Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Will the Astrodome Survive Today's Referendum?
Will the Astrodome Survive Today's Referendum? See today's blog post at historicpca.blogspot.com for all the late inning action.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Renovation Goes Crazy
tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/07/sign-of-the-times-when-renovation-means-erasing-the-past/?smid=tw-share&_r=0
Hello Everyone:
A person's home is his or her castle, right? I'm being rhetorical. So it would stand to reason that a person can do whatever they want to their house, including erase whatever history the house possesses and build something entirely new. I ask you, is that always the right thing to do? Would radically altering or demolition an older home in order to create thousands of square feet of empty space be the right thing to do? This is the subject of a recent blog post by Harry Mount, "Sign of the Times, When Renovation Means Erasing the Past." In the post, Mr. Mount points out while Victorians abhorred "horror vacuii" (fear of empty space), for first time in history, the nouveau riche across the globe have embraced the empty space. To achieve this look, historic architecture is being destroyed either by demolition or renovation gone wild.
In order to achieve this "minimalist" look, historic architecture is falling victim to either demolition or renovation gone wild. One useful example is the beachside mansion once owned by Henry F. du Pont. The property began its life as an elegant Georgian mansion in the Hamptons. In the eighties, Barry Trupin, a financier later convicted of tax evasion, bought the stately property and gave it the most garish makeover. Mr. Trupin added a twenty-foot waterfall to the back of the house and installed an indoor shark tank (!) and a private burro zoo. He also added turrets and a mansard roof that would've made the cast of Twilight feel quite comfortable. Along comes couturier Calvin Klein, he of the minimalist look, transferring his fashion aesthetic to architecture. Mr. Klein reportedly spent $75 million on the property and at least three architects. First, Mr. Klein tried to remodel the Trupin disaster before throwing up his hands and razing the house four years ago in order to build the ultimate glass box. What was that about people living in glass houses? The glass box required a $350,000 life-sized model to demonstrate to Mr. Klein that a beach passerby could actually peek into his shower. Needless to say that bushes were planted post haste.
Speaking of overexposure, this seems to also be feature of a set of three glass towers designed by Richard Meier along the West Side Highway in Manhattan. Rita Schrager, the former wife of hotelier Ian Schrager, tried to install curtains in her apartment, contrary to building rules. The actor Vincent Gallo, in protest, supposedly readied a sign that declared "Rita Schrager is a whore." Mr. Gallo planned to tape the sign to his window in the neighboring tower but changed his mind at the last minute.
The glass box represents the final era of architectural history, the erasure of history. Every pediment, pinnacle, pediment, entablature that decorated some of the best-known period styles, gone. The glitterati of the Gilded Age: the Fricks, the Morgans, and the Astors, knew better. A brownstone in Manhattan might feature Greek Revival or Federalist design motifs; a cottage in Newport, Rhode Island might resemble a Renaissance palazzo; a French chateau or an English country house all featured design elements that respected the historic period it recalled. Harry Mount complains that contemporary glitterati want houses as interchangeable in appearance as mass retail outlets. From the tone of Mr. Mount's complaint, he appears to long for the academic period style revivals that defined American architecture for much of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, while the Fricks, the Morgans, and the Astors were building their odes to historicism, a new generation of architects were developing a new design aesthetic that was based in the new techniques and materials developed in the Industrial Revolution. The steel and glass box came out of this new architectural aesthetic. British actor Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) has jumped into the radical renovation fury with his plans to replace a classical thirties-era house with a glass box designed by, wait for it, Richard Meier.
The renovation gone wild craze has also been reported in London. In Kensington, West London, the new owners of Thurloe Lodge, a Victorian Home once owned by Mark Birley the owner of famed nightclub Annabel's, want to tear it down and rebuild a bigger house. You'd think that Thurloe's 6,000 square feet would have enough room, with five bedrooms, a separate cottage, garden, and two garages? Even when the houses aren't taken down, the interior are ripped apart, turned into endless voids. Case in point, Roman Abramovich, the owner of Chelsea Football Club. Apologies to my British readers who are Chelsea FC fans. The Russian oligarch bought all nine
apartments inside two stucco-fronted mid-nineteenth century houses in Lowndes Square, around the corner from Harrods. Mr. Abramovich received planning permission to knock down the interior walls, combine all nine units, and install an interior swimming pool. Thank goodness for project delays which caused Mr. Abramovich to put the houses on the market with the renovations on hold. Hopefully the new owner will treat the houses with a little more love and care. I'm not a sentimentalist or anything like that, I just think that older homes deserve a little more respect and be turned into some vanity project.
Mr. Abramovich was not deterred. In Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, a lovely and historic eighteenth century riverside terrace in London, once home to James Whistler, Mick Jagger, and Keith Richards, the Chelsea FC boss got permission to connect three houses together worth about $150 million as part of a $15 million scheme to gut the place. I hate to sound like a sexist but ever notice how it's always men that undertake these types of grand schemes? Just saying. Then, suddenly last summer, he decided to sell those houses too. Hence the problem with the international elite, they frequently don't live in the houses the own, often buying and renovating them as investment properties. Not that there's anything wrong with flipping houses. Harry Mount laments that they never get the personal touch that make each one unique not do they accumulate the things that represent the long-term love.
If you absolutely must tear apart a house, you risk losing the building's overarching aesthetic, rail Harry Mount. Mr. Mount states, in a not entirely true statement, that houses from previous centuries weren't built with mix-and-match architecture with free floating interiors. I would not hesitate to point out Brighton Pavilion with its mix-and-match references to "Asian" architecture. Rightly, he points out that the interiors and exteriors were designed to complement each other. This still hold true
today. Mr. Mount uses the example of the British terraced houses which were built in the manner of Andrea Palladio's palazzo in Vicenza, Italy. The exterior window heights matched the interior room dimensions. Earlier versions featured a "piano nobile," "the grand floor" used for entertaining and showing off. The interior details were all carefully designed to harmonize with the window proportions. Take those elements away and you destroy the harmony of the building. Same can be said for the pre-World War II buildings, I'm thinking of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye (1929).
Finally, Harry Mount admits to the fact that houses change in accordance with form and use.Yet he cannot help carrying on about some of the renovation disasters in the making. While Mr. Mount makes a case for respecting the historic old homes, he fails to realize that history cannot be encased in amber. If you want to freeze history, then a house museum might be the way to go. What Mr. Mount fails to acknowledge in his article is that are historic home owners who have treated their residences with the love and respect they deserve. His focus on renovations gone wild makes for fun reading but fails to give an accurate picture of historic home restoration.
One final note, Tower Records still needs your help. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition. Also email Council Member Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org to let her know why this building should not be demolished to make way for another high-end mixed used development.
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Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/Lenore/Lowen
A person's home is his or her castle, right? I'm being rhetorical. So it would stand to reason that a person can do whatever they want to their house, including erase whatever history the house possesses and build something entirely new. I ask you, is that always the right thing to do? Would radically altering or demolition an older home in order to create thousands of square feet of empty space be the right thing to do? This is the subject of a recent blog post by Harry Mount, "Sign of the Times, When Renovation Means Erasing the Past." In the post, Mr. Mount points out while Victorians abhorred "horror vacuii" (fear of empty space), for first time in history, the nouveau riche across the globe have embraced the empty space. To achieve this look, historic architecture is being destroyed either by demolition or renovation gone wild.
 |
| Photographs of the Henry F. du Pont Mansion Before (left) and after (right) renovations tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com |
In order to achieve this "minimalist" look, historic architecture is falling victim to either demolition or renovation gone wild. One useful example is the beachside mansion once owned by Henry F. du Pont. The property began its life as an elegant Georgian mansion in the Hamptons. In the eighties, Barry Trupin, a financier later convicted of tax evasion, bought the stately property and gave it the most garish makeover. Mr. Trupin added a twenty-foot waterfall to the back of the house and installed an indoor shark tank (!) and a private burro zoo. He also added turrets and a mansard roof that would've made the cast of Twilight feel quite comfortable. Along comes couturier Calvin Klein, he of the minimalist look, transferring his fashion aesthetic to architecture. Mr. Klein reportedly spent $75 million on the property and at least three architects. First, Mr. Klein tried to remodel the Trupin disaster before throwing up his hands and razing the house four years ago in order to build the ultimate glass box. What was that about people living in glass houses? The glass box required a $350,000 life-sized model to demonstrate to Mr. Klein that a beach passerby could actually peek into his shower. Needless to say that bushes were planted post haste.
 |
| 173 Perry West wirednewyork.com |
The glass box represents the final era of architectural history, the erasure of history. Every pediment, pinnacle, pediment, entablature that decorated some of the best-known period styles, gone. The glitterati of the Gilded Age: the Fricks, the Morgans, and the Astors, knew better. A brownstone in Manhattan might feature Greek Revival or Federalist design motifs; a cottage in Newport, Rhode Island might resemble a Renaissance palazzo; a French chateau or an English country house all featured design elements that respected the historic period it recalled. Harry Mount complains that contemporary glitterati want houses as interchangeable in appearance as mass retail outlets. From the tone of Mr. Mount's complaint, he appears to long for the academic period style revivals that defined American architecture for much of the nineteenth century. Interestingly, while the Fricks, the Morgans, and the Astors were building their odes to historicism, a new generation of architects were developing a new design aesthetic that was based in the new techniques and materials developed in the Industrial Revolution. The steel and glass box came out of this new architectural aesthetic. British actor Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) has jumped into the radical renovation fury with his plans to replace a classical thirties-era house with a glass box designed by, wait for it, Richard Meier.
 |
| Thurloe Lodge thetimes.co,uk |
 |
| Roman Abramovich's House Lowndes Square dailymail.co.uk |
 |
| Roman Abramovich's House Chelsea dailymail.co.uk |
 |
| Rowan Atkinson's house: current dailymail.co.uk |
 |
| Rowan Atkinson's House-model for proposed design heart.co.uk |
Finally, Harry Mount admits to the fact that houses change in accordance with form and use.Yet he cannot help carrying on about some of the renovation disasters in the making. While Mr. Mount makes a case for respecting the historic old homes, he fails to realize that history cannot be encased in amber. If you want to freeze history, then a house museum might be the way to go. What Mr. Mount fails to acknowledge in his article is that are historic home owners who have treated their residences with the love and respect they deserve. His focus on renovations gone wild makes for fun reading but fails to give an accurate picture of historic home restoration.
One final note, Tower Records still needs your help. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition. Also email Council Member Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org to let her know why this building should not be demolished to make way for another high-end mixed used development.
Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen
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Monday, November 4, 2013
How Does a Public Space Work?
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyles/2013/09/anatomy-public-space/7003
Hello Everyone:
Wow, we really jumped in the page views. It seems like only last week we hit 3500, now we're at 3651. That's quite a leap from one week to the next. Do you think it's possible we can do 4000 page views? I have 5000 page views in mind as my year end goal. Maybe we can shoot for that.
Today, I would like to discuss what makes up public space. It's not something the average person considers because public space just seems to be a constant, like electricity or water. Emily Badger, in her article "Anatomy of a Public Space," (see above link) examines how University City in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania came about and became a success. Two years ago, traffic engineers paved a lane of roadway in front of the 30th Street Station, creating a broad sidewalk fifty feet across and 565 feet long. The University City District organization invested about a quarter of a million dollars in tables, chairs, and umbrellas for the space, not bolted to the ground. Since then, the space, a
cross between a pop-up park and permanent icon, has become quite popular like nearby Rittenhouse Square Park. People come to University City to read, have lunch, or just people watch. At a glance, people are using this public space. The real question is How are people using it?
For the most part, this is a very nice looking, very large sidewalk. "But there are choices," says Seth Budick, the policy and research manager for the University City District. By not bolting down the furniture, people can make lots of choices: sit in the sun or the shade; by themselves or with a group. People can decide how to move through the space. How people use and move through the space is what attracts Mr. Budick's attention. What are the factors that impact the users' choices. In short, how do you create a space that can be experienced by commuters rushing to catch a train and those who want to linger for a while with an iPad? How do you design a plaza that is is spacious enough for the lunchtime rush yet not empty during the the mid-morning? What do Philadelphians really want from the city's "front porch:" a seat in the middle of a busy crowd or a private place on the perimeter to watch people?
From the start, the UCD's plan was set up to be light and flexible, then study what happened next. The result, thus far, documented in a report prepared with Interface Studio, presented a wildly intricate picture of how people walked through, where they preferred to sit, and what role shadow plays in this one block space. The space is divided into small "rooms" by trees. The plaza has a full-time concierge who oversees the activities that take place: outdoor yoga classes, farmer's market, concerts, and other programming. Hmm, outdoor yoga classes sounds great, where do I sign up. In the course of is duties, the concierge helped collect data in the spring and summer of 2012 with a survey tool, noting the weather, a pedestrian's location in the plaza and approximate age, whether someone was carrying a bag and stopped to read the informational sign, or used a cell phone.
The data was collected between April and October of 2012. User census collected information on 24,698 people. Separate data collection tracked 290 lunchtime users (0.5% left litter behind-yea recycling) and directly surveyed another 388 people on how they arrived at the space: 94% came on foot, bike, or mass transit. One result was that people migrating through the plaza tended to gravitate toward the western end. Different parts of the porch were also used frequently for different reasons, with people seeking a quiet place at the eastern end. Noise levels measured closer to the main thoroughfare Market Street were ten times louder than those along Little Market Street, adjacent to to the station-offered a partial explanation why people tended not to linger in part of the plaza. The louder noise (70-75 decibels) was similar to a vacuum cleaner, while the quieter sound (60 decibels) was more like a conversation at close range.
Another interesting find was people shifted increasingly toward the shaded areas as temperature rose during the summer. While this isn''t rocket science, but the data supports intuitive design, something important in creating a public space when there's little funds available. If all you can do is light interventions, you can ensure that they work with how people move and use the space. "In the office, we started looking at pictures of Bryant Park of Rittenhouse Square and fantasizing about what [this] could be," says Prema Gupta, the director of planning and economic for UCD, recalling the beginning stages of the project. The planners and designers had a choice, they could have built that idealized vision, still be fundraising for it, and the sidewalk would've remained blank.
Rather than take that path, the UCD is learning that a farmer's market may not work there but food trucks do. The bistro chairs are a nice touch but Luxembourg chairs work better. Besides who wants to relax in the middle of a busy pedestrian walkway. Ms. Gupta uses the analogy of Facebook when describing the project's goals, "I'd say our goals are similar to Facebook's goals: We want as many people as possible to use the site and stay for a long time and have a meaningful experience. And think of what Facebook looked like a couple of years ago. It's constantly evolving, tweaking, changing.
One final note, Tower Records still needs your help. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition. Also email Council Member Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org to let her know why this building should not be demolished to make way for another high-end mixed used development.
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
Hello Everyone:
Wow, we really jumped in the page views. It seems like only last week we hit 3500, now we're at 3651. That's quite a leap from one week to the next. Do you think it's possible we can do 4000 page views? I have 5000 page views in mind as my year end goal. Maybe we can shoot for that.
 |
| "Welcome to University City" apartmentsatpenn.com |
cross between a pop-up park and permanent icon, has become quite popular like nearby Rittenhouse Square Park. People come to University City to read, have lunch, or just people watch. At a glance, people are using this public space. The real question is How are people using it?
 |
| Rittenhouse Square apartmenttherapy.com |
 |
| Map of University City drexel.edu |
For the most part, this is a very nice looking, very large sidewalk. "But there are choices," says Seth Budick, the policy and research manager for the University City District. By not bolting down the furniture, people can make lots of choices: sit in the sun or the shade; by themselves or with a group. People can decide how to move through the space. How people use and move through the space is what attracts Mr. Budick's attention. What are the factors that impact the users' choices. In short, how do you create a space that can be experienced by commuters rushing to catch a train and those who want to linger for a while with an iPad? How do you design a plaza that is is spacious enough for the lunchtime rush yet not empty during the the mid-morning? What do Philadelphians really want from the city's "front porch:" a seat in the middle of a busy crowd or a private place on the perimeter to watch people?
 |
| "The Porch" universitycity.org |
 |
| Sprucehill-Greenline city-data.com |
 |
| University City, Autumn 2010 hipsterhenry.com |
 |
| Autumn in West Philadelphia visitphilly,com |
One final note, Tower Records still needs your help. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition. Also email Council Member Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org to let her know why this building should not be demolished to make way for another high-end mixed used development.
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
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
3500
Hello Everyone:
Just a quick addendum, we hit 3500. You all are amazing. I love the fact that there are people all over the world who are interested in what on this blog. It tells me that the topics covered here are important to you. I hope you continue to follow along. I'm truly grateful to you. Please show the same kind of love for Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition to preserve the building. Email Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org and the West Hollywood City Council at ccouncil@weho.org to share your memories and why it's important to save it.
Thanks.
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Just a quick addendum, we hit 3500. You all are amazing. I love the fact that there are people all over the world who are interested in what on this blog. It tells me that the topics covered here are important to you. I hope you continue to follow along. I'm truly grateful to you. Please show the same kind of love for Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard. Please go to http://www.change.org and sign the online petition to preserve the building. Email Stephanie Reich at sreich@weho.org and the West Hollywood City Council at ccouncil@weho.org to share your memories and why it's important to save it.
Thanks.
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
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What is "Downtown?"
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/job-and-economy/2013/10/problem-defining-downtown/7144/
Hello Everyone:
Over the past several months we've intermittently talk about downtowns but we've never really defined them. What makes up a downtown? Is it the number of people who live and/or work there? The concentration of businesses? In the article "The Problem With Defining 'Downtown,'" posted on The Atlantic Cities, writer Emily Badger attempts to come up with a definition of what a downtown is based on census data. Ms. Badger also looks at the concentration of jobs and the number of residents living and commuting in and out of the presumed center of a city. It's a good attempt to define what a downtown is and the concepts put forth are applicable to major cities around the United States and the rest of the globe.
In 2012, the United States Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov) released a report on American population trends in downtowns. This was a useful step toward establishing claims made by many cities that residents and jobs are moving into downtowns by the drove. The Census Bureau's report showed that between 2000 and 2010, metropolitan areas with populations of 5 million or more people experienced double-digit demographic increases in their downtown areas (i.e within a two-mile radius of city hall) at more than double the rate. Ms. Badger points out that this produced complaints of over- and and under-counts of local populations. For example, cities such as Baltimore, Maryland and New York City, New York are surrounded by water and, in Baltimore's case, neglected neighborhoods. So, that two-mile radius limitation doesn't hold. New Yorkers will tell you that their definition of "downtown" also includes a piece of New Jersey. Don't tell Governor Chris Christie.
Emily Badger states, "It's a little hard to blame the Census. There is actually no single definition of what 'downtown' means across the country." Also, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't actually keep count on the number of jobs in America. Does that mean actual jobs where people are on a payroll or do they include jobs where employees get paid in cash? Naturally this complicates the efforts of business improvement districts and city officials to support what's supposed to be one of the great urban success story of the millennium and the main topic at The Atlantic City Lab summit on urban innovation, held October 6-8, 2013. events.theatlantic.com. The big story is the migration of employers and residents back downtown, remaking it from a dead zone to a full-service 24/7 neighborhood. With this problem in mind, the Center City Philadelphia Business Improvement District released a report on October 7, 2013, prepare for the International Downtown Association which measures where the people who hold those jobs actually live and enabling comparisons.
The report's authors, Paul R. Levy and Lauren M. Gilchrist, relied on fairly mew Local Employment Dynamics dataset produced by the Census Bureau and state labor market information agencies. This tool made it possible to crate heat maps of job density and outline irregularly shaped districts around them. The data included information on home and work location of employees, making it possible to establish which downtowns actually have a nighttime population. The heat maps revealed that many cities don't have a downtown, per se, with a single downtown employment center. Seattle, Washington is an example of a city that, by and large, does have a single downtown employer. The city of Cleveland, Ohio had a downtown and
separate node around an "anchor institution," the Cleveland Clinic. Atlanta, Georgia has multiple equal job centers, while Jacksonville, Florida is decentralized with no single job center.
This brings us back to Baltimore. If we take the data one step further and apply it to "Charm City," we get a "downtown" employment within a one-mile radius of city hall. Baltimore is a very compact city so, truthfully, this not all that surprising. Using this methodology, Mr. Levy and Ms. Gilchrist counted 231 major employment centers in America's 150 major cities that, collectively, contain 14.4 percent of all the country's jobs. It's now possible to compare them, using various measures, 28 of the job centers have more than 100 per acre-national average is 0.05 jobs per acre.
Chicago, Illinois has an impressive 52.3 percent of workers who live near the "Windy City's" downtown, actually work there. For comparison sake, Midtown Manhattan has 48.2 percent of workers who live near the downtown area where they work. The database also counts workers living within a half mile of these jobs. If you'd like more information please go to http://www.definingdowntown.org. This is a work in progress. The definition of what is a downtown is relative to demographics and employment. For now, we have to rely on establishing a boundary for downtown based on short radius from city hall.
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 |
| Manhattan, New York inserbia.com |
Over the past several months we've intermittently talk about downtowns but we've never really defined them. What makes up a downtown? Is it the number of people who live and/or work there? The concentration of businesses? In the article "The Problem With Defining 'Downtown,'" posted on The Atlantic Cities, writer Emily Badger attempts to come up with a definition of what a downtown is based on census data. Ms. Badger also looks at the concentration of jobs and the number of residents living and commuting in and out of the presumed center of a city. It's a good attempt to define what a downtown is and the concepts put forth are applicable to major cities around the United States and the rest of the globe.
 |
| Downtown Baltimore, MD from Federal Hill robertmcclintock.com |
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| Downtown Philadelphia. PA flickriver.com |
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| Downtown Seattle, Washington genblue.coldwellbanker.com |
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| Cleveland, Ohio en.wikipedia.org. |
This brings us back to Baltimore. If we take the data one step further and apply it to "Charm City," we get a "downtown" employment within a one-mile radius of city hall. Baltimore is a very compact city so, truthfully, this not all that surprising. Using this methodology, Mr. Levy and Ms. Gilchrist counted 231 major employment centers in America's 150 major cities that, collectively, contain 14.4 percent of all the country's jobs. It's now possible to compare them, using various measures, 28 of the job centers have more than 100 per acre-national average is 0.05 jobs per acre.
 |
| Downtown Chicago from Lake Michigan us-picture.com |
Chicago, Illinois has an impressive 52.3 percent of workers who live near the "Windy City's" downtown, actually work there. For comparison sake, Midtown Manhattan has 48.2 percent of workers who live near the downtown area where they work. The database also counts workers living within a half mile of these jobs. If you'd like more information please go to http://www.definingdowntown.org. This is a work in progress. The definition of what is a downtown is relative to demographics and employment. For now, we have to rely on establishing a boundary for downtown based on short radius from city hall.
Like me on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen
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Tuesday, October 29, 2013
The Future of Bell Labs
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/11/realestate/commercial/future-takes-shape-for-bell-labs-site.html?_r=0&adxnnl=137935510-rr72QMtMepcp1Lkr0BW1v...
Hello Everyone:
Today we move from post-Hurricane Sandy New York City to Holmdel, New Jersey and the proposed redevelopment of the former Bell Laboratories site. Bell Labs functioned for nearly forty-four years as the research and development facility for Bell Systems. The campus was one of the final projects designed by Eero Saarinen between 1959 and 1961. Bell labs were responsible for developing the technology that helped usher in the digital age. The 472-acre (1.91 sq. km.) site has been closed since 2007. Now, may get a new lease on life. In August 2013, Somerset Development bought the mirrored glass building and the surrounding property from its former owners, Alcatel-Lucent, for $27 million after the Township Holmdel approved a redevelopment proposal that includes plans for a health care center, residences, hotel, and retail space.
The sale of the site concludes a long debate over the fate of the vacant building located in a wealth rural area, just what to do with all 1.9 million square feet of space may prove to be a more difficult task. The Garden State is already saturated with aging office parks, similar to the Bell Labs site. A prospective tenant looking to lease space in a large commercial building in Monmouth County has his or her choice of almost 2.53 million square feet of available space to choose from, according to data provided by commercial real estate brokerage firm, CBRE. The plethora of available space in rural communities, such as Holmdel, is not likely to be filled so quickly as American work habits have changed and companies relocate to urban centers. It seems that the former Bell Labs campus has fallen victim to its own success.
The research and development, once performed at Bell Labs that helped bring about tablet computers and smartphones, helped untether workers. The ubiquitous cubicle was no longer necessary. Somerset Development has commissioned architect Alexander Gorlin to design into the atrium urban amenities such as coffee shop or bank. However, the building needs more than another Starbucks or P.F. Chang's to support it. What is just as necessary is a critical mass of commercial tenants to support retail enterprises. "It's very difficult building for adaptive reuse," according to Suzanne Macnow, a broker for CBRE. "It's set up with this gigantic center area, like the Mall of America in Minneapolis...."
As far back as the thirties, the campus was the research center for AT&T (Atlantic Telephone and Telegraph). The scientists who worked there were among the first to develop the transistor, cellphones, touch-tone dialing, and fiber-optics communications. In the process, they amassed seven Nobel Prizes. The property has been closed in 2007 by Alcatel-Lucent, an off-shoot of AT&T, and the fate of the campus has been up in the air. At one point, another developer suggested demolishing the building, setting off a maelstrom of architects and scientists who feared the loss of a piece of intellectual and architectural history. According to James W. Hughes, the dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, "Bell Labs is such a great historical and architectural icon...It's one of the few buildings that I worry about." Signs of decay at the massive building are quite evident-plastic buckets catch water leaking from the glass roof under which scientists developed satellite communications. In 2007, Preservation New Jersey named it one of the state's top ten most endangered historical properties.
"Personally, I find it difficult to drive by it and see it abandoned, I worked there. My friends worker there," said Janet Jackel , a former Bell Labs physicists. "You see it as representing the American forward-looking attitudes of the last century, and that's all been abandoned." The proposed redevelopment plan, which could cost over $100 million, has the potential to transform the campus into a commercial center for Holmdel, a central New Jersey community with a population of 17,000 people. Homdel has no downtown, most of the town's retail sites sit along the busy Route 35. The six-story building would house 50,000 of retail space, the town library and a hotel. The grounds would have pedestrian trails, bicycle paths, and eventually an outdoor exercise complex. Part of the property is protected wetlands. Ralph Zucker, the president of Somerset Development promises that the property will be a "...virtual city" with multiple uses. So many, in fact, that it will have its own identity.
The Township of Holmdel hopes the plan will also restore its tax base. Previously, Alcatel-Lucent paid $5 million in property taxes. Since the site has been vacant, the tax bill has plunged to $475,000. Mayor Patrick Impreveduto estimates that the township could gain $7 million in payments in lieu of taxes once redevelopment is completed. First thing, though, the building needs tenants. Community Healthcare Associates, a healthcare developer, plans to purchase up to 400,000 square feet of building from Somerset. Community Healthcare Associates has plans to build an ambulatory surgical center, an assisted-living facility, medical offices and services. Finding people interested in buying large luxury homes planned for the site will be a simpler task. Data provided in August 2013 by Heritage House, Sotheby's International Realty, show that thirty-eight percent of homes on the market in the township listed for over $1 million.
Somerset Development plans to sell half of the land, 237 acres, to Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder. Toll Brothers will build about forty single-family homes with prices beginning at $1 million for a 4,000 square-foot house to $2 million for a square-foot residence on a 2.5 acre lot. The company also plans to build 185 high-end town homes for residents aged fifty-five and older. However, the scale of the proposed housing development irritates some of the residents and preservationists who are concerned that it will detracted from pastoral appeal of the land. "I don't care for an excessive number of residential units that sprawl all over the property," says Ralph B. Blumenthal, a founding trustee of the Friends of Holmdel Open Space. "They could have accomplished something different that could have been more compact." Reservations about the Somerset proposal aside, supporters of the building are relieved to see the architectural icon survive. Michael Calafati, the chair person of the American Institute of Architects New Jersey Historic Resources Committee and an advocate of the property declared, "We're all going to come and go, but these buildings are out legacy."
The opposing views presented by Messrs. Blumenthal and Calafati highlight the sometimes antagonistic relationship between preservation and development. Mr. Blumenthal questions why a sprawling housing estate is necessary when more compact housing-i.e multi-resident buildings-could provide housing without taking up a lot of open land. Mr. Calafati seems to take a more romantic view of building. It is true that people come and go while buildings remain, I wonder if this is the right approach to development of the former Bell Labs property. Also problematic is attracting retail and commercial tenants. Holmdel is not near any metropolitan area, thus the ability to attract retail clients, i.e Gap or J.Crew, would be limited. Therefore, any retail/commercial ventures would have to focus on servicing the employees of the health care facilities and the residents in the immediate area. The prospect of rehabilitating the former Bell Labs property looks promising but what direction it takes will be the product of both developers and residents concerned with preservation of the site working together.
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| Aerial view of Bell Laboratory Holmdel, New Jersey en.wikipedia.org |
Hello Everyone:
Today we move from post-Hurricane Sandy New York City to Holmdel, New Jersey and the proposed redevelopment of the former Bell Laboratories site. Bell Labs functioned for nearly forty-four years as the research and development facility for Bell Systems. The campus was one of the final projects designed by Eero Saarinen between 1959 and 1961. Bell labs were responsible for developing the technology that helped usher in the digital age. The 472-acre (1.91 sq. km.) site has been closed since 2007. Now, may get a new lease on life. In August 2013, Somerset Development bought the mirrored glass building and the surrounding property from its former owners, Alcatel-Lucent, for $27 million after the Township Holmdel approved a redevelopment proposal that includes plans for a health care center, residences, hotel, and retail space.
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| Exterior of Bell Labs building archpaper.com |
The sale of the site concludes a long debate over the fate of the vacant building located in a wealth rural area, just what to do with all 1.9 million square feet of space may prove to be a more difficult task. The Garden State is already saturated with aging office parks, similar to the Bell Labs site. A prospective tenant looking to lease space in a large commercial building in Monmouth County has his or her choice of almost 2.53 million square feet of available space to choose from, according to data provided by commercial real estate brokerage firm, CBRE. The plethora of available space in rural communities, such as Holmdel, is not likely to be filled so quickly as American work habits have changed and companies relocate to urban centers. It seems that the former Bell Labs campus has fallen victim to its own success.
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| Interior of Bell Labs archpaper.com |
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| Bell Labs atrium nj.com |
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| Horned-antenna satellite en.wikipedia.org |
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| Atrium garden nytimes.com |
Somerset Development plans to sell half of the land, 237 acres, to Toll Brothers, a luxury home builder. Toll Brothers will build about forty single-family homes with prices beginning at $1 million for a 4,000 square-foot house to $2 million for a square-foot residence on a 2.5 acre lot. The company also plans to build 185 high-end town homes for residents aged fifty-five and older. However, the scale of the proposed housing development irritates some of the residents and preservationists who are concerned that it will detracted from pastoral appeal of the land. "I don't care for an excessive number of residential units that sprawl all over the property," says Ralph B. Blumenthal, a founding trustee of the Friends of Holmdel Open Space. "They could have accomplished something different that could have been more compact." Reservations about the Somerset proposal aside, supporters of the building are relieved to see the architectural icon survive. Michael Calafati, the chair person of the American Institute of Architects New Jersey Historic Resources Committee and an advocate of the property declared, "We're all going to come and go, but these buildings are out legacy."
The opposing views presented by Messrs. Blumenthal and Calafati highlight the sometimes antagonistic relationship between preservation and development. Mr. Blumenthal questions why a sprawling housing estate is necessary when more compact housing-i.e multi-resident buildings-could provide housing without taking up a lot of open land. Mr. Calafati seems to take a more romantic view of building. It is true that people come and go while buildings remain, I wonder if this is the right approach to development of the former Bell Labs property. Also problematic is attracting retail and commercial tenants. Holmdel is not near any metropolitan area, thus the ability to attract retail clients, i.e Gap or J.Crew, would be limited. Therefore, any retail/commercial ventures would have to focus on servicing the employees of the health care facilities and the residents in the immediate area. The prospect of rehabilitating the former Bell Labs property looks promising but what direction it takes will be the product of both developers and residents concerned with preservation of the site working together.
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Monday, October 28, 2013
The Next Time?
Hello Everyone:
In yours truly's ongoing efforts to find some sort of respectable employment, I have decided to take up Planetizen's challenge and write a summary on a recent New York Times article, "Could New York City Subways Survive Another Hurricane?" written by Robert Sullivan and published on October 23, 2013 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/magazine/could-new-york-city-subways-survive-another-hurricane.html?_r=0). Let me elaborate. In my daily perusal of email, I came across an interesting job opening on Planetizen's online newsletter. The newsletter advertised an opening for an Associate Editor. In addition to sending a .pdf copy of my CV, they laid down the challenge of summarizing the afore mentioned article as a way to impress them. Far be it from me to let this one slide.
Natural or man-made disasters can often bring out the very best in people. It can also lead to short- and long-term policy and planning that can mitigate loss of life and property. The disastrous Hurricane Sandy struck New York on October 29, 2013, the super storm killed seventy-three people, flooded streets and subway tunnels, knocked out power to half the city, and caused about $65 billion of damage. Images of the areas affected by the Category 3 hurricane resembled cities destroyed in war. If one good thing came out of the trail of destruction and devastation, it planted the seeds for a more comprehensive and coherent disaster plan. What remains to be seen is how this experience will translate into inter-agency cooperation and effective policy. Can New York subways survive another hurricane? That depends on what New York State and City transit planners take away from Hurricane Sandy.
When news of the impending storm first reached New York City, a week before Sandy's arrival, the Metropolitan Transit Authority its began implementing own hurricane plans. Without waiting for the go ahead from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, MTA workers began setting up emergency shelters, covering subway grates and covering the entrances of low-lying subway entrances with plywood and plastic sheets. As the storm gathered strength over the weekend before and Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that it was time to take action, crews were already at work shutting down the trains and taking steps to mitigate the water. Despite the patchwork quilt of upgrades, the New York City subway system survived, this time. What lessons can be drawn from this experience? What about the next time?
Lesson number one: take immediate action. MTA officials didn't wait until the Sunday before the storm hit and Governor Andrew Cuomo to declare the subways closed, the began immediate shut down procedures. The MTA's priority became do whatever was necessary to mitigate the flooding and get the trains running as soon as possible. Lesson number two: modern technology isn't always the answer. When inspectors went into the tunnels after the first surge they encountered eery silence. The dead calm was broken by the sound of pneumatic pumps, unaffected by Con Edison's power outage, draining the water out of the tunnels. The blackout shut down electricity in half the city. People needed to get back to work after the storm but could not. The outage cut the middles of five of the lines that travel through Manhattan. The railroad needed a terminal in which to turn around-i.e be guided off its downtown tracks, onto an uptown line. While Grand Central Station is a mighty station, it's only suitable for smaller commuter trains. The solution, create a makeshift terminal in Midtown to reroute the trains quickly onto tracks not intended to reroute trains. Temporary terminals were created at 34th Street and Herald Square use the Fastrack operation. Fastrack completely suspends on one line over a period of time while passengers are diverted to other lines. Lesson three: human capital. New Yorkers are resilient and tough. Everyone from maintenance workers bus drivers, the police, and so on pitched in to get the city back on its feet and lend a helping hand to passengers.
What about the next time? Perhaps there will be a stronger plastic replacement for plywood or a new type of vent and entrance cover. One thing that won't be present is futuristic gadget, New York Transit Authorities would like to strengthen the existing system, albeit piecemeal. Is this a good idea? In terms of cost-efficiency and time-efficiency, strengthening the existing system would probably cost less and take less time to repair. The drawback is finding manufacturers that still make the parts necessary or doing a replacement in kind. Transit officials are also considering long-term solutions such as tunnel plugs, dams, watertight doors. They are also looking at something called a "tiger dam." A "tiger dam" is a large bladder filled with water, anchored to the ground, and designed to temporarily block flooding. Officials are also studying transit systems around the world that have canopied entrances and retractable gates with ventilators and fans elevated on towers, like snorkels. While all of these ideas seem plausible, one thing that will be implemented the next time is the tried and true plywood and plastic solution. Why? Because it works and "if it aint broke, don't fix it." The key solution that will be evident the next time is experience.
Every disaster, natural or man-made, brings a new body of experiential knowledge. That knowledge sometimes translates into policy and planning. For example, after the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, policy was introduced to identify concrete buildings that were vulnerable destruction in the event of the a seismic activity. While this initiative was voted down, it highlighted the fact that a long-term solution was necessary if the city and county of Los Angeles was going to mitigate damage and preserve human life. Thus, New York City and state transit planners must find a way to turn their experience with Hurricane Sandy into a long-term disaster mitigation policy. This would require multiple agencies coordinating efforts. This is possible, if officials are willing to set aside personal agendas and politics in order to devise a coherent, cohesive strategy. New York City was lucky this time because of the effective advanced planning by MTA authorities and the sheer will power of New Yorkers. Experience is a powerful teacher, let's hope everyone was paying attention.
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In yours truly's ongoing efforts to find some sort of respectable employment, I have decided to take up Planetizen's challenge and write a summary on a recent New York Times article, "Could New York City Subways Survive Another Hurricane?" written by Robert Sullivan and published on October 23, 2013 (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/magazine/could-new-york-city-subways-survive-another-hurricane.html?_r=0). Let me elaborate. In my daily perusal of email, I came across an interesting job opening on Planetizen's online newsletter. The newsletter advertised an opening for an Associate Editor. In addition to sending a .pdf copy of my CV, they laid down the challenge of summarizing the afore mentioned article as a way to impress them. Far be it from me to let this one slide.
Natural or man-made disasters can often bring out the very best in people. It can also lead to short- and long-term policy and planning that can mitigate loss of life and property. The disastrous Hurricane Sandy struck New York on October 29, 2013, the super storm killed seventy-three people, flooded streets and subway tunnels, knocked out power to half the city, and caused about $65 billion of damage. Images of the areas affected by the Category 3 hurricane resembled cities destroyed in war. If one good thing came out of the trail of destruction and devastation, it planted the seeds for a more comprehensive and coherent disaster plan. What remains to be seen is how this experience will translate into inter-agency cooperation and effective policy. Can New York subways survive another hurricane? That depends on what New York State and City transit planners take away from Hurricane Sandy.
When news of the impending storm first reached New York City, a week before Sandy's arrival, the Metropolitan Transit Authority its began implementing own hurricane plans. Without waiting for the go ahead from Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office, MTA workers began setting up emergency shelters, covering subway grates and covering the entrances of low-lying subway entrances with plywood and plastic sheets. As the storm gathered strength over the weekend before and Governor Andrew Cuomo declared that it was time to take action, crews were already at work shutting down the trains and taking steps to mitigate the water. Despite the patchwork quilt of upgrades, the New York City subway system survived, this time. What lessons can be drawn from this experience? What about the next time?
Lesson number one: take immediate action. MTA officials didn't wait until the Sunday before the storm hit and Governor Andrew Cuomo to declare the subways closed, the began immediate shut down procedures. The MTA's priority became do whatever was necessary to mitigate the flooding and get the trains running as soon as possible. Lesson number two: modern technology isn't always the answer. When inspectors went into the tunnels after the first surge they encountered eery silence. The dead calm was broken by the sound of pneumatic pumps, unaffected by Con Edison's power outage, draining the water out of the tunnels. The blackout shut down electricity in half the city. People needed to get back to work after the storm but could not. The outage cut the middles of five of the lines that travel through Manhattan. The railroad needed a terminal in which to turn around-i.e be guided off its downtown tracks, onto an uptown line. While Grand Central Station is a mighty station, it's only suitable for smaller commuter trains. The solution, create a makeshift terminal in Midtown to reroute the trains quickly onto tracks not intended to reroute trains. Temporary terminals were created at 34th Street and Herald Square use the Fastrack operation. Fastrack completely suspends on one line over a period of time while passengers are diverted to other lines. Lesson three: human capital. New Yorkers are resilient and tough. Everyone from maintenance workers bus drivers, the police, and so on pitched in to get the city back on its feet and lend a helping hand to passengers.
What about the next time? Perhaps there will be a stronger plastic replacement for plywood or a new type of vent and entrance cover. One thing that won't be present is futuristic gadget, New York Transit Authorities would like to strengthen the existing system, albeit piecemeal. Is this a good idea? In terms of cost-efficiency and time-efficiency, strengthening the existing system would probably cost less and take less time to repair. The drawback is finding manufacturers that still make the parts necessary or doing a replacement in kind. Transit officials are also considering long-term solutions such as tunnel plugs, dams, watertight doors. They are also looking at something called a "tiger dam." A "tiger dam" is a large bladder filled with water, anchored to the ground, and designed to temporarily block flooding. Officials are also studying transit systems around the world that have canopied entrances and retractable gates with ventilators and fans elevated on towers, like snorkels. While all of these ideas seem plausible, one thing that will be implemented the next time is the tried and true plywood and plastic solution. Why? Because it works and "if it aint broke, don't fix it." The key solution that will be evident the next time is experience.
Every disaster, natural or man-made, brings a new body of experiential knowledge. That knowledge sometimes translates into policy and planning. For example, after the Northridge Earthquake in 1994, policy was introduced to identify concrete buildings that were vulnerable destruction in the event of the a seismic activity. While this initiative was voted down, it highlighted the fact that a long-term solution was necessary if the city and county of Los Angeles was going to mitigate damage and preserve human life. Thus, New York City and state transit planners must find a way to turn their experience with Hurricane Sandy into a long-term disaster mitigation policy. This would require multiple agencies coordinating efforts. This is possible, if officials are willing to set aside personal agendas and politics in order to devise a coherent, cohesive strategy. New York City was lucky this time because of the effective advanced planning by MTA authorities and the sheer will power of New Yorkers. Experience is a powerful teacher, let's hope everyone was paying attention.
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