Better Cities and Towns, the new incarnation of New Urban News, featured an in-depth story on the Box Office in their latest issue including interviews with Jonathan Ford, Peter Gill Case, and Joe Haskett. Read the story below or check out the full Better Cities and Towns issue (which we think is EXCELLENT) at this link.
Jan/Feb Better Cities & Towns
Jonathan Ford’s “Great Places in Balance With Nature: Beyond LID” article was featured on Planetizen today – read the article here.
Post-industrial Providence - 100% Impervious
Those who know me know my frustration with the current implementation of Low Impact Development (LID) as an one size fits all application of evolved stormwater management tools within the same old disconnected land use framework. Halfway solutions apply LID technology to poor site design on projects whose locations very often support disinvestment in our existing downtowns, are at cross purposes with watershed-scale objectives, and increase separation and disconnectedness. More on this topic can be found in a recent series of blog posts here and an upcoming Planetizen article on the topic of specific site design techniques for vibrant places in balance with nature.
The cover of Landscape Architecture Magazine, December 2011
MBD is thrilled to now call the Box Office home.
The Box Office (image: Nat Rea)
The Box Office is a new office building constructed from 32 recycled shipping containers in the West End of Providence. As part of the project’s design team, MBD contributed to the design, permitting, and construction of this innovative, award-winning project. Now we’ve moved in!
Jonathan Ford will be speaking at Build Boston on Wednesday, November 16 at 1:00 pm along with Don Powers, Dan Gainsboro, and Len Iannuccilli as part of the “Principles of Cottage Court Development” session. Hope to see you there!
Design Guidelines include numerous Simsbury-specific conceptual designs and diagrams (drawing: Russell Preston)
On September 30, MBD completed work on a stormwater ordinance and design guidelines for Simsbury, Connecticut. The work is unique in its approach, funded by CT DEP as an LID program but transcending one-size-fits-all LID to integrate the most advanced LID toolkit of BMPs with the unique land use and natural conditions found in Simsbury, and effectively enable the vision expressed in the Town’s Plan of Conservation and Development and the recently adopted form-based Simsbury Center Code.
Cottages on Greene, a recently completed affordable housing cottage court development in East Greenwich, RI, was featured in this month’s HUD Breakthroughs newsletter. The article can be viewed here, or read the full text by clicking below:
Box Office - 2011 RI Monthly Design Award
MBD is thrilled to announce The Box Office is a winner of a 2011 Rhode Island Monthly Gold Design Award! Congrats to the team, especially mastermind Peter Gill Case ofTruthbox Architects and architect Joe Haskett of Distill Studio. Click here for more information about the project.
Concept to construction: Irving Avenue & Loring Avenue
File this under “you never know what’s possible until you ask”. In my role on the Blackstone Parks Conservancy Board of Directors I put together the below conceptual plan to improve River Road. River Road sits between Blackstone Park, a wooded conservation district with trails winding through an oasis of nature in the city, and the Seekonk River. The park is well loved (and some might say too loved, as we’re dealing with significant erosion and runoff problems), but River Road falls well short of what should be prime urban waterfront public space.
River Road Conceptual Plan
