204: Roads of Sprawl

Examples of the roads that are 'strip roads,' are Route 1, Liberty Road, and Route 40. These roads are pretty well known and the way we feel about them. They have the characteristic that boils down to: during rush hour, you do not want to be making left turns. In fact, most of these roads make turning on to these thruways very painful.

I got lazy and decided to rant about it on tape instead of just write it...but this is a good primer to my way of thinking about College Park, MD.

103a: College Park, MD

Route 1. Baltimore Avenue.

One cannot discuss CP without going in depth into the road that is the main source of traffic to and from the campus of the University of Maryland. The road is a prime strip road, where business off the artery tend to create a very uncompromising picture and lifestyle for the pedestrian. Please check the website for more information on this specific proposal.

(click on the image to the left for the link to the rollover script of the design solution)

102a: Washington, DC - Chinatown

Practically in my backyard, I will discuss Washington, DC in depth rather easily. I will begin with material I have already compiled on a very specific region of the city -- and it is not unique to Washington (colloquially 'DC' from now on). The District has a Chinatown, much like other cities in the world, and is actually a very commercially successful place. But do not be fooled, because if you have been to Manhattan's Chinatown, you will immediately notice the difference.

My first long term exposure to "Gallery Place/Chinatown" was for my first project as a senior architecture student. We were to design a mediatheque/library space and like all other projects before it, the syllabus demanded a thorough site analysis. But everytime I would go with classmates I was displaced and confused. I needed to go back. The result was waking up at 6am to ride the mtro into town. I felt getting an 'early look' at the city was a good call. I had a run in with authority (they didn't like the fact I was taking so many pictures). That is a funny story for another time perhaps. I do not think I can summarize my findings any better than what I wrote in my piece for class to describe the thinking at the beginning stages of my project.



Site Response

The site is one of a great degree of diversity. There is not one sense of identity in that when I go, the genus loci isn’t really focused on one particular space. Therefore, I feel that regardless how I handle the building, I don’t want to have it attract too much attention programmatically or aesthetically and blend into the eclectic environment.

The name ‘Chinatown’ is solely a connection to the past of the environment and the environment today is suffering from a lack of cultural identity. The part of the city that we are assigned to work in lacks a certain culture that is associated with most other Chinatowns of the world.

So the question is: Do you wish to implant a building that tries to inject the concept of what Chinatown should be based on the architypes of the other cities. Or should this Chinatown stand alone on the realm of what the nation’s capital wants it to be. A Chinatown of its very own. Perhaps this china town is about the fusion of other cultureal elements with a Chinese base.

Define the street edge, to fit in the urban fabric as a building…announce the civicness

The only other option could be to capitalize on what the zeitgeist of what Chinatown is. That is looking past the cheapness of the signage and facades of the time to see that the area is just a hot pocket of diversity and should have a new building reflecting such. To se the german, the Spanish, the Italian the franchise, the mom and pop shops, all places as a diverse mixture of not just people, but programs and buildings.

So in terms of additional programmatic need, my response is either to play up a bit of what most Chinese towns have and harbor (Chinese rest, taichi, martial arts hall, music hall for folk performance, special Chinese collections, etc). Or to have a multicultural response.

Culture is:

Food, music, art, dance, etc...that sort of thing.

Language is already on the signs, but the others are kind of neglected. It is a shell of what is wants to be, a name to insist a way of experience. A title to form the perception, devoid of any material backing or design. The worst of the sort, because it is merely a label.

I had come to this conclusion rather clearly after assembling a map of my work, then exhaustively dissecting the area into parts to try to figure out where Chinatown really is, if it even exists. The following is a montage of the site collection and then my images for data collection:



Quality Check

Since I lack a metric to describe precisely how cities make me feel (a series of adjectives, perhaps, sometime in the future) the Gallery Pl. area is fundamentally sound in terms of it's genus loci. Sure, I may have a bone to pick about the lack of a China aspect to the package, but when you are there, the buildings of old and the buildings of today seem to mingle in a rather cohesive way. The amount of people in the area is a given because it is near a series of bars, restaurants, and the Verizon Center. Not to mention the Metro stop. All this with the fact it is in an area where offices are left and right, making it a dynamic space for commuters and a destination spot for others. I love the place, personally, for what it offers. The bones I have to pick with the area are that of the mislabeled name.

Spatially Speaking

I had mentioned in the video that 7 and H mark the center of Chinatown, proper (as DC would like you to think). This one is a no-brainer, because the Arch is placed before this intersection. But more private enterprise has helped make this a dynamic corner, including the AA&T digital screen that illuminates the square. As with most intersection's that would be defining a locale from all sides, it is not unusual that this would be busy, all day it seems pedestrians and cars alike desire to get through the signal. It is still a far cry from Hachiko Square in the Shibuya District of Tokyo, Japan, mostly because it does lack the office center-laden population of Shibuya.

203a: The Vignette From Scratch

That New City Smell

The Rio and Washingtonian Center in Gaithersburg, MD is a classic case of the city that has that ‘look.’ You know, analogously the only way to describe it is a newly power washed item, there is not significant wear and tear, and there is a certain loftiness in the air. As if you could drive two tractor trailers though the space and not have a single problem. It reminds me of any shopping strip that is new, except it is a city. A few miles stretching in Bethesda in Wisconsin Ave. Downtown Silver spring.

It make you wonder that if cities ever could naturally look like this. It isn’t bad, but to me is a little more off-putting. Mostly, it is a psychological issue with fewer eyes on the street. In all the specific examples, you seem to have a majority of stores without residences and more commercial chains. The lack of individuality is key, where you can in theory be dropped into any of these New Town USAs and not really know where you are.

We all know that well capitalized companies that have the diviersity of income streams from various locations, chains, brand names, and franchises will be more willing to put up capital and invest in a new area. This also guarantees name recognition, spawning not only new jobs, but places people can simply see and already identify.

But that leaves you with a void. As in Frederick, MD where the streets seem to be filled predominately with fresh small business endeavors and a few for sale leasing signs, it’s the polar opposite in these other locales. The Rio, has a potbelly, a pizza place, and chain restaurants off the boardwalk. Yes, boardwalk. It asks a new chicken/egg allegory mixed with Kevin Costner flick appeal: if you build it, do they come? Or do they come, so you build it? These places have the appeal of the item, not the city. You go to the movies, or you go to eat. At least it is designed, right?

The benefit of a place like Rio will be described in detail in another entry, but it does have a sense of place. The theatre is a central component, but the ‘city’esque feeling and genus loci is attributed to a main stretch of road, a good start. But you realize the Disneyland fraud of it all…surrounded almost completely in parking lots, this is an avenue that basically starts from a parking lot, and ends in a parking garage. The car, once again, wins this battle.

The point remains, what is the impact, spatially and socialogically of a new city. A new sequence of spaces? Centrally planned or not, designed from the first brick to the edge of each mullion or not, there is something different *gazes sharply*. I intend to find out.

301: Finding A Metric

Beginning to Discover a Metric
Metrics are typically heard of in economics -- they are a way of measuring the health of the economy. Well, I propose in these blog I develop a metric (or even a few). I am not quite sure what that metric really is exactly, but I think I can start to chisel it down. For instance, when speaking on the human condition in the city, the first should be centered on the human, unabated, in the world. So no car or anything that serves as a condition other than the permanent existing fabric around a person. Le Corbusier has an interesting illustration that I like to think about whenever I go about the design of a space in a building. 'The Modular Man,' is just his illustration the concept of modular space creation based on the human form. This makes a lot of sense, but it is not typically what we do. The example I always think about is just a difference in units...why is three feet and not two feet 11 inches and a fraction? Well, if you were to argue that this slightly shorter distance is more humanistic, the argument usually loses to the ease of construction. In Britain, handles can be a meter above the grade. In the US, a yard. Why does this difference exist? Frankly, it is only because of the arbitrary setting of a unit of national measure. But looking at the typical human proportion can inform design with a lot more precision, as it is based on the conditions of people all around the world. Looking at proportions is nothing new of course, but the notion of making it an organic system based on the human seemed refreshing. I believe the span of a human's stride and what stature a person is walking with in a city is beneficial for a metric.

A Bone to Pick with Oversimplification of Maps
On a more urban scale, this humanistic metric can also tie in the infamous
designers '5 minute walk/10 minute walk' circles. Since cities must be occupied by individuals who not have always have access to mass transit (be it unavailable of unaffordable) it is most be a city that keeps the walker in mind. Usually we do it solely by looking at the circles on maps for .5 mile radii. That satisfies the lot, but not me. I instead would look at the quality of the space in the circle. I don't view it as clean cut. For instance (show drawing) let's say we start in the middle of Popkinapolis' Main Street and Osada Avenues. Well, if you were to go North or South along the avenue, sure, the .5 mile mark is pretty accurate. If you were to go East or West, again, sure, using the main axes will prove the walk to be efficient. But going on the diagonals, the other points will be somewhat tougher. To some this is splitting hairs, but try to cross the lake...that will cut the circle short. But this example is very simple...what about real cities? We all know that not all cities can be like Manhattan, with a strict grid, with almost guaranteed means of crossing any road at any time. The terrain is also relatively flat in New York. But try drawing a 10 minute map in Pittsburgh. That would be funny to someone in Architecture school who is just quickly plotting out diagrams. But the river, and then the other river, the limited access to the roads cars have access too, and of course, the precipitous inclines. All these prove to somehow throw a wrench into the 10 minute walk theory. It would be wholly inaccurate for someone to stand at the Point where the rivers converge and simply plot a circle. It would in turn be much more nebulous.




This more nebulous form that would be plotted would provide a lot more insight to the way it works on foot. And then I would propose a similar way of looking at vehicular traffic. If you were to look at the .5 mile/10 minute radius for people, with an average speed limit of 30mph in city centers, I would propose a blob to show the 1 minute circle of cars, looking into the traffic patterns and stoppages speed limits and all. The results in Pitt would probably be very interesting. Of course this would require much more in depth research.

Why is this important?
Because if you can see the variations in the shape, it will help you see the things that humans pick up invariably when living in the city. Things that come through conversations like "no, let's not go that way, because crossing walnut will take forever...the light never changes!" or "that's got a steep hill, let's go this way." While the grading would only have a slight impact on the 10 minute nebulous formation, which I will call the '10-minute cloud' from now on.


(300 series will be on discussions related to or about metrics of Urbanism)

202a: Highway Design/Civil Engineering

Highways. Loosely defined, seemingly even more so loosely placed into an environment. If you have not traveled by car to Newark Airport, then you do not have the right to tell me that the aesthetics of the highways, byways, freeways, and thru ways of America are in the interest of the public eye.

But this isn't an essay about sound walls to prevent the (insert sarcasm) insanely loud trucks and unsightly pavement. It is more a testament to why we think as residents we deserve anymore than just seeing in a city.

Baltimore, Jersey Turnpike, Cleveland, you name it, the car is the major engine to the flow of travel. Even in many train dependent cultures, like the Japanese, we see a steady influx of traffic daily.

What is the purpose of this structure...is a thruway...an express route to get people only through the city...is it a means of getting people out and in? How can civil engineering to one of the highest powers, but most frequently needed infrastructure capacities be held in step with the needs for design?

Transition is a key principle taught in design...so why all these expressways that suddenly end in a light, much like 395 to Conway and Howard in Baltimore. The confusion or the abrupt nature of this condition is notable…you have to drastically reduce your speed around a bend to meet the light near the Convention Center. As a pedestrian, there is this unusual zone where one can walk, and then suddenly notices it leads to a seemingly unforgiving sky bridge of a highway, towering over the city.

You cannot simply place A next to C...a B is needed to, with simple regard to tell cars and people alike a change is occurring. In one example, take the radical idea of having to place parkland near the place where freeways begin. No one likes to live near a highway, but perhaps it makes a lot more sense to attempt a park where people see it, but don't have to be inconvenienced by it. In section, make it obvious 'pedestrians stop here.' Anything to stop them from continuing down a road not meant for them. Or change it so it IS meant for them. Merely ideas, why not play with forms with the human in mind. Why is this branch so, untouchable? In the end, you have to live and coexist with these chunks of metal, concrete and steel, don't you?

From my Urbanism class, the idea is that all cities have generators of ‘urban form.’ Brasilia for instance, was the car, as it was built as a Utopian, advanced society. Only cars needed (this will be discussed further when I write about semiotics) so no sidewalks. “Olde Towne USA”s around the country will be small and walkable, because, they had to be in order for people to get around. So on and so forth. But the car has dominated in our years for the past two generations. Has convenience usurped quality, safety, and design?

The questions to ask are how can the aspects that define our cities just as much as our buildings, the road systems, the public transit, where the tracks are and so on, impact our perception. Do you really mind a city that is so heavily loaded to make shadows occupy the street level at almost all hours? The train tracks that give rise to a ‘dead zone’ in cities? Loaded questions, I know, but we see these instances a lot. Perhaps the notion of civil engineering + architecture is more than a communication based relationship. Perhaps a synthesis of the ideals of both efficient and aesthetic design choice can occur. Next entry will focus more on the specific ways roads come through our lives, not just in dense areas, but in general. From there, we all can see what has the ability to change.

201: Instruction vs. Instinct

Signs, Signs, Signs
When we drive we are used to seeing all sorts of signs. This is an acceptable reality because the roads can be a dangerous place and it has a required amount of order needed. In the image to the left, a rather humorous one invokes a few questions. Why does stopping put me in any sort of danger? If there were threats, shouldn't they be dealt with by good security. The notice alone makes me have more fear in general. Imagine you'll drive on this road and your tire blows out. What then?


All jokes aside, signs are the law of the land. You have to obey the speed limits, you have to do as they say. But there are signs like this that are for pedestrians too. Signs that really are supposed to come up with the short fall of bad design (like unsecured prison cells).

Take this sign from Milwaukee. If the building was designed in a way to call for the much expected ice and snow from the eaves of the building on the street level, there would never be a sign asking the population to do the impossible. In fact, this is just guaranteeing nothing more than a means of recourse of a potential lawsuit. Signs like this exist all over, just to prevent liabilities; the lawsuits rarely care for the wellbeing of the public that will occupy the spaces...then there would be a net or something (which in Milwaukee, there are on some buildings). Obviously this is a consideration individual architects should take into account when designing, but even factors on the street level could be changed to make it less dangerous. This site has a very narrow sidewalk, so it gives people little to no leeway of squeezing by the 'danger zone.'


Assumptions of the Public Realm and the People Who Will Regularly Ignore them.

Here is a little audio I recorded of my thoughts on jay walking.

101a: Mount Airy, MD

Home.

We write about what we know, so I will begin these blogs with a bit of description work, sans (I will use french without warning) any analysis formally. So this means I will begin with Howard County's places of interest, namely Columbia, Ellicott City, and of course, Mount Airy. 

Mount Airy is in the far reaching northwest corner of Howard County, in fact being part of other counties neighboring it. I reside in a location that I will often joke as 'not quite Mount Airy, not quite Lisbon, but pretty much still in the middle of nowhere.' It was a similar situation where I wasn't really near anything that was associated with Ellicott City when I used to live in 'Ellicott City.' In other words, the boondocks, or the 'boonies.' I do not know what other definitions people use to describe the boondocks, but let's say it is the suburbs of the suburbs. To put it: the outer layers of a already unknown place (to someone from, let's say out of town).

Most Americans know what I mean. It means you need to encounter a 30 mile per hour speed limit, a few four way stops, perhaps. Along the way you'll see corn or cows. Then, randomly, a development, or a slew of single family homes that are next to one another on smaller plots of land. Even though you were about a mile south of Interstate 70, you would think you were in the middle of nowhere without any major indication of where to go next. That is where I currently live, sort of Mount Airy, but not really.

What implications does this have for me, as a resident? Not being able to really understand where I am, have any major place to go, and so on. It means I need a car. The only buses that come through this area are yellow school buses in the mornings and afternoons. But they do not take anyone to schools in the area, that is for sure. It would take me about 4 minutes down the main road here to the next town of Lisbon to find a business: a liquor store. A few other needed establishments are there as well: dentist, veterinarian, and barber. Two gas stations are mere yards further down the same street. 

To get to the city in which I am legally a part of, a need to go in the opposite direction, make a few turns, over Interstate 70, and then go down a series of windy roads and viola! Mount Airy. And since I wrote it, let's go into what this Eureka moment is -- it is not a mere expression, but a formal and spatial understanding I am entering Mount Airy as I would know it.

Where does Mount Airy really begin?

Post 001: Posting System

I tend to be rather prolific in my writings, so I figured it would be of great benefit to myself and anyone else who may wish to read these posts a way of going about my findings, pictures, drawings, et cetera. 

Post numbers are catalog numbers which will describe the content; the intro is an unmarked 000:

000 - Website related comments, personal notes, and so on

100(a-z) When writing about spaces, I will not go in alphabetical order, so I want to recall in what order I travelled to places. Also, this number will allow me to go back to places and give a new entry with the same number and a different letter if more information is acquired.

200 - General rants on urbanism not specifically related to findings

These numbers will be the only labels on certain posts, to make it easier for me. Any city on the list on the bottom of my blog will become a link when I begin to write about it, and will have it's catalog number along the side. I hope this will allow me to keep some organization of this endeavor with time.

Thanks for reading!

A Brief Introduction

Urban.

More academic minded individuals like to begin with a definition of terms, so I will start by saying what I mean when I say 'urban realm.' Many will picture towering buildings over bustling roads, others will see industry, some traffic jams and noise. Urban is frequently associated with cities, large or small, with grid streets, lots of pedestrians, public transportation, et cetera. I am not disagreeing with these individuals, but I say that urban environments are pretty much any environment where people coexist and thrive. Some may take issue with this definition, because that would be suburban developments are urban. That would mean small farm towns are urban. And I would argue, indeed they are. They are just urban forms at a different scale, because in the end, if people are using spaces and infrastructure that was designed to be used by the public, that is pretty much the crux of an urban setting.

Why? Why Write About This?

I am not much of a reader; people cannot get me to read books even if my life depended on it. But as far as I can see, the best way to learn is from experience, from going to a place and 'feeling it.' Architects are familiar with the phrase genus loci, which can be generalized to mean sense of place, the feeling a space gives you and so on. I described in my side bar note that designers of structures are supposed to keep in mind that drawings and models and even walk through movie clips cannot do justice. Even a full scale model, in a way, cannot do what a building will do when it is built. Architects are supposed to imagine, foresee, and build upon a vision to make it a reality. It is no easy task, and I argue still to this day many fail at fully recognizing design flaws because of it. But who can blame them?

When you are in a classroom looking at slides of the Roman Pantheon, or getting lectured on the layout of Central Park, we get a very programmatic, analytical take on the design. This left side of the brain approach is very important, but it appears that when talking about Urban forms, the left side arguments take over much more. I am too lazy to remove notes from a box in a room a few rooms away, so I will draw on my memory. The memory of my only urban theory class, full of graduate students with a few of the undergraduates like me. "Access equals value," "define the edge of the street," and "generators of urban form," are phrases that come to mind. But they lack a right side element. I find that walking through cities this is left to a sort of spontaneous order, which then in turn gives us the final form.

To make my argument more clear, it is as if I learned only how to bubble diagram a city. I am not regarding bubble diagrams as worthless. In fact, quite the contrary. Bubble diagrams prove to be strong foundations for any plan of design, but the articulation is where the devil can come into play. Who cares if the public can access a park, if the access if unattractive, blocked, uninviting. The immediate historical precedence of a well-intended policy to spawn a better city environment was discovered in New York after the Seagram Building (Mies Van der Rohe) was erected with it's large public plaza. Policy shifted to include plaza design as an incentive of more building rights of developers, which resulted in a slew of new plaza designs around the city. Many were terrible -- they were cold, uninviting, and a pure example of how the left brain can get the best of the right brain.

Intent

But what is a good right side design? In an urban environment, I argue you need strong precedence. Cities in general have many good examples of spaces that 'work' and many that do not. By traveling to just a single city, one can deduce what even well known spaces could benefit from. What clandestine spaces are to be discovered? And more importantly, a discovery of what makes any space in any city successful. A look at how a place looks on foot, by car, and who knows what else...I am excited. I hope you will join me on this shot in the dark approach to design critique.