Envisioning the Green New Deal
2021-10-22 • Liam Otten
Andy Entis, Changing the Power Structure of Energy: Using Community Control to Create an Energy Grid that Serves the Public. Faculty: Patty Heyda.
The proposed Federal Green New Deal (H.R. 109) aims to create a framework for combating climate change. But translating that framework into action requires local and regional specificity.
In August 2020, a consortium of architecture organizations, led by the Landscape Architecture Foundation in Washington, D.C., launched the Green New Deal Superstudio, a national open call that challenged both student and professional designers to explore how aspects of the Green New Deal might be enacted.
Over the next year, more than 3,000 participants, representing hundreds of private practices as well as 90 universities in 39 states and 10 nations, crafted 670 design proposals. On Oct. 19, organizers announced that 55 of these projects—including eight by students in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis—had been selected to illustrate the Superstudio’s six principle themes: Cultivate, Empower, Adapt, Energize, Remediate, and Retrofit.
“The selection of so many of our College of Architecture students in this internationally curated set speaks to the Sam Fox School’s long engagement with urgent intersecting issues of human and environmental health and equity in the St. Louis region—issues all the more pronounced under the umbrella of climate warming and delayed energy transition,” said Patty Heyda, associate professor of architecture and urban design. “The hope is that this work sparks a collective reimagining about how to address real, systemic complexities of climate breakdown through design.”
The Sam Fox School projects are:
The Public Power Coalition
Meredith Busch, BS21 in Architecture
Faculty: Associate Professor Patty Heyda
Rethinking Infrastructure
Tyler DeMassa, BS21 in Architecture
Faculty: Associate Professor Patty Heyda
Changing the Power Structure of Energy
Andy Entis, BS22 in Architecture
Faculty: Associate Professor Patty Heyda
A Rural-Urban Collaboration to Grow Renewable Energy Jobs
Dillon Pinholster, BS21 in Architecture
Faculty: Associate Professor Patty Heyda
Energy Growth
Mengying Li, MLA21
Faculty: Lecturer L. Irene Compadre
The Death and Life of Barge Industry in the Mississippi River Basin
Weicong Huang, MLA22/MUD22
Faculty: Associate Professor Derek Hoeferlin, Chair of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
After Stopping Fossil Fuels
Shuya Zhang, MLA22
Faculty: Associate Professor Derek Hoeferlin, Chair of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture
The Just 15 Minute City
Nakesha Newsome, MArch22
Faculty: Associate Professor Linda C. Samuels
In addition, Sam Fox School alum Josiah Brown (MUD20), who is now at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, was recognized for The Harvest Trail.
The Green New Deal Superstudio was jointly organized by the Landscape Architecture Foundation, the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture, the Center for Resilient Cities and Landscapes at Columbia University, and the McHarg Center for Urbanism and Ecology at the University of Pennsylvania.
A virtual Superstudio Showcase will take place beginning at 11a CDT Oct. 28. The event will feature presentations by Barbara Deutsch, CEO of the Landscape Architecture Foundation, and other partners. The event is free but registration is required. For more information, visit lafoundation.org.
Green New Deal Superstudio Projects by Sam Fox School Students
Aims to revitalize St. Louis Public Schools by connecting the district to a network of green energy banks situated along a federally funded corridor of solar infrastructure.
Proposes a Reach Remote Renewables Act, which would help transfer abundant wind energy from western Kansas to St. Louis’ oldest continually running power plant, located on the Near North Riverfront.
Would adapt the existing model of rural electric cooperatives to enable neighborhoods to create small local green energy grids tailored to local needs.
Would connect wind-sector infrastructure in two divergent Missouri communities: Kirksville, a rural farming community, with Kinloch, a historical African-American community just outside St. Louis.
Investigates methods for transforming former coal mining sites into farms for regenerative biomass.
Explores how a vast network of levies, locks, & dams has impacted the ecology of the Mississippi River Basin and how the existing system of barge traffic might be utilized for restorative purposes.
Explores how a post-fossil fuel world might repair and rebuild landscapes damaged by energy extraction.
Proposes to combine the goals of the Green New Deal with calls for social justice and equity by replacing portions of Interstate 45 in Houston with greenspace, restored wetlands, and public transit.