Dr. Timothy Beatley Biophilic Cities Summary

Dr. Timothy Beatley of the University of Virginia is one of the world's most prolific writers on the topic of green urbanism, or the process of creating cities that are sustainable and beneficial to humans as well as the environment. His 2011 book, Biophilic Cities: Integrating Nature into Urban Design and Planning, Beatley explores the topic of biophilic cities, which are urban spaces that integrate nature into the core of design and planning (Beatley, 2011, p. 45). The concept of biophilic cities is still in its early stages of development, and Beatley intends to begin the conversation around and build interest in this groundbreaking topic instead of definitively laying out how biophilic cities must be designed. To this aim, Beatley argues

In the view of the wilderness movement, nature only consisted of lands wholly separated from and untouched by humans. Figures like Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir advocated for the conservation and preservation of this wilderness in which they sought refuge from the ills of modern human civilization (Cronon, 1996, p. 14). American Romantic literature, especially that of Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau, also espoused the wilderness perspective and described nature as an awe-inspiring and sometimes dangerous expression of divine power (Marris, 2011, p. 22). The creation of American National Parks exemplifies the wilderness perspective as these lands are filled with truly fantastic natural features that have been set aside to be preserved in a supposedly "unspoiled" state separated from civilization. Even though the American environmental consciousness has held this view of nature since its nascence, the wilderness cult begets a problematic divide between humans and the natural world. This nature-culture dualism devalues other forms of nature, namely urban flora and fauna which surrounds the majority of Americans. Thus, accessing nature becomes something only available to the select few who have the financial resources and recreation time to escape the city and flee to the

Urban wildness is impacted by humans as human and nature exist in the same ecosystem. One of the true majesties of urban nature is that it displays resilience despite the pressures of the metropolitan environment (Beatley, 2011, pp. 3-4). Thus, for Beatley, urban wildness ranges from the heritage oak in a neighborhood park to the song of starlings to the dandelion sprouting through the sidewalk. Beatley dedicates nearly a chapter to describing different examples of urban nature. Importantly, apart from discussing the more charismatic megafauna found in cities like peregrine falcons in New York City or bobcats in San Diego, Beatley also allots attention to organisms that are not conventionally considered in discussions of urban nature such as fish, lichens, tardigrades, and even the moon (Beatley, 2011, pp. 22-25). Thus, urban areas do teem with nature just as worthy as the famed wilderness if one just knows where to