At this year's Winter Olympic Games, Stephen Goldsmith, Salt Lake City's
planning director, is organizing "The Physical Fitness of Cities: Vision and
Ethics in City Building", Included as speakers are Moshe Safdie, Bill
McDonough, Ray Suarez, Wolf Daseking, Michael Sorkin, and Peter Calthorpe.
Conference topics include green buildings like the Olympic Oval
speed-skating arena and Bill McDonough's European headquarters for Nike.
Many of the 84 countries participating in the Olympics have sent examples of
local approaches to sustainable design for the exhibition from multiuse
neighborhood revitalization in Hakata, Japan, to bioswale gray-water
treatment in Freiburg, Germany.
http://www.fitcities.org]
I'm quite sure all these people are most earnest in their good intensions.
Its probably just my overactive cynicism but why do I get the feeling that
some of these projects are just too slick to be real-----more words than
deeds, particularly McDonough who is a "green" industry in himself?
Earnestness minus compromise equals reality. I know, I know, common envy.
Now I've an urge to go buy something, anything.