The City in 2050

Creating Blueprints for Change

Maureen McAvey, Uwe Brandes, Matthew Johnston

• Publisher: Urban Land Institute
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780874201277
• eBook ISBN: 9780874202267
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

The City in 2050 explores potential paths of innovation to prepare for the changes facing metropolitan areas over the next several decades as the world becomes more urbanized. The book is heavily illustrated with photographs, charts, maps, and drawings that give the reader a quick overview of the issues cities will face.

What must we do now to create value in the City of 2050?

The City Wild

Weaving together regional water management, habitat protection, and recreation, the Xochimilco park outside Mexico City has put Mexican landscape design on the international map.

Natural Assets Give Form to Growth

Falcons in New York City, salmon in Seattle, manatee in Miami—the drama of urban life extends into nature. Reengineered waterfronts, new forests, and restored stream valleys are shaping new addresses for urban development. The fringe benefit? Green infrastructure can reduce the need for costly traditional infrastructure.

Where is the 100-year flood plain? How do green, brown, and gray sites compare? Can kids walk to school? Do the demographics support community sustainability?

Diamonds, Emeralds, and Sapphires

“Meet me at Park Café!” By reclaiming “leftover” urban spaces, developers create coveted destinations that become landmarks and peaceful escapes from bustling urban streets. Access to shade, water features, paths, and trails give residents an opportunity to engage the many dimensions of nature.

Growing Capacity

Investment in green infrastructure is happening in neighborhoods once overlooked. New investments can be leveraged to create green jobs and increase social equity. The greening of cities represents an opportunity to broaden the workforce and engage communities that have not benefited from past growth. Educating new generations in the responsibilities of stewardship will help meet global environmental challenges.

Serious Green

As investments in water and air quality move beyond “pipes and pumps,” the regional green infrastructure plan becomes a central strategy for managing growth. Regional parks are more than protection of habitat or mitigation of pollution and heat-island effects. Building on rich traditions—from English gardens to Olmsted parks to reclaimed waterfronts—green infrastructure will reconnect us to nature and to each other.

Extreme Makeovers

Large parks are being financed by a new generation of urban development. Whether reclaiming brownfield sites or building new town centers, urban development integrates place-making designs with phasing plans. Large parks give projects the focus and identity to become vital neighborhoods, even as construction continues for decades. Value is created, quality of life is established, and residential units are sold.

Competitive Green

Breathing the cleanest air, drinking the purest water, having the most vital stream—when competing for jobs in the global marketplace, quality of life will rule. Cities will compete to be the most environmentally friendly place to live, work, and play—and green will be a central element of their brand. Green metrics will draw new residents, events, and corporations.

Even before its completion, the Highline Project has been critical to the redevelopment of the Chelsea neighborhood in Manhattan. Like Millennium Park in Chicago, this new public space will offer an utterly unique park experience in the middle of the city.

The urban development plans for the London 2012 Olympics will channel investment into overlooked neighborhoods. Brownfield remediation, river restoration, and the creation of neighborhood jobs and affordable housing are all targeted outcomes.

The restoration of the L.A. River in Los Angeles, California, will transform the concrete basin into a dynamic green space with bioengineered habitats and recreation elements, reconnecting neighborhoods long cut off from one another.

High-rise development built in tandem with new urban open space in Milan, Italy, benefits from access to green space, prestige of address, and increased values.

Quality of life for workers and neighborhood residents alike will drive competitiveness decisions between regions and cities.

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Foreword
• How Can Cities and Communities Be Shaped to Meet Present Need While Empowering Future Generations to Meet Theirs?
• What Must We Do Now to Create Value in the City of 2050
• How Can Today’s Investments Achieve Both Attractive Returns and Long-Term Outcomes?
• How Will We Live, Work, and Play in 2050?
• The Galbreath Family Foundation
• Photo Credits