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Results of downtown design survey

By on December 4, 2009 in Architecture, Downtown, Urbanism

downtown_d75d7b7352_bHere is the press release sent out by the City of Fort Wayne this morning:

DOWNTOWN SURVEY RESULTS SHOW PUBLIC PREFERENCE FOR DURABLE DESIGN

Input from nearly 700 people to help create Downtown Design Manual

Fort Wayne, Ind. – Fort Wayne residents have once again expressed support for thoughtful design in downtown Fort Wayne through the downtown design survey earlier this fall. An internal team and an advisory group will use the survey’s information as they create a Downtown Design Manual by early next year.

“Engaging the public in the revision process is a critical element to ensure that we are planning with people, not for them,” Mayor Tom Henry said. “We received an outstanding response from the public and will use this information as we shape policy that will leave a lasting legacy for our downtown and entire community.”

Respondents expressed a decided preference for an appealing pedestrian experience in downtown, particularly for anything that includes landscaping, planters and greenery. Other preferences included the use of durable materials such as brick and stone, street-level windows, lower ground-mounted signage and wide, unobstructed sidewalks.

“Fort Wayne residents consistently tell us they care about how their city looks,” said Community Development Director John Urbahns. “Information from this survey as well as the input from the comprehensive plan process and the Downtown Blueprint points to how people value and appreciate the aesthetic experience of public spaces.”

The City will use the survey and information from the internal team and advisory group to create a Downtown Design Manual. The existing Downtown Design Guidelines is an advisory document that provides general recommendations. The new manual will continue to have recommendations but may include required elements that would be incorporated into a zoning ordinance amendment, which would need City Council approval. Required elements would need to be quantifiable and not based on a specific taste or style. Once complete, the draft design manual will be made available for public review and comment.

“One of the things that makes downtown Fort Wayne an interesting place is the variety of styles: the Allen County Courthouse, One Summit Square, the Lincoln Tower and the Grand Wayne Center for example. We want our design manual to maintain architectural diversity while encouraging features we know Fort Wayne residents appreciate and want to see more of,” Mayor Henry said.

The survey, taken by 693 people, had respondents evaluate building materials, signage, sidewalks, windows and other design elements of buildings and public spaces. Respondents could also indicate if the feature should be encouraged or required. A full summary of the responses is available at www.cityoffortwayne.org/designsurvey.

Photo from Flickr by Northeast Indiana

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The highways of the future!

By on December 3, 2009 in Transportation

From YouTube:

An excerpt from the 1958 Disneyland TV Show episode entitled Magic Highway USA. In this last part of the show, an exploration into possible future Transportation technologies is made. It’s hard to believe how little we’ve accomplished on this front since 1958, and how limited the scope for imagining such future technologies has become. Witness an artifact from a time where the future was greeted with optimism. Note the striking animation style here, achieved with fairly limited animation and spectacular layouts.

As Tom Vanderbilt says:

A few parts Norman Bel Geddes, add a dash of atomic utopianism, a twist of Broadacre City, and follow with a Wall-E chaser.

atomiccity1

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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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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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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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The new American dream

By on December 9, 2008 in Built environment, Urban design

Will the Obama White House recognize changes in American culture, or assume we’re still living in the ’80s?

Here’s David Brooks:

The 1980s and 1990s made up the era of the great dispersal. Forty-three million people moved every year, and basically they moved outward — from inner-ring suburbs to far-flung exurbs on the metro fringe. …

If you asked people in that age of go-go suburbia what they wanted in their new housing developments, they often said they wanted a golf course. But the culture has changed. If you ask people today what they want, they’re more likely to say coffee shops, hiking trails and community centers.

People overshot the mark. They moved to the exurbs because they wanted space and order. But once there, they found that they were missing community and social bonds. So in the past years there has been a new trend. Meeting places are popping up across the suburban landscape.

Read the column here. Hat tip: Richard Florida

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