Contested Space

http://www.citylab.com/design/2014/06/who-really-owns-public-spaces/373612

New York City Times Square
muncievoice.com

Hello Everyone:

Now that we've all had a chance to get over our post-FIFA World Cup let down, it's time to get back into more serious things.  Today we consider "who really owns public space?"  This is the title of Anthony Flint's latest post for City Lab and is a reference to a recently opened exhibited at the AIA New York Center for Architecture in Greenwich Village and continues until September 6.  The exhibit is called "Open to the Public: Civic Space Now" Curated by Thomas Mellins, the exhibit ponders "What makes public space compelling and enjoyable?  What, in fact, makes it public? Government funding?  Municipal policing?" (http://www.cfa.aia.ny.org)

Central Park
New York City, New York
themarkhotel.com

 The "occupations" of public spaces, including POPS (privately owned public spaces have focused global attention on the importance and indispensability of publicly accessible places as forum for political protest.  The increased ubiquitousness of digital communications, the desire for more face-to-face contact and a desire for community, however transitory, compels us to seek out public space for shared experiences.  However, public spaces, while slow in creation, are easily compromised.  Susceptible to market forces, public spaces often lose their unique character to excessive commercialization, branding, and programming. The exhibits presents thirteen different public spaces in New York and one space each in Los Angeles, Houston, and Chicago as examples of design strategies, access, financing, and management.  They are mostly dedicated to congregation, circulation, or contemplation.  Regardless of their use or impact, each of the spaces presented in this exhibit is meant to serve the public no matter how challenging this task can be. (Ibid)

Occupation Wall Street Day 40
commons.wikimedia.org

The very idea of public, once reserved for design professionals, has become the topic du jour in the last.  The catalyst for pushing the subject into the public discourse was the 2011 Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zucotti Park, a privately owned public space.
Globally, the protest movement in Cairo's Tahrir Square, the same year, highlighted the connection between place and public discourse, with the mobilizing power of social media thrown into the mix.  More recently, guerrilla urbanism-the practice of taking over parking garages or entire streets for parklets, pop-up art displays or chair bombing-has also altered the definition and understanding of public space and the role it plays in contemporary society.

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park
Roosevelt Island, New York
architecturaldigest.com

On February 6, 2014, Michael Kimmelman, the architecture critic for the New York Times, presented a talk on "The Politics of Public Space."  In a statement released prior to the public lecture Mr. Kimmelman states,

...The fabric of the city is both the stage for social action and the object of civic debate.  Increasingly, people are coming to understand that equality, opportunity, mobility, prosperity, and health are reflected in the way we shape and build our cities, that freedom is defined and contested in public space... 
(http://www.radcliffe.harvard.edu/event/2014-michael-kimmelman-lecture)

The new focus on the design and character of public is very welcome but it also raises some difficult questions couched in issues such as free speech, rules and regulations, access and equity.  For example, Anthony Flint asks, "Is the pedestrian zone of Times Square mostly for tourists?  Who are the best new public spaces actually designed for?"  Simply put, a park is no longer just a park, rather, it has metamorphosed into a stage for the performance of public life.  The AIA New York exhibition tries to make some sense of the theme by arranging public space into three categories: congregation, circulation, and contemplation.  The concept of a public space as a place for contemplation is best understood at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms park at the tip of Roosevelt Island.

Vintage New York
commons.wikimedia.org

For anyone traveling the sidewalks of New York, it becomes apparent how much of the city's life is played out in public.  The way space gets used may appear random or, perhaps, intentional such as the High Line or the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  The latter was probably not originally intended to accommodate the hundreds of visitors linger every day.  However, it is that lingering that has become a character defining element of the Met.

Anthony Flint observes that the one shortcoming the show has is its lack of recognition of guerilla urbanism. Cities such as San Francisco, Dallas, and Portland, Maine have become ground zero for tactical urbanism action.  Mr. Flint speculates, "It might have also been

Poynton
Chesire, England
icag.org.uk

interesting to delve into the latest cutting-edge thinking on share space espoused by such thought leaders as urban designer and movement Ben Hamilton-Baillie who re-imagined former New York City transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan's model for Times Square without traffic lights or warning signs.  In a  recent plenary speech given by Mr. Hamilton-Baillie before the Congress for the New Urbanism, he argued, "...current street design practices unsuccessfully try to blend the concepts of highways and public spaces...'Don't treat drivers as idiots because then you'll get idiots.'  Instead of relying on an endless set of

Seven Dials Intersection
London,  England
standard.co.uk

instructions, he suggests that humans instinctively understand how to move through public space."  In implementing the Dutch concept of woonerf, which blends automobile, bicycle, and pedestrian movement, it turns the street into a new type of public forum based on eye contact and basic courtesy.  The result is a ballet, worthy of Jane Jacobs, such as the ones danced daily in the Seven Dials Intersection in London and Poynton in Chesire, England.

The exhibit not only looks back but looks forward as well including the recently rehabilitated McCarren Pool, a public works project by noted New City planner Robert Moses.  The sometimes tortured history of place making is all around us.  One example is the high-density towers of the mid-twentieth century urban renewal are directly across the street from the pool, the gardens and street-level shops of Washington Square Southeast are still quite active.  The park fountain works and people use the space.

Nearly fifty years ago, Jane Jacobs fought a pitched battle against Robert Moses's proposal to run Fifth Avenue through the greensward.  At the time, no one was actively talking about free speech or democracy or whether homeless people should be allowed to loiter in public spaces.  Back then, it was more about mothers and strollers.  It was contested space, as public space was and remains.

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One More Myth De-Bunked

http://www.nextcity.org/daily/entry/the-myth-that-historic-preservation-inhibits-urban-growth

La Samaritaine Department Store
Paris, France
commons.wikimedia.org

Bon Jour Tout Le Monde:

Bon Fête National.  Happy Bastille Day and a hardy congratulations to 2014 FIFA World Cup champions Germany.  Well done.

One of the most common myths about historic preservation is that it inhibits urban growth. According to Michael R. Allen's recent post for Next City, "No, Historic Preservation Does Not Inhibit Urban Growth, the city of Paris, France is the epicenter for tensions between preservationists and those who drive the modernization engine.  This tension came to a head in May 2014 when the "City of Lights" was jolted by a court ruling that protect the façade of the historic department store La Samaritaine (demolished?) located on the Seine River across from Pont Neuf.  The department store was founded by Ernest Cognacq in 1869 and came to signify rapidly growing French consumerism and wealth in the twentieth century.  In 1933, it was remolded by architect Henri Sauvage who gave the temple to consumerism a much loved Art Deco form, accentuated by a series of setbacks.

Interior of La Sarmaritaine
bbc.co.uk

The famed department store shuttered its doors in 2005 after years of decline and luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, who has owned it since 2001, wanted to reopen it as residential-commercial building.  This would've entailed removing the historic façade facing Rue Rivoli and replacing it with something completely different from the Tokyo-based architectural firm SANAA.  The modern leaning firm proposed a glass-walled reconstruction that critics likened to a shower curtain, compromising the integrity of the overall site.

The storm of protests from both sides of the issue highlights the current state of urban preservation.  We live in an era where cities are trying to out do each other at every turn.  From Paris to London, and coast-to-coast United States, their is growing Siren's call of "build or perish" who see preservation as road block to growth.  Not so, preservation is not the impediment to growth and dynamic change.  Au contraire, preservation is often a guarantee against heavy-handed architectural projects that would encase urban growth in amber.  Mr. Allen cites the misguided urban renewal projects of the twentieth century (some still standing) to see how run away development can freeze a city in time.  In both France and the United States it is the job of the preservationist to manage change, not stand in the way of it.  The role of the preservationist is to assert the cultural value of legal standard which balances real estate.

The atrium of La Samaritaine
archdaily.com

Truth be told, saving what's left of the venerable department store demonstrates how preservation can strike a balance. Thus, while SOS Paris and the Society for France's Landscapes and Aesthetics championed enforcement of legal protections for the department store's remaining façade, their campaign also had cultural and economic ramifications. Protecting and conserving historic buildings with time honored utility and aesthetic value provides long-term benefits to Paris as the city seeks to reinvent itself in other ways with the Grand Paris initiative, which has produced a €26.5 billion rapid transit expansion program to be completed by 2030.

Meanwhile, American preservationists have also gotten used to banging the drum for preservation law enforcement that has, unfortunately, earned the unflattering image of "building huggers."  The hardy souls that battled former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's upzoning a portion of Midtown Manhattan were unfairly labeled as anti-development.  Let's be clear, preservationists are not anti-development, we're just anti-bad development.  Really, preservationists in New York City were trying save existing development.

Fifth Church of Christ Scientist
Cleveland, Ohio
cleveland.com

Even when preservationist work to prevent said bad development, they can find success even in failure.  Case in point, in 2013 Cleveland, Ohio activists led by Jean Francis of Neighbors in Action campaigned vigorously to spare the log vacant, city owned Fifth Church of Christ, Scientists (1926) from a date with the wrecking ball.  Architect Jonathan Sandvick collaborated with developers Chick Holtkamp and Niki Zmij to create a $10 million rehabilitation plan that would transform the church into a rock climbing gym and yoga studio.  While this all sounded good, it was not as financially feasible as a proposal by the Brickhaus Partners to tear the church down and replace it with eleven townhouses and a grocery story.  The plans for demolition were approved in May 2014 by the Cleveland Landmarks Commission with little opposition and this past June, the Cleveland City Council approved redevelopment plans.  However, preservationists' interest in the church building led Brickhaus to propose incorporate the church's distinct arched entry and some of the sandstone decoration into the new project.  The developers will also permit a landmark plaque and historical information to be posted on site.  Though, the building will be torn down, it's a victory for preservation.  Yeah!

Preservationists are the mediators between a property's cultural value and economic demand.  They don't always win or get what they want but preservationists do put up a good fight.  If the campaigns to preserve La Samaritaine and The Fifth Church of Christ Scientist are an indication, what saved the fragments of both places is the integrity of preservation laws and the added value of developments that make use of elements of the past, integrating them into the continuity of urban character that make cities a great place to live.  In ten-fifteen years from now, the battle scars will fade and what will remain is fascinating architecture ground in historic elements thanks to "building huggers" who battled pompous design.

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Peter Zumthor Reconsidered

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/et-hawthorne-sg-storygallery.html

Hello Everyone:

There's no crying for Argentina as they advance to the final round on Sunday against Germany. Congratulations to the Netherlands for a well played game.  Maybe the real Brazilian national team will show up on Saturday for the third place game, not my eight-year-old nephew's little league soccer team. Alright, as promised, the latest and the greatest on Peter's Zumthor's vision for the Los Angeles County Art Museum.

Modified plan for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
latimes.com

If you recall, last week (June 30, 2014) I posted a piece on the proposed modification to Peter Zumthor's design for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The  proposed modification intends to span across Wilshire Boulevard instead of encroaching on the La Brea Tar Pits. This modification was hailed by Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne as a bold decision observing, "the new location will change the character of the building in ways that Zumthor has only begun to grapple with."  Now it seems that Mr. Hawthorne may be having second thoughts.  Surprising to read from the person who last year was leading the cheering section for the new plan.  Mr. Hawthorne writes, "The more I think about the plan's newly attenuated form, stretched like a piece of black bubble gum across Wilshire, the more I wonder if the architect's basic reading of Los Angeles could use an update."

Rijksmuseum
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
inhabitat.com

Spanning a major street is not something novel.  The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and The Louvre in Paris are two examples.  The Sackler Museum at Harvard University considered spanning a major street in Cambridge, Massachusetts but the neighbors objected and the designed was altered.  Therefore, we can conclude that Peter Zumthor's modification proposal does have precedent.  Yet, Mr. Hawthorne expresses some misgiving about the proposal he called a bold decision. He now, clarifies this declaration, "In truth the gesture by LACMA and its architect, Peter Zumthor, is the product not so much of boldness as a combination of diplomacy and fidelity-perhaps misguided-to certain elements of his original design."  While Mayor Eric Garcetti and other elected officials were excited about this proposed modification, Mr. Hawthorne confesses his own complicated feelings about the project and ponders if Mr. Zumthor's reading of Los Angeles could use an update.

Peter Zumthor
dezeen.com

When LACMA director, Michael Govan accepted his position nearly ten years ago, Mr. Govan said that one of the first calls he made was to Mr. Zumthor's office in Switzerland.  As they began to collaborate, both gentlemen took usual precautions to insulate the design proposal from political and financial pressures that often water down architecture.  The design scheme was not show to the public nor a fundraising campaign started until the plan was fully developed.  They didn't even allow major donors to have their say in the matter.  The design that was ultimately revealed in 2013 "was beautifully and powerfully strange-not only different from any piece of architecture in L.A. had seen in decades but a departure, in what Zumthor calls its 'freely undulating shape,..."  It was also, at this stage, the proposed new design was untested and unveted.  Problems emerged right from the start.

An minor outcry was raised over the demolition of the four original buildings to clear a path for the new building.  However, the neighboring George C. Page Museum was left out of the loop by Messrs. Govan and Zumthor.  The Page Museum had (has) very real concerns the new museum would damage the ecologically sensitive Tar Pits, during construction and by casting shadows over one or more of them.  Once Messrs. Govan and Zumthor agreed to scale back the building and give the tar pits more room, the ones they proudly claimed that the design was inspired by the tar pits it threatened, the gentlemen had a problem.  Decreasing the footprint of the proposed design would result in less gallery space by 25% or more.   An additional second story is not an option because the original design proposal relied its visual effect "on exaggerated, pancake-like flatness."

Aerial view of LACMA model
Peter Zumthor
designboom.com

Boxed in to the east and north by the tar pits; to the west by twin Renzo Piano gallery buildings, the new wing had only one place to go, the giggle provoking "dog-leg bend to the southeast, across the boulevard and touch down down on a piece of property owned by the museum and now used as a parking lot..." Like, the stretching of The Louvre and Rijksmuseum, the thought of the museum crossing the road to get to the other side is not new.  In 1922, Aurele Vermeulen, a landscape architect, offered up an ambitious plan supported by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler to line the boulevard with triumphal arches, monuments, and fountains.  Hard to imagine.  A set of nine triumphal arches were planned at major intersections as well as major buildings spanning the boulevard at each end.  The plan was shelved after Beverly Hills and Santa Monica refused to sign on and it was never made clear how the project was going to be paid for.

The Louvre at night
Louis Le Vau 1660
Paris, France
impressivemagazin.com

Museum have also jumped across major streets. For example, the Louvre in Paris, France, the galleries cross intersections at opposite ends of the Place du Carrousel and the Rijksmuseum spans a section of roadway that is only open to bicycle traffic.  In Denver, Colorado, a covered pedestrian bridge spans across 13th Street to join the wings of the Denver Art Museum.  In the eighties, a proposal was floated to connect James Stirling's newly built Sackler Art Museum with Fogg Museum.  At the St. Louis Science Center, visitors can stand on a pedestrian bridge stretching Highway 40 and target passing cars with radar guns.  This could make for an accident inducing moment.

Because of the particular location of this span, Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile area, the proposed modification carries a different significance than the previous examples.  The proposed modification would allow visitors to stand over a boulevard that "has long been the automative spine of L.A. looking down on passing traffic from a pedestrian bridge that will also hold gallery space.  Mr. Hawthorne ponders if "the design fetishizes car culture? At the very least celebrate it in that genuine, often earnest way that Europeans have long viewed our vast grid of boulevards and freeways."

Broad Museum Downtown Los Angeles
Diller, Scofidio+Renfro
archpaper.com

In a certain respect, the newly revised plan, Mr. Zumthor references an early version of the Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles.  The plan called for a thick glass wall that would have permitted pedestrians to come in contact with patrons coming off the freeway into the underground garage.  For mostly pragmatic reasons, this detail was reduced in later versions.  In addition to stretching LACMA south, Mr. Zumthor has made one other significant change to this version.  Mr. Zumthor punched holes into the roof of the museum so that the wide legs holding up the building, will house staircases, visible, and cafes all open-air.

However, in the year or so since the first models were put on display, the exact layout and scale of the spaces still remain a mystery.  More so, Christopher Hawthorne poses a number of questions about how the building would work in an urban setting.  What would it be like to walk underneath it?  Would feel like walking through a freeway underpass?  How will the underside be detailed and lit?  Of equal importance, what does the current revision reveal about the architect's understanding of the LACMA site and Los Angeles.  Peter Zumthor's first-hand knowledge of the city was mainly gleaned during the early eighties when he spent a year teaching at the Southern California Institute of Architecture.  Since then, he's returned a number of times, however, Mr. Hawthorne observes, "...the initial impressions were powerful ones, at least to judge from the new version of the LACMA design and the enthusiasm it shows for framing the views of car traffic on Wilshire."  This enthusiasm has more connection to the Los Angeles of Reyner Banham, Denise Scott Brown, and Ed Ruscha than a twenty-first century vision of Los Angeles.

Back of Hollywood
Ed Ruscha
artlog.com

The Wilshire Boulevard of the above notable individuals was two-dimensional. receding endlessly into the horizon in either direction. This image of the boulevard is echoed in the updated LACMA design.  Currently, action along the boulevard takes place both at and below street level, where construction on a western extension of a subway line is finally underway.  At street-level, increasing density is forcing a more vertically oriented architecture. Mr. Hawthorne speculates, "the case that there is something eternal and unchanging about the tar pits and the role they play in L.A.'s sense of its own prehistory.  You can hardly say the same about the city's boulevards-especially at this moment, when the basic notions of mobility and scale along L.A. streets are so much up for grabs."

Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles
DVD cover
modcinema.com

One original proposal's merits was the way the building was raised above the park-like surroundings of the site.  A person could walk toward it and under it from any direction.  The building was confined to one place, framed and given strength as an architectural object by the setting.  If the museum crosses the road, these qualities will be lost.  Therefore, where does this leave the architect and the museum, assuming LACMA's continued commitment to move forward?  With a few options.

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art could stay with the sky-bridge plan and hope for some refinements-particularly a more clear understanding of the new building's relationship to Wilshire and the sidewalks.  Mr. Hawthorne seems to believe that this is the most likely outcome "...given a) the new designs are preliminary; b) Govan has already publicly gone to bat for them; and c) Zumthor has remarkable track record of turning rough aspirational models into astonishing pieces of built architecture."  Of course, the other option is to go back to the original design, situated north of Wilshire. The benefits of that would be avoiding the tar pits all together and keeping the lot on Wilshire and Spaulding free for a multi-story parking garage.

Then there's my idea.  Forget the whole new building idea and take the money raised through private donations and public funds rehabilitate the current buildings and update the collection.  After all, the average museum goer doesn't particularly go to a museum for the building, the average patron goes to commune with the contents.  Then there's Christopher Hawthorne's colleague, art critic Christopher Knight's suggestion, rehabilitate an abandoned warehouse.  Either way, the final outcome of all of this remains to be seen.  Stay Tuned.

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Why We Need The Federal Historic Tax Credits.

I'm back after watching Brazil get their heads handed to them by Germany.  Let the post mortem begin.  Alright onto more serious things

http://blog.preservationleaderforum.org/2014/06/25/historic-tax-credit-rypkema/#.U6tDXY1dVYx

"Catalyst for Change: The Federal Historic Tax Credit"
blog.preservationleadershipforum.org

Hello Everyone:

Now we can get back to some level of sanity.  If you're reading this in Germany, congratulations.  If you're reading this Brazil, so sorry for your loss. The following post is based on an article by preservation economist Donovan Rypkema on the subject of federal historic federal tax credits.  On June 23, the National Trust for Historic Preservation gave the HTC watch status on its annual list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.  As part of its Prosperity through Preservation, dedicated to protect and enhance the HTC, the NTHP and its subsidiary the National Trust Community Investment Corporation has retained the services of Mr. Rypkema in order to quantify the ways that the HTC can act as a catalyst for economic development.  This is a vital part of ongoing tax reform discussions in Congress, threatened with elimination or restriction.  If you support this blog and preservation you should become well-versed in the power in the HTC.

For years preservationist have been leading the charge, claiming that rehabilitating old buildings is an instrument for spurring activity within the surrounding community.  According to Mr. Rypkema, there is an excellent reason for this-it true.  Alright not the great epiphany you were expecting.  "Someone takes a white elephant building that's been sitting empty for two decades, uses the historic tax credits to rehabilitate it, and all of a sudden the property owner next door reinvests in her building; a new business moves in across the street, someone acquires the vacant lot nearby and builds a mixed-use new structure..."  I could go one with numerous other examples but until recently, no has done a systemic study of this phenomena.

American Can Company
Ogden, Utah
en.wikipedia.org

 PlaceEconomics (Donovan Rypkema's firm) recently completed a study for the Government Relations and Policy Department of the NTHP which examined projects that used the Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits.  These projects were located in six cities in three states: Georgia, Maryland, Utah.  The point of the study was to understand the catalytic effect by looking at a range of projects: geographically, scale-wise, and the nature of use.  One example is the American Can Company in Ogden, Utah.

The building had been sitting vacant and deteriorating for years.  However, after a $12 million investment, the former canning company complex is now home to a school, architectural firm, climbing gym, and other offices.  The catalyst-new construction in the immediate area, an increase in property value and tax base, and more rehabilitation projects.  In Salt Lake City, two historic rehabilitation projects anchor opposite corners in a neighborhood once considered too risky for investment, but not so risky for a a construction firm and Artspace-a non-profit live/work space for artists.  Since their completion, the market value for host community properties has increased 22.5 percent, in contrast to a 17 percent decrease in Salt Lake City city-wide.  The city went on to establish a Tax Increment Financing District and the available funds from this program have nearly doubled since these two buildings were rehabilitated.

Miller's Court
Baltimore, Maryland
millerscourt.com

Baltimore is a lovely city with many fantastic neighborhoods.  My favorite is Fell's Point and the downtown area.  The rightly nicknamed "Charm City" also has neighborhoods that could use an injection of new: businesses, residents, investment, and activities.  This was the very kind of community where Miller's Court developed in a one-time manufacturing complex.  This development includes forty-loft style apartments catering to Baltimore-area teachers by offering monthly rent discounts.  Los Angeles and San Francisco are you paying attention?  The on-site coffee house has become a neighborhood meeting place.  Two years before Miller's Court opened, there were just two residential building permits issued in the area.  In the three years since its opening, the number of permits issued has shot up to seventeen.

National Park Seminary
Silver Spring,  Maryland
eya.com

The National Park Seminary in Silver Spring, Maryland languished for years under the stewardship of the federal government-no big surprise.  The vacant Seminary was a target for vandalism and sustained water damage.  The neighbors came to the rescue, insisting that something be done.  The result was a $120 million project that, when completed, will encompass the rehabilitation of all twenty-three buildings on the 32-acre site and new, compatible infill work.  In the hands of government, the property generated no revenue to cover teacher, police, and fire fighter salaries.  Thanks to the neighbors demanding that something be done, $60 million has been added to the property tax base in Montgomery County.  Still have an issue with Federal Historic Tax Credits?

Ponce City Market
Atlanta, Georgia
rentcafe.com

Perhaps the biggest historic tax credit projects in the United States is in progress in Atlanta, Georgia. The former Sears Building is being transformed in the Ponce City Market.  This proposed 2.1 million square-foot is slated as a mixed-used development, representing a $280 million investment with an anticipated opening date sometime next year.  Even before completion, the Ponce City Market has become a catalyst for development in the surrounding area.  Two years before the acquisition of the historic Sears Building, there were a total of two building permits issued in the community.  Two years later, the number of permits issues skyrocketed to thirty-eight.  More important, there were eight times as many building permits issued for alterations, conversion, and repair than demolition in this inner-city area.

Warehouse Lofts
Macon, Georgia
livedowntownmacon.com

If the Ponce City Market development is example of the catalytic affect of a large-scale project, the Warehouse Lofts in Macon, Georgia show how a smaller sized project can make a difference.  This more modest $385,000 project generated more than $16 million in additional private investment projects in downtown Macon.  Two years before the Lofts opened their doors, there was a grand total of two new business licenses issued for the area.  In the three years since then, the number of new business licenses has increased to fifty-seven.

Federal HTC-assisted rehabilitation
preservationnation.org

Although these projects don't have very much in common in terms of scale and undertaking, they do have three things in common:

1) historic buildings were the center of development;
2) in each case, the FHTC was used;
3) every project generated additional investment in the surrounding neighborhood.

Why did all of these projects act as catalysts for nearby development?  By taking an older building out of the category of "vacant, deteriorating, white elephant," the risk of private investment in the neighborhood was significantly reduced.  Second, these project present case studies that demonstrate the ability of older buildings to be repurposed through adaptive reuse, introducing other property owners to the possibilities around them.  That's a very a cool thing.

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Delay of Post II

Hello Everyone:

Today's post will be delayed due World Cup semi-final game between Germany and the home team Brazil.  I'm staying neutral but I'm giving the edge to Brazil because their star player is out indefintely with a serious injury and they'll be more fired up.

Talk to you later

Resilience and Sustainability

http://www.sustaincitiescollective.com/nature-cities/255296/rise-resilience-linking-resilience-and-sustainability-city-planning

Montepellier, France
linguaserviceworldwide.com

Hello Everyone:

As the World Cup winds down, I can finally get back to real life.  I do have the very latest on my post last Monday June 30, 2014, regarding the latest design proposal for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art but first today's post is about the connection between resilience and sustainable cites.  The basis for today's edition is an article by Timon McPhearson titled "The Rise of Resilience: Linking Resilience and Sustainable City Planning," for Sustainable Cities Collective.  Urban resilience around the world has become the latest trend in urban planning and design.  Mr. McPhearson wonders, "Resilience to what and for whom?  Additionally, resilience...in many cases as a replacement for sustainability, which it is not."  They're two different things that are connected. They need to be defined with clarity and precision.

The Statue of Liberty during Hurricane Sandy
Sandy Nadine Di Ninno
ibtimes.com

Resilience, as a top urban planning and management issue, is growing among non-governmental organizations, architects, designers, social scientists, ecologists, and engineers. These individuals have taken up the drum beat of resilience, evidenced by the most recent conference in Montepellier, France this past May.  The conference, Resilience 2014, drew over nine hundred attendees and featured an overwhelming diversity of topics.  Mr. McPhearson observes, "If you only look at the Twitter activity under the hashtag #Resilience to see how the research community is grappling with concepts that vary from social justice to...to unsustainability."  Resilience, like sustainability, has been a topic of conversation for more than a decade with scant attention given to meaning, often used as a sort of catch-all for pre-existing extending.  So much so, that it has replaced sustainability as the main topic in the urban discourse.  One example is a story printed in the New York Times follow Hurricane Sandy which described the new train of thought in the United States.  However, what exactly is urban resilience and how does it relate to current discussions among planners, government officials, natural resource manager, and others.
One thing is certain, a clear definition is necessary.

Coastal New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy
en.wikipedia.org

 There is a large overlap in the meanings of resilience and sustainability that threatens to weaken both ideas.  Mr. McPhearson is concerned that we are losing our grip on the specificity of these important concepts, thus the power of resilience as a strategy to improver human well-being within an urban setting.  This concern is echoed by other scholars.  Mr. McPhearson writes,

I came away from the Resilience2014 conference with the realization that we still serious work to do to understand how all this research and discussion on the benefits of urban nature and ecosystem services relate to the  rapid rise of resilience planning, resilience design, and resilient cities initiatives.

Therefore, how do we define resilience?

Typically, resilience is defined as "bouncing back from a disturbance."  Timon McPhearson cites the post-Sandy resilience report, "A Stronger More Resilient New York" published by the New York City Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency, as his example for this common definition.  The report chiefly focused on rebuilding and recovery, from a pointedly engineering resilience point of view.  By contrast, the ecological take on the subject is not just about "bouncing back" and recovery but also about adaptability-adaptive capacity.  In this sense, resilience can be defined as "...the capacity of a system to experience shocks while retaining function, structure, feedbacks and therefore, identity."

Definition of sustainability and resilience concepts
after Folke et al. 2010 and Tuvendal and Elmqvist 2012
thenatureofcities.com

  If we accept the idea that we need to build in social-ecological resilience, then urban planning has a long way to go toward defining or comprehending the idea of a resilience that goes beyond recovery and rebuilding after a natural or man-made disasters.  Further, resilience has to be linked to sustainability so that the type of resilience we are trying to achieve actually moves toward a desired future of sustainable systems not the opposite.  Mr. McPhearson notes his concerns over the fact that current resilience planning and management activities are leading our urban systems down the wrong path, away from sustainability.  For example, in the aftermath of the damage sustained by the New York/New Jersey coastline following Sandy, much of the post-disaster discussions were centered on large technical infrastructure solutions for dealing with future storm surges and coastal flooding.  Some of the solutions floated during the conversations were operable sea gates at the narrow portions of the entry to New York Harbor.  A passable idea but those proposed sea gates could bind New York City to a resource that is potentially economically unsustainable long-range maintenance costs that could have serious ecological impact.

Sea gate proposal
"A Stronger, More Resilient New York"
NYC Special Initiative for Rebuilding and Resiliency
getresilient.com

Motivated by the fact that cities and towns need to plan and design ways to avoid Sandy-level devastation, the Rebuild by Design program was established to give voice to ideas for climate change resilience in the New York City region.  The foundational idea of "rebuilding" is not contradictory to resilience, rather, it underscores the focus within governments at all levels to consider resilience as a response to catastrophic events from a mainly technical and and infrastructural perspective.  Timon McPhearson points out that improving social-ecological resilience is not a simple task, especially in a highly complex urban system such as New York City.  Yet, we need to be aware about the way which we make use of resilience as a strategy, planning and management priority, if our best intentions direct us toward an unsustainable future.  In this case, perhaps a more modest resilience goal might be better.

Resilience can also be understood as the ability to latch onto a specific path.  The generalities of this concepts imply that it can be adapted and adopted to multiple types of systems.  It can also mean that resilience can both help us attain a desired future, lock institutions, political structures, ecosystems, or cities into undesired unsustainable states.  One example, corruption and organized crime are very resilient-not part of a sustainable future.  On this point, I have to wonder why Timon McPhearson chose  corruption and organized crime as an example of undesired unsustainable states.  By the same token, given the monumental inequities of our cities, we need to consider the resilience of what, to what, and specifically, for whom?  Going back to the proposed sea gate installation for the moment, an operable sea gate in New York Harbor might mitigate storm surges and flooding for some residents of Manhattan and Brooklyn but for others, it could have a negative effect.  One negative side effect would be a decrease in resilience for the residents and ecosystems in Staten Island, New Jersey, or Long Island.  Therefore, urban resilience planning and management has to have a serious social-ecological perspective so that the results contribute to the equity, human well-being, and ecological integrity of a place.

View of the Manhattan Bridge from DUMBO
en.wikipedia.org

Sustainable city initiatives focus on maximizing efficiency, minimizing energy, redundancy and material use.  However, redundancy is a hallmark of a resilient system. Sustainability and resilience goal, if not carefully studied can appear completely in opposition to each other.  One vexing puzzle that scholars and planners need to seriously address is urban density as the key to a sustainable future.  The problem is that the more dense our urban cores are, the more susceptible they are to disease, flooding, political unrest, or economic disruption.  The tight connection within  dense urban systems: population, infrastructure, social ties, biogeochemical, and economic-can contribute to resilience or increase vulnerability.  Let's not assume that density is a good or bad thing, rather, carefully consider on a case-by-case basis, how urban planning, governance, and management for a resilient and sustainable future ensuring goals that overlap and support sustainable goal.

The point to all of this is understanding that urban resilience and urban sustainability are two ideas that promote plurality and diversity of remedies to social-ecological issues which urban planning needs to deal with in a new context for transforming cities.  Resilience and sustainability are not mutually incompatible, rather, they can support each other toward a more desirable future.

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What's So Bad About a New Museum?

http://www.citylabs.com/politics/2014/06/why-cities-should-be-more-skeptical-of-new-cultural-centers-and-expansions/373258

Historic guard station
The Presidio in San Francisco, Ca
extranomical.com

Hello Everyone:

Alright I'm back after a World Cup break.  I want to extend my deepest congratulations to Team USA #usmnt for a magnificent run during the tournament and to Team Belgium for a game well played.  Back to the blog

When we last left off on Monday, I updated you on the latest design proposal for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  The new plan called for a campus expansion across Wilshire Boulevard.  This led me to pull out an article from City Lab, titled "Why Cities Should Be More Skeptical of New Cultural Centers and Expansions," by Kriston Capps.  Mr. Capps considers whether or not new cultural centers, such as a George Lucas (as in Star Wars) proposed $700 million museum of art and Americana, is a good idea for whichever city lands this projects.

Proposed George Lucas Museum
sfexaminer.com

Early this year, the Presidio Trust canceled a developers' competition for proposals for an eight-acre site across from Crissy Field, a former military air field in San Francisco.  One of the final three competitors was Mr. Lucas, who is looking for a site to build his museum.  After deliberate consideration, the Presidio Trust board voted unanimously to decline Mr. Lucas' and two other proposals.  The city of Los Angeles was jumping for joy over the possibility of landing the Lucas center.  According to a report in the Los Angeles Times, "Mayor Eric Garcetti aims to tear down the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena (located near the University of Southern California) and host the Lucas museum in its place."  In an open letter posted on the Mayor's website, the Mayor writes, "We'd like you to consider opening your museum in a place where its impact can be amplified like no other, Los Angeles." (http://www.ericgarcetti.com/whylucasinla)  Talk about being a shill.

In the meantime, the "City by The Bay," has found renewed hope to build the museum. The Presidio Trust has offered Mr. Lucas a parcel next to the one he already owns, the Letterman Digital Art Center.  Not to be one-upped San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee sent Mr. Lucas a letter pleading San Francisco's case, it was even co-signed by the city's formers from the last four decades.  Talk about shilling. Meanwhile, over in the City of Chicago, colorful Mayor Rahm Emanuel is pledging a leas near the hallowed Soldier Field for the "Lucas Cultural Arts Museum for the princely sum of one dollar per year.  Once the dust settled on this light-saber fight, the force was strongest with Chicago, as the "Windy City" bested San Francisco for George Lucas Museum. (http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/24/showbiz/chicago-wins-lucas-museum/)

George Lucas and friends
sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com

Has The Force rendered, otherwise reasonably intelligent people, completely bonkers?  Not so, according to Carolina A. Miranda, a blogger for the Times, who has launched her own campaign. #WhyLucasNOTinLA.  Ms. Miranda opines that collection of Hollywood memorabilia, Norman Rockwell and Andrew Wyeth paintings are too syrupy and Los Angeles already has enough.  There is even a rebel alliance in Chicago.  According to an un-named Chicago Bears Football Team fan posting on the Chicago Tribune, "You can kiss tailgating in Soldier Field as we know it good-bye if this deal gets done.  "If we're going to give a billionaire a $1 lease for the property, we're selling the city short," huffed one Chicago alderman

Map of cultural institution building 1994-2008
citylab.com

Ah my padwans, Kriston Capps tells us that there are reasons to be suspect of new cultural centers and expansions, especially when cities fall all over themselves like over excited fanboys in the presence of George Lucas.  A new book, due out in early 2015, titled Cultural Organization: Buildings Arts Facilities in U.S. Communities presents research that demonstrates how civic leaders and arts patrons fall victim to specific plans when it comes to cultural institutions.  The book builds on a study undertaken by the University of Chicago Cultural Policy Center which examined new cultural facilities built in America between 1994 and 2008-boom time for new museums and arts institutions.  This research led its co-authors: Joanna Woronkowicz, D. Carroll Joynes, and Norman Bradburn concluded:

In terms of the study, our major hypothesis was that these major facility projects-new museums, new expansions-would have these positive net benefits to the surrounding urban areas...And they would have potentially less positive or even negative effects on surrounding organizations.

Using case studies, surveys, and construction-cost analyses, the Cultural Policy Center study determined that the museum building boom did not lead to any net benefits for the host communities, as predicted by the "Bilbao Effect."  The good news was poverty rates fell and property values generally rose in communities where new cultural institutions were built, the bad news-poorer residents  suffered displacement.  Not all surprising when you think about it.  Gentrification aside, the researchers' evidence demonstrated that supply may have exceeded demand  during the course of the cultural facility building boom.  The result of this excessive supply left some cities with the responsibility for cultural institutions they didn't need.

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts
Philadelphia, Pa
visitphilly.com

In the book, the team of researchers followed up on some of their findings: expansions and museum projects don't have a positive or negative carry-over effect for adjacent cultural institutions.  A draft chapter that Professor Joanna Woronkowicz shared with Kriston Capps outlines some of the common traps civic leaders fall into in their mad pursuit of the arts,

The types of leaders who provide the passion and drive to build structures of this sort [major performing arts centers] are successful men and women who are accustomed to relying on their own experience and judgement...They depend on what they might describe as 'inside knowledge-knowledge gleaned from their own experiences, an those of their collaborators' experiences.

What tends to be absent in their thinking, however...is 'outside knowledge,' such as what statisticians refer to as 'the base rate' regarding the distribution of projects that did not go as planned...

Another trap that civic leaders fall into is hindsight and consistency bias: memories about decision-making for projects tend to change over time, and people adjust their memories to adapt to present circumstances

While the Philadelphia Orchestra originally embarked upon a building project for the purpose of constructing a new single-purpose concert hall, the opportunity to make it an economic development anchor in downtown Philadelphia partly persuaded its leaders to morph the idea into something entirely different-a PAC [performing arts center]...Today, the reason for building the Kimmel Center is frequently remembered by the community as being to revive a distressed former industrial city's downtown.

Cost overruns and project delays, typically associated with institutional overreach-the study found that a full 91% of PAC built during the period examined went over budget.  Cultural Organization: Buildings Arts Facilities in U.S. Communities demonstrates that civic officials frequently overstate revenues and underestimate expenses for new projects-typical.  Of the projects surveyed, 59% presented lower revenues than projected, while 59% presented higher expenses.

Modified design proposal for LACMA
Peter Zumthor
articles.latimes.com

So does this mean that the proposed $650 million Los Angeles County Museum of Art is really bad idea?  For that matter is the Lucas Cultural Arts Museum a product of the dark side of The Force? In the name of full disclosure, neither project is covered in the latest research, which is not meant to be a guide for deciding whether or not to build a museum or not.  What we do know about the proposed LACMA plan is that everyone from Mayor Garcetti on down is excited about it-Los Angeles Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne is the head cheerleader.  What the research shows when an abundance of enthusiasm overshadows real support tempered by clear-headed thinking, civic officials and arts patrons make mistakes, and these mistakes can result in budget shortfalls and cost overruns.  Therefore, proposed cultural institutions can be bad for a city and the reverse.

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