Normal: Can We Get it Right This Time?
Jim Heid
Beginning with Urban Renewal to mega-block, mixed use developments to new urbanism we have now moved into a century focused on urban sustainability and resiliency. This evolution recognizes the impending challenges presented by climate change and the very real disruption created by the current economic downturn. Design professionals have always been at the forefront of exploring new concepts, often as the primary architect of their construct. Yet we, as a profession, continue to be challenged to achieve the enduring change we seek – livable, vibrant, diverse cities and regions. Is this the result of the dynamic organism we call ‘cities’ or is it a deficiency of our profession to understand the complexities beyond design that shape our cities? This session we will explore these questions, with a review of the design tools available for creating more sustainable cities. However, more important than what we do, is how we participate in the process. A vision for how our role must change, along with the roles of others, if we are to take advantage of the opportunity the current market upheaval has provided.

3 Civic Virtues for Sustainable Urban Growth
Alexandros Washburn, AIA
New York City is growing rapidly in a period of climate change. How will the city grow? Will we follow the examples of Robert Moses? Or will we follow the example of Jane Jacobs? We might want to follow the example of Olmsted. On Earth Day 2007, Mayor Bloomberg launched PlaNYC, a 135-point plan to accommodate 1 million more New Yorkers while reducing the city’s carbon footprint by 30 percent by 2030. The plan is highly technical, but it is based on a new vision of civic virtue. Urban design is developing a new language of design to interpret these sustainable civic virtues, just as the Greeks developed a language of architecture to express theirs. What are these new virtues? They are the qualities that will allow the city to grow safely in a period of rapid climate change, while leaving both the city and the overall environment better and more sustainable for it. The virtues are prudence, thrift and creativity, virtues that every city dweller has within them. These virtues are expressions of the three ways a city can deal with climate change: adaption, mitigation and resource creation. I will give you New York examples of each, and specifically examine a major resource creation project: the New Hi Line Park and its surrounding neighborhood. We will look closely at the planning techniques used to align politics, finance and design that made this project happen. Ultimately, we should understand how this project fits in to the larger agenda of letting New York City grow while adapting to the effects of climate change, mitigating the city’s carbon footprint, and generating a major renewable resource, in this case, parkland. The result relies on the type of creativity you can only find in cities, and the result would satisfy all three great New Yorkers: quantity for Moses, quality for Jacobs, and a bit of nature in the city for Olmsted, too.

"Imagining the New": Applied Resilience Planning in the Urban Context
Thomas F. Dunbar, FASLA
Resilience is identified as “the ability of a social-ecological system to deal with disturbance while retaining its essential function and structure” Session participants will learn about the values embodied in resilience planning and the applied resilience planning process and framework practiced by the Wisconsin-based, non-profit Center for Resilient Cities. Dunbar will describe the evolution of this framework through three Center projects. Urban agriculture, green building, green infrastructure and collaborative partnerships are key elements in each of the projects. Participants will be invited to contribute their experiences and thoughts to the evolving understanding of applied resilience planning in the urban context.

Sustainable Economics in Resilient Cities
McDuffie Nichols
Recent economic upheaval has focused attention on “sustainable” development practices. The question of development feasibility has been revised to not only include financing and cash flow for the project developer, but also environmental economics, market diversity and community-supportive uses and design. Session participants will hear how sustainable and mixed-use development strategies are being used by cities to build a broad-based economic foundation that can not only survive, but thrive in the future. This session will explore how thoughtful designers and developers create livable, resilient places that make sense economically, as well as aesthetically. Using economic metrics, case study examples and group discussion, this session will explore how solid economic planning can create vibrant cities.

Creating Resilient Cities: The Politics, Policies and Players
Maurice Cox
The public realm is the political context for urban transformation. Elected and appointed officials, community stakeholders, and private sector investors all play important roles in the complex work of urban transformation. Advocates for excellence in the design of cities frequently lament our lack of collective will to make big plans or to say no to insignificant ones. This session will explore a number of design leadership venues created by the National Endowment for the Arts to assist public officials and design advocates in their efforts to build community resilience to embrace transformative positive change in American cities.