There’s plenty to say about Parkview Hospital’s expansion up north and contraction on State Boulevard, but first, I wanted to address another angle of the proposed Shoppes on Broadway (sits plan shown above). Why do all new retail developments look like suburban strip malls? Why is the parking lot almost twice as large as the [...]
Tag Archives: Urbanism
Traditional neighborhoods and modern architecture
by Jon Swerens on April 26, 2008, in Architecture, City culture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
Scott Greider, over on his personal blog, quotes a portion of the San Jose historic design guidelines that addresses the role of modern architecture in older neighborhoods. (If you’re adventurous, you can download the entire 95-page PDF.) What does San Jose say? It says, “Bring it on”: Rather than imitating older buildings, a new design [...]
10 reasons cities are works of art
by Jon Swerens on April 25, 2008, in City culture, Downtown, Urbanism
The Work Research Foundation‘s Comment magazine published a little point of view piece called “Public Arts in the City: with reference to Chicago.” Not only does the author — Clinton Stockwell, the executive director of the Chicago Semester — give ten positive reasons for considering cities as works of art, he peppers his short essay [...]
Politics can’t save urbanism
by Jon Swerens on April 23, 2008, in Architecture, City culture, Urbanism
Yesterday, I pointed to this article at City Journal about how New Urbanism may have changed the conversation about urban planning, but it hasn’t changed the culture. The article points out how many New Urbanists have grabbed on to the “climate change” movement, hoping its momentum will bring its “community-building ethos into the mainstream.” And [...]
‘New Urbanists point the way forward’
by Jon Swerens on April 22, 2008, in Architecture, Uncategorized, Urbanism
Scott Spaulding electronically tapped me on the shoulder and pointed me to this great article on New Urbanism and why it’s having trouble finding an audience. Here’s a clip: Perhaps the New Urbanists should cherish their outsider status. A gifted crew of architects and planners, they have changed the conversation about urban planning in the [...]
Breaking the Three Rules of urban design
by Jon Swerens on April 21, 2008, in Architecture, Neighborhoods, Urbanism
Above is an artist’s rendering of what a developer hopes will be The Shoppes on Broadway, near the corner of Broadway and Taylor Street. Leaving aside the fact that it looks like every other suburban strip mall built in Fort Wayne over the past five years, is it a good building for a city street? [...]
Philip Bess: Good cities are like pizzas
by Jon Swerens on April 21, 2008, in Architecture, Downtown, Urbanism
During his lecture last week, Philip Bess mentioned a tasty metaphor for good urban living. Comparing a city to a pizza is the idea of Leon Krier, whom Bess calls the most influential traditional urbanist of our time. As Bess says in his book, “Till We Have Built Jerusalem”: A neighborhood is to the larger [...]
Philip Bess: What is a city for?
by Jon Swerens on April 18, 2008, in Architecture, Downtown, Urbanism
Now that I found my notes, I can make some hopefully intelligent comments about Philip Bess’s interesting, although two-hour long, lecture on Wednesday. And since it’s already late, I’ll make this an introduction to a series of short posts about his lecture and ideas. But first, I must mention that it was too bad that [...]
A better Barr Street, or a barren one?
by Jon Swerens on April 8, 2008, in Downtown, Urbanism
(Jon) We at The Good City are all for downtown development, but I wonder if the improvements happening on Barr Street will have anything more than a cosmetic effect. Above is the artist’s rendition of what the area will look like. The Journal Gazette said this: Over the next three months, the city will fulfill [...]
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