So whats in the title?

Great insulation in the foundation(r-15), walls(r-26) and roofs(r-45).

Operable insulated shutters over all vertical glazing and vent penetrations.  Courtesy of SBT, we are exploring bi-fold sliding and swinging shutters made with 2″ of polyisocyanurate set in a thin fiberglass frame for the various conditions in our design.

Adjustable light reflectors below all south facing glass, manually adjustable to three settings: winter solstice, spring and fall equinox, and summer solstice.

An air exchange system designed to take interior heat and moisture and dump it into the soil/planting beds, which are thermally broken from the outside temperature by the insulated foundation.  Consequently we’ve now stumbled across a number of these greenhouse air exchange systems that are evolved from the concept of geothermal heating and cooling.  They all have nifty names:  Climate Battery, GETS (greenhouse earth thermal storage), SHCS (subterranean heating and cooling system).  In essence they are used to stabilize year round indoor air temperatures and control the humidity levels of their respective greenhouses.  Our system, in a 530 sf greenhouse, will run on a single van axial fan from fantech (often used for radon mitigation) and 7 mains consisting of 4″ perforated drain pipe with sleeves diverging from a single plenum.  With a total of 300 linear feet, we’ll run 200′ eighteen inches under the earth floor and another 100′ in our raised beds.  Each main will have an exhaust at the end of a planting bed complete with welded wire mesh for rodent control.

Other important features include:

• A 5000cfm louvered air change fan for much needed CO2, equipped with an insulated shutter to boost its R-value.
• Upper and lower operable openings for natural ventilation.  Temperature, humidity, CO2 & light sensors wired to a computer for automated operation of the shutters and fans.
• A 12 v dc, PV battery charge which will continue to operate even if the grid is down.  Zero, zilch, NO backup heating or cooling what-so-ever and yet an anticipated operation temperature at or above 55 degrees year round…totally awesome.

Stay tuned for updates: the foundation is in, backfilling & the greenhouse earth thermal storage should be finished around the beginning of the new year, and with a little luck we can be planting in March of 2012.

The idea that design can be a part of the healing process has been termed “restorative” or “regenerative” design. The cycle of life, death, and rebirth is one that nature models for us in homeostasis, and cultures celebrate in seasonal rituals that remind us of the spiritual message found in impermanence and even of death itself.  When the Four Mile Fire raged through the foothills west of Boulder last Labor Day, 6,000 acres of mountain landscape were suddenly and drastically transformed.  In its wake, 169 homes were destroyed and those who had lived in them were left with the challenge of reconstructing their lives, their dreams, their homes, and the precious landscapes they had inhabited.

Over this past year, as Architects, we have been invited into four projects that are engaged in this process.  With each, we have the opportunity to touch the essence of restorative design in both human and ecological terms.  This is Part Two of a four-part series, wherein we’ll be sharing the story of each of these homes, families, and individuals: their experience, the co-creative process, and the unfolding of the built form as a tool for creating positive energy, opportunity, and with it, a quality of healing.

See Part One

We live in a culture geared to immediate gratification and short-term thinking.  Sudden change, and even loss, can bring about opportunity for us to challenge our value systems, our sense of beauty, and our trust in the perfect unfolding of life itself.

These clients live in Wisconsin, and are deeply connected to their community, their work, and their roots.  They also have a long-term love affair with the Rocky Mountains.  Like many of us boomers, they were looking at their dreams and were determined to act upon them.  In this case, that dream is the building of a family retreat in the foothills west of Boulder.  This retreat will act as a place of coming together for them and their grown children, who are scattered around the country and are often off on world adventures.

The site they found spoke to them in its relative ease of access, while being a part of the ponderosa forest that weaves its way through lichen covered rock outcroppings.  However, what most struck them was the broad view wrapping around them from east to west, taking in the plains, the city lights of both Boulder and Denver, the undulating foothills, and glimpses of the Divide to the west.  Our client stood on the place in the site that we all sensed as “home” and asked for an architecture that would “drink in the views.”

This desired sense of reach led to a formal approach that both found fit from an allusion to the rolling landscape’s folded forms, and to the skyscape molded by our spectacular lenticular clouds.  Stretching a long, thin house on an east-west axis invited sun penetration and acted as a lens to frame the dynamic views.  Following our client’s esoteric cues for an interconnected geometry, we developed a design that was akin to a vessel for connections.  Upon completing the Site Plan Review Process with Boulder County and submitting for a building permit, the winds of change drove the Four Mile Fire up the western slope below the building site, consuming the four acre site in an inferno that blackened every tree in the mature ponderosa forest, and with it made opaque the dream they had been actively pursuing for years.

Our first site visit together after the burn  was one of deep loss.  Everything was shades of black.  Trees were leafless, needleless, and charred to an iridescent black.  The ground was lifeless, and covered in soot, even the rocks appeared dead.  Ancient lichens and mosses were gone, and even the shadows were absorbed into the colorless landscape.  The scene reminded me of my experiences with the death’s of loved ones: once the soul had departed, the body becomes a mere spacesuit without an inhabitant.  There is a bizarre emptiness to land that has been so deeply torched.

We were in our own quiet, as we dealt with the sudden transformation.  How could they even think of building here now?  Who could invest in this darkness?  Could I?

After some time of reflection, our client asked their builder, Tom Stanko, and us to assemble a team to analyze the destruction, the process of managing site restoration, and the implications for the building.  With Landscape Architect Heidali Kane, who had dealt with burn area reforestation during her years of experience with Rocky Mountain ecologies, we developed a strategy for cutting, mulching, and eventual replanting.  The question remained, could our clients love this place as they once did?  After considerable reflection, they came to the decision that they wanted to be part of the evolution and rebirth of this special mountain place.  Since this retreat was to be a family legacy, what better way to establish this than through participation with nature, becoming a part of the healing.  With this commitment comes a deeper story of our place in nature’s various stages of life, death, and rebirth.  The living narrative will define this retreat.

Today, this spirit is taking form, as this vessel inspired by land and cloud form rises from the ashes.  It’s lightness of being is a testament to not only the natural mimicry taking place in this architectural form, but to the sense of stewardship and trust that this remarkable couple exhibits.  It’s easy to see a certain quality of a phoenix rising as the first grasses of spring push through the mulch, and the home moves upward out of the earth: a revitalization is happening here.  Life moves onward as we reach for our dreams.

Join us in the next few weeks for Part Three…here’s a quick teaser of the remaining two homes in the series!

In late April, I presented with David and Nicole at, and attended, the 2011 Rocky Mountain Green conference – the Colorado chapter of the United States Green Building Guild’s annual take on green building in the American West.

We had submitted a presentation to the Inspiration track, and took that charge seriously.  Through case studies from our work, including the Twin Buttes EcoVillage, the Architecture for Humanity Portable Classroom, and numerous passive solar homes, we explored the powerful world of scale jumping from a foundation of reducing environmental impact and with a goal of qualitative experiential impact.  Our primary lesson was the importance of considering sustainability in a holistic context, rather than compartmentalizing it into a checklist – ensure we’re still seeking the forest for the trees.  For designers, this is nicely summed up by Eliel Saarinen, who advises,

“Always design a thing by considering it in its next larger context – a chair in a room, a room in a house, a house in an environment, an environment in a city plan.”

The content of the remainder of the two-day conference was amazing. Here are some of the gems for those who missed it.

Hank Louis enlivened the conference opening with a presentation of his work helming Design Build Bluff, a university driven design-build studio in Bluff, Utah.  Modeled after Mockbee’s revered Rural Studio, DBB has brought almost a dozen homes to low-income Navajo families since is inception in 2000.

A place where change can incubate, Design Build Bluff brings forth Louis’ philosophy of compassionate sustainability, where design is “not about greatness, it’s about goodness.”  This frame of creative thinking manifests in nonconventional building materials and applications.  The gorgeously spare Whitehorse House employs refashioned shipping pallets as siding, while inside an old oil drum functions to vent a high efficiency, low technology Rocket Stove.  At the Windcatcher house, cement board (typically installed in lieu of drywall in bathrooms) is exposed as a simple yet effective exterior rainscreen siding solution.

Another bright idea the DBB team employs to cut their environmental impact is their solar trailer – a sort of mobile sun-powered tooltruck that banishes the gas-guzzling generator from their construction sites.

Next up, Brad Tomecek & Christopher Herr of Studio H|T presented their Alpine House.  This home is the first in the nation to be designed state-side, but engineered and manufactured in Germany by Weberhaus.  While the size of the home (4,300 sf) and the counterintuitive practice of shipping an entire home from overseas seem to be the largest factors pushing against the “sustainability” moniker, Weberhaus has some impressive statistics to counter these complaints.  Apparently, the hyper-accurate engineering methodology translates to 8.5 times less waste than a typical US home during construction.  What I found interesting was Brad’s discussion on how the design process shifted due to the production process – “It was 98% planning and 2% execution.”

The home’s HERS rating is an impressive 13, due in large part to continuous exterior wood fiber insulation, an ICF foundation, and .21 U-value windows (a benefit of working with the German manufacturer was availing oneself of the higher performance insulation and window systems available in Europe).  And, including the carbon footprint of shipping from Germany, the home will be carbon positive in a relatively short 70 years – and should last much longer than that, with a 100-year construction standard.

Clocking in at a high $600 / square foot, the Alpine House is not for everyone.  However, it does provide an interesting case study in sustainability and prefab, and succeeds in turning some preconceptions on their heads.  Brad & Chris alluded to the possibility of Weberhaus venturing stateside for a manufacturing plant, which would make this intriguing concept even more locally sustainable – economically, socially, and environmentally.

This panel, with participation from Conor Merrigan of the Governor’s Energy Office, Ryan Tobin of the Denver Housing Authority (DHA), Yong Cho of Studio Contempliva, discussed the relatively newly minted LEED ND system as it applies to projects undertaken by DHA.  DHA has recently committed to every new project they undertake achieving LEED Platinum.  They also have several block scale projects that will target LEED ND.  As the second largest land owner in Denver, this level of commitment from DHA truly has the potential to both shape our city’s built environment, and reduce our city’s environmental footprint. Yong Cho, who has worked with DHA on several affordable housing projects, brought a refreshingly experiential based architectural perspective to the table. Many of his qualitatively rich concepts resonate with Barrett Studio’s philosophies – including my favorite, “sustainability at a base level is a happiness factor.”

The last session I attended on Day I was a fascinating look at Barker Rinker Seacat’s commitment to the 2030 Challenge, which outlines an aggressive goal for all buildings to be carbon neutral by 2030 – but gives little framework within which to accomplish this goal.  Their area of interest lied in comparing carbon reduction to LEED certification.  Keith Hayes & Yael Nyholm of BRS presented a creative analogy to driving: LEED is associated with cost, or “how much the gasoline costs;” CBECS is related to the energy use per square foot, or “miles per gallon;” and 2030 is related directly to the energy source (carbon), or “where does the gas come from?”  Reconciling these led BRS to interesting findings, including that LEED savings don’t necessarily lead to carbon savings – a highly certified LEED building can still be a carbon guzzler.  Their other discovery was inaccuracies in CBECS benchmarks, which led them to use data collected from a number of recreation center projects they’ve completed to define their own benchmark.  Ultimately, they retroactively studied performance data from these buildings to prove their performance is in line with the ratcheting goals of the 2030 Challenge.

While salvaged railroad tie furniture is on the verge of feeling trite, Railyard Studios prove that there still exists opportunity for ingenuity.  Their simple Cafe Stool employs both the unadorned mass of a solid white oak mainline tie and an industrial section of rail, which functions as a footrest.  Rail Yard Studio’s commitment to source, design, and craft their pieces in the US isn’t just lip service – founded by a railroad maintenance tech, these gents are honestly close to their source material.

Biomimetic design solutions are more accessible than ever with the launch of Asknature.org.  Billed as a wiki-style compendium of Biomimicry Taxonomy, the site will serve to cross-pollinate technical biology and beautiful design.  One example is the Thorny Devil’s capillary-spurred circulatory cutaneous system, which enables it to collect and convey water to its mouth.  Envisioning engineered rooftop runnels that channel rainwater using this natural inspiration is just one small example of nature leading environmentally sensitive design.

Many cyclists think of their bike as a work of art, to be enjoyed and appreciated as such.  Now, Knife & Saw’s Bike Shelf ends the days of relegating the bike to the garage and enters it into that realm of artistic display.  Crafted by hand and endlessly customisable (for those of you with super wide cruiser handlebars, don’t worry, he’s got you covered too), the Bike Shelf is functional too: just toss the day’s mail above.  I can’t help but think that a small, well-designed hook on the shelf’s underside would be a functional addition – we need somewhere to hang our equally artful helmets, no?

Artist and mathematician Nikki Graziano’s Found Functions series beautifully marries complex mathematical formulas with natural form, from sand dunes to clouds, trees to mountains.  I’m always partial to the artistic merging of nature and science, since this is an inherent relationship, but is rarely visualized.  The overt pairing of the two is both beautiful to behold and an inspiring reminder of the potentials of design influence by omnipresent natural order.

The idea that design can be a part of the healing process has been termed “restorative” or “regenerative” design. The cycle of life, death, and rebirth is one that nature models for us in homeostasis, and cultures celebrate in seasonal rituals that remind us of the spiritual message found in impermanence and even of death itself.  When the Four Mile Fire raged through the foothills west of Boulder last Labor Day, 6,000 acres of mountain landscape were suddenly and drastically transformed.  In its wake, 169 homes were destroyed and those who had lived in them were left with the challenge of reconstructing their lives, their dreams, their homes, and the precious landscapes they had inhabited.  Each individual has a unique experience of loss.  Each has a story that includes, in one way or another, the states of processing death: shock, anger, moments of fear & despair, glimmers of hope, tough decisions & setbacks, and then in its own time, acceptance and rebirth.

Over this past year, as Architects, we have been invited into four projects that are engaged in this process.  With each, we have the opportunity to touch the essence of restorative design in both human and ecological terms.  Over the next several weeks, we’ll be sharing the story of each of these homes, families, and individuals: their experience, the co-creative process, and the unfolding of the built form as a tool for creating positive energy, opportunity, and with it, a quality of healing.

Rod Moraga is a man who knows fire.  His professional expertise is in the analysis of fire potential in our urban/wild interface.  His work as co-founder of Anchor Point Group establishes and executes fire mitigation strategies.  His wife Shari has a long standing love for modernist architecture,  and Barrett Studio was hired to design a new home for their family in Boulder proper; one that would be a model of fire resistance, efficiency and climatic delight.  The family planned to sell their home in Four Mile Canyon and relocate to the new home in North Boulder.  With construction having just begun, Rod, a volunteer firefighter in the Four Mile Fire Department, answered a call to respond to a fire west of Wall Street.  From his nearby home in Four Mile Canyon, Rod became the first responder to a fire the soon exploded, being fed by mounting winds.  During the battle against this blaze, Rod’s own home was consumed by the inferno.  That construction was underway on his family’s new home in Boulder, using a material system & specifically designed for fire resistance was ironic at best.

Now, seven months later, Rod & his family have moved into their new home, built by Renove Construction using Aerated Autoclaved Concrete (AAC).  Nicole Delmage, an Associate at Barrett Studio, worked with me, Rod & Shari, to maximize the inherent potentials of this thick wall, high mass, highly insulative building system while expressing a decidedly modernist aesthetic.  More about the how the design was informed by the material’s unique properties can be found on the Barrett Studio website.

Along with the loss of their former home’s structure was the loss of the contents, including several heirloom pieces.  New furnishings that will become heirlooms in their own right share the home with special places for art which Shari, the artist, both produces and collects.  Embedded in the polished concrete floors are keys salvaged from the home they lost in Four Mile.  The colors that were so much a part of their hand-painted mountain house return in bursts of aqua, orange, and magenta.  The art, music, play, and exuberance of life are alive and being passionately recreated.  These reminders of the past incarnation of “home” infuse the space with a sense of history, while the new memories created here will deepen the family’s bond.

The architecture that originally grew out of values of sustainable, fire-resistant design, has been infused with the personal sense of loss and gain.  It is a home that literally holds and expresses these emotional experiences while it celebrates the expressive use of a promising new material.

As the Moragas settle into their new home and our other “fiery” clients are either in construction or in the dreaming phase of design, we hope that these opportunities for exploration will serve others in the future as we seek together more appropriate and sustainable ways to build in our arid mountain climate.

Join us in the next few weeks for Part Two: Phoenix Rising…and here’s a quick teaser of the series!

In late March, the Barrett Studio master-planned Twin Buttes Ecovillage received unanimous Final Plan approval from the Durango City Council. This marks the culmination of a four year approval process, the finalization of the property’s annexation into the City, and the official dedication of 290 acres of open space from the land owners to the City and People of Durango. This open space includes much of the upper reaches of the property, including the iconic Buttes themselves. From the beginning, we knew this wasn’t development as usual. We were thrilled to partner with a land owner active in the land preservation community, a developer with a wild-west meets zen attitude who had recently fallen hard for sustainable living, and a prescient Planning Director interested in smart growth. Our hallmark process of listening to the land resulted in multiple on-site charrettes and site walks, as well as sophisticated GIS layering maps. Ultimately, the developer himself has taken up residence at the future site of the Artisan Core, directing the nascent Twin Buttes Farms and Ranch from his home.

With approvals in hand, what are the next steps for this new Durango community?

The solar gas station recently opened at the Twin Buttes Eastern Entrance on Highway 160.  Industry leading sustainability features result in 45% less energy consumption than neighboring stations, daylighting creates an inviting interior environment, the organic exterior materials palette feature wood & stone from the site, and innovative water treatment recycles 70% of the water used in car washes.  The store’s features were recently profiled in the Durango Herald.

The team is gearing up for another growing season at the Twin Buttes Farms!  Local partnerships and initiatives will build on last years distribution of produce to local schools and restaurants, and Twin Buttes Salsa will make its second seasonal debut.

Forestry Management and Wildlife Protection Initiatives are ongoing, with funding recently secured from CDOW to continue an Urban Bears Study.

The Twin Buttes Mill is up and running, ensuring that trees targeted for removal by the Wildfire Mitigation team are used for their greatest potential as building material elsewhere on site.

Ground will be broken in the West Meadows cluster, with Barrett Studio focusing on architectural development of the Community Barn, first homes, and cottage industry that will establish this as a vital and activated neighborhood core.  These will all be developed within our stringent Sustainability Mandates & Guidelines.  This area will also link to new open space trials being envisioned by the City, functioning as a new gathering place for active Durangoans.

These community features and amenities are just the beginning of this addition to the growing City of Durango.  Having been diligently forwarding our passion & ideas for sustainable development on this spectacular land for the past four years, we’re excited to see this project continue to move forward.  We strongly feel that projects such as Twin Buttes have an important role in impacting how we inhabit our planet, and can lead us toward a more sustainable future.  If you feel the same way, keep in touch, as we’ll be posting more updates and images as things unfold!

Another great find from Laura, our Interiors maven: Artist Melina Raissnia designs these wonderfully tactile felted wool rugs.  They’re crafted in Turkey by her company, Peace Industry, using a revived centuries old tradition.  Primitive and naturalistic motifs find their home in fields of naturally dyed fibers – and for those of us sensitive to offgassing, no need for a backer means no toxic adhesives or petrochemicals.

Pepsi Co unveiled their new bottle, made of 100% plant waste material.  While rival Coke boats 30% plant material, Pepsi’s R&D “unlocked the secret” behind a petrochemical free bottle.  Arguments about the sustainability of the bottle’s contents aside, I’m excited about the potential Pepsi recognized in using waste and agricultural by-products such as orange & potato peels, rather than using virgin plant material otherwise destined for food – a la corn-based packaging.

Summer time living made easy with CB2′s Sawyer chair.  A modern spin on the iconic Adirondack, a few of these – paired with the fun and crazy inexpensive Twist Side Tables for a splash of color! – would look at right at home on a designer deck, making your patio the envy of the Jones’.  Easy to accessorize, they’re destined to become a classic new shape.  Better yet, the material is solid FSC-certified eucalyptus in a warm natural grey finish.

The “last mile” is the crux of the commuter problem: many people are just outside of walking range once they disembark their bus/train.  The government in DC is paying more than lip service to the problem with their new BikeStation, directly adjacent to Union Station.  The architectural gem houses 150 commuter bikes, washrooms, and even a repair station in 1700 square feet.  Operating since October, it’s served thousands of commuters.  Here’s to hoping the Federal Highway Administration (a considerable funder) deems the project replicable – daring architectural expression included.

Last week Nicole Delmage, Barrett Studio associate, was elected to serve on the Board of the Wild Bear Mountain Ecology Center.  She’s been building her relationship with Wild Bear for the past five years, first acting as Project Manager designing a state-of-the-art Nature Center at their property at Mud Lake (rendering below), then volunteering design time for their new downtown Nederland Headquarters.

Of her involvement with Wild Bear, Nicole says, “Since living and working here in Colorado I have fallen in love with the high alpine region that is the focus of Wild Bear’s programs.  Combined with an ongoing relationship and a growing connection with the people and mission, Wild Bear is a perfect venue for me to impact my community.”

While Nicole’s contributions as a board member are sure to be many, her long-term focus will be to engender support for the eventual build-out of the Mud Lake Center.  The design, which has received Site Plan approval from Boulder County, features multiple levels of learning, inspired by various animal habitats in the alpine ecosystem.  The Mound House is an earth sheltered amphitheater, the Discovery House is a lens shaped exhibit & research center, and the observation tower invites tree-top & sky exploration.  The Center serves as a nature-inspired entry to the 3,000 acres of open space adjacent to Mud Lake.

In terms of realizing this mission-based design, Nicole recognizes that, “In the short term the focus of the board’s work is the basic sustainability of the organization as a whole, but in the long-term I would like to stay on task with Wild Bear’s vision to create an ecology center in the mountains.  This is a project that makes sense for the region, that has meaning, and that speaks to me on both a personal and professional level.”

For more information on Wild Bear’s mission to foster life-long appreciation of the environment in “kids” of all ages, please visit Wild Bear’s site.

For more information on the Mud Lake Ecology Center, please visit Barrett Studio’s site.

On March 1st, the Center for Resource Conservation released their Garden in a Box kits.  Designed by an experienced local horticulturalist, each kit contains hardy, water sipping grasses & flowers and is accompanied by a handy planting & care diagram.  Perfect for those without a bona fide green thumb, who are nonetheless looking to establish a thriving water-wise garden, these affordable and popular kits typically sell out FAST, so order yours soon!

This lovely gem of a pendant light from Eleek simply makes our associate, Nicole, smile.  Interpretable as rustic or industrial, we enjoy its stripped down aesthetic, void of excessive ornamentation.  This fixture could be at home in multiples over a cozy kitchen island or as a singular spotlight for a piece of art. The fixture gets green points for high recycled content and LED lamping.

Spending more time up at New Belgium saddles me with the enviable task of trying all their beers.  My current favorite is the Sahti, hailing from their exotic Lips of Faith series.  Flavored with juniper boughs & berries, and lemon & orange peel, the resulting ale is particularly bright and quaffable.  Rather than hitting you over the head with those pine boughs, Sahti is subtly evocative of icy mountain air fringed with snow-laced pine forest.  In short…the perfect companion to your next hut trip or high altitude winter outing!

Our Interiors maven, Laura, introduced me to Caba Company’s Barkskin, a hand formed & pounded bark product manufactured in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  We’re especially enamored with their Woven collection, which, when applied over a brightly hued wall, provides stunning organic texture & depth.  Another application that takes advantage of the woven texture is lighting, where wrapping a large drum pendant would bring a lilting interplay between opacity & luminosity.

Imagine walking down a city block in your hometown and realizing that just one in ten homes are occupied.  The others, once charming historic bungalows, are now overgrown, crumbling visages with nary a hint of their past lives as part of a vibrant community.  Repeat this pattern block after block.   Think a visit to downtown will reassure? There, a 35-story skyscraper sits entirely vacant, as it has since it was built – many of its neighbors have won a few tenants, but sit mostly empty.  City-wide, average residential vacancy is almost 30%, with many areas much more hard hit.

Abandoned homes on one block in East Detroit, published by Mother Jones in November 2010.

This is the story of Detroit, the city once heralded as the very picture of American success.  In its halcyon days, the Motor City realized ambitious architectural projects, fueled by a robust industrially driven economy. Now, over 40 square miles of the 139 square mile footprint lie vacant – a collective area verging on an equivalent to the entire city of San Francisco. The vacancy rates go hand-in-hand with a precipitous population decline: the city more than halved its population in the past half-century, and according to census figures lost over a tenth of their population between 2009 and 2010.

These changes bring a number of social and economic woes in tow. While down from the 2009 high of 45%, unemployment still hovers at three times the national average. Just last week, it was announced that half the city’s schools are slated to close, a move that will bring average class sizes of 60 students. Embattled Mayor Dave Bing faces an annual budget gap of over $150 million, and the city’s coffers have run dry: long-term debt is a staggering $5.7 billion.

Yet, hope may be on the horizon. Each of the sobering statistics above are being countered by proposals and ideas being submitted from across the nation as part of Bing’s open invite to revitalize his city. Highlights:

From the government comes Bing’s Detroit Works Project (DWP), ultimately tasked with creating a new master plan for the city, it’s currently serving as a sort of clearinghouse for the ideas pouring in.  Bing also has his own Twitter handle, and appears to be responsive to ideas germinating in the digital realm.  Project 14 introduces heavy subsidies for police & firefighters to purchase and move into renovated historic homes. Helmed by the motto “Live Where You Protect and Serve” the program is a response to the fact that while less than half of Detroit’s blue live within city limits, crime has increased dramatically during the recession.  A partnership with the Department of Transportation and Housing & Urban Development (HUD) looks to create a light rail corridor that will both address the city’s transportation inadequacies and concentrate vital and affordable development adjacent to this community amenity.  Federal aid looks to sponsor the demolition of 10,000 vacant buildings over the next four years, and DWP aims to work with community organizers to preserve historic and otherwise meaningful structures while defining demolition sites.

Social movements like “Declare Detroit” are attempting to revitalize the city by harnessing people power.  Their video outlines twelve principles for a vital city, and the associated declaration has been signed by thousands of Detroiters.  Private urban farming initiatives have been proposed, despite the challenges of bioremediation in misused urban areas, and small community gardens such as that featured in the film Economics of Happiness have sprouted across the city.  And, arguments of validity and reflection on cultural mentality aside, the widely publicized Robocop statue coup illustrated that there are people out there looking to help – to the tune of $50k in six days – if you approach them via the right intersection of social media and humor.

This blend of grassroots action and governmental fortitude will be necessary moving forward.   The task at hand is beyond simply rezoning and into the realm of redefining the city’s very boundaries.  This could include decommissioning significant portions of the city (removing them from public service such as water & power) while offering remaining inhabitants relocation packages including “housing swaps” into nodes targeted for vitality.  A Comprehensive Plan could create new clusters of support, safety, and community, connected by light rail or other mass transit solutions.  Areas not targeted for revitalization could be razed and converted to park or farmland.  In any scenario, the only truly successful plan will be for people and government alike to start thinking outside the four walls of their individual homes and into their community, to implement a holistic revisioning of the urban fabric rather than bulldozing homes haphazardly.

Do you see potential in Detroit’s decay?  It’s time to roll up those sleeves, get your fingers dirty, and respond to Mayor Bing’s invite: help to reinvent the Motor City into a City Ideal.