thesenseofplace

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A Connection Between Downtown Arlington & UTA Campus

INTRODUCTION

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

The University of Texas at Arlington is a short walk from downtown Arlington, but currently, there is no primary connection between the two. For our project, we wanted to envision a better connection between downtown Arlington and the UTA campus. This will serve to build the culture, community, and economy of this central part of the city. We chose to use College Street to make the connection between downtown and UTA. College Street runs north and south. The southern end of the street terminates inside the UTA campus on a main thoroughfare and the northern end terminates at a newly developing part of Abram Street.

ANALYSIS

Images created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

In comparing the demographic makeup of the immediate area to the entire city we found that our project area is younger and poorer. This is likely due to the large student population living on and around campus. The condition of the built environment is dominated by campus buildings, small residential buildings, light commercial, and large parking lots.

CASE STUDIES

source: google images

We wanted to see how other campuses across the country have successfully integrated into their surrounding cities, so we looked at examples from Georgetown, UT Austin, and Portland State. Georgetown utilizes small-scale urban street fronts with mixed uses to facilitate an enhanced locality in their part of DC. UT Austin emphasizes their street crossings with barriers and colored stripes to make crossing large downtown streets safer and more comfortable. Portland State turned their main square into a public space with a light-rail station next to it. This creates an integrated space used by the student and downtown populations.

EXISTING CONDITION

Images created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

In analyzing the existing condition of College Street, we found four major areas to transform in our effort to create a connection between downtown and the UTA campus. First, the large parking lot on College and UTA Blvd is currently devoted to car parking, sits half-empty most days, and offers no public amenities. Second, the land use along College Street is single-use and lacking appropriate density. Third, the street design has no dedicated bike paths or shade trees. Fourth, the intersections are not pedestrian or bike-friendly in their crossings.

MACRO PLAN

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

we have created a plan to address all four of these current conditions to create a College Street that acts as a connection between downtown and campus.

INTERVENTION #1 (PARK)

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

The aim was to utilize the large parking lot on College and UTA Blvd, which lacked activity and catered to the cars. The vertical parking in the back is programmed to take the car traffic away from the junction while giving the intersection and park to the people where many activities like food trucks, music performances social gatherings can take place. Intersection edge provides opportunities for transit junction and bicycle station. The park acts as a pause point for the students and residential population around.

INTERVENTION #2 (MIXED-USE STREET)

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

Our goal for the land use of College St was to densify the housing options and bring in food, beverage, retail, and small commercial activity. This will contribute to a more unified urban fabric, and it will boost the cultural and economic activity in the area. These uses are for the local student population and residents of the greater Arlington area. The goal is for residential density to increase alongside cultural activity.

INTERVENTION #3 (STREET DESIGN)

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

The streets currently prioritize vehicle traffic, so we wanted to introduce measures that will provide space for alternative modes of transportation including bikes and pedestrians. The proximity to Cooper Street provides an adequate option for vehicle transportation, which allows our design for College Street to focus on alternative modes of transportation.

INTERVENTION #4 (INTERSECTION DESIGN)

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

The intersections at UTA Blvd and Abram St are currently geared towards efficient automobile traffic. Although these streets are not as busy as Cooper St, they still get enough traffic to make the current crossing conditions dangerous. Our plan is to use a road bump, stop sign, street furniture, and street trees to slow the intersection down to a speed safe for pedestrian crossings.

CONCLUSION

Image created by Ethan Wu, Parita Babu, and Marshall Strawn

We believe the transformation of College Street into a connection between downtown Arlington and the UT Arlington campus can be achieved through creating a new public space, densifying the land use, creating multi-use streets, and creating pedestrian-friendly intersections. Each of these four main elements contributes to the creation of a multi-use urban environment that drives cultural and economic activity while serving to connect the UT Arlington campus to downtown Arlington.

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Alleviating Food Insecurity in Arlington

Parita Babu, Marshall Strawn, Ethan Wu

Food insecurity is a real problem affecting Arlington, Texas. We have identified three ways to alleviate food insecurity in Arlington:

1. Identify food deserts through mapping 

The current food availability around the UTA campus is sparce. There are small convenience stores and discount stores that offer dry goods, but those locations offer no guarantee of fresh produce or refrigerated and frozen food items. In the DFW area, fresh produce and a healthy selection of dry, refrigerated, and frozen foods are guaranteed only at large grocery store chains. The larger chains, Tom Thumb, Kroger, and Aldi are all clustered to the west of campus. East of campus there are several local grocers clustered along Pioneer Parkway, but they offer selections from very specific parts of the world. Thus, there are no grocers on or near UTA’s campus that provide adequate food availability for the student population and surrounding residents.  

2. Increase access to hunger-alleviating resources 

Pros of food stamps are that they help people afford food and offer users a lot of choice in which food items they can purchase.

Cons are that some needy individuals are ineligible, and that some recipients use their benefits for unhealthy food choices.

Food stamps don't provide benefits to all low-income households. Each state has its own laws, but alien residents and immigrants without proper documentation may be ineligible without a sufficient work history. And other options like WIC where receipts get healthier choice of food are only available for Women, infant, child, and people over 60, which can be made available others to amplify its uses.

3. Food culture & economy 

Food culture is immensely important as a means of cultural expression and as an economic force in communities. Familiar foods can inspire healthier eating habits, drawing community members towards locally made food rather than over processed fast food. Fast food is a problem because franchises are overwhelmingly placed near low income communities, effectively preying on those who can’t afford the time to make food. A healthy food culture and economy is a hallmark of any thriving town or city. 

Ways to grow food culture and economy include reducing barriers to local entrepreneurship, including government sponsored education on running an LLC and applying for permits, as well as subsidies for food carts, food trucks, and restaurants. Food carts and trucks have the potential to bring more food choices to UTA, which is sorely lacking. The ultimate goal of these benefits is to establish a strong, diverse, and easily accessible food network in the Arlington area.

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Creating a Hybrid: Landscape Urbanism & New Urbanism

New Urbanism focuses on human-scaled urban design comprising of walkable blocks and streets, housing and shopping in proximity, and accessible public spaces. Landscape urbanism suggests that city is constructed of interconnected and ecologically rich horizontal field conditions, rather than the arrangement of objects and buildings. Landscape urbanism and New urbanism both have their strong points when it comes to adapting urban life living into a sustainable lifestyle.

Two strong points of landscape urbanism are the reintroduction and reestablishment of the human-nature relationship and the provision of space for local environmental initiatives. The strong points from New Urbanism include the increase in social connectivity and the interweaving of urban development and infrastructure.

New Urbanism Principles

Comparing Principles of Landscape Urbanism & New Urbanism

Hybrid Example: Seun City Walk

A high-performance project that combines the efforts of Landscape Urbanism and New Urbanism is the Seun City Walk in Seoul, South Korea by Avoid Obvious Architects. They redeveloped a tired business corridor by creating a collaborative environment fueled by activities of work, play, rest, and eat. Connecting the mixture of activities are a series of green ribbons running through the project and connecting the project on either side to the surrounding context. 

This project employs the New Urbanism principles of mixed-use, human-scale, and pedestrian orientation. Seun City Walk also integrates the values of landscape urbanism by creating ribbons of blue and green infrastructure running the entire length of the project that people use every day.

Conclusion 

New Urbanism Emerged in Response to Sprawl, and if not approached carefully, may end up being its own form of sprawl, i.e.. a concrete jungle. On the other hand, Landscape Urbanism’ s commitment towards incorporating ecological features are a plus, but it sometimes fails to address the the underlying systems (transportation, housing, manufacturing) as well as important aspects of urban design like scale and density. Landscape urbanism can become its own form of green sprawl.

It is important to note that both of these have their strong and weak points and there is no ultimate urban theory, it is more advisable to practice combination of both to gain better results to achieve the successful urban fabric which caters to particular context and its user.

New Urban Landscapes

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Road Diet College St, Arlington, TX

The goal of this road diet is to better connect the UTA campus with downtown Arlington. A stronger connection between the downtown commercial area and UTA would foster economic and cultural growth, better establishing Arlington’s reputation as a college town and encouraging students to live on or near campus and reduce their automobile usage.

Connections between UTA and downtown Arlington are accessible mainly by car traffic, and there is currently no route between the two that emphasizes pedestrian traffic. We believe that College St. can become that pedestrian connection.

Northern End

College Street is a relatively calm and quiet two lane, two way street. It is primarily residential and connects the UTA campus to Abram Street, which recently underwent a beautification, including raised medians, landscaping features, and bump-outs to calm traffic and serve as a main connection to downtown Arlington. College Street was once the main entrance to Arlington State College, and so it has the perfect placement to connect UTA to downtown.

Southern End

At its southern terminus, College Street is quite walkable, since it is surrounded by the college campus—nevertheless, it is clear that it is intended as a pathway for vehicles to drop off and pick up passengers. There is not a lot of traffic that passes through here, and so we foresee an opportunity to give the street back to pedestrians and cyclists by removing a driving lane and adding a median and cycle path.

Intersections

The main intersections that act as transitional barriers to pedestrian and bike usage are those at UTA Boulevard and Abram Street. At these locations, we propose a raised crosswalk with bumpouts, providing pedestrians a safer and more encouraging way to access either side of the street and calming traffic in what should be a low speed neighborhood already.

Transformation

A strong street would include traffic calming devices, vegetation, protected bike lanes, and painted intersections. Street crossings would include pedestrian-activated lights, raised crosswalks, and road bump-outs. All of these have one intent: to make the street a welcoming environment for pedestrians and cyclists, not cars.

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Kevin Lynch’s Image of The City in DFW

In the seminal book Image of the City, Kevin Lynch outlines four specific topologies of space:

Paths:

They can be streets, walkways, transit lines, trails, canals and railroads and other channels in which people travel. They arrange space and movement between space. Paths are the channels along which the observer moves.  

Good example: Katy Trail

Next to the Turtle creek, the historic Katy Trail which was once an abandoned railroad line is now one of the most iconic destinations in Dallas and has quickly become an iconic destination for the people of Dallas. the Katy Trail remains in peak condition for residents and visitors alike to enjoy Dallas’ beautiful, natural trail. Proximity to city could also endow a path with increased importance. Situated near the center of Dallas this trail with its number of entrances remains easily accessible for its visitors. The popular trail brings over one million visitors every year to enjoy beautiful scenery, well-maintained paths. 

Bad example: McKinney Ave. Dallas

Stores located on this street turned their back to one of the city’s most traveled streets. They built a typical car-dependent chain-store building in one the most walkable neighborhoods in Dallas. Across from The Crescent, restaurant was replaced with a new private parking lot fronting one of the most-walked streets in Dallas. Uptown Plaza created an old suburban-style, car-oriented mess by placing an out-of-context strip center far back from the street. Both of this situation caters to the car traffic totally neglecting the people on foot.

Edges: The linear elements not considered as paths—they are usually the boundaries between two kinds of areas. The edges of a city are areas that have little human-scale activity, usually being at a large scale, such as waterfront, undeveloped forest, or highways. These edges are the natural antithesis of urban density, and if utilized correctly, can positively encourage urban development and high density use, as in the case of the Puget Sound  and Seattle.

Good: Trinity River Corridor, if utilized correctly. In the DFW metroplex, the distinct lack of geological features makes the Trinity River the major edge, dividing the city in half and providing beautiful views of Dallas with expansive lawns in the foreground. The scale of the TRC is so large that there are very few opportunities for human-scale activity within it.

Bad: Any highway, for example I-30. Although providing beautiful views of both Fort Worth and Dallas from the road, the highway is a net negative in a city which needs more density, not less. Additionally, a highway sends the message that the districts that it runs through are not worthy of spending time in, that there are better places to be at a high speed.

Nodes:

Lynch describes nodes as, “strategic foci into which the observer can enter, typically either junctions or paths, or concentrations of some characteristic.” Nodes are places of congregation, both for people, experiences, businesses, and cultural institutions. They are gathering places for the urban experience. There are two nodes in Fort Worth, close in proximity, but wildly different in experience. 

Sundance Square, Pedestrian Node 

Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth is a pedestrian oriented node. It occupies two full blocks and a pedestrian street running through the middle. While this square does not have entrances perpendicular to the visual experiences, its program helps to attract people. The presence of water, movable seats, shading, trees, restaurants, cafes, and other businesses create a vibrant urban experience. Pedestrians can stop and rest or use the square as a thoroughfare on their daily commute.

University & 7th, Car-oriented Node 

The node at University and 7th, just west of downtown, is a car-oriented node. It is a gathering place of three major streets and it has a large variety of urban experiences to offer, but the scale and speed make it an ineffective node. The intersection is dominated by car traffic coming from unpredictable directions. The sidewalks are present, but only for the act of movement. There is no opportunity to linger or gather within the node. Although the node is sandwiched between the museum district, west 7th, and the 7th street urban village, it does not serve as a pedestrian connection or rest point. The node is devoted completely to transportation. 

Landmarks: the point references considered to be external to the observer, are simple physical elements which may vary widely in scale. The observer tends to rely on systems of landmarks for their guides to enjoy uniqueness and specialization.

Good: White Rock Lake. The Lake is the defining feature of East Dallas and provides a nexus for the area, encouraging activities from cycling to barbecuing. Everyone living in East Dallas measures distance relative to the lake, and its wide views to tree-lined hills inspire comparisons to New England.

Bad: AT&T Stadium. The stadium, despite its national reputation, is a net negative on the city of Arlington, and provides little urban benefit. The Sundays that it is active, it puts strain on the local infrastructure, and every other day of the week the immense parking lots that surround it are barren and empty, a tragic sight for any incorporated community trying to achieve urban density.

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AT&T Discovery District: through the lens of William Whyte

Parita Babu // Marshall Strawn // Ethan Wu

The AT&T Discovery District, Dallas’s new public space, opened in late 2020 to great acclaim. The five-block office campus closely approximates a Dallas superblock and provides an example of how public spaces can be integrated into living streets, if maybe a bit overdone in typical corporate fashion. The development raises the question of the ever increasing role of corporations in providing infrastructure and resources for the community, a role which typically has been filled by government. 

Principle 1 – Sitting Spaces. Whyte examined many correlations between plaza use and the physical environment. He found that plaza use did not correlate with the shape of the plaza or the amount of open space. 

One of the major factors in plaza use was sittable space ("People tend to sit most where there are places to sit"). Whyte argues that seating should be designed for people to sit, not for "architectural punctuation" like many benches found in parks and museums. People will sit on steps, ledges, etc. if the dimensions are right. Whyte advocates the use of. movable chairs which provide the most flexible choices for seating.

Plaza Observations: The plaza has a plethora of seating options. Some are formal, like chairs and benches, others are informal like lawns and ledges. The chairs are moveable and the ledges are plenty wide to sit on. The lawn space is so well maintained it can be a bit intimidating to sit on it. A critique of seating at the plaza would be the placement of metal pieces along the ledges to discourage sleeping or skateboarding.  

Principle 2 – Physical and Visual Relationship to the street. "Now we come to a key space for a plaza. It is not on the plaza. It is the street... The relationship to the street is integral.

A good plaza starts on the street corner." Seating facing the street is desirable since the activity on the street corner is part of the show people like to see.  

The transition between the street and the plaza "should be such that it is hard to tell where one ends and the other begins."

Plaza observations: The plaza runs the entire length of a north-south block, but because of the jagged street grid the plaza can be hard to see coming south on Akard. One strategy to mitigate that is the large TV screen on the north end and the large golden statue on the south end. There is the opportunity for someone to use the plaza as a thoroughfare in their everyday walk as downtown continues to revitalize.

Principle 3/4/5 – the Role of Light, Water, & Trees

People like to sit under trees with a view of the action; thus, trees should be related closely to the sitting spaces. People like water (waterfalls, rapids, water tunnels, streams, fountains, pools). Whyte argues that water should be touchable.

Plaza observations: The plaza has plenty of exposure to natural light with its north-south orientation, and a largely unobstructed southern exposure. Plenty of water features that are close enough to interact with. Not so many trees, but use of shading devices to provide shaded spots. Some native plantings and other vegetation on the perimeter.

Principle 6 - Food. "If you want to seed a place with activity, put out food." Well-designed food places can help give life to a space.

Plaza Observations: Tons of food options. From café to beer garden to fine dining.

Principle 7 - Triangulation. Whyte describes a phenomenon he calls "triangulation" in which a stimulus provides a social bond between people. Strangers are more likely to talk to one another in the presence of such a stimulus. The stimulus might be musicians, or street entertainers, or apiece of outdoor.

Plaza observations: Several different programmatic elements contribute. The oculus as a photo spot. The TV as a central entertainment feature. Restaurants, patios, outdoor stage, & movie theater.

 sculpture.

Reference:

https://www.informalscience.org/sites/default/files/VSA-a0a1v6-a_5730.pdf

https://discoverydistrict.att.com/?location=att-experience-store

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Is there a “best” density for cities today?

parita babu // marshall strawn // ethan wu

It is widely held that the denser the city, the better; with exception to places like Kowloon City in Hong Kong, contemporary urban planning theory is premised on higher urban densities due to their perceived sustainability compared to low density models. Examples such as Copenhagen, Paris, and Amsterdam are lauded for the density that makes it cost efficient and enjoyable to live a life sustained by metro, bike, and foot. However, too high a density can be stifling and stressful; an example is Shibuya Crossing, in Tokyo, where nearly 2.4 million people pass through on a daily basis.

Density positive factors:

Vibrancy of street life

Variety of arts/culture

Diversity of food/restaurants

Diversity of occupations/opportunities

Property value

Usefulness of alternative/mass transit

Identity of city

Density negative factors:

Stress of interaction

Quality of street environment

Distance from street environment

Cost of living

Relationship to environment

The best density balances all these factors for the collective needs of people living in these areas. Arguably, a diversity of densities are necessary for a city to exist, and so there is no “best” density, only a most desirable density. The question then becomes, what densities should be desirable, those that benefit the individual or the masses?

If we are to consider the masses, the best density seems to be a FAR in the range of 3-7, with a high percentage of that floor area designated as residential. Less than that, and the street becomes sleepy, not active. More than that, and upper floors of buildings become disconnected from the street environment, distancing people from the street. In addition, a dense urban area without diversity of use becomes monotonous and undesirable. Mixed-use zoning and small-business or entrepreneurship programs in tandem are two steps towards a more vibrant neighborhood.  

An area in Dallas which exemplifies this is CityPlace, which takes up a number of blocks. This mixed-use area has a street environment formed by mostly 5 floor podium style apartments with retail on the street, which supports three high-rise buildings that bring the overall density up to an FAR of 6.2.

 Importantly, the apartments form a unified urban street front, with no setbacks save the sidewalk, which has the proper width and distance from the street to encourage pedestrian behavior. 

The shops that line the street are various, from a barber to an entire elementary school, leading to a wide range of uses from morning until night. The only concession to Dallas life this development has is the Texas Donut method of placing a parking structure at the interior of the bloc

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Comparing and Contrasting the Seine and Chicago Rivers

Introduction

Waterways have historically been a founding point for cities—their constraints and opportunities were once essential for people seeking to create a life and community in the area. Valuable resources included drinking water, irrigation, trade, and fording, and use and value of rivers has changed drastically since. Today, the main benefit of urban rivers is recreation—a river is often the most environmentally active region of a city, providing a habitat for wildlife, absorbing carbon, and depositing and eroding its banks.

The Seine River and Chicago River have been developed with the purpose of being used for recreation by the residents of these cities. The usable areas of these rivers are called the Seine quays and the Chicago Riverwalk, respectively.  

Dimension

In the dimension of time, the facilities along the Seine are older. The quays of the Seine were first built in the 1500’s, to help boats that would have otherwise docked on the muddy riverbank (Schofield). The Chicago Riverwalk was built in 2001, and had massive success (Allen).

In the dimension of space, the Chicago Riverwalk boasts 2.7 miles of walkable length, which are continuous with a lakefront trail and allow for additional foot and bike traffic. The Seine quays, having existed for much longer, cover more than 10 miles, although only a portion of those have been recently redeveloped into modern “riverwalk” infrastructure.  

Program

The Chicago River is not, strictly speaking, a river. It is a canal, straight and hard-banked, designed to keep the city sanitary and perpetually visited by ships.By the 1830s, Chicago had become a village with a mix of French Canadians, Yankees and Native Americans. The social center of that village was Wolf Point. It took only a few decades for Chicago to completely transform from a small settlement to a bustling, industrial boomtown.

In the late 1880s, local leaders decided to re-engineer the river. As Chicago grew, this allowed sewage and other pollution into the clean-water source for the city, contributing to several public health problems. They reversed the flow and built a 28-mile-long canal to connect the Chicago River with Illinois and Mississippi rivers.

The construction of the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal opened a vital transportation link between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River. The rebuilding of Chicago started after the Chicago fire. Daniel Burnham’s Plan for Chicago intended to link the City to its hinterlands with a network of parks and natural waterways. The plan also called for an esplanade lining the river’s Main Stem.

In recent years, the relationship between Chicago’s river and people has entered an entirely new chapter. Chicagoans are rediscovering their river, finding new ways to appreciate and improve upon waters and shores.

On Chicago’s north side, it flows through Neighborhoods and avenues. The north side comprises of 77 community areas.  

The source of the main stem of the Chicago River is Lake Michigan. Water enters the river through sluice gates. Here the land use is mainly mixed with business district. Major Chicago landmarks can be found here.

Zoning and Land Use Map: Main Stem. Source: City of Chicago Department of planning and development  

Heading south, the channelized river flows past skyscrapers and an open Chinatown park, and The industrial corridor which is surrounded by densely-populated neighborhoods.

Riverwalk Project:

Looking at the current framework the new Chicago river corridor development plan considers the Specific recommendations for improvements to public and private land that support the goals of the plan. Public demand for access and recreational amenities continues to grow, ensuring that future development will include a diverse mix of industrial, commercial, residential, and recreational uses.

Five key components frame the Chicago River Corridor Development Plan and Design Guidelines:

PATHS AND GREENWAYS

PUBLIC ACCESS

HABITAT AND LANDSCAPING

RECREATION

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Seine has played an important role in the history of France and, in a way, the world.  Since it provides a route from the English Channel into the heart of the country, and was navigable by sea vessels, then barges, for a long period of time.

The Seine’s importance as a shipping route made many great French cities grow up around it.

In the mid-18th century, the embankments of the Seine were constructed to facilitate river traffic and navigation. By the late 18th century, the banks were being utilized for recreation and health. River access provided an escape from the dense urban fabric of Paris.  

In the early 19th century, Napoleon began to transform the banks from pedestrian to industrial, building quays to facilitate mercantile exchange. By the mid-20th century, the banks of the Seine were given to the automobile, and memory of a pedestrianized embankment mostly lost in collective memory.

Below the bridge on the left and right quays you will see hundreds of sunbathers, cyclists, strollers, joggers anything else you could hope for, making use of the elegant stone quays. The quays run along the entire length of the river as if bisects the city, parts merge into riverside highways and others into pedestrian walkways and bicycle paths. A section of the pedestrian bank has been designated the "Paris Beach" by the new Mayor, and has become THE summer attraction in the city. Thousands of tons of sand are imported along with full size palm trees, beach chairs and chaise-lounges to create what may be the only artificial "beach" in Europe.

Component

The Chicago Riverwalk and the Seine in Paris are vibrant pedestrian spaces, but they deliver life to their respective cities in different ways. The Chicago Riverwalk is a new development featuring a clear delineation of space between programs. The Riverwalk is comprised of 6 ‘coves’ on the western half and a greenspace running the length of the eastern half. Separated by bridges, the 6 coves feature plazas, marinas, restaurants, and a theater. 

The Seine is comprised of a more informal use of space. The main pedestrian area of the Seine stretches from the Eiffel tower in the west to Notre Dame in the east. The banks of the Seine in these areas are left largely unprogrammed. Areas of greenery, picnic tables, and even small beaches are spread across the banks. Pedestrians make their way along the river, stopping when they to please. Another influential component to the Seine is the historic bridges that cross over it. These have become pedestrian magnets linked by their views of the river.

The Chicago Riverwalk and the Seine are both popular pedestrian spaces, but they are very different in the way they provide vibrant pedestrian experiences.  

Sources

Barrett, M. (n.d.). The River Seine. https://www.aparisguide.com/seine/

Schofield, H. (2013, October 14). Reclaiming Paris’s River Seine quayside. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24520146

Allen, K. (2013, November 7). Reclaiming Rivers: The Latest Trend in Urban Design. https://www.archdaily.com/445637/reclaiming-rivers-the-latest-trend-in-urban-design

Paris Photo:

https://archive.curbed.com/2016/9/27/13080078/paris-bans-cars-seine-right-bank-air-pollution-mayor-anne-hidalgo

Chicago Photos:

https://www.asla.org/2018awards/453251-Chicago_Riverwalk.html

https://beltmag.com/chicago-river-future/

https://www.architecture.org/news/chicagos-riverwalk/the-chicago-river-from-industry-to-recreation/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_River#:~:text=Today%2C%20the%20main%20stem%20of,Chicago%20Sanitary%20and%20Ship%20Canal.

https://gisapps.chicago.gov/ZoningMapWeb/?liab=1&config=zoning

https://interactive.wttw.com/chicago-river-tour/history-chicago-river

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What were the successes and failures of the Garden City plan?

By Parita Babu, Marshall Strawn, & Ethan Wu

When considering the Garden City, a number of problems and solutions come to mind. The Garden City movement originated in the 1900’s, and was a response to the large scale issues plaguing cities of the day: illegally high population density, smog and noise due to unregulated heavy industry, and “haphazardly placed” streets designed for foot traffic, not carriage or train traffic. Thus, the solutions proposed sought to modernize the city by eradicating these problems entirely. The advantages and disadvantages of country lifestyles and city lifestyles were taken into account and synthesized into the town-country lifestyle of the Garden City. Several pros and cons arose from these solutions. 

mapgallery.esri.com/

The garden city layout is in a circular format where the city expands radially with decentralized nodes. It is divided into six equal wards, by six main boulevards that radiate from the central park. Civic institutions—town hall, library, hospital, theatre, museum, etc.—are placed around the central garden. The central park is enclosed by a crystal palace which acts as an arcade for indoor shops and winter gardens. The streets for houses are formed by a series of concentric ringed tree lined avenues, and the distance between these rings varies between 3-5km. A large, grand avenue in the center of concentric rings has the schools and churches and acts as a circular public park. All the industries, factories and warehouses are placed at the peripheral ring of the city. The municipal railway was placed in another ring closer to the industrial ring, so that the pressure of the excess transport on the city street are reduced and the city is connected to the rest of the nation. 

mapgallery.esri.com/

First, with regard to spaces, there are numerous outdoor shared spaces, the two most important being the central garden and the grand boulevard, in accord with the thinking of the day, emphasizing the importance and necessity for public parks. This view still holds true today, as public parks provide more and more benefit. 

However, the most interesting ideological innovation of the garden city is the popularization of the figure-ground dichotomy of landscape and building, now common today throughout the world’s urban sprawl. For the most part until the early 20th century and the invention of the automobile, the figure-ground of the city was between block and street, the streets forming the negative space that city blocks take up. This reduction in density, a proposed solution to the negatively high density of pre-industrialized cities, paved the way for public housing movements that have failed terribly in practice.

The circular plan also took advantage of the idea of the city’s official functions being the most important, placing systems of government and public institutions closest to the literal center of the city. Functions of decreasing importance or desirability would fill the city at increasing radii from city center, with heavy industry on the periphery, distancing the smog and environmental pollution from people of importance. This ideology is not the best solution; rather than eradicating the issue, planners sought to sweep it away from sight and smell, putting industry ahead of public and environmental wellbeing.

Second, connections are the most important part of a city. The vasculature of the urban organism, reliable and trustworthy transportation system allows for denser and more efficient cities. Transit systems that provide incentives—low waiting times, perceived safety, dedicated bike network—further reap the rewards of good connections. In the case of the garden city, with vehicular traffic in mind, planners of the day realized vehicles can travel faster on bends of increasing diameter, and made the decision to enclose the city in a circular beltline for trains, off of which there would be sidings for individual stops around the city. A polar grid system would regulate and realize easy carriage, auto, and shipping traffic, with wide streets and gardened boulevards easy to mentally map. However, a city designed with too heavy an emphasis on traffic larger than the human scale becomes anathemic to urban life, a trend which continued with the growth of the automobile.

Aerial of Letchworth Garden City, England

Third, the Garden City plan is designed for the people residing in it. The legal architecture of Letchworth Garden City, the premiere built example of the Garden city plan, placed the city’s ownership within a corporation, creating a community of municipal scale and diversity supported by communal land ownership. Profits from the city corporation would be invested back into the local economy, further boosting the city. This was the first permanent ownership and control of the entire urban territory by the people, and demonstrated the economic superiority of such legal architecture.  Due to this, one of the cons observed in Letchworth was that it slowly attracted more residents, as it was able to attract manufacturers through low taxes, low rents and more space. Although Ebenezer Howard had intended the Garden City to be affordable for the average worker, the home prices in this garden city could not remain affordable for workers to live in. 

So why didn’t the garden city become the archetype of today’s city?

The garden city plan doesn’t take into account the real and enduring nuances of the geology of the land the city would be built on. The idealized land of the garden city is perfectly flat—without any geological features whatsoever. The only features allowed are farmland and manmade circular canal, demonstrating the bias of the Garden City planners towards the belief that humans should make every aspect of the environment pay. This ideology is flawed, and represents the hyper-capitalist values of the day, idolizing human ability to subjugate the environment and each other for the maximum possible realized benefit. 

Gardens themselves are nature tamed, containing usually non-indigenous flora in patterns realized by humans, requiring great attention and specific conditions to survive, and existing for the realized benefit of environmental beauty as defined by humans. The ideal Garden City would most likely even be enclosed in a greenhouse, a geodesic dome of gigantic proportions, so that humans could even control the weather.

The Los Angeles River, a river controlled by civil engineering.

Of course, this geology and environment does not exist. Even the theoretically flat Blackland Prairie of North Texas contains a vast number of creeks, limestone rises, and rolling hills that would have to be dealt with and worked around. Creeks would have to be systematically hidden underground or as concrete drainage ditches, hills would have to be flattened, and gulches and valleys filled in. In many cases, people developing this land into a human resource have found easier or better ways to deal with the conditions the land sets. And so, even in the most ideal conditions, a circularly planned city has wavering streets and blobby geometry rather than its platonically ideal form. 

[thesenseofplace]

What is the Ideal City?

By Parita Babu, Marshall Strawn, & Ethan Wu

The ideal city contains pockets of belonging and layers of opportunity found within a larger context of place and culture. The mixture of diverse people groups, effective urban infrastructure, socially sustainable public spaces, and other components come together to create a dwelling experience that is greater than the sum of its parts. These components also create the city’s culture and provide for a shared identity among its citizens.

The ideal city is made up of different people groups and provides a range of opportunities for the communities to grow, sustain, and stay rooted for a long period of time. The diversity of its people is an indicator of the wide range of availability in key areas such as transportation, industry, and attraction.

The provision of a healthy urban infrastructure for its diverse group of citizens is key to the ideal city. This includes multi-modal transportation options, a diverse and stable job market, appropriately scaled neighborhoods, and sustainable public spaces.

At the heart of the ideal city are socially sustainable spaces that act as magnets for the surrounding community. These are urban spatial elements that are layered with context, transportation, walkability, scale, and relevant activities. A socially sustainable space is the culmination of provision and opportunity for the city’s people.  

Source: ReMake Group, October 2018

Does the ideal city already exist?

We believe that no city perfectly fits our characterization of the ideal city. Every city contains marginalized people groups that suffer from a lack of belonging or a gap in opportunity. Also, the world’s most desirable urban environments, Paris, Barcelona, the French Quarter of New Orleans, or Williamsburg in Brooklyn can become too expensive for large swaths of a city’s citizens. The qualities that make these neighborhoods so desirable can also make them unaffordable.

Source: San Antonio Riverwalk