Street and city

Street tree

Timelessurban trees · avenue tree · árbol de calle (Spanish)

acera plaza park parking schoolyard

A tree planted on the sidewalk, the median or the plaza as part of the city’s infrastructure.

Solves

What it solves

It gives shade, lowers air temperature and retains part of the rainwater. In the tropics it turns an unbearable street at midday into a walkable place.

Today

Choose native species adapted to the site, with a broad crown and roots that do not lift the paving. Plant in a continuous row so the shade accompanies the whole route.

Common mistake

Planting small trees in tiny pits of compacted soil, where they never manage to give shade and end up breaking the sidewalk.

Tomorrow

In a hotter climate tree shade is public health infrastructure. Choosing native species that flower and fruit turns each street into a corridor for birds and insects between parks.

Fact Large shade trees can lower local air temperature by 3 to 5 °C.

Where it comes from

1Maurya Empire India, 3rd century BC
Emperor Ashoka recorded in an edict that he ordered banyan trees planted along the roads to shade people and animals.
2Mughal Empire road from Lahore to Agra, 17th century
Under Emperor Jahangir, broadleaf trees were planted along the great road of northern India.
3Europe Paris and other walled cities, of diffuse origin
Boulevards were born as tree-lined promenades on top of demolished old city walls.

Masters

Frederick Law Olmsted Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, United States, 1874
Together with Calvert Vaux he laid out the first great boulevard with green strips and rows of trees for walking in the shade. He coined the word parkway and showed the tree as the structure of the street.

Appears in the routes

Sources