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News & ArtsMonday, March 11, 2013
Architecture Even the Canadians Find it Hard to Break the Spell of the Suburbs
Posted by Charles Mudede on Mon, Mar 11, 2013 at 7:28 AM
...Developers continue the discredited and ruinous 'multiplication by subdivision' approach that has turned the outer reaches of Calgary into endless tracts of cookie-cutter housing."You always need two movements for social transformation: first you change the people, you prepare them for the future by restructuring their mental conceptions (this is the job of the philosopher—a social engineer), and then you physically change the city to reflect this new consciousness (the is the job of the master builder). Never do it the other way around or else you will end with something as empty as the City Beautiful movement.“Why do we persist in building stuff people don’t want and that doesn’t work?” Nenshi [the mayor of Calgary] asked planners at a recent conference.
"It’s a good question;" says Hume [the Urban Issues reporter for The Star], "one most Canadian cities, Toronto included, would be hard-pressed to answer. Everywhere one looks, planning rules are stuck back in the days of freeways and shopping centres."
1
third way: develop consciousness of urban density as desirable, then put sprawling monotony in the city in the form of and endless series of lego block type buildings with the same dull features; walls rising straight up front lot line; the same three foot sidewalk after, as before; no "entrance" no portico no symmetry no ornament except the generic faux authentic industrial look (corrugated metal egads) or the neo fish cannery look or what's now coming to the van, the cargo container block look as shown in ballard. iow, recreate in the city, the same lack of art and humanity we saw in strip malls. call the lego block buildings the new strip malls. go look at that vitamilk project; the eastern wall rises straight up dully from the sidewalk, it is the vertical expression of monotony and death, much as the strip mall was the horizontal expression. density sucks, if you don't do it right.
2
"Even the Canadians Find Hard Break the Spell of the Suburbs"? I think you may be missing a couple of words there, buddy.
3
Charles, please fix your headline.
"Even the Canadians Find Hard Break the Spell of the Suburbs" should probably read: "Even the Canadians Find It Hard To Break the Spell of the Suburbs"
"Even the Canadians Find Hard Break the Spell of the Suburbs" should probably read: "Even the Canadians Find It Hard To Break the Spell of the Suburbs"
4
“Why do people persist in wanting stuff that we told them they shouldn't want?"
People will commute from fucking Cle Elum if it will get them a big lot and a territorial view.
People will commute from fucking Cle Elum if it will get them a big lot and a territorial view.
8
I don't know about the dig at City Beautiful; Denver's Civic Center blows away that of most cities, even if the architecture isn't exactly awe inspiring. Also, it has as much to do with your point as a rocket does with a cornfield.
9
Good Morning Charles,
Gonna categorically disagree with you on this one partner. I am absolutely for the "City Beautiful Movement".
First of all, I highly recommend "Chicago: City of the Century" (1995) by Donald Miller, a non-fiction all- compassing account of the history of the City of Chicago. In addition, read the Chapter, "The View From Chicago: 1895 in "From Dawn to Decadence" by the late Jacques Barzun. Finally, Check out "The Devil in the White City" (historical fiction) by Eric Larson. By & large, all endorse the magnificance of the City of Chicago planning and architecture vis-a-vis, the City Beautiful Movement. Chicago is my home town.
I enjoy great cities, like Paris, London , New York and Chicago largely because their greatness came before the rise of the automobile AND because of their extraordinary city-center orientation architecture and planning. Consider this, in Chicago at the grid center more or less of the city is the Art Institute of Chicago, an incedible ediface. It is located on longstanding public lands on the Great Lake (Michigan). Indeed, people like Daniel Burnham, his vision and others are responsible for this. Chicago today is a great tribute to Burnham of yesterday. Art and public space draw people to the city-center. Public transit assists in getting them there.
Gonna categorically disagree with you on this one partner. I am absolutely for the "City Beautiful Movement".
First of all, I highly recommend "Chicago: City of the Century" (1995) by Donald Miller, a non-fiction all- compassing account of the history of the City of Chicago. In addition, read the Chapter, "The View From Chicago: 1895 in "From Dawn to Decadence" by the late Jacques Barzun. Finally, Check out "The Devil in the White City" (historical fiction) by Eric Larson. By & large, all endorse the magnificance of the City of Chicago planning and architecture vis-a-vis, the City Beautiful Movement. Chicago is my home town.
I enjoy great cities, like Paris, London , New York and Chicago largely because their greatness came before the rise of the automobile AND because of their extraordinary city-center orientation architecture and planning. Consider this, in Chicago at the grid center more or less of the city is the Art Institute of Chicago, an incedible ediface. It is located on longstanding public lands on the Great Lake (Michigan). Indeed, people like Daniel Burnham, his vision and others are responsible for this. Chicago today is a great tribute to Burnham of yesterday. Art and public space draw people to the city-center. Public transit assists in getting them there.
10
I live in Calgary, and I voted for Nenshi for mayor largely for his progressive take on urban planning issues. Calgary has expanded for decades by simply building more cookie-cutter suburbs. The city is on the flat prairie with no geographic reason not to keep on doing this.
However, Nenshi is drastically over-simplifying to say that no-one wants that kind of housing. People keep on buying those cookie-cutter houses, the fact is, people DO want those houses. Calgary has a booming, oil-fuelled economy and the real estate prices are among the highest in Canada. It's all well and good if you work in the oil industry and your salary has boomed along with the real estate; but there are still many people who find Calgary inner city is not affordable. People are drawn to the suburbs for a lower price on a brand-new home.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think all of those people are making the right choice. I paid a $580,000 for a 100-year-old, 1700 sq ft home, renting out the basement to help with the mortgage. But I'm in a fantastic neighbourhood with restaurants and pubs and boutiques and so on, and more importantly, my "commute" is a 10-minute walk to the downtown core. I think that when you consider what I save on transportation costs alone (Calgary downtown parking alone can be $300-$400 a month), my home is a wash compared to a cheaper one in the suburbs. When you factor in the lifestyle advantages, the time I save, the stress of not being in traffic or a crowded train, it's a huge win.
Calgary proves that people will subject themselves to long, stressful commutes in order to live in a larger, newer home. The problem isn't with building what people want, it's with changing what it is that people want. (I have no idea how to teach people that a more modest home in a funky diverse neighbourhood with a shorter commute is a better lifestyle than a long commute to the boring faceless suburbs if someone doesn't already take that as self-evident)
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However, Nenshi is drastically over-simplifying to say that no-one wants that kind of housing. People keep on buying those cookie-cutter houses, the fact is, people DO want those houses. Calgary has a booming, oil-fuelled economy and the real estate prices are among the highest in Canada. It's all well and good if you work in the oil industry and your salary has boomed along with the real estate; but there are still many people who find Calgary inner city is not affordable. People are drawn to the suburbs for a lower price on a brand-new home.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think all of those people are making the right choice. I paid a $580,000 for a 100-year-old, 1700 sq ft home, renting out the basement to help with the mortgage. But I'm in a fantastic neighbourhood with restaurants and pubs and boutiques and so on, and more importantly, my "commute" is a 10-minute walk to the downtown core. I think that when you consider what I save on transportation costs alone (Calgary downtown parking alone can be $300-$400 a month), my home is a wash compared to a cheaper one in the suburbs. When you factor in the lifestyle advantages, the time I save, the stress of not being in traffic or a crowded train, it's a huge win.
Calgary proves that people will subject themselves to long, stressful commutes in order to live in a larger, newer home. The problem isn't with building what people want, it's with changing what it is that people want. (I have no idea how to teach people that a more modest home in a funky diverse neighbourhood with a shorter commute is a better lifestyle than a long commute to the boring faceless suburbs if someone doesn't already take that as self-evident)
12
Calgary is not Canada.
It's North Texas.
(apologies to all my high school classmates who live there now)
It's North Texas.
(apologies to all my high school classmates who live there now)
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