We’re very pleased to announce that the Silva Cell has been approved by North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality for use as a credited nutrient removing stormwater control measure (SCM). The Silva Cell is actually the first applicant to be approved by NC DEQ under the New Stormwater Technology (NEST) Program. As the celebration begins… More
Intrinsic to the success of cities and the quality of life they offer is how people move within them. For the past century, the car has been the central consideration in the design and planning of our urban areas. Increasingly, however, the car-dominated planning era is behind us, as city dwellers are more frequently walking,… More
In the U.S., cars are king. Our cities and neighborhoods are designed around how cars travel though them, and pedestrians are secondary – if a pedestrian can safely cross traffic, the area is deemed a success. It has long been said that if you plan cities for cars and traffic, you will get cars and… More
When you work with trees for a living, it’s easy to feel good about your impact on the environment. After all, trees provide us so many benefits including controlling stormwater runoff, reducing urban temperatures and sequestering carbon. However, there is a carbon footprint involved in their production, planting, pruning and ultimate removal. Trees play the… More
Rockwall, Texas, a growing community located 25 miles northeast of Dallas, contains a quaint, historic downtown district that dates back to the late 1800’s. In 2004, planning began to breathe new life into downtown Rockwall and to address problems with existing design and infrastructure including accessibility issues, lack of pedestrian scale, and problems with existing… More
Design affects the brain. We know this intuitively, as we get frustrated when poor wayfinding causes us to get us lost or we feel renewed after a run in the park, but only recently are we starting to understand how and why. Our immediate environment can prompt both negative and positive effects and it’s becoming… More
Trees and sidewalks transform city streets into lush and inviting places to linger, to chat with a neighbor or enjoy the outdoors on a summer evening. As key pieces of urban infrastructure, they each invigorate a city in their subtle ways. Both provide health and economic benefits, and help to build character and support a… More
San Marcos, a small city in the North County region of San Diego County, now stands out as a distinct, regionally identifiable city with its own light rail public transit system and is home to several colleges and universities. Recently they’ve focused attention and resources on retrofitting select parts of the city to make them… More
Cities are generally both warmer and more polluted than non-urban areas, as paved surfaces absorb heat, leading to increased energy consumption, and vehicle and human activity produces waste and airborne particulate matter. These have huge negative consequences for human health, but a dense urban tree canopy can help reduce these risks. The role trees play… More
Starting July 1, 2017, the City of San Francisco will start doing something it hasn’t done since the 1970s: take responsibility for all the trees in the public right-of-way. San Francisco cut funding to urban forestry in the late 1970s, resulting in a handoff of responsibility to adjacent property owners for two thirds of the… More
Nearly eight years ago, we installed a large Silva Cell system along 48 blocks of downtown Minneapolis. Called Marquette and 2nd (MARQ2), this green stormwater infrastructure project is in an ultra-urban, mixed-use area that needed to accommodate mass transit, cars, and pedestrians. The designers (SEH and URS) specified Silva Cells for stormwater management in addition… More
Today’s landscapes are asked to perform much more than functional or aesthetic services: they filter and reduce stormwater runoff, provide wildlife habitat, reduce energy consumption, improve human health, and more. As projects become more complex, and clients aim higher to meet today’s climate challenges, the use of performance metrics is becoming increasingly prevalent.
Soil. Stormwater. Sustainable Infrastructure.
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