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The Architect as Totalitarian

By on December 3, 2009 in Architecture

Theodore Dalrymple dissects some of the destructive tendencies of the modern architect Le Corbusier:

Le Corbusier was to architecture what Pol Pot was to social reform. In one sense, he had less excuse for his activities than Pol Pot: for unlike the Cambodian, he possessed great talent, even genius. Unfortunately, he turned his gifts to destructive ends, and it is no coincidence that he willingly served both Stalin and Vichy. Like Pol Pot, he wanted to start from Year Zero: before me, nothing; after me, everything.

Via David Sucher.

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What’s your verdict on Calhoun Street?

By on November 24, 2009 in Downtown, Transportation

Calhoun Street demolitionCalhoun Street in downtown Fort Wayne from Washington Boulevard to Berry Street was demolished, and rebuilt, and is now a two-way street. What do you think?

Please leave specific comments, either criticisms or commendations, in the box below. If you’re a first-time commenter, your comment won’t appear until it’s approved.

Oh, and if you post a photo of the new Calhoun Street online, please post a link to that, too.

Photo © Scott Spaulding

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Updated resources

By on November 23, 2009 in Etc.

I’ve begun updating the Resources Page with a bunch of other books. Leave a comment with other suggestions I may have missed!

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The ‘Longing for a city’ video

By on November 14, 2009 in Books, Community, Downtown, Etc.

Produced and edited by Melissa Kiser of the Allen County Public Library.

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The expressway that never happened

By on November 13, 2009 in Downtown, Transportation

The urban interstateBrian Stouder left an interesting comment on the previous post about my “Longing for a City” talk:

If I was going to ask a question – it would have been what you thought of the old Fort Wayne’s massive mistake of NOT adding an expressway along with the railway elevation project, back in the day. My dad (who grew up in Fort Wayne in the ’30’s and 40’s, and came of age in the ’50’s) always used to express mortification at our city’s decision to skip the expressway – and the reasons for that rejection.

Indeed, the News-Sentinel ran a very big and informative feature series on just that subject something like 10 or 15 years ago (written, in whole or in part, by Alan Derringer, as I recall) which confirmed all the things my dad always used to say.

If the expressway had existed, the bypasses wouldn’t have the glitter (and the concurrent development) that they attained, and the city would be all the more vibrant – in my opinion.

Which begs the question – why WOULD we really “miss” (at least the attitudes) of old Fort Wayne? They certainly had consequences.

The reasons for that rejection, if I remember correctly, was pure and simple racial prejudice, at least according to The News-Sentinel article referenced above.

Now, that’s a lousy reason, but I’m not sure an urban expressway — that would later have become Interstate 69 — is an 100 percent positive thing.

One obvious problem is the destruction of in-the-way neighborhoods and buildings, and considering we’re talking about the 1950s, who knows what treasures we would have lost.

But a second problem is the cleaving of the city in two along this manmade border. An interstate highway is a dead zone through a city with too-few connections, and those connections are stark bridges and dark underpasses.

But what do you think? Would the benefits of an urban expressway have outweighed the detriments?

– Photo courtesy the U.S. Department of Transportation

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‘Longing for the City’

By on November 11, 2009 in Architecture, Books, Downtown, Events

Hello! If you’re here because of being invited at the “Longing for the City” talk Wednesday night, welcome!

I’ll post lists of recommended books and resources on this Web site as time permits. Plus, if you have recommendations, please leave a comment here.

Thanks for coming!

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Chesterton on the modern world

By on June 2, 2009 in Quotes

“The special mark of the modern world is not that it is skeptical, but that it is dogmatic without knowing it. It says, in mockery of old devotees, that they believed without knowing why they believed.

“But the moderns believe without knowing what they believe — and without even knowing that they do believe it. Their freedom consists in first freely assuming a creed, and then freely forgetting that they are assuming it.”

— G.K. Chesterton

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The ethics of where you live

By on May 30, 2009 in Built environment, Community

Quote by Eric O. Jacobsen:

I believe that choosing to live in a neighbourhood that is mixed in income, mixed in use, and replete with inviting public spaces can be an important fundamental ethical decision. When we can walk from our home to the corner coffee shop or park with the realistic expectation of running into someone who is destitute in one way or another, we place ourselves in the uncomfortable realm of Christian decision making.

— From the article “Where Then Shall We Live? The traditional neighbourhood as a fundamental ethical choice” in Comment magazine

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How to brand our bike routes

By on May 30, 2009 in Transportation

bikelane_flickr_smallDo bike route signs matter?

If you don’t think so, check the 20 and counting comments on the Spaulding brothers’ Web site, What’s Going Down(town), where they posted the possible bike route sign that would be duplicated all over Fort Wayne.

I accept some blame for stirring the pot with a comment that said, in its entirety:

TooMuchClutter!GetRidOfSkyline!

Perhaps that wasn’t too helpful. Regardless, the comments started piling up and dividing into two camps:

  • Those who agreed with me that the bike route signs should follow normal sign regulations.
  • Those who said they liked the signs because they were different, for aesthetic and branding reasons.

bikeroute_scottcrop09To the right are the proposed Fort Wayne signs. Note the downtown skyline at the top that I unfairly called “hokey” in a Twitter post. Actually, it’s nice enough, isn’t it?

But it’s beside the point, because although I don’t want to be too cranky about this, these are not traffic signs.

As I noted on What’s Going Down(town):

Honestly, what are these signs trying to tell me? Are they telling motorists there is a bike lane? Or bikes on the road? Or are the signs for cyclists only? And if cycling is going to be an actual serious transportation mode in Fort Wayne, why not use actual serious traffic signs? Pretty things like skylines indicate parks and recreation, not traffic warnings.

Traffic signs are supposed to answer questions for everyone in the traffic flow, motorists and bicyclists alike, easily and quickly.

As commenter Ashley on What’s Going Down(town) noted, there is all kinds of great information, advice and signage in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. Why spend the money to reinvent the wheel?

Now, someone mentioned that the suggested sign design does a good job of branding Fort Wayne’s bike routes. That is true, but not necessarily in a good way.

Does the city want our bike routes to be thought of as merely recreational? Then the suggested signs will do the trick. Great for the Greenway, for example.

But if the city wants our bike routes to be “branded” seriously as a transportation mode, then serious, official traffic signage that is helpful to motorist and cyclists is key.

Thanks to the city’s bike route committee for sharing its thoughts so we citizens can contribute to the discussion!

— Top photo by splorp on Flickr

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