Re:Vision Dallas A model for Urban Communities
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if an entire city block was demolished and rebuilt in a sustainable manner? Imagine a city block suffering from years of neglect, crumbling and blighted being demolished and replaced by modern, innovative, sustainable buildings. For the residents of Dallas this is soon to be reality.
The Central Dallas Community Development Corporation (CDCDC) will be funding and developing the project which received design concepts from all over the world. The new city block will be an off the grid block harnessing solar, wind, and geo thermal energy to meet its power, heating and cooling needs. The block will incorporate many sustainable features. John Greenan of CDCDC summed up the benefits of the project in the following quote:
“I think Re:Vision Dallas is going to change the way people look at Dallas. Dallas--like most sunbelt cities--has more to gain than any other area of the United States from sustainable technology. Our period of greatest energy usage coincides with the best period to produce solar energy, the summer when we need air conditioning, so we have the possibility of vastly reducing the needs for new power plants by employing renewable energy sources. Peak power and peak loads come at the same time. Texas already leads the nation in wind production. It's possible that Re:Vision Dallas, along with other initiatives already in place, will help make Texas a leader in solar power as well, and maybe even geothermal energy.
That's just part of what the project will do. The winning designs are so striking--both beautiful and unusual--that we think the project will be a must see destination. The urban farming incorporated in the designs will bring attention to the Slow Food movement and help accelerate the growth of Dallas's Farmer's Market, which is only a short distance away. In the end, I think the project will have more impact than we can even imagine now.”
Re:Vision Dallas has the potential to change the way we think about urban design and serve as a model for how the cities of tomorrow are constructed. In my previous post I discussed the Babcock Ranch project, the eco-city of tomorrow being built in Florida which will hopefully serve as the suburban model for sustainable communities. It is my hope that these two projects in combination can serve as a model for how future communities in both urban and suburban environments are constructed.
