Many people tend to think of L.A. as an unplanned city. And yet so much has been planned here and so much is being planned today. Is the perception of L.A. as the unplanned city changing?
I think the perception of L.A. has gotten more complicated, particularly as the sprawl debate has matured. People now realize how horizontally dense Los Angeles is, and that sort of defies what everybody thinks of L.A. The other thing that’s happened is, since the ’70s, the changing racial and ethnic diversity has made L.A. a different kind of city. I think that the primary reason people view L.A. as unplanned is because they have a standard model of the city, which is a city that emerged in the late 18th century. L.A. was still 11,000 people in 1880. The polycentric nature of Los Angeles was set much later and much more firmly than in other places. It is a different kind of city. It is a younger city. And one of the results of our later arrival, is that people disregard the downtown, which has always been important. Before the 1940s it was really important. I think people overemphasize the degradation of downtown. It’s remained important but it hasn’t been the place. That’s enabled some of the satellite cities to grow up stronger and more independent, and they did during the early 20th century. And that means that we have this slightly different structure than many of the other cities. Now most of them have caught up.
More. Nate Berg interviews the author, David C. Sloane: Unplanned L.A.? Think Again
Small Streets Blog: Turn This Parking Lot Into a Village
If we built village of small streets today, where would we locate it?
One great candidate would be a park-and-ride lot, which is a parking lot located next to a subway, light rail, or commuter rail station. These parking lots do the job of getting some people to use public transit who wouldn’t…
Can a UNESCO World Heritage Site fit in a parking lot? Small Street looks into it and compares size of a parking lot in Maryland with size of Telč, Czech Republic. Amazing experiment!
“Let’s take these parking lots and build small streets villages”.
New York for Sale. Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate
Do you remember the remarkable presentation by Howard Kunstler about The tragedy of suburbia? You can find the video here, really worth spending some minutes.
Now his ideas take the form of a new book, The KunstlerCast: Conversations with James Howard Kunstler - The Tragic Comedy of Suburban Sprawl, a transcription of the conversartions between Kunstler and Duncan Crary
Planning in Ten Words or Less
A Lacanian Entanglement with Spatial Planning
Michael Gunder, University of Auckland, New Zealand and Jean Hillier, Newcastle University, UK
Elevated urban garden in Tokyo
(Source: dftstreets)
I have just finished this book and I have to say it is one of the best books I have read. It´s not only about architecture or landscapes. It is a complete study of how urban economy, urban planning, history, lifestyle, sociology and the future of work link.
Pastoral capitalism as a marketing idea to complete suburban lifestyles for white-collar workers after II world War. Pastoral capitalism as a set of social values to take headquarters and laboratories out of city centres.
This is the way we organized professional services in the last decades BUT, WILL IT LAST? The way we work is changing. Do we need these big spaces?
Great, great book.
Pruitt-Igoe: death of the American urban dream
A new film shows how an idealistic postwar housing project in St Louis, Missouri went disastrously wrong.
(Source: Guardian)
Sustainable Transportation Planning: Tools for Creating Vibrant, Healthy, and Resilient Communities
via @Get_Resilient
PRINCIPLES
Creating Places for People. An urban design protocol for Australian cities
Creating Places for People. An urban design protocol for Australian cities
Creating Places for People is a collaborative commitment to best practice urban design in Australia. The protocol is the result of two years of collaboration between peak community and industry organisations, States, Territories, Local Governments, and the Australian Government.
As Director of Design & Urban Environment for the City of Melbourne with nearly 40 years experience as a practising architect and urban designer, Rob has produced a large number of strategic urban design solutions and projects in addition to design-research based urban projects and strategies, and has attracted over 100 state and national awards for excellence. A champion of both the arts and environmental sustainability he has worked to ensure that good urban design is established as a platform for city development into the 21st Century.
