MAYA LIN GREENS SOUTH BRONX BROWNFIELD
Maya Lin's latest design won't grace the Mall in Washington like her acclaimed Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Instead, her design for the Bronx Community Paper Company's new mill will sit on a 26-acre brownfield under the Triborough Bridge at the southern tip of the Bronx. Lin's new project grapples with issues of urban infrastructure, community rebuilding, and the survival of the planet. Two agencies have collaborated to create the paper mill - the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association, a group that promotes economic development in the South Bronx. The proposed plant would recycle almost 300,000 tons of wastepaper annually - roughly a quarter of that generated by New York City - to produce more than 200,000 tons of newsprint for the city's publishers. It would create at least 400 permanent jobs and about $30 million in annual tax revenue. Set among new trees, Lin's design includes a glass-enclosed wall of cascading water and a tall exhaust stack, also encased by glass. Formal and symbolic, these elements are also functional - air heated in the glass stack powers the building's cooling system and cool air drawn from the water wall circulates in the offices. The water itself, treated gray water from a sewage plant, is used in the recycling process. Skylights and louvered clerestories admit natural light and ventilation throughout, saving energy. Hoping to break ground this fall, sponsors of the $370 million project are negotiating with potential investors. - The New York Times, January 23, 1998, p. B31, by Herbert Muschamp.

MARYLAND'S SMART GROWTH PLAN WEAKENED
Maryland legislators passed a Smart Growth law last spring effectively announcing that the state would no longer subsidize urban sprawl. Once the law takes full effect in October, the state will not pay for new roads, sewers, or water service in areas not designated for growth. And home buyers in new developments can no longer assume new schools will follow them - the state intends to renovate existing schools instead. The Smart Growth plan steers industrial and commercial development toward sites where infrastructure is already in place and requires certain densities of developments in sanctioned growth areas. But the law that emerged from Maryland politics diluted the required densities and may merely institutionalize mid-century suburbia as the main alternative to 1990s-style sprawl. And a loophole that okays state funding for roads that connect any two growth areas will allow construction of the Inter-County Connector, a controversial outer beltway through the exurbs north of Washington that developers have long dreamed of. Still, most observers agree that Smart Growth prevents the worst excesses of uncontrolled development like the heady growth spurt now transforming rural Carroll County northwest of Baltimore. Even if Governor Parris Glendening's fight against sprawl fails to transform the Maryland landscape, his administration's commitment to the cause has turned the public cost of development into an issue for taxpayers living in Baltimore and inner-ring suburbs, who now stand a chance of receiving their fair share of public and private investment. - Metropolis, February-March 1998, p. 30, by Alyssa Katz.

AWARD WINNERS A LIGHT SHADE OF GREEN
Canadian Architect magazine's Awards of Excellence took a green turn in 1997, requiring submissions to include details of their environmental approach. But looking for designs that elegantly integrated environmental principles with other valued design considerations, jurists Brian MacKay-Lyons, Ray Cole, and Tim Scott came up short and returned to traditional award criteria. In some schemes the environmental agenda was the single idea driving the design, leaving the fundamental issues of form, composition, and meaning unattended. And while some of the stronger design work employed a passive, environmental site design ethic, much of what the jury saw had only token features like water-conserving toilets. The lack of compelling entries marrying environmental strategies with the full scope of architectural design reveals the rarity of environmentally committed clients and of architects knowledgeable and skilled in integrating these new strategies. - Canadian Architect, December 1997, p. 15, by Brian MacKay-Lyons, Ray Cole, and Tim Scott.

FILTERING STORM WATER HELPS WETLANDS
Parking lot run-off from the Frederik Meijer Gardens passes through a storm water filtration system before flowing to nearby natural wetlands just outside Grand Rapids, Michigan. Storm water from parking lots carries harmful debris including oils, gas, grease, and other pollutants. For the gardens, engineers at Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc. opted to go beyond a traditional storm system that would pipe the run-off directly into the wetlands. Storm water from the garden's parking lot first travels through a sand filter system to an underdrain, then to a retention pond. There, remaining sediments and particles settle out. The pond overflow cascades water into the wetlands while aerating it. "The maintenance is a little more costly," says civil engineer Claire Schwartz, "but the capital costs to construct this system were not, overall, higher than a traditional storm-drainage design." - Consulting-Specifying Engineer, December 1997, p. 52.

AIA AND AGC URGE C&D WASTE REDUCTION
The American Institute of Architects and the Associated General Contractors of America support voluntary reduction of construction and demolition waste. They have jointly released a "Statement on Voluntary Measures to Reduce, Recover, and Reuse Building Construction Site Waste" that outlines how architects and contractors can manage waste. The statement's guidelines encourage general contractors to develop a formal construction site waste disposal plan. When justified by local economic analysis, such a plan might include writing bid specifications on construction waste management that describe recycling requirements for the contractor and subcontractors, inviting proposals for hauling away recyclable materials, planning collection of the materials, and monitoring subcontractor participation. For a copy of the statement, call Mary Hilton, 202.626.7404. - AIArchitect, December 1997, p. 5, and the AIA/AGC statement.

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