Detroit, Dallas & Despotism: A 3D View of Sustainability
Speaker: Eric Corey Freed of organicARCHITECT and noted author

After a decade of talk about the need for green buildings, the question is no longer why we need to go green, the question is how. American cities are confronting serious sustainability issues and are in dire need of tangible, deployable & affordable solutions.

This talk explores the lost city of Detroit by analyzing its decline from the once great "American Dream City" and mapping out a plan for transforming it into an urban oasis of sustainability. The lessons learned here could be applied to every rust belt and industrial city in the country.

In stark contrast, we investigate the city of Dallas, a place born from the oil industry but now developing one of the most sustainable city blocks in the US. The third "D" of the talk delves into the growing trend of despotism and the strange forces working against the greening of the economy.

There are lessons here for Silicon Valley.

• Explore the lost city of Detroit and understand how it is a microcosm for every city in the U.S.
  
• Understand the development and design of a regenerative, sustainable city block in downtown Dallas
  
• Uncover the hidden opportunities to radically transform our cities one block at a time
  
• Discover the forces working against progress and what you can do to move things forward
  
• Map out an action plan for what you can do to be part of the green revolution

Eric Corey Freed, LEED AP, Hon. FIGP, is principal of organicARCHITECT, an architecture and consulting firm in California, with nearly 20 years of experience in green building.

Eric co-developed the Sustainable Design programs at the Academy of Art University and University of California Berkeley Extension. He is on the boards of Architects, Designers & Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR), Green Home Guide and West Coast Green, as well as the advisory boards of nearly a dozen other organizations.

He was the founding Chair of Architecture for The San Francisco Design Museum and one of the founders of ecoTECTURE: The Online Journal of Ecological Design. He is a regular contributor for GreenerBuildings.com, Luxe, Natural Home, Metropolitan Home and dozens of other publications. Eric lectures around the country at 40+ conferences a year, and his work has been featured in Dwell, Metropolis, Town & Country, Natural Home and Newsweek. Television networks Fox News, HGTV, The Sundance Channel and PBS brought him on their shows.

Eric is the author of four books, including "Green Building & Remodeling for Dummies" (John Wiley & Sons), a best seller with 100,000 copies in print. His latest books, "Sustainable School Architecture" and “Green$ense for your Home” were released in 2010. He is considered a leader in the field; named by San Francisco Magazine "Best Green Architect" in 2005 and "Best Visionary" in 2007; and "Green Visionary" by 7x7 Magazine in 2008.

Tuesday 21 September 2010 at 5:00 pm

Kepler's Books, 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025

FREE

You can learn more about Eric at his business website, organicARCHITECT.

This meeting is sponsored by Kepler's Books and by Green Making, the local website for building green homes.