Each week we will be focusing on blogs from around the world dealing specifically with urban environments. We’ll be on the lookout for websites outside the country that approach themes related to urban experiences and issues.
• Would New York with Parisian streets still be New York? Planners at Columbia University pose this question with a map and rendering of New York superimposed with the grand boulevards of Paris. (Untapped Cities)
• New Yorkers are welcoming Frank Gehry’s latest addition to the city’s skyline with trepidation. The Spruce Street project is Gehry’s first skyscraper and the tallest luxury residential tower in the city’s history. NYT critic Nicolai Ouroussoff says it “epitomize[s] the skyline’s transformation from a symbol of American commerce to a display of individual wealth.”
• In Tel Aviv, reports Sustainable City Blog, a member of city council suggests instituting a participatory budgeting process.
• A new report by the Urban Land Institute questions the wisdom of slashing arts funding during tough economic times. According to the study, the nonprofit arts sector generates $166.2 billion (US) annually and is responsible for 5.7 million jobs in the US. Far from a one size fits all approach, the report profiles the unique initiatives of Miami, Boston, Denver and Philadelphia.
• Seattle Bike Blog profiles the progress of the Vulnerable User bill (SB 5326). The bill seeks increased fines and penalties for drivers who kill or injure pedestrians or cyclists.
Photo by Charles-Antoine Perrault
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One comment
Ouroussoff writes “Mr. Gehry’s design is least successful at the bottom, where he was forced to plant his tower on top of a six-story base that will house a new public grammar school and one floor of hospital services — an odd coupling of private and public interests that was a result of political horse trading rather than any obvious benefit that would be gained from so close a relationship between the two.”
I am curious as to what Ouroussoff suggests would have made for a successful base to the tower. Pretty walls that fit with the rest? High-end retail for the building’s tenants? If the base might be under-designed, a hospital branch and school sounds more likely to engage with the street and keep it lively with people moving in and out through most of the day. The last thing that New York needs is another ruined, banal Midtown streetscape, those tedious block-length façades with absolutely nothing to capture your imagination beyond the building itself.
Compare this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=New+York&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.572881,64.072266&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=New+York&t=h&layer=c&cbll=40.762221,-73.980115&panoid=cakrxnU4x6txOSBeJWsAUg&cbp=12,117.48,,0,-0.43&ll=40.762156,-73.980579&spn=0.000979,0.002977&z=19
to this:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=New+York&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=33.572881,64.072266&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=New+York&t=h&layer=c&cbll=40.726826,-73.995577&panoid=4RXpx2Td407yuGtWrq6zRg&cbp=12,30.75,,0,-0.11&ll=40.726755,-73.995624&spn=0.007496,0.023818&z=16