Monday, October 31, 2011

Cycling City Tensions

With a few notable exceptions such as Cambridge, cycling in UK cities is minimal compared to continental European examples, and boosting cycling is a massive opportunity for improving travel sustainability and health in Britain. The potential is greatest in London, with its high density mixed-use form, relatively flat topography and benign climate that favour cycling; in addition to congested and expensive car and public transport networks that leave many looking for alternatives.

Planning policy at the Greater London Authority level recognises this potential and has become increasingly pro-cycling, with recent investments in the ‘Cycling Superhighways’ scheme- longer distance radial cycle routes that (almost) join up; the bike hire scheme; and modest improvements at many junctions and in cycle parking facilities. These measures have helped to increase the level of cycling in London substantially in the last decade (although beginning from a very low starting point):

Czcle parking map of East Dulwich in southeast of London, by telex4

more about bicycle planning:

Cycling in Mexico City, Aggressive Driving, Integrated Mobility Sharing

16-Mile Bike Lane Connects Detroit Neighborhoods

Road hogs: Minneapolis cyclists don’t need to share

BICYCLE DEVELOPMENT PLAN- City of Peoria, Arizona

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Non-International Landscape of Tokyo

By Chris Berthelsen

....
Uchi/Soto

“In Japan, ‘public’ is more of a mental construct than a physical presence”[8] and the concept of ‘privacy’ has never taken hold[9]. The closest native Japanese approximation of private-public may be uchi (family, clan, group)-soto (that which is not uchi) where uchi extends the Western ‘private’ to ‘other private’ plus ‘public’ [10]. A history and present of close quarters, paper-thin walls and sliding doors that open onto the street evoke the permeation of daily life into public space[11]. Memory and current practice/conception regard whole neighbourhoods as ‘home’ [12], with parks as multifunctional common yards[13] [14].

Use

The Japanese city can be characterised by use – (1) the perceived strength of the individual plot, (2) utilitarian public spaces, and (3) public space as a domain for temporary invasion and annexation[15]. Following, ‘modern life’ in Tokyo can be said to be ‘city affirming’ – exhibiting commitment and positive interest in personal level ‘feathering the urban nest’ [16] and so much like how the urban development of Edo/Tokyo took place around many scattered nuclei[17] so too the scattered nuclei of Tokyo’s informal gardens provide foundation for everyday humane life – the multilayered units of urban space growing more refined and human as they grow closer to the daily lives of the people of the city[18]. Tokyo uchi can thus be understood as a ‘place-by-place’ [19] plot-by-plot discontinuous and autonomous series of oases[20].

...

What is triple-bottom-line real estate development?

via Cooltown Studios

Many of us know that the triple bottom line means “people, planet and profit”, being economically, socially and environmentally beneficial. That is, expanding the traditional reporting framework to take into account ecological and social performance in addition to financial performance (Wikipedia).

So what does this mean for real estate development? What would triple bottom line real estate development look like? Keep in mind this is about the real estate development industry, not about the city or neighborhood as a whole, which is obviously more important, but a separate focus nonetheless.

Economic/Profit
- It’s financially viable to the real estate developers and investors. Many say that developers make too much money and some say they shouldn’t make any. That of course is unrealistic, as real estate development is a hugely risky industry (just witness the recent state of affairs) and it’s not like they’re dominating the Fortune 500. Really though, the real estate developers that sincerely care about and work with the local residents are often embraced as heroes, while the ones that don’t are seen as villains. Simple as that.

Environmental/Planet
- The development is LEED-ND certified and the buildings are LEED certified. The U.S. Green Building Council has established a reputable standard by which to make developers accountable when going green. It covers just about any kind of green consideration you can think of, from rainwater barrels to alternatives to car ownership.
- Housing and transportation options that reduce carbon footprints are available. As stated, the opportunity to live in smaller units (heating/cooling of buildings has the largest carbon footprint) and walk or bike (transportation is second) to destinations is the best one can do to be green.

more about real estate:

Shifting the Suburban Paradigm

Urban Planning and Real Estate Development

E-book: Urban Planning And Real Estate Development

Sustainable Urban Form and Real Estate Markets

Cycling in Mexico City, Aggressive Driving, Integrated Mobility Sharing

By Itir Sonuparlak

Lima’s Metropolitano BRT system celebrated its 100 millionth passenger this week. At the end of 2010, the BRT system was carrying an average of 220,000 passengers daily. Today, the daily passenger rate is at 360,000 individuals. The goal for December 2011 is to transport half a million passenger per day.

Mexico City is seeing a rise in bicycle use among its middle and upper classes, according to news from USA Today. Local cycling initiatives started in 2006 in Mexico City under the leadership of Mayor Marcelo Ebrard. Since then, cycling has become a fashionable transport mode. The local environment secretariat estimates that there are 100,000 cycling trips made daily in the city.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced a $75 million federal funding to improve the oldest and slowest active commuter rail line in the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The funding is estimated to bring employment opportunities to 260 people.

Urban Development + Accessibility

Real estate agents in Cape Town, South Africa report that the implementation of MyCiTi Bus Rapid Transport system in the city’s West Coast corridor has had a positive impact on the property market. The efficiency of the public transport system halved the time properties remain on the market.

Mayor Bloomberg announced a $20 million gift to the city’s famous High Line park from the Diller-von Furstenberg Family Foundation. Previously, the High Line needed $85 million to finish the design and implementation of the park and maintain it for three million visitors every year.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder is calling on state legislature to approve a proposal that would allow local municipalities to raise vehicle licensing fees to a rate between $40 and $120. The raised rates would bring in between $300 million and $1 billion for infrastructure and transit projects in Michigan.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Capturing Sao Paulo's Sidewalks

via Sustainable Cities Collective

Just as a flaneur in Hong Kong would be remiss in his or her explorations without looking up into the density of urban life that occurs in skyscrapers and apartment towers, looking at the ground offers a glimpse of art, utility and public works in a city — from manhole covers and street gravel, to sidewalk collisions of color, texture and pattern.

SÃO PAULO’S URBAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Inequality and Urban Shrinkage: A Close Relationship in Latin America

A Car Becomes a Weapon in Brazil; Pedestrians Shortchanged in Detroit

Brasilia, Brazil: economic and social costs of dispersion

Sustaining a Sense of Place in a Great Neighborhood

By Roberta Rewers, APA Public Affairs Associate

Have you visited a neighborhood or community and left thinking about its character, charm, and beauty? A hallmark of APA’s Sustaining Places initiative is not just about how places can sustain life and civilizations but also how places can be sustained. A good example of such a place is the Pullman Neighborhood on Chicago’s south side.

The Pullman Neighborhood was recently designated one of APA’s 2011 Great Neighborhoods as part of its Great Places in America program. The program identifies 10 great streets, 10 great neighborhoods, and 10 great public spaces each year and celebrates places of exemplary character, quality, and planning.

What makes the Pullman designation even more special is that the neighborhood was nearly demolished 50 years ago for a proposed industrial park. Community members came together and worked to save the neighborhood, its buildings, history, and character.

Pullman was established in 1880 by George M. Pullman, president of Pullman’s Palace Car Company.

Pullman Neighborhood, Chicago, photo by reallyboring

more readings of this kind:

Becoming Greenest: Recommendations for a More Sustainable Washington, D.C.

How the Imagery of "Urbanized" Motivates Better Places

Living Cities: Collaboration is Key

INTEGRATING PLACE IDENTITY, URBAN SUSTAINABILITY AND GLOBALIZATION: A GREAT CHALLENGE FOR THE CITY OF THE FUTURE

Geography of housing recovery favors cities and walkable neighborhoods

by Kaid Benfield,

The map just above shows the degree to which twelve jurisdictions in the Washington, DC metropolitan area have experienced a housing recovery. In particular, the percentages reflect how the August 2011 average home sales price in each city or county compares to the average sales price experienced in each at the peak of the region’s housing market, in November 2005. The numbers, which were published in The Washington Post earlier this month, are based on research by the George Mason University Center for Regional Analysis.

While no part of the region has fully recovered, the degree to which they have rebounded varies significantly from one jurisdiction to another. Kimberly Lankford, a freelance writer on assignment for the Post, noted in the story that “in general, the farther you travel from downtown Washington, the slower the recovery has been.”

Indeed. The strongest recoveries have been made in the central city of Washington and neighboring Arlington, Virginia, the region’s most urban jurisdictions, both filled with walkable neighborhoods.

Convenience matters to homebuyers. On average, travel distances are shorter in central jurisdictions and transit, biking and walking alternatives to driving more plentiful; jobs, shopping and amenities are likely to be closer. Density tends to be higher, although both DC and Arlington have plenty of single-family homes. The two jurisdictions that have made the next strongest recoveries are Alexandria and Fairfax County in Virginia, both relatively close to Washington and each a mixture of urban and suburban areas.

A part of Fairfac County, Virginia that has a high pedestrian fatalities, photo by Trasnportation for America

similar posts:

basics: walking distance to transit

Walkable Neighborhoods in Your City Survey

Neighborhood Design and the Accessibility of the Elderly: An Empirical Analysis in Northern California

Modeling street connectivity, pedestrian movement and land-use according to standard GIS street network representations: A Comparative Study

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Innovation and the American Metropolis

by Urban Omnibus

We hear the word innovation a lot these days. But the word’s ubiquity in contemporary discourse speaks to the undeniable surge in new ideas of how to make complex systems, like cities, work better. Many of these ideas rely on recent technological advances that enable the capture of huge amounts of data and the interconnection of large networks of individuals. Regional Plan Association (RPA) has been in the business of coming up with new ideas to make the New York metropolitan region work better since 1922. A few months before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, RPA released a plan for the region that helped to pave the way for the systems that supported New York’s recovery from the Great Depression and subsequent growth. Two other long-range plans, in 1968 and 1996 have argued persuasively for coordinated planning across municipal and state boundaries that integrates community design, open space, transportation, housing, and economic and workforce development.

On April 16th, 2010, business, civic, philanthropic, media and government leaders will convene at RPA’s annual Regional Assembly. This year, the theme is “Innovation and the American Metropolis” and the event seeks to ponder the impact of emerging trends in technology and data on new approaches to the design and management of cities and regions (check out the day’s agenda here). Urban Omnibus recently sat down with Tom Wright, RPA’s executive director, and Rob Lane, director of the Design Program at RPA, to talk about the meanings and uses of innovation in the context of the history and future of RPA and the metropolitan region itself. -C.S.

similar posts:

City Beautiful movement - Definition

INTRODUCTION: THE GARDEN CITY LEGACY

Jane Jacobs was the seer of the modern city

Urban Planning Theory Since 1945

HERITAGES AND HISTORY OF CITIES

via India Current Affairs

The Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs Shri V.Narayanasamy has said that Ancient monuments of historical, archaeological or artistic interest and which have been in existence for not less than 100 years are protected by Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act, 1958 and Rules, 1959. So far 3675 such monuments/sites have been notified for Central-protection. In addition, about 3500 monuments/sites are under the protection of the various State Governments under their respective legislations. The Town and Country Planning Acts of the States empower their urban and rural local bodies to protect monuments/sites in their respective jurisdictions which are neither under Central nor under State protection. In spite of these legal instruments, a large number of monuments/sites running over a lakh, are unprotected due to various constraints.

photo by mudpig

more about urban India:

Q&A with Nirmal Kumar: Transforming Paratransit in India

Urbanization, Urban India and Metropolitan Cities in India.

Is India Aiming for Urban Sustainability?

‘Urban spaces’ in Gujarat? Look at medieval architecture first!

The End Of The Road: Saying Goodbye To Freeways

by Dan Bobkoff

Half a century after cities put up freeways, many of those roads are reaching the end of their useful lives. But instead of replacing them, a growing number of cities are thinking it makes more sense just to tear them down.

To Clevelanders like Judie Vegh, the whole idea of tearing down a freeway just sounds crazy. "I think it's a pretty bad idea for commuters because I commute every morning downtown," she says.

Vegh takes the West Shoreway each day from her home in the nearby suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. When she learned that the city plans to convert this freeway into a slower, tree-lined boulevard, she was not amused.

"If it was 35 miles per hour, I would just be later than usual," Vegh says.

Bob Brown, Cleveland's city planner, says this is not the traditional highway project. "The traditional highway project is obviously speeding things up, adding more capacity, but often ignoring the character of neighborhoods," he says.

Dismantling Roads Goes Mainstream

How did this happen? After all, this is the country that always saw roads as a sign of progress.

Now, taking down freeways has gone mainstream. Cities as diverse as New Haven, New Orleans and Seattle are either doing it or talking about it. The chief motivation seems to be money.

Milwaukee removed a freeway spur for $30 million. Officials estimated it would have cost between $50 million and $80 million to fix that roadway. That inspired Akron, Ohio, officials to study what to do with an aging six-lane freeway that few motorists use.

photo by dotsi

similar posts about sustainable transport:

What's In A Name: Branding Rail Travel

Trees In Transit

basics: walking distance to transit

Walking, Bicycling, and Urban Landscapes: Evidence from the San Francisco Bay Area

A Brief History of Cities

by Martijn Moerbeek

The first urban areas began approximately 7,000 years before present times, in what is often referred to as the Formative Stage. In these times, as in the millennia to follow, cities were mostly associated with the formation of the state, which gave rise to the concept of city-states such as in southwestern Asia, particularly in the Tigris and Euphrates basins, the Indus valley, the Nile valley and China. Urbanization also developed in Central America, the Maya Aztec area, and the Andean area of South America. These early cities were theocratic, where the rulers had divine authority and were in essence "god-kings”. Urban growth required an urban elite, a group of decision makers and organizers who controlled the resources, and sometimes the lives of others. This stratified society which during the preceding agricultural period had remained largely egalitarian.⁵

From here on, cities expanded into Greece where city-states became the dominant principle and Rome with its extensive focus on infrastructure, transport and city planning in order to sustain the ambitions of the empire. Both city types focussed around an open market place which became the focus of city life: the agora in Greece and the forum in Rome. During the medieval period, faced with the technological advancements in weaponry, cities became fortifications but the wealth of European cities greatly declined during the Little Ice Age of the 18^th century, which gave rise to disease ridden slums for the majority of citizens with ever increasing stratification between the classes. The pre-industrial city evolved further from here on and the consolidation of political power and the expansion of states were reflected in the growth of the cities, with eventually certain cities becoming so pre-eminent in their nations that they were referred to as primate cities (e.g. Amsterdam, London and Paris).

more about the hoitory of city and urbanization:

The history of British and Irish towns

Real Estate Brokerage to Unfettered Development: A History of Sprawl

HISTORY OF CITY PLANNING – PARIS (1850-1920)

Urban Origins and Preindustrial Cities

Form and Meaning in the Earliest Cities: A New Approach to Ancient Urban Planning

Outside Cleveland, Snapshots of Poverty’s Surge in the Suburbs

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

The poor population in America’s suburbs — long a symbol of a stable and prosperous American middle class — rose by more than half after 2000, forcing suburban communities across the country to re-evaluate their identities and how they serve their populations.

The increase in the suburbs was 53 percent, compared with 26 percent in cities. The recession accelerated the pace: two-thirds of the new suburban poor were added from 2007 to 2010.

“The growth has been stunning,” said Elizabeth Kneebone, a senior researcher at the Brookings Institution, who conducted the analysis of census data. “For the first time, more than half of the metropolitan poor live in suburban areas.”

As a result, suburban municipalities — once concerned with policing, putting out fires and repairing roads — are confronting a new set of issues, namely how to help poor residents without the array of social programs that cities have, and how to get those residents to services without public transportation. Many suburbs are facing these challenges with the tightest budgets in years.

“The whole political class is just getting the memo that Ozzie and Harriet don’t live here anymore,” said Edward Hill, dean of the Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University.

similar posts:

Brasilia, Brazil: economic and social costs of dispersion

URBAN SOCIOLOGY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

San Francisco’s Big Plan: The Eastern Neighborhoods

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, URBANIZATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES IN HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM: RELATIONS AND POLICIES

Modern ghost town in rural Georgia

This is just another ghost town in Georgia. The subdivisions are half built. According to this video made by Alex Roth, people are not eager to buy houses in the community. Some of them explain what the short comings are.

Similar Ghost towns:

The Empty City of Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

Abandoned residential units in Dessau, Germany

A modern-day ghost town A rural Mexican community is almost empty

A modern-day ghost town A rural Mexican community is almost empty. Its people are chasing prosperity from their cramped quarters in Rolling Meadows.(Series: Exodus from Mexico)(News)

by Korecki, Natasha

Just miles from other pueblos, where dirt roads slop with mud after a rain, water drips into living rooms and bedsheets hang over open doorways, this tiny, seemingly scrubbed-clean town peeks out brightly.

In Quiringuicharo (key-ding-gwi-CHARO), two-story houses wear fresh coats of paint.

But few cars move through the well-paved streets. No chit-chat can be heard from the shops. No food vendors ply their trade.

The refurbished town square sits empty; no children run playfully down its walkways.

A cross atop a hill can be lighted, but no one has turned it on for months.

Toronto’s Genius Project: Evergreen Brickworks

Abandoned residential units in Dessau, Germany

Gentrification before Gentrification? The Plight of Pilsen in Chicago

Graffiti photos of Melbourne, Australia (1)

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by Jason Highway Tan

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by avlxyz

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by Carol Green

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by avlxyz

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by Jason Highway Tan

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by baddogwhiskas

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by Colin Warren

Graffiti photo of Melbourne, by Jason Highway Tan

more graffiti photos from all over the world:

Graffiti in Paris 1

Graffiti photos, Atlanta 1

Graffiti photos, Amsterdam 1

Graffiti photos, London 1

Graffiti photos of Dallas, Texas

Graffiti in Dallas, by LocalTravelPhotos

Grafitti in Dallas, by Susan Batterman

Dallad graffiti , by Whatknot

Graffiti in Dallas, by Susan Batterman

Graffiti in Dallas, by LocalTravelPhotos

more graffiti photos of the US cities:

Grafitti photos, Los Angeles 1

Grafitti photos, Atlanta 1

Skyline photos of San Diego, California

skyline photo of SAn Diego, by The Brit_2

San Diego skyline, by SD Dirk

San Diego skyline, by _Wiedz

San Diego skyline, photo by liquoredonlife

San Diego skyline, by Tomcio77

San Diego skyline,by (Adam) THEO

skyline photo of SAn Diego, by The Brit_2

skyline images of San Diego, by jarnott

skyline photo of SAn Diego, by The Brit_2

San Diego skyline, by vrysxy

more skyline photos:

Skyline photos of Marseille, France

Photos of Delhi skyline

Skyline photos of Hamburg, Germany 1

Skyline photos of Portland, Oregon 1

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

What's In A Name: Branding Rail Travel

by JIM CAMERON

Don’t be too jealous, but as you read this I’m enjoying a rail adventure in Europe… almost two weeks of riding some of the fastest and best trains in the world… my idea of a real holiday.

As I prepare my itinerary, I’m struck by how well the Europeans “brand” their service. There is, of course, “Eurostar”, the popular train between London and Paris via “the Chunnel”. There’s also “Thalys” from Paris to Brussels and Amsterdam, and “Lyria”, a super-fast service from Paris to Switzerland using French TGV’s.

All of these trains sound a lot more exciting than “Acela”, Amtrak’s best effort at high speed rail. As one-time Amtrak President David Gunn once said, “Everyone knows what Acela is… it’s your basement.”

Amtrak still has some named trains though they are pale shadows of their historic namesakes: the Silver Meteor and Silver Star to Florida, The Lakeshore Limited to Chicago, The Adirondack to Montreal.

The New Haven Railroad used to name its trains: The Merchants Ltd., The Owl, The Patriot and Senator. When Amtrak inherited The Owl, a night train from Boston to Washington, they renamed it “The Night Owl”. But it was so slow and made so many stops, it was better known as “The Night Crawler”. It’s long gone.

Thalys train, photo by Du-Sa-Ni-Ma

more about rail transportation:

IRAN’S MASHHAD LRT OPEN

Potsdam On Three Euros A Day

All Aboard! Getting America Back on Rail

Transitography 101: The Portland Metro – A Case Study on Regional Government

Trees In Transit

bz Leda Marritz and Nathalie Shanstrom

Changes in transit design that aim to make roads and car traffic safer are one critical component of the complete streets movements underway across North America. Vehicle usage is responsible for staggering CO2 emissions, human injury and death, energy consumption, and more. Still, cars remain a part of the urban landscape, and street design that integrates them safely is imperative. Speed bumps, street markings, speed limits and other measures have all been used to create safer conditions for all users of the road. But what about trees?

Most of us like trees. These incredible organisms clean our air and water, provide valuable habitat for wildlife, increase our property values, and make us feel happier through their beauty. They also seem to make urban roads safer. Most of us don’t think of trees as infrastructure, but in an urban context they are just that. Research indicates that they can play a powerful role in traffic calming, especially through their impact on three vehicle-related risks: speeding, road rage, and pedestrian/bicyclist injury.

The Edge Effect

According to a 1999 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), speed was a factor in 30% of all traffic fatalities. That’s a scary statistic. Rumble strips, speed bumps, and speed limits are a few of the common measures taken to reduce traffic speeds to safer levels. It turns out that trees placed along streets can also play an important role in speed control.

photo by Polifemus

similar posts:

Spatial Planning, Urban Form and Sustainable Transport: An Introduction

Visioning Vs. Modeling: Analyzing the Land Use-Transportation Futures of Urban Regions

SÃO PAULO’S URBAN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE

Cleanliness from a car

basics: walking distance to transit

via Human Transit

The question of walking distance in transit is much bigger than it seems. A huge range of consequential decisions -- including stop spacing, network structure, travel time, reliability standards, frequency and even mode choice -- depend on assumptions about how far customers will be willing to walk. The same issue also governs the amount of money an agency will have to spend on predictably low-ridership services that exist purely for social-service or "equity" reasons.

Yesterday I received an email asking about how walking distance standards vary around the world. I don't know the whole world, but in the countries I've worked in (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) the view is pretty consistent:

If you have to choose a single walking distance standard for all situations, the most commonly cited standard is 400m or 1/4 mi. Europe tends to be comfortable with slightly longer distances.

photo by Gilderic

similar posts about walkability:

Walkable Neighborhoods in Your City Survey

Neighborhood Design and the Accessibility of the Elderly: An Empirical Analysis in Northern California

Evaluated Model of Pedestrian Movement Based on Space Syntax, Performance Measures and Artificial Neural Nets

How Urban Design Affect Personal Activity and Travel Choice - An Analysis of Travel Data from Sample Communities in Adelaide

Friday, October 21, 2011

City Beautiful movement - Definition

via Word IQ

The City Beautiful movement was a Progressive reform movement in North American architecture and urban planning that flourished in the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities to counteract the perceived moral decay of poverty-stricken urban environments. The movement, which was originally most closely associated with Chicago and Washington, D.C., did not seek beauty for its own sake, but rather as a social control device for creating moral and civic virtue among urban populations. Advocates of the movement believed that such beautification could thus provide a harmonious social order that would improve the lives of the inner-city poor.

Civic Center: Surrogate’s Court in New York City, an example of City Beautiful architecture, by wallyg

more about City Beautiful Movement:

The City Beautiful Movement by William H. Wilson

Make No Little Plans: Daniel Burnham and the American City

The Roots and Origins of New Urbanism

City Beautiful movement

INTRODUCTION: THE GARDEN CITY LEGACY

from Architectural Review, June 1978

Eighty years ago Ebenezer Howard published his visionary essay Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898). In 1902 Letchworth, the first garden city, was founded. The 75th anniversary of the first twentieth century British new town provides the occasion for the publication of five articles exploring the creative impact of garden city thinking in four countries: Germany, France, Russia and Britain.

Editors frequently strain credulity by insisting that all of their contributions-despite appearances to the contrary-are in fact saying the same thing. In this case no such claim is made. However, one unifying factor may well prove to be that most of the contributions will raise the eyebrows of right-thinking garden city partisans. The notion that Ernst May's Frankfurt housing (long claimed for the Modern Movement), the flattened blocks of the Paris satellite towns and Greater Moscow, or the estates built during the Great War to house British munitions workers could be presented as products-even by-products-of the garden city may well be regarded as provocative. Whatever may be said about the need to modify Howard's ideas to the requirements of public housing schemes at home and abroad, we shall almost certainly be accused of chronicling the misapplication and misunderstanding of his prospectus.

Howard's vision of the garden city projected a view of a total environment and a new urban society. The garden city was to be limited in size to 6000 acres; the city itself to occupy 1 000 acres, the rest of the land being given over to industry and agriculture. The population was to be limited to 32 000 inhabitants. Intended to compensate the, squalor and social alienation of the big city as well as the deficiencies of rural life, the garden city was to be autonomous and would incorporate all types and conditions of people. Industry would be located on the periphery of the built-up area, encircled by a 'green girdle' of farm land. The residential areas would be, sub-divided into six wards, or neighbourhoods. Land was to be owned, developed and controlled on a communal basis. [Toward thus saw the garden city in social, economic and political, terms 'social city' as he termed it-and perhaps for the first time articulated a direct link between all of these factors and the physical environment. Individually, each component of Howard's , proposal had its precedent in a tradition of utopian literature that extended to the Renaissance, and beyond. Howard selected from this tradition to compose what he himself called a 'unique combination of proposals'.

The idea was propagated and exploited by a unique combination of sponsors: social reformers, industrialists, philanthropists, politicians, literati, architects, do-gooders, temperance campaigners and all manner of faddist. Given the heterogeneous nature of its membership, it was remarkable that the garden city movement adhered as closely as it did to Howard's proposals. Letchworth, despite a slow start and chronic under-capitalisation, eventually vindicated the founder's belief in the practicability of a socially-mixed residential and working community founded on cooperative (later municipal) enterprise. But later developments had progressively less revolutionary objectives. At Hampstead there was no attempt to provide a commercial, still less an industrial base. The project was planned as a multi-class residential suburb, but never achieved social balance.

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Monday, October 31, 2011

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Friday, October 21, 2011

Civic Center: Surrogate’s Court in New York City, an example of City Beautiful architecture, by wallyg

Civic Center: Surrogate’s Court in New York City, an example of City Beautiful architecture, by wallyg