http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/opinion/the-urban-fire-next-time.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_201304029&_r=0
Hello Everyone:
I'd like to start off with a couple of announcements today. First, I finally got my diploma from USC on Monday. Now I feel like I really finished school. If you'd like to see a picture, you can find it on my timeline at http://www.facebook.com/lenorelowen. You can also leave your thoughts there as well. Second, "Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Basin, 1940-1990" is now live. You can access this online only exhibition at http://www.huntington.org. Click on the link that says current exhibition, scroll down until you find it and click on it, then click on the link that says "online exhibition." If you remember from a previous post titled "Form and Landscape," I discussed the panel presentation I attended. This is a great exhibit and I think you'll enjoy it. All right onto today's topic the urban disaster in the making.
In Monday's New York Times op-ed section, Patrick Sharkey, an associate professor of sociology at New York University, contributed a column about what he sees as pending disaster in the urban areas. Professor Sharkey states in the opening paragraph that all the necessary ingredients for an urban crisis have been in place. Unemployment has floated above the fifteen percent mark, in most of the distressed cities and into the suburbs. The housing collapse has left large swarths of communities in a state of blight. However, through it all the cities have been quiet. Crime is at its lowest point since the seventies, public housing complexes have not fallen into decay, and there isn't a large population of homeless people in the streets. So where's the crisis? The crisis is in the privacy of the American home. The crisis has never made it out into the streets. According to Professor Sharkey, it can also be called the "Private Recession."
Think about it for a minute. When you look at major urban centers such as Los Angeles or New York, they seem to be thriving. Yet when you go out to the suburban areas you find a much different story. Homeowners who can barely afford to live in their homes and/or maintain their lifestyle. Some would say it's their own fault for want a lavish life. Sure it's easy to blame the person and to some extent it may be true. But ours is not judge. If you compare the current situation with the recession in the eighties, the current economic climate is different. In the eighties, the recession was less severe but neighborhoods were deteriorating and violent crime was higher. Cities were trying to deal with a host of economic and demographic changes: the loss of manufacturing jobs, white and middle-class minorities fleeing the downtown areas, and declining tax revenues. Simultaneously, cities saw their federal aid quickly decline as the Reagan administration slashed programs such as Community Development Block Grants and public housing. The result was a foregone conclusion. Housing agencies were unable to maintain their complexes. Public schools deteriorated, police departments were overwhelmed, public transportation fell apart. It took two decades for cities to recover.
There are many factors that contributed to the difference between the recession then and the one now. Professor Sharkey points to the unpopular $840 billion fiscal program, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act enacted in 2009. Many of the largest and most significant investments made by the "stimulus" went into institutions and organization that were necessary to functioning communities. Abandoned homes did not becomes crimes infested places, rather, almost $2 billion went into either demolishing or renovating them. Class sizes did not swell and the police force did not disappear from the streets. Instead, stimulus money went into stabilizing state budget, improving (some) underperforming schools and rehiring police officers for community based policing. Great, sounds like a good use of funds. So now what's next? If we take into account the historical cycle of programs like this, we're about to experience a period of neglect and disinvestment, following the current period of major investment.
In the early days of the first Obama administration, the White House announced the formation of the Office of Urban Policy, the unveiling of several high-profile investment programs in urban communities, and the passage of the stimulus package. The Office of Urban Policy really never got going, initiative such as "Promise Neighborhoods" were bogged down in politics, and the stimulus money was spent. In the cycle of things, we're about to enter a period of neglect. However, fear not, there is a way to break the cycle. In order to accomplish this task there has to be a shift in federal urban policy. Let's skip the fanfare in favor of policy that has a sustained federal commitment to urban communities and institutions. This doesn't require large sums of money, but it does infer a shift in priorities. One example Professor Sharkey cites is federal effort to end exclusionary zoning practices, de facto segregation, which allows communities to exclude low-income residents by restricting the types of housing that can be built.
Further, Professor Sharkey points out that the risks associated with growing up in a high-poverty neighborhood could be mitigated if the monies used for incarcerating young people could be shifted to re-integrating former prisoners into society, reinforcing the connections between police and community groups, maintaining clean streets and safe parks. The idea of reintegrating former prisoners into society at large is good one but it should start in the prisons with academic and vocational education as well as a way for new parolees to obtain employment and housing when they leave. The other suggestions are fairly typical suggestions not anything bolder. Also, Professor Sharkey suggests that they shortage of affordable high-quality housing could be addressed if federal money forfeited to the home mortgage interest deduction was used instead to expand the housing and improve the quality of affordable public and private housing. Okay, before some of you out there start screaming beggars can't be chosers, let me posit this, why should a low-income individual or family have to settle for substandard housing? Would you live in something that was vermin and insect infested, bad plumbing, inadequate lighting and ventilation, and in disrepair? I didn't think so. So why should low-income individuals and families. I smell a historic preservation planning initiative.
The Recovery Act provided these types of investments to localities across the nation but nearly four years later, unemployment has slightly declined in many urban areas and state tax revenues have partially recovered. So with pending cuts to housing, schools, and community organizations from the sequester, fragile communities are in danger of going into neglect. Professor Sharkey concludes that only a sustained commitment to urban neighborhoods can end the cycle of investment and neglect, avoid the urban fire.
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Pop goes the city
popupcity.net/2013/04/three-inspiring-examples-of-greek-crisis-urbanism
Note: for some of the websites given you will need to use the translator on your browser in order to read it
The Greek financial melt down has gotten tossed around like a pinata a birthday party. It's been held up by potential higher office seekers for political gain and by pundits who use it as a scenario of doom or as "a teaching moment." Yet Vivian Doumpa, the author of "Three Inspiring Examples of Greek Crisis Urbanism," has managed to find something good in all this Greek tragedy. Pop-up urbanism. Why not. We have pop up stores, pop up restaurants, pop up events, so why not pop up urbanism. What is this phenomena? In the case of Greece, it a response to the rampant mis-management by poor public-led urban planning strategies that took place before the economic explosion. In the midst of all of this, there is a clarion call for bottom up initiatives that would be able to improve the urban condition. Non-governmental organizations, citizens, private agencies, and institutions have begun to engage in urbanism initiative-slowly, place by place. In doing so, each is attempting to conquer the negative mood and stimulate public dialogue through interesting projects that "pop up" in around the Greek poli and the periphery. Ms. Doumpa presents three examples of inspiring efforts of bottom-up urbanism that hope to combat the negative mood inspired by the Greek melt down.
The first example is the Argallios project by the Athenian architecture firm Kolletivemind* (kolleketivemind.com
). This is a public installation located on the fence of a primary school in a less privileged area of Chania on the island of Crete (I'll refrain from any Minotaur references). The project was based on the island's traditional weaving patterns. The colorful needlework was recreated on the fence by using 2,100 recyclable plastic bottles, cleaned, painted in six traditional color, and placed in the diamond-shaped holes of the fence. This project was initiated by Kollektivemind* who invited the local community to participate in the project. Other than recreating a landmark for a neglected area that holds ecological and cultural meaning, it was an effort to prompt the residents to engage in a community practice as well as raise awareness of the reclamation of public space. All right I can see it, gather the community and various agencies, engage them in large-scale project. It sounds like fun for about a day but what about long-term public engagement? How is public space reclaimed? What is inspirational about this? To quote, Robert Harris, the great one of the USC School of Architecture, "So what?"
My general critique about projects like this is that they're great and bring the all the segments of a community together but how does this translate over the long-term? In other words, how does this help address the real needs of a community-i.e. housing, health care, education, transportation, infrastructure, and so forth?
The next example is Syn-oikia Pittaki (Neighborhood Pittaki). The project was undertaken by the creative studio Beforelight (www.beforelight.gr/) and the non-profit group Imagine the City (www.imaginethecity.gr/), founded in 2010 and well-known firms in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki. Their Syn-oikia Pittaki project took place in the downtown area of Psirri, which was seriously affected by the economic crisis and now faces the problems of crime and urban decay. The result of these issues has given way to dead public spaces such as Pittaki Street. In order to bring the spaces back to life, the group decided to gather up old lamps, repair them during an open workshop, and install them as new lighting infrastructure. Great idea, because not only does provide something aesthetically pleasing but also something that was able to bring people out into the streets. The street and the project have become a symbol of community power in Athens in the darkest times of the crisis.
Now this is a project that has some real impact. On a pragmatic level, it introduces lighting into formally dead public spaces which help combat the criminal element. Second, using lighting helps bring citizens out into the streets so they can experience the place and interact with each. Quite literally, strangers become friends. It also raises awareness of the space, thus, community members can take action to reclaim the space by improving it aesthetically and design-wise. Last, by holding open workshops to repair the lamps, the architects are giving local artisans a chance to practice their skills and gain exposure. Now this is inspiring.
The last example cited is Atenistas (http://atenistas.org/), an open community of Athenians who love their city. They believe that their initiative offer a choice for citizens to the express their desire for a better quality of life through real action. These choices include pop-up parks, cleaning and refurbishing public building (mostly schools), flash-mobs (sigh, eye roll), artistic interventions, social-related seminars, urban walks, and charity events. By keeping costs down, their funding is derived from crowd-sourcing, and using a DIY approach to design, they involve the local population in each and every step of their actions. Further, the collective runs a "civil" group which serves as an intermediary between the citizens and local government in order to foster more efficient public dialogue and problem solving. Atenistas has become an urban movement all over Greece. Presently there are almost twenty similar programs, on the mainland and the islands. The common, but most important, thread is citizen participation.
Overall, none of the projects cited here can be considered successful and sustainable without citizen participation. Yet, of the three, the last one has the most promise for short and long term sustainability because its work has a wider scope. Instead of a one-off project, Atenistas is intent on becoming a very serious urban initiative that has the potential to overturn the poor planning policies of the past. This is how bottom-up initiative work, public dialogue, citizen participation, and long-term thinking is the way to pull a society out of crisis.
Note: for some of the websites given you will need to use the translator on your browser in order to read it
The Greek financial melt down has gotten tossed around like a pinata a birthday party. It's been held up by potential higher office seekers for political gain and by pundits who use it as a scenario of doom or as "a teaching moment." Yet Vivian Doumpa, the author of "Three Inspiring Examples of Greek Crisis Urbanism," has managed to find something good in all this Greek tragedy. Pop-up urbanism. Why not. We have pop up stores, pop up restaurants, pop up events, so why not pop up urbanism. What is this phenomena? In the case of Greece, it a response to the rampant mis-management by poor public-led urban planning strategies that took place before the economic explosion. In the midst of all of this, there is a clarion call for bottom up initiatives that would be able to improve the urban condition. Non-governmental organizations, citizens, private agencies, and institutions have begun to engage in urbanism initiative-slowly, place by place. In doing so, each is attempting to conquer the negative mood and stimulate public dialogue through interesting projects that "pop up" in around the Greek poli and the periphery. Ms. Doumpa presents three examples of inspiring efforts of bottom-up urbanism that hope to combat the negative mood inspired by the Greek melt down.
The first example is the Argallios project by the Athenian architecture firm Kolletivemind* (kolleketivemind.com
). This is a public installation located on the fence of a primary school in a less privileged area of Chania on the island of Crete (I'll refrain from any Minotaur references). The project was based on the island's traditional weaving patterns. The colorful needlework was recreated on the fence by using 2,100 recyclable plastic bottles, cleaned, painted in six traditional color, and placed in the diamond-shaped holes of the fence. This project was initiated by Kollektivemind* who invited the local community to participate in the project. Other than recreating a landmark for a neglected area that holds ecological and cultural meaning, it was an effort to prompt the residents to engage in a community practice as well as raise awareness of the reclamation of public space. All right I can see it, gather the community and various agencies, engage them in large-scale project. It sounds like fun for about a day but what about long-term public engagement? How is public space reclaimed? What is inspirational about this? To quote, Robert Harris, the great one of the USC School of Architecture, "So what?"
My general critique about projects like this is that they're great and bring the all the segments of a community together but how does this translate over the long-term? In other words, how does this help address the real needs of a community-i.e. housing, health care, education, transportation, infrastructure, and so forth?
The next example is Syn-oikia Pittaki (Neighborhood Pittaki). The project was undertaken by the creative studio Beforelight (www.beforelight.gr/) and the non-profit group Imagine the City (www.imaginethecity.gr/), founded in 2010 and well-known firms in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki. Their Syn-oikia Pittaki project took place in the downtown area of Psirri, which was seriously affected by the economic crisis and now faces the problems of crime and urban decay. The result of these issues has given way to dead public spaces such as Pittaki Street. In order to bring the spaces back to life, the group decided to gather up old lamps, repair them during an open workshop, and install them as new lighting infrastructure. Great idea, because not only does provide something aesthetically pleasing but also something that was able to bring people out into the streets. The street and the project have become a symbol of community power in Athens in the darkest times of the crisis.
Now this is a project that has some real impact. On a pragmatic level, it introduces lighting into formally dead public spaces which help combat the criminal element. Second, using lighting helps bring citizens out into the streets so they can experience the place and interact with each. Quite literally, strangers become friends. It also raises awareness of the space, thus, community members can take action to reclaim the space by improving it aesthetically and design-wise. Last, by holding open workshops to repair the lamps, the architects are giving local artisans a chance to practice their skills and gain exposure. Now this is inspiring.
The last example cited is Atenistas (http://atenistas.org/), an open community of Athenians who love their city. They believe that their initiative offer a choice for citizens to the express their desire for a better quality of life through real action. These choices include pop-up parks, cleaning and refurbishing public building (mostly schools), flash-mobs (sigh, eye roll), artistic interventions, social-related seminars, urban walks, and charity events. By keeping costs down, their funding is derived from crowd-sourcing, and using a DIY approach to design, they involve the local population in each and every step of their actions. Further, the collective runs a "civil" group which serves as an intermediary between the citizens and local government in order to foster more efficient public dialogue and problem solving. Atenistas has become an urban movement all over Greece. Presently there are almost twenty similar programs, on the mainland and the islands. The common, but most important, thread is citizen participation.
Overall, none of the projects cited here can be considered successful and sustainable without citizen participation. Yet, of the three, the last one has the most promise for short and long term sustainability because its work has a wider scope. Instead of a one-off project, Atenistas is intent on becoming a very serious urban initiative that has the potential to overturn the poor planning policies of the past. This is how bottom-up initiative work, public dialogue, citizen participation, and long-term thinking is the way to pull a society out of crisis.
Monday, April 29, 2013
The Digital City
Hello France, South Korea, and Australia:
Welcome and bienvenue to the Preservation of Community Assets blog, the blog dedicated to issues of architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design. It's always great to have new faces. I can't do this blog without people reading so the more the better. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll keep coming back.
All right on to today's subject. First, I have to apologize for yesterday's very short post, I was on my way to see the latest Bond movie Skyfall and I only had a few minutes. Skyfall was the best Bond movie ever. Although it was disheartening seeing James Bond blow up a Scottish Gothic manor house and I got pretty panicked during the opening sequence when James Bond was chasing a bad guy through the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I was worried the place was going to get trashed like the Elrod House in Diamonds are Forever. Fortunately, the Bazaar and Hagia Sophia survived.
Now on to the topic at hand, really. Digital technology and the urban landscape titled Invisible City (What is) the Nature of Los Angeles. This topic comes to us through a great panel discussion that took place at the West Hollywood Public Library on Thursday April 25, 2013. The discussion, sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (http://www.aialosngeles.org) Committee on The Environment, featured four panelists: Amy Murphy USC School of Architecture associate professor, Dana Cuff UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design professor, Christine Outram founder of City Innovation Group, and Alessandro Marianantoni Senior Researcher of REMAP UCLA. Professor Murphy moderated the panel and the remaining speakers each took ten minutes to discuss their work, then they fielded questions. The panel focused on the way digital technology is becoming more integrated into the urban landscape from the more pragmatic to the esoteric. Oddly, the album Bored with the Internet and Prozac, a side project from Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo came to mind during the topic of the Internet and privacy. Why was that, I have no idea.
The main focus of the panel discussion was the architectural implications of digital technology. Professor Cuff looked at cyburbs (cyber suburbs), technoptia, and the City of Los Angeles. In the pragmatic sense, mobile telephony-the use of cell phone technology. One example was Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois (?). Digital technology was used to capture the faces of the people visiting the park. Another example was "Movable Type," the use of digital technology to capture what's going on at the New York Times. Kind of cool. Pop-up shops was used as another case study. Professor Cuff introduced the concept of "Political Shopping," making the shopper a smarter consumer. This ties into Pop-Up shops which focus on a specific brand or item. Political shopping caters to market forces, making use of shopper profiling in order to provide customized information and target the market, supplying tagged products. The Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibits (LACE) Facade which works with cellphone technology to provide patrons with real time information for clubs in the Hollywood area. Intelligent bus stops is another application that's slowly being rolled out. Ambient information would provide subtle timely transit information to bus riders. Very handy and would probably make mass transpo more palatable. Wouldn't be great if you could pay your bus fair with your cell phone or debit card instead of fishing in your purse for change or having to renew your bus pass every month. If you're a graduate student without a car, kiosks could serve as public works of art while providing real time information. They would be quick,visually powerful, light, and inexpensive. Professor Cuff also suggested using digital technology to create cultural events such as "Westwood Blows Up." This would be an event based around a removable installation intended to generate a buzz and bring life back to Westwood. This three weekend event would use a variety of technology, pieces of a puzzle would be spread out around Westwood Village and participants would bring these pieces together to create an installation-Pop Up Westwood-part of the LA 2050 Program-technology as a social process and making things happen.
The next speaker was Christine Outram the founder of City Innovation. Ms. Outram described herself as a Civic Technologist-a person who's interested in integrating technology into the city. Ms. Outram focused on how data affects the physical architecture (i.e bricks and mortar). One example was "smart dust," micro chips that would be integrated into different things, effecting how we plan things. She suggested that data was a new asset class. On the pragmatic level bus stops could be sources of useful information. This was the second instance of bus stops being cited as a public source of information. People take the bus, either by choice or by circumstance, thus can be used as data market places. The information can be accessed through a cell phone application. This begs the question, despite the pervasiveness of cell phones, what if a person doesn't have a mobile phone? Specifically, I'm referring to the elderly or indigent, how would they access transit information? It was suggested that the city was a computer platform. Ms. Outram cited New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's program to re-invent the pay phone. Those things still exist? Data and technology can be used to digital arts districts in cities such as San Francisco, perfect, a city near Silicon Valley. This would integrate experience with data. The artists, who will design the data, are the people in the digital world. But, where is the architecture profession? To provide the delight and beauty such as a prototype of information on a pole throughout New York City as an example of reusing existing infrastructure. This would integrate user experience linking people to place through technology, providing an extra layer.
The final speaker on the panel was Alessandro Marianantoni, a Senior Researcher at REMAP UCLA. The first project he discussed was the facade of the Otis College of Art and Design in Westchester, California. Digital technology was used to create an installation for the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Futurist Manifesto. Text was deconstructed zeroglyphics-creating deconstructed poetry to symbolize an element of fragmentation. Mr. Marianantoni also described elements of fragmentation in relation to a visualization of carbon dioxide particles in the United Kingdom using information taken from flow meters. Digital media layers were used in Italy as a way to construct an album of residents. A medieval wall was used as a layer of digital media. This creates a layer of engagement through story telling. Another layer of engagement is through story telling using video. Through the Freeway LA project, video bus presentations of poetry are install on buses traveling along Wilshire Boulevard. Interesting way to bring literature to the masses. It would create a fairytale connecting different neighborhoods..
Data technology has definite practical aspects. One example is data transfer through the commuting app Wayz. The issue of privacy and the pervasiveness of the Internet is always a concern that can never be fully addressed. The cycle of data is also difficulty because of the built-in obsolescence. The social, economic, and political implications becomes a part of architecture in such examples as monitoring security. Ideas of branding versus homogeneity, information sustainability all were lightly addressed. Designers have a role in shaping the physical and digital experiences. Materiality was addressed in terms of smart materials, whatever that meant. Corporate entities manage data. Citizen science, using the social media for good-citizen science. Indonesia is the fourth highest tweeting nation in the world, Jakarta is the highest tweeting city. The tweets are abut everyday things such as housing and the price of rice. This contrasts with the analog way the United Nations collects data.
In short, digital technology is slowly but surely remaking architecture and the way we interacting with the built environment. It is changing the nature of that experience through customized real time information that has the capability of going beyond the quotient. It is a brave new world.
Welcome and bienvenue to the Preservation of Community Assets blog, the blog dedicated to issues of architecture, historic preservation, urban planning and design. It's always great to have new faces. I can't do this blog without people reading so the more the better. Thanks for your support and I hope you'll keep coming back.
All right on to today's subject. First, I have to apologize for yesterday's very short post, I was on my way to see the latest Bond movie Skyfall and I only had a few minutes. Skyfall was the best Bond movie ever. Although it was disheartening seeing James Bond blow up a Scottish Gothic manor house and I got pretty panicked during the opening sequence when James Bond was chasing a bad guy through the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul. I was worried the place was going to get trashed like the Elrod House in Diamonds are Forever. Fortunately, the Bazaar and Hagia Sophia survived.
Now on to the topic at hand, really. Digital technology and the urban landscape titled Invisible City (What is) the Nature of Los Angeles. This topic comes to us through a great panel discussion that took place at the West Hollywood Public Library on Thursday April 25, 2013. The discussion, sponsored by the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (http://www.aialosngeles.org) Committee on The Environment, featured four panelists: Amy Murphy USC School of Architecture associate professor, Dana Cuff UCLA School of Architecture and Urban Design professor, Christine Outram founder of City Innovation Group, and Alessandro Marianantoni Senior Researcher of REMAP UCLA. Professor Murphy moderated the panel and the remaining speakers each took ten minutes to discuss their work, then they fielded questions. The panel focused on the way digital technology is becoming more integrated into the urban landscape from the more pragmatic to the esoteric. Oddly, the album Bored with the Internet and Prozac, a side project from Nick Rhodes and Warren Cuccurullo came to mind during the topic of the Internet and privacy. Why was that, I have no idea.
The main focus of the panel discussion was the architectural implications of digital technology. Professor Cuff looked at cyburbs (cyber suburbs), technoptia, and the City of Los Angeles. In the pragmatic sense, mobile telephony-the use of cell phone technology. One example was Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois (?). Digital technology was used to capture the faces of the people visiting the park. Another example was "Movable Type," the use of digital technology to capture what's going on at the New York Times. Kind of cool. Pop-up shops was used as another case study. Professor Cuff introduced the concept of "Political Shopping," making the shopper a smarter consumer. This ties into Pop-Up shops which focus on a specific brand or item. Political shopping caters to market forces, making use of shopper profiling in order to provide customized information and target the market, supplying tagged products. The Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibits (LACE) Facade which works with cellphone technology to provide patrons with real time information for clubs in the Hollywood area. Intelligent bus stops is another application that's slowly being rolled out. Ambient information would provide subtle timely transit information to bus riders. Very handy and would probably make mass transpo more palatable. Wouldn't be great if you could pay your bus fair with your cell phone or debit card instead of fishing in your purse for change or having to renew your bus pass every month. If you're a graduate student without a car, kiosks could serve as public works of art while providing real time information. They would be quick,visually powerful, light, and inexpensive. Professor Cuff also suggested using digital technology to create cultural events such as "Westwood Blows Up." This would be an event based around a removable installation intended to generate a buzz and bring life back to Westwood. This three weekend event would use a variety of technology, pieces of a puzzle would be spread out around Westwood Village and participants would bring these pieces together to create an installation-Pop Up Westwood-part of the LA 2050 Program-technology as a social process and making things happen.
The next speaker was Christine Outram the founder of City Innovation. Ms. Outram described herself as a Civic Technologist-a person who's interested in integrating technology into the city. Ms. Outram focused on how data affects the physical architecture (i.e bricks and mortar). One example was "smart dust," micro chips that would be integrated into different things, effecting how we plan things. She suggested that data was a new asset class. On the pragmatic level bus stops could be sources of useful information. This was the second instance of bus stops being cited as a public source of information. People take the bus, either by choice or by circumstance, thus can be used as data market places. The information can be accessed through a cell phone application. This begs the question, despite the pervasiveness of cell phones, what if a person doesn't have a mobile phone? Specifically, I'm referring to the elderly or indigent, how would they access transit information? It was suggested that the city was a computer platform. Ms. Outram cited New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's program to re-invent the pay phone. Those things still exist? Data and technology can be used to digital arts districts in cities such as San Francisco, perfect, a city near Silicon Valley. This would integrate experience with data. The artists, who will design the data, are the people in the digital world. But, where is the architecture profession? To provide the delight and beauty such as a prototype of information on a pole throughout New York City as an example of reusing existing infrastructure. This would integrate user experience linking people to place through technology, providing an extra layer.
The final speaker on the panel was Alessandro Marianantoni, a Senior Researcher at REMAP UCLA. The first project he discussed was the facade of the Otis College of Art and Design in Westchester, California. Digital technology was used to create an installation for the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Futurist Manifesto. Text was deconstructed zeroglyphics-creating deconstructed poetry to symbolize an element of fragmentation. Mr. Marianantoni also described elements of fragmentation in relation to a visualization of carbon dioxide particles in the United Kingdom using information taken from flow meters. Digital media layers were used in Italy as a way to construct an album of residents. A medieval wall was used as a layer of digital media. This creates a layer of engagement through story telling. Another layer of engagement is through story telling using video. Through the Freeway LA project, video bus presentations of poetry are install on buses traveling along Wilshire Boulevard. Interesting way to bring literature to the masses. It would create a fairytale connecting different neighborhoods..
Data technology has definite practical aspects. One example is data transfer through the commuting app Wayz. The issue of privacy and the pervasiveness of the Internet is always a concern that can never be fully addressed. The cycle of data is also difficulty because of the built-in obsolescence. The social, economic, and political implications becomes a part of architecture in such examples as monitoring security. Ideas of branding versus homogeneity, information sustainability all were lightly addressed. Designers have a role in shaping the physical and digital experiences. Materiality was addressed in terms of smart materials, whatever that meant. Corporate entities manage data. Citizen science, using the social media for good-citizen science. Indonesia is the fourth highest tweeting nation in the world, Jakarta is the highest tweeting city. The tweets are abut everyday things such as housing and the price of rice. This contrasts with the analog way the United Nations collects data.
In short, digital technology is slowly but surely remaking architecture and the way we interacting with the built environment. It is changing the nature of that experience through customized real time information that has the capability of going beyond the quotient. It is a brave new world.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Thank You
Just a quick note. First, we're over 300 page views thanks guys you're the best. Sorry about Thursday, technical difficulties. I'll be back on Monday.
Thursday, April 25, 2013
We broke 300
Yes, we broke 300! Thanks for all your support. I'll be doing a live blog tonight 6:30p.m. Pacific Standard Time from the West Hollywood Public Library. There's panel discussion on Digital media and Urban Landscapes.
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Down in The Bowery
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/18/nyregion/on-the-bowery-vestiges-of-a seedy-past-through.html?_r=0
The Bowery, that place in Lower Manhattan that evokes so much history dating back to the pre-Colonial period. This 1.25 mile area between Chatham Square and Cooper Square listed on the National Register of Historic Places (http://www.preservationnation.org) on February 20, 2013 and described by Kerri Culhane, an architectural historian and associate director of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council (http://www.twobridges.org), as "the city oldest streetscape." Major streets that intersect the Bowery are Canal Street, Delancey Street, Houston Street (pronounced Howston), and Bleecker Street. All fabled streets. The neighborhood boundaries are: Canal Street and the famous Chinatown to the south; East 4th Street and the East Village to the north; Allen Street and the Lower East Side to the east; and the equally famous Little Italy to the west. All places that bring forth some wonderful and romantic louche images that so much a part of New York City's rich history. Despite the wave of gentrification, traces of the block's seedy past remains. Most of the area's fabled past has been obliterated but the bones of the nearly 200 buildings remain. So what is it about this storied area that attracted so much interested? Let's go to the history.
Bowery or more commonly, "the Bowery" and less commonly, "Bowery Street," is the anglicization of the Dutch word bouwerij, coming from the antique word for "farm." In the seventeenth century, the road branched off Broadway, north of Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan to the homestead of Director-General of New Netherlands Peter Stuyvesant. During the Colonial and Federal period, the Bowery was home to mansions and respectable businesses. In 1826, the first slippage from respectability occurred with the opening of the Bowery Theatre on the site of The Bull's Head Tavern, purchased by John Jacob Astor. Eventually, the mansions and shops gave way to low-brow concert hall, brothels, beer gardens, pawn shops, and flophouses. By the late nineteenth century, the Bowery became a center for prostitution and bars catering to lesbians and homosexuals. The area remained in a fallow state until the 1990s when it began to revive with the coming of gentrification. Some of the notable establishments in the Bowery are: Amato Opera, Bowery Savings, Bowery Ballroom, the late and lamented CBGB, Bowery Poetry Club, New Museum, and Peanut Gallery. In October 2011, the Bowery was placed on New York State Register of Historic Places and automatically nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. Two grassroots organizations, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN http://www.boweryalliance.org) and the community based housing organization Two Bridges Neighborhood Council led the designation charge which resulted in National Register designation this year.
So what's happening down in the Bowery today? Plenty apparently. Preservationists are button holing the New York City Planning Commission to extend some of the zoning protections against new obtrusive buildings on the west and east sides of the streets. Author Luc Sante and director and Bowery native Martin Scorsese wrote testimony supporting the extension, siting the historic and aesthetic significance of the area. Mr. Scorsese argued that high-rise apartments and condominiums would create more chaos and disruption, ultimately offering the Bowery up to elements of conformity. Currently, about a dozen sites on the Bowery are protected by the New York City Landmarks Commission including the three-story red-brick Edward Mooney House at No. 18 (c.1785), believed to be the oldest existing brick row house in the city and the Bowery Savings Bank, No. 130, built by Stanford White. The register includes No. 40-42, a Federal-style row house (c. 1807) acquired by Henry Astor in 1822. No. 46-48, currently a Chinese restaurant was once Bull's Head Tavern. and No. 101 was the former location of Worth's Museum of Living Curiosities and so forth. The point here is that this is a district that is so steeped in New York and New York City history that the idea of hipsterification seems an anathema.
Martin Scorese is correct when he asserted that the introduction of high-rises and condominiums would add element of conformity to area that has so defiantly resisted conformity its entire life. There are signs of hipsterification already creeping into the area. The ubiquitous Whole Foods Market and the hallowed punk rock grounds CBGB has been turned into a designer clothing shop. People, let's remember that you can't have a Gap/Banana Republic/Whole Foods et cetera everywhere. Malls are fine in their own context but not in historic districts. You could argue that the introduction of upscale housing and and businesses would bring new revenue into the area. Yes that could happen but at what price? How do you balance the historically significant character defining features of places like the Bowery or Wyvernwood against further development? This is an issue that continues to plague cities as we become more urbanized. The stripping away of layers of history in favor of newer and not necessarily better.
The Bowery, that place in Lower Manhattan that evokes so much history dating back to the pre-Colonial period. This 1.25 mile area between Chatham Square and Cooper Square listed on the National Register of Historic Places (http://www.preservationnation.org) on February 20, 2013 and described by Kerri Culhane, an architectural historian and associate director of the Two Bridges Neighborhood Council (http://www.twobridges.org), as "the city oldest streetscape." Major streets that intersect the Bowery are Canal Street, Delancey Street, Houston Street (pronounced Howston), and Bleecker Street. All fabled streets. The neighborhood boundaries are: Canal Street and the famous Chinatown to the south; East 4th Street and the East Village to the north; Allen Street and the Lower East Side to the east; and the equally famous Little Italy to the west. All places that bring forth some wonderful and romantic louche images that so much a part of New York City's rich history. Despite the wave of gentrification, traces of the block's seedy past remains. Most of the area's fabled past has been obliterated but the bones of the nearly 200 buildings remain. So what is it about this storied area that attracted so much interested? Let's go to the history.
Bowery or more commonly, "the Bowery" and less commonly, "Bowery Street," is the anglicization of the Dutch word bouwerij, coming from the antique word for "farm." In the seventeenth century, the road branched off Broadway, north of Fort Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan to the homestead of Director-General of New Netherlands Peter Stuyvesant. During the Colonial and Federal period, the Bowery was home to mansions and respectable businesses. In 1826, the first slippage from respectability occurred with the opening of the Bowery Theatre on the site of The Bull's Head Tavern, purchased by John Jacob Astor. Eventually, the mansions and shops gave way to low-brow concert hall, brothels, beer gardens, pawn shops, and flophouses. By the late nineteenth century, the Bowery became a center for prostitution and bars catering to lesbians and homosexuals. The area remained in a fallow state until the 1990s when it began to revive with the coming of gentrification. Some of the notable establishments in the Bowery are: Amato Opera, Bowery Savings, Bowery Ballroom, the late and lamented CBGB, Bowery Poetry Club, New Museum, and Peanut Gallery. In October 2011, the Bowery was placed on New York State Register of Historic Places and automatically nominated for the National Register of Historic Places. Two grassroots organizations, the Bowery Alliance of Neighbors (BAN http://www.boweryalliance.org) and the community based housing organization Two Bridges Neighborhood Council led the designation charge which resulted in National Register designation this year.
So what's happening down in the Bowery today? Plenty apparently. Preservationists are button holing the New York City Planning Commission to extend some of the zoning protections against new obtrusive buildings on the west and east sides of the streets. Author Luc Sante and director and Bowery native Martin Scorsese wrote testimony supporting the extension, siting the historic and aesthetic significance of the area. Mr. Scorsese argued that high-rise apartments and condominiums would create more chaos and disruption, ultimately offering the Bowery up to elements of conformity. Currently, about a dozen sites on the Bowery are protected by the New York City Landmarks Commission including the three-story red-brick Edward Mooney House at No. 18 (c.1785), believed to be the oldest existing brick row house in the city and the Bowery Savings Bank, No. 130, built by Stanford White. The register includes No. 40-42, a Federal-style row house (c. 1807) acquired by Henry Astor in 1822. No. 46-48, currently a Chinese restaurant was once Bull's Head Tavern. and No. 101 was the former location of Worth's Museum of Living Curiosities and so forth. The point here is that this is a district that is so steeped in New York and New York City history that the idea of hipsterification seems an anathema.
Martin Scorese is correct when he asserted that the introduction of high-rises and condominiums would add element of conformity to area that has so defiantly resisted conformity its entire life. There are signs of hipsterification already creeping into the area. The ubiquitous Whole Foods Market and the hallowed punk rock grounds CBGB has been turned into a designer clothing shop. People, let's remember that you can't have a Gap/Banana Republic/Whole Foods et cetera everywhere. Malls are fine in their own context but not in historic districts. You could argue that the introduction of upscale housing and and businesses would bring new revenue into the area. Yes that could happen but at what price? How do you balance the historically significant character defining features of places like the Bowery or Wyvernwood against further development? This is an issue that continues to plague cities as we become more urbanized. The stripping away of layers of history in favor of newer and not necessarily better.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Garden Apartments
la.streetblog.rg/2013/04/17/saving-wyvernwood-is-the-environmental-choice/
In the continuing spirit of Earth Day 2013, I thought it would be nice to take a look at an ongoing preservation project in Los Angeles, efforts by the Los Angeles Conservancy (http://www.laconservancy.org) to save the Wyvernwood Garden Apartment from the wrecking ball. The question of whether or not save Wyvernwood is something that more and more people are dealing with as the city of Los Angeles prepares to decide on the proposed Boyle Heights Mixed Use Community Project. On the anti-development side, the focus of the argument is based on preserving a cultural landmark and avert another mass displacement similar to that of Chavez Ravine. Regardless of what side of the argument you're on, a rehabilitated Wyvernwood will change Boyle Heights, one of the largest in the United States, will result in ecological change for Boyle Heights.
Before plunging ahead, a little bit of background is necessary. Wyvernwood Garden Apartments was designed by David J. Witmer and Loyall F. Watson together with landscape architect Hammond Sadler. The complex was intended to provide middle-income and worker housing close to downtown and the nearby industrial centers. It was privately finances by the Hostetter Estate and insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Wyvernwood was a testing ground for the FHA's new program for building this type of housing development and served as a model for similar garden apartment complexes in the Southern California area, such as Park La Brea in the Miracle Mile area, and throughout the country that offered affordable modern housing that met the standard required by the FHA. Based on garden city planning principles, Wyvernwood orginally consisted of 143 two-story buildings laid out on six super blocks. The super blocks allowed individual units to have open vistas in multiple directions. Wyvernwood was lauded as "America's largest privately-owned community of rental homes," in regional and national publications such as Architect and Engineer, Architectural Form, Architectural Record, and California Arts and Architecture. The complex is also significant as a primary example of the garden apartment movement in the United States. In 2007 the American Planning Association recognized the important role of garden apartments for their design, function, sustainability, and community involvement.
This sounds like New Urbanism, an urban design movement that promotes compact, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods as ecologically better alternatives to auto-centric developments, doesn't this? Truth be told The garden apartment movement in the thirties and early forties were, if you want to extrapolate, the historical basis for New Urbanism. The idea was first promoted by Ebenezer Howard in late nineteenth century Great Britain as an antidote to the urban social ills brought about by the Industrial Revolution. In the United States, Clarence Stein adapted Howard's principles on the East Coast. Eventually, the idea of pedestrian orientated, mixed-use, affordable, modern worker housing made its way to the West Coast.
Currently, the Miami based company, the Fifteen Group, which owns Wyvernwood has proposed to replace the seventy acre campus containing 1,187 homes and over 6,000 tenants with a more upscale development. Sounds a bit like the proposal for the Jordan Downs Complex in Historic South Central. The proposal contains plans for 4,400 condominiums and rental units; 325,000 square feet or retail and commercial space; recreational facilities for residents; and parking for 9,048 cars. Just exactly who does the Fifteen Group envision living here? More pointedly, how are they going to attract their targeted residents to come to East Los Angeles given the area's alleged louche reputation? One of the key factors in attracting a more upscale clientele to providing amenities in the community so that people will want to roam about the area and check out some of the local businesses. I seriously don't think that future renters and condominium buyers will just stay within the confines of Wyvernwood and patronize the amenities on the premises. Of course you can argue that some of the local businesses will suffer if they have to compete with the on-site amenities. I would argue that on-site premises would simply keep the residents isolated from the community at large and create a schism. Since we're on the subject, what about the existing residents? Would the be able to participate in a "right-to-own" program that would allow them to buy homes they currently live in? Will they simply be asked to leave or will efforts be made to allow them to continue living in their homes?
This being Los Angeles, parking is always a big issue. Despite the fact that the total number of proposed parking spaces is over five times than the current number, 1,799, the amount of proposed space could increase if Fifteen Group fails to obtain an exemption from the city minimum requiring 10,903 to 11,003 space for a development this dense. While Fifteen Group justifies the project as a way to create "healthier place to live and work," in the same breath, the developers want to continue subsidizing automobile ownership after describing the current provisions, 1.5 parking spaces per home as "inadequate," corresponding to a time when there were fewer cars. Truthfully, the average number of cars owned per Los Angeles households is 1.4, 1.1 cars per among renters. Further, one of the selling points is proximity to several freeways. Sounds great if you're a commuter, bad because those same freeways are responsible for Boyle Heights' unusually high asthma rates and other air pollution related illnesses. In an effort to "improve circulation" within the complex, Fifteen Group proposes to triple the miles of car-accessible roads by cutting through the project area, eliminating the tree-line foot paths that a character defining feature of this community. Does that sound ecological right to you? I didn't think so. In a stunning leap of logic, the developers contend that adding thousands of cars to the streets of Boyle Heights won't add to the environmental-related health issues because the new residents will likely be lured away from their cars by the seventeen bus lines serving the immediate surroundings. In reality, only six of those lines are accessible by foot. Nevertheless, the tendency for renters and minority low-income to walk, use a bicycle, or use public transit by necessity still holds for the current residents of Wyvernwood. The numbers look something like this, 42% of the residents already commute to work by some means other than driving, and another 11% carpool. There's no way to guess if the new residents would follow suit. What is known is that higher income commuters generally drive solo. Somebody want to tell the developers that this Los Angeles not Miami, where the car is an integral part of life. To quote the Missing Persons song "No Body Walks in L.A."
The Fifteen Group is offering ten acres of publicly available open space in a rehabilitated Wyvernwood, this number is a fraction of what was once widely enjoyed by the un-gated community. Longtime residents have frequently complained about the curtailment of their own use of the open space-about 36 to 50 acres-after Fifteen Group bought the property in 1998. This mega-project would not only create the most densely populated census tract in Los Angeles, approximately 94,000 people per square mile, even with the conservative estimate of 2.3 occupants per unit. Does that seem like a lot people squeezed into one place? I thought so. Then add in the increase in automobile traffic and the need for sanitation services, you end up with something that's starting to sound like something not terribly well thought out. Further, the project would bring the first set of high rises since the 14-story Sears Tower went up in 1927 in the area of Los Angeles east of the L.A. River (stop snickering we have a river). Three buildings would stand 24-stories high, another three at 18 stories, and several more could reach seven stories. Great, block out natural light. Last, the Fifteen Group has requested that the New Wyvernwood be designated a supergraphics special district, which means Boyle Height residents could be subjected to bright digital billboard sitting on top of the skyscrapers lighting up the night. Excellent.
Finally, the Los Angeles Conservancy has pointed out that whatever value in the proposed projects "green design" would be undermined by the demolition of 256 buildings that could be renovated, a more cost-effective approach to problems created by years of deferred maintenance. Renovation and reuse are increasingly recognized as more sustainable than razing and rebuilding. To be certain, the Los Angeles Housing Department inspectors have the buildings targeted for demolition, to be structurally sound, in need of upgrades. Further, the preservation of Wyvernwood would also prevent the loss of nearly 1,200 dwellings from the dwindling stock of rent-controlled housing, the city's valuable supply of affordable housing. As previously stated, "the greenest building is the one already built."
With all these New Urbanist contradictions built into the proposal, it was mind blowing to read that the project received an award from the Congress for the New Urbanism (http://www.cnu.org). Some insight into the decision is an article written by Mike Davis "Gentrifying Disaster" (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005?10/gentrifying-disaster), which described the organization's participation in African Americans' exclusion from Gulf Coast communities following Hurricane Katerina. Off topic for a second, this will be a forth coming blog. Back to the subject. Contrary to the democratic spirit of the group, the CNU's practice of judging proposals without asking the tough questions such as who or what might be replace and for who or what benefit-depicts it in the role of legitimatizing dubious projects.
"New Urbanism" is a potent buzzword, a rallying cry for its unquestioning supporters for any development. Davis has been quick to point out that smart developers have been quick to label, what could be considered run amok land grabs and demolition, as New Urbanist. Finally, one more reason to cast askance to the environmental claims connected to the New Wyvernwood, is first the promise that no one will be displaced and Fifteen Group's own history. The company has no experience in real estate development but has acted more as the middleman for builders, carrying out mass evictions and unpopular demolition to clear off properties before selling them. Still think that the New Wyvernwood is a great idea. Me neither.
Happy Belated Earth Day.
In the continuing spirit of Earth Day 2013, I thought it would be nice to take a look at an ongoing preservation project in Los Angeles, efforts by the Los Angeles Conservancy (http://www.laconservancy.org) to save the Wyvernwood Garden Apartment from the wrecking ball. The question of whether or not save Wyvernwood is something that more and more people are dealing with as the city of Los Angeles prepares to decide on the proposed Boyle Heights Mixed Use Community Project. On the anti-development side, the focus of the argument is based on preserving a cultural landmark and avert another mass displacement similar to that of Chavez Ravine. Regardless of what side of the argument you're on, a rehabilitated Wyvernwood will change Boyle Heights, one of the largest in the United States, will result in ecological change for Boyle Heights.
Before plunging ahead, a little bit of background is necessary. Wyvernwood Garden Apartments was designed by David J. Witmer and Loyall F. Watson together with landscape architect Hammond Sadler. The complex was intended to provide middle-income and worker housing close to downtown and the nearby industrial centers. It was privately finances by the Hostetter Estate and insured by the Federal Housing Administration. Wyvernwood was a testing ground for the FHA's new program for building this type of housing development and served as a model for similar garden apartment complexes in the Southern California area, such as Park La Brea in the Miracle Mile area, and throughout the country that offered affordable modern housing that met the standard required by the FHA. Based on garden city planning principles, Wyvernwood orginally consisted of 143 two-story buildings laid out on six super blocks. The super blocks allowed individual units to have open vistas in multiple directions. Wyvernwood was lauded as "America's largest privately-owned community of rental homes," in regional and national publications such as Architect and Engineer, Architectural Form, Architectural Record, and California Arts and Architecture. The complex is also significant as a primary example of the garden apartment movement in the United States. In 2007 the American Planning Association recognized the important role of garden apartments for their design, function, sustainability, and community involvement.
This sounds like New Urbanism, an urban design movement that promotes compact, mixed-use, walkable neighborhoods as ecologically better alternatives to auto-centric developments, doesn't this? Truth be told The garden apartment movement in the thirties and early forties were, if you want to extrapolate, the historical basis for New Urbanism. The idea was first promoted by Ebenezer Howard in late nineteenth century Great Britain as an antidote to the urban social ills brought about by the Industrial Revolution. In the United States, Clarence Stein adapted Howard's principles on the East Coast. Eventually, the idea of pedestrian orientated, mixed-use, affordable, modern worker housing made its way to the West Coast.
Currently, the Miami based company, the Fifteen Group, which owns Wyvernwood has proposed to replace the seventy acre campus containing 1,187 homes and over 6,000 tenants with a more upscale development. Sounds a bit like the proposal for the Jordan Downs Complex in Historic South Central. The proposal contains plans for 4,400 condominiums and rental units; 325,000 square feet or retail and commercial space; recreational facilities for residents; and parking for 9,048 cars. Just exactly who does the Fifteen Group envision living here? More pointedly, how are they going to attract their targeted residents to come to East Los Angeles given the area's alleged louche reputation? One of the key factors in attracting a more upscale clientele to providing amenities in the community so that people will want to roam about the area and check out some of the local businesses. I seriously don't think that future renters and condominium buyers will just stay within the confines of Wyvernwood and patronize the amenities on the premises. Of course you can argue that some of the local businesses will suffer if they have to compete with the on-site amenities. I would argue that on-site premises would simply keep the residents isolated from the community at large and create a schism. Since we're on the subject, what about the existing residents? Would the be able to participate in a "right-to-own" program that would allow them to buy homes they currently live in? Will they simply be asked to leave or will efforts be made to allow them to continue living in their homes?
This being Los Angeles, parking is always a big issue. Despite the fact that the total number of proposed parking spaces is over five times than the current number, 1,799, the amount of proposed space could increase if Fifteen Group fails to obtain an exemption from the city minimum requiring 10,903 to 11,003 space for a development this dense. While Fifteen Group justifies the project as a way to create "healthier place to live and work," in the same breath, the developers want to continue subsidizing automobile ownership after describing the current provisions, 1.5 parking spaces per home as "inadequate," corresponding to a time when there were fewer cars. Truthfully, the average number of cars owned per Los Angeles households is 1.4, 1.1 cars per among renters. Further, one of the selling points is proximity to several freeways. Sounds great if you're a commuter, bad because those same freeways are responsible for Boyle Heights' unusually high asthma rates and other air pollution related illnesses. In an effort to "improve circulation" within the complex, Fifteen Group proposes to triple the miles of car-accessible roads by cutting through the project area, eliminating the tree-line foot paths that a character defining feature of this community. Does that sound ecological right to you? I didn't think so. In a stunning leap of logic, the developers contend that adding thousands of cars to the streets of Boyle Heights won't add to the environmental-related health issues because the new residents will likely be lured away from their cars by the seventeen bus lines serving the immediate surroundings. In reality, only six of those lines are accessible by foot. Nevertheless, the tendency for renters and minority low-income to walk, use a bicycle, or use public transit by necessity still holds for the current residents of Wyvernwood. The numbers look something like this, 42% of the residents already commute to work by some means other than driving, and another 11% carpool. There's no way to guess if the new residents would follow suit. What is known is that higher income commuters generally drive solo. Somebody want to tell the developers that this Los Angeles not Miami, where the car is an integral part of life. To quote the Missing Persons song "No Body Walks in L.A."
The Fifteen Group is offering ten acres of publicly available open space in a rehabilitated Wyvernwood, this number is a fraction of what was once widely enjoyed by the un-gated community. Longtime residents have frequently complained about the curtailment of their own use of the open space-about 36 to 50 acres-after Fifteen Group bought the property in 1998. This mega-project would not only create the most densely populated census tract in Los Angeles, approximately 94,000 people per square mile, even with the conservative estimate of 2.3 occupants per unit. Does that seem like a lot people squeezed into one place? I thought so. Then add in the increase in automobile traffic and the need for sanitation services, you end up with something that's starting to sound like something not terribly well thought out. Further, the project would bring the first set of high rises since the 14-story Sears Tower went up in 1927 in the area of Los Angeles east of the L.A. River (stop snickering we have a river). Three buildings would stand 24-stories high, another three at 18 stories, and several more could reach seven stories. Great, block out natural light. Last, the Fifteen Group has requested that the New Wyvernwood be designated a supergraphics special district, which means Boyle Height residents could be subjected to bright digital billboard sitting on top of the skyscrapers lighting up the night. Excellent.
Finally, the Los Angeles Conservancy has pointed out that whatever value in the proposed projects "green design" would be undermined by the demolition of 256 buildings that could be renovated, a more cost-effective approach to problems created by years of deferred maintenance. Renovation and reuse are increasingly recognized as more sustainable than razing and rebuilding. To be certain, the Los Angeles Housing Department inspectors have the buildings targeted for demolition, to be structurally sound, in need of upgrades. Further, the preservation of Wyvernwood would also prevent the loss of nearly 1,200 dwellings from the dwindling stock of rent-controlled housing, the city's valuable supply of affordable housing. As previously stated, "the greenest building is the one already built."
With all these New Urbanist contradictions built into the proposal, it was mind blowing to read that the project received an award from the Congress for the New Urbanism (http://www.cnu.org). Some insight into the decision is an article written by Mike Davis "Gentrifying Disaster" (http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2005?10/gentrifying-disaster), which described the organization's participation in African Americans' exclusion from Gulf Coast communities following Hurricane Katerina. Off topic for a second, this will be a forth coming blog. Back to the subject. Contrary to the democratic spirit of the group, the CNU's practice of judging proposals without asking the tough questions such as who or what might be replace and for who or what benefit-depicts it in the role of legitimatizing dubious projects.
"New Urbanism" is a potent buzzword, a rallying cry for its unquestioning supporters for any development. Davis has been quick to point out that smart developers have been quick to label, what could be considered run amok land grabs and demolition, as New Urbanist. Finally, one more reason to cast askance to the environmental claims connected to the New Wyvernwood, is first the promise that no one will be displaced and Fifteen Group's own history. The company has no experience in real estate development but has acted more as the middleman for builders, carrying out mass evictions and unpopular demolition to clear off properties before selling them. Still think that the New Wyvernwood is a great idea. Me neither.
Happy Belated Earth Day.
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