BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — A heavily forested Burnham Park and an orderly Session Road of a Bicentennial Baguio in 2109 could be credited to a think tank, that has been tapped to continue the legacy plans of the summer capitals’ original designer, Chicago architect Daniel Burnham.

Mayor Reinaldo Bautista Jr. announced on Wednesday that he was relying on the output of “E-cademe,” a loosely organized think tank composed of experts from seven universities and two national high schools here.

Speaking at a summit dedicated to Burnham Park’s upgrade, Bautista said the E-cademe has outlined unconventional solutions to Baguio’s urban decay, using its researches.

After studying the park, for example, both Saint Louis University and the University of the Cordilleras have outlined modern landscape designs that remodel the Athletic Bowl, divert vehicular traffic, and replace “invasive plant species” that have dominated the Burnham Park ecology for decades, according to plans presented to the summit.

Cordelia Lacsamana, city parks manager, said a reforested Burnham Park should elevate its status to an urban forest similar to how Central Park serves as ecological center for New York City.

Bautista said E-cademe has also started collating surveys of downtown traffic, the pedestrian behavior of the city’s primary business district, and pollution indexes to enable them to promote the conversion of Session Road into a pedestrian mall.

“This way, local businesses can be assured that business traffic would be drawn away from SM City Baguio (which is located atop Luneta Hill) and returned to them,” he said.

E-cademe was formed to promote the clean air programs financed by the United States Agency for International Development 2008.

Alec Mapalo, who acts as the group’s action officer, said “E” stood for environment. He said the prospects of advocating green energy, green architecture and clean-air programs have drawn the interest of other universities here, including the University of the Philippines Baguio, University of Baguio, Cordillera Colleges, Baguio Central University and Benguet State University, as well as the Baguio City National High School and Pines City National High School.

These schools will share their research facilities and help reshape Baguio’s development plans by introducing environmental and economically rational concepts, Mapalo said.

UP Baguio, for example, operates the Cordillera Studies Center, which has vast historical and anthropological studies about the city.