Dwell blog writer Aaron Britt brings us this feature on the recent Re:Vision Dallas design charrette.

On Friday of last week I attended the Re:Vision Dallas design charrette, one that hopes to remake a blighted city block of downtown Dallas into a haven of sustainable design and a catalyst for urban revitalization.

Having procured a 2.5-acre city block just next to Dallas’ IM Pei–designed City Hall that currently hosts a surface parking lot, Re:Vision Dallas invited dozens of architects, engineers, designers, and city planners to City Hall to discuss the design brief. Before opening it up to a competition amongst the wider design community, the Re:Vision team sought the group’s advice and critical eyes. Though most came from and worked in Texas, many for the City of Dallas itself, participants traveled from as far away as Montana and hailed from all corners of the globe. Eric Cory Freed and Brent Brown were amongst the leaders of the day’s events.

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By Jesse Fox

Could the first fully sustainable city block in America rise out of a nondescript parking lot in downtown Dallas, Texas?

After a full year of design competitions aimed at stimulating discussion about the nature of sustainability in cities, San Francisco-based Urban Re:Vision is about to transform theory into reality in Dallas. The land is available, the city is on board and there appear to be no serious obstacles to the development of a city block that would radically redefine sustainability in the urban context.

The site today.

Over the past year, Urban Re:Vision held a series of design competitions, which addressed issues from transportation and materials to energy and economy in the city block. Here are some of the results of the Re:Construct competition, announced in September at West Coast Green.

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From Greenbang UK

How do you make a sprawling city like Dallas more sustainable? The answer might be, “One city block at a time.”

City officials and urban planners from across the U.S. are meeting in Dallas today for a full-day “Design Charrette,” or an intense sustainability brainstorming session. They hope to end the day with a guidemap for kicking off an international design competition aimed at actually creating such a sustainable block within the city.

The gathering is being organised by the city of Dallas, the Dallas-based bcWORKSHOP and a San Francisco group, Urban re:Vision.

“Our job on December 5th is to explore how pivotal the city block is in the urban landscape, and how it can be used as a catalyst for a whole new way of living,” said Stacey Frost, founder of Urban Re:Vision. “This process is one that puts real people first and promotes sustainability.”

Read the rest at http://www.greenbang.com/6803/dallas-eyes-sustainability-one-block-at-a-time/