Autumn ¡¯02 City & Regional Planning Course Offering

  

C&RP 724:  Planning for Sustainable Development

Envisioning an Eco-City Columbus 

Tuesdays 1:30¨C3:30pm, Thursdays 1:30-2:30pm

(Course call #04376; 4 credits)

 

Course Instructor

Maria Manta Conroy, Assistant Professor of City & Regional Planning

 

Project Concept

These are exciting times for American cities.  As many Americans rediscover the benefits of urban life, there is growing recognition that cities play a pivotal role in addressing a wide range of global and local environmental challenges, from climate change to biodiversity conservation.  Tremendous opportunities exist in cities like Columbus to create vibrant livable places, while at the same time fundamentally reducing our collective ecological footprint. 

 

Exploring these opportunities will be the focus of a quarter-long planning course at OSU, where students will be given the charge of developing a strategic plan for creating a sustainable Columbus, and imagining what it might mean to begin to see Columbus as an ecological city.  Students will be organized into teams to develop specific reports about particular eco-city dimensions.  Teams will, with close faculty guidance and assistance from local experts and agency personnel, examine the status of Columbus, identify opportunities for moving Columbus in the direction of becoming a more ecological city, and propose recommendations about programs, policies, or initiatives in the future to begin this larger transformation process.

 

This class will build upon the investigative foundation provided by the 2001 offering of this class (see website below).  While the class will consider and discuss the full range of dimensions on which Columbus is or could be an ecological or sustainable city, teams will focus their analysis and work in four key areas:  1.  Land use and Urban Form; 2.  Transportation and Mobility; 3. Urban Ecology; and 4.  Energy (and CO2 reduction).  Students will work with and present their work to a public steering committee as part of a day-long EcoCity Columbus Charrette at the end of the term.

 

 

For More information contact Maria Manta Conroy:  conroy.36@osu.edu

 

http://facweb.arch.ohio-state.edu/mconroy/EcoCityColumbus/index.htm