An opening at SFAA

Finally, after months of walking by and wondering what it looks like open, here it is....Storefront for Art and Architecture....open.

On FDR, East River developments and Ousourroff...

I'm just catching up with the writing now...really, great discussion from John Massengale who writes about the suburbanization of NYC and removing the blight that is FDR and Miss Representation on trying to uncover the "true" design intent behind the East River development.

Beyond Jacobs

We had a bit of a debate this morning over yesterday's Ouroussoff NYTimes article about the East River waterfront proposal. There are some who go back to the (now) tired old argument that design critics are too aesthetically-driven, leaving the function and use of the space untended to. OK, we've heard that song before. The rest of us (me included) were simply puzzled by Ouroussoff's writing.

Let's really think about this: isn't Ouroussoff setting up a false truth? A Jacobian legacy doesn't immediately connote sentimentality and nostalgia. She was an activist in her day, and she didn't necessarily prefer one design to another. Mostly, she worried that neighborhoods were not being thought about with the lense of people and the attendent uses, comfort, sociability, etc were being forgone in the name of what her opponents called "modern."

What Ouroussoff wrote in complimenting the proposal was completely in line with Jacobs:

"Even as it celebrates the city's underbelly, it weaves it into the surrounding neighborhoods with remarkable sensitivity. The plan shows how a series of small interventions, when thoughtfully conceived, can have a more meaningful impact on daily life than an unwieldy urban development scheme."

If Ourossoff wanted people to stop paying attention to sentimentality, why continue to evoke an outdated notion about Jacobs? Come on - of course young designers have innovative ideas about what it takes to make a city great, and they're best suited to come up with small interventions rather than large civic projects. After all, they're used to making a lot out of not very much at all.

Jacobs ideas were about innovation and change, not accepting the status quo destruction that was so quickly happening around her. We can continue to live that legacy of embracing change and imbue that mentality with a humanist perspective, only we've got to move beyond the false duality of to preserve or not. There is no time to argue about sentimentality - can we just talk about what works?

See PPS for the official opinion, where you can comment too. Or comments welcome here!

The north end of Union Square

Photo by www.laneyb.com

I guess I've been doing a bit of NYC focused things lately. I went to the Union Square BID annual meeting a couple mornings ago, and there, heard mentioned off-handedly that Van Valkenburgh Associates is working on tweaking their design of the north side of the Square (which will not be shown to the community board?!). Iris Weinshall, Commissioner of NYCDOT was also there, and she mentioned that DOT was doing a study on the transportation of the site. (Kudos to Union Square by the way - it's come a LONG way. Some of the statistics they flashed were amazing - over 1.1 million people use the transit station underground each week; 30,000 people walk through the south side of the square each day; and 100,000 people visit Whole Foods every week, advance apologizes if I'm missing a digit or two, it was kind of early.)

At no time did either party say that they were aware of the other's study, or that they were interested in collaborating with each other. Am I missing something, or does it seem obvious that they should?

The Fear Factor

"Given the slippery nature of the threat, the security debate at the Freedom Tower should move beyond architectural design."

Yes. True of all buildings beyond the Freedom Tower.

NYC: Incapable of "big projects"?

A journalist tried to provoke me the other day by suggesting that New York City didn't have the conviction, determination, savvy, smarts, and even guts to push through a "big project." By big project, he meant a stadium, or a modern architectural wonder, anything, anything, dear god, that would show the world once and for all that New York City, the city of big egos, can build something as big as it talks. There is definitely an undertone among architectural circles that there isn't any "good" new architecture in New York City.

We have to get away from this big mentality. What's so great with always shooting for the big? The big projects take the largest amount of resources for the smallest amount of immediate, and in many cases, long term, gratification and benefits. Given the long length of time that they require for the building process, they tend to fall short of meeting the needs of realities in the future year when they are finally realized.

Regardless, I think NYC has succeeded at things bigger than big projects. Big projects tend to serve the interests of a narrow band of privileged people. I think the bigger challenges are to serve more people with fewer resources, something NYC has been successful at doing.

As a city of small cities, towns, villages and neighborhoods, NYC has improved the ability of the smallest micro-neighborhoods to succeed and become destinations in their own right. Crime rates are down, schools are undergoing an experiment in improvement, property values are going up, and people are investing in the city economically and socially. There are more people coming to the city now who stay in the city because it is a good place to live. I have spoken to countless taxi drivers who thought they would leave once they made their foundation, only to find themselves being able to carve out a good life in the city. Check out the Mayor's Management Report. (Sure, it's election year, so all the more reason to find out what he's trying to sell.)

Eminent domain reigns preeminent

Devastating ruling from the Supreme Court on a case from Connecticut. The Court ruled that local governments have the right to seize private property to make room for any development even if it does not have a clear public goal. Sandra Day O'Connor in her dissent:

"Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," she wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms."

Twilight becomes night

I'd like to see this. Sounds like a thoughtful production.

Gentrification vs reinvestment from CNU

Gentrification is a complicated issue: definitions abound and the topic is one that brings out the most impassioned diatribes about how neighborhoods should develop. Discussions easily lead to polarizaion. Here's CNU president John Norquist's perspective.

The thing is, gentrification as used to denote the outpacing of neighborhood improvements against conservation of existing positive aspects of the neighborhood, bears the blame for too many other broken social systems. (Gentrification is also over-used to generalize, which is really the point of Norquist's op-ed.) Improvement efforts that occur with enlightened developers, through asset-based community development, through collaborative city agencies, through a partnership between the neighborhood and the city, are typically perceived as the exception to the norm. There isn't a comprehensive system to recognize indigenous neighborhood assets, to protect, integrate and utilize those assets for positive improvement. But there isn't one single way that a neighborhood should be improved either.

Gehry garners CNU award for Urban Design

(Thank you John Massengale for the very appropriate image!)

Huh?

Read all about it at City Comforts.

The High Cost of Low Price

Robert Greenwald (producer/director of Outfoxed and Uncovered) will release a new documentary, The High Cost of Low Price, on Wal-Mart's far-reaching negative impact on communities throughout the world. Stacy Mitchell, a senior researcher with the New Rules Project writes:

"Local and state governments have provided billions of dollars in tax breaks to fund big box development. Tax policies in many states allow national retailers to avoid paying much of their income tax, while local businesses must shoulder their full share. Wal-Mart and other chains have also benefited enomously ... from a host of policies that subsidize sprawl at the expense of older business districts."

From Lisa Smithkline, an organizer working with Brave New Films, Greenwald's production company:

"The issues aren't right or left -- they cross all the usual barriers, uniting communities that simply ask Wal-Mart to respect their residents and businesses. From gasoline retailers who ask Wal-Mart to play fair without using predatory pricing practices, to family business owners who ask for cities to provide the same tax incentives and a fair playing field. Workers, teachers, mothers, students, independent newspapers, manufacturers, and members of every faith tradition have united in an unprecedented and creative campaign to offer Wal-Mart the opportunity to negotiate a fair place in their communities."

Turning up the heat on Wal-Mart - AlterNet
Taking On a Giant (Whistleblowers Welcome) - NY Times
Wal-Mart Focus of Documentary-Cum-Indictment - theboxtank

Chasing the American dream

There's a facsinating NY Times series on class running right now. Yesterday's article highlights upper-middle class "relocation specialists" - people who move for the sake of the job and lifestyle, people who seem to have it all, yet still remain dissatisfied. Of the family profiled,

"The Links are the first to say they have not really found a way to make their Alpharetta life work. They found good schools, safe streets, neighbors they like and a big house and a yard. But they did not count on the grueling traffic, on how far away everything seems, on how much is asked of volunteers to sustain the community, or on the stresses of a breadwinner's travels. They have no deep connections here, no old friends, no parents to sit for their children."

What's interesting to me is how the physical characteristics of their daily lifestyle - suburb of Atlanta, suburban housing developments - has inhibited their ability to build meaningful social capital.

I'm not talking about the mere act of relocating. I'm thinking about what happens when these people move, what they have to do when they get there. I'm thinking about the milk run, the school run, the soccer run, the bible study run, the tennis club run - all those daily little trips that this family has to make. Fundamentally, it seems that these relos are placeless though they try desperately to root themselves to whatever community they live in. Our transportation and land use decisions have become barriers to the Links' ability to fulfill, in its entirety, the life that they seek.

Store Wars

A new release...Store Wars
(from the people who brought you the Meatrix)

DestiNY where the sun doesn't shine

Grist uncovers a new entirely green shopping mall development, DestiNY, built to be dependent on solar-power, and yet planned for the fairly unsunny region of Syracuse, NY. (I know because I grew up there).

While all of it sounds good and makes for great publicity, much like a Made in Hollywood couple a la Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, don't you wonder why these well-intentioned people won't just put their time in resources in something more meaningful. There's really no need for more malls in Syracuse - what it needs is some care, collaboration and nurturing in its downtowns. Montreal experiences nearly the same weather patterns and there are people outdoors for much of the year.

Also, when this structure is completely powered by sun, what happens when the region experiences one of its many long streches without sun? Why not just take all the government backing and invest in the downtown and making it more walkable and accessible? I guarantee that people will go downtown even when the sun doesn't shine.

Cities aren't doing as well as you think

"Two major things need to happen in order for cities to be saved. First, they must undertake a CAT scan of sorts, which would reveal, underneath the glossy exterior of arts centers and arenas and hip downtowns, the reality of lost jobs, dysfunctional schools, and crumbling infrastructure. Second, they need to acquire the political will to attack these issues head-on despite the inevitable roadblocks."

In his latest article in the New Republic (registration required), Joel Kotkin isn't nearly as dire as Mike Davis, contrary to what the title would have you believe.

Update on Seattle Public Library

The library seems to be holding up well. I was happy to learn that the librarians were heavily involved with the design of the space. There are some minor cosmetic issues due to the high volume of users (8,000 daily visitors on average), but nothing super major. It's still early yet, but this building's programming (uses and activities) will definitely help it survive the test of time.

Busy week

We've been busy with events this past week, so I have had no time to post at all. In fact, the participants were telling me about news in New York...and that's how I found out about Trump and the WTC, sad to say. (I did manage to get Jane Jacobs' letter up, below.)

People from all over the United States and Canada, with a few people from other countries (Denmark, the Netherlands, and South Africa) came out to New York the past couple of days. This is my fourth time doing the workshop, and this is the first time that I felt that the notion of "placemaking" is mainstream, or at least, it's no longer a lone "voice in the wilderness" as someone else put it.

Yeah, yeah, transportation people are into it (if by words only), as well as the predictable developers and architects who are after resorts and lifestyle centers.

But the idea is fully resonating with people less obvious - those working in affordable housing, the people looking out for seniors, designers hoping to move away from graphic and product design for corporations and get more involved with helping communities through design, and librarians. The ideas are acceptable, not "hippy," and these are the people who are active users and shapers in their communities, not just builders of the physical environment. These people are wondering how to work with their government and with the professionals.

What does this mean for my microscopic world? I want to get us on Oprah!

Letter from Jane Jacobs to Mayor Bloomberg and City Council

From Brooklyn Rails:

Letter to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council
May 2005

Flowers trump towers at the Brooklyn Waterfront Festival, April 24, 2005.

BR Ed.’s note: The following is a letter written by Jane Jacobs to Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council about the rezoning of the Williamsburg-Greenpoint waterfront. As modified during the May 2nd negotiations between the Bloomberg administration and the council’s Land Use Committee, the plan now calls for some industrial retention and makes nonbinding, incentive-based provisions for affordable housing. Jacobs’s key point about the contradiction between the rezoning and the goals of each community’s 197-A plan remains valid, however. Here is the entire letter.

April 15, 2005
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and all members of the City Council
c/o City Council President Gifford Miller

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

My name is Jane Jacobs. I am a student of cities, interested in learning why some cities persist in prospering while others persistently decline; why some provide social environments that fulfill the dreams and hopes of ambitious and hardworking immigrants, but others cruelly disappoint the hopes of immigrant parents that they have found an improved life for their children. I am not a resident of New York although most of what I know about cities I learned in New York during the almost half-century of my life here after I arrived as an immigrant from an impoverished Pennsylvania coal mining town in 1934.

I am pleased and proud to say that dozens of cities, ranging in size from London to Riga in Latvia, have found the vibrant success and vitality of New York to demonstrate useful and helpful lessons for their cities—and have realized that failures in New York are worth study as needed cautions.

Let’s think first about revitalization successes; they are great and good teachers. They don’t result from gigantic plans and show-off projects, in New York or in other cities either. They build up gradually and authentically from diverse human communities; successful city revitalization builds itself on these community foundations, as the community-devised plan 197a does.

What the intelligently worked out plan devised by the community itself does not do is worth noticing. It does not destroy hundreds of manufacturing jobs, desperately needed by New York citizens and by the city’s stagnating and stunted manufacturing economy. The community’s plan does not cheat the future by neglecting to provide provisions for schools, daycare, recreational outdoor sports, and pleasant facilities for those things. The community’s plan does not promote new housing at the expense of both existing housing and imaginative and economical new shelter that residents can afford. The community’s plan does not violate the existing scale of the community, nor does it insult the visual and economic advantages of neighborhoods that are precisely of the kind that demonstrably attract artists and other live-work craftsmen, initiating spontaneous and self-organizing renewal. Indeed so much renewal so rapidly that the problem converts to how to make an undesirable neighborhood to an attractive one less rapidly.

Of course the community’s plan does not promote any of the vicious and destructive results mentioned. Why would it? Are the citizens of Greenpoint and Williamsburg vandals? Are they so inhumane they want to contrive the possibility of jobs for their neighbors and for the greater community?

Surely not. But the proposal put before you by city staff is an ambush containing all those destructive consequences, packaged very sneakily with visually tiresome, unimaginative and imitative luxury project towers. How weird, and how sad, that New York, which has demonstrated successes enlightening to so much of the world, seems unable to learn lessons it needs for itself. I will make two predictions with utter confidence. 1. If you follow the community’s plan you will harvest a success. 2. If you follow the proposal before you today, you will maybe enrich a few heedless and ignorant developers, but at the cost of an ugly and intractable mistake. Even the presumed beneficiaries of this misuse of governmental powers, the developers and financiers of luxury towers, may not benefit; misused environments are not good long-term economic bets.

Come on, do the right thing. The community really does know best.

Sincerely,
Jane Jacobs

*This is too good to be true...is it real? Thanks Teresa!

What does City mean?

Kotkin laments the loss of the middle class in San Francisco, and reads its loss as the result of the growth of upscale bars and boutiques - the ephemeral city. Cities are definitely changing, isn't that why we're spending time writing about them? This romanticized lamentation, though, seems to be a moot point.

John King answers back, reading the shifting city as just another evolution in urban development. He's not accepting it as good necessarily - he just notes the change as complex and stimulated by factors beyond the city's boundaries.

"Take the loss of dockworkers: Burly laborers weren't chased from the waterfront by the folks running that silly caviar bar at the Ferry Building; they're the victims of the shipping industry's shift from loose cargo to sealed containers in the 1960s."

And ephemerality? I can't think of another institution pushing ephemerality more to the middle class than those national chain theme restaurants and stores that you see everywhere not in cities throughout the United States. Applebee's, Pizza Hut, Ruby Tuesdays, TGIFriday, Outback Steakhouse, Starbuck's - the list goes on and one. Our nation's landscape has become eerily recognizable anywhere you go.

At least the city's restaurants - theme parks, if you must - are more human-made, and not so dominated by the projection of a single culture defined by corporations.

Also see theboxtank's comments.

"Restoring Neighborhoods, Rebuilding the market"

photo by Jasper Goldman, Manhattan Skyline from Greenpoint/Williamsburg waterfront

A great article with strategies for directing investment in "blighted" neighborhoods.

To mull over with the rezoning of the Brooklyn waterfront...

What place for Design(ers)?

John Kaliski writes in the Harvard Design Magazine, "the planning discourses of everyday life and professional plans for the form of the metropolis gradually become one. “Everyday” people are asked to consume and form opinions about everything from large-scale infrastructural decisions to tot lot beautification. Information is posted online and citizens—particularly those that are obsessed—know that armed with this data they too can be experts. Even with the consequent focus on the local and the self-interested, this process nevertheless sets up the planner to play a key facilitation and brokering role. This is not easy given the microscopic viewpoint of much of the citizenry, but it is possible, even as it demands new planning practices and frameworks, in essence the construction of a “New Planning” for consensus building and decision-making."

Kaliski is patronizing about the viewpoints of the "citizenry" but nonetheless, he's right that designers do have a new role, as does design.

Landscape Magazine pulled together PPS and representatives from the landscape architecture community in Seattle to discuss the relevance of design in the revitalization of a derelict Seattle Park. Probably one of the first times the two sides went face to face.

On point about L.A.

Sam Hall Kaplan delivers.

Great Places, great ideas

Tom Vilsak, the governor of Iowa, signed an executive order establishing The Iowa Great Places Initiative. "In short, this process will pick three visionary plans for transforming and enhancing Iowa "Great Places" and then put $12-20M worth of state departmental money at the dispoal of the winners to bring these ideas to fruition."

"Great Places" is designed to make good places great by bringing together the resources of state government to build capacity in communities, regions, neighborhoods or districts that cultivate the unique and authentic qualities that make places special: engaging experiences; rich, diverse populations & cultures; a vital, creative economy; clean and accessible natural and built environments; well-designed infrastructure; and a shared attitude of optimism that welcomes new ideas, based on a diverse and inclusive cultural mosaic."

Mom and Pop NYC

Thanks to Matt Lipsky from the Neighborhood Retail Alliance for forwarding me the new blog and web site about small businesses in New York, Mom and Pop NYC. From his message:

"On the blog we will be commenting on various New York City political issues especially as they relate to neighborhood-based small business and community character. On our website you’ll see our history of fighting for the interests of small business including our recent campaigns against Wal-Mart and to preserve the Bronx Terminal Market."

Definitely a worthy read - this group does great work.

Musings: Fringe culture in real estate hubs

Last weekend was the one when everyone decided to hold events, so we found ourselves going from one place to another in the city. First we hit The Tank for some hyper-alternative comedy courtesy of Tremendous Rabbit and the Weiner Philharmonic. Then we went out to East Williamsburg where an loft/resident/performance space hosted a night of electro-punk music. The next night we went to a classical music concert at a high school on Irving Place.

Culture aside, the places themselves were fascinating. The Tank, housed in a former gas station, is currently under threat of losing its space because development of Times Square is quickly spilling over to the edge of the island. Not surprising, really, though sad as it is one of the hipper spots in midtown. Out in Williamsburg, a few people live in the loft space full-time, but perhaps for a cut in rent, they put up with 50 or so people listening to loud music and hanging out in their living room on weekends. We were told this is an "illegal" loft (a la Williamsburg-Bedford stop in the 1980s), but the only illegal aspect I could fathom is that they collected money at the door and we had to pay for our drinks. Otherwise, it could be any standard college party.

Finally, a switcharound - a somewhat dying culture in a hot area. The Irving High School hosts the Peoples' Symphony Concerts. It's well known that classical music audiences decrease dramatically every year, so it was nice that we could go listen to some avant-garde music performed by eight blackbird just down the street from Irving Plaza (where the line snaked around the corner).

Potential for Lower Manhattan, in spite of LMDC

Nicolai Ouroussoff writes in today's Times:

"...the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has steadfastly refused to open up discussion on the site's overall organization. Not only has it sought to prevent the architects from speaking publicly about their ideas, according to several architects interviewed, but it has also warned them against sharing their ideas with one another, saying that this would be a breach of their confidentiality agreements.

...This constitutes an enormous squandering of talent, as well as a total disregard for how the creative process unfolds. And it has essentially shut the public out of the process."

I have to agree, though I think the flaw in the design process started even earlier, with the selection of the architects and in planning out the rebuilding. With this clamp down on information sharing -- especially as it becomes ever more critical that the larger group focuses on needs of future tenants, programming, uses, etc -- it's hard to understand why any of the designers were initially chosen (outside of their brand names, of course).

It's good to see that there is some desire to collaborate - now, if only they could.

When a neighborhood becomes popular

There is the story of gentrification in New York, increasingly complicated by many factors. I'll give the back of the cereal box version: the intensifying dirth of affordable housing for a larger swathe of people, not just for low-income households; immigration patterns, which of late show that new immigrants who traditionally moved out of the city once they got a foothold are now staying in the city to take advantage of its services and amenities provided by either the city or de facto by communities; and shifting local economic development patterns.

Our neighborhoods are changing - quickly and for everybody.

And community organizing reflects this change. Where once upon a time it was the old school community organizers that tried to either shut out the "artist", "hipster," you-name-the-trendy-group, we're witnessing newer groups adopting the same goals but in a very different way.

Take Williamsburg, for example. I don't know why the Village Voice's article "Discovering Williamsburg" is news, since the community has been collaborating since at least 1990 to stem the tide of gentrification that came with their success in turning back the tides of disinvestment from the 1970's, and people on the Southside have been worried for decades. Now, in addition to the traditional community organizing groups, St. Nicholas Neighborhood Preservation Corporation, Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning, the Southside Mission, the People's Firehouse, the North Brooklyn Alliance, among many many others, there's the Williamsburg Warriors taking charge of a very different form of community organizing. (Is that why it's news?)

I don't know the Lower East Side as well, but in addition to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, the LES BID, the Lower East Side People's Federal Credit Union, among many, many others, there is now LOCO.

These groups - Williamsburg Warriers, LOCO - are onto something I really really like. They have to take the history and traditions of community organizing that probably came out of the 1970s movements and couple them with the new - ways of accounting for new people, of growing local businesses, of dealing with new symptons of success, such as movie shoots. They're new resources for these neighborhoods which have been a little stuck. They can sometimes come up with innovative ways of dealing with standard problems (check out the YIMBY post from yesterday).

I wonder how much of the older organizers efforts affected the formation of the new, though I very much hope that the new groups share the limelight with other like-minded organizations in their neighborhood.

YIMBY!!!

= YES in my backyard.

The Park Slope Neighbors group negotiates with Commerce Bank to change its design. Back in December, the group found the original proposed design horrible and unacceptable for the neighborhood (very Micky D's). At first, it seemed like it would be a case of NIMBY, but since then, the group decided to go with a more positive approach: it said that it would embrace the bank's presence if it changed its design to be less strip mall and more in context with the Park Slope neighborhood. Yeah for YIMBY.

The bank agreed. A new design was released. Great press was generated. Park Slope Neighbors transferred its account to the Commerce Bank!!

THE END

Endpaper: The design is still bank-y, but at least the entrance and overall structure are more transparent and geared towards pedestrians, a vast improvement over the original fast food drive-thru model. Customer parking is in the back, instead of the front.

Undulating curves in Astor Place

under construction, via wirednewyork.com

Gawker is the snarkiest one of them all, and that's why its take on the Astor Place sculpture-architecture is so indulgently enjoyable.

Paul Goldberger mentions how the building would meet the street:

"where the squat limestone base tries too hard to fit into the surrounding streets"

but I wish he would fill out the thought some more, even a paragraph more. His comments about the structure feel right though, as I look at the cheesy reflective glass everytime I walk through Astor Place.

Conventions, arenas, you name it

An article on sports arenas and a round-up of some of the newest developments around the country. For a good analysis on New York City region arenas, check out Miss Representation's version.

And for those who want a little bit more substance, a City Journal article on the economics of convention centers. Bottom line? Convention centers do not improve local economies.

...and why parts of Brooklyn are just terrible

from the Greensward Foundation

On one of the past few beautiful Sunday's, we made our way to Prospect Park. The walk from the Q train up Flatbush Avenue was pleasant enough, (though we did not even think about crossing the street as Flatbush was rather daunting, with its racing traffic, inconvenient crosswalks and multiple lanes of two way traffic) but when we got to Grand Army Plaza, "the grandest of park entryways in New York City's answer to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris," we became muddled and then very annoyed.

The park entrance is within sight - the most obvious thing is to walk directly through the roundabout where the Arch is. Yet that was impossible - there was no facilitation (crosswalks, pedestrian signals) to do so. To get to the park entrance, the crosswalks told us to walk all the way around the archway and cross five wide streets. The "grand" archway is not an entrance - it's an obstacle!

Whatever happened to Grand Army Plaza? Some old photographs show that it was always paved (initially with cobblestones?) and with cars on it too, but perhaps for much slower moving carriages. What has happened, it seems, is that this beautiful entrance has been totally given over to facilitating thru-traffic, without any consideration for other types of traffic - pedestrians and bikers, other than keeping them away from cars. Whoever made the decision didn't seem to notice the Brooklyn Public Library at the corner, or the Prospect Park's main entranceway, both of which don't allow cars inside. From what I remember, Paris' Arc de Triomphe was similarly addled. That's why you enjoy it from a distance.

I'm sure this issue been played out over and over again - and people living near Prospect Park learn to put up with it because the Park itself is so lovely, and well worth the trip. I know people not living in Manhattan drive more, and are underserved by public transit. Still, that's no reason to continue to give drivers complete right-of-way and not look out for bikers and pedestrians, especially at such critical pedestrian destinations.

Why we love Brooklyn

Walker Evans, FORTUNE, November 1960

Because it isn't Manhattan! New York Metro's cover story on new development in Brooklyn is dead on:

"It shouldn’t take towers along the waterfront to recenter our mental maps of New York on the East River, not at Central Park. Brooklyn is already different, inextricably linked, but equal. It shouldn’t be back-office territory, but front-office space for smaller businesses."

Unconventionality becomes cliche

Roger K. Lewis takes on form freaks.

I don't know about the actual discussion about triangular geometry and all of that, but it does seem that when trendiness takes over, the idea can only die out all the more quickly. That is the nature of trends (think about last season's ubiquitous poncho!). But a building sticks around for a long long time...

Flag Wars

PBS's "Flag Wars," a movie about the gentrification of Olde Towne East (I think) in Columbus, Ohio, sounds fascinating, and unfortunately, I missed it. Please air again!

This USA Today article has some nice comments from people on the street...but what's up with that last factor about religion?

Space Available

The Brookings Institute takes on conventional wisdom about convention centers.

Sports stadiums hopefully up next?

Morning coffee creating extra congestion

Coffee shop at train station in Taipei

The Washington Post reports on a new study by the FHWA on how extra trips to the coffee shop before going to work has increased traffic congestion. The study gives examples of how businesses choose to locate depending on commuter vehicular traffic flow and more men, instead of women, are making daily short trips for a single purpose - like getting a cup of coffee.

What isn't discussed is that perhaps people are going out of their way to seek places to gather and simply BE before having to go to the office or work and becoming a worker. Case in point: I just moved closer to my office, and can now walk to work, but I still cherish my morning coffee from the corner coffee stand, not because of his coffee per se (I actually prefer my own at home) but because it's nice to start the day with a friendly exchange and to see some of my fellow pedestrians on the way. I hate to admit it, but Starbucks has brought the pleasure of drinking coffee and sitting in a cafe back to the mainstream.

This is not just about transportation, it's also a community development issue. I think this is more like a Third Place syndrome, and as access to Third Places diminish (e.g., coffee shops, the local pub, the park bench, etc) or just require more travel, this study shows that people will make the trip to fulfill a social craving.

For other cities, how about locating cafes and newspaper stands in public transit hubs? There aren't nearly enough of those amenities at bus and train stations, and both things, while small, make the trip so much more pleasant.

Flatiron ad comes down!

the ultimate scoop courtesy of Curbed.

Public transit accounting

To P.J. O'Rourke's claim that the Minneapolis light rail system was too expensive with its $700 million price tag, and that every citizen might as well lease a BMW SUV for the same price, an industrious ground logistics military officer offers this analysis, which ultimately shows that while public transit would cost taxpayers $17 million per year, BMWs with all its associated costs of ownership and service (parking spaces, highways and roads to drive on, gas, and more...) would cost taxpayers $166 million per year.

via Civic Strategies

More thorough story on Flatiron Building and H&M ad

Preservation Magazine gets the details.

More from New York Times and the NY Daily News.

High cost of parking

Donald Shoup has loads of statistics to share in his recent book, the "High Cost of Free Parking," all of which are surprisingly interesting to read. For drivers everywhere, parking is a paramount issue, and municipalities have tried to accommodate drivers to instituting policies that require parking spaces per something built.

We've been bantering around some much less scientifically founded statistics recently, just based on presentations we've seen or what we heard talking to transportation engineers. For example:

the number of parking spaces per car in Seattle - 8
the percent of land in average size cities paved by asphalt - 50%
the subsidy per parking space in Midtown Manhattan - $18
(feel free to dispute these claims)

There are working alternatives to providing parking and braving the anger of irate drivers. Missoula, Montana has a terrific parking management program. Instead of subsidizing parking (which they've calculated to cost the city $20,000 per space), they poured their resources into transit incentives, employee transit card subsidies, even picking up the cab fare if you're stuck somewhere and transit doesn't get you back to where you want to go. It's called Missoula in Motion, and I love it.

Find yourself a cup o' joe

To help you fend off the convenience of that Starbucks coffee around the corner, the Delocator finds independent coffee shops close by, based on your zip code. While it remains a mystery how the listings are organized (certainly not by distance, at any rate) this is a handy little tool to help you stay local.

Google satellite and Craig

We spent hours looking at old addresses, childhood homes, and neighborhoods of farflung family members on Google Maps last week, but this combination of Craigslist apartment postings and Google maps turns it a critical application.

Wow. I always felt Google and Craigslist were kickass. Thanks be to the hacker that figured out to combine the two.

RVs getting around affordable housing

Unable to afford to buy a home close to their jobs, people in the Washington DC area are now sinking money into a RV and paying monthly rent on space in a RV park.

If that's not depressing enough, there is a recent report that homebuyer's investment for the future could be less an investment than they thought. It shows how escalating real estate prices have spawned appraisal and re-financing fraud, putting homeowners at risk. Is this a bubble, or are all the real estate service companies collaborating (even indirectly) to make money off of hopeful home owners?

City Countil threatens to block Williamsburg-Greenpoint rezoning proposal

...and THAT's is why I love the Williamsburg-Greenpoint community. The community will not go down without a serious fight, and they're organized.

The comprehensive plan completed through 10 years of collaboration with community stakeholders and city government was scraped for this recent Department of City Planning proposal. I have yet to see a reason why the community's plan was originally rejected. Or why the Department took it upon themselves to come up with a plan on their own. How about involving the community, tweaking the plan they've already invested in, if economic pressures indeed have changed? This process doesn't have to be as painful as it has become.

Moved in

On the homefront, we traded a beautiful place in a great neighborhood, though somewhat remote, for a smaller though nice place in a much more central location. Actually, the new location is where we always wished we could live, but now that we're here, it's interesting what we miss. This coming year is going to be a big experiment.

Moving today

...enough said.

For some serious news, visit Planetizen or read this posting on Megachurches at theboxtank.

For some fun, check out Faking Places from Project for Phony Spaces.

Back on Monday!

Immigration and Open Public Space

There's been a lot of speculation that immigrant communities are more adept and better at using public spaces, in whatever condition they may be, to create vibrant places. Examples abound, from the Chinatown public markets to Latino soccer tournaments in fields long overlooked by city parks departments.

The Barr Foundation just released this report, focused primarily on Boston, on immigration and open public spaces. It is the first step in understanding how individuals who have many more challenges in becoming part of a new society improve the very place where they're treated as strangers.

"Advertecture" under fire

The Flatiron Building was issued 9 violations today by the Department of Buildings for its huge H&M ad. (courtesy of the Municipal Art Society)

Last moments at the Fulton Fish Market

I first visited the Fulton Fish Market last fall with a public markets expert who could point out all the intricacies of the economics of running the place. Those details have faded, but the experience of being at the market - all the different fishes, the friendliness of the fish sellers, the loudness of their selling - is unforgettable.

newyorkmetro.com's great last images of Fulton Fish Market.

Bronx Terminal Market ...terminated for economic development pipe dream

[I'm sorry not to post this earlier, but it's still important.] We were aghast by the news reported in last week's Village Voice article about the Bronx Terminal Market giving all its vendors the boot to make way for another big box economic development initiative.

"Tenants were notified on March 4 that they have until the end of the month to accept a buyout package and relocation to separate sites around the borough—or face immediate eviction."

This market is pivotal to the daily life of New Yorkers - it supplies produce and dry goods for the hundreds of thousands of small business owners who are then able to keep their prices affordable for the less-privileged citizens of the city.

The market vendors essentially provide access for millions of New Yorkers. And the vendors are not exactly small scale business people. One operates out of a 50,000 sq ft "store" in the market.

Bloomberg calls the market an "eyesore" and the neighborhood "blighted." I just don't think a Target and other big box developments are the answer to jumpstarting the economy. Those chains simply do not invest back into the city, and their presence in the city is often predicated on some tax breaks in the first place.

The Bronx market vendors, however, do give back. Instead of looking through the lens of the "burning neighborhoods" 1970s New York, Bloomberg should think about improving the market for all the people that it serves, the people of New York.

On comtemporary architecture in China

www.metropolismag.com

I haven't gotten to the article yet with my Metropolis Magazine, but this is a very thoughtful way of putting it (via Life Without Buildings).

There has been so much hype about the brand name architects lately that the article was simply a pleasure to read. I tried to find out more about the Chair of the Architecture Association in Shanghai and some of the city planners after last month's Harpers article about Shanghai in Harper's but didn't get too far. (And that article isn't online, I'm sorry to say). In the article, one of the city's planners was advocating for a more human scale, rather than huge mega-projects. He was worried that people wouldn't be able to walk from place to place. Worth reading if you can get your hands on a copy.

Advertecture!

I'm not an advocate of smooshed words, but this one sure does sum this up! (via Curbed.com)

Jane Jacobs invoked in vain over West Side

Speaking on behalf a proposal for the West Side Stadium plan, Alex Krieger, the head of Harvard's GSD, invoked Jane Jacobs, claimed her as a mentor and asserted that his proposal most closely matched her ideals.

People love to invoke Jane Jacobs to support some idea that has "mixed-use" and "public space." An intrepid reporter, Will Doig (who also wrote another story I posted a few months ago, and for which I got my first nasty comment) from New York Magazine got to the bottom of this, and managed to talk to Jacobs herself.

“The Harvard School of Design has never been much of a mentor of mine.” Why? “They’ve never respected the city street or the vitality of cities. They got terribly fond of Le Corbusier,” whose tower-in-a-park planning theories are anathema to Jacobs. “And it’s never really worn off.”

Her final quote said it all:

"That’s an awful way to use valuable land in Manhattan."

Lack of posts

This spring has brought a lot of changes, so I apologize for not posting as much as I should be. We're moving homes this week, after the office move just two weeks ago, so please bear with me. There is something irresistible though; it'll be up in a minute.

"Live free or die of boredom"

Provocative editorial from the February 2005 Reason Magazine.

Disappearing parking in NYC

...hopefully translates into disappearing cars. This article talks about parking lot owners selling to developers.

I recently saw a presentation that turned the idea of "parking as a right" into "parking as a privilege." It was given by a professor at a university in Vienna, and to make his point, he showed pictures of parking rates in parking lots in Manhattan, and then showed what it cost to park on the street. (His agenda is that streets should be given more to pedestrians with wider sidewalks, and public transit, rather than private cars). What do land use policy makers think of this?

Thom Mayne and the Pritzker Prize

According to the Hyatt Foundation, the purpose of the Pritzker Prize is

"...to honor annually a living architect whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produced consistent and significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture."

Thom Mayne could have pushed beauty, and he obviously has vision and commitment, but looking at how his buildings meet the street, I'm hard pressed to understand how he has made significant contributions to humanity and the built environment.

Enough already of "brooding aggression"!

The Dutch again - no cars in Amsterdam

I loved this, on the new I AMsterdam campaign for Amsterdam, Holland.

The site tries to give visitors a clue, and under CARS, it says,

Do you really want to enter Amsterdam by car? Know what you are getting yourself into... Traffic jams, getting stuck and a testing of your patience.

Not falling for "Guggenheim Economics"

Boy, am I glad that Taichung didn't fall for Guggenheim economics!

And if anyone has visited the Museum of Contemporary Art in Taipei, which features local artists, you can see immediately that there is not a dearth of art in Asia, but perhaps it depends on how one defines "art."

Public votes for architects

In Canada, natch.

Voting takes place between April 1 and July 31, 2005. Anyone can vote, I think.

A New York story

Audubon Building

I've been out of touch lately with a recent office move (kicked) out of a 12 story building in the West Village (which will turn the small former offices of non-profits and child psychologists into multimillion dollar lofts...the place does have views on 6 sides!) into a green building, packing and unpacking, and then a subsequent modem UPS debacle. So, no internet for a few days means lots of backlogging. Hopefully I'll be able to glean quickly and catch up. Back soon!

Have your grass and water it too

So this is what happens when you try to grow grass in the desert. Neveda is the site of the largest growing city in the US - Las Vegas! So the water authority now needs to cope with unsuitable landscaping to keep up with the boom, and has developed an incentive program, Water Smart Landscaping, to motivate homeowners to cooperate. A couple of standouts:

I turned off the water on my grass already and it has started to die. Can I still qualify for the program?

Or how about this:

Won't Water Smart Landscaping make my house hotter and run-up my power bills?
No. Shade is the key to keeping you cool in the desert.

Really.

[Thanks again kayx.]

Fighting against big boxes

Richard Lipsky, lobbyist for the Neighborhood Retail Alliance, is on a roll! He just defeated Wal-Mart's insurgence on the New York economy. I hope it keeps going. I especially like these choice words from him:

...the key is combining a left-wing populist message with a conservative populist one about neighborhood character. [That’s] the music that makes the elected officials want to dance.

[Thanks Chris!]

It's Gerhy alright

What have we come to expect from Frank Gehry - thought-provoking architecture? Or yet another building that requires "fixing" because of its design?

Pauline Saliga, executive director of the Society of Architectural Historians, said she doubted that the changes would drastically alter the hall's look, though she was surprised designers hadn't planned better to prevent an obvious problem such as glare in Los Angeles.

She pointed out that Gehry had to rework another landmark building, the library at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, after snow and ice slid off the curvy, stainless steel roof and crashed onto the sidewalk below.

"Even great architects make mistakes with materials and designs," she said. "I think you just have to admit it and you have to be pragmatic about it and alter that design if necessary. Architecture is a functional art form, so it really does have to function."

Read the rest of the LA Times story.

We found the same thing happening at the Chicago Millenium Park. The center lawn area is closed to use because snow falling off of the grid structure arching over it. And the ramps leading to other areas of the park were closed off because the material was too precious to plow. You can read the full article in next month's Landscape (based in the UK).

[Thanks kayx!]

Toward an Urban Age

I'm still reeling a bit from this past weekend's conference. Some of the more choice juxtapositions between the two forces (mostly paraphrased, not exact):

"It is a shame that Jane Jacobs' work has disconnected the study of cities from cities...she has created an era of hyper-nostalgia which gets in the way of progress." -- Rem Koolhaas

"Jane Jacobs was the first real brave attempt to understand how cities work." -- Michael Sorkin

Or, how about these:

"Communities get in the way of the future, especially for architecture." -- unknown architect

"Neighborhoods prevent the imagination of architecture," Harvard professor of Architecture." -- Hashim Sarkis

vs.

"Neighborhoods are what matter most to New Yorkers, when we ask, and that is what we are trying to keep." -- Amanda Burden (for whom, I have to say, my respect grew), and

"Maybe architecture is about designing for delight, not for the potential gloom." -- Harvey Molotch

Or, how about this final coup de grace,

"Public participation is what prevents city government from getting anything done," Esther Fuchs

vs.

"Community organizing is the only way that we now have city planning trying to come up with innovative solutions." -- Ron Schiffman

Yikes. It was a ping pong game and there was no diplomacy (someone suggested that actually, there was incredible amounts of diplomacy, since there were no physical fistfights.) The New York session is the first conference of a series of six to be held around the country, and at best, it delineated for the group of urban experts the work ahead. Some of the stark differences highlighted include those between theory and practice; between city managers and community organizers; between architecture and planners; between academics and practitioners. Of course, these are the most obvious contrasts, why should this be any different? Certainly, it was a unique conference in that so many influential individuals actually tried to discuss the same topic, but in the end, what they said was not the same topic at all, but just talking past each other.

Yes, a room full of experts showed that cities are complex organisms. In fact, if you think about your favorite places, the places that make up what you might determine is a great city, you realize that it is very difficult to say what exactly makes it so great. Is it the pedestrians and bicyclists? Is it that there is a diverse group of people walking about? Is it the sidewalk, the retail mix, the housing stock, the safety, the proximity to transit, the nearness of amenities, the nearness to open space...the list can go on and on.

So when a group tries to talk about re-creating great cities, or building their cities for greatness, it is as hard to replicate as it is to replicate a human being. You can do it - clone the DNA, get all the right inputs - but you might miss the heart and soul and vibrancy. It is just too hard to try to re-create something as complex as a great place from scratch. That's why it's important to start creating places with people. The multitude of people who will have opinions will get you closer to a great place in a city than anything else.

Perhaps in cities with less attitude (the New York audience did have a chip on its shoulder, but with the "almost right" tagline, who could blame us) discussion might be more fruitful. As Tony Travers optimistically said, "If we can do it in New York, we can do it anywhere." Good luck.

"New York: Almost Right"

I'm going to be offline for a bit, spending the next couple of days at the LSE/Deutche Bank/Rockefeller Foundation -sponsored Urban Age conference. The purpose of the discussion is global urbanization; the focus of this session is NYC. Already the hypothesis of the organizers is the title of this post: New York, almost right.

Hm....and who are these people? (Actually, the people at the reception tonight certainly reflected the image of those institutions, and since I also happened to take courses with more than a few of the presenters, it's familiar. But there's the reason I didn't continue with that path... it's going to be an interesting next couple of days). I'll update if anything significant happens.

Ain't that the truth

"The Internet is no cure for suburban loneliness"

What next?
"Stay-in-car shopping"

"Next Stop: Immobility - An A to Z guide to surviving the death/pause/sunshine of the CenterLine"
A better title for non-Californians might be: understanding the car culture of the OC

Protest
aka Stop protesting suburbs and try to make them better

Nice profile of Karen Hundt, PLanning Director of Chattanooga, TN

(all via Planetizen - thank you!)

Taxing Wal-Mart

Sounds like a great idea.

But did the bill pass? A quick search on google hasn't turned anything up yet.

Listen to a short report on NPR.

Latinos and New Urbanism

Just when I posted about race and neighborhood development, USA Today published this article hypothesizing about Latinos and emerging New Urbanist communities. It's not a substantive theory by any means, but interesting to think about.

Toronto overrun with ads

Another great column by Christopher Hume.

"Toronto sells out - ad nauseam"

TransGas tries again

TransGas will not give up! A $700 million bid for the Westside Railyard, but with the commitment to help it built its power plant in Brooklyn and commit the city to a 20-year electricity contract. This is real estate development run amock!

It's not like the Williamsburg and Greenpoint communities don't have a vision. They even went through a community-based planning process, which resulted in a plan that won the 2001 William H. Whyte Award from the local APA chapter for innovative and creative planning! Let's revisit the plan.

stop the power plant!
Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Parks and Planning
Williamsburg Watch

Ask the right question

From CNU Florida's image bank

The Times on public reception of New Urbanist ideals.

Definitely a superficial analysis of what people want. Ask people if they want safe streets, a sense of community, good use of natural resources, to be within walking distance of open space or park land with lots of amenities and see if they might answer the New Urbanism or Not question differently. Ask someone if they would mind being next to the bank and you'll probably get a really different response. (I'm not even that big of a proponent of New Urbanism, which I think focuses too much on design elements like white picket fences, but many of the principles are worth paying attention to. Just look at that image above; too sterile for my taste, but so very nice to photograph).

Looking at comparisons of new home purchases (new urbanist development vs. typical sprawl) is also too superficial. How are developers marketing these homes?

Do the smallest things make the biggest difference?

The Washington Post's column "A Crack in the Broken Window Theory" is more interesting in how it highlights why the internalization of racist perceptions, even by members of the marginalized race, can encourage or inhibit the growth of a neighborhood. This race issue is not a small thing at all, but one of the biggest things underpinning our social fabric. The decisions that affect neighborhoods are often made by a power hierarchy that favors the elite - and one not representing the neighborhoods impacted. People who are making these decisions have to be aware of this, acknowledge it, and figure out a way to stop the pattern.

On a personal level, (I guess I just need to get this off my chest) it is difficult enough that there are so few faces like mine in the field. To then deal with spoken words that are ignorantly racist, though well-meaning and unintentional, or to see colleagues stand by the use of such language, is really discouraging. Words, like perception, are small things, but they make an enormous difference.

For real?

This article about a town who thinks itself so ugly that it makes itself a candidate for demolishment makes me very uncomfortable, mostly because the razing of the town is on behalf of a TV reality show. No other creative solutions instead of demolishing it? And why for the benefit of the media?

Has anyone been watching Town Haul? The mom of a friend said the hostess's superficial and flaky demeanor, which matched her superficial and flaky town recommendations, was too much to bear. She stopped watching halfway through the show.

Thanks Jon and Carly!

"Busy busy bees"

As my friend in London calls it. Between Christo, Dog Show Party, and various meetings, I've been too busy to post much this week, and now I'm off to Virginia this weekend. Things should be back in order by next week, at which point I'll have to dash over to Central Park to catch the Gates before they're taken down.

Representing very opposite ends of the culture spectrum in New York City:

Here's Henry Stern's (former park commissioner under Guiliani) take on The Gates.

Here's the Salon.com article about the Dog Show Party.

Getting ready for Christo

On the eve of the Gates going up in Central Park tomorrow, the Gotham Gazette republished a statement from Christo and Jean-Claude about the intent of their public art piece. I thought it was quite charming, and since I've been fielding a lot of press inquiries about what we think abotu the Gates, I thought it was time to also repost it.

"Our Project for the Park"
Gotham Gazette, Jul 21, 2003

Happy Lunar New Year

I almost forgot! Today (Feb 9) is the first day of the Year of the Rooster.

Happy Lunar New Year!!
("lunar" is much more inclusive than "chinese.")

I spent some time looking for a card I could send my parents, who live very far away, and was amazed at just how many local newspapers and media in the United States covered the holiday - every city from the largest metropolitan cities in the US to the smallest. I remember when the Lunar New Year was a holiday that my parents (who raised me here) tried to celebrate but had difficulty explaining. It was enough that I almost felt entitled to take the day off!

No luck though in finding a fun card. If anyone has a card they want to share - please do! I usually find something creative types of graphic design firms pull together - but not this year. (An odd beginning to a year that is supposed to be "full of energy and activity, you can't wait!")

Finally fed up over bad landscapes

Martha Schwartz's Jacob Javits Plaza

I guess someone in Berkeley finally finally got fed up about current trends in landscape architecture.

Of note, a General Services Administration employee visited us last week, and expressed concern over the Jacob Javits Plaza design in the photo above. She's under enormous pressure to increase security around federal buildings in New York, and is surprised that the loopy design isn't considered a security threat. "When I go out for lunch or a phone conversation, I always get caught in those benches and can't get out." Multiply that with a sense of emergency and hundreds of people fleeing the building...no wonder she's nervous.

The mark of a livable city...

Another great line from the New Yorker: "the mark of a city worth living in is that there are never enough places to park."

I guess that's why I can't move to California.

in this week's The Talk of the Town - "Too much information"
[Thanks Chris!]

If all else fails, how about a contest

Actually, this is a great idea. Jackson is sponsoring a competition for a master plan of 8 acres in its downtown - Cool City Design Competition. Not only does it get you some of the freshest ideas around from people who aren't tainted by bureaucracy yet, it also gives Jackson some great publicity. Now, if only the emphasis wasn't solely on design...

Michigan did something really similar; I couldn't tell if these were related. It's actually pretty cool.

Another stadium, another design folly?

In DC, another new stadium project is in the works. While some seasoned DC administrators for the city's built environment explain how vision is effected by reality, others hope to attract a star architect. As someone from HNTB (an engineering firm!) said, "it doesn't have to say DC or the Nationals on it..you just know it's DC." At what cost to the city, especially one already full of so many iconic structures? (The RFK stadium cost $24 million to build back in the day.)

"Getting good designers to swing at DC's pitch"
Washington Post - Feb 5

"City seeks 'Signature' Ballpark"
Washington Post - Feb 6

"You're not welcome"

Christopher Hume with another insightful column in the Toronto Star.

"You're not welcome"
Toronto Star - Feb 5

Santa Cruz's "accessory" housing

Not really an accessory, but a necessity. What struck me about Santa Cruz's accessory dwelling units (ACU) ordinance was how long ago they were thinking about curbing sprawl in their city. In the 1980s they created a greenbelt around the city, with protected land. Now they're looking to build housing on existing lots (with livable units on them already) instead of developing greenfields and changing the greenbelt policy.

The only thing I wish this article did more was at least give a suggestion of what is so bad about ACUs. I can guess, but sometimes these things are unpredictably complicated.

Cleveland in the New Yorker

Last week's New Yorker has a delightful portrayal of the Cleveland Orchestra, who was scheduled to play in New York this past weekend. (I wish the New Yorker kept its articles online for more than a week so you can read it!)

But really, the article was about Cleveland as a city, the strength of its cultural institutions and how they are struggling to stay afloat when the engines of its economy (big industries) have now moved overseas. I love that Cleveland Orchestra is regarded as one of the Big 5 orchestras, and the most "European" of them all - New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago (is that right?). I also love that the orchestra's audience has been "trained" to be more accepting of new classical music than many audiences in bigger, metropolitan cities.

I put Cleveland up there with Pittsburgh. Having never been to either, both strike me as those American cities with tons of culture and a lot going for it, if only you give it a chance.

West Side Stadium - missing the point

In light of all the criticism about the West Side Stadium (and maybe some design pressure from Amanda Burden who said recently that she was trying to lessen the negative design impact of the stadium plan), the team's president sent the architects back to the drawing board....and came up with a smaller stadium, though same design scheme.

Hm...I think they're missing the point.

See also
"West Side Stadium: Small Enough to Fit on a Table" [curbed.com]

More on the MoMA

As the dust around the unveiling of the new MoMA settles, we'll likely hear more about how it compares to the MoMA of old.

I almost agree with Oussouroff here. The article is not really about the building per se, but about the exhibit design. There really is nothing so spectacular about how the pieces are laid out - though it is much more comfortable to walk around. I miss the attention on the art - I breeze by it.

shamelessly more on dogs

More pix of the cute Frenchie, Sophie. Is it possible to fall in love with a dog you've never met? And, in honor of the upcoming Dog Show Party, we've been amusing ourselves with a little quiz: what dog are you?

Sophie herself

I-Lien and Sophie

DSP update

From a NPR interview with Nellie McKay

Hot off the wire - beautiful singer/songwriter star Nellie McKay has agreed to play at Dog Show Party! Apparently she's an avid animal lover. Her prior engagement was going to be Lincoln Center, a contract she broke (because Lincoln Center will not allow her to play at a show 5 days before or after where tix are less than $60). Nellie said bye bye LC, hello DSP! She rocks!

My very own dog show party plug

I-Lien, Kevin and Sophie - thanks for the cute pic!

Coming up in just a couple of weeks - Dog Show Party 2005!!

What: Dog Show Party 2005
When: Tuesday, February 15, 7-11PM
Where: Tonic

I find this event one of those things I end up doing because we're in the right setting - New York City - with the right people - a bunch of aspiring performers, writers, designers, and artists. In short, the Party is a simultaneous telecast of the last night of judging at the Westminster Dog Show, which happens to be at Madison Square Garden.

What's been nice about working on it is getting into a host of spaces throughout the city that I would normally never be privy to - a dance space in Soho that is actually someone's apartment, a dance enthusiast, it turns out; a dance space 10 stories up in Chelsea, which also gives massages (yes, all these dance spaces because I am a member of the party's dance troupe); working with really nice people in the night scene. The club owner of Tonic* is helping us out with a space for the party because, it just turns out, she's also a show pug owner. You just never know when it comes down to dogs. We're making videos, choreography, designing costumes, planning games, writing commentary, finding sponsors, filling doggie bags, crowning king and queen - it's the whole works!

SO - please come if you can! Tickets available online now. All proceeds after expenses will go to Rational Animal, a great, volunteer-run non-profit that helps at-risk animals in NYC.

*I have to point out, in the context of this site, that Tonic is at risk of losing its lease because the landlord is interested in building condos on the lot. It's already happened to Luna Lounge. Tonic has to raise upwards of $100,000 in the next month to stay in its space. Change happens so fast in these quicksand neighborhoods that the current leasers get practically no notice before they're evicted. Please come out and support it and buy it a little more time.

Not fooling anyone

Pic from Wired New York.

I have to disagree with this ArchPaper.com article which contends that the tall malls in New York have gotten more innovative with building connections to the street while ground-floor retail have gotten more bland and boring - and mall-like.

I'm not opposed to malls in theory. Remember Benjamin describing the Arcades of Paris? I confess, I didn't read all his writings, but from his descriptions, they sounded great, still set in a mall-like structure, but full of life.

Some people think the problem with malls is that they are so middle class. There's nothing wrong with being middle-class. What's wrong are the cold, unhumanlike environments that the most recent mall developments are. You don't really feel like you're in Union Square Park while shopping at DSW, as much as Vornado would like you to think. The retailers have covered up the windows with displays and the reflection from all the wattage inside the store makes being part of the park impossible. And why are malls nearly always populated by chains, regardless of location? The Time Warner Center could have chosen so many other innovative, New York-based stores (Kate Spade, instead of Coach; Bigelow's, instead of Sephora; and I guess Scoop, if you really need a J. Crew, etc.) but now we have a retail hub that we can find in any suburb outside of NYC.

The proof is not the first 2 years of the mall's operation - but whether the mal, like Time Warner Center, can sustain the pedestrian traffic flow 3-5 years down the road. I'm keeping an eye on that point in the future.

In the meantime, some great example of malls are being built by Ron Sher and his company Metrovation. He took Ray Odlenburgh's Third Place ideas to heart and have rejuvenated malls in the Seattle area into community centers, stocked with small business owners and community services. Five years since the project took off, the mall is still expanding. Now, that's a mall I'd happily go to.

A commons for the public

Clinton Community Garden in NYC

The Guardian ran a great op-ed on how communities sometimes run public parks better than their elected officials would choose to run them. (I have to admit, this article was almost too Brit-witty for me - I had to read it at home away from the office scan-reading I do, to grasp the slight sarcasm and full meaning.) Great article! See - public spaces are owned by someone - the public!

"Commons people"
The Guarian, Feb 1, 2005

New direction for the Prince's Foundation?

We know Hank Dittmar mostly in the context of mostly transportation and livable communities, so it was a pleasant surprise to hear, over the winter, about his move to the Prince's Foundation. The article in the Guardian paints a nice portait of Dittmar's beliefs.

Living in London, I never really experienced firsthand the effects of sprawl since I didn't own a car and was entirely dependent on public transit. But I do remember passing by some of those new retail developments on the outskirts on the train and being so surprised by the scale. People living out there love those stores.

"Royal Standard"
The Guardian, Jan 26

And why condo buildings are getting taller!

where the 16 story building will go...

In Williamsburg and Greenpoint, developers are hoping to pour concrete for their 16 story towers, before the City Planning Office's plan, which calls for 4-6 story buildings, takes effect. The community have been pulling together to find ways of slowing down the developers, especially when the developers haven't, of course, ignored checking in with the community in the first place. No one's terrorizing you, Mendel Brach, it seems that you have a covert operation going on yourself.

"Air War"
New York Metro, Jan 24, 2005