Environment

Manufactured gas plants disappeared from cityscapes long ago. In most cases, so did awareness of their toxic traces. Can neural networks now detect the hazardous remains that elude regulators?

In environmental justice communities, knowledge about air pollution hotspots comes from the ground up. Shouldn't remedies start there too?

The urban landscape is formed by uneven practices of denial and redemption, while stuff stays with us. What are we doing when we are cleaning up?

Grassroots groups have kept organic waste collection alive in neighborhoods across New York City during a most difficult year. For community composters, the stakes of an equitable waste system stretch far beyond the pile.

Encouraging New Yorkers to probe the mysteries of the material beneath their feet, the Urban Soils Institute is moving knowledge of urban soils outside the domain of science and into the hands of communities.

An architect follows the path of a nearly-finished, controversial pipeline in Brooklyn, casting underground infrastructure against the resilient physical and social fabric of the communities above.

In the service of one of the most ambitious policy frameworks in living memory, design students conjure future visions of environmental recovery where social justice comes first.

Communities of color have long been the vanguard of New York City's environmental justice movement. How can designers support and learn from their efforts to mitigate a climate crisis that is up close and personal?