URBAN DESIGN
UPDATE
Newsletter of the Institute for Urban Design July/August 2005 Vol. 21 No. 4 ISTANBUL INSPIRES UIA AUDIENCE TO IMAGINE 21ST CENTURY CITIES At the Union International d'Architecture, where some 5000 architects gathered July 3-7, Istanbul emerged as star of the program. The city, with a population of more than 12 million, boasts some 3000 mosques. Of these the 16th century architect, Sinan, built several of the best. Sultan Mohammad Fatih Mosque includes kitchen, school, library and hospital - a public service center for the entire community. Rustem Pasa Mosque is enhanced with among the finest of Iznek blue tiles. Divided by the Bosphorus, Istanbul embraces Asia and Europe. In 2010 a tunnel will further connect the water-divided city at a cost of $2 billion. From the city's seven architectural schools, a cadre of bilingual graduates are enhancing Turkey's march into the European Union. Turkey also provides encouragement to other Middle Eastern countries to strengthen ties to West. Istanbul Charter Replaces Athens Charter 1923?
At the UIA conference, Michael Sorkin, head of the CUNY Urban Design program, proposed to a Fourth of July UIA audience that "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness" could provide inspiration for 21st century utopian cities. Is it possible, Sorkin asked, to side step the dystopian reality of slum cities now encircling the world? An Ecological Footprint taken of Los Angeles would show, he said, that its consumption would equal the total area of Peru! Half of all people live in cities, Sorkin reminded the audience. "But some live on $1.00 a day. It is we," he pointed out, "who need to live on less." With Jane Jacobs as his mentor and Greenwich Village as his model pedestrian neighborhood, Sorkin asked his UIA audience to imagine a 21st Century where a new city is designed every week. These self-sufficient cities would be dense and complex, like Istanbul. They would favor careless locomotion as in Greenwich Village. They would embody a Green Urbanism with buildings that top out at the fifth floor. As post-zoning loft cities, they would recall Fez or Venice. The new cities would "teem with green," Sorkin concluded. Sorkin’s vision for the new utopian city, is also informed by his two most recent books. Against the Wall, Israel and its cities under duress, is just off press from New Press at $22.95. Indefensible Space: The Architecture of National Insecurity will come off press next.
Vancouver
Trevor Boddy, architecture critic Vancouver Sun, presented Vancouver as a North American model of successful city building to a UIA session of Comiteé International Critique d’Architecture. One architect on the panel proposed that the critic's job is to promote architects. Boddy proved that the (urban design) critics job is to inform lay readers, including developers and public sector leaders, and thus help them make better informed decisions.
Jerusalem
Among Fellows attending the program were Moshe Safdie and Fredric Bell, New York AIA. Moshie Safdie delivered the final keynote to the UIA audience on Complexity at the City and Regional Scale. Relevant to the topic is Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. The 45-acre site of Safdie's National Memorial to the Martyrs and Heroes of the Holocaust, was a lesson to all in Istanbul. Safdie's urban design scheme enfolds the museum into the surrounding hillside in a single, unified whole.
Rome Gets Modern Museum, Shanghai Gets 8 New Cities Rome will get its first Modern building in 50 years when a museum housing the 9th century BC Ara Pacis altar opens in September, reports Fellow Richard Meier, who has designed the building complex over 12 years for the City of Rome as client. The complex, including auditorium, offices, storage and shop, will be integrated into a Master Plan for the Augustean Area. Meiers' work is also entering a broader public realm this summer as a US postage stamp showing his High Museum in Atlanta begins to circulate as one of 12 stamps in a series called Masterworks of Modern architecture. Atlanta High Museum
Chongming, an island off the coast of Shanghai 50 miles long and 15 miles wide, has undergone a sweeping master plan developed by Philip Enquist at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill. Designated a "green island," Chongming will retain its agricultural history through protected wilderness, organic farming, and inter-city rail. At the island's edge, 8 high-density townships will be planned in order to accommodate upwards of 1 million people. The city of Shanghai, which recently approved the SOM plan along with the Chinese central government, expects Chongming Island to become a destination for eco-tourism, an escape for the citizens of Shanghai, and a first-class model of sustainable planning for the entire world. The plan has already received a 2005 AIA Honor Award and a 2005 Congress of the New Urbanism Charter Award.
Los Angeles River Plan
Hollywood
PEOPLE ON THE MOVE Antigua
Of 420 square miles in Los Angeles, only four percent is dedicated to parks says William Fain, whose Greenway plan connecting LA mountains to Pacific Beaches and adopted by Fellow and LA City Planning Director Con Howe, includes 80 per cent of land proposed by Fain. In another related concern for the concrete encased Los Angeles River, Fain set out on a Rome Prize in 1994 to study the Tiber River. To learn about this study, read Figure/Ground, Fain's dialogues with partner Scott Johnson, just released by Balcony Press, Los Angeles. Now the LA City Council's Ad Hoc Committee has selected Pasadena-based Tetra Tech to develop a master plan for the river with funding of $5.2 million. Angie Hacker John Kaliski, former chief architect for the Community Redevelopment Agency in Los Angeles, and now principal of Urban Studio, is now working on a bus plan for North Hollywood. Since Los Angeles would have to spend up to $ 1 billion to build a subway but only $50 million to expand bus transit, Kaliski makes a strong case for buses. www.gsd.harvard.edu/research/publications/hdm/current/22-Kaliskihtml. Angie Hacker Ken Greenberg will continue to travel to Boston in September to work with Mayor Mening and Boston Redevelopment Authority on Crossroads. The program calls for the redesign of twelve key streets in order to reconnect neighborhoods . . . Jean Gath, Principal of Pfeiffer Associates, New York, will return to Antigua, Guatemala in November where she is participating in design of Library and Archives for CIRMA, Centro de Regionales de MesaAmerica . . . Kathleen JohnAdler goes to the Silver Cup Studio site in Queens later this summer to prepare landscape design as compliment to plan by Richard Rogers . . . Carmie Bee reports that the under-renovation Victorian complex at 455 Central Park West has garnered three 2005 awards in 2005 including the Lucy C. Moses Award for Preservation from The New York Landmarks Conservancy . . . Deborah Berke is helping to put a better yellow cab on New York streets by supporting a Trust for Public Space program that could even make it possible to call a cab by cell phone, an option long available to inhabitants of Budapest and other Central European cities . . . Ann Forsyth, Dayton Hudson Chair of Urban Design, University of Minnesota, having returned from the Institute's May 26 seminar on education, has since then published an in-depth analysis of the Woodlands, Houston in July’s Landscape Architecture . . . Landscape architect Tom Balsley recently stopped by the Architecture Center on La Guardia Place to pick up an honorary membership in the New York Metropolitan Chapter of AIA.
HONORS
Amanda Burden, Chair, New York City Planning Commission, received the American Planning Association award for leadership at the annual meeting of the New York Metro Chapter annual meeting on June 15. Henry Wollman, Director, Newman Institute, welcomed the chapter to their new home at Newman where they follow the Institute for Urban Design, now celebrating its first year at Newman. Debra Allee, AKPF, was recognized for distinguished service and Brad Lander, Pratt, for leadership in equal opportunity housing. All honored are Fellows of the Institute for Urban Design. Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation designated Gwendolyn Wright, Columbia, as a recipient of a Fellowship Grant for Modern Man, Modern Women and Modern Architecture in the United States. Five grants were awarded says Wanda Bubriski, Director (director@bwaf.org) or www.bwaf.org. Goody Clancy is receiving a National Honor Award from The Society for College and University Planning for its North Allston Strategic Framework Plan, reports David Dixon. The plan brought Boston, the North Allston neighborhood and Harvard into collaboration. Shared open space, housing and commercial development are among the goals. The Canadian Centre for Architecture announced nine research fellowships for 2006 including one to Jean Attali for a study in contrasts between work of Aldo Rossi, Peter Eisenman and Rem Koolhaas. Charles Waldheim, University of Toronto, also won an award – for study of Ludwig Hilbersheimer’s new regional pattern. Mirko Zardini becomes the third director of CCA and is already at work, according to Phyllis Bronfman Lambert, founding director.
EDUCATION Canadian Centre
Mirko Zardini, Swiss Federal Polyteconic University, will become director of the Canadian Centre for Architecture, November 1. A former editor of Casabella, he has recently directed Out of the Box: Price, Rossi Sterling + Matta-Clark an exhibit on four architects whose archives have been recently acquired by CCA. The Centre next seeks an additional $25 million to augment its endowment. For more details: www.cca.qc.ca. A Governors' Institute on Community Design was announced on July 12 by Jeff Speck, Director of Design, NEA. Its programs will be developed in cooperation with Environmental Protection Agency and will be modeled after the ongoing Mayors" Institute on City Design. NEA Office of Communication: 202-682-5606. Bahceshir Universitesi, founded just a year ago, was on of four schools of architecture participating in the UIA program in Istanbul. The school, whose name means Garden City, is set on the Bosphorous, reports Dr. Ahmet Eyuce. English is required of all students, and many classes are taught in English. www/bahcesehir.edu.tr
Bahceshir Universitesi Istanbul
Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong, which recently hosted a workshop on Wanchai, a mixed-use district that includes a wedding card street, to save the district from redevelopment. Michael Kwartler, Environmental Simulation Center, New York, led students and professionals in using digital tools to achieve consus via a visionary process. For details: kwartler@simcenter.org. Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) Conference, meeting in Oxford, England, echoed the utopian city vision of Michael Sorkin (page 1) speaking in Istanbul on July 4. Robert Neuwirth, author of Shadow Cities, told his UK audience that some 70 million people a year migrate from city to country - about 130 a minute. "Cities have to engage these residents because they are building the cities of the future. The issue is about neighborhoods," he said. William McDonough, joining the Oxford attendees from New York, proposed a city layout arranged to allow people to walk in parks without crossing traffic and with high tech university at the center. His book, The Next City, has been adopted as government policy in China, where his company has been commissioned to design seven cities.
Shanghai to Oxford via Google?
Google Earth brings places from around the globe to your computer screen. Stefano Boeri, Domus magazine, told the TED audience.
BOOKS
Armchair urban designers wishing to reflect on Istanbul may wish to read Spiro Kostoff's The City Assembled, now out in new paperback edition. Because Kostoff grew up in Istanbul, he is particularly good on Islamic cities. He describes the linear market system called the suq, which is organized by categories of business. Starting at the mosque, candle and incense sellers come first, then booksellers, bookbinders and leather sellers. Last, at the city gate, one finds smiths, saddle sellers and tentmakers related to long distance commerce of the caravan trade. Also interesting is Orhan Pamuk's Istanbul: A Memoir, in which the city is the leading character. Because he makes Turkey, past and present, accessible to readers around the world, he is seen in his home country as a dark horse candidate for a Nobel Prize. For a sense of the several hundred UIA papers presented at SOM's Hilton International in Istanbul, a sample of four are listed, herewith. Cultural Capitals of Europe: 1985 - 1997. By Anastia Paparis, Aristotle, Thessaloniki. apapar@tee.gr The cultural capitals program launched by Culture Minister Melina Merkouris in Athens in 1983, was later held in Glasgow, Lisbon and Thessalonki. The author evaluates success in each city.
Wellington
The Value of Urban Design - New Zealand. By Gordon Holden, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand. Gordon.holden@uvw.ac.nz National policy for urban design is reviewed in terms of Wellington, where population has increased seven fold in 12 years.
Western China
Where Will Architecture go in the Western Cities of China? By Jaiping Liu and Liangbin Tan. School of Architecture, Xi'an University. liujiaping@xauat.edu.cn More than 300 million people live in West China where 70 per cent of rural people live in vernacular cottages. Based on sustainable design principles, about 2000 new buildings have been built. The authors report that the new houses are superior to previous vernacular habitats.
Ground Zero
Green Ground Zero - From New York City to the World. By Neil Chambers, Green Ground Zero, USA. neil@newgroundzero.org 2002GGZ was formed to advocate sustainable rebuilding of Lower Manhattan. Now there is a chapter in Atlanta and one in London. Today it works with local political leaders on environmental policy.
UPDATE, published six times a year, welcomes contributions from members.
NEW FELLOWS
Fredric Bell, Executive Director, AIA New York Chapter, New York, NY; Trevor Boddy, Architecture Critic, The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Peter Bosselman, College of Environmental Design, University of California, Berkeley, CA; Anthony Cracchiolo, Director, The Port Authority of NY & NJ, New York, NY; Shaun Donovan, Housing Preservation Commissioner, Housing Preservation Dept., New York, NY; Alex Felson, EDAW Inc., New York, NY; Vince Ferrandino, Principal, Ferrandino & Associates Inc., Elmsford, NY; Adriaan Geuze, West 8 Urban Design & Landscape Architecture, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Kathryn Gustafson, Partner, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol Ltd., Seattle, WA; Tony Hiss, New York, NY; Cathy Lang Ho, Editor, The Architect's Newspaper, New York, NY; Purnima Kapur, Planning Director, Bronx Borough, Bronx, NY; Jon Lang, Professor of Architecture, The University of New South Wales, Kensington, Australia; Steve Litt, Art & Architecture Critic, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland, OH; Regina Myer, Director, Brooklyn Office, NYC Department of City Planning, Brooklyn, NY; Maria L. Sachs, Portfolio Manager, Pikes Peak Income Holding, New York, NY; Joshua Sirefman, Chief of Staff, Mayor's Office, New York, NY; Richard M. Sommer, Director, Urban Design Program, Harvard GSD, Cambridge, MA; David Thom, Managing Director, IBI Group, Irvine, CA; Kishore Varanasi, Urban Designer, CBT Architects, Boston, MA; John Young, Planning Director, Queens City Planning, Kew Gardens, NY.
UPDATE, published six times a year, welcomes contributions from members.