Perhaps the greenest home is the one already built. A couple in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico took this to heart when they renovated an abandoned early eightieth-century home and transformed it into an urban garden. This 9000 square foot building was carefully upgraded and preserved with a light modernist touch. The couple had very different ideas for a home so they compromised by doing both — the husband has a large vegetable garden and green roof, while the wife enjoys the home’s location in the heart of town and runs her arts nonprofit on-site.

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Post tags: green renovation, green roof, green roof urban design, NYT home profile, Puerto Rico Green home, San Juan Puerto Rico House, Urban Environment, Urban Farming, urban restoration

As the construction process for Hudson Yards drags on in New York, we’re glad to see green urban design is alive and well in Chicago. The windy city is no stranger to sustainable building, and this urban park, located on the fringe of the city’s downtown, will certainly give Chicago even more green cred. Perkins + Will, the architects behind the design, developed the park to create more open space for the city, but the greenway also proves to be a pedestrian-friendly gateway that connects the existing downtown to any future development across the Kennedy Expressway.

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Post tags: chicago city planning, Landscape Architecture, sustainable urban planning, Urban design, urban expansion, urban park, urban planning, urban restoration, urban revitalization

As the topic of urban restoration garners more attention, we have seen an increase in the investigation and experimentation relating to NYC’s ecological past. NYC Wildflower Week demonstrated a rise in popularity of plants native to New York City. Coupling urban restoration and indigenous plants, Julie Farris and Sarah Wayland-Smith, both landscape designers, were commissioned by the Public Art Fund to design and construct ‘A Clearing in the Streets,’ a 15-foot wide, plywood structure containing the beginnings of a meadow. The temporary installation, meant to invite passers-by to appreciate and watch the “re-insertion” of nature back into the city, offers a glimpse into NYC’s native landscape.

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Post tags: art installation new york city, eco-art, environmental art, public art, public space installation, temporary art installation, urban art installation, Urban design, urban ecology, urban garden, urban landscape, urban restoration