URBAN PLANNING+DESIGN:
Urban life and urban culture have long been at the heart
of civilization and economic development. Cities all over
the world are facing great challenges attempting to meet
the dynamic and contradictory trends of today. With
economic globalization, growing population demands for
the Earth’s resources driving costs ever higher, and the
need to protect life-supporting environmental systems on
the one hand, and, individualization of everyday life and
politics on the other, we see new urban landscapes
evolving.
A city is a landscape. It has richness, diversity and
complexity similar to natures ecology, with different
components. The World doesn't need man. Man needs the
World. Man needs the World’s natural systems to support
the human enterprise. The economics of ecology are of
incalculable benefit to life.
The concept of creating sustainable urban places should
model natural systems to attract people to live, work and
play there. People maintain things they respect and love
and think are beautiful. We need to make our cities
beautiful, safe, healthy and stimulating. To be sustainable
our cities must have adequate opens spaces, clean air - a
wholesome environment - including forests with large
shade trees, flowering ornamentals, meadows, streams
and ponds - 'GREENways' and 'BLUEways'. Nature
provides ecosystem services to urban dwellers.
Nature inspires people; the beauty of the earth, diversity
of landform, plants, rivers, birds, fish and animals inspires.
Nature affects people on several levels; recreating there
can re-create spiritually, mentally and physically. But we
need a daily does of similar influences where we live daily.
We need great cities with their diversity, inclusiveness and
richness of human interaction provided for by good
design. Design that is a catalyst for chance meetings with
neighbors at the market, in the park, along greenways, on
the sidewalks to and from nearby destinations, outdoor
dining cafés, and people watching places and spaces
where after-work walks through woodland parks along
streams happen, and Frisbees are tossed, and softball is
enjoyed, and kids fly kits in meadows, and jogging,
bicycling and evening strolls are commonplace.
Most new urbanism communities tend to be improved
suburbs – still expanding the need for vast infrastructure
producing less-sustainable living. Europe’s model of ‘if
you have to drive you’re using too much energy’ is more
sustainable. We need to teach cities how to re-tool to
provide attractive sustainable places to live.
Understand first – then seek to plan and design. This
simple philosophy drives our practice and generates more
successful solutions. In depth analysis, achievable
economic goals, environmental responsibility and cultural
sensitivity combine to create workable, memorable places
to live, work and play.
Urban design requires the synergistic collaboration of
various disciplines. Our work includes programming,
planning, designing and implementing re-vitalized urban
spaces, streetscapes, plazas and waterfronts.
Regenerating and rebuilding older downtowns and
neighborhood centers presents additional challenges.
Socioeconomic shifts and normal cycles of urban change
mandate creative adaptive re-use of older structures.
Cultural assets and social traditions, economic
opportunities and challenges, and the unique character of
each site, and stakeholders comprise the complex set of
variables we work with to design a better future.
In times of rapid change there is an obvious risk of a city
losing its soul. Local history, identity and culture clashing
with new populations, influences and life-styles are raising
questions about the competitive, attractive and exciting
city. At the same time there is tremendous pressure on
cities to be ecologically sound and socially balanced. For
most, the heart of a city – the sense of memorable place –
is created by not by building icons, but by the people
space in between.
Urban life and urban culture have long been at the heart
of civilization and economic development. Cities all over
the world are facing great challenges attempting to meet
the dynamic and contradictory trends of today. With
economic globalization, growing population demands for
the Earth’s resources driving costs ever higher, and the
need to protect life-supporting environmental systems on
the one hand, and, individualization of everyday life and
politics on the other, we see new urban landscapes
evolving.
A city is a landscape. It has richness, diversity and
complexity similar to natures ecology, with different
components. The World doesn't need man. Man needs the
World. Man needs the World’s natural systems to support
the human enterprise. The economics of ecology are of
incalculable benefit to life.
The concept of creating sustainable urban places should
model natural systems to attract people to live, work and
play there. People maintain things they respect and love
and think are beautiful. We need to make our cities
beautiful, safe, healthy and stimulating. To be sustainable
our cities must have adequate opens spaces, clean air - a
wholesome environment - including forests with large
shade trees, flowering ornamentals, meadows, streams
and ponds - 'GREENways' and 'BLUEways'. Nature
provides ecosystem services to urban dwellers.
Nature inspires people; the beauty of the earth, diversity
of landform, plants, rivers, birds, fish and animals inspires.
Nature affects people on several levels; recreating there
can re-create spiritually, mentally and physically. But we
need a daily does of similar influences where we live daily.
We need great cities with their diversity, inclusiveness and
richness of human interaction provided for by good
design. Design that is a catalyst for chance meetings with
neighbors at the market, in the park, along greenways, on
the sidewalks to and from nearby destinations, outdoor
dining cafés, and people watching places and spaces
where after-work walks through woodland parks along
streams happen, and Frisbees are tossed, and softball is
enjoyed, and kids fly kits in meadows, and jogging,
bicycling and evening strolls are commonplace.
Most new urbanism communities tend to be improved
suburbs – still expanding the need for vast infrastructure
producing less-sustainable living. Europe’s model of ‘if
you have to drive you’re using too much energy’ is more
sustainable. We need to teach cities how to re-tool to
provide attractive sustainable places to live.
Understand first – then seek to plan and design. This
simple philosophy drives our practice and generates more
successful solutions. In depth analysis, achievable
economic goals, environmental responsibility and cultural
sensitivity combine to create workable, memorable places
to live, work and play.
Urban design requires the synergistic collaboration of
various disciplines. Our work includes programming,
planning, designing and implementing re-vitalized urban
spaces, streetscapes, plazas and waterfronts.
Regenerating and rebuilding older downtowns and
neighborhood centers presents additional challenges.
Socioeconomic shifts and normal cycles of urban change
mandate creative adaptive re-use of older structures.
Cultural assets and social traditions, economic
opportunities and challenges, and the unique character of
each site, and stakeholders comprise the complex set of
variables we work with to design a better future.
In times of rapid change there is an obvious risk of a city
losing its soul. Local history, identity and culture clashing
with new populations, influences and life-styles are raising
questions about the competitive, attractive and exciting
city. At the same time there is tremendous pressure on
cities to be ecologically sound and socially balanced. For
most, the heart of a city – the sense of memorable place –
is created by not by building icons, but by the people
space in between.
According to Lord Norman Foster, director of Foster and Partners, London, the connection between the buildings is
more important than the buildings themselves. “When I think of exciting cities, I think of infrastructure, not
architecture. The essence of the city is (captured in) the connections provided by public space. The value of
architecture “is about what it contributes to the public domain.”
“If we think of public space as connecting…with humanity, and that providing great public spaces will draw people to
cities, we will have been successful,” said ULI Chairman Marilyn Taylor.
A. Eugene Kohn of Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, New York City, concurred, citing several public spaces in New
York—the plaza at Rockefeller Center, recently revitalized Bryant Park, and Central Park—as key contributors to the
welfare of that city’s residents. “The reality is that the quality of the city fabric is what is important. Icons are not
what cities are,” he said.
Paul Finch, editor of the Architectural Review, pointed to the irony of public space as being a key contributor to a city’
s success. Although its value cannot be increased through real estate development, “psychologically, it (well-
designed public space) is a city’s greatest asset … start with a park or water, and you will find your city,” he noted.
“For me, the essence of the city is the quality of life contained in the public space,” Jean Nouvel, Atelier Jean Nouvel,
Paris, said. Open space, he said, is the key defining characteristic signifying the extent to which a city values all its
residents.
The individual discussions resulting from each topic are being synthesized into a workable urban blueprint “that cities
around the world can use to improve their prospects for success,” explained ULI Chairman and World Cities Forum
Co-Chairman Harry H. Frampton, III.
According to ULI Trustee and World Cities Forum Co-Chairman Sir Stuart Lipton, preservation of the civic landscape
will be a key part of the urban agenda resulting from the event. “The civic landscape is at the roots of our society,
part of our humanity. It is both a real and symbolic space where we reflect and exercise our civil liberty. We have to
put quality into the ordinary. The totality of civic space is what matters, not just a few good buildings,” he said.
http://www.uli.
Org/Content/NavigationMenu/MeetingsEducation/Forums/WorldCitiesForum1/London2005/Overview/Overview.
htm
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