For the past two years, SLO Architecture and CALL have been developing plans for a mobile model wetland, Finding Tibbetts 2.0, that would take the public on an interactive journey in finding Tibbetts Brook. Starting July of this year, we were finally ready to make those plans a reality.
Read MoreTibbets Brook meanders its way south through Westchester County, and then into Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, where it ducks between highways, and eventually forms Van Cortlandt Lake before suddenly disappearing. Well, not disappearing exactly, the water does go somewhere, but where?
My colleagues and I have been studying Tibbetts Brook as part of our investigations into the historical ecology of New York City, which started out with the Mannahatta Project, about Manhattan, and have now expanded to cover all five boroughs of New York city. Historical ecology is important for urban sustainability because it places our current perspective on the city into a natural history context; it tells us how nature makes places; it helps expand our imagination; and finally, it helps us set metrics for sustainability success.
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