Rethinking cities

Urban Re:Vision, a San Francisco company, is trying to connect the dots between sustainable buildings, transportation and a thriving economy. As part of a series of five design competitions, Urban Re:Vision is asking designers, innovators and students to stretch beyond the renovation of a single building to include an entire city block.

“One million people move into a city every day,” says Stacy Frost, founder of Re:Vision. “The majority of our population will live in cities where we have dwindling resources, but an existing infrastructure.”

Re:Vision is seeking land where the winning designs can be incorporated in a transformation of a city block into a sustainable urban community, according to Frost. She says her hope would be to duplicate the project in other urban settings.

Two design competitions have already been completed — Re:Volt, which focused on energy, and Re:Route, which looked at transportation solutions — and there are three left to go — Re:Store, Re:Connect and Re:Construct.

Previous competitions awarded three winners $2,000 for their work, but Re:Vision is not offering prize money. Instead, Frost says she wants to create an avenue to connect design winners with venture capitalists.