APA 2007 Conference

I just returned from the APA annual meeting in Philly. Attendance was close to 6,000. There was a tremendous interest in eco-friendly, green, sustainable planning and design. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave the keynote to a packed hall and received a long standing ovation for his passionate and highly factual portrayal of what has been happening for the last 6 years with environmental regulation in DC.

In speaking with one of my colleagues his first comment was "... oh it's just those "tree-hugging APA'ers getting all wound up about the environment.", but I can assure you this is not a fad. For those not familiar with it LEED ND - which is the pilot version of the LEED Neighborhood Design standards, they are going to become the de facto standard for land planning.  See http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CMSPageID=148

I participated in a very worthwhile, day long workshop on urban design. The very encouraging news from this was the similarities to the overall land planning conceptual design process. Whether we want to accept it or not the most sustainable design patterns are urban. In fact Manhattan is one of the most eco-friendly places to live in the world.

I am going to look at the sketching capability in Alias next week and will report back.