Timothy Beatley

Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities

Seeking to Help Gray Cities Go Green

For architecture professor Timothy Beatley (Architecture '79), the phrase, "urban environment," is not an oxymoron. Rather, he sees cities as levers for environmental change.

It is true that cities typically consume large quantities of fossil fuels and generate enormous amounts of waste and pollution. But the high population density that characterizes most cities also means that land is used efficiently, that automobiles are not the primary mode of transportation, and that per-capita consumption of resources is low. Because of the growing number of people who call cities home, Mr. Beatley believes we can go a long way to ensuring a healthy planet by reconfiguring everyday life in our cities to become sustainable.

Mr. Beatley, the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities, is a proponent of green urbanism. "Cities are popularly viewed as destructive of nature, gray and natureless, and distinct and separate from natural systems," he said. "Green urbanism rejects these historical perceptions and argues that cities can be environmentally beneficial and restorative, can be full of nature, and are inherently embedded in complex natural systems."

Mr. Beatley's vision of an ecological city is compact and walkable with parks and green spaces. The city also would emphasize sustainable forms of mobility, such as public transportation and bicycles. As part of a recent survey of thirty cities in twelve European countries, Mr. Beatley discovered that these ideas are beginning to be put into practice in progressive cities there.

Mr. Beatley's next project is to catalog successful efforts in Australia to create more sustainable urban areas. "Each of these books is part of an overall effort to overcome the perception that it requires great sacrifice to live in sustainable communities," he said. "In fact, making communities green makes them more livable places."

Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable Communities

The Teresa Heinz Professorship in Sustainable Communities was established in 2000 with funding from the Vira I. Heinz Endowment and matching support from the Saunders Professors Fund. This professorship honors one of the nation's premier environmental leaders—Teresa Heinz, chair of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the creator of the prestigious Heinz Awards. The Heinz Awards are presented annually to recognize individuals for outstanding vision and achievement in the arts, public policy, the environment, technology, and the economy as well as for contributions to improvements in the human condition. The Vira I. Heinz Endowment's ongoing interest in supporting programs that reduce the incentives for urban sprawl and that link transportation, housing, and land use policies led to the creation of this endowed professorship.

Chairholders

Timothy Beatley 2002–present

Web Links

At the Urban Frontier of Environmental Change

Green Cities: Urbanism and Advancing Sustainability (podcast)