Kali's Essay

Kali Brennick
URBAN INFRASTRUCTURE!!!

When I went down to Boston, I had an essential question that I needed to
answer. My question was, money, time, and resources are a big part in
making a building. One of the big problems in cities is pollution. Is
there a way to be a positive contributor to helping the pollution problem
within the city, while constructing the building within the time, money,
and resources boundaries? To answer all our questions, we went to
different places in Boston and got lectured and showed different things.
The first person we went to see was Don Levine. He is a developer and he
has been working on a job in Boston for a while. So we were lucky enough
to hear from him what his job is like and what he does. I was able to ask
him my essential question, and he answered it exactly the way I wished he
would. He told me that they usually try their best to buy materials that
are recycled and environmentally safe. He told me about how they use
energy saving heating and stuff like that. The thing is, they have energy
savi
ng laws that they have to fallow. So as much as he made it seem like he
really cares, I kind of feel like him and others really only fallow the
laws, so they don’t get in trouble.
The next place we went to was an architecture design place. We had three
people tell us about what they do, and some of the places in and around
Boston that they designed. It was really cool and interesting what steps
they have to go through in just designing it. I once again was able to
ask them my essential question. And all three of them seemed pro
environmentally safe materials. They told me how they love using recycled
materials, but sometimes its hard. Its hard because they have to comply
to what their customer wants, and not always is recycled materials, what
they want or find attractive. As far as how much environmentally giving
materials cost, they said it sometimes is actually cheaper than other
materials. They also told us about how they like to do school designs,
because usually the customers are more than willing to pay for the
recycled materials. This I think is awesome, because it doesn’t only
affect the environment positively, it also affects the students. Because
it influences recy
cling and trying to save the environment. I was impressed by what each of
them had to say.
The final place we went to was City Hall. There we were able to see a
huge, to scale, model of Boston. We first got lectured by this guy, who
to tell you the truth I didn’t listen to a word he said. And I didn’t ask
any questions. He talked about things that weren’t really relevant to
what were learning about. But the guy who we went to see then came in,
Patrapp. This man was very interesting to me. He told us about the green
space that they wanted to produce. He also told us about how when they
propose a new building to be built, they have to think of as many ways
possible to make it productive, so they get the most money and use out of
it. The biggest thing that I felt was very important was what he wanted
Boston to turn into. He wants Boston to be more of a walking city, rather
than a driving city. He wants people to enjoy walking around Boston, to
have parks to go to, and to have buildings that look nice and fitted to
where they are. By making it a more of a walking city, this will help trem
endously with traffic and pollution of Boston. Even though I wasn’t able
to ask him my essential question, got some good information from him.
Overall what I got out of this trip was that overall the people of Boston
care about the environment, and that its going to take the whole of Boston
to make a difference. And that it might cost more, or it might not cost
as much, but it all depends on weather or not the people, developers, and
architects to want to help to change.