{"300951":{"#nid":"300951","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Olmsted Symposium Focuses on Building Sustainable Cities","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe School of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)\u0026nbsp;celebrated the father of\u0026nbsp;landscape architecture Monday as it also launched its search for a faculty member to fill a newly endowed chair.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Frederick Law Olmsted Symposium assembled six experts in\u0026nbsp;sustainable urban infrastructure to talk about the man and\u0026nbsp;the concepts he created. It\u0026nbsp;was the start of a conversation about who can\u0026nbsp;best advance the ideas of\u0026nbsp;sustainability in our cities and suburbs as the new\u0026nbsp;Olmsted Chair in CEE.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe speakers were carefully selected to touch on different, but complementary topics related to the research and teaching we envision the chair holder doing,\u201d said Reginald DesRoches, Karen and John Huff School Chair and professor in CEE.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDesRoches and Ellen Dunham-Jones, professor of architecture and urban design in the College of Architecture, are leading the search committee for the new chair holder.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThough the Olmsted chair will be housed in CEE, the position will serve as a link for faculty and research in engineering, economics, and the College of Architecture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe strongly believe that the most critical advances occur at the intersection of disciplines,\u201d DesRoches said. \u201cThe problems that will be addressed by the Olmsted Chair are at the interface of the built environment, natural systems, and social systems.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe new Frederick Law Olmsted Chair in CEE is made possible\u0026nbsp;through a gift from Jenny\u0026nbsp;and Mike Messner, a 1976 civil engineering graduate of Georgia Tech. Their vision is that the person selected for\u0026nbsp;the teaching and research position will instill Olmsted\u2019s concern for\u0026nbsp;engineering urban spaces with long-term public benefits in his or her students\u0026nbsp;and academic pursuits.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp class=\u0022p1\u0022\u003E\u0022It\u0027s not yet clear what kind of connections between Architecture and Civil Engineering this professorship will forge, but there are certainly many possibilities having to do with the integration of sustainable and healthy infrastructure, the design of cities, the design of green infrastructure, multi-modal boulevards, and public spaces,\u0022 Dunham-Jones said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch5\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELooking to Olmsted\u2019s Legacy\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h5\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMonday\u2019s speakers set the stage for the needs in sustainable urban infrastructure and how Olmsted\u2019s legacy could help address them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOlmsted\u2019s real genius was in figuring out what was needed\u0026nbsp;to solve a problem and\u0026nbsp;then assembling the people and resources necessary,\u201d\u0026nbsp;said Douglas Allen, professor\u0026nbsp;emeritus in the School of Architecture who opened\u0026nbsp;the symposium. \u201cAlong the way,\u0026nbsp;Olmsted attempted to do what any good poet does:\u0026nbsp;he tried to tag poetic language to\u0026nbsp;regular language. So a sewer becomes a\u0026nbsp;parkway.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat was one of Olmsted\u2019s ideas: a new kind of street that\u0026nbsp;accommodates many modes of\u0026nbsp;travel, \u201cpiggybacked onto the concept of a park and\u0026nbsp;a sewer system,\u201d Allen said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c[Olmsted\u2019s] own education was unorthodox,\u201d said another speaker, Frederick\u0026nbsp;Steiner, dean of the School\u0026nbsp;of Architecture at the University of Texas at\u0026nbsp;Austin. \u201cBut his\u0026nbsp;singular brilliance and scope of\u0026nbsp;accomplishment is worthy of this [endowed chair].\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHoward Frumkin, dean of the\u0026nbsp;School of Public Health at the\u0026nbsp;University of Washington,\u0026nbsp;said following Olmsted\u0027s example means designing the built environment to\u0026nbsp;give people what studies\u0026nbsp;have shown makes them happy: clean air, quiet, short\u0026nbsp;commutes, contact with nature,\u0026nbsp;beauty, and \u201cthird places\u201d \u2014 areas outside of home\u0026nbsp;and work where people can go to be\u0026nbsp;social and enjoy life.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHuman well-being should serve as the north star on our trek\u0026nbsp;toward sustainability,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHealth is also a piece of that well-being, according to\u0026nbsp;Richard Jackson, chair of\u0026nbsp;Environmental Health Sciences at the University of\u0026nbsp;California, Los Angeles Fielding\u0026nbsp;School of Public Health. He noted that a\u0026nbsp;20-year-old\u2019s lung function is a good predictor of\u0026nbsp;how long he or she will\u0026nbsp;live. Likewise, the quality of parks in an area can predict how long\u0026nbsp;people in\u0026nbsp;that area will live.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf you want people to walk, you have to give them a place\u0026nbsp;they want to walk,\u201d Jackson\u0026nbsp;said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOf course, it requires public investment and political will\u0026nbsp;to change cities\u2019 approaches to\u0026nbsp;streets, parks, and other parts of the urban\u0026nbsp;landscape.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAny bold idea that transforms how cities are using land is\u0026nbsp;bound to be controversial,\u0026nbsp;according to Diane Davis, a Harvard professor of urbanism and development. And since\u0026nbsp;cities are constantly changing, the\u0026nbsp;politics of sustainability is also always shifting. So it\u0026nbsp;comes down to\u0026nbsp;leadership, she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMayors are key players in transforming the urban\u0026nbsp;landscape,\u201d Davis said in her\u0026nbsp;presentation. \u0022But designers have to help. They\u0026nbsp;need to be able to think like politicians\u0026nbsp;and help the politicians think\u0026nbsp;technically.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECongress for the New Urbanism\u2019s incoming President and CEO\u0026nbsp;Lynn Richards said both designers and politicians need to think in terms of\u0026nbsp;building infrastructure that meets\u0026nbsp;multiple needs. Cities can\u2019t just spend\u0026nbsp;billions of dollars installing pipes to handle\u0026nbsp;storm water. Those projects need\u0026nbsp;to have other benefits for the community as well, she\u0026nbsp;said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn cities where no land remains to create new green space,\u0026nbsp;maybe that means thinking\u0026nbsp;about using projects to connect existing parks across\u0026nbsp;a region, Richards said, drawing\u0026nbsp;parallels with Olmsted\u2019s linear parks. Maybe\u0026nbsp;it means making our streets places for\u0026nbsp;people rather than just cars, she said,\u0026nbsp;and making our built environment feel more like\u0026nbsp;parks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome communities are starting to experiment with those kinds\u0026nbsp;of ideas, turning urban\u0026nbsp;roads back into something resembling the parkways\u0026nbsp;Olmsted created to accommodate all kinds\u0026nbsp;of transportation modes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe term these days is \u201ccomplete streets,\u201d which Elizabeth\u0026nbsp;Macdonald defined as\u0026nbsp;providing for multiple forms of movement and gathering\u0026nbsp;while also providing for urban\u0026nbsp;greening.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMacdonald, an associate professor of urban design at the\u0026nbsp;University of California,\u0026nbsp;Berkeley, said it\u2019s possible for more communities to\u0026nbsp;build urban parkways like Olmsted\u2019s.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cNo [user] gets everything [they want], but everyone gets a\u0026nbsp;lot,\u201d Macdonald said.\u0026nbsp;Designers don\u2019t have to solve every possible problem, she\u0026nbsp;said, which just leads to\u0026nbsp;designing bad streets.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESymposium launched the search for the new Olmsted chair in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Symposium launched the search for the new Olmsted chair in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2014-06-05 11:10:17","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:33","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-05T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-05T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"300931":{"id":"300931","type":"image","title":"Olmsted Symposium","body":null,"created":"1449244572","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:56:12","changed":"1475895004","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:04","alt":"Olmsted Symposium","file":{"fid":"199537","name":"28.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/28_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/28_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":7954620,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/28_0.jpg?itok=RlE5-7P7"}},"300941":{"id":"300941","type":"image","title":"Olmsted Symposium","body":null,"created":"1449244572","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:56:12","changed":"1475895004","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:04","alt":"Olmsted Symposium","file":{"fid":"199538","name":"35.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/35_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/35_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":5369856,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/35_0.jpg?itok=9KW-8vTp"}},"197501":{"id":"197501","type":"image","title":"Frederick Law Olmsted","body":null,"created":"1449179918","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:58:38","changed":"1475894848","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:28","alt":"Frederick Law Olmsted","file":{"fid":"196461","name":"frederick-law-olmsted.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/frederick-law-olmsted_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/frederick-law-olmsted_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":990288,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/frederick-law-olmsted_0.jpg?itok=gKLpxlHk"}},"197511":{"id":"197511","type":"image","title":"Olmsted Park","body":null,"created":"1449179918","gmt_created":"2015-12-03 21:58:38","changed":"1475894848","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:47:28","alt":"Olmsted Park","file":{"fid":"196462","name":"olpa_deepdene5.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/olpa_deepdene5_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/olpa_deepdene5_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1461954,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/olpa_deepdene5_0.jpg?itok=6kHAOhXA"}}},"media_ids":["300931","300941","197501","197511"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.greenbuzz.gatech.edu\/news\/alumnus-gift-establishes-frederick-law-olmsted-chair","title":"Alumnus Gift Establishes Frederick Law Olmsted Chair"},{"url":"http:\/\/cee.gatech.edu\/","title":"School of Civil and Environmental Engineering"}],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"61951","name":"CEE"},{"id":"1897","name":"Civil Engineering"},{"id":"60541","name":"frederick law olmsted"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"},{"id":"167920","name":"sustainable urban infrastructure"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:joshua.stewart@ce.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJoshua Stewart\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003ESchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Bailey\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}