America’s aging infrastructure systems not only need replacement, they need to be reinvented, argues City College of New York Professor of Architecture Hillary Brown. To make smarter decisions about revamping outdated infrastructure, architects, engineers, urban planner and public officials need to think at the systems level and adapt a holistic approach, contends Professor Brown, who teaches in City College’s Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture. Seeing infrastructure as highly connected systems that work better together will result in projects that are more cost effective, less environmentally damaging and more resilient.

Image courtesy of interviewee