History Matters

http://bettercities.net/news-opinion/blog/chuck-wolfe/20977/why-urban-history-matters

London, England
tastybloggers.com

Hello Everyone:

We talk a lot about what's right and wrong with cities and solutions for making urban cores better places to live.  The truth is that none of the big issues that our cities face: poverty, lack of affordable housing, dysfunctional schools, crime, and so forth are really new.  I know it sounds like I'm stating the obvious but what is new is our approach to finding remedies.  In Chuck Wolfe's blog post for Better Cities, titled, "Why urban history matters," Mr. Wolfe argues that if civic planners and officials want to find strategies for solving present-day challenges, the place to look is in the past.  Mr. Wolfe writes, "So many discussions about cities look only forward, without fully considering the past."  The problems that cities face today evolved over time, thus finding a solution requires a careful consideration of the past if we want to make things better.

Park in Boston's Chinatown
Boston, MA
boston.com

Change is hard but possible.  We often presume that the way we live must change for the better.  In the urban context assumes the character of a greener, more inclusive and shareable, globally orientated way of living apart from land use regulations that move away from separation of uses and lean towards a healthier less auto-centered way of living.  Mr. Wolfe does not believe for a minute that this type of urban change is easy. Instead of taking a shorter-view, he suggests, "Without a longer-view, we risk undervaluing lessons learned long ago.  True.  Nothing that we can propose now hasn't been proposed in the pass.  The only difference is in the execution and the audience reception.  Challenges such as height, density, use/control of land, and public health within the  urban fabric have evolved over time.  Thus, by building on the foundation of reinvention and renewal and think more broadly about how the past, present, and future inform urban development, then we can begin to device solutions for ails our cities.

Edinburgh, Scotland
paradiseintheworld.com

Recently, Chuck Wolfe traveled to Edinburgh, Scotland to discover for himself why urban history matters.  Specifically, he wanted to find out what is the point of historical perspective, particularly in the world heritage sites of central Edinburgh?  This emphasis goes beyond the nice tourist sites such as the castle, statues of architect Robert Adam and William Wallace (not Mel Gibson), the Walter Scott Monument, and St. Giles Cathedral.  Rather, urban theorists such as Sir Patrick Geddes 1854-1932) once stressed that the real focus should be on the nature of continuous human settlement and its significance over time.  More to the present, according to the director of the Scottish Centre for Conservation Miles Glendinning, "the humble acceptance of the long-term reminds us,...that change is constant, and that specific themes of long-term habitation can create broader ways of understanding the cyclical nature of urban reinvention."  This is not rocket science.  This is something out of a basic urban planning text book.  In other words, cities are organic entities.

High Street
Edinburgh, Scotland
commons.wikimedia.org

The re-emergence of downtown is the big draw for contemporary would-be urban dwellers and dense urban centers are creating more lifestyle choices and economic engines across the map. Sprawl is frowned upon as the solution to overcrowding while building up is looked more favorably, as are cooperative living spaces and smaller residential units.  However, Edinburgh's world heritage sites present a good case study for the ability to safely meet these challenges that reflect the lessons learned long ago when overcrowding and unsanitary conditions within the city walls inspired a better understanding of public health.

Within the medieval district of Edinburgh, there are building eleven to fifteen stories high that once lined High Street (Royal Mile) as it linearly cut across from Edinburgh Castle to Hollyrood Palace.  The upper classes lived on the top floors while the poor lived below.  Waste disposal, both human and other, competed for sidewalk space with walking and commerce in the alleys and courtyards as the sewage made its way to the small lake on the city's northern edge.  When the streets were widened, they cut into some of the alleys and courtyards while leaving others untouched.  These early administrative interventions brought light and fresh air into the "high rise" and subterranean dwellings, and eventually turned the small lake into  gardens at the foot of the Old Town.

Old Town
Edinburgh, Scotland
commons.wikimedia.org

Presently, Old Town Edinburgh is part tourist district, part retrofit.  The medieval essence remains but it is now kitted out with all the necessities of modern life.  Historic places such as the Royal Mile have new roles, complete with attractive visuals like the bend in West Bow Street that replaced the basics of life within the fortress with all the current trends.  What lessons can we learn from all the hidden medieval alleys and long abandoned and forgotten buildings of Old Town?

When Chuck Wolfe toured several of the remaining abandoned underground medieval alleys, covered over by eighteenth century building foundations, he observed parallels to contemporary urban alleys and laneways, apartments and live-work spaces in the medieval spaces that evolved without all the nasty pestilence.  Back to the future, as it were, with a modern sheen.  Mr. Wolfe also observed that it wasn't a great stretch to see how contemporary developers can repopulate the empty spaces instead of opted for the more common solution of infill development.  In 2002, a fire destroyed a block of Old Town tenements near the historic Cowgate district.  Edinburgh developers, Whiteburn Projects, worked with city planners, heritage groups, and the community to put together eight separate properties and redevelop the area into a mixed-use space that includes a new hotel and grocery store.  What of the the neo-classical New Town?

New Town Crescent
Edinburgh, Scotland
edinburgharchitecture.co.uk

This wonder of urban planning is centered around stately squares and avenues designed by James Craig and built in stage from 1765 to 1850.  As originally planned, New Town was an exercise in period-style architecture reinvention of the original urban center.  It quickly became the residence of choice for the wealthy and later became the starting point for urban expansion. In present times it is a commercial hub at the base of Old Town and largely retains its original elegant Georgian design.

What impressions did Chuck Wolfe glean from the New Town's legacy?  New Town's physical form is a document to the power of interventionist planning-a municipality creates an cohesive ensemble out of a broad swath of land.  In this case, the Treaty of Union in 1706 and the separate Acts of Union in 1707 brought together Scotland and England, rendering Old Town
s walls moot by the mid-eighteenth century.  An earlier royal grant made new land available.

In short, historical perspective this case study presents raises the fascinating question about the nature of change in the urban context and how the global economy works with urban artifact.  In this instance, the issues of integrity were addressed long ago with all the usual historic preservation arguments along the Royal Mile and the construction of Scottish Parliament on the former site of Hollyrood Brewery and the introduction of rail lines in the nineteenth century.  Chuck Wolfe notes the Starbucks logo, which glaringly stands out amid the historic buildings.  At once it unites the medieval past with the global future.

Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen

Follow me on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/glamavon and on Pinterest http://www.pinterest.com/glamtroy

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen

Google+ and Instagram- find me at hpblogger