200 pages
7 x 10
63 photos and figures
Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization. As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience. Vacant to Vibrant explains how inexpensive green infrastructure projects can reduce stormwater runoff and pollution, and provide neighborhood amenities, especially in areas with little or no access to existing green space.
Sandra Albro offers practical insights through her experience leading the five-year Vacant to Vibrant project, which piloted the creation of green infrastructure networks in Gary, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. Vacant to Vibrant provides a point of comparison among the three cities as they adapt old systems to new, green technology. An overview of the larger economic and social dynamics in play throughout the Rust Belt region establishes context for the promise of green infrastructure. Albro then offers lessons learned from the Vacant to Vibrant project, including planning, design, community engagement, implementation, and maintenance successes and challenges. An appendix shows designs and plans that can be adapted to small vacant lots.
Landscape architects and other professionals whose work involves urban greening will learn new approaches for creating infrastructure networks and facilitating more equitable access to green space.
"Liberally illustrated with schematics and photographs of stormwater parks, Vacant to Vibrant is the perfect tool for educating planners and policymakers who are in positions to effect change and foster the replication of the approach anywhere that has vacant land that can be put to better use."
Civil Engineering
"This well-laid out, easy to read "how-to" guide is a valuable contribution to multiple literatures, on vacant lots, green infrastructure, community engagement, and even project management....worthy of attention and discussion as healthy urban livability becomes a more pressing need."
Journal of Urban Affairs
"Vacant to Vibrant is both an easy-to-follow guide and a detailed case study of holistic, interdisciplinary work. The process itself and many of the insights of the case transcend the specific context of the Great Lakes and would be beneficial to planning practitioners or action-oriented teaching and scholarship."
Journal of the American Planning Association
"Vacant to Vibrant provides a blueprint for adaptive reuse of vacant land that permeates many US cities. It provides a refreshing view of not jut successful projects, but also of the challenges faced in planning, building and maintaining formerly vacant land to support recreation, stormwater management, habitat, beauty and neighborhood identity."
Michelle Kondo, Scientist, Urban Forests, Human Health, and Environmental Quality, USDA Forest Service
"Vacant to Vibrant is a timely contribution to addressing the challenges of repurposing vacant land. The low-cost strategies that also engage stakeholders in the design process offers replicable real-world examples that can have real impact."
Mark Lindquist, Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture, University of Michigan
"Sandra Albo's book provides a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to revitalize communities from the ground up, starting with the potential of vacant lots. By capturing details and lessons learned of how communities are rebuilding after decades of economic and environmental decline, this book addresses and translates complex problems, from water infrastructure to social justice, for anyone looking to replicate these successes."
Jill Jedlicka, Executive Director and Waterkeeper, Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper
"The citizens of Gary, IN owe a debt of gratitude to Sandra Albo and the Vacant to Vibrant project for helping solve the practical problem of stormwater runoff while helping our residents to reimagine their neighborhoods. This work will have a positive impact in our city for generations to come, and this book will make it possible in many other communities."
Karen Freeman-Wilson, Mayor of Gary, Indiana
Introduction
Chapter 1: Green Stormwater Infrastructure on Vacant Lots
Chapter 2: City Dynamics that Shape Vacant Land Use
Chapter 3: Vacant to Vibrant Planning
Chapter 4: Vacant to Vibrant Implementation
Chapter 5: Sustaining Urban Greening Projects
Chapter 6: Scaling Up Networks of Small Green Infrastructure
Appendix
Notes
Acknowledgements
Index
Vacant lots in your neighborhood can illustrate neglect and seem like a waste of space. But, these open spaces can also serve as clean canvases for creative community projects that bring positive change. Interested in learning from leaders and thinkers who have transformed vacant places into vibrant green spaces? Hear from Sandra Albro, author of Vacant to Vibrant: Creating Successful Green Infrastructure Networks and project leaders who work with ioby (in our backyards) about how to turn ideas for transforming vacant lots into reality.
Panelists on the webinar include:
Sandra Albro, Research Associate at Holden Forests & Gardens, and author of Vacant to Vibrant: Creating Successful Green Infrastructure Networks
Louise Bruce, Senior Program Manager, NYC Organics, NYC Department of Sanitation
Joe Rashid, Project Leader, ioby
Join the Security and Sustainability Forum for the webinar, Vacant to Vibrant: Embedding green space in neighborhoods to clean water, cool cities, and bring equitable prosperity. Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization. As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience. Vacant to Vibrant explains how inexpensive green infrastructure projects can reduce stormwater runoff and pollution, and provide neighborhood amenities, especially in areas with little or no access to existing green space.
Sandra Albro offers practical insights through her experience leading the five-year Vacant to Vibrant project, which piloted the creation of green infrastructure networks in Gary, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. Vacant to Vibrant provides a point of comparison among the three cities as they adapt old systems to new, green technology. An overview of the larger economic and social dynamics in play throughout the Rust Belt region establishes context for the promise of green infrastructure.
Read the annotated table of contents below or download it here.
Download the study and discussion questions here or read them below.
Download the lecture slides here or read them below.
Read the 10-hour course learning objectives and sample syllabus below or download them here.
Read the 18-hour course sample syllabus below or download it here.
Vacant lots, so often seen as neighborhood blight, have the potential to be a key element of community revitalization. As manufacturing cities reinvent themselves after decades of lost jobs and population, abundant vacant land resources and interest in green infrastructure are expanding opportunities for community and environmental resilience. Vacant to Vibrant: Creating Successful Green Infrastructure offers practical insight and inexpensive tools to convert excess vacant land, aging sewer infrastructure, and declining neighborhoods into inspiring and productive community green spaces.
Sandra Albro, author and project manager for Vacant to Vibrant, recounts the implementation process, challenges, and successes she and her team faced in piloting the creation of green infrastructure networks in Gary, Indiana; Cleveland, Ohio; and Buffalo, New York. Collectively, lessons and challenges from these three case studies illustrate the larger economic and social dynamics within each city, then demonstrates how green technology can convert old systems into functional community green spaces.
Check out Chapter 1 “Green Stormwater Infrastructure on Vacant Lots” below, or download the PDF here.
In this episode of the Sustainability Defined podcast, hosts Jay Siegel and Scott Breen focus on how we can beautify our cities while delivering environmental benefits through a process called urban greening. Urban greening refers to public landscaping and urban forestry projects that create mutually beneficial relationships between city dwellers and their environments. They discuss urban greening’s impacts on human health, what listeners can do to promote urban greening, what successful green infrastructure projects look like, and which cities boast the most green space.
Jay and Scott are joined by expert guest Sandra Albro, author of Vacant to Vibrant, a guidebook that explains how inexpensive green infrastructure projects can reduce stormwater runoff and pollution and simultaneously provide neighborhood amenities. In addition to being the author of Vacant to Vibrant and the Project Manager that oversaw the project, Sandra is also Director of Community Partnerships at Holden Forests & Gardens, Co-Chair for the Cleveland Tree Coalition, AND Project Manager for a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Urban Waters project (talk about impressive). Listeners everywhere are sure to enjoy this episode, hopefully as much as they enjoy their local green space.
This episode is sponsored by Island Press and also Holden Forests & Gardens with generous support from the Great Lakes Protection Fund.
Listen below or at the link here.
Check out our entire series of podcasts featuring Island Press authors and Urban Resilience Project collaborators HERE.
