Sustainable Land Development Today - November/December 2007 - (Page 26) SUSTAINABLE REDEVELOPMENT More than 20 percent of the Mueller site is being developed as public parks and green space, with the planting of 15,000 trees, including many mature specimens preserved from both on site and other development sites in the area. This open space — adding to what is already one of America’s most extensive municipal park systems — also provides major water-quality benefits, reducing off-site flooding and naturally filtering non-point source pollutants from stormwater runoff. Even though on full build-out, Mueller will include significantly more impervious cover than did the former airport, these features will lead to improved water quality and less damaging runoff when compared to historical levels. Mueller parkland also features low-water-use native plantscapes designed in partnership with the Austin-based Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. These re-established segments of the Blackland Prairie ecosystem that predated urban development in the eastern part of Austin are being installed to educate residents and visitors not only about local ecology but about how they can make their own gardens, lawns, and landscapes more sustainable and sensitive. Throughout the project, the Mueller design standards call for landscaping and plant material to be deployed in ways that limit resource use, require little maintenance or toxic chemical use, reduce light pollution, and “function as the community’s lungs to filter the air and lower ambient temperatures,” in the words of the master plan. For example, the Mueller design standards require “orchard parking,” with one tree for every four parking spaces in surface parking lots (such as in the community’s retail centers), which will diminish urban heat island effects as well as make these spaces more walkable. Even the public art at Mueller conveys the environmental message. At the main gateway to Mueller’s retail center along I35, a series of 16-foot-tall “SunFlowers,” sculptures constructed as solar collectors, will produce their own energy as well as provide shade to pedestrians and bicyclists on the greenway below. “We wanted to create a piece of artwork that would generate interest and value for the neighborhood,” said artist Lajos Héder, who with Mags Harries is creating the sculptures, which constitute the largest public art project in Austin to date. “And sculptures that generate solar energy embody the goals and principles that Austin and Mueller stand for.” The people of Austin, and the builders serving them, have shown they are willing to work to implement those goals and principles. They are constant partners in making Mueller a living sourcebook of good ideas and proven best practices for sustainability. What is happening at Mueller should inspire other builders seeking to make any new project — from a single home to an entire new town — more sustainable and more successful. SLDT About the author: Matt Whelan is Senior Vice President with Catellus Development Group. Circle 115 • or www.SLDTonline.com/adinfo 26 November/December 2007 Sustainable Land Development Today http://www.edsaplan.com http://www.edsaplan.com http://www.SLDTonline.com/adinfo
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