News


City of Glen Cove Amended  its Municipal Code / Zoning Regulations Based on the Environmental Simulation Center's Report
NeEW YORK, NY (December 2009) – The City of Glen Cove amended its Municipal Code/Zoning Regulations to require the use of verifiable visual simulations (e.g., verifiable photomontages to photorealistic immersive 3D models of proposed actions) in its land-use review and public decision-making process. The Code amendments are based on the Environmental Simulation Center's report, Using Visual Simulation in the Planning, Review and Permitting Process. The report provided the City with a roadmap as to when, where and how verifiable visual simulation could be used to inform, enhance, and support the decision-making process. (click here for more information on the project)

Kona Development Plan wins "Outstanding Planning Award" from American Planning Association's Hawaii Chapter
NEW YORK, NY (September, 2009) – The Kona Community Development Plan, adopted last year as the district's guideline for future development, has won the "Outstanding Planning Award," from the Hawaii chapter of the American Planning Association. The annual Hawaii APA awards are given to recognize individuals, communities and organizations whose work exemplifies the planning profession's highest goals and ideals. The Environmental Simulation Center, in collaboration with ACP Visioning and Planning and Wilson Okamoto Associates was selected to prepare a Community Development Plan (CDP) for North and South Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii in 2005. (click here for more information)

ESC Completes the Virtual New Amsterdam Prototype
NEW YORK, NY (August, 2009) – The Environmental Simulation Center, Ltd. (ESC) is pleased to announce that the Virtual New Amsterdam Prototype (VNAP) for the New Amsterdam History Center (NAHC) has been completed and executed. VNAP was presented to NAHC Board Members, Collegiate Church Corporation, New Amsterdam History scholars and other esteemed guests at an event at the Downtown Alliance on August 6, 2009. (click here for more information)

ESC Announces Selection of Pilot Sites for New Community Planning Tools for "Shifting Sands Communities"
NEW YORK, NY (June 2, 2008) – The Environmental Simulation Center (ESC) has selected four pilot communities to participate in the Human Development Overlay District (HDOD), a new initiative intended to integrate human capital, social, and community planning through the innovative use of information technology in rapidly changing neighborhoods and communities.  The pilot sites had responded to a nationwide solicitation. They are Boston, Los Angeles, St. Paul, and Astoria, Oregon. Representatives of each community will convene with the ESC in New York in June for a project kickoff meeting with leading experts in the fields of social services, small business and job development, real estate, and public health. (click here for press release)

ESC Receives Major Grant from the Ford Foundation
ESC received a grant from the Ford Foundation to develop an innovative approach applying information technology to neighborhoods undergoing rapid change. The concept called The Human Development Overlay District (HDOD) integrates the physical changes with the human capital plans developed for the most vulnerable stakeholders, so that they may seize the opportunities created by the rapid change and in effect, become change agents themselves.

ESC's Work Featured in The New Yorker
The ESC was featured in a recent "Talk of the Town" article on the work the ESC and Michael Kwartler have done over the years to develop zoning mechanisms to protect sunlight in all of the City's public parks and playgrounds. (issue: 2 July 2007, page 26)

Kwartler  Accepts Director's Position at the AIA
Michael Kwartler, FAIA has been nominated for and accepted the position of Director for Legislative Affairs for the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Kwartler Contributes to Encyclopedia of American Urban History
Michael Kwarter, FAIA contributed the entry on Zoning in the recently published Encyclopedia of American Urban History.  (Editor: David Goldfield; University of South Carolina, Charlotte; Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Kwartler Receives Award
In April 2007 Michael Kwartler, FAIA was awarded the John Hejouk Award for his contributions to the advancement of architecture and cites.

 

Upcoming and Recent Events


Model-Based Community Planning, Decision Support, and Collaboration
Tuesday, August 4th , 2009
4:15 pm
SIGGRAPH 2009
New Orleans

New tools and methods to incorporate geographic information systems, 3D modeling, real-time visualization, and decision support are helping cities and communities make more informed decisions about future planning and development. These solutions are providing both technical and non-technical stakeholders with better information and interaction as they work toward more sustainable land-use and design, and better understanding of how decisions affect local and surrounding communities, businesses, and residents. Paul Patnode of ESC shows examples of this work and explores the possibilities for more collaborative decision making using an interactive model-based approach.

 

New York Neighborhoods and the Impact of Development
Wednesday, May 23rd , 2007
6:30 pm
Museum of the City of New York
Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street, New York City

Since Robert Moses's time, there has been a paradigm shift in the way development takes place in New York City. This panel will address the nature of that shift and discuss how present-day developers and public agencies address such key issues as the design and scale of projects, local participation in decision making, and the role of historic preservation in the future of our communities.

Richard A. Kahan, Winner of the Robert Moses Achievement Award, and President, The Urban Assembly, will be joined by Paul Goldberger, author and architecture critic for The New Yorker, Michael Kwartler, principal of Michael Kwartler and Associates, and founding director of the Environmental Simulation Center, and Robert Tierney, Chairman, NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission.

Reservations required.
$5 for Museum Members, seniors, and students
$9 for non-members.
Please call 212-534-1672, ext. 3395.

 

The 2006 L'Enfant Lecture on Urban Planning and Design
Thursday, November 16, 2006, 6:30–8:00 pm
The Great Hall, Cooper Union
7 East 7th Street, New York City

Featured speaker:
Enrique Peñalosa, former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia
Bogota and Beyond: A New Model for Urban Planning and Development

Why did the World Urban Forum give Enrique Peñalosa a five minute standing ovation? Because he inspired them with his vision to re-imagine a cityscape. This vision turned into reality during his tenure as mayor of Bogota from 1998 to 2001. Making equity, access, and the happiness of citizens his key criteria, Peñalosa transformed the city with a network of new libraries, parks, and greenways, tough curbs on cars, and a highly efficient bus rapid transit system. In this 2006 L'Enfant Lecture, he shared insights from Bogota and cities where he has consulted around the globe.

 

 

Recent Awards and Honors


The City of Houston's Performance/Tracking/Allocation system, developed by the ESC, received an honorable mention in the Technology Applications Category from the FHWA /APA Transportation Planning Excellence Awards,

The American Institute of Architects awarded the ESC and all members of  New York New Visions the Institute Honor for Collaborative Achievement for its work that "dramatically enhanced public discourse and shaped the future of the World Trade Center site".

The New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects awarded the ESC and members of the New York New Visions Growth Strategies Team the 2002 Unbuilt Project Award for their February 2002 proposal for a planning and design framework for New York City subsequent to September 11th, 2001.  (website: New York New Visions; pdf: Charter Zoning District Proposal by Michael Kwartler).
 

Publications & Press


Computer Models to Guide Development in Downtown Astoria: Interns Measure Structures as First Step in Creating Land-Use Program Funded by the Ford Foundation

Published in The Daily Astorian: August 7, 2009
By Sandra Swain

Is it a cat burglar? Is it Spider-Man? No, the person climbing up the front wall of the Fort George Brewery and Public House Monday morning was Brenton Christensen.

The 22-year-old student intern was taking measurements and calling down the figures to fellow intern Joe McCartin, 20, who was keeping track of the numbers on a clipboard.

The two Clatsop Community College graduates are gaining work experience while they help the city create a three-dimensional computer model of downtown Astoria buildings and the riverfront. It's a hands-on process accomplished with the most basic of tools — mainly a tape measure, a note pad and discerning eyes.

But the information gathered is destined for a state of the art land-use planning computer program being developed and tested by the Ford Foundation, which has provided a $40,000 grant to create the three-dimensional model. Read the complete article

 

Modernizing Democracy: Computer Aided Citizen Participation and Decision-making in Planning, by Michael Kwartler, FAIA; A talk given to the staff at the Ford Foundation
In this lecture, Michael Kwartler explores the relationship between public involvement and digital information technology.  View Transcript... (requires Acrobat Reader)

Urban Design Case Studies: "Environmental Simulation: Michael Kwartler Draws People Into Process", Vol. 3 No. 1, January-March 2006, by Anna Holtzman. 
This article examines the "Community Visioning" process and how the ESC and other firms utilize different technologies with the aim to "integrate grass-roots community involvement into policy-making and planning."  After exploring the differences between 2D renderings, 3D animations and Real-time simulations, the article examines a previous project in Santa Fe, Texas (link to project info...), and an ongoing project in Kona, Hawaii.  View Journal Article...  (requires Acrobat Reader)

Architectural Design: "Just-In-Time Planning: New York + Houston", Nov/Dec 2005. 
"Michael Kwartler counters the rigid determinism of urban planning policy with a just-in-time approach.  He describes a new planing, design and regulatory model that harnesses information technologies and emerging planning and design decision support (PDDS), which 'learn' from experience and provide the means to be self-organising and adjusting, responding rather than anticipating or even trying to direct change."  View Article...  (requires Acrobat Reader)

Landscape and Environmental Planning: Technology and Applications
Ian Bishop and Eckart Lange; Taylor & Francis, publisher; (2005) 
This book features many of the world's leading researchers in the development and applications of visualization for landscape and urban planning applications, including the Environmental Simulation Center.  Michael Kwartler uses the Baltimore 2030 plan as a case study for his chapter: "Visualization in Support of Public Participation". 
 

Planning Magazine (July 2004):  The Environmental Simulation Center's design and 3D simulation of a prototypical transit-oriented development was featured on the cover of the magazine's "Focus on Technology" issue.  The work was performed for the Baltimore Vision 2030 Regional Plan.
(see project...)


Houston Chronicle:: "City using software to envision new spaces", June 3, 2003.  This article highlights how one ESC client, trained by the ESC on technology jointly developed by the ESC, Multigen, and ITspatial, is using simulation techniques to visualize development alternatives along its Main Street light rail corridor.  Link to article....

New York Times: "Big Buildings Planned on Grounds of St. John the Divine";
June 27, 2003.  The ESC has played a critical role in helping the Cathedral secure development rights, which will increase its endowment and enable the Cathedral to "maintain, preserve and restore the cathedral building and other historic buildings."  View Reprint...  (requires Acrobat Reader) Link to project info...