Here are some pictures from an old architecture book that I found in the library. Sorry, I
forgot to scan the title page so I don't know the name.
Anyway I like what this guy is saying. This high-density residential street (above) is terrific. Amazingly streets like this sometimes contain a few small and unexpected shops. I guess the owners live upstairs or behind the store. The author's right; tourists love streets like this and zoning laws that prevent them from being built are silly.
I used to think commercial plazas like this (above) were a good idea. The parking lot has convenient access from the street and the "U" shaped plaza seems to invite people in.
I shed the plaza notion completely the instant I saw this picture (above) showing the way commercial properties used to look. The caption explains it all. I love the idea that people live above the shops. City dwellers should always live near shops. Shops are exciting in their own way and they remind us that we're intelligent creatures who make things and trade for things.
Thankfully this arrangement (above) is pretty common but it's worth taking a moment to appreciate it. Sidewalks on residential streets need a buffer to keep the parked cars at a distance. A strip of grass and trees does the job perfectly. I've seen a lot of new streets that don't have this and this someday we might wake up and find this kind of street has become rare.
BTW, I like trees that are moody and distinctive and which form a sort of stippled canopy over the sidewalk.
Here's another picture that caused me to change my mind the instant I saw it. I used to believe that even small town public buildings should be a showcase for new and exciting architecture. I still would like to see that if the right architect could be found, but barring the discovery of a genius I think we could do worse than build traditional structures like the one above.
Here's another picture that caused me to change my mind the instant I saw it. I used to believe that even small town public buildings should be a showcase for new and exciting architecture. I still would like to see that if the right architect could be found, but barring the discovery of a genius I think we could do worse than build traditional structures like the one above.
Let's face it, small town bureaucrats aren't likely to pick exciting young architects like Howard Roark to build their public buildings. If they decide to build modern they'll usually end up building soulless post-modern wind traps. I choose the Greek facade (or something else traditional) as the lesser of two evils.
21 comments:
GREAT post, since reading Fast Food Nation I've really began enjoying this kind of thing.
I think cities and town should become more high-density. Don't believe ME? This is a great example of the kind of atrocities our addiction to low-density suburbanization has hastened. Terrifying, isn't it?
My question is, if Americans pay prices for quaint looking streets like in the first picture, why don't they BUILD them in America and get rid of the zoning laws?
Let's go back to making cities look like cities, not parking lots.
my favorite places have always been streetfronts with residential stuff above it.\
i love in new jersey where those mini-malls are beyond dominant. However there is an old-style storefront town a few minutes away from me, that lots of new yorkers flock to for weekends and such. Within recent year all the quirky shops have been pushed out by high rent in favor of luxury boutiques and the like. Almost none of the remaining shops are appealing to me or my friends, compared even to malls and mini-malls. However, we routinely rendezvous in that old-style town simply because of the atmosphere.
The town's so popular in my own highway-&-plaza-stricken town there is proposal to bulldoze a huge section in order to build a similar "town center." Of course there are several controversies:
•Environmentalists want to protect the woodland that would get bulldoze and prevent the extra run-off it would create.
•Some crazy people think that we have evolved past walking ot stores and argue that we shouldn't waste funds on the center because everyone already owns cars.
•The proposal is highly corporatized, favoring starbucks chains over independent entrepreneurs, plus the plan includes 2 big box stores adjacent to the main street. Also i believe there wouldnt' be any residential apartments abv the stores, which pretty much defeats the purpose.
In essence it just another plaza in the shape of a main street. The area is very conservative and wouldnt' have the slightest idea why any (young) person would wan to liv ein an apartment rather than a house with a half acre of land.
Jorge how is that terrifying? I mean, it is to me because I'd never own one, but it's not socially destructive, the urban sprawl sucks yes but if modern houses weren't built by monkeys and lasted longer it wouldn't be so much of a problem. To most people in America, to own a middle-class house in the quiet, secure suburbs like the dream. Plus you get to own your own house. (Me, I'm not stopping until I have land.)
I don't think humans were made to live millions right on top of eachother.
when was this book made?
Bravo, Eddie! You are right, as usual. The classic book on how zoning laws ruin vibrant, high-density, shops-mixed-with-residences neighborhoods is of course Jane Jacob's The Death and Life of Great American Cities, one of my favorite books ever.
One argument for the older sort of neighborhood that ought to have some influence today: I live in town that arose in the pre-zoning days, Oregon Wisconsin, and I can easily walk to the public library, a family-owned pizza restaurant, a fifties-style diner -- and do so all the time! Low-density planning has led to an unhealthy over-reliance on the automobile and fossil fuels.
Very cool book. Nice post!
(Though if I were the author, I'd be ticked that you couldn't remember my name and add it to all the page scans)
Another good book:
The Geography of Nowhere.
.. although, as a counterbalance to The Geography of Nowhere I would also recommend D. J. Waldie's Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir -- especially for all you L. A. people out there!
Jorge: I have mixed feelings about the picture you linked to. High density is fun and kinder to the enviornment. If we're going to have cities we may as well make them pleasant and stimulating. On the other hand houses are really nice to live in and there are fewer neighbor problems.
The houses you showed look like they're designed by contractors. I don't know why they never seem to call in creative architects for projects like these. Good architects (a small minority of the profession) seem to be confined to individual houses or to upscale housing projects. I wish they'd design housing projects for ordinary people.
I read Geography of Nowhere and agree with a lot of what the author says, minus his bias against business. I think I found out about it when you recommended it months ago. Thanks for the tip!
Lester: Thanks for the tipsT I ordered both books from the library. Your town looks like a civilized place.
Nate: Almost all the exciting main street ideas I come across require people to walk. We have to figure out a way to tame the car.
>I read Geography of Nowhere and agree with a lot of what the author says, minus his bias against business. I think I found out about it when you recommended it months ago. Thanks for the tip!
I think that was Lester or someone else, I read about it in Fast Food Nation.
Eddie, ever heard of Oscar Niemeyer? I live in the weirdest city in the world. Howard Roark would love it. Check this, this, and this. My parents worked on offices on that black building.
I like this city, but when i go to regular ones, with streets disposed in grids and urban blocks, i feel like i'm in a movie!
My uncle does drawings like these of his town Dickson, Tenn. I'll give you one next time I see you.
Gabriel! Where the heck do you live -- Paris, Mars? Those buildings are cool!
The reason zoning does not allow this (mom and pop living above their business) is that it does not create money for the powers that be, that make their money from a fairy ring of development, building suburbs, gas stations and roads, and the house loans and car loans and capital business loans it creates
Before WWII there were still plenty who were just fine with the higher density created before a world obsessed with the 'freedom' created by the automobile. Post WWII the interstate hiway system through the idea into high gear.
It is really hard to reverse the trends since 1950, but maybe that will be a positive aspect of high gas prices of the current world situation.
How many were surprised by the 'trolley' plot point of the Roger Rabbit movie?
Gabriel: So you live in Brazilia!? I'm not a fan of those buildings. They look good from a distance but are cold and sterile up close.
What architects should do is study the places where tourists actually pay money to visit, where the buildings are the drawing card and not just the beach.
I still appreciated the links, thogh! Thanks!
The Street Where I Live
I live in beautiful, historic Old Louisville, Kentucky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Louisville
It's pretty awesome and wayyy inexpensive :p My fella and I live in a big, sunny, hardwood-floored apartment with intricate wrought iron on the windows, ivy all over the place, an excellent floor plan, a deck, etc . . . $650 a month, what!!
Fortunately for us, the only older part of Louisville, Downtown, is going through a revitalization... so hopefully we will now have more shops and eateries etc just a few blocks down, instead of having to drive to the Highlands or St Matthews or what-have-you.
eddie, it's not so bad, because the urban planning includes lots of trees everywhere. I've never been to a greener place. But I tend to agree with you, and the tourist thing is specially true, no one comes to Brasilia for tourism. People who live here either got used to it or were born here in the first place. It's the closest thing to when we finally colonize Mars.
I just wrote a post about how tree leafs in art can affect us differently depending on how the artist approaches the subject. And I would be very interested in hearing your perspective, as you have such a great eye.
Mariana: Wow! Nice blog! And a good choice of pictures! You should edit a magazine, you'd be good at it!
I don't have a comment on the leaf post but it was really fun to read!
Kelly: Wow! That's where you live!? I'm envious! Old Louisville looks terrific and it doesn't hurt to be near the University. I always make it a point to live near a university. The street life is interesting and there's always something interesting going on at the school.
Thanks Eddie, that's a great compliment coming from you, thanks a bunch! :)
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