Providence, one of America’s oldest cities and the birthplace of the American industrial revolution, pursues Rhode Island’s story of innovation through its schools, its communities, its businesses and its public services. It is a city that uses its creative resources to transition from past to present and understands the need for a more sustainable future.

Providence is a mid-sized city that is conveniently located between New York and Boston and is known for its outstanding young student population. The renowned RISD and Brown University play a major role in the community and are sources of valuable ideas for the region and the world. Since 2008, A Better World by Design is an example of how local and international designers come together in Providence to think about a better future through design: how can we reshape our community and sustain our environment?

Providence is an inspired city because it is constantly searching for newness and ideas, whether it is food or new places to experience and visit. At the Steel Yard, people connect while learning about things that are hand-made, introducing welding, blacksmithing and casting amongst others activities. This former steel and iron industrial site serves as a catalyst for urban regeneration and community growth through creative approaches. Meanwhile, La Laiterie promotes “haute farmhouse cuisine” by featuring the best of local and seasonal produce on their menus. The honest quality of its dishes is a reason in itself to visit Providence.

The Box Office is the first commercial building of its kind in the United States. Conceived by architect Joe Haskett from Distill Studio, this project takes 32 cargo containers and combines them into a 10,000-square-foot office building located in a gentrifying neighborhood on the Providence’s west side. This project initiated by green developer Peter Gill Case is a reflection of Providence’s growing trend toward green innovation and social entrepreneurship. The Box Office will be a model of a small, energy-efficient building, using 25% less energy than a conventional new office building. This building will be “all-electric” with no direct use of fossil fuels. All heating and cooling will be with small, decentralized, high efficiency air-to-air heat pumps.

Completion of the project is anticipated in March 2010.

By reconnecting people to the notion of craftsmanship and the processes through which objects are made, new possibilities emerge and stronger communities are formed. It was with those intentions in mind that  The Steel Yard was founded by Nick Bauta and Clay Rockefeller in 2001. This former steel and iron industrial site serves as a catalyst for urban regeneration and community growth through creative approaches.

The Steel Yard initially started off as a shop where metalworkers could use welding or foundry equipment. It later expanded to become an educational and multidisciplinary arts facility where individuals from different backgrounds can learn and work together. Additionally, some of the spaces are used for open houses, workshops, demonstrations, exhibits, and performances. Outside the main building, smaller spaces have been restored or added as small business incubators.

A lot has been written about Detroit in recent months: unemployment, bankruptcy, and a failing auto industry. When arriving there, one would surely compare reality to what has been said in the media. But Detroit is a city in transition rather than a dying city. It looks like a semi-empty canvas or an experimental ground that could be embraced by artists and designers. Empty factories lined up in the distance as we drove through the city. Incredible relics of American industrial architecture and modern housing structures are waiting to be found in Detroit. This city has a potential to become a true 21st century American city through regeneration and new design thinking.

Local regeneration projects are mushrooming in Detroit. Last month, the Taubman Center (former GM Technical Center, pictured above), in downtown Detroit, reopened its doors as the new design campus for the College for Creative Studies. The Argonaut building, designed by Albert Kahn, is 80 years old and offers 760,000 square-foot of space. This adaptive re-use project not only intends to educate students from middle, high school, undergraduate and graduate levels, it also hopes to transform the economy of Southeast Michigan and renew Detroit. The Taubman site created 200 new jobs and will bring more than 2000 people to the area on a daily basis, giving an opportunity to provide new customers for local businesses. If you would like to learn more, Chad Reichert, our ‘guide’ while in Detroit, shares his thoughts about the city and how its local community is taking creative steps towards recovery, in this written piece: If you rebuilt it, they will come

Detroit is following the green movement like other American cities with NGO’s such as the Greening of Detroit. It is also looking at design as a tool for social change. Project M recently initiated Plot 63, a project involving a group of designers and local communities. In one week, they transformed a vacant city lot into a community gathering place in Detroit’s North End. Another example is Design99, a retail space that works with experimental design and architecture and attempts to make contemporary art more accessible to the public. The founders of Design99 are also behind Power House Project, a social art project that started with the purchase of foreclosed home in a neighborhood in crisis. “Can super efficient and self-sustained homes be achieved for under $99,000?” is one question. Another is: “what would happen if people moved to Detroit?”

Taubman Center image credits: © College for Creative Studies

General Motors Technical Center, inaugurated in 1956 and designed by Eero Saarinen is America’s largest corporate building ever. Its cost at the time was $125 million, the equivalent of over $800 million today. Otherwise known as the “Versailles of Industry”, this post-war complex is “a reflection of car industry’s consumerist pitch” according to architect Robert A.M. Stern.  Some of its distinctive features are the water tower (pictured above) designed to re-circulate water for the center’s air conditioning system, and the Design Dome (last picture, below) an auditorium and exhibition space of 188 ft diameter width and which is covered by an aluminum skin thinner than an egg shell. With the GM Technical Center, Eero Saarinen pushed technological and architectural boundaries. He used automotive material and assembly line construction methods and also experimented with ceramic glazed brick that were fired in a kiln specifically built on-site by GM. 26 glaze colors were developed in collaboration with the nearby Cranbrook Art Academy.

When the Technical Center opened its doors in the 1950′s, GM published a souvenir guide entitled “Where Today Meets Tomorrow”.  The opening foreword by the company’s president mentions the post-war challenges lying ahead and the rapid technological progress made in the first half of the 20th century. The Technical Center is also referred to as a physical incarnation of GM’s vision “in creating the new and useful (and) in filling the needs and desires of millions of people (…) by applying the best talent, the best equipment and the best facilities available to molding Tomorrow”. Perhaps, by looking at its past, GM can finds a few answers for a more sustainable future.

In 1986, the GM Technical Center was named the most outstanding architectural project of its era by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 2000, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register of Historic Sites in 2002. Talks of opening a visitors center have been mentioned in the press but have not yet materialized.

The Design Center (pictured above) boasts an impressive lobby staircase designed by Kevin Roche. The staircase is made of suspended terrazzo slabs that are overlapping each other over a water fountain. Various paintings (including portraits of past presidents and vice presidents) as well as sculptures are displayed inside and outside of the center’s reception area.

Throughout the years, Chicago served as a model city with its outstanding examples of urban planning and architecture. Experts from around the world have spent more time studying Chicago than any other city in the United States. It all started in 1909 with Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago which focused on the growth and the future of the city. Then, Ernest Burgess and Robert Park’s map of economic and social divisions led to the Chicago School, a social concept that visualized the American city in various concentric zones. More recently, Chicago has been pushing toward urban regeneration and sustainable development through various projects such as the green roofs and the extension of its rail systems. The plans that are presented as part of the bid for the 2016 Olympic games represent more opportunities for the city to build on its architectural legacy and strengthen its reputation as America’s model city.

Mix of iconic buildings and renowned architects: the ‘Corn Cobs’ from Marina City, Willis Tower (former Sears tower), the new extension of the Art of Institute of Chicago by Renzo Piano, Pritzker bandshell by Frank Gehry at Millennium Park, McCormick Tribune Campus Center at IIT by Rem Koolhaas, Lake Shore Drive Apartments by Mies Van Der Rohe.

Chicago wants to become the most environmentally friendly city in the United States and is working hard to achieve its goals. The Chicago Climate Action Plan has been developed to serve as a model for cities from around the world and demonstrates how urban communities can be bold and help protect the natural environment. Green roofs are flourishing in various parts of Chicago: they have been integrated in some private and public residences (Chicago’s City Hall has its own rooftop garden), have transformed public spaces (the Millennium Park is a green roof built on top of a garage) and have turned several skyscrapers green.

The Chicago Center for Green Technology offers guidance to homeowners and professionals who want to benefit from cost-effective green technology. The center organizes regular workshops that emphasize on the many advantages of having a green roof: it cleans and retains rainwater, it helps reduce energy consumption, it lowers air temperatures, it improves the urban air quality, it extends the life of a roof membrane by 2 or 3 times, and last but not least, it can add beauty to our urban landscape.

Chicago is a great promoter of architecture and has introduced accessible ways to share its love for the built environment through its Architecture Foundation. Founded in 1966, this non-profit organization first began by offering lectures and volunteer-led tours to the public. Today, its programs also include exhibitions and educational activities for both children and adults. The wide range of tour offerings have made the foundation increasingly popular with tourists who seek to experience the city’s architecture through river boat cruises, bus rides or walks. Themed tours have also been designed around suburban designs and the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Chicago: A Model City (pictured above) is the latest exhibition showcased at the Foundation’s CitySpace Gallery.

Minneapolis is a city with an impressive industrial history that has been able to rediscover itself through creative thinking. In the late 19th century its riverfront led the world in flour production with four important mill factories on the banks of the Mississippi river. When the industry moved to Buffalo, NY, in the 1930′s, the district evolved and the city was left with vacant industrial buildings until the City drew a Historic Mills District Master Plan in 1998 to regenerate its riverfront district. Since then, new residential neighborhoods have been built, the Stone Arch Bridge has become a section of the Grand Rounds Scenic Bike Ways, the Mill City Museum tells the history of flour milling,  and the old Pillsbury mill factory is in the process of being redeveloped as a mixed use housing and commercial complex. In addition, new architecture such as Jean Nouvel’s Guthrie Theater, work as intelligent design assets for the new riverfront.

(Picture clockwise from top left: Guthrie Theater, “Spoonbridge and Cherry” by Claes Oldenburg, Hennepin Ave. Bridge, Mill City Museum)

It did not take us too long to realize that the Walker Art Center is a very different kind of museum. Our first Walker experience took place as we got out of the car and walked through the parking garage surrounded by experimental sounds. The Walker stands out because it uses and integrates design in a museum environment in order to create experiences: physically with the 2005 facilities extension by architects Herzog & De Meuron, visually with the in-house communication design team responsible for the look and feel of exhibitions and publications, and conceptually with exhibitions questioning the role of design in society, past and present (one recent show that particularly caught our interest is Worlds Away, a study on suburbia and its impact on modern America).

How does the Walker achieve such level of excellence in design? Well, the creative team sitting backstage is rather unusual: since 1980, a small number of young graphic design fellows are selected each year to work with the design director. Keeping the design work in-house is a money-saver and integrating fresh minds is a good way to explore unseen territories and experiment on new grounds. We wonder why more museums aren’t adopting this innovative approach.