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One of today's
most interesting, scientific and committed environmental projects in the world - funded by a major petroleum-laden exporting
country of the Middle East - can be an inspiration to a currently stagnating futuristic proposal half way around the
world at Ivanpah Valley, Southern Nevada, Western USA.
| Courtesy One Planet Communities. |
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| Designed like traditdional Arab cities, Masdar City streets will be narrow to create shade. |
By Robert L. Candiotti August 22, 2010
The creation of carbon-neutral, zero-waste, continuously sustainable and architecturally enchanting
Masdar City - at Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates - can warm up chilled enthusiasm for the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport
and adjacent communities in Southern Nevada near the border of Nevada and California. Masdar City - with a budget said to be $22 billion, designed by the renowned British architectural
firm Foster + Partners - though perhaps progressing slower than expected, is moving ahead. Ivanpah Valley can benefit from
connecting onto creative energy with the sustainable and transformational direction of Masdar City. Geographically, Masdar City and Ivanpah Valley are in widely separated parts
of the world. Yet, they have much in common. Both
locations have a desert dweller history (Abu Dhabi had the tribal Bani Yas, Ivanpah Valley was home to the Southern Paiutes).
Both have a shortage of water. Both have vast desert terrain, and both have an often blistering sun overhead.
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| Artistic display of Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. Courtesy stile e dintorni. |
Also, projecting into the future about 20 years,
both areas could have a similar population of around 50,000 people.
Interestingly - and one of the main reasons why Masdar City is included in this IvanpahValley.com website - both areas will
be next to a modern international airport. When
the eco-city comes to life in Abu Dhabi, Masdar City will be next to the currently existing, and rapidly expanding, Abu
Dhabi International Airport. Ivanpah Valley -
containing the Southern Nevada towns of Goodsprings, Jean and Primm - is the location for the proposed new futuristic international
airport known as Ivanpah Valley Airport.
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| Masdar City is designed by Foster+Partners. Courtesy One Planet Communities. |
Masdar (in Arabic meaning "the source")
City itself is planned to encompass 2.3 square miles.
It is said it will recycle most of its water - which will emanate from a solar-powered desalinization plant. Its waste will
be reduced to none at all. It will, they say, have a hydrogen plant for energy. Wind farms outside Masdar will create 20 megawatts
of power. It is even said it will have geothermal energy.
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| Personal transportation pods in Masdar City will avoid pedestrian areas. Courtesy gwire. |
Automobiles will not be allowed inside the pedestrian areas
of Masdar City. Futuristic personal pod vehicles will be always close by, but largely hidden. Of course, Masdar will be dramatically
modernistic. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology
(MIST) is in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is reported MIST already has 82 students
from 16 countries. However, it should be added there are far
flung critics and skeptics regarding Masdar City. They say things are going slower than expected. And detractors state
Masdar City cannot become as fully sustainable as advertised. They say a slowed down economy will make it difficult for new
businesses to really get going in Masdar City within Abu Dhabi.
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| Masdar Institute of Science and Industry (MIST). |
Still, Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Masdar's CEO, emphasizes
the project is so visionary, and ground (or perhaps more appropriately sand) breaking, that delays and revisions are understandable.
Jaber said, "All the experts, the architects and contractors, none of them knew how to make [Masdar City]. It's never
been done in the history of the world." He is confident it
will have a positive impact. Jaber claims Masdar City will, by 2020, provide 7% of the United Arab Emirates' power
through renewable energy developments. Though not fully operational
for another 10 years, Masdar City can still be inspirational for both Ivanpah Valley Airport and Ivanpah Valley which are
south of Las Vegas, Nevada. The proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport
was initially projected to open in 2017. Recently, though, Rosemary Vassiliadis, deputy director of aviation for the Clark
County Aviation Department, has said the weakened Southern Nevada economy and significant drops in air traffic at Las Vegas' McCarran
International Airport have made it unnecessary to continue preparing for Ivanpah Airport. Now, apparently, there is no actual time for the development of Ivanah Airport. In a June 11, 2010,
"Ivanpah Airport in a holding pattern" article by Alan Choate in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Vassiliadis
is quoted as saying about Ivanpah Airport, "We know we're beyond 2025, so it wouldn't be meaningful to come up with
a date."
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| A Masdar City construction poster. Photo by imredubai. |
In Jean, just north of the Ivanpah Airport site, a 166-acre
redevelopment project was put on hold in 2007. Owned by MGM Mirage, there is still nothing planned yet, which is actually
probably wise considering how MGM-owned CityCenter turned out.
The casinos in Primm - south of the Ivanpah Airport area, right at the Nevada-California border - are still operating,
and Fashion Outlets shopping mall is definitely open. Yet, the business attitude is not enthusiastic. Primm is a nice
place, but it appears to be plodding along with no vision of the future.
Masdar City, in Abu Dhabi, is exciting. It is promoted as a "new kind of city where innovation, technology and
sustainability meet and create." Yet, some will say Masdar is, to a degree, fictional. Of course, many may be incorrectly inclined to confuse fiction with transcendental innovation and transformational
creativity. It is not difficult to see similarities between
sustainably futuristic Masdar City and IvanpahValley.com's vision for Ivanpah Valley and the proposed Ivanpah Valley Airport.
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