Yule Heibel's Library tagged urban_parks →  View Popular, Search in Google

Fantastic. Putting imagination back into infrastructure. (How much we could have needed that in Victoria BC, both with regard to the Johnson Street Bridge and with the View + Vancouver streets intersection...
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“The strategy is how to integrate the entire community so that in the end they feel that it is theirs, that they own it. The city and the developers start to fall away in the background. If that happens then you’ll probably have a successful project.”

Aquino says that these strategies haven’t really been figured out yet. Public-private partnerships seem to be important for maintaining new parks, but initial funding can be hard to come by. When infrastructure projects are necessary, Aquino says the money will come through. Making that money work harder to create more than a new alleyway or drainage canal is a strategy more cities are likely to take.
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landscape_architecture landscape_infrastructure infrastructure cities urban_renewal urban_parks

Interesting review of Peter Harnik's book, Urban Green: Innovative Parks for Resurgent Cities (Island Press, 2010).
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...Peter teaches the reader what one should consider in order to construct and manage a successful city park system: that different kinds of parks serve different functions; that different kinds of populations look to parks for different services; that parks and neighborhoods need each other to be successful; that parks in the suburbs may be created through conservation of existing undeveloped land, but most parks in cities need to be developed (New York’s Central Park may look like it was conserved, but in fact it was carefully planned and created).
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cities urban_parks urban_amenities

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Seattle's Privately Owned Public Open Spaces: A Walking Tour
8/26/2009: Councilmember Nick Licata defines POPOS: Privately Owned Public Open Space. Under Seattle city zoning laws, building developers can engage in zoning tradeoffs that may allow them to build bigger or higher, if they provide a specified amount of space for public use. Landscape architect Guy Michaelson, representing Seattle Architecture Foundation, leads a walking tour highlighting POPOS buildings, historic landmarks, public art and other public amenities. For more information on POPOS and monthly tours offered by SAE, visit:seattle.gov/council/issues/public_space.htm, seattlearchitecture.org
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seattle urban_amenities urbanplanning urban_parks architecture

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.

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“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.”
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nyt nyc broadway traffi_calming public_space urban_parks urban_design

Dutch landscape architect Adriaan Geuze's vision for T.O.'s waterfront: "The point must be that we won't have to live on the waterfront to feel at home there." In this article by Christopher Hume, some really interesting discussion (by Geuze) about cars, how they've taken over urban spaces, why all-pedestrian zones aren't necessarily a good idea ("scary at night"), and that cities today compete with one another.

cars christopher_hume development pedestrians toronto urban_parks urban_renewal waterfront

- description of "the winning design for a 40-acre park that would unfold across the southern half of Governors Island" (Diller Scofidio & Renfro, etc.)
- personally, I liked "The Mollusk" best

governors_island nicolai_ouroussoff nyc urban_parks

fred_kent public_space urban_parks urbanplanning