Perhaps there’s no type of building that better signifies suburban sprawl than the strip mall. Well, maybe a McMansion would do, but the strip mall has been with us longer and its very form and purpose transmits the essence of sprawl. The buildings are low and long, surrounded by parking lots and, in most cases, reachable safely only by car. Whitemarsh Plaza is a smaller specimen, but it’s location along a multi-lane high speed roadway is common for this variety of commercial development.

Whitemarsh Plaza became the focus of SCAD graduate students. And things continued from there, as SCAD professor Scott Boylston describes on the Emergent Structures blog:

Almost 10 weeks ago, a graduate Sustainable Practices in Design class at SCAD visited a generic strip mall on Whitemarsh Island. We went to visit Wendy Armstrong of Thrive Take Out Cafe to talk about the possibility of creating an outdoor eating area made from building materials reclaimed from Savannah Gardens. You could say that conversation…and those that followed it…wandered a bit.

What began as an idea to create outdoor seating from reclaimed materials expanded to include other ideas, such as green roofs. Mary Landers describes some of the possibilities in her Savannah Morning News story, which features this excellent quote from Boylston:

“You go to this generic mall in suburbia and try to start showing people who are skeptical or unaware that this sustainability idea is not this hippie dippie thing,” he said. “It can be a strong, pragmatic set of solutions.”

Today from 3 until 7 p.m., a reception will feature live music, food and presentations framing the students’ ideas for the shopping center. A vacant storefront will house “videos, conceptual drawings, interactive displays” that provide a vision of what Whitemarsh Plaza could be. Click here to download a flier for the event.

Eric Corey Freed

Freed’s practice, organicARCHITECT was founded in 1997 and is a USGBC LEED™ Accredited green architecture and consulting firm.

The event is free for American Institute of Architects and USGBC members and $5 for the generla public.

Standing in Ellis Square yesterday evening, it was a little difficult to remember the ugly parking garage that occupied the square for decades. It was even harder to imagine more than 1,000 parking spaces below all the grass, trees and people having fun. And there were plenty of people having fun.

A ribbon cutting, staple of dedication ceremonies, followed remarks by Mayor Otis Johnson and other government officials. However, instead of sticking to the usual script in which the audience observes dignitaries cutting the ribbon, scissors were distributed to the crowd allowing the public to take part and producing hundreds of instant souvenirs of the event.

There’s a lot to like about the new Ellis Square, including the elements that make it “the most environmentally friendly of Savannah’s squares,” according to city officials. These include “water-efficient plants, energy-efficient lighting and HVAC system in the glass-walled visitors center, and a green roof on the public bathrooms.”

Truly, one of the best things going for Ellis Square is its location and the types of land uses nearby. In “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” Jane Jacobs describes the neighborhoods surrounding Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square and how they influence the way the park is used:

“Does anything about the physical arrangement of the neighborhood affect the park physically? Yes. This mixture of uses of buildings directly produces for the park a mixture of users who enter and leave the park at different times…In short, Rittenhouse Square is fairly busy continuously for the same reason that a lively sidewalk is used continuously: because of the functional physical diversity among adjacent uses, and hence diversity among users and their schedules.”

The functional diversity of adjacent uses around Ellis Square is represented by shops, restaurants, office buildings, galleries, nightclubs and hotels. These attractors will bring Jacobs’ “mixture of users” into the square at different times of day. Contrast this with Savannah’s beautiful Forsyth Park, which most folks avoid after sundown, unless a concert or other event is scheduled.

Longtime Sustainable Savannah may remember my grumbling about the fact that most of the money spent on the project went toward the parking garage, with only a fraction remaining for the square itself. I’m still not happy with how much public money we spend to provide storage for private automobiles, but I am pleased with the wonderful new public space that citizens can now enjoy.

The links between historic preservation and sustainability are clear and make dandy bumper sticker slogans. Whether you prefer “Historic Preservation: The Ultimate Recycling” or “The Greenest Building is the One Already Built,” the point is the same. Rehabilitating historic structures harnesses the embodied energy of buildings.

It’s a fact, however, that historic structures are tragically demolished (even here in Savannah) and the salvage and sale of architectural antiques is a profitable business. But what happens when the doomed structure is from the more recent past? What can be done with building parts that are not likely to be displayed in an antique store?

Enter the Emergent Structures Project, which is finding new uses for the 1940s vintage houses of Strathmore Estates.

The goal is to coordinate the salvage, and distribution of as much of the building materials as possible, and to record the numerous innovative re-use projects that transpire over the ensuing year. Site-visits, interviews and photo documentation of individual projects will be conducted to record the process.

A “Building Materials Harvest Day” was held Nov. 7, during which “Pioneer Harvesters” posed with signs that proclaimed their plans for the materials. Along with the “Offgrid Kitchen” idea on the right, harvesters also identified sculptural gardens, drafting tables and picture frames among the projects for which the materials would be used. Items reclaimed were described as “non-structural” and included shelves, cabinets, interior doors and loose lumber. Additional reclamation days are planned during, but have not yet been announced.

The project has been covered by the Savannah Morning News and SCAD’s student news organization and can be followed on the Emergent Structures blog, located here.

Any other garden tips?

“My hope is that the specific story of Circuit City will serve as something of a morality tale, one that will teach us to rewire the way we think of our communities, the ways in which we attend more to local businesses that need our support, the ways in which we address growth as something more long-term and more deliberate. Perhaps this specific bankruptcy will teach us to re-wire our own circuitry as communities where lasting value is found in more than the latest electronic gadgetry.”

Read the whole thing here.

The housing development, originally completed in 1939, closed in 2004 and the property was razed to make way for “a $50 million mixed-use development encompassing 220 public/affordable housing units (in several phases), 100 senior housing units, 10 single family homeowner units, and potential retail, medical, and technical space.”

Once it’s completed former Fellwood residents will scarcely recognize the place, Landers predicts, and that’s a good thing:

“What they’ll find is the first neighborhood in Savannah and the fourth in the state certified by the national nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council. The certification process rates neighborhoods by looking at features such as density, proximity to transit, mix of residential and commercial space, mix of housing types and pedestrian friendliness.”

A groundbreaking will be held on Sept. 16. More information here.

On Sunday, Savannah Morning News Environmental Reporter Mary Landers included an interesting angle in her wide ranging story, “Big losses likely when Savannah’s luck runs out.” Here’s a snip:

“The damage would be enormous in part because development itself intensifies a storm’s effects. Hard surfaces such as streets, parking lots and roofs don’t allow water to soak into the ground.”

Can greater use of pervious paving, green roofs and other stormwater management techniques offset the potential for damage presented by our  jumbo-sized parking lots and other sprawling paved areas?

For those of you who couldn’t make it, I’ll briefly summarize. Landry defines creative cities as those in which ordinary people (along with their local bureaucracies) solve problems (or rather, create opportunities) in imaginative ways.

I really appreciated his notion that creative cities strive not to be the best in the world, but the best for the world.

Creative cities are made deliberately; they require inclusion, collaboration, motivation, public places, respect of history & culture, openness (open to difference, change, ideas, emotions), holistic thinking, ownership (as in, this is my town and I’m responsible for what goes on in it), bravery, values and imagination. Imagination is key.  I wonder if Charles Landry likes Spongebob as much as I do.

“I-ma-gin-aaaaaaaaaaa-tion!”

What did ya’ll think?

The project, Green Bridge Farm, is one I have mentioned here before, and it’s been covered in local news.

Initial resistance from the county stemmed from Maddox’s request for a variance to have the community road paved with recycled concrete rather than asphalt. The variance was hard won and took many months to secure as an act of conservation. But it was worth, it, Maddox says: “This will pave the way for the future … for subdivisions [that are environmentally concerned].”

As a resident of a Wilmington Island neighborhood that was, 10 years ago, a big beautiful chunk of woods, I appreciate Maddox’s commitment to respect his property by limiting tree clearance and creating other eco-friendly covenants for home builders. The other new homes are nice, but they are haunted by the trees.

Another highlight of the project is that Maddox’s own organic garden and orchard will anchor the community of nine residential lots. Residents will be encouraged to participate in a community garden maintained by the association, offering a unique opportunity for people to grow their own food.

This is a little green gem worth checking out. Located not far from the rapidly developing areas of Pooler, Bloomingdale and Guyton, it seems a safe haven. Hopefully, it will get noticed and become a good example for communities to come.

Photo courtesy Conlawprof via flickr.com