Changing the world: a city, block, & idea at a time

Like most people you have probably sat around at one point in your life and wondered how you can change the world and make it a better place. The individuals at Re: Vision, the Central Dallas Community Development Corporation, and the Dallas Mayor’s office have taken these thoughts to the next level, action. Re:Vision Dallas which is a combined effort by the above mentioned entities and being led by John Grennan of CDCDC (an inteview between John and Vik can be found here) saw the opportunity to transform an eyesore in the heart of Dallas into a sustainable city block. The city of Dallas in coalition with Re:vision has the unique opportunity to create the first truly sustainable city block which if done properly can serve as a model for cities all over the world. The potential impacts of such a project are wide ranging and include both economic and environemental benefits. As John Greenan has stated:

New jobs will be created, both during construction and afterwards. I can’t tell you exactly how many yet, but they will include not only the usual construction jobs but as well jobs related to renewable energy production–”Green Jobs”. Once its operating, the project will create the usual jobs related to operating rental housing, and in addition small businesses, maintenance of the renewable energy and even a little bit of urban farming will create more jobs. Once we determine which of the winning designs will get built then we will be able to quantify the number of jobs created, but it will be more the CityWalk project we are just completing downtown and the number should be significant.The greatest economic impact will come from rebuilding a long neglected part of downtown. There are probably an additional half dozen underutilized blocks in the area of the project, and once we prove up the viability of rebuilding the south central part of Downtown Dallas, I think all those blocks will also be revitalized. What I would love to see is an entire section of downtown notable for innovative, sustainable design–an attraction in the southern part of downtown balancing the Arts District in the northern part of downtown. There are already some interesting, green projects in The Cedars immediately to the south of downtown. a sustainable district that extends from downtown all the way into The Cedars neighborhood is a very reasonable possibility.

While the three winning projects Entagled Bank, Greenways Xero Energy, and Forwarding Dallas are all extremely sustainable and innovative, the biggest winner from this competion is each and every one of us! By challenging us to think about the way we build, work, live, and play in our urban environments this project has shown that sustainable design is not only beneficial to the environement and society but that it can also be beautiful as well. We here at Konstructr will continue to bring you updates as the project progresses. In the meantime continue to design smart and build sustainably.