I'm pleased to announce that Landscape+Urbanism will be featured along with some great company as part of the Voices Going Viral Exhibition and event developed by AIANY. More information below.
The AIANY Global Dialogues committee has dedicated 2012 to “uncovered connections” with the intention to investigate issues that are similarly impacting multiple regions, cultures and individuals. Going Viral: Blurred Borders explores the impact that social media, technology and device culture are having on our design process, and ultimately the way we practice. How do we shape a global conversation? How are we changing the relationships between academia and the profession? What is the impact of hyper information sharing and critique? Throughout the evening, the topics of communication, research, collaboration, and data distribution will be addressed and debated.
Bjarke Ingels of BIG, Toru Hasegawa of Morpholio and Columbia University Cloud Lab, Carlo Aiello of eVolo, and David Basulto with David Assael of ArchDaily will come together for a lecture and panel discussion moderated by Ned Cramer, editor-in-chief of Architect. In addition, selected game changing blogs and websites will be exhibited as Voices Going Viral on the evening of the event.
Please join us at the NY Center for Architecture on May 21st at 6:00 pm and online for further information and to RSVP.
The exhibit will feature a ton of great design blogs, so good company to share - and thanks to the curators for the inclusion, and of course thanks to all of you for reading. Check out the full list in alphabetical order:
Apartment Therapy created by Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan and Janel Laban ArchDaily created by David Basulto and David Assael Archidose created by John Hill Archinect created by Paul Petrunia Architect’s Newspaper created by William Menking ArchitectureMNP created by Ryan McClain, co-founded by Kiye Apreala Architizer created by Matthias Hollwich, Marc Kushner, and Benjamin Prosky Archive of Affinities created by Andrew Kovacs BLDGBLOG created by Geoff Manaugh Blurr created by Ahmed Elhusseiny But Does It Float created by Folkert Gorter, Atley Kasky, & Will Schofield Cooking Architecture created by Claire Shafer and Juan Jofre The Cool Hunter created by Bill Tikos Core 77 created by Eric Ludlum, Stuart Constantine, & Allan Chochinov Culture Now created by Abby Suckle, Ann Marie Baranowski, Susan Chin, Diana Pardue, and Nina Rappaport Curbed created by Lockhart Steele Death by Architecture created by Mario Cipresso DesignBoom created by Birgit Lohmann & Massimo Mini Design Sponge created by Grace Bonney DesignReform created by CASE
designreform.net
Dezeen created by Marcus Fairs e-Oculus created by the AIA New York Chapter eVolo created by Carlo Aiello Inhabitat blog created by Jill Fehrenbacher Landscape + Urbanism created by Jason King Mammoth created by Stephen Becker and Rob Holmes Morpholio created by Mark Collins, Toru Hasegawa, & Anna Kenoff Places Journal online created by Nancy Levinson, Harrison Fraker, William Drenttel, Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut Post Post created by David Jaubert Project created by Alfie Koetter, Daniel Markiewicz, Jonah Rowen, & Emmett Zeifman
Credits:
Global Dialogue Chairs: Bruce E. Fisher AIA and Jeffrey A. Kenoff AIA
Event Co-Chairs: Elie Gamburg, Diane Chehab
Design and Curatorial Team: James Kehl, Rebecca Pasternack, Ciara Seymour, Sarah E. Smith, Andy Vann
My fascination with history and place is no secret. While i am intrigued with urban history in many forms, there's always a desire for a connection with the place you inhabit. Typically this fascination comes via maps, which have been well documented, but the timeline of the past 150 years plus of Portland is worth a bit of investment. For folks on the go, there's also an app that highlights historical site - prepared by the Architectural Heritage Center. Also a new site, WhatWasThere, is a crowd-sourced version that allows folks to upload history photos of their places.
In addition, there are a number of other sources that augmented by a number of great resources that are provided by city and other historical society archives. Each has some overlap but occupies a unique and often personal niche for the blogger and site owner - to scratch their particular history itch, and all make for some great information.
A veritable decoupage of historical imagery awaits at Portland History - a no-frills site that organizes images, postcards, and a few words - sorted into categories like streets, amusement parks, A good shortcut is to go the site map, which gives some links to the categories - but just randomly moving around the site isn't a bad idea either.
Council Crest, the Dreamland of Portland, Oregon
Lost Oregon is a great example of an engaging history tour, albeit typically focused on architecture and riddled with some really bad theme ideas like this one. The site is simple and delves into some more details about some of the areas, buildings, and locations - which augments what is somewhat visually based on other sites.
A spinoff of Lost Oregon writer is PDX: Then/Now which juxtaposes historic and current photos of buildings and places. Some show destruction or evolution, and some, such as the Union Bank Building in Downtown, are eerily similar over 40 years later.
Vintage Portland is another site 'exploring portland's past', through "...photographs, postcards, illustrations, advertisements, etc. ... It’s not a history lesson, it’s not an architectural critique. It’s a
forum for displaying photos of the city’s past, to show how we lived,
what we’ve lost (for good or bad) through progress and just to enjoy
some wonderful camera work."
I particularly appreciate the 'mystery' posts - which show a building, corner, streetscape - with a question to help find where the site is. Sometimes it's to fill in a missing link to an archival photo, but other times it becomes more of a game. The context over time is fascinating evolution - and really highlights the impermanence/permanence of the urban realm. This shot of MLK @ Ainsworth from the north - replace Texaco with Starbucks (old fuel/new fuel?) and Gilmore with Popeyes (old grease/new grease?).
Cafe Unknown is a new one for
me, but author Dan Haneckow pulls you in with compelling history (more
text than other sites) along with some good images. A recent post on Mark Twain in Portland is a good read, and some of the trivial pursuits are great - like Will- vs. Wall- for our fair river (which subsequently ended up 'Willamette') are nuggets of pure gold. Haneckow is a true historical writer - with the requisite head shots of historical figures quoted... along with some really solid writing and research. These walking tour images were pretty interesting finds - along with the story of a missing sculpture found. This stuff is priceless - and firmly about our place.
Check all of these resources out - It is true - you will be sucked in for a few hours/days/weeks - and might come out forever changed. I feel like a landscape or at least urbanism oriented history site wouldn't be a bad endeavor - if someone is inclined to collaborate - look me up. But the caveat on these sites, and historical maps, photos, and primary materials - it's addictive. Don't say i didn't warn you.
I am happy to report that a recent essay was published in 'Atlantis' Magazine, which is published by Polis and collects writings that make "...the link between students,
academics and professionals besides the Polis activities. This magazine
is our medium to keep you as member up to date about everything going on
in the urbanism & landscape architecture world. The issue 22.4 discusses concepts around the 'Urban Landscape' and features contributions from a wide range of authors.
The essay "Land- 'scape' / Land- 'space': Pedantic, Semantic or just Anagrammatic" is a tongue-in-cheek play on words that carries with it a more serious message. The dialogue around landscape urbanism has been called pedantic, and the splitting of hairs could be dismissed, particularly by those uninformed and who disagree with the concepts, as mere semantics. The anagrammatic is purely a place on words. The content, revolving around an exploration of the terms 'landscape' and 'urbanism', and more specifically the parallels of the anagrammatic terms 'space' and 'scape' begin the discussion.
Using definitions from JB Jackson's essay 'The Word Itself', the parallels between space and scape are delineated, as Jackson's cultural reading of landscape as "...a composition of man-made or man-modified spaces to serve as infrastructure or background for our collective existence.” (Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular Landscape, 1984) This expands our idea of landscape beyond scenery and greenery to encompass a more broad understanding of 'context'.
Urbanism is also investigated, starting with Wirth's 1938 essay 'Urbanism as a Way of Life' and tracing the divergence of urbanism as 'study' to that of action. I claim we need to differentiate between the study of urban areas and the design and planning activities. This will allow us to operate in a shared space for dialogue:
"Thus study equates to urbanism (of which there can be many types of study), and practice equates to disciplinary modes and interdisciplinary contexts, such as urban design, architecture, landscape architecture and planning (of which there can be many types of solution). The distinction allows us to avoid binary argument because there are infinite types of study and methods of solving problems – each driven by the unique context. Dialogue and critique can still operate – but there will more transparency and it won’t be summed in an either/or proposition. The complexity of urban areas in our contemporary world is too immense for only one of two solutions"
The end along with a call for more clarity in writing about these terms, specifically the need for clear definitions when discussing terms. We are too loose with terminology today, and the overall impact and reach of our discussion suffers from this. Whichever way you choose to interpret and intervene the urban conditions, there needs to be shared understanding of fundamental issues, because, as I mention: "In the end, no discussion or argument (binary or otherwise) is worth much if it happening around vague language..."
Comments and discussion, with clear definitions, always welcome.
Kerb is one of best journals out there for landscape architecture - and you can be part of their next issue around the topic 'speculative narrative'. Here's the call for submissions:
KERB 20 IS SEEKING SUBMISSIONS OF ESSAYS/PROJECTS/ ARTWORKS/ STORIES ETC
Speculative narrative and the potential of imagination are important factors in creative production. It is considered that a multitude of small stories are the “quintessential form of imaginative invention” (source).
Speculation through narrative offers an apparatus through which we may investigate the concept of ‘reality’. Immersed within our current understandings, speculation is influenced by our contemporary condition. In these fictional dispositions, the variables and constraints of ‘reality’ can be controlled, omitted completely or utilized as key motives for the foundations of new territories.
Speculative Narrative can be an exploration of idealistic scenarios, the fossilization of information, or the creation of fantastical realms.
This allows the model of design to move beyond problem solving, crisis management and project liberation from the constraints of our existence. The augmentation through speculative narrative, enables the reshaping of current processes, understandings and disciplines.
Speculative Narrative makes it possible to redefine ‘present’ and ‘future’.
Kerb is an annual cross-disciplinary design publication produced by the RMIT University School of Architecture and Design in Melbourne, Australia.
Kerb is a progressive design journal focused on contemporary landscape architecture issues from an international and national perspective. Submit to: kerb@ems.rmit.edu.auby 4 May, 2012 and for more information regarding submission requirements please visit our website at www.kerbjournal.com or our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/kerbjournal
The recent event for GOOD Ideas for Cities happened last week in Portland, and generated some great dialogue. I was also on one of the teams that presented. A short recap.
"Each team was issued a challenge proposed by a local urban leader. At
the event, the creative teams will present their solutions to their
assigned challenge, and the urban leaders will join them onstage for a
brief Q&A with GOOD Ideas for Cities editor Alissa Walker." Teams included international talent from Wieden + Kennedy and Ziba Design, as well as local groups Sincerely Interested, THINK.urban, ADX, and the Official Manufacturing Company, all tackling some pressing (and not so pressing) urban ideas.
The event was held at Ziba's beautiful new HQ building in the Pearl District, and the sold-out event had some great people and conversations. As you can see the packed house (including Mayor Sam Adams) is checking out Alissa from GOOD's intro, and had some great energy for the various groups.
My evolving side project THINK.urban, under development as a non-profit with fellow PSU Grad Students Allison Duncan and Katrina Johnston, was one of the teams, as mentioned above. We've been slamming away on ideas for six weeks, and presented our ideas for world-class bike infrastructure, working from a challenge from Bikeportland.org's Jonathan Maus).
"CHALLENGE (from BikePortland.org editor Jonathan Maus): How
can we create a major new bikeway that helps make bicycling as visible,
safe, convenient, and pleasant for as many people as possible?
IDEAS (from PSU grad student nonprofit THINK.Urban): Take a cue from Europe and build two-way cycletracks
on Portland's biggest streets. The two-way lanes would be separated
from cars on streets like Sandy, Broadway, and Hawthorne, by a grassy
median. "Prioritize bikes on the same level as cars. People are tired of
looking at Europe. We want to see these things here now."
We were really happy with the ideas that were developed, honored to be in such great company, and looking forward to seeing this new bike infrastructure take root. More on the ideas will be posted at THINK.urban, and I'll link them back here when they do.
Arsenal
Moving along with the Shrinking Cities readings, the first part of 'Origins of the Urban Crisis' by Segrue recounts the development of the City of Detroit around WWII as the 'Arsenal of Democracy' which made it one of the highest paying blue-collar cities in the US. In the words of Segrue, "Mid-twentieth-century Detroit embodied the melding of human labor and technology that together had made the United States the apotheosis of world capitalism." (p.19) This height of Fordist production makes the inevitable fall even more extreme.
:: 'Criss Crossed Conveyors' from the Ford River Rouge Plant - Charles Sheeler (1927) image via Art History Archive
As mentioned, the visitors of today's Detroit marvel at the industrial ruins and disaster porn, but at the time, people flocked to the city to see the massive technologies and industrial might at work, and mostly "they stood rapt as the twentieth century's premier consumer object, the automobile, rolled off the assembly lines by the dozens an hour." (p.19) It is hard to think of the spectacular model of modernity that Detroit once embodied, one that reshaped the city with a new form of 'industrial geography' which tied factories to suppliers and workers to homes with unprecedented efficiency.
The traces of grand boulevards from Woodward's L'Enfant-inspired plan of 1807
remained - fanning out in a radial pattern of wide avenues from the city center, which added to
the idea of speed and efficiency that has characterized Detroit, and the
automobile industry for decades. Much like Los Angeles being the embodiment of the auto-centric city, Detroit is the perfect model of Fordist urbanism at work - not just in the factories - driven by mass-production along with high union wages, and the accessibility of the blue-collar worker to live in a single-family house of their own - with a dearth of any sort of apartment of multi-family housing to accommodate lower-income or those not wealthy enough, or white enough, to buy houses.
The focus on single-family houses led to perpetual housing shortages - particularly when combined with a history of official and unofficial policies that prevented blacks from obtaining housing. Unlike many of the eastern cities where the geography was a patchwork of ethnic enclaves, Detroit was much more literally black and white, as Segrue mentions, "class and race became more important that ethnicity as a guide to the city's residential geography." (p.22) While it was understood as a "City of Homes" for most, the influx of black workers from the South, who came in the 'Great Migration', were met with a consistent range of discrimination and violence, as existing residents perceived in-migration as a threat to their community, starting in the 1920s and continuing all the way through the 1970s. As mentioned in Segrue:
"White neighborhoods, especially enclaves of working-class homeowners, interpreted the influx of blacks as a threat and began to defend themselves against the newcomers, first by refusing to see to blacks, then by using force and threats of violence, and finally establishing restrictive covenants to assure the homogeneity of neighborhoods." (p.24)
There were some inroads to employment in good jobs around WWII, driven by a tightening labor market, the coalitions of unions and civil rights groups, and some federal policies, which made sure that "blacks made significant gains in Detroit's industrial economy during the war." (p.27) There was still an undercurrent of racial tension, which played out in housing and employment, a continual topic that Segrue alludes to being a 'structural' racism that played out in Detroit, and were displayed in significant riots and other violence throughout the years, but that this didn't stop the influx of blacks coming into the city, leaving the Jim Crow south for something better. It's debatable if Detroit was much better.
The Time Bomb
The availability and quality of housing was poor for blacks - driven by a number of social and policy factors. While the New Deal had instilled a new ideology of opportunity for blacks - it had also instilled an ideology for current residents that the government would protect their property and the status quo. Thus the competing ideals of opportunity and protection played out in Detroit, and although, as seen previously, some gains were made - the majority of the wins came in maintenance of the status quo and protection from the new waves of poor, black residents.
As seen in the map below, there were very specific segregated neighborhoods that were predominately populated by blacks - in particularly the original Paradise Valley and West Side Neighborhoods (which had been an areas for wealthy blacks that had deteriorated), along with the wealthier blacks in Conant Gardens and the more distant Eight Mile-Wyoming area, where they had land for gardens to grow food, which became for some pioneering blacks, "their one opportunity, as they saw it, to own their own homes and rear their families." (p.39)
The geography of race was perpetuated by the real estate community as well, who were actively involved in the exclusion of blacks from housing. Another aspect was construction, with new houses rarely being built for blacks or in a price range that was suitable. As Segrue mentions, in "1951, on 1.15 percent of the new homes constructed in the metropolitan Detroit area were available to blacks." (p.43). Another major issue that shaped this geography in Detroit, and many other cities around the United States, was the concept of redlining. Maps were produced by the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, informed by local real estate brokers and lenders, to rate the neighborhoods in cities according to a scale from A (green) to D (red). While ostensibly a methodology for determining investment risk, the process became a de facto method for exclusion, disenfranchisement, and continued disinvestment in the minority areas.
Black neighborhoods, even those with a small percentage of black residents, were given a rating of 'D', which was deemed hazardous and colored red (as seen in the unfortunately fuzzy map above, which shows significant portions of the downtown). I haven't been able to track down maps from Detroit - although they do exist for a number of cities - and tell as pretty sad tale of federally aided racism. The ratings kept out new loans for new construction or home repairs, furthering a cycle of disinvestment, as outlined by Segrue:
"Residents in areas rate 'C' and 'D' were unlikely to qualify for mortgages and home loans. Builders and developers, likewise, could expect little or no financial backing if they chose to building in such risky neighborhoods." (p.44)
When you factor in restrictive covenants (the actual and implied), and the work of redlining along with real-estate industry maintenance of status quo, it equated to an impossible position for the largest growing population of residents in Detroit to get adequate housing, which further fueled tensions. For a bit more context, here's a video about the Race Riots from Detroit 2020 offers a concise history on the topic:
The final element of the oppression of poor minority residents in Detroit came, as it did in many areas, through the disguise of urban renewal, in particular the construction of highways through 'slums' that cleared out substandard housing without replacing it with enough to handle what was lost, much less house the large numbers of new residents. From Segrue: "The most obvious problem with slum clearance was that it forced the households with the least resources to move at a time when the city's tight housing market could not accommodate them." (p.50)
This was exacerbated with landlords charging more rent (up to 35% more) for blacks for less housing, which, coupled with the lower wages and job opportunities, forced many to live in great numbers, and not have anything left over for maintenance. This further degraded already deteriorating stock, which further declined, and continued the narrative that some whites believed - that blacks would destroy neighborhoods. The cycle continued. Unlike some areas that built robust (if often misguided) public housing, the next chapter showed that Detroit, city of 'homes' had some similar issues with density, and a new-found Nimbyism which led to a slow provision of subsidized housing, which may have aided in softening some of the myriad impacts of the 1950s and 1960s.
Public Housing
The promise of the New Deal, in post-WWII era, was predicated on government intervention to solve the problems of the city. One of those things was to provide adequate housing for the poor, whether this be true building of community and opportunity, or the more commonly wielded tool of 'social engineering' to make better citizens. Through a number of acts, the US developed policy and funding for many types of affordable housing, complementing the already robust subsidies of single family home construction and highway building.
The trend toward 'modernist' totalitarian schemes emerged from this process of social engineering, embodied by the work of a group of professionals called the Citizens' Housing and Planning Council (CPHC), which took a mission of "improvement of the environmental conditions of Detroit's slums through the elimination of crowded, dirty, and substandard housing, and the construction of sanitary, well-lit, and well-ventilated public housing in its place." (p.61) This type of rhetoric smacks of much of public housing projects of the era, which provides housing, as Segrue mentions, that has "ameliorative effects on living conditions and would modify the behavior and character of urban residents... Public housing would also uplift the 'morale' of urban dwellers," which could happen through "social and individual improvement through orderly planning and urban redevelopment." (p.62)
The problem in Detroit, was that nobody seemed to want public housing, as it was fought almost everywhere by both whites, unions, real estate agents, developers and even some established black residents. The adjacency of even some black areas was problematic, and developers had to make deals with the FHA, such as the 1 foot thick, 6 foot high wall that separated the new development from the old - remnants of which still exist. This sort of approach reinforced the FHA's official policy, not of true equality, but as mentioned by Segrue, even with some of the more enlightened bureaucrats, "a separate but equal philosophy." (p.67)
:: Wall Separating Black from White - remnant - image via Detroit Fly
The official ideology of racial segregation couched in urban renewal also bled into the policies of the City Plan Commission (CPC), which continued the rhetoric of "an emerging program to create a totally planned metropolis, combining public housing with strictly regulated private development..." and the group began using zoning to start "composing a master plan to guide city and regional growth... for the 'reconstruction of Detroit's 'blighted' neighborhoods'..." (p.68) The use of condemnation and slum removal, and strategic placement of black neighborhoods aimed to 'clean up' areas and protect others from deterioration, but more often than not led to housing shortages for those most in need.
The contention over public housing locations was intense, with everyone agreeing that there was a chronic shortage, but no area wanting to be the location for housing to be built. It is understandable, as the inclusion of black neighborhoods, even those Federally-funded, would place these areas in danger of redlining, meaning that value for those living nearby would degrade, and their access to money for improvements and new construction would be significantly decreased. Many planned projects, such as the Sojourner-Truth housing project in Northeast Detroit, which was a planned 200 unit development opposed by whites as well as existing, establish blacks. The overt racism was sometimes couched in a patriotic fervor, "couched in the language of Americanism," as seen in the flags atop the blatant message below but also came with a hint of threatened violence, all with an aim, in the words of existing homeowners, to "preserve the racial and architectural homogeneity of their neighborhood." (p.78)
The Federal government flip-flopped multiple times on location and type of housing - at one point within a two week period switching from black to white, and back to black. The New Deal dichotomy of rights vs. existing protection was at play in many of these conversations as well, as mentioned by Segrue, while: "Acknowledging the 'moral and legal right' of blacks to adequate housing..." existing residents countered that they "had established a prior right to a neighborhood which we have built up through the years - a neighborhood which is entirely white and which we want kept white." (p.80) The government, with pressure from residents, unions, and other groups, implied redlining from real-estate agents, and continued white flight to the suburbs, often acquiesced to these demands, further creating a tension of high rent and little opportunity that continued to flare up in violence.
The venue of public housing debate became a political touchstone as well - with mayoral elections being decided not by the traditional means of party affiliation and union membership, but by black and white, specifically a candidates views of public housing. This conflict, as Segrue mentions, of "politics of home" versus the "politics of the workplace" was another interesting institutional element that made Detroit a large city with very little public housing compared to many other US cities.
As we shall see in subsequent chapters, the racial and social strife had already taken a toll on Detroit, even before deindustrialization, and that loss of industrial might that made the city the Arsenal of Democracy, will continue to play out in racial division, housing, and employment.
One of our supplementary readings for the Shrinking Cities group is the recent essay by Jerry Herron on The Design Observer entitled 'The Forgetting Machine: Notes Toward a History of Detroit.' The author is from Wayne State and has been a resident of Detroit since the early eighties, so it avoids some of the outsider rhetoric, but he still differentiates himself as coming from out, not within. Read his essay, as this is more of a 'notes on notes' take that is my reaction and parsing of his essay. Worth a look. :: image via Design Observer
The idea of Detroit as a industrial powerhouse declining into a bastion of cliched ruin-porn makes it a much talked about as a cultural touchstone of the shrunken city phenomenon of the US. Referred to by artist Camilo Jose Vergara and 'American Acropolis', the idea of preserving the 'ruins' as a tourist attraction, much like the Greeks, leads Herron discusses a similar relationship to the Roman ruins, After commenting on the disinterest by locals and the seeming paradox of outsiders being more fascinated by the city than those who occupy it, he turns this around as asks a powerful question:
"who understands better what the place really means: the person who tries to remember it, or the one who lets it go?"
This becomes a fundamental dilemma surrounding a place that will never return to it's original state - but is not dead by any means. I think of the lively energy of the contemporary city that I visited in the Fall, surrounding the 1000+ year old ruins of Rome and see a parallel in the larger lesson - that things always change, but the way we engage in that change, and in the sense of Detroit, the deterioration, tells much about us as a society. As mentioned, the concept of what happens in Detroit isn't special per se, but for the fact that it is happening within a crumbling environment. Thus as art, mentions Herron: "things once tragic become beautiful — images for artistic appreciation —
with the ravages of daily life being redeemed by photographic dignity."
I share the same fascination with the City of Detroit in images and through my visit and rumination since 2007 - and it puts me in the camp of the gawkers and outsiders, at least to the point where I peruse and am fascinated, but don't buy, the coffee table 'ruin porn' books like Detroit Dissassembled, and the newer The Ruins of Detroit (with an introduction by Thomas Segrue). What is quoted by Herron from John Berger as 'mystification', where we distance ourselves from the actual phenomena at work - good and bad - and giving them a remoteness by making things art.
So i know I shouldn't like the ruin-porn, but standing in the midst of it, in Detroit, is to experience first-hand the reality. Perhaps it is somewhat less sanitized and 'framed' as in the photography, but the fact of it's very reality and other-worldly sense that this couldn't be happening, is part of what I think the art is trying to capture. For me, it was summed up in the spectacle of the Michigan Central Station, which was one of the first massive ruins we encountered, and I still have a vivid memory of the experience (and no photos - i was literally absorbing and didn't think about taking a photo, which is rare).
It's reductive, and it limits the stories behind the former beauty, and the nasty racial discrimination that was at work in the creation of something like the large Hudson's store on Woodward Avenue, captured in this image that shows the cutaway of the various departments inside the hive of mid-century activity which was vital to the "making of shoppers, like the making of citizens, was an essential
function of both store and city, especially the city of middle-class
arrivals made possible by the flourishing of modern industry". This idealistic experience is another cultural ruin that no longer exists (as it was demolished by changes in commerce) - much like the building in which it used to happen.
The same fates, to a differing degree, befell many sites, like Hudsons, but the overlay of the old (ruin) and the new become something similar to Rome - a cafe right outside the Pantheon, or a gelato stand at the Colosseum... In Detroit, the Michigan Theater, for instance, was an architectural gem from the 1920s, which in the words of Herron was somewhat rudely transformed into a parking garage... "The old Michigan Theater is one of the most suggestive sights in the
whole city of Detroit: neither an abandoned ruin nor a precious,
restored fetish, but a working statement about making do with the past.
The tenants of the offices adjacent to the theater threatened to move
out unless they were provided with secure parking, so that’s what the
landlord improvised out of the otherwise useless auditorium. And that is
the genius of the place."
As mentioned, the mechanism is based on the 'mystification', but is
really what Herron calls 'site-specific forgetting' in which those
people who occupy the city are intertwined within the processes of
destruction - and it is not a binary question of one or the other side
of a coin.
"The ruin of urban space becomes a participatory drama: memory versus
forgetting, the city dead or the city alive. The trick is seeing both at
once, and comprehending them as equally true and mutually implicated."
A class this term at Portland State involves a reading and conference on 'Shrinking Cities'. Led by professor Ellen Bassett, a group of a dozen students from PhD and Masters in Urban Studies and Urban and Regional Planning reading and discussing four diverse texts, along with a range of other writings on the subject.
:: Detroit Race Riots - 1967 - image via Brittanica
Our first book is "The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit" by Thomas Segrue. Originally published in 1996, this book has won a number of awards for history, and continues to provide an overview of the connections between racial and economic inequality as played out in the post-WWII urban landscape of Detroit.
This is By no means a comprehensive overview of the subject, but the aim of the group is to discuss the social, economic, political, and spatial phenomena at work in a number of US Shrinking Cities, to better understand this issue. Stay tuned for some thoughts over coming weeks, and if you have suggested readings to include, that would be very welcome.
The ideas at the time were somewhat nascent, and sort of hinted at the concept of adaptable, location-specific music responsive to place. This was reinforced by reading one of William Gibson's latest novels called 'Spook Country', which discusses the concept of 'locative media' within the storyline, which means media that is delivered "directly to the user of a mobile device dependent upon their location." Another thread was a tale of games of location-specific 'Urban Pacman' taking place in Portland - using the game-friendly layout of Ladd's Addition as a container.
An article from a few weeks back in the NY Times - "Central Park, the Soundtrack" takes this idea to an entirely new level. Bluebrain, a musical duo have created. The first of the series looked at the National Mall, and the second, of these 'locational' music pieces, 'Listen to the Light' provides an experiential soundtrack for Central Park. From the Times article:
"As you walk, new musical themes hit you every 20 or 30 steps, as if they
were emanating from statues, playgrounds, open spaces and landmarks... The themes layer over one another, growing in volume as you approach
certain points on the map and fading out as you move away. It’s a
musical Venn diagram placed over the landscape, and at any time you
might have two dozen tracks playing in your ears, all meshing and
colliding in surprising ways. The path you take determines what you
hear, and the biggest problem with what the composers call a
“location-aware album” is that you may get blisters on your feet trying
to hear it all."
The Venn diagram looks something like this, and the tracks reference GPS coordinates. A diagram or map of the overlay of different musical phrases, from the Bluebrain site:
You can get a taste for the 'classical' inspired work as well.
Definitely check out the slightly longer 'making of' video for "Listen to the Light" for more detail on the technical aspects. It is somewhat difficult to assess whether the piece is a success or not, divorced from context, but that might be the point. For those of us who have a constant soundtrack going through our head - which hits shuffle based on a word on a street sign or a sight of a sunset, it does lead one to think that there many possibilities that we are just scratching the surface.
Another interesting example mentioned in the article was GPS Beatmap: Planet as Control Surface, which uses location-specific positioning to mash-up musical phrases based on where you are. Check out a video of this in action here:
It's pretty exciting, even in these simple formats - and it isn't difficult to envision new radio stations that are location-driven, where users can select a genre, plug in headphones, and participate in an immersive, place-based experience customized to their own particular
Another round of Siftings from the past couple of days. Starting off with a couple of Occupy-related posts, including a great article from Saskia Sassen and Hans Haacke from Artforum entitled 'Imminent Domain'. The first sentence - "OCCUPYING IS NOT THE SAME as demonstrating..." points out a recent and annoying trend of calling any sort of protest an occupation. It diminishes the act of occupying to do so. Worth reading, but a snippet I will include:
"To occupy is to remake, even if temporarily, territory’s embedded and often deeply undemocratic logics of power, and to redefine the role of citizens, mostly weakened and fatigued after decades of growing inequality and injustice. Indeed, the occupations have revealed to what extent the reality of territory goes beyond its dominant meaning throughout the twentieth century, when the term was flattened to denote national sovereign territory."
The National discusses a competition for Egypt's Tahrir Square, particularly to provide a monument that is a "memorial competition to commemorate the actions of the revolution." Particularly, the article mentions, is to remember the estimated 846 people who died in the protests (yes, that was a real occupation). It points out also, that while in the US, we can claim public space, and also claim a measure of shared atrocity with the liberal use of baton and pepper spray to disperse crowds, we're still along way from bullets and grenades as a typical strategy, as is found in many parts of the world.
On a different note, Richard Florida, if anyone is still listening to him, has an article in the Atlantic on 'How the Crash Will Reshape America' which is worth a read, along with an interesting exploration on 'The Case for Congestion' - which argues for some slow-ness, but perhaps not to the degree of the scenarios that imagined a "City Without Its Public Transportation" and what that would mean for automobile gridlock.
An article from the NY Times 'Taking Parking Lots Seriously, as Public Spaces' includes some study from Eran Ben-Joseph, including some startling stats, such as that there are: "...500 million parking spaces in the country, occupying some 3,590 square miles, or an area larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined."
The article and slideshow (thanks NY Times for not allowing pic downloads!!!) - also yielded a gem from Lewis Mumford, which has definitely made the rounds on Twitter and Facebook:
"“As the critic Lewis Mumford wrote half a century ago, ‘The right to have access to every building in the city by private motorcar in an age when everyone possesses such a vehicle is the right to destroy the city.’"
And finally, from 'Growing Your Greens', an interesting Incredible Edible Public Garden in Irvine, California (with apologies for the host yelling all the time)... The title is a bit misleading, as it would be quite a feat to feed 200k of people with 7.5 acres. Enjoy.
Via Atlantic Cities, an interesting film from 1959 exploring the implications for sprawl... from the National Association of Home Builders and the Urban Land Institute. I particularly like the diagrams of the monocentric city towards polycentric city form in post WWII United States.
The solutions include planned unit developments, cluster developments, townhouses, culs-de-sac, separation of auto and pedestrian uses, loop streets, and circular streets are mentioned - all of which had/have merit - but are not a silver bullet to fix issues. Interestingly, have we actually come very far in the last 50+ years? Can planning solve these issues? As summed up in patriotic fervor:
"Planning alone is not the final answer to the crisis of our land. But without wise and far-sighted planning, there can be no answers. How wisely, or wastefully, we use the heritage of our land, is not solely the responsibility of the planner, the developer, the builder, the community official. It is the responsibility of all of us, who are the American community."
The solution - more research. Some things never change.
A veritable log-jam of links worth checking out, so I thought I'd drop a few of them on folks - worth checking out for sure. To start, John King of the Chronicle takes us on a tour of 'parklets' in San Francisco, or what is essentially Rebar's Parking Day in a more permanent iteration... I'd show you a pic but the SF Gate has them under lock and key so you should check out the slideshow, good stuff!
Beautiful 3D maps by artist Matthew Picton, made from a range of media - such as "Lower Manhattan created from headlines that accompanied
the 2001 world Trade center bombing and DVD covers of the film
“Towering Inferno” also book covers of the novel “The Plot Against
America” by Philip Roth"
You can also find out 'Things Architects Love', a somewhat tongue-in-cheek take which includes some standards like 'slatted timber' and 'drawings with birds in the sky', which seem to have become a staple of contemporary design language.
And speaking of contemporary design, I'm not sure if I'd totally agree these were the most notable events, but Birnbaum lists 2011's 10 Notable Developments in Landscape Architecture, which includes the hopefully tongue and cheek comment that "...if we do not write about landscape, it will not endure," which i take means his obligation to the Huffington Post :)
Across the world, cities are bringing back nature to help
address urban challenges. We are healthier when we are closer to
nature. We have a greater respect for the environment that sustains
us. We are more adaptable to change when we let nature do its
work.
Join us for a free presentation by Dr. Timothy Beatley,
renowned expert in sustainable city planning and author of the book BiophilicCities. Dr. Beatley is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Sustainable
Communities, in the Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, School of
Architecture at the University of Virginia, where he has taught for the last
twenty-five years. He will share his experience and knowledge of cities
across the world that have made strides to integrate nature into our
neighborhoods and communities.
A Presentation on Biophilic Cities with
Dr. Timothy Beatley
January 18th, 2012
6:00-8:00 PM
Portland Northwest College of Art - Swigert Commons
Explorations in landscape architecture and urbanism, with a focus on aligning theory with practice.
Jason King is a landscape architect and Principal of TERRA.fluxus in Portland, Oregon, and currently is in the doctoral program at Portland State University in Urban Studies.
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