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The Fairlane office park is surrounded by certain unique circumstances due
to its connection to the Ford Motor Company that have created its capacity
and motivations to attempt more sustainable efforts. The projects
implemented at Fairlane begin suggest new initiatives that might be
emulated by other office parks throughout the country to improve
relationships between office parks and local natural and social systems.
However, in spite of certain
successes and innovations, the Fairlane development suffers from
considerable limitations, and most of its efforts remain 'anecdotal' in
their influence. Largely, Fairlane still operates under most of the
normative and ecologically unresponsive systems that are typical of office
park developments. The following is intended to identify Fairlane's
shortcomings, likely opportunities for future improvements (taken from an
interview with Dan Ballnik, Ford's Environmental Control Engineer), and the
limits they face.
The
Aerial Perspective: Seeing the Limits of the Project
An aerial photograph reveals that
while there have been certain efforts to improve the workings of the office
park, these have been more incidental than systematic. The aerial
perspective shows the enormous proportion of paved parking lots that
characterize the Fairlane properties. However, from the ground level,
Fairlane appears much 'greener'. The Fairlane office park employs a
landscaping technique that is typical to most office park developments,
using the grass berm. The berm can be likened to a 'stage set' by creating
a green visual shield from views of the parking lots that surround every
buildings. Grass mounds surround every Fairlane parking lot, so that
drivers only see the grassy slope rather than the sea of asphalt behind it.
This allows the office park to appear more aesthetically pleasant while
actually paving over large swathes of land. Parking lots are impervious
surfaces that rapidly transmit storm water without retaining it or
filtering sediment, so that all of the pollutants from cars in the parking
lots are directly sent to the city's sewer systems, often resulting in
overflows when the city uses a combined system. At Fairlane, the Rouge River runs through the entire
development, catching all of the non-filtered stormwater that the parking
lots emit.
Potential
Future Improvements
In 1999, Ford Motor Company hired William McDonough + Partners as a
sustainable design consultant to redevelop the historic Rouge Factory,
built in Dearborn in 1918. The Factory was in danger of closing in the few
years prior to redevelopment, but the local UAW urged Ford to keep the
factory in Dearborn.
The redevelopment is a $2 billion, 20 year effort to clean up the Rouge
complex and modernize its production systems. Developments already set in
place include the largest green roof system in the world, permeable parking
lots, phytoremediation, and the addition of plant walls and light wells to
manage the climate of the existing buildings.
The Rouge redevelopment can be an important precedent for the office park
component of Ford at Fairlane. Both sites are in Dearborn, a few miles apart, and the same
environmental teams that manage the Fairlane landscapes, including Daniel
Ballnik, have been involved in the Rouge project, so there is an exchange
of ideas moving between the two sites. According to Ballnik, the Rouge
project is viewed as an experimental ground for what might be implemented
at Fairlane in the future. The Fairlane properties could benefit
significantly from some of the ideas implemented at the Rouge, such as the
permeable parking lots, since Fairlane is so largely composed of parking,
and the filtration swales that hold and cleanse water before it is
transmitted to the River.
The
project at the Rouge is much more radical in scope and more publicized than
any of the efforts undertaken at Fairlane. It is much easier to generate
public interest in the improvement of an old factory that is unanimously
viewed as toxic and hazardous and therefore for Ford to see the benefit of
undertaking such a project. The office park, however, does not fall under
as much public scrutiny, and therefore Ford has less motivation to make
improvements.
Limitations
Fairlane Must Overcome
There are a number of reasons for the limits of Fairlane's success, both
within the property's management by the Ford Motor Company and from outside
sources, such as the city of Dearborn
and local residents.
According to Dan Ballnik, there is currently a master plan in place for the
Ford Headquarters sites that has not yet been implemented for several
reasons. The plan includes the development of prairie landscapes,
woodlands, and wetlands which would improve the biodiversity, habitat, and
filtration capacity of the site. However, it was discovered that the
initial groundwork for some of these ideas would come at a high economic
cost, as the underground infrastructure surrounding the headquarters limits
certain interventions in the ground. Furthermore, a prairie landscape is
developed over a period of 3-5 years, during which the landscape will not
appear very 'pleasant' to local residents and city officials who are
accustomed to the manicured lawns associated with corporate landscapes. In
fact, the city of Dearborn
has very strict enforcements on 'weed' control, and as a result, the
Grounds team at Fairlane has faced opposition from the city in creating
landscapes that might be mistaken for weeds.
Currently,
Ford's approach to these limitations has been to incrementally implement
new projects in the landscape. They have recently planted a test acre of
prairie on the Fairlane properties. This allows them to develop the
financial resources over time that are needed for larger scale
improvements, and to gradually integrate a new landscape aesthetic into
public acceptance, hopefully paving the way for more in the future.
The Urban and Natural Context
Fairlane in Dearborn
Examples from Fairlane
Reasons Behind the Fairlane Projects
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