Urban Design Discussion

Agenda 21

Rex — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:32:34 +0000

As the pressure of sloppy, hurriedly outlined low-density urbanization continues, efforts by governments to encourage the use of public transit are attacked as an effort to force people into cities and force “city life” on their way of life. Related efforts to preserve open space as a way to maintain clean water and air are [...]

Global Density Fails

Rex — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:14:14 +0000

To implement development practices that contribute to managing, mitigating and adapting to catastrophic and long-term climate changes, the practice and authority of land use law, including the use of eminent domain stands as the core issue. The public trust in this vast body of law will begin to fail if it does not support [...]

Zoning GHG

Rex — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:56:55 +0000

New York City’s newest set of proposed zoning changes will re-write rules to remove impediments to the construction and retrofitting of buildings in every land use. The objective: reduce urban energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) production. The bottom line is the $15 billion/year spent to heat and power buildings that represent 80 percent of [...]

One Bryant Park

Rex — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:22:46 +0000

In thoughtful research reporting the requirement to “sum up” should become a responsibility of participation. In “Skyscrapers and the World of Tomorrow” posted to Planetizen on September, 1 2011 by editors Jeff Jamawat, Kris Fortin, Tim Halbur and Victor Negrete, the questions sought to define the place for very big buildings, but the article ends [...]

Urban Design Commitee is Back

Rex — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:06:24 +0000

Planning and Design Is it like bringing two versions of time into the room? Yes/No? The answer would be ”No”, unless implementation is involved, then it would be a simple matter of cash via step#1 plan and #2 design. In my experience watch out for the times when #2 goes first. Meanwhile, the Urban Design Committee is [...]

Lincoln Institute

Rex — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 15:59:02 +0000

This history of the human settlement is a story of continuous growth and increasing urban densities that reduce per capita resource consumption among the successfully urbanizing countries and decreasing net densities among those who do not have an urban agenda. The summary omits Africa in this context. It is a glaring omission of the summary, [...]

Creating Density & Wealth

Rex — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 17:31:12 +0000

Creating density and wealth in New York City is its raison d’être, but if this is untested or questioned it can lead to callous insensitivity. A city that looses the layers of its cultural history denies itself the means to tell the stories that made it great. The place noted below triggers one of our [...]

Waterfront 2020

Rex — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 14:45:19 +0000

The details on a “Reach by Reach” basis are well worth some “urban design” quires and perusals. To this end, I suggest the following stipulation to your examination. We have long known that we see is what we think is there and that this can be correct or incorrect at anytime but always considered correct, [...]

Sum Up Vanderbilt Yards

Rex — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 15:06:15 +0000

NIMBY The history of keeping things “out of your back yard” begins with demonstrable adverse health problems caused by pollution, but it does not end there. It has advanced to the critique of poorly chosen uses of land, how the use affects others over time and the kind of society the uses produce. What happens in this [...]

Shanghai’s 2010 Urban Ideas

Rex — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:39:10 +0000

Criticism of the US Pavilion in the Shanghai Expo of 2010 is reasoned. The American program is presented in “mall” glass/steel architecture, but it gets worse. Not much elso to say about the US mall, but since it did get privately funded, American participation in the Expo’s theme ”Better City, Better Life” includes policies aimed at [...]