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Yule Heibel's Bookmarks tagged urban_design   View Popular

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A design-savvy city defined, by Knute Berger (Crosscut Seattle)

For future reference: Berger's article about a report by architectural firm RMJM, which identifies America's top 10 best-designed cities. His article focuses on the aspect of heritage preservation, which factors into RMJM's weighting and criteria, and he notes that Portland seems to beat out Seattle. From there, Berger segues into whether or not (or to what extent) citizens are "pleased with their urban architecture," and observes that only LA residents are "less happy with their city" than Seattlites. (I'm not sure how he manages the leap from heritage preservation to 'being pleased" by contemporary/new architecture, but there you have it.) Anyway, the really useful thing about this article is that Berger lists the 7 categories RMJM used to answer the question, "what makes a design-savvy city?", and also summarizes each aspect (with commentary of his own, in italics). All in all, the list makes a great framework for thinking about urban design.

Tags: urban_design, urbanplanning, seattle, crosscut, knute_berger, heritage, preservation, designsavvy on 2008-07-19 -All Annotations (4) -About

more fromwww.crosscut.com

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architecture for hertzian space | varnelis.net

Fascinating essay by Kazys Varnelis, which takes as its jumping off point the potential discrepancy between designing for "hard" stuff (whether factories, industrial production, or ...architecture/buildings) vs. designing for networked stuff and software and mobile technologies. After this initial set-up, Varnelis then quickly goes into describing some very specific site- and urban-intervention type projects that subvert the "hard" aspects of planning & building via software/ new technologies. The former points are not that difficult to address, using predictable interventions and affordances (see my notes/ annotations), but the latter are mind-blowing and difficult to contain within predictability.

Tags: varnelis.net, futurismo, architecture, urban_design, portals on 2008-07-17 -All Annotations (10) -About

more fromvarnelis.net

Closing on Broadway - Two Traffic Lanes - NYTimes.com

Article about the "Broadway Boulevard" project, which will take some of current automobile lanes and turn them into public seating/ parks and bike paths. The project stresses the importance of wresting public space back from cars, for public/ pedestrian/ non-vehicular use. QUOTE: “Broadway is not famous because there are a gazillion cars going through it,” she said. “We’re trying to have the public space match the name.” UNQUOTE

Tags: nyt, nyc, broadway, traffi_calming, public_space, urban_parks, urban_design on 2008-07-14 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.nytimes.com

Urban Research: Shibuya vs. Marunouchi - PingMag - The Tokyo-based magazine about “Design and Making Things”

Written by Ryoko (translated by Kevin McGue): An absolutely fascinating article in PingMag on how Shibuya (a hip, youth-oriented area) and Marunouchi (a more upscale and dignified area) are designed differently. While those sorts of differences are things we think we expect to recognize and anticipate, it's very effective to have them laid out and itemized so clearly. Ryoko's analysis starts with how the train stations for each district are designed differently, and how they therefore signal different trends and intentions. From there, the piece moves to "towns," that is the districts themselves, paying particular attention to outdoor/ public advertising and streetscapes, and architecture; then, a comparison of how greenery and public seating arrangements are used (or are absent); next, it's the streets themselves, this time with a focus on layout and grade (interestingly, Shibuya slopes and has many changes in grade, as well as narrower streets, while more sedate Marunouchi is level and has wider streets); finally, the author looks at products: what's for sale, particularly in terms of publications/ magazines.

Tags: pingmag, shibuya, marunouchi, urban_design, cities, tokyo, districts, conscientious_design on 2008-06-03 -All Annotations (0) -About

more frompingmag.jp

eGoodman

This is the portal page of Elizabeth Goodman, one of the "explorers" mentioned by Nat Torkington in his O'Reilly Radar article, "Ghandi on Ubicomp."

Tags: egoodman, ubicom, urban_design, ubiquitous on 2008-05-15 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.confectious.net

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City needs to put its foot down, by Christopher Hume (Toronto Star)

This article, linked to the other Apr.26 piece in terms of theme and championing the idea that sidewalks (& therefore pedestrians) are key to a good urban fabric, tackles the question of planning & design. Too much is individual project driven, vs. falling into place as part of an overall sense of what the city should be.

Tags: thestar, pedestrians, infrastructure, toronto, urban_design, christopher_hume on 2008-05-06 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.thestar.com

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In Defense of Townhouses — Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool)

- great article by Eric de Place on why so many new TH developments are so ugly. As his lede says, "How parking laws make housing expensive. And ugly."

Tags: sightline_daily, seattle, urban_design, urbanplanning, cars, parking, architecture on 2008-05-01 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromdaily.sightline.org

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The new oases | Economist.com

"Nomadism changes buildings, cities and traffic" - Economist, April 10/08: interesting article about unmooring and how that's reflected in architectural trends, too. Sent this article in its entirety to my email archive, since I can't seem to use Diigo for highlighting. Key excerpt: QUOTE: The fact that people are no longer tied to specific places for functions such as studying or learning, says Mr Mitchell, means that there is “a huge drop in demand for traditional, private, enclosed spaces” such as offices or classrooms, and simultaneously “a huge rise in demand for semi-public spaces that can be informally appropriated to ad-hoc workspaces”. This shift, he thinks, amounts to the biggest change in architecture in this century. In the 20th century architecture was about specialised structures—offices for working, cafeterias for eating, and so forth. This was necessary because workers needed to be near things such as landline phones, fax machines and filing cabinets, and because the economics of building materials favoured repetitive and simple structures, such as grid patterns for cubicles. UNQUOTE Other key idea: how this turns the "third places" critique on its head, too.

Tags: the_economist, urban_design, workspaces, mobile_city, nomadism, mobility, third_places on 2008-04-20 and saved by2 people -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.economist.com

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"Don't be dense" by Zev Yaroslavsky - Los Angeles Times

"The debate about the availability of housing in Los Angeles and the city's development policies has been testy but long overdue." An interesting article by Yaroslavsky that initially makes the reader think that he's advocating a sort of nimby-istic "pulling up the drawbridges" mentality, but if the reader perserveres to read the entire piece, it seems his suggestions are really LA-specific. They're not necessarily in conflict with infill development; development around transit routes & hubs; and creation of density in areas that really need it (in our case, downtown). He does bring in late 80s experiences, however, which make you wonder if things haven't irrevocably moved beyond thel contexts he's referencing.

Tags: urbanplanning, urban_design, density, los_angeles, neighbourhoods, nimbyism, smartgrowth, eco_density, affordable_housing on 2008-04-14 -All Annotations (8) -About

more fromwww.latimes.com

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Edmonton: Daunting task for crap detectors

"Design watchdogs have a lot on their plate" -- The Edmonton Journal's Todd Babaniak weighs in on the all-volunteer Edmonton Design Committee's effect so far on urban design in that city, and concludes that it's too bad they couldn't have gotten started in 1990 already.

Tags: edmonton, todd_babiak, urban_design on 2008-03-21 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.canada.com

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» The Hidden Jewel of Hull • Spacing Toronto • understanding the urban landscape

Interview with Marc Dube, "owner of most of the parking lots in downtown Hull." Parking lots are lucrative, as Dube's start in the business illustrates: "In the mid 1980s, Dubé and two others planned to open a restaurant in downtown Hull. The financing fell through after they had already signed the lease on a building. Dubé realized an alternate source of income: he could demolish the building and put in a parking lot. Since his partners weren’t interested, he began the business on his own." Read on from there.

Tags: spacing.ca, surface_parking_lots, toronto, urban_design, urban_renewal on 2008-02-20 -All Annotations (4) -About

more fromspacing.ca

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Genuflecting to the high rises by David Brewster (Crosscut - Seattle)

Crosscut's publisher, David Brewster, calls out the Seattle P-I and the Seattle Times for their gushing endorsements of two major downtown Seattle development proposals (Fifth Ave. twin condo towers by Ishmael Leyva Architects and, also on Fifth Ave., the United Methodist Church block by Zimmer Gunsul Frasca). Brewster points to the curious alliance btw developers and eco-density champions, which is wearing a bit thin in Vancouver, acc. to an article by Frances Bula, which Brewster references (see http://tinyurl.com/333ehj ). In Vancouver, there's talk of putting density & height in formerly sacrosanct areas, like Gastown & Chinatown, too. Some interesting comments showing up in the comments board, too.

Tags: architecture, crosscut, development, downtown, eco_density, seattle, urban_design on 2008-02-14 -All Annotations (6) -About

more fromwww.crosscut.com

Seattle.gov - Seattle Right-of-Way Improvement Manual - Latest Online Manual

Useful reference from City of Seattle re. street / urbanscape improvements, broken down in detailed format according to features (from "awnings" to "underground utilities").

Tags: planning, reference, seattle, street_scape, urban_design on 2008-01-17 -All Annotations (0) -About

more fromwww.seattle.gov