Transit, Health, and Gardens, with Greenbuild, American Institute of Architects, and District Department of Transportation

2015 Greenbuild Tour Bike DC- Transit, Health, and Gardens Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health  00238
2015 Greenbuild Tour Bike DC- Transit, Health, and Gardens Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health 00238 (View on Flickr.com)

Following on a similar bike tour in September (see: Buildings, Bikes, and Gardens with DesignDC ), the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health (@KPTotalHealth) hosted this one, as part of the very large Greenbuild International Conference and Expo that was in Washington, DC this year.

In addition to demonstrating the ways that health care contributes to a healthier built environment (who, us?) the following speakers dialogued with the group on work to promote bicycling:

  • Jim Sebastian of @DDOTDC
  • Steve White, director of Fentress Architects and president of AIA DC (@steve_aiadc)
  • Paul Balmer, legislative assistant to Congressman Earl Blumenauer from Oregon on the Congressional Bike Caucus (@PBalms)
  • Caron Whitaker from the Bike League (@CaronWhitaker)

A lot of where this comes together at Kaiser Permanente can be found at our Westside Medical Center, in Hillsborough Oregon, which is one of the few (less than 60) LEED Gold certified medical centers in the world. You can read more about it here.

Here’s more detail about the tour. Thanks for letting us take part in Greenbuild!

TS06 – Bike DC: Transit, Health, and Gardens
Want to get outdoors and cruise the Nation’s Capital? This half-day bike tour led by the DC chapter of American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) will take participants at a leisurely pace through historic, revitalized, and picturesque areas of downtown DC. The first stop is an urban farm and community education center, Walker-Jones Community Gardens, where attendees will experience an outdoor classroom consisting of unique gardens, composting piles, and an irrigation cistern which provide an experimental learning opportunity beyond a typical classroom setting for children in the District. The bike tour will become interactive at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Total Health with touchscreen exhibits and cutting-edge health technology displays. Rolling on to the city’s transportation hub, Union Station, the group will learn about the Station’s new, ultra-modern bike station, and engage in a discussion about how this facility has interconnected various transit systems in DC, making public transportation for visitors and commuters convenient. Biking on to the historic National Mall, a stop at the Smithsonian’s Gardens will surely provide some green inspiration. The biking portion of the tour will conclude at the District Architecture Center where a panel of speakers will further discuss how the District has been transformed by alternative means of transportation. The total biking distance for this tour is 4.30 miles; the total walking distance is 0.60 miles.

Ted Eytan, MD