- Rutherford Platt
Chicago Wilderness. It seems an oxymoron. Yet for 10 years, this alliance of 180 public and private organizations has been working to protect, restore, study, and manage the ecosystems of the Chicago region. Think reclaiming brownfields, educating people about invasive species, preserving open land. With more than 200,000 protected acres to its credit, it is, in a nutshell, a working “ecological city.” And that makes Rutherford Hayes Platt, founder of the Ecological Cities Project, a happy man.
Platt, professor of geography and planning law, was the keynote speaker at the 10th anniversary celebration of Chicago Wilderness in May. Platt told the gathering he was a prodigal son, returning to Chicago more than 30 years after leaving the Open Lands Project, one of the nation’s oldest and most influential urban conservation models, to teach at UMass Amherst. It was his Chicago roots that led to him to eventually found the Ecological Cities Project in 1999.
Based in the Department of Geography at UMass Amherst, the Ecological Cities Project—ECP for short—is a quasi-independent program of research, teaching, and outreach that enhances the quality of life in urban environments.
“We partner with neighborhood conservation and preservation organizations in cities that are perceived to be below the radar screen, cities not yet getting large government grants,” explains Platt. “Among them are Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Riverside, California. These are places where ECP has made a difference, working with residents to plant urban gardens and revitalize parks, creating safe and green sanctuaries in inner cities.”
ECP does more than help regreen urban environments. It does so in the context of enriching people’s lives. Platt has spent most of his life working to achieve a vision of cities as nurturing places.
“It all began with my father,” Platt says. “Rud” Platt senior was a naturalist, photographer, and author. He introduced his son to natural beauty in rural areas and, perhaps more important, in urban spaces.
“When I was a boy [in the 1940s],” says Platt, “we lived on Gramercy Park in New York City. When I think back on it, the presence of flowers, grass, and trees greatly influenced my vision of cities. There were densely packed buildings and concrete sidewalks, but nature provided a break from all the intensity.”
Platt was first introduced in 1968 to professional initiatives to create public parks, forest preserves, and urban gardens. With a law degree (and a PhD in geography) from the University of Chicago, he was appointed staff attorney at the northern Illinois Open Lands Project. During that time, Platt met the urban visionary William H. Whyte (1917-1999), effectively sowing the seeds of the Ecological Cities Project.
Platt’s new book, The Humane Metropolis: People and Nature in the 21st-Century City, grew out of an ECP-sponsored symposium held in New York City in 2002 to explore Whyte’s philosophy. The book and an accompanying 20-minute DVD investigate creative solutions for making cities healthier, more habitable, more equitable, and—as Whyte described it—more humane.
The book and DVD are signs that ECP is hitting its stride. The organization is not heavily endowed or underwritten by industry sponsors. Nor is it a UMass Amherst budget line, although the campus supplies office space and hosts the project’s Web site on its server. To maintain forward motion, ECP relies heavily on Platt’s boundless energy and his ability to network with partnering organizations and professional colleagues. “To be honest, I could really use a clone,” jokes Platt.
And he’s working on that, too, sort of: A corps of graduate students work under Platt’s direction. Their research interests include urban ecology, wetlands, and urban wildlife.
Platt has kept ECP’s visibility high on the cheap by collaborating with other conservation and preservation organizations to present lectures on campus as part of a course called Ecological Cities. “My colleagues have also generously presented lectures,” says Platt. “We have learned to be inventive about bringing ECP’s message to a national audience, piggybacking onto other conferences.”
Platt’s new book is a case in point. He secured funding for the conference and the DVD from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the Wyomissing Foundation, the late Laurence S. Rockefeller Foundation, and the National Park Service.
As a result, one man’s dream is becoming the dream of many people.
