Our Thoughts
Crabtree group is actively engaged in our projects and the greater profession. Our mission extends beyond our immediate work, influencing and engaging in practice worldwide. We are engineers, but we are also teachers, mentors, and students.
Crabtree Group Blog
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
There is a lot that is right about this picture, but two items detract from the aesthetics, value and livability. The street has good form and creates a good outdoor room that is created by [...]
A HYDROLOGICAL METHODOLOGY FOR MODELLING THE BENEFITS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE
A HYDROLOGICAL METHODOLOGY FOR MODELING THE BENEFITS OF GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE The typical hydrology software packages are clunky when it comes to modeling the effects of Green Infrastructure (AKA Low Impact Development – LID, or Light [...]
Small Towns and Innovation Hubs: Or, Are Small Towns and Cities Doomed? A review of Enrico Moretti’s The New Geography of Jobs
Because I disagreed with the book premise, I read with great interest The New Geography of Jobs by Enrico Moretti. Moretti pronounces that innovation hubs are location-specific, need to be located in largish cities, and [...]
Understanding Climate Science
A goal to achieve a basic understanding of climate change science through brief and accessible readings is one of the largest conundrums of climate action. It’s a complex science that actually requires more than brief [...]
Lean Infrastructure as a Response to the Pitfalls of Conventional Gold-plated Infrastructure
For the past six decades the waste inherent in cheap oil, overblown national public works standards, and car-dominance have resulted in gold-plating (incorporating costly features or refinements into something unnecessarily; often in the name of [...]
The Principles of Green Infrastructure
Principles of Green Infrastructure Green Infrastructure (sometimes called Low Impact Development, or LID), far from being a “new technology”, is actually the recovery of a lost technology. For example, bioswales (roadside ditches) and bioretention areas [...]
The Post-Masterplan Infrastructure Charrette
As a full-service civil engineering firm that is focused and experienced at New Urbanist principles and practices, we have engaged in dozens and dozens of masterplan charrettes throughout the United States and internationally, with some [...]
On Street Tree Design
Steve Mouzon, my colleague over at Original Green wrote a great blog that can be found at the link in his introduction: The basic rules of thumb of street tree design are really simple; it’s [...]
Salon des Refusés
Aerial Vignette - Kety, TX (Salon des Refusés, Illustration by author) In 2010, Crabtree Group Inc., joined an ad hoc design team backed by the environmental groups, Sea Grant Texas and the Texas Coastal [...]
Saratoga Springs Master Plan
Subsidiarity, Cost-Estimating on the Fly, Transect-Based Infrastructure Including Costs