A LA Times visit to The Americana at Brand.
The new Mayberry? [LA Times]
image by Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times
The Atlantic looks at the continued fallout of the subprime mess and its relation to larger shifts in attitudes toward dense urban areas and surrounding suburban areas. As the number of foreclosed homes sit empty in neighborhoods increase, so has activity commonly associated with urban centers such as graffiti, gangs, and even the stripping of empty properties of precious metals such as copper. It could be argued that the suburb has finally arrived - the oldest of the suburbs have reached an age where homes will have seen multi-generations and the transfer of ownership through a handful of families. As older city neighborhoods such as the Lower East Side have seen its demographic shift from Jewish, to Puerto Rican, to gentrifying transplants from the Midwest, the suburbs are reaching an age where radical shifts in demographics and character will become part of the arc of the life of a suburb.
This is a promising change from two fronts. First, the model of the suburb and suburban living is cautiously being reexamined under the guise of New Urbanism. New Urbanist communities have begun to support denser developments with an emphasis on public transportation or walkable living. Lifestyle Centers mimic the stylings of traditional Main Street, while beginning to mix retail, commercial and housing in the same development. While neither approach is perfect, and wreak of stylistic falsities more appropriate of a Disneyworld amusement center, they demonstrate the possibilities in rethinking how suburban development is approached, as opposed to a complete abandonment or disregard / distaste for the suburbs, as practiced by close-minded city dwellers who believe the revitalization of the inner city is the only honorable direction for us to take moving forward.
And second, older suburban developments and retail strips have the potential to be re-examined, as many are falling into disrepair and in need of infrastructural improvements. The opportunity exists to think about how infill projects are approached, how existing lots can be made denser, and whether larger McMansions can be subdivided into multi-tenant homes, in much the same way older brownstones or row-houses have been in neighborhoods such as Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Rather than viewing the forthcoming change approaching the suburbs in a negative light (ie: death of the suburbs), the weakening of the rigid idea of what the suburbs ought to be and what they represent should be seen as an opportunity to examine the best and worst of the suburbs, and learn how they are to be recalibrated moving forward.
The Next Slum? [The Atlantic]
Does the retail strip even have a chance, when any coverage it receives focuses on its generic or even 'ugly' looks, its alienating qualities, and automobile driven planning strategies? Dan Berry writing for the New York Times visits U.S. Route 1 with Kevin Fry, President of Scenic America, and Brad Cownover, its director of scenic conservation services.
Of course we agree that it is ugly, alienating, and results from automobile infrastructure. However it is these qualities that define what this generic place is and where the opportunity lies to make the strip a better place. Focusing on the aesthetic qualities of the strip are secondary to the infrastructural or operational issues that can impact how the strip is used and engaged. Understanding the strip goes beyond 'pimping awnings' and limiting the heights of billboards.
A Place Just Like Every Other Place. Only Not. [NY Times]
above image by Ángel Franco
In what otherwise appears to be a well thought through master plan for Hudson Yards (pdf here), a series of cold and gloomy renderings manage to set the tone for the early public reaction to Extell's proposal.
Metropolis looks at recent allegations by Robert Bruegmann that Los Angeles is actually more dense than New York City.
Not so say a group of UCLA planning students who reveal on the Livable Spaces web site that a measure of density is dependent on how density is defined:
When discussing density it is important to distinguish between population density and housing density. Population density measures the number of people per unit of land and varies depending on the time of day. Housing density is the number of homes per unit of land.
Sprawl Brawl [Metropolis]
A story in the Lincoln Journal Star featuring reservations about a 22 story building proposed for Lincoln's beige downtown set off a fury of pro-development comments from Lincolnites, complete with New York cynicism, tired of living in a "prairie town". University Towers resident Kim Sturzenegger complains the proposed tower will block the view from her 12th story apartment window with a big beige wall (they love beige in Lincoln) that will be "a monumental mistake". Dick Quinn, who also has a view from University Towers is concerned about the "sheer mass of the tower".
Lincolnites, who tend to balk at new development (if it threatens to impact their taxes), must be tired of being Omaha's bitch, because they attacked the "anti-progress" crowd (or those concerned about views from their apartments) as NIMBY's and whiners. At 90 comments and counting this is a good view into the heart of a community as it struggles to transform from a prairie town into a city, complete with the some of the messiness that comes with city living.
jackson at 1:32 pm says it best: "Hey, if you run around with corn cobs on your head, the rest of the country will always think of lincoln as a cow town or a town full of bumkins."
Some say proposed high-rise too high [Lincoln Journal Star]
While reading about a proposed arena being planned behind closed doors in Lincoln, Nebraska (an arena that would be stylistically modeled after a historic train station: The up-to-130-foot-tall arena would use the Lincoln Station as an entrance, and the rest of the building would be modeled after the railroad station’s historic, red brick design.) we came across mention of the 2015 Vision, a group of Lincoln civic and business leaders who aim to create a "bold, new community vision." Safely veiled in red brick, of course.
Vision 2015 has identified '10 Pillars' that will contribute to the city's future: West Haymarket Arena, New Convention Center and Headquarter Hotel, Expansion of Haymarket Park, Nebraska Sports Triangle, Humanities and Art Center, Downtown Plaza and Tower/Garage Project, Retail Corridor Along P and Q Streets, Antelope Valley Projects, UNL Research and Development Corridor, High Amenity Agricultural Exposition Center. Most of these projects are downtown-centric and fail to look beyond deep ingrained notions of what contributes to a successful and vibrant city. Convention centers, arenas, downtown retail corridors, parking garages. No mention of the ever-expanding edges of the city, the suburbs, or the retail strip. The rest of the city that isn't easily packaged in color pencil renderings of downtown centers accented with event banners and children with balloons.
Arena works continues, behind closed doors [Lincoln Journal Star]
