Design Research Coordinator Kubi Ackerman presented Urban Design Lab (UDL) work on urban agriculture and food systems at the November 2009 New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) Innovations in Agriculture Conference in Albany, New York. The presentation, titled “Sustainable Urban Agriculture: Confirming viable scenarios for production”, was part of a panel on… read more

The Urban Design Lab from November 2009 participated in a series of ongoing national initiatives with the Action Center to End World Hunger, Earth Pledge Foundation, Fast Forward Fund, and HealthCorps, geared to enhance awareness of students, children, and the general public on the themes of sustainability, climate change, health, food, and fair trade.

Through the award of an Ultra-X grant from the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the Urban Design Lab (UDL) undertook a collaboration with Columbia University colleagues and many community partners on a project aimed at monitoring the neighborhood scale intersections between residents, the improved urban “green”, green roof performance, and… read more

From July 2009, the Urban Design Lab’s Michael Conard and Kubi Ackerman engaged in designing a community health awareness curriculum for the FitTown initiative of the HealthCorp. The curriculum calls for photo documentation and neighborhood mapping, to be distributed in more than 50 high schools across the country.

In October 2009, Richard Gonzalez of the Urban Design Lab participated in New York City’s Park(ing) Day, an event that involved participants in 100 cities around the world, with an installation in Washington Heights in Upper Manhattan. Gonzalez teamed up with fruit and vegetable vendors to create mini urban farm installations along metered parking spaces,… read more

Across the United States, several urban and suburban areas show high carbon emissions attributed to transportation and residential uses. While New York City’s density and transit system keep per capita emissions at low levels, carbon emissions sources remain a topic of concern. The 145th Street corridor in Harlem is no exemption: a surface temperature map… read more