Archive for March, 2009
March 31, 2009 · Filed under Artificial Landscapes, Cities from Scratch, Creative Cities, Density, Diversity, Master Planning, Urbanization
This is not a scientific statement by any means, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that every universe pretty much gets just one big bang.
However, architecture and planning (both professions in which I have some experience) generally are practiced as if the opposite was the case. Not in a literal sense, of course. It isn’t like we walk around our offices worrying about celestial events. Yet we are clearly entranced with the possibility of using our arts to magically sweep aside - all at once - every wrong that we see before us; replacing entire cities and neighborhoods with little mini-novas of creative destruction. The Big Bang model of urban planning – where existing matter is rubbed out, the new stuff is all good, everything is pre-decided, and the outcome inexorable. It’s very mechanistic.
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Popularity: 29% [?]
March 31, 2009 · Filed under Planning, Suburbs, Urban Structure
Virginia is taking aim at one of the most enduring symbols of suburbia: the cul-de-sac.
The state has decided that all new subdivisions must have through streets linking them with neighboring subdivisions, schools and shopping areas. State officials say the new regulations will improve safety and accessibility and save money: No more single entrances and exits onto clogged secondary roads. Quicker responses by emergency vehicles. Lower road maintenance costs for governments.
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Popularity: 18% [?]
March 31, 2009 · Filed under Creative Cities, Highways, Industrial, Infrastructure, Investment, Real Estate, Revitalization
The country has fallen on hard times, but those of us who love cities know we have been living in the dark ages for a while now. We know that turning things around will take more than just pouring money into shovel-ready projects, regardless of how they might boost the economy. Windmills won’t do it either. We long for a bold urban vision.
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Popularity: 37% [?]
March 31, 2009 · Filed under Ecosystems, Heritage, Landscape, Nature
This is how Robin Grossinger, a scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, does field work: He drives around town with a stack of 150-year-old sepia-toned photos from local history books, looking for any landmark - a creek, a 200-year-old oak tree - that might be a match. When he finds one, he swerves his car to the side of the road, races through mud when it’s muddy and rain when it’s rainy and parking lots when it’s necessary to document the evidence with a digital camera, and then races back to the car to drive off before someone starts to wonder what he’s doing photographing their strip mall.
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Popularity: 16% [?]
March 30, 2009 · Filed under Campus Planning, Creative Cities, Gentrification, Investment, Real Estate
Harvard’s massive expansion into Allston has had to be slowed down, in part because of the slowing economy. Many in the neighborhood worry that means they’ll be left with a barren landscape for way too long, instead of the mixed use development Harvard has promised. Meanwhile, in another part of the neighborhood, Boston College is battling some of its neighbors over plans to expand on the former Archdiocese Headquarters Campus.
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Popularity: 30% [?]
March 26, 2009 · Filed under Creative Cities, Public Life
People are visiting our galleries and museums at a startling rate. Is it the cafés, the absence of swearing… maybe even the art?
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Popularity: 13% [?]
March 23, 2009 · Filed under Creative Cities, Place making, Social Networks
For urban leaders there’s nothing more disheartening than a big city that’s bleeding talent. At the annual meeting of CEOs for Cities, a nonprofit focused on urban leadership and development, held yesterday in San Diego, the focus on retaining a young and creative workforce topped the agendas of over 100 attendees. Four innovative groups have already succeeded in bringing new talent to local companies, and they’ve managed to launch massive social initiatives within their cities as well. These organizations are creating opportunities for citizen engagement that make their cities more attractive while cultivating new leadership for the future.
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Popularity: 20% [?]
March 23, 2009 · Filed under Architecture, Economics, Real Estate, Tall Buildings
There is a gaping hole where one of the world’s tallest buildings is supposed to go up. The planned 150-story Chicago Spire would be 2,000 feet tall (610 m) if it gets built atop its completed foundation, ranking the tower the tallest in the Western Hemisphere and the sixth-tallest among the world’s planned skyscrapers.
The Spire was supposed to be finished by 2012 and the Irish developer staged a global marketing campaign. Buyers snapped up a third of its 1,194 luxury condominiums priced between $750,000 (514,776 pounds) and $40 million. Ty Warner, creator of the Beanie Baby toys, opted for the top-priced penthouse.
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Popularity: 27% [?]
March 21, 2009 · Filed under Great Streets, Heritage
Grand Concourse, the Bronx’s most famous street, has been compared with Ocean Drive in Miami Beach, because of its concentration of Art Deco and Art Moderne architecture, and the Champs-Élysées in Paris, because of its grand proportions and its emergence from the City Beautiful movement.
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Popularity: 16% [?]
March 21, 2009 · Filed under Creative Cities, Economics, Investment, Public Life, Real Estate, Retail
To most, the ring of hammer on nail as shop windows are boarded up on Britain’s struggling high streets can only mean unemployment and decline. But for a growing band of optimists, it heralds a golden opportunity.
Artists and curators have begun colonising “slack space” freed up by the recession and are transforming vacant shops into “creative squats”, galleries and studios.
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Popularity: 21% [?]
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