Districts

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DISTRICTS



Historic Preservation

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Gentrification 21

TABLE OF CONTENTS French Quarter New Orleans, Louisiana Old Town Prague, Czech Republic Old Town Bern Bern, Switzerland Sultanahmet Istanbul, Turkey SoHo New York City, New York Trastevere Rome, Italy Wicker Park Chicago, Illinois

Ethnic Enclave 35

Brick Lane London, England Chinatown Manhattan, New York

Urban Village 45

Diagonal Mar Barcelona, Spain

Regenerated 51

Crystal City Arlington, Virginia Eastern Harbor District Amsterdam, Netherlands Giudecca Venice, Italy

Edge City 65 Green 75

New Center Detroit, Michigan Tysons Corner Mclean, Virginia Vauban Freiburg, Germany

Entertainment 81

Broadway New York City, New York Las Vagas Strip Las Vagas, Nevada

Retail / Consumption 91

Les Champs-Élysées Paris, France Omotesando Avenue Tokyo, Japan

Manufacturing / Heavy Industry 101 New Economy 107

Detroit Automobile Sector Detroit, Michigan Silicon Valley Stanford, California Inovallée Grenoble, France



BUILDING CITIES:

The premise of our approach is that cities are, by and large, comprised of distinctive districts. City-building processes involve complex dynamics of economic, political, social and cultural change, mediated by key actors and gatekeepers (including architects, urban designers, planners, city officials and elected representatives). Through these dynamics, cities, and city districts, are constantly in a state of ‘becoming’, as people, businesses and institutions sort themselves into place. The iterative interdependence of agglomeration, segregation, and clustering processes produces a variety of distintive districts that together comprise the city; and each district thus has a distinctive biography as it is created, modified, and re-created: a palimpsest of economic, political, social and cultural imprints upon the urban fabric.

CITY DISTRICTS



Historic Preservation

“Cultural Heritage – the entire corpus of material signs, either artistic or symbolic, handed on by the past to each other, and therefore, to the whole of humankind. As a constituent part of the affirmation and enrichment of cultural identities, as a legacy belonging to all humankind, the cultural heritage gives each particular Gentrification place its recognizable features and is the storehouse of human experience.”

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

- 1989 UNESCO Draft Medium-term Plan


Historical Preservation

FRENCH QUARTER NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA THE VIEUX CARRÉ

The French Quarter is the oldest and most Mississippi Company. Bienville wanted famous district in New Orleans and one of the colony along the Mississippi River, the best-preserved historical neighborhoods which served as a major highway of trade in the United States of America. Also known to the “New World”. The Native American as Vieux Carré (or “Old Square”), the French Choctaw Nation showed Bienville a way to Quarter became the city center of New avoid the treacherous waters at the mouth Orleans. The French Quarter is bounded by of the Mississippi River by entering Lake Rampart Street, Esplanade Avenue, Canal Pontchartrain from the Gulf of Mexico and Street, and the Mississippi River. Although traveling on Bayou St. John to the site where there are well-known areas of the French the city now stands.2 The city was built on Quarter, there are actually several distinct reclaimed swamp land and centered around neighborhoods. The most notorious area the Place d’ Armes which is now Jackson would be the entertainment section with Square. its famous restaurants, bars, and hotels. Music emanates from the Bourbon Street Due to its unique and desirable location at Clubs, jazz institutions, or just about any the Mississippi River Delta, New Orleans street corner on any given day. A stroll was established as the capital of Louisiana down Decatur Street culminates at the and a fortress to control the wealth of the bustling Old French Market and throughout North American interior for the French. The the city, ornate iron balconies and galleries possession of Louisiana has been quite a begin to introduce you to the wonder and rollercoaster, changing from French control excitement the French Quarter has waiting to the Spanish empire via the Treaty of Paris on every corner.1 in 1763, then back to the French in 1801, and eventually sold to the United States by La Nouvelle Orléans was founded in 1718 Napoleon in 1803. Although the Spanish by Jean Baptiste La Moyne and Sieur empire controlled Louisiana for a relatively de Bienville, members of the French short period of time, it is interesting to note

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Zachary Lee

The view down Bourbon Street.A

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Historical Preservation

that all of the architecture that survived New Orleans’ two great fires during the late 1700s is from the Spanish period. The Great New Orleans Fire of 1788 started on March 21, 1788 at the home of Army Treasurer Don Vincente Jose Nunez, 619 Chartres Street at Toulouse Street, less than a block from Jackson Square. Within just five hours, the fire, fed by a strong wind from the southeast, consumed almost the entire city. The fire destroyed the original Cabildo, the house of government for the Spanish colony, and virtually all major buildings in the French Quarter including the city’s main church, municipal building, army barracks, armory, and jail. At that time, only two fire engines were operational and they were both destroyed by the fire. The fire stretched from Conti Street in the south to St. Philip Street in the north and between Dauphine Street and the Mississippi River.3 Some Mississippi River front buildings were spared, including the Customs House, the tobacco warehouses, the Governor’s Building, the Royal Hospital and the Ursuline Convent. In the first of the two great fires, over 850 buildings burned down, virtually destroying the entire French Quarter. The Great New Orleans Fire of 1794 destroyed over 200 buildings. These disasters gave the Spanish governor the opportunity to rebuild the city according to more modern tastes. The city was rebuilt with new, strict fire codes that mandated that all structures be physically adjacent and close to the curb to create a firewall. The old French peaked roofs were replaced with flat tiled ones, and their wooden siding was replaced with fire-resistant stucco, painted in the contemporary fashion of pastel hues. Spanish style central courtyards were also integrated in the designs. As a result, colorful walls and roofs and elaborately decorated ironwork balconies and galleries from both the 18th century and 19th centuries emerged. Among the newly constructed buildings were the signature New Orleans buildings of the St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytere. One of the few buildings to actually survive the devastating fires of 1788 and 1794 is the Merieult House at 533 Royal Street, which was built in 1792 by

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Garden Galleries with beautiful ironwork at the intersection of Royal & Dumaine.B

Jean Francois Merieult. It now houses the Kemper and Leila Williams Historic New Orleans Collection. One prominent and memorable feature of the French Quarter is the wrought iron balconies and galleries that line the narrow streets New Orleans’s historic Vieux Carré. In New Orleans, there is a strong distinction between balconies, which are self-supporting and attached to the side of a building, and galleries, which are supported from the ground using posts or columns. Often described as “lacy”, the French Quarter balcony serves as an expression of the building’s inhabitants. Some balconies may resemble tropical gardens covered in “ivy, bromeliads, begonias, and ferns.”

Others may serve more of an exhibition space, displaying personal treasures such as art, antiques, and even suits of armor. The unique characteristics of wrought iron, especially for its strength, resistance to rust, and malleability, did make it the ideal material for balconies and other ornamental ironwork at the time. However, once mild steel was introduced with its ability to be mass produced, wrought iron, and the craft skills associated with it, gradually disappeared. Most of the ironwork in the French Quarter is actually cast iron and dates back to the 1850s when this type of adornment became wildly popular. “The Baroness Micaela Almonaster de Pontalba added cast iron


Zachary Lee

balconies to the fashionable row houses she built around Jackson Square after the Battle of New Orleans in 1814, starting a trend that spread throughout the French Quarter with balconies added to many existing buildings.”3 Today, the majority of balcony railings in the French Quarter are actually made of cast iron instead of wrought iron. Jackson Square, the historic park in the center of the French quarter, has always been the center of community life in New Orleans. Its central location, proximity to the Mississippi River, as well as surrounding church and government buildings contribute to New Orleans successful commercial and community life. Surrounding the square are many historic buildings including the St. Louis Cathedral, the Cabildo, and the Presbytére. St. Louis Cathedral is the oldest, continuously active cathedral in the United States and formed the center of the original settlement. The cathedral has been rebuilt twice, since being built in 1724, due to the great fires and a hurricane. It was designed by French architect J.N.B. Pouilly and is also known as the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France. The Cabildo has also been rebuilt due to the great fires and is now a Louisiana State Museum. The Cabildo is the site of the signing of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The Presbytére was originally known as the Casa Curial, or Ecclesiastical House, since it was built on the site of the residence of Capuchin monks. The square is usually full of musicians, fortune tellers, artists, jugglers and other tourist amusements. Cars have not been allowed on the square since 1971 when parking on all sides was removed. The historic French Market on Decatur Street is the oldest farmers market in the United States, dating back to 1791. The 24hour French Market includes both a farmers market and a flea market where you can find everything from dinner ingredients to T-shirts and other interesting souvenirs and snacks. A golden bronze statue of Joan of Arc is placed near the entrance to the market and is an exact copy of the 1880 Emmanuel Fremiet equestrian statue of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc, called the “Maid of Orleans”, was a French peasant girl who saw heavenly beings, heard their voices, and led an army to break the siege of Orleans. She changed the tide of the 100 Years War and became

Map of the Great New Orleans Fire of 1788.C

a national heroine of France. This Joan of Arc statue was presented to the City of New Orleans as a gift from the French people by President Charles de Gaulle in 1959. The New Orleans motto “Laissez les bon temps rouler” meaning “Let the good times roll” is exemplified by the nearly 24-hour party atmosphere on the best known party street in New Orleans. Bourbon Street is lined with bars, jazz clubs, hotels, restaurants, “gentlemen’s clubs”, and boutiques. The street is closed in the evenings to vehicular traffic to become a pedestrian mall and an extension of the parties taking place in the bars and music halls. There is an unwritten rule on Bourbon Street to drink and be merry. Drinking on Bourbon Street is legal and often times encouraged as a way of emptying out the overcrowded bars, as long as you use a plastic cup and maintain orderly behavior.

and North Rampart Streets to the west. It is a neighborhood with private homes and other residences and the grocery stores, restaurants, banks, police station and other services that support communities. Many of the over 35,000 buildings listed in the National Register of Historic Places are found in the French Quarter, which are protected by law and result in the entire district being classified as a National Historic Landmark.

Today the French Quarter occupies the same six by thirteen blocked area laid out in 1722 and is the only French colonial and Spanish settlement remaining in the United States. Its boundaries are defined by the City Planning Commission as: Esplanade Ave to the north, the Mississippi River to the east, Canal, Decatur, and Iberville Streets to the south, and Basin, St. Louis,

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Historic Preservation

OLD TOWN

PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC PRESERVATION AMONGST TOURISM

Old Town Prague, which was inscribed the square. As development continued, the on UNESCO’s official list of monuments “characteristic tower-shaped Romanesque at the sixteenth ordinary session of its houses with vaulted ground-floor spaces” World Heritage Committee, is well known began to be built in the twelfth century.2 for its historic preservation and classical Commissioned by the Premyslid King Vaclav architecture.1 With this reputation as the I in the 1230s, the event marking the official driving force, it has become a very popular creation of Prague’s Old Town was the tourist destination ever since the fall of construction of walls with towers and gates communist rule in 1989. While the money around the compact Old Town Square area. the tourism industry has brought into the city These city walls, which would eventually be is undeniable, it has produced mixed results torn down with the creation of New Town in 1348 by Charles IV, are marked today by for the overall welfare of the city. the streets Narodni, 28. Rijna, Na prikope, Even though it was originally settled around and Revolucni. From 1338, the Velflin 500CE by a Slavic tribe of Czechs, what we House in the Old Town Square provided now think of as historical Prague did not a residence for the primarily German begin developing until the ninth century.2 patrician administration of the Old Town. Located at a large marketplace on the The houses surrounding the Velflin were right bank of the Vltava, the beginnings of slowly purchased to provide extra housing today’s Old Town Square was developed as needed. The Old Town area was also the where two long-distance trade routes site for the first Central European university, intersect. It is also near a ford across the established by Charles IV.2 river. This marketplace would become the city center of early Prague, as a In the early 1900s a competition was held dense fabric of marketplaces, settlements, to design the reconstruction of the Gothic noblemen’s estates, and parish churches Old Town City Hall. However, the Prague were developed in the area surrounding municipality was not impressed enough by

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Jay Nelson

View of Old Town Square in the center of Old Town Prague.A

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Historic Preservation

any of the entries to pursue construction. Despite not being selected, the submission by Josef Gocar is particularly noteworthy for its attempt to push the architectural boundaries of the time. Consisting of an abruptly receding stepped pyramid, the work of Gocar made it more acceptable for other architects of the time to push their own designs farther.2

Due to the horrendous hygienic conditions within the area, the decision was made to modernize the Old Town district and Jewish district of Josefov. This provided Prague with its largest urban project of the late 19th and early 20th century. The project was marked by its creation of “picturesque irregular arrangements of winding streets” which came about due to the existing medieval street network.2 One negative result of this modernization project was that it allowed developers trying to build lucrative apartment blocks to damage several architecturally valuable buildings within the modernized area. Another competition was announced in 1902 in order to resolve the aesthetic aspects of modernization that began in 1893. Winning architect Josef Sakar stayed true to the qualities of “distinctiveness and picturesqueness” originally conceived by Austrian urbanist Camillo Sitte and German art historian Cornelius Gurlitt. The redevelopment in the modernized area centered around Parizska Avenue, due to its capacity to be connected to the Letna through various design strategies. Since most of the redevelopment was done around this street, the buildings lining it represent a slew of different architectural styles being used by the architects of that time period, including neo-Gothic, neo-Renaissance, neo-Baroque, and the slightly less publicly accepted new Viennese modern style.2 Several important measures were taken by the State Planning Commission that helped preserve the historical architecture of the Old Town that is seen today. The first of which took place in 1922, when the Commission rejected a recommendation to link the city around Wenceslas Square and either the Manes Bridge or Svatopluk Cech Bridge, which would have divided the Old Town through its center. The solution they

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View towards Old Town Hall and the market in Old Town Square.B

sector on one side and the business and office district around Wenceslas Square on the other, the Old Town “became an untouchable buffer zone in front of the steep slope of Letna.”2 Young architects in particular were upset at this decision Another large step was taken in 1928 when, as they saw it as a major obstacle to the despite external pressure to redevelop modern development of Prague and did not Old Town once again, the State Planning understand the reasons behind protecting Commission published its detailed plan for the historical character of the city. One such the development of Greater Prague, in which architect, Jaromir Krejcar, referred to this it decided to keep the historical Old Town decision as “the reign of terror…imposed intact. With the rapidly growing northwest by several sentimental art historians, not

countered with, and eventually settled on, was to create a circular road around the Old Town Square, thereby protecting it from the impact of city transport while detouring the traffic onto the steep left bank of the river.2


Jay Nelson

only over architects with modern views and sensibility…but also over the population of the city, by forcing their lives into a tangle of old, narrow streets.”2 One of the surprisingly positive factors in preserving the historic authenticity of the Old Town was actually the set of socialist policies put forth by the previous regime. “There are distinct contrasts between the outcomes of a socialist urban economy, with its homogeneity in terms of socio-spatial urban structures, and those of a capitalist urban economy, with its uneven redistribution of resources socially and spatially.”1 This so-called “socialist city” created an environment basically egalitarian in nature in which residential segregation was eradicated. While capitalist societies typically develop a land-use value system, there was essentially no spatial differentiation within the Old Town of Prague, due to the price and rent controls that were put into place. Consequently, “due to the irrelevancy of location within the cities… there were almost no incentives to invest in the city center, to build new headquarters, hotels, banks, department stores, etc. This contributed to a stability of the physical patterns of urban cores and to the preservation of many historical buildings. At the end of the 1980s, the center of Prague looked the same as it did half a century ago.”1 With up to 300,000 tourists now visiting Prague each day, the tourism industry played a large role in the economic recovery of the Czech Republic in the 1990s. Not all of its effects were welcome, however, as it is partially responsible for the former residential historic core to become “unequally weighted towards the needs of commercial expansion.”1 The sociospatial characteristics of Prague have been drastically changed by the tourism industry. Combined with the downfall of the old communist regime as well as the shift toward neo-liberal democratic values, Prague has developed a vastly different urban system since the early 1990s. For instance, even though the population of Prague has risen as a whole, the urban population of the historic core was actually projected at one point to fall by twenty-one percent.1

Aerial view of the roads that used to form city walls.C

Aware of the issue at hand, the Department for Strategic Planning in Prague stated that “in the city, a new income elite has already been emerging with its specific needs, social attributes, and a characteristic lifestyle; at the same time, the number of inhabitants who can be considered as ‘socially weak’ has been increasing. These new facts have to be reflected in both the Strategic and Master Plan.”1 While not necessarily providing a solution, the recognition of the negative aspects of the tourism industry is a positive step in assuring that Old Town Prague does not lose the charm that established it as a tourist destination in the first place. It remains to be seen how the tourism industry will affect the urban makeup of Old Town Prague over time, however, the city has shown a history of making solid decisions with respect to preserving its historical heritage. That, coupled with the fact that they have displayed a recognition of the problem at hand, does inspire confidence that policies will be implemented to ensure that Old Town Prague retains the characteristics ultimately responsible for its notoriety today.

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Historic Preservation

OLD TOWN BERN BERN, SWITZERLAND GRAND DESIGN

The City of Bern is known worldwide as a rare example of early city master planning. The oldest historic district, which is called the Zähringerstadt after the city’s founder (Duke Berchtold V of Zähringen who founded the City in 1191), occupies the area between the eastern banks of the Aare River and the Zytglogge Tower (clock tower) which formed the western boundary of the City until 1256. Today, the City of Bern houses many important Swiss landmarks including the Munster of Bern (Switzerland’s tallest cathedral); many historic arcades and streets; and the seats of the cantonal, municipal, and federal government. Since 1983, the historic center of Bern has been featured in the list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Cultural World Heritage Sites because of its intact medieval core and the elegant incorporation of modern life into a medieval city.1 Unlike most cities, the historic center of the City still shows its connection to the almost one thousand year old ideas of its founders, while at the same time the City

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has changed into a modern world capital. The appearance, structure, and uses of the buildings have changed over time to meet the evolving world. Even so, the historic district has not lost its valued culture and historic traditions. Although there are only a few remaining examples of the original structures, the planning, dimensions, and form of the original medieval city are still apparent today. Bern was founded on a promontory 40 meters above the Aare River. This site had been previously used by the Celts, Helvetians, and Romans due to its strategic location. The river and land elevations served as natural fortification on three sides of the long peninsula. Also, a fortification on the site could easily secure the overland and river traffic in the surrounding region. For these strategic reasons the Nydegg castle and settlement were located at the tip of the peninsula in the Twelfth Century.2 According to legend, Duke Berchtold V founded the city on the peninsula and named it “Bern” after the bear that he


William Morrison

View of “Old Town Bern”.A

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encountered in the area. The city began with the construction of the Nydegg Fortress and it expanded over time to the west as the City periodically grew. The City of Bern has the common features of all Zahringer developed sites, “broad street for market (no central square); advanced infrastructure with utility water source (Stadtbach), sewage (Ehgräben) and drinking water supply (Quellfassung); right-angle street grid; lots divided into tracts of equal dimensions (socalled homesteads measuring 100 x 60 feet); imperial citadel (Nydegg Fortress, now the site of the Nydegg Church) separated from the main city: and public buildings (Cathedral and Town Hall) set aside from the main city axis (which was reserved for commercial purposes).”3

Both the Zahringer master plan for the City, and the geography and topography of the long narrow peninsula determined the pattern of growth of the City. The natural hills and hollows of the site formed the boundaries of the City at each stage of its expansion to the west. When the City expanded farther west, the existing fortifications (moats, walls, and even towers) were often removed, leaving wide open squares that stretched the whole width of the expanding City. The first Zahringerstadt expansion was a market settlement of close to 50 homesteads each with the dimensions of 100 x 60 feet, as planned. The first western boundary was a fortified double wall enclosing the Rathaus (city hall) that ran parallel to Kreuz Street (a North-South cross street). The City was essentially made up of three generously spaced long streets running East-West which avoided the typical maze of small alleys found in most cities. The center street of the City was the main passage and the locus of commercial activity. This street named Gerechtigkeit (Justice) Street was made up of “homesteads”, mobile market stalls, guild halls, and inns. This main boulevard extended from the western fortifications to the Schwend Plaza and the Nydegg Bridge. By the Thirteenth Century, the City began to expand westward again and the settlements became more developed. The original street width of 60 feet was narrowed by the addition of new roofs, upper stories, and the beginning of permanent market stalls that were a precursor to today’s City arcades.4

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The three first expansions of the City of Bern that make up “Old Town Bern”.B

a market building. Two new streets called The second expansion of the City of Bern, Brunngasse and Herrengasse were also which was completed before 1218, was the added. Brunngasse Street is a semi-circular addition of sixty-four new homesteads which street on the north edge of the City, while expanded the City’s western boundaries to Herrengasse Street is south side street the Munz Gully and Bader Gully. The City connecting what would be later called the expanded by lengthening the main boulevard Munster Cathedral (at that time, it was a (Kram Street) down the central axis of the smaller church) to Kram Street. Also, a City; Kram Street has which is known today wooden bridge was built over the Aare River by many as one of the most beautiful street which allowed increased traffic and trade, in the world. Around this same time period, which limited settlements on the east bank the mobile market stalls were replaced with of the river. New western fortifications were


William Morrison

established which included the famous landmark and excellent example of the Old Town’s evolution, the Zytglogge Gate Tower. Originally, the tower was built as part of the Thirteenth Century fortifications of the City. At that time, the tower was only about 52 feet tall, but as the City expanded farther, the tower grew in height, but it was no longer used as part of the City’s fortifications. Over time, the tower’s battlements were replaced with a slanted roof, and the tower was converted to a jail in 1258.4 In 1353, the City of Bern joined the confederation of the Swiss cantons. The City was granted self-administration, its own court of justice, and it had control over its own market. This prominence spurred the City’s further expansion toward the west creating what is referred to as the “New Bern.” Catastrophe struck in 1405 when twothirds of the entire City’s structures, which were mostly wooden construction, were destroyed by a massive fire. Most of the original wooden buildings were burned down including part of the Zytglogge Tower. After the fire, the jail was closed and the tower was rebuilt and converted into a clock tower, and the sloped roof was replaced with the now recognizable peaked roof. Since then, renovations and additions to the tower and clock’s works have gone on continuously, even as recently as the late Twentieth Century.

Changes in the Zytglogge Tower over time.

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The stone facades of the renovated buildings of the historic district are much of what gives the City of Bern its charm today. This is likely why the City remained mostly unchanged for centuries. Even so, there have been changes in the historic district in recent years. Throughout the Nineteenth Century, many of the old stone buildings were renovated with special attention to leaving the stone facades untouched. The Munster Bell Tower was recently completed in 1893 making it the tallest cathedral tower in Switzerland. The world famous arcades are now just like the original market place, the site of hundreds of stores, restaurants, and clubs.4

Today, the Zähringerstadt can still be seen just as it was originally planned. The historic district is still the location of the City of A majority of the market streets in the City were severely damaged by the 1405 Bern’s main political, economic and religious Fire. Under the guidance of one of the buildings.The City still retains the medieval world’s first building codes, a majority of image and city structure from centuries the reconstruction of the City was done in past: “official buildings were situated around sandstone in similar medieval styles (not the Kreuzgasse (Cross Alley), ecclesiastical wood) throughout the next three centuries. buildings were located at the Münstergasse The sandstone structures were rebuilt with (Cathedral Alley) and Herrengasse (Lords’ the same or similar dimensions, forms, and Alley), while guilds and merchants’ shops functions as the wooden structures which clustered around the central Kramgasse formerly stood on the City’s original streets. (Grocers Alley) and Gerechtigkeitsgasse Also, as a result of the fire, stone arcades (Justice Alley).”1 For this reason, the Old were added throughout the Fifteenth Town of Bern (Zähringerstadt) is one of the Century as houses expanded their upper greatest examples of the preservation and stories over the streets. Ironically, these adaptation of a historic district. medieval arcades, which are the most prominent aspect of the historic district of the City were built a result of the City’s greatest disaster, the 1405 Fire.

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Historic Preservation

SULTANAHMET ISTANBUL, TURKEY HISTORY FOR SALE

The modern day Sultanahmet District of Istanbul is jumble of ancient monuments, tourists, and baklava shops that can trace its origins to a time before the Roman empire. A walk along the wide boulevards of the imperial park separating the Hagia Sophia and the Blue mosque shows a strange marriage of new and old. Street vendors hawk their wares in a very obtrusive manner with broken English or perfect English depending on what they want you to assume about them. The vista of the two grand monuments can’t be separated from this modern day capitalism trying at every turn to take advantage of the areas new identity as a tourist attraction more than anything else. The similarity to Venice is startling once a traveler realizes the only visible businesses feed off of tourism; restaurants, knick knacks, “authentic” ceramic bowls painted by corporate gypsy tribes, all geared toward taking advantage of the amazing range of history encapsulated in this one tiny piece of the world. Byzantium, Rome, and Ottoman Turkey have all left their mark on Sultanahmet, surviving complete destruction more than once as well as social

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and political changes that force an entire country to reexamine their cultural identity. In the beginning there was Byzantium. Legend has it that around 660 BCE. Byzas was instructed by an oracle to build his city opposite the blind. He interpreted this to mean that the citizens of Chalcedon, opposite Byzantium, had been blind to choose their site over his.1 Mythology aside, one of the major factors in the illustrious history of this piece of land was its location. The early city became fairly prosperous, but never held any of the power that would characterize the later majority of its urban life. The sacking of the city by Septimus Severus marks what some historians consider a change in the city that eventually would lead to Constantine’s decision to take it and make it his own. During Severus’ raid much of the city was destroyed and had to be rebuilt, though some of an earlier city wall survived and was found buried under the standing Saray, or Palace. Severus began construction on a much more Roman city, with a forum, public baths, and the partially still visible Hippodrome. The Hippodrome


Kristin Fields

A man tries to sweep away rain water in one of the park pathways in front of the Hagia Sophia A

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itself doesn’t seem to have any visible walls anymore, the space is used as the very same public park where the street vendors yell at visitors in broken English trying to sell their pashminas and roasted chestnuts. There are some surviving monuments though, an obelisk and a bronze column from Delphi.2

Constantine found Byzantium in a similar way, he besieged the city in search of an enemy, and once it fell he began to rebuild it in the manner of a grand Roman city. He soon decided that this would be the new seat of the Roman Empire, closer to the Eastern trade that became so very important to the wealth of the Empire, a position from which he could protect their interests and subjects in the distant corner of the Roman conquered land.1 The move has also been seen as one of the major reasons Rome fell. When the capital moved, Constantine took the artisans and artwork most representative of Roman and Grecian spirit, effectively stripping the city of its cultural heritage and a significant part of the city’s Identity. Many of these pieces of art weren’t just private collections, they were public monuments erected throughout New Rome as an outward symbol to the people of Rome as a unified Empire.2 Constantine and his successors also built quite a few churches and basilicas for the new official religion of the Empire, including the Hagia Sophia which still stands. There are no traces in the Sultanahmet of the brief inclusion of the Early Turkish Pictoral Map of Istanbul, includes the Hippodrome and Hagia Sophia B original Pagan religion of Rome from the establishment of Constantinople in 330 CE assimilated with other ruling states over the the city for the sake of Islam. It is said in to its banishment in 416. years of constant invasion during the Middle some books that when he returned to the Ages. The city still gave the impression city after the plundering, he wept at the sight Centuries later, after the collapse of the of being a place of high culture and great of the destruction. Soon after this initial Roman Empire and the formation of the learning, but their back bone just wasn’t occupation, the Sultan began the process of Byzantine Empire with the Greek Orthodox there anymore, similar to the beginning rebuilding the city as a Muslim settlement. Church at its head, the city was once again of Constantinople when Constantine first Many of the churches that did survive were besieged: this time by the Fourth Crusade. weakened Rome by stripping it bare of its rechristened as mosques, including the Many corrupt decisions were made that cultural identity. Hagia Sophia. All of the mosaic images eventually led to the 3- day sack of the city’s on the walls and ceilings were covered wealth, destroying much of the interior of Sultan Mehmet II captured Constantinople and Islamic symbols were hung in their the Hagia Sophia in particular, in modern in 1453 and proceeded to allow his men the place. Some Greek Orthodox Christians day Istanbul’s Historic District. Many other traditional three days of pillaging that would remained and were given churches to historic monuments and pieces of art were ultimately decimate a vast remainder of the continue worshiping. Over a period of time, completely destroyed. Byzantium itself ancient treasures that had barely survived though, tolerance actually worsened for the became a greatly weakened state after the crusade a couple hundred years Christians left in the City.1 this, leaving it open to the advances of the before.2 As the soldiers raided the Hagia Turks in the following years. At this point in Sophia in search of treasure, the Sultan During the early years of the Ottoman time it had already lost its former stature as entered this Christian place of worship and occupation of Istanbul many new Islamic the head of a powerful empire; it had been prayed to Allah, a sign of having conquered buildings were commissioned by the

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Kristin Fields

Sultans of the Empire who resided in the city, the Topkopi Saray being one of the first to be erected. The palace holds a large part of the Sultanahmet District and is now open to the public for tours, though it is extra to go through the harem quarters. The imperial architect, Sinan, worked on some additions to the palace towards the mid 1500’s, one of his many architectural credits during his lifetime. Sinan also built many of the most beautiful mosques in Istanbul. One of his apprentices designed the Sultan Ahmet Mosque, the Sultan for which the Sultanahmet district is actually named. 3 Also known as the Blue mosque for its blue interior tiles, the Sultanahmet was built directly opposite the Hagia Sophia, possibly to show that Islamic power and architecture was greater than that of the Christian power that created the Christian basilica. The Grand Bazaar holds another of the major architectural positions in the urban fabric of the Historic District. The bazaar itself has changed little, having been enlarged by Sultan Suleyman followed by some updates in material and construction as the years passed. This tourist attraction comes directly from the east and has no connection with the former city of Constantinople. Many buildings were designed in the same way, with no regard to past placement other than to group the majority of important and influential structures in this one district.1

Site of The Roman HippodromeB

they spent most of their time. The Sultan’s and officials of the time were concerned that European’s were criticizing them for not having done anything to improve the conditions of their city. At the time most construction was done in wood, which in turn caused many raging fires that regularly plagued the city. On advice from imported European architects, mostly French from L’Ecole d’Beaux Arts, they began rebuilding in masonry after these fires. They even took some of these opportunities to make changes in the roads, in width and direction as well as quality.4

manikins to display what this secret world would have been like in the days of oriental mystery and intrigue. The mosques are still in use, but are swarmed by tourists seeking to soak up some form of culture by simply viewing alien traditions. The streets are lined with those same cheap vendors The Ottoman Empire engulfed nations and trying to lure in unsuspecting travelers lost them from 1299 until 1922 when it with their authentic wares, a bowl here, a became the Republic of Turkey. In 1299, the silk pashmina there; an entire belly dance newly renamed Istanbul became a crowning costume can be found in the bazaar to give jewel in their collection, one that they kept women the opportunity to purchase their until present day border lines were finalized. exotic adventure, to give it a look and a feel. The 1900’s saw a new kind of change coming The monuments and buildings will stand to the city, a social and cultural shift rather for years to come, alluding to the grandeur than a raid or ransacking. The Turks were they each once were a part of. In a modern The Sultanahmet quarter seen today is only invested in trade with Europe, made easy by their hold on the European shore of Istanbul. a shell of what it used to mean to the world. world of Republics instead of Empires, the This close relationship caused many of the This small area of city held palaces, roman buildings of the Sultanahmet have become Turkish nobles to begin importing European forums, Basilicas, churches, mosques, and relics, referencing a vast history of human fashions in dress, decoration, architecture, life giving cisterns. Empires laid siege to the struggle. and even city planning. The women of elite world from this seat of power for thousands harems were responsible for the integration of years. Emperors and Sultans ruled of some European fashion, mainly when their subjects from thrones in this historic they were being painted for a portrait. They place, subjects that at one point or another were also responsible for some interior reached far into Europe and Asia. Today decorating changes, considering the the palace is empty except for tourists and interior of their harem quarters was where overpriced tour guides. The harem has

19



Historic Preservation

Gentrification

“From a city - wide perspective, gentrification is a two - edged sword. On the macroscale, it is beneficial because it promotes diversity by increasing the participation rate of middle - class households. Older cities, having watched their population turn increasingly poor and minority - dominated, welcome this Ethnic Enclave new development. On the microscale or neighborhood level, gentrification is detrimental because of the neighborhood resegregation effect. As a result, city officials often find themselves in the difficult position of privately welcoming Urban Village gentrification while publicly lamenting its effects at the neighborhood level.� Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

- Michael H. Lang, Gentrification Amid Urban Decline


Gentrification

SOHO

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK CAST-IRON AND THE ARTIST COLONY

SoHo is a district known for its high fashion marshland was Broadway, an old Indian and high cost stores. It is a mixed-use trail, which was also the road to Boston. district in which people can live, work, and This area was drained and the middle class have fun within a close area. Most cities moved in because it was a clean and open don’t have an area in which this can be done place to live. It was quoted as being “the because urban planners used to believe place to live, a gracious residential area of that uses should be separated in cities. three to four story brick houses with trim SoHo mixes the uses of residential, office, columned doorways, leaded fanlights and and leisure in a way that creates activity peaked roofs with dormers”. This semi over different times of the day. This creates rural area was quickly overtaken by the a vibrant district that avoids the deadness of city’s growth north and a grid was overlaid. somewhere like the financial district.1 This grid was commissioned in 1811 and proposed 12 avenues running north/south But SoHo was not always like this, its history and 155 streets running east/west. Most of goes back to 1644, when the Dutch West this land was unoccupied, had no buildings, Indian Company created the first settlement people, or planned activities. SoHo’s grid is for freed slaves. The area was farmed different than the rest of New York in that the until about 1800 when the stream became short sides run east/west, where as above slow and the ground became too marshy to Houston Street they run north/south. Also farm.1 This stream, later a canal, and now the edges of the district are defined from the is Canal Street, separated the area from the 1790 grid, which was created by irregular lower island and by the marshy Lespenard river edges. Therefore SoHo is the moment Meadows. The area beneath the canal is when the 1790 and 1811 grids clash, in known as Tribeca, mean “triangle below which the streets “had come together, but Canal”.2 In 1822 Benjamin Lord built one had no joined”. The neighborhood is of the first houses, which is still there, along generally defined as a twenty-six square Canal Street. The only path through the block area bordered by Broadway and West

22


Chris Warren

Looking down Mercer Street in SoHoA

23


Gentrification

Broadway, and Canal Street to the south and Houston Street to the North.1

Streets to serves as warehouses for snuff and tobacco. He designed brick structures with cast-iron ground floors. The building The houses were eventually converted into on 383 West Broadway was the second shops and offices or torn down for hotels building and was completed in 1868. It was and theaters. The area was known as the a five to six-story brick warehouse with a Eighth Ward. By the 1840s the area had cast-iron façade. The large interior space become sought after by wealthy merchants was used for storing Virginia and West who followed John Astor who was the Virginia tobacco, but after 1870 the tobacco wealthiest man in the country. A thirty- was given to factories to make chewing year explosion of buildings and high-class tobacco.2 businesses moved in creating a vibrant mixed-use area. By the 1870s the area This building would play an important role was nicknamed the French Quarter with in what was to come. In 1968 Ivan Karp its large storefronts on Broadway, with the opened the O.K. Harris gallery in the old warehouses behind the cast iron fronts as warehouse. He and another artist Paula glass curtain walls. But cause of the music Cooper, who opened another art gallery on halls and pleasure palaces, a new demand Wooster Street, demonstrated that art could for brothels was generated, and it became not only be shown but also sold within the New York’s best red light district. The focus neighborhood it was being created. This on business and leisure began to drive the allowed renting, purchasing, exhibiting, and middle class out. Then during the Civil War, selling happen which was not possible a Houston Street was named Murders Row few years before. The O.K. Harris Gallery because it has lost a fourth of its residents. was almost 11,000 square feet. The front After the war the lack of residents led the of the three rooms was mainly used for way for commerce to move in the next 100 large sculptures, the second was best for years.1 large painting, and third room was best for smaller art. Sometimes a fourth artist would What happened during mid 1800s when the be displayed in the corridor walls in the rear commerce was high would set the stage for near the offices.3 the gentrification of SoHo 100 years later. Victorian businessmen between 1850 and The reason that these galleries were such 1890 built cast-iron building fronts when iron a big deal was because now the artists architecture was at its prime. The architects that during the 60s had moved into the who designed these buildings designed rundown manufacturing buildings had more in New York City than anywhere else a place to sell and display their art. This in the world, and especially in SoHo. James helped establish SoHo as an area known Bogardus built the first complete iron-front to be an artist’s colony. The old cast-iron structure in 1848. He created a new means warehouses and cheap rent created the for the rapid construction of buildings. This perfect environment for artists. They new iron technology gave the commercial could have spacious studios for their huge businesses good-looking and practical canvases and sculptures, and possibly their buildings for imports, local manufacturing, families. Because this area was legally and goods from coastal shipping, railroads, zoned as a manufacturing district the rents and the Erie Canal. The warehouses were were low, some illegal. The fire department set up differently than we think of today. resented this saying that they didn’t know The ground floor had big windows and which buildings were occupied, but the were the rooms in which the merchandise- artists could get a zoning amendment form woolen or silk or cotton fabrics, fringes, the city that permitted certified artists to tassels, embroideries, or mourning goods, occupy and live in the old buildings. They were displayed ad orders taken. Paperwork placed Artist-in-Residence plaques on the and shipping orders were dealt with on the entrances to alert the fire department. Art upper floors and merchandise was stored galleries and businesses soon followed on the top floor. The family firm of P. & G. the artists. The galleries being mainly on Lorillard commissioned John Snook to build West Broadway, Prince, and Greene streets, four buildings between Spring and Broome while restaurants, bookstores, boutiques,

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Trucks and debris on Greene StreetB

and performing arts theaters were mixed between industrial buildings.2 “From all over the world, critics, artists, dealers, museum professionals, and art-interested people converge on this factory district in order to see the most innovative works of the day,” said Helene Zucker Seeman and Alanna Siegfried, local artists of SoHo at the time.3 Also in 1968, after study, hearing, and strong demand from the community, the SoHo Artists’ Association, and the Friends of Cast Iron Architecture, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission made the twenty-six blocks of SoHo a historic district. The “South Houston Report” was given out Mayor Robert Wagner Jr. and the City Planning Commission. It saved the neighborhood from being leveled to create wider streets, massive housing developments, and an industrial park. Then in 1973 this area became designated as the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission.2 But as the neighborhood’s myth and reputation grew, wealthier residents and commercial businesses moved in, and thus


started the process of gentrification. In 1979, real estate prices went up in SoHo, which attracted people who were not artists and discouraged the immigration of young artists like only a few years before. They started to move to the East village and then to the Lower East Side and also Brooklyn. A legal document call “the SoHo Letter” let non-artists buy and rent in SoHo as long as they agreed to be financially responsible for any legal problems. This made SoHo a high-priced neighborhood dominated by people who were classy but scarcely rich. It housed millionaires beside people that were economically insubstantial. Some can date the death of SoHo to the appearance of a hairdresser on Prince Street in the late 70’s or the remodeling Fanelli’s, a coffee shop, into a yuppie bar in the mid 80’s, or the closing of the restaurant Food that catered the neighborhood and employed SoHo residents. Eventually high-end retailers of clothing and then furniture exploited SoHo’s reputation for advanced taste. Retail chains moved in that sold clothing to wealthy people, just to add the address to their collection of stores. In the 90’s cosmetic stores moved in and attracted crowds of window shoppers. Then around 2000 skinny women would the street like models, which brought modeling agencies to SoHo. In 2002, Apple opened a very successful store. Today SoHo is full big name and over-priced stores, and million dollar flats. It is no longer an experiment, but a tourist destination. As Caroline Ware put it, “By the 21st century, the great experiment in creating a large artists’ colony within the city had come to an end, and it was time for me to move on.”3 Many visitors of SoHo today would never guess that this neighborhood used to be an artist colony. They are probably too caught up in the excitement that SoHo has to offer. It is a high fashion area in one of the biggest fashion cities in the world. There are hundreds of unique boutiques where one can find some of the best designers in the world. Also, they night life is young and hip offering local pubs, stylish lounges, and elegant wine bars.4 It has become a fun, but expensive district in which people should expect to pay to play.

Chris Warren

What Goes Around Comes Around boutiqueC

25


Gentrification

TRASTEVERE ROME, ITALY

THE HEART OF ROME

Known as a “city within a city,” the district of Trastevere is considered by those who live there to be the heart of Rome.1 The area has always had a distinct culture and demographic profile from the rest of Rome. The residents are even known for speaking their own dialect, a slightly rougher language than elsewhere in the city that is loud and hoarse-sounding – the equivalent perhaps of a thick Brooklyn accent.2 Their cuisine is said to be spicier, with different specialty foods than elsewhere in the city.1 Because of its original relative isolation, the inhabitants were considered to be almost a separate population. The women were considered particularly beautiful because of their dark hair and eyes. They were known for their pride, tenaciousness, and genuineness.3 The pride and arrogance stems from the fact that residents consider themselves to be the true descendants of the ancient Romans and can trace their heritage back for generations. The name Trastevere, coming from the Latin trans Tiberim, literally translates to “across the Tiber.”3 This refers to the location of the

26

district - across the river on the south side of central Rome. It was originally on the outskirts of Rome, but today it has been swallowed up and is one of the central districts. Rome conquered this area around the 600s BCE, taking it from the Etruscans. However, they were not interested in developing the land, only wanting it to gain control of and access the river on both sides.3 The emperor Augustus, the first ruler of the new Roman Empire in 27 BCE, was the first to recognize Trastevere as part of Rome. He divided the city into fourteen districts, giving Trastevere its Latin name and the number fourteen due to its location.2 Traditionally, the area was home to the working-class, starting in the time of the Republic around 509 BCE. Sailors and fishermen that made their living off of the river called Trastevere home. The sailors, many from Ravenna originally, were the ones to operate the cover on the Colosseum that shielded spectators from sun and rain. Immigrants from the East also began to settle here, particularly Jews and Syrians, as well


Julie Kroon

Buildings bordering the Piazza Santa MariaA

27


Gentrification

as tradesmen like potters, tanners, and cabinet-makers.4

Under the reign of Aurelian in 270 CE, larger protecting walls were added to Rome which included Trastevere and the Vatican area.3 Several important figures decided to build their villas here, most notably Julius Caesar. His infamous mistress Cleopatra and illegitimate son Caesarion lived in the Water Palace until news reached them of Caesar’s murder and they escaped by boat.4 By the Middle Ages Trastevere had turned into a maze of narrow and winding streets. Mignani, structures on the front of buildings, prevented carriages from even fitting down the streets, although these were removed near the end of the 1400s. It was at this time that the first pavement was laid down, first bricks and later the sampietrini, or cobblestones, some of which are still in place today. It was not until 1744 that Benedict XIV modified the borders of the district, defining the current limits. Even when Italy became a unified country in 1870 with Rome as the new capital, Trastevere was still mostly pastures and vineyards and was predominately a district of the poorer classes.3 Trastevere was known for a long time as a place of ill-repute, full of crime and prostitution. There is a deep-rooted rivalry between the Trasteverini and people of Monti – a large district on the other side of the river where the Colosseum and Forum are located. There was stone-throwing, drunken brawls, and fights between rival members of opposing gangs. The only time they were known to work together was when they attacked French soldiers during Napoleon’s invasion of the city. This rivalry created a strong sense of identity. People took their names from places in the district, and their loyalty towards other Trasteverini could be counted on. It was important to develop this sense of local solidarity and connection with people. The only way to recover stolen property was to talk to the local boss, as the police were useless. Today the rivalry between the two districts is less intense and mostly made up of good-humored banter, but some distrust and dislike still persists.5

trict had slowly been reorganized to provide cover for those seeking to evade authoritarian eyes, becoming narrow and irregular. Mussolini had goals of urban sanitation, but he also wanted to eliminate secrecy and gain total regulation and control over the Italians. He started a civic hygiene program and surveillance system that cleaned up some of the streets. Citizens suspected of being Communists were relocated to apartment blocks with minimal entrances so poDuring Mussolini’s reign, the crime rate cre- lice could monitor their comings and goings. ated a new problem. The streets in the dis- Some old buildings were demolished to

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Chiesa di Santa MariaB

make way for wider roads.5 He didn’t eliminate everything, though. A scheduled visit by then-president George W. Bush in 2007 was cancelled because there were thought to be too many places to hide.6 Trastevere began to undergo great change in the 1960s and 70s, when artists and foreign expatriots started to be drawn to the neighborhood. American musicians and Italian film directors and composers were just some of the famous people who moved into the area. Sergio Leone, director of


Julie Kroon

Spaghetti Westerns, grew up in Trastevere. It became known as a bohemian district, charming and colorful. 3

More and more outside people moved into the district. It became increasingly desirable to live there and rents skyrocketed. Many of the long-time residents were unable to afford the new prices and were forced to move elsewhere. Foreigners were replacing the old Trasteverini. With this new influx, tourists started to discover the area. Shops now are catered to this group. Pubs and restaurants have menus printed in English. Dance clubs are popping up everywhere, making Trastevere particularly appealing for its nightlife. Indeed, late at night the streets directly across the Tiber are filled with both foreigners and young Romans.7 The main gathering place is the Piazza Santa Maria. The church of Santa Maria that borders the piazza dates back to the third century, making it the oldest in the city (quite a claim for Rome, which boasts more than nine hundred churches). In Rome alone, there are eighty other churches named after this one. The square is popular for wedding parties waiting for the bride to come out, street performers entertaining the crowds at all hours, sitting at an outdoor caffe, or simply people watching on the steps of the central fountain.8 Trastevere has also attracted the university crowd. John Cabot University, the American Academy in Rome, and the Rome campus of the Thomas More College of Liberal Arts are all found there. The Canadian University of Waterloo School of Architecture and Pratt Institute School of Architecture share a villa right on the Piazza Santa Maria for different halves of the school year.3

Map with Trastevere district outlined in orangeC

rental prices. Gentrification can lead an urban area back to economic health and is one of the few ways of successful urban revitalization not dependent on a large-scale infusion of government funds. However, the downsides are the forced relocation of the existing residents.9 There is some argument whether or not this is worth it, as there is a case for saying the people make the place and the old area has been destroyed once new people move in and change it.

In the case of Trastevere, gentrification has led to the restoration of churches, clean neighborhoods, an increase in trendy businesses, and less crime and poverty. Others say it was a change for the worse and that the district was more beautiful when it was This changeover of residents in the area all Romans thirty years ago.10 It is getting can be considered a process of gentrifica- harder and harder for the old craftsman’s tion. Gentrification is a term generally used shop or market stall to stay in business.11 to describe the immigration of middle-class people to areas of a city where the poor and Still, much of the original charm remains. working-class formerly lived. Also implied There are places to stay of course, but it is that the area is upgraded, with the new hasn’t become a major hotel district as of residents restoring the architecture, clean- yet.1 Stores tend to still be of the artisan and ing, and painting. This results in a pattern unique variety, steering clear of touristy junk. of higher house and land values as well as

People still shop for their fruits and vegetables at the outdoor market and buy their fresh bread at the bakery in the morning. Sunday mornings bring a huge flea market. The colorful houses have flowerboxes and climbing ivy and hanging laundry lines. Men set up folding tables in the piazza to play card games. On Friday mornings the local knife sharpener comes by on his bicycle, calling out to tenants to lower down their dull cutlery for sharpening. Children play in the streets.8 The way to discover this side of Trastevere is simply by walking around. In fact, by foot is pretty much the only way to get around. Buses run on the main street only. There is no convenient metro stop; it was not permitted for an underground train line to be built anywhere nearby because of archeological reasons. Non-local cars are even forbidden to park in the district after dark.3 The winding streets can be very confusing, but wandering is the best way to experience the real charm of the area. Trastevere is where a glimpse of authentic Roman life can still be found.

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Gentrification

WICKER PARK CHICAGO, ILLINOIS THE POLITICS OF CHANGE

Wicker Park is a place of great character and history. It has been home to many diverse populations, from early Irish immigrants, to wealthy Germans and Poles, to Puerto Ricans looking for better opportunities. A smaller but more socially and economically present group has been the young artists and upper middle class young adults. With this many different social and ethnic groups, conflict is inevitable. Whenever change takes place there is some reaction. Wicker Park has undergone dramatic change within the last two decades through a process of gentrification. According to Merriam-Webster, this is “the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.”1 Throughout this transition, class, ethnicity and race have divided the community on issues like social housing and economic policy.2 Although there was harsh opposition from the beginning, Wicker Park is now one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Chicago, with expensive real estate, reduced diversity, and trendy shops.

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Before the brothers, Joel and Charles Wicker purchased the 80 acres of land that would become the area now known as Wicker Park, the neighborhood was occupied by a large Irish population employed by the Rolling Mill Steel Works factory that opened in 1857. The Wicker brothers purchased the land in 1870 and donated four acres in the center of the neighborhood for a community park. As a neighborhood founded on the idea of “a neighborhood where people of all economic backgrounds could afford to live and work,” they divided the rest of the property into various sized lots to allow investors to build homes from large mansions to cozy cottages.”3 As an unhappy coincidence, the Great Chicago Fire took place the following year, uprooting thousands of Chicago residents from their homes in the city. Due to this event, Wicker Park developed quickly, as large numbers of wealthy European immigrants, mostly German and Polish, moved to Wicker Park and began to rebuild in the areas of Hoyne and Pierce Avenues along the the area’s northern border. “By the 1890’s Wicker Park was known for its unique architectural


Jane Jennings

The Flat Iron Arts BuildingA

31


Gentrification

style, with many large mansions in Victorian Gothic and Italianate style circling the park.”3 In conjunction with establishing the image of housing in Wicker Park, this ambitious class of residents also developed the first layer of infrastructure in the neighborhood. Some businesses included German breweries, cigar manufacturers, and many specialized stores for clothing, instruments, or furniture.3

The Puerto Rican and Latino community of Wicker Park and the immediate neighborhoods grew rapidly after World War II. These people were being pushed out of other parts of the city, and so banded together by living in certain areas. After Latinos and Mexicans joined the community, this racial group represented 60% of The Wicker Park and immediate neighborhoods. These dramatic increases of Latino people coupled with a similar increase of the black population, led to disinvestments and significant drops in total housing units. As the immigrant population continued to grow, local business investors and middle and upper class white residents began to move away from the area and the rich architecture deteriorated due to lack of maintenance.2 In the 1950’s the Chicago city government became concerned about the state of its city and surrounding areas, including Wicker Park. A Development Plan for the Central Area of Chicago was issued in 1958 “which called for redevelopment of the CBD [Central Business District] periphery for ‘uses that are primarily used for, but not part of, the main functions of the Central Area [and…] listed middle – class housing and aesthetics as the priorities for such areas.” The same areas were also declared as urban renewal The Damen Station in Wicker Park provides direct access to Downtown ChicagoB conservation areas by the Department of Urban Renewal, or the DUR.2 The first Little change was made until the 1970’s the CDG. The realtors were successful renewal project planned for the area across when immigration began to plateau. where the govern¬ment was not. Groups the highway from Wicker Park was met of properties were bought, starting with the with support by the community, but after While the city’s redevelopment plans were in a original Victorian mansions of the wealthy completion, it became obvious that the standstill with public lobbying, the real estate German and Polish immigrants, and were renewal project was “focused on physical market was quietly pushing gentrification in rehabilitated.2 rather than on resident development” as the Wicker Park area. Lincoln Park, nearby, previous residents were forced to leave was almost completely gentrified, so cheap Artists, targeted and encouraged by the when the unit prices were too high.2 Due to property to renovate was hard to find. real estate brokers, began to migrate to the these unfavorable results of the first renewal Realtors began recommending Wicker Park cheap rental spaces and great diversity.2 project, the next time the city showed locations for interested investors because Wicker Park was an ideal location for a interest in redevelopment in its peripheral of the low property costs, great architecture displaced artists’ community to reestablish communities, it was met with opposition. and prime location near Lincoln Park and themselves. Many cheap rental properties

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were available along with empty warehouses and industrial buildings used for studio spaces. This migration also aligned with the height of diversity. “Artists’ interest in locating in marginal neighborhoods whose majority population is poor and usually non-white involves the desire to occupy inexpensive space adequate to their needs.”4 Gentrification followed suit quickly at this point. The influx of educated and cultured young adults sparked the market. “The arts, including small-scale pursuits like poetry readings or experimental visual arts, contribute to a creative milieu that concentrates individuals with diverse competencies and feeds innovative dispositions.”4 The young artists attract new, innovative technologies and enterprises that can use the talent and skill they provide.4 The housing prices rose by more than 200% between 1980 and 1990. This decade was marked by new clusters of gentrification throughout the area. Developers purchased key properties, against the community’s opposition, to make room for large retail facilities and student housing. Hundreds of families were displaced from their homes. social backing to move forward into projects Wicker Park and other neighborhoods in of new construction in the form of expensive the surrounding area, through political multi-family condos. By the year 2000, movements, were receiving more than half the “historic homes from the German beer of their spending in money from the city. barons of the 1890s [were] still occupied on Also, they were second in neighborhood Hoyne and Pierce, just southwest of North and Damen. Some cottages and bungalows improvements.2 remain[ed] on the side streets, but it [was] By 1990, one-fourth to one-fifth of all local the mid-rise developments and townhouses properties had been renovated through that lure[d] home buyers.”5 Gentrification has gentrification. The neighborhood statistics all but erased the lower economic bracket of showed that there had been “increases Wicker Park‘s community. Property costs in home prices and white-collar workers have been driven so high that a piece of along with decreases in household size and land for low-income housing project in the minority population.”2 Sealing its fate, Wicker poorest parts of the community is too high Park was declared an historic landmark. to feasibly construct the project. From then on, rehabbers would receive tax credits and historical significance in their In its relatively short life, Wicker Park has gone through many changes, economically work. and socially. Its original developers, the The early 1990’s presented the ideal Wicker brothers wanted a neighborhood situation for gentrification to fully succeed. It setting with diversity. At times Wicker was only possible because of the economic Park had a large cross section of industry, improvements, having two men in political nationality, and social and economic office fighting for a successful gentrification inhabitants. However, in the last 20 years, of the area they represent and a city plan to with the decrease in properties available create a real estate market for the middle. for the city of Chicago to develop, Wicker Even though some opposition remained, the Park became the target of the developers city and developers had the economic and transforming its once diverse community into

Jane Jennings

Wicker Park Neighborhood

C

new and renovated homes and commerce for the middle and upper class, erasing the lower economic section of the Wicker Park. Chicago’s Flat Iron building, built by Holabird and Roche in 1913 at the intersection of Milwaukee, Damen, and North Avenues, is emblematic of the neighborhood, changing as often as the population. This building, sitting at the intersection of the busiest streets in Wicker Park, has been used throughout its history by the most influential groups in the area. First, it was built to house the offices for a Polish organization, the social majority in Wicker Park at the time. As industrialization increased, it was turned into a factory, and then fell empty as industry moved away. When the artists entered the neighborhood, effectively influencing all parts of the economy and society, it was obvious that the Flat Iron would become their flagship studio space. It is now known as The Flat Iron Artist Community. During the day it is home and workshop to some of the neighborhoods many artists and at night it comes alive with street performers and live bands, as well as many bars and pubs along the roads outside.5

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

“The term or concept of ethnic enclave refers to the marvelous construction of minority businesses into a tight community of buyers and sellers who replicate the center economy in microcosm so that the multiplier effect to their dollars is greatly enhanced. The ethnic enclave commonly includes residences and meeting places but is foremost a community of businesses. The importance of the ethnic enclave notion is that the idea of middlemen minorities had many weaknesses, and these weaknesses included overly narrow and negative views of the immigrant role in bulk cities.� - Kenneth L. Wilson and Alejandro Portes


Ethnic Enclave

BRICK LANE LONDON, ENGLAND AN AVENUE OF CHANGE London’s Brick Lane has taken on many has led to changes both socially and in the personalities in its history, most of which built environment. Brick Lane has shifted have been characterized by the various from an area of racial conflict to one of working class immigrant groups that have commercial success. come and gone over the years. Located just outside the city walls in the borough of Brick Lane first served as an asylum for the Tower Hamlets, the route along which bricks Huguenots, who fled France in the 1600’s were carted from Spitalfields to the end of due to religious persecution.1 Weaving Whitechapel Lane came to be known simply was the Huguenots’ chosen trade, and as Brick Lane in the 15th century. The area their immigration led to the development of has become a haven for immigrants seeking Petticoat Lane (now Middlesex Street), an refuge from persecution in their home area notable for clothes manufacturing just countries. Oftentimes they have fled, only west of Brick Lane. The Huguenots were the to encounter similar persecution upon their first to bring the “rag trade” to Brick Lane, arrival. The first major group, the Huguenots, an association that subsequent immigrant occupied Brick Lane in the 17th century. groups, most notably the Ashkenazi Jews, They were later followed by Irish and Jewish have adopted and which still persists today. immigrants. Eventually, immigrants from The Jewish immigrants who turned Brick South Asia, more specifically the Sylhet Lane into a burgeoning Jewish enclave fled region of Bangladesh, moved in and from eastern Europe in the late 19th century. displaced the Jewish population of Brick They brought their expertise in tailoring Lane almost entirely. 1 Having long been the with them and helped further distinguish site of ethnic tensions, Brick Lane has now Brick Lane as a focal point in the clothing been repackaged and sold to white-collar industry. In the 1970’s, the Bengalis began patrons as an ethnic enclave. The recent to immigrate to Brick Lane, taking on menial evolution of “Curry Mile” on Brick Lane as jobs under the Jews who were already the place to get authentic Bengali cuisine established. As more and more Bengalis

36


Sam Robinson

Brick Lane during the annual International Curry FestivalA

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Ethnic Enclave

spread word back home of the blossoming community, the new immigrants gradually overtook the Jews. More recently Brick Lane has seen a resurgence of the clothing industry, with non-Bengali designers and fashion houses moving in adjacent to Brick Lane to take advantage of the district’s hip image as well as the desirable addressFashion Street runs perpendicular to Brick Lane. The first recorded brewery on Brick Lane, founded by Joseph Truman in 1683, now serves as evidence of Brick Lane’s revamped image.1 Formerly known as the Black Eagle Brewery, (currently the Old Truman Brewery) the building is now home to shops and bars, art exhibits and event spaces, offices and fashion markets. The brewery also houses some of London’s trendiest nightclubs. In 2006 a fashion event entitled, “I Love Brick Lane” was held. Despite the name, none of the designers invited to participate were Bengali. The event’s coordinators explained that this was “partly to ensure excellent quality.”2 Brick Lane’s role as a center for Bengali culture was not being infringed upon by another group of ethnic immigrants as it had in the past, but rather by hipsters. Within the last twenty years, the rebranding of Brick Lane as Banglatown and the prominence of Bengali cuisine has sparked absurd numbers of new curry houses; there are currently 60, compared with just eight in 1989.3 The repackaging effort has also begotten controversial Asian-inspired arches marking the entrances to Banglatown. Many residents feel as if the designation of Brick Lane as a cultural quarter and the attempts to market the area to tourists and other Londoners are disingenuous and driven by greed, not an earnest attempt to bolster the local economy. One shop owner says, “Banglatown – I think it is a farce! It was opened in name only. They are practically not doing anything. There is no funding, no desire to develop the concept-no budget-just a name.”2 Brick Lane’s Bengalis embrace their shared ethnic background; while there is of course some competition between individual restaurants, Brick Lane is still a tight knit community. When looking for potential employees, restaurant owners help each other out rather than compete. As one owner puts it,

38

Brick Lane is also now a hub for trendy twenty-somethings “We work together, there is a strong network. I go to the next restaurant and ask if they know anyone. The whole Bengali chain is running and talking to each other…if you are outside Brick Lane then you do not have this.”2

Since many of the Curry house owners are practicing Muslims and are forbidden to drink or serve alcohol, it is common practice for them to allow customers to bring their own beer; which has certainly been to the delight of the throngs of twenty-somethings who flock to Brick Lane. What was once a

B

place too dangerous to venture into at night is now a nightlife destination for London’s young adults.3 In an attempt to accept Bengali culture by embracing Curry Mile’s cuisine, some critics and others flocking to Brick Lane have devalued individual restaurateurs by judging their validity en masse. The success of one restaurant on Curry Mile often depends on the collective reputation of Brick Lane, not on the individual merits of that restaurant. Though a generally


positive impression exists, some level of stereotyping still occurs. To try and combat the resulting frustration from curry house owners and create some distinction between the dozens of curry houses, there are now Curry Competitions where each house submits their best for a group of judges, which this past year included the mayor of Tower Hamlets. These competitions are part of a larger event known as Baishaki Mela, which celebrates the Bengali new year. Such an event must seem surreal to many occupants of Brick Lane. Just a few short decades ago, the streets were filled with National Front and British National Party mobs voicing-and oftentimes physically manifesting-their displeasure with the heavy Bengali presence in Brick Lane. In Rachel Lichtenstein’s book On Brick Lane, she paints a picture of a district in constant turmoil.

Sam Robinson

The Old Truman Brewery has become a center for fashion, cuisine, and nightlife.C “In the 1970’s… the National Front was at its height, the Bengali community staged protests and attempted to prevent were expanding, and racial attacks were the movie from being filmed on Brick Lane. commonplace. The atmosphere was tense, There were also threats of public book as gangs of skinheads repeatedly charged burning that never materialized. In the down Brick Lane, smashing windows throwing end, reaction to the movie was generally concrete blocks and bottles. The police did little positive and did more to bring business to to stop it. S choolchildren were let out Brick Lane than it did to hurt the image of early and rushed straight home. Stories of young Bengalis in London. men having their ears slashed off and being beaten beyond recognition started to circulate. The community lived in fear: ‘paki-bashing’ was commonplace and any Asians out alone at night were risking their lives. ‘Most Bengalis wouldn’t move north of the railway bridge unless they moved in gangs of twelve,’ Ken told me. ‘Jerry White’s book on the Rothschild buildings says elderly Jewish people would always tell him don’t walk through Bethnal Green at night because it’s not safe, and it was exactly the same in the 1970’s, you hardly ever saw Bengalis north of the bridge. It was almost as if there were two brick lanes.”4

While the social progress since then has been nothing short of remarkable, many in London still are uncomfortable with or entirely prejudiced towards South Asian immigrants. Monica Ali’s 2002 novel, and its 2007 film adaptation, brought a deluge of tourism and outside interest to Brick Lane. However, they did little to dispel some people’s negative stereotypes of Bengalis. Many were upset by what they say was the movie’s portrayal of them as a “disorderly and irreligious” group of people.5 Locals

39


Ethnic Enclave

CHINATOWN

MANHATTAN, NEW YORK A DEFENDED NEIGHBORHOOD Chinatown is experiencing profound economic and cultural changes from both internal and external pressures. Internal influences stem from new organizational and residential solidarities that have been created by labor and community groups, while the external forces include global economic shifts where the structure of advanced capitalism now includes a heightened mobility of labor and capital. Until the 1950s, Chinese immigrants were excluded from American citizenship. AntiChinese sentiment and discrimination that caused most Chinese immigrants to be consigned to labor intensive, low wage jobs, such as restaurant and laundry work; jobs that were deemed undesirable by the American public. The Chinese were being denied citizenship rights which was a requirement for many professional occupations of high and low status, making them ineligible for municipal, state, and federal employment. Many of the original frontier and rural Chinatowns either disintegrated or dwindled to a few elderly Chinese living in isolation.

40

However, Chinatowns grew in the “urban frontier” of low rent districts of central city areas near waterfront locations, transportation stations, and near skid rows or red light districts. During World War II, a favorable diplomatic alliance was formed between the United States and China against Japan, which led Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Acts that denied the Chinese citizenship. The Hart-Cellar Immigration Act of 1965 lifted the national origin quotas of immigration and helped the steady growth of New York City’s Chinatown. The first New York Chinese began congregating in the southern edge of the Lower East Side on what was called the “plow and harrow site”. During the exclusion era, New York’s Chinatown had a spatial geography scattering throughout the entire metropolitan area though the commercial, social, and political activity was still centered in the vicinity of the old “plow and harrow site”. To gain a better understanding of social change, it is important to examine the role of the community in the political economy


Zachary Lee

Chinatown, Manhattan, NYC.A

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Ethnic Enclave

One of the many Chinatown groceries.B

and popular culture. “Chinatown’s social Chinatown has demonstrated signs of foreign colony rather than with the problems have been perceived as a result advancement in transnational capitalism as adolescent predators of a deprived, socially of stubborn Chineseness, where ethnic many overseas Chinese banks have entered disorganized underclass”.1 Chinatown is traditionalism foils cultural integration. Chinatown’s retail banking system with an commonly viewed as a congested den of It has been viewed as a cloistered, interest in capturing Chinatown’s deposits public housing and filthy sweatshops in unchanging community where the residents and financing real estate investments. which illegal immigrants work in slave-like keep to themselves and thus impedes By taking stake in the local real estate conditions under the control of organized development, they have further contributed crime syndicates. This misrepresentation of modernization.”1 to Chinatown’s built environment and the Chinatown is partly due to formulaic media Local government representations, prime-time televisions A study by two sociologists suggests that enclave economy. there is a strong sense of “community” officials often encourage the involvement serials, and classic Hollywood films, which when in the presence of a “defended of foreign corporations, banks, and other portray Chinatown as a place overwhelmed neighborhood.” In the case of Chinatown, producer services in New York City as a by illegal immigrants, poverty and poor this community is not trying to impede means of spurring and securing New York sanitary conditions, and organized crime. modernization. Instead, residents are City’s position as a national and international responding to redevelopment and urban command center of the global economy. As a result, the local government implements change that threatens their traditions.2 policies of investigating and policing in order Some small and medium sized enterprises Local governments have historically viewed to clean up the “slums” of Chinatown. Until and sweatshops do exploit their workforce immigrant communities as obstacles to the 1970s, the workers and business leaders with low wages, long hours, and poor growth and modernization, viewing them of the community had very little, if any, impact conditions; however, many immigrants are as a “clannish closed society, crowded with on urban policy and redevelopment projects eventually given opportunities for upward unassimilated newcomers who live a life taking place in Chinatown. However, in mobility and integration into the American of marked separation from the American the past 20 years there have been a series middle classes. Manhattan’s Lower East mainstream. As a district of crime and of political conflicts between the enclave side has been a portal for immigrant social problems, the vice industries of and the government over social policy and succession since the mid-19th century. Chinatown are associated with the cultural urban development. These confrontations insularity of a provincial, over populated illustrate the internal social changes through

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a growing sense of Chinatown’s political had an administrative sanction to bring power by the emergence of workplace and this street roaming activity under official community organizations. Because the control. Aggressive campaigns began to local governments are more dependent on confine street trading to certain municipally property taxes and local levies, they are designated sites outside of the areas with more reliant on local economic growth and existing heavy traffic and established retail property development for their revenues, activity. Public street-trading however especially since the diminishment and end gradually made its way back into those of federal revenue sharing programs. heavily congested areas. One proposed solution to the street vendor problem was to Chinatown’s lower circuit of petty enterprises relocate the vendors to an open-air market. has often been of considerable interest to On opening day, the market had completely local government managers. The managers filled its 100 available slots but many have implemented land-use zoning to complaints soon followed and the market protect industrial loft manufacturing space has not been a success. to preserve the Chinese garment production industry. They have also recognized the Vendors complained about the strict potential of restaurants, groceries, and regulations about the allowable items they other retail establishments, as a source of may sell (No wine or liquor), the limited hours tourism and have introduced industrial and of operation, and the constant construction cultural policies to stabilize these productive that had closed major transportation and commercial uses of space in Chinatown. routes, such as the Grand Street subway On the other hand, some government station, which is one of Chinatown’s two officials still see Chinatown as somewhat major stops. This project’s failure provided of a tenement slum of substandard housing, a political example for groups opposed to overcrowding, and criminal activities. The its establishment, such as the Chinatown lower circuit continues to be viewed as a Vendors Association. This group was critical nuisance that impedes economic growth of the vendor relocation effort; they have and modernization. Public street vendors made many appearances at demonstrations are viewed as a sanitary and public regarding vendor relocation and continue to health hazard that needs to be regulated support the concept of unregulated public and controlled. As a result, the New street access to Chinatown vendors.3 New York City Department of City Planning has implemented many street trader clearance campaigns. One such campaign determined that the growing concentration of the street vendors had created great problems of traffic congestion and street sanitation. Major street improvements and the establishment of pedestrian-only roadways in the heart of old Chinatown were among the recommendations to the city. There was a community consensus about the improvement of the street conditions however there was a negative reaction to the idea of pedestrian zoning because many business owners emphasized their dependence on the daily access of delivery trucks and vans. Another problem the city encountered was that of vendors and peddlers competing with established, tax-paying retail stores. Because many street vendors have traditionally operated in the informal sector outside of municipal regulation, the city

Zachary Lee

York City rent control regulations keep average rent payments relatively low but vacancy decontrol statutes have allowed landlords to dramatically increase rent, only when the entire building is vacated for renovation or demolition to make way for new construction. Some Chinatown landlords wish to improve housing conditions by building new, affordable housing, but most area land-owners would rather invest in more profitable construction, such as condominiums. Therefore, these landowners are limiting the housing opportunities for the low income population that depend on affordable housing to survive. As a result, the Chinatown community organizations are getting involved in the business of affordable housing development through the acquisition of fore-closed and fire-damaged properties, which are then renovated with public and charitable funds. The increase in political voice, government recognition, changes in the global economy, as well as improved rights for the Chinese immigrants are internal and external forces that continue to make a clear impact on the economic and cultural standing of Chinatown.

Chinese Immigrants in America.C

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village Regenerated

Edge City

Green

“Planning for vitality must stimulate and catalyze the greatest possible range and quantity of diversity among uses and among people... this is the underlying foundation of city economic strength, social vitality and magnetism. To do this, planners must diagnose, in specific places, specifically what is lacking to generate diversity, and then aim at helping supply the lacks as best they can be supplied. Planning... must promote continuous networks of local street neighborhoods, whose users and informal proprietors can count to the utmost in keeping the public spaces of the city safe, in handling strangers so they are an asset rather than a menace, in keeping casual public tabs on children in places that are public.� - Jane Jacobs, Life and Death of American Cities

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy


Urban Village

DIAGONAL MAR BARCELONA, SPAIN AN OLYMPIC LEGACY

The Diagonal Mar development came about as one of the 1992 Olympic Games legacy projects, part of a strategy to reclaim and redevelop Barcelona’s waterfront. Transformed from an old industrial and working-class neighborhood, the Poblenou district has become a mixeduse development with a focus on creating a knowledge-based economy. This transformation planning began in the early 1990s and was approved in 2000. The result of the design was an elaborate master-plan strategy created by the public sector with many significant urban, economic, and social implications to the area and the entire city of Barcelona.

of the waterfront, known as Somorrostro, began to grow as an illegal settlement of shantytowns. During the mid 1960s, a crisis hit the textile industry in Spain, which led to the relocation of such industries to the outer districts of the city. The entire Poblenou district began to undergo a serious crisis. The industries would then change from textile to metalwork and chemical, and then to small workshops and warehouses. By the time of the 1992 Olympic Games, the district included 6342 firms with most being familyowned enterprises operating warehouses and small companies supplying component products for Barcelona’s metallurgical industries and food services. Although being zoned for industry, the district had a population density of 9757 inhabitants per hectare, which is significantly less dense than the rest of the city, but its socioeconomic indicators did not differ much from those of the city.1

Until the 19th century, the Poblenou area was a wetland outside of Barcelona. It first developed as an industrial center due to its location and physical features. Being close to the Mediterranean coast and having ample open land, the area provided the Catalan textile industry resources to flourish. The 1992 Olympic Games created a key During the next two centuries, Poblenou’s opportunity for a change at a city scale. This urban fabric grew organically, with factories, started a period of urban transformation for warehouses, and housing. Even a section much of Barcelona. New, much needed

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Ross Ritchie

Parc Diagonal Mar A

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Urban Village

infrastructure was constructed including many new lines of public transportation, a new waterfront, ring roads, and an enlargement of the airport. The funding for this new construction was almost entirely by the Spanish and Catalan governments because of a large local public debt and small contribution from the private sector. The local government prior to the Olympics had a socialist policy agenda, which had members from many neighborhood associations but lacked the backing and trust of the business class that could secure major funds. The leadership of the local council knew that this relationship would hamper the ability of the large city projects to become successful. Mayor Maragall started a process to foster economic and social consensus that led to a new model of public-private cooperation, although based on a leading role by the public sector.1 The successful execution of the infrastructure projects for the Olympics resulted in a growing number of tourists and investment into the area due to the positive media coverage during the Games. The council wanted to keep the momentum of the Olympics to counter the post Olympic depression that most cities fall victim to by laying out a future plans of the city that were extremely ambitious and entrepreneurial. The largest of these plans was the redevelopment of the Poblenou district. This plan included a massive restructuring of the zoning policies to expand from single-use industrial and working class neighborhood to a multi-use with knowledge-based activity enterprises. The beginning of this plan included the construction of an underground sanitation plant, whose recycling method has been praised throughout Europe, along with a convention center by Herzog & de Meuron. These projects became the springboard for redevelopment projects in the area and for the rest of the city. The creation of a new Soon after the concept of this knowledgehigh-speed rail route on the outer limits of based district of Diagonal Mar was put the district, as well as restructuring of the into construction the dotcom bubble road network, created a more attractive collapsed, which led to the re-analysis of location for the development of a central the economic limitations of the area. Policy knowledge-based district. This idea of makers soon identified that a diverse creating a knowledge-based economic group of existing factors were possible for district on the site of a traditional industrial relocation such as universities, national and working class further exemplified the corporation headquarters, and regional city-wide redevelopment plan of radical and local public institutions. By 2007, 1063 firms were located in the Poblenou district physical, economic, and social change.1

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Avinguda Diagonal B

holding 31,982 jobs, which is a larger area comprising the Diagonal Mar development. The Poblenou district is now seen globally as a competitive metropolitan area having a mix of small and large firms of high-tech or knowledge-based activities. This is noted as a “new economy� area that include interaction of a knowledge-intensive cluster that bridges all sectors including residential and economic.1 The design of the Diagonal Mar district


in Poblenou further exemplified the transformation of the city. The master plan includes five residential projects within 15 buildings, three hotels, three office towers, one massive retail center, and the convention center. Tying this design together, half of the 84-acre development, about 15 city blocks, is devoted to open space, which included the Parc Diagonal Mar designed by Enric Miralles and Benedetta Tagliabue. This park not only extends the Avenida Diagonal, which runs all across Cerda’s grid, but it connects the main artery of the city to the waterfront. The concept connects the surrounding working class neighborhoods with the beach front using the Parc Diagonal Mar as a green way. The park, laid out in the shape of a giant tree, is seen as a wetland, which comprises playgrounds, seating, sports facilities, an outdoor cafe, fountains, and sprays. The park has weaving paths around a series of ponds leading to the sea that can be seen from above by the high rise residents. The design of the park also includes a number of engaging and interactive elements. Musical squares, sculptural mist fountains, custom playscapes, and unique seating elements are found throughout the entire green space. The park also used many sustainable Adjacent to the main forum is the residental development principles, which is something district La Mina, which is Barcelona’s that was stressed in the entire Diagonal Mar greatest social deprivation area. An addition development. Across from the park lies the investment of 141 million euros to improve massive Diagonal Mar Commercial Center, the quality of life in La Mina was provided which is one of Spain’s largest shopping by the city authorities and from the EU City malls. It has 240 stores, a food court with Neighborhoods in Crisis Fund. This was Wi-Fi, cinemas, and services for children aimed to help reduce the potential conflict including a play area, nursing rooms, and a that is generated by wealth and poverty in first aid area.2 such close proximity. A center piece of the master plan is the Parc del Forum, where the convention center is located. The center was initially built for the Forum of Cultures in 2004, but it is now used for business conventions and cultural events. The main structure, Edifici Forum, is a modern construction with two large auditoriums and is also the largest plaza in Barcelona. The plaza has become a favored spot to hold concerts and cultural, city events. It has also become a gathering space for many skaters and rollerbladers because of its large open paved area with many benches and stairs, which are seen a obstacles to them.

Diagonal Mar, which is surrounded by large fences and gates that are locked by night, is indeed a gated community that encourages social segregation and an increase La Mina’s exclusion. By this sense of social isolation, Project for Public Spaces, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public places that build communities, described the park as one “designed by lawyer, a place where no spontaneous, unforeseen event can ever happen. It’s a classic case of design run amok, where creating a place for human use was merely an afterthought.”3 Another problem with the area is the lack of local shoppers with spending money to

Ross Ritchie

Parc Diagonal Mar

C

sustain such a large retail structure. Since much of the housing development is yet to be filled, the mall relies on out of the area visitors or La Mina residents. The housing development is also plagued by its lack of density. With only 48 dwellings per hectare, the Diagonal Mar hyper-community is seen by many as an urban development disaster. Other thriving districts in Barcelona, such as Eixample, has 150 dwellings per hectare.1 The density of the development is very low. The large broad side walks that line the empty streets are a constant reminder of the lack of life in the area. Nevertheless, many crowds of young parents with their childern enjoy the interactive playscapes of the park the district provides respite from the hustle and bustle of the center of Barcelona. The close connection to the beach and interesting modern architecture makes it an ideal quiet location for a spot to relax and enjoy life.

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

“Hand in hand with the development of a new civic pride and the marketing of a newly conceived place is the physical reconstruction of the old city and the creation of a new urban landscape. This is the result of the need by city governrs to distinguish their city from others in the global marketplace, which has had a Edge City particular emphasis on the environmental, social and cultural life of the city. Flagship regeneration projects are important symbols of change in the urban landscape and their design and the design of city areas as a whole play a Green crucial role in the process of urban regeneration.”

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

- Matthew Wansborough & Andrea Mageean, “The Role of Urban Design in Cultural Regeneration”


Regenerated

CRYSTAL CITY ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

EMERGING FROM THE UNDERGROUND

Crystal City is located in Arlington, Virginia, bordered by Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport to the east and residential neighborhoods such as Addison Heights to the west. According to Robert E. Lang, the district was initially designed for the overflow of government buildings from nearby Washington, DC. Created in the 1960’-s, Crystal City was “an isolated office environment disconnected from the older city of Arlington.”1 It was a type of edge city that maintained the grid-planned street system similar to a city, and the buildings are connected to the streets, not giant parking lots. Although, instead of people using the streets, “it was developed in a modernist theory where you separate people from the streets.”1 Crystal City, although perfectly functional as an edge city, essentially failed when it came to aesthetics. Events occurred that would empty out a vast amount of office space, and it became financially critical for the space to be re-leased as soon as possible. It was designed so poorly in terms of the ambience it created; it needed a complete renovation to attract new tenants or risk desertion. Therefore, it could now be

52

considered a regenerated district.

Before the Metro system was built, all that stood in that area was “railway lines, a brickyard, and acres of industrial wasteland.”1 Eventually a collection of investors acknowledged the regions two useful location traits. First, being near the 14th Street Bridge, which was one of the only ways across the Potomac that leads directly into Washington, DC. Secondly, close proximity to I-395 that leads to the Pentagon. One of these investors was a real estate developer named Robert H. Smith. He obtained the 18 acres of land in 1961 and commenced to build the utopian-like development that so many now dislike. In the 1960’s this was considered a modern, transit-oriented design, which was successful in serving its function and was common in European cities. His focal point was the Crystal House, which was an 800unit apartment building that had an “elaborate crystal chandelier in the lobby.” The crystal chandelier became an icon for his eventual 150-acre development, and hence the name “Crystal City” was derived.1


Kelsey White

Image of the underground shoppihng center/ tunnels of Crystal City .A

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Regenerated

ATTACHMENT 3 – Map 2

The problem with Smith’s development was not necessarily function, but the visual aspects. In an article Robert E. Lang commented, “Most criticisms of Crystal City come down to aesthetics and design more than practical flaws.” However, in the same interview he admitted that the same design decisions will most likely be avoided in future developments.2 The area appeared abandoned as people traveled in the underground tunnels that connected their parking spaces to the basements of their office buildings. There was never a need to walk into the first floor. Pedestrians used the tunnels due to the convenience of the underground metro connections. Someone walking around would see barren sidewalks and cold concrete forms protruding into the sky. Attempts at breaking up the monotony of the underground tunnels were the addition of shopping and restaurants. However, this allowed virtually everything to be done indoors and there was never a need for anyone to ever venture outdoors even for sustenance. Nicknames began to emerge calling employees inhabiting Crystal City “Mole People.”2 Nevertheless, some have argued that there is nothing wrong with Crystal City. They felt it to be cozy and convenient. The fact remained that from an outside perspective, it would be difficult to attract new tenants who could only see a dreary space. The plan of Crystal City could be compared with Le Ville Radieuse designed by Le Corbusier. Corbusier developed his ideas of urbanization in the 1920’s and incorporated many key factors, including separating pedestrians from the “high-speed vehicle.” Ahead of his time, Corbusier realized the future would be run through automobiles, and it is clear in the planning of Crystal City that cars were a very important aspect. One of Le Corbusier’s principles was to separate the pedestrians from traffic by raising separate streets in the air, where they were used solely for automobiles. Perhaps foreshadowing the highway and off-ramps, Corbusier thought, “the pedestrian should quite simply be given sole possession of the entire ground surface of the city,” thereby creating the feeling “as though [the pedestrians] were living in the heart of the countryside.”3 Crystal City’s plan separated the pedestrians and the automobiles but

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- 27 -

Map of the Retail Frontage and Interior Pedestrian Regeneration Proposal for Crystal City.B

did the opposite of creating a countryside in the building: restaurants, shops, etc.”3 A feel. Instead the plan compared more multi-use design as well, Corbusier’s plan with another of Le Corbusier’s visions of successfully separated pedestrians and utilizing an underground transportation cars and created easier motives of getting network. Corbusier proposed, “The subway around. However, Corbusier’s plans were network of the Radiant City will…take never built. Meant for the center of Paris, the passengers on to particular buildings, Parisian’s and many others preferred their the basements of which will all include a quaint streets to Corbusier’s “horizontal subway station. The line itself will follow skyscrapers.” This could be for the very one of the branches of the cross; on either same reason some individuals prefer driving side of it will be the platforms, and beyond further down Jefferson Davis Highway to the platforms will be located the communal Old Town, Alexandria or the Del Ray area. services provided for the personnel working Despite the undeniable effectiveness of


Crystal Cities’ district, it does not contain the appeal of being outside strolling along unique storefronts. Crystal City and La Ville Radieuse had similar problems of monotonous concrete towers. Yet La Ville Radieuse had a better system of surrounding green space, which Crystal City initially failed at. With only a couple green spaces and the buildings in Crystal City blocking sun, the “open spaces” were rarely utilized.3 Eventually events unraveled to the point where the drabness of Crystal City could no longer be ignored. Decades of office space, hotels, and restaurants being occupied and used by government tenants began to come to an end with the release of BRAC (Base Closure and Realignment Commission) decisions. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office relocating to Alexandria also left 1.9 million square feet of office space empty. Then the “US Airways Group Inc.’s proposed merger with America West Holdings Corp. could send hundreds of local jobs to Arizona.”1 This meant more than 17,000 people and their contribution to the businesses around them would be leaving. Talk of this happening began in the 1990’-s and congressman James P. Morgan worried for the financial stability and attempted to appeal the idea claiming it would cost more money to leave rather than stay. Nevertheless, the Navy believed the move would “pay for themselves in three to four years and improve the lives of [those involved] by relocating them to less expensive areas.”4 For fear of Crystal City completely failing economically, landowners such as Charles E. Smith decided it needed a serious renovation if it were to attract nongovernment issued tenants. A working draft in 2008 outlined the future “Crystal City Plan.” It’s vision statement called for “a more functional and pedestrianfriendly urban street network lined with active retail and civic spaces.” It also commented it will help improve the “sense of place” by bringing in cultural venues and more definition of neighborhoods through “high-quality architecture, open spaces, streetscape designs, and public art.”5 It is clear the main aspect of the plan calls for improving the outside conditions. It is attempting to bring more people out on the streets and therefore aiding the abandoned

Kelsey White

View of Crystal City from the Potomac River. C

appearance, which was enhanced in the ignored by any unacquainted newcomers. past years by continual relocation of more It will take time for Crystal City’s reputation tenants. The plans’ main goals were to to change. Yet it is only a matter of time create a more welcoming exterior, define that people will eventually start migrating neighborhoods, relate the architecture to over towards Crystal City for its undeniable “the human scale,” improve transportation location and continual expansion with a for pedestrians and other modes, practice more environmentally and aesthetically sustainable and green design, and preserve conscious approach. the neighborhoods to the west. 5 “Charles E. Smith [renovated] two of the office buildings [in his six building conglomerate called Crystal Plaza, and contemplated] whether to tear down the other four and start over.”1 Overall he contributed $40 million dollars attempting to make his properties and the general area more agreeable to the outside person. He added shops and restaurants and turned Crystal Drive into a two-way main street that made it much easier to gain access to the district. 6 Crystal City was improved immensely. It now hosts popular cultural festivals and events and the restaurants always have customers. Although it still would not be thought of initially when contemplating where to go for nightlife, it is veering towards an extension of 23rd street and the pentagon city area. Even during daytime there is a noticeable difference on the street level. Many more tenants are walking outside to their lunch destinations or meetings. The underground is still in use but is generally forgotten or

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Regenerated

EASTERN HARBOR DISTRICT AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS A RESIDENTIAL SEAPORT

The redevelopment of the Eastern Harbor District in Amsterdam from a once-prominent seaport to a booming residential area on the outskirts of the Netherlands’ capital city has brought about one of the most impressive collections of modern design and urban planning worldwide.

At the same time, the need for public housing was rapidly increasing. In the mid1970s, the city government had received 60,000 urgent housing applications. This prompted the Urban Development Division of the Department of Public Works to begin searching for new places to build housing. The Eastern Harbor District was established In 1978, a new city council was elected after the construction of the Central Station and released its coalition agreement, in 1885 rendered the open harbor front which had a distinct focus on public-sector incapable of accommodating large ships. rental housing, specifically the feasibility However, the reason for its creation was of residential construction in the Eastern the same one that led to its eventual demise Harbor District. Shortly thereafter, on as a seaport. As technology evolved in the August 15, 1978, “an official working group 1970s, ships became larger and required under the direction of the Economic Affairs wider docks and deeper water. This was division was charged with investigating especially true in bulk transport, such as when and under what conditions the Eastern that of cocoa, one of the most important Harbor District could be redeveloped as a products being traded through Amsterdam residential area.”1 The population decline at the time. This necessitated the move in Amsterdam of more than 200,000 people of most harbor-related commercial activity between 1959 and 1984 caused the city to to the larger Western Harbor District or look into possible strategies to prevent this to Rotterdam. Coupled with the fact that spill-over to surrounding cities.1 The concept airlines were simultaneously replacing ships of a “compact-city” was developed, which for international passenger travel, this led to called for 100 housing units per hectare, as the district’s abandonment as a seaport.1 a way to combat spill-over.2 Public-sector

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Jay Nelson

Row houses along the inner harbor of the islands of Borneo and Sporenburg A

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Regenerated

The Fourth National Policy Document on four slender, seven story towers containing Spatial Planning, or the “urban hubs policy owner-occupied flats both in the private document,” proved to be an important piece sector and lightly subsidized with one of legislation, as it classified the Eastern twenty story tower containing solely ownerFollowing a reorganization of the Harbor District as a housing construction site occupied flats. This design resulted in Department of Public Works, the “plaberum” near an urban hub, which made it eligible more expensive flats due to the high system was established as a set of for government subsidy. This was vital for construction costs. This also marked the guidelines for municipal urban planning. The funding of what was originally intended to first truly handicap friendly flats to be built in the district. Bridge dwellings were also implementation of this “plaberum” system be public-sector rental housing.1 built over the water with eating and drinking assisted the relatively rapid redevelopment of the Eastern Harbor District. With this The first section of the Eastern Harbor establishments on the lower floors.3 system in place, everyone knows their role District to be developed was the Abbatoir within the planning process and much of (slaughterhouse) site. This development, In an effort to attract higher income groups the debate about the proposed scheme is made up of 85% public-sector rental housing, to the district, higher priced rental and avoided.1 was built in the standard housing type of the owner-occupied dwellings are included from 1980’s: four or fewer levels of flats accessible the beginning of the plan for the first time Although no construction would begin until by entrance halls and staircases. The lack on KNSM Island. The buildings Het Westen 1987, the decision had essentially been of height was primarily driven by the goal and Het Oosten by Hans Kollhof and Bruno made to develop the Eastern Harbor District of cost minimization and affordability, since Albert contain a very differentiated housing as a residential area by 1975. During this elevators were not required for buildings program consisting of very small/affordable period, however, people still lived in the with four or fewer floors. These projects and very large/expensive flats side by side. regular dwellings near the Lloyd Hotel as were developed in strips due to their rapid Five previously squatted buildings also well as some gatehouses and company and efficient construction and also to avoid survived and were converted into housing. flats. Old captain’s apartments, previously corners or angles, which would drive costs One of these, the “Edelweiss” building, was occupied by the higher ranks of shipping up.3 actually sold by the city to the group of artists lines, were also rented out. Squatters began who had previously been squatting there.3 to occupy the empty commercial buildings The next section to be developed was located on the KNSM Island as well as a the warehouses, although these were Following the design of the KNSM Island, few on Java Island. The area also attracted more expensive to renovate and were phase three of the plaberum was divided. European adventurers who saw the Eastern subsequently turned over to private parties Phase 3A consisted of the “urban planning Harbor District as the fulfillment of their for development. These projects marked program of requirements” and was made “1960’s dream of ultimate freedom.”3 These the first owner-occupied flats but were still by the Spatial Planning Department, while new residents would play a significant role affordable and state-subsidized.3 phase 3B consisted of the selection of an in the planning of the redevelopment of the outside designer to produce the full design islands. Until 1985, all plans had intended Atelier PRO won the development of for the project under the supervision of to fill in many of the harbor basins in order Entrepot-West with their proposition of the market players and the city. Since the to allow space for green and recreational Pedestrian foot-bridge between Borneo & SporenburgB activities. The existing residents opposed this idea and promoted their cause using the slogan “blue is green.”3 housing on parts of Amsterdam bordering the city center was viewed as a way of addressing this initiative.

In 1981, the Master Plan Adjustment Working Group ranked different areas capable of changing into residential areas on when they should be changed and how desirable that change would be based on an examination of housing, employment, recreation, and transport in an integrated way. The report projected 8000 dwellings on the Eastern Harbor District to be completed by the year 2000 under the rapid variant, or 4750 units before the year 2000 and 3250 later under the slow variant, which at the time seemed reasonable since Java Island had ground lease contracts until 2023.1

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market players were directly responsible for the selection and supervision of the design, they were much more inclined to invest in the developments.4 This public demand for solid design was also chiefly responsible for the Eastern Harbor District becoming such a draw for all of the great architects and urban designers from around the world. Following the unexpected sale of Java Island to the city in the early 1990’s, twentyfive years before the owner’s long-lease contract expired, this new policy was put to the test.4 Coupled with the introduction of lateral canals and the first construction of much desired canal houses in over 200 years, the result was a decrease in public sector rental units to no more than thirty percent of the total dwellings in that section. The prevailing trend of the early 1990’s was shifting towards building for the market. The “Woonatlas,” or “Housing Atlas,” essentially contained a description of all the different housing types and their needs. This was used by the architects to help determine the highly differentiated housing program for the island. The decision was also made to build along the dock in order to create a sheltered inner area with good pedestrian/ cycling connections.3

Jay Nelson

Map of Eastern Harbor District in Amsterdam C

The eastern harbor district is one of the most sought after places to live in Amsterdam. It is occupied by people of all types, ranging from young professionals to families. Not originally intended for families with young children, the district has actually turned out to be a quite attractive place for them to live, with parks and public spaces interspersed throughout the neighborhoods. There is a sense of high design to the area, as seemingly every building was designed by a noteworthy architect. This has led to a After witnessing the early success of the fair amount of “archi-tourism” with architects redevelopment process, higher income and urban planners from around the world investors were more willing to invest in coming to see the place for themselves. the area. With the economic boom of the This is a sign of the overall success of the mid-1990’s, the demand for single family, redevelopment of the district, as it shows no owner-occupied dwellings grew larger by signs of losing its popularity any time soon. the development of Borneo and Sporenburg. Also new was the concept of “ground connected dwellings,” which are directly accessible from the street but may have other homes above, behind, or under them. With this concept in mind, the firm West 8 designed “a sea of houses, each with its own entrance, and in their midst, three mega blocks to increase density and serve as orientation points in the urban landscape.” The original plan called for each resident to develop his or her own dwelling. While this did happen for sixty dwellings along the inner harbor, the rest were developed by professional enterprises and housing corporations due to impending government deadlines for subsidies as well as the need to accommodate demand for housing.3

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Regenerated

GIUDECCA VENICE, ITALY A CHILD OF VENICE

Just south of St. Mark’s Square, across the west path across the island to this day. The Giudecca Canal, an island stretches out final name, Giudecca, is believed to be from to the east and west, shielding the heart the zudegai, or individuals convicted by the of Venice from the northern gusts of wind Dogal tribunals, who were sent to the island coming from the sea. This narrow strip as punishment. At this time, around the 5th of land, the largest island of Venice, has and 6th centuries, Venice was in a state of always been seen as an auxiliary part of the refuge and insecurity from the destruction greater Venice. Because of the separation, of the Huns on the mainland and pirates in the island has developed in a different the water, making banishment to this island manner than its greater counterpart. It has dangerous due to the lack of protection from been used according to the fluctuating social it mother city of Venice.1 As time went on, threads of Venetian society. This led to some Venice gained power and wealth. When periods of decline in the infrastructure and Venetians were secure in their waters, the social makeup of the island. Fortunately, the upper class began to build on and enjoy people of Venice and Italy recognized the the surrounding islands. A 15th century importance of this island and have enacted carving, displayed in the Correr Museum several urban planning campaigns over the in the Piazza St. Marco, depicts the urban past few decades to bring the beauty and structure of Giudecca at this time: durable charm back to the island of Giudecca. palazzos and churches made of stone lined the northern shore in view of Venice across Giudecca was first known as “Spianalonga,” the canal while plots of land stretched south meaning long spine, because of the island’s of these buildings for gardens and more geography. It is made up of eight smaller fragile buildings on the southern border.2 islands separated by parallel canals and These holiday houses for wealthy Venetians connected along the northern shore by were a haven of gardens and beauty. bridges.1 This northern border, or the spine Churches and monasteries were also built of the island, is the only continuous east with gardens on the island and often were

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Jane Jennings

The view of Giudecca Island from San Giorgio Campanile.A

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Regenerated

visited by people on their way to the Holy Lands.2

However, even though the northern shore across from Venice had some beautiful buildings and gardens, on the outskirts of the city, with few permanent residents, Giudecca began to decline. Laborers, specifically tanners, established themselves on the island, gathering regularly in the Church of Santa Efemia where they founded their Scuola dei Scorzeri. “In 1733 there were 31 such establishments with 200 master tanners, 48 labourers and 2 apprentices.�2 At some point during the rest of the 18th century, the first organized project took place to reclaim land that had fallen into decline. According to a 1810 land registry, gardens had replaced much of the outskirts of town removing the unsavory behaviors of the laborers.2 Great social change took place in the first half of the 19th century. First, Venice was defeated by Napoleon, ending its long history of independence, and second, it was given to Austria in a peace agreement. Venice and Giudecca continued without expansion or change for some time, until a revolt and the third Italian war of independence led to Venice’s inclusion in the Kingdom of Italy in 1866.3 Due to the many changes in government and economy, the Industrial Revolution arrived late to Venice. Because the main islands of Venice were densely populated with no room for expansion or development of industry, wealthy business men began to develop industries on Giudecca. One such person was Giovanni Stucky, who built the Stucky Mill. This enormous building was built along the canal in the style of gothic revival. From 1879-1925, 13 buildings were completed to outfit the company and became a symbol of industrialization in Venice.1 Also built at this time was a clock manufacturing plant and munitions plant in the Junghens district of Giudecca, and a number of other industrial projects such as plants producing goods from textiles, bricks, and beer and new dockyards for the increased traffic of goods to and from the island.2 Some of these projects covered entire blocks of land from north to south. Even at this time, with factories replacing gardens, in some

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The signature structure of the Junghans Area housing project by Cino Zucchi.B

parts, Giudecca was still a lively place for socialization and enlightenment as it was in 15th century.4

Wars, the IACP chose to build new units on Giudecca for the same reason industries built on the island; the land was open.

As industrialization grew, so did the importance of social housing. The Venice City Council, with a royal decree from the King of Italy, established an Autonomous Institute for Public Housing known as the IACP in 1914.1 This institute controlled a large number of housing units and had the ability to build more. When the need for low income housing rose after both World

In the years that followed WWII, Giudecca began to deteriorate and after the flood of 1966, which damaged many works of art and building structures, the Venetians began to take notice of Giudecca once again. It became important for the people of Venice to protect their historic culture thus setting the terms for Venetian redevelopment. They adopted a more conservative restoration


Jane Jennings

policy focusing on redevelopment of the historic centers.1 The Special Law for Venice of 1971 required in-depth studies and plans of the entire city of Venice. These plans broke down each area into types of buildings and levels of intervention needed to restore them.1 The IACP, now known as the ATER of Venice, took the first step in this process.5 “The types of intervention in the 1980’s varied from the rehabilitation of industrial areas near the Molino Stucky: the scheme for the Trevisan and Fregnan areas [along the canal at the west end of the island] and the reclaim and reuse of old industrial structures such as the Dreher brewery and a series of warehouses. Also larger reconstruction or upgrade schemes of existing residential areas were implemented. One of the examples is the competition for social housing reconstruction at Campo di Marte.”1 The competition that took place in 1984 between 10 famous European architects resulted in an urban plan by Alvaro Siza Viejra. The first phase of development included designs by the Italian designers, Aymonino Gianfranco Caniggia and Aldo Rossi, and was completed in 2004 providing 51 new dwellings. The second phase of housing includes buildings by Siza, which has been built, and Rafael Moneo Valles.5 Another notable 80’s project is Area Trevisan by Gino Valle. His design was an interpretation of the settlement of the island, in which horizontal building units stretch between canals in decreasing heights. The building style reflects the industrial style of the island. 2

1. Fregnan Area 2. Sport Centre Sacca San Biagio 3. Stucky Mill Hilton Hotel 4. Trevisan Area 5. Ex Herion Incubator 6. SS. Cosmo e Damiano Housing Project 7. Junghans Area 8. Ex CNOMV Incubator 9. Housing project for the elderly 10. Kindergarden Project 11. Social Housing Campo Di Marte 12. Housing project for Alzheimer’s Patients

Giudecca Island and selected projects construction and slight modifications to the existing buildings and open spaces in the complex.2

One of the most recent initiatives to be enacted in Giudecca’s favor is the Urban Italia program. This is part of the European Regional Development Fund’s strategic plan to support “sustainable development in the troubled urban districts of the European Union” with the “implementation of innovative models of development for the economic and social regeneration of [the] troubled areas.”2 The restoration and reconstruction of the Molino Stucky buildings is an excellent example of this initiative, because it is now one of the most exclusive high end hotels The Giudecca Project is an Urban Renewal in Venice, and once again exemplifies the program started by the Venetian City wealth and luxury of the people of Venice. Council in 1995 specifically for the island. According to the city’s requirements, “The In the first phase, feasibility studies were new Hilton hotel, [completed in 2006,] has done focusing on urban planning and been created without altering the façade reclamation of unused industrial facilities. or the industrial structure of the original The second phase consisted of a series mill,” but it failed to “reserve 50% of the of small scale, infrastructure projects, like building for apartments of ‘middle class’ workshops and innovative activities areas.2 prices and 1,000 m2 for cultural activities.”1 The most significant project to come out of This building renovation did not meet all of The Giudecca Project is the urban renewal the criteria set by the European Regional scheme for the Junghans area on the south Development Fund but, this restoration and side of the center of the island. The existing reconstruction project, along with others clock and munitions manufacturing plant exemplified Venice’s desire for high design closed in 1990 so architect Cino Zucchi for public projects. developed a master plan for social housing that included some refurbishing, new Two Buildings, The Ex CNOMV and Ex

C

Herion Incubators are part of a 2002 initiative called Vdi or Venice District for Innovation. The goals of this program are to promote new development through renovation of properties and establish new business in Venice, specifically small and medium size businesses in the historic center of the city.6 These two projects are located in recently renovated industrial buildings, the CNOMV Shipyards and the Church of SS.Cosma e Damiano complex that had been converted into a textile mill by the Herion family. As incubators for technology, the structures have been equipped with the most environmentally friendly and technologically advanced systems available.6 Since the Venetians first inhabited Guidecca Island many transformations have taken place. Over the years this island has been built up with beautiful and lasting palazzos and churches, and also massive industrial structures. Venice has taken the opportunity to preserve and improve the great spaces of architecture and culture that have developed on the island through these cycles of use and abuse. Giudecca sits across the water from one of the world’s most visited travel destinations, yet is not well known. Giudecca has outlasted the test of time, and should share some of Venice’s renown for great architecture, social projects and advances for the future.

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

“I have come to call these new urban centers Edge Cities. Cities, because they contain all the functions a city ever has, albeit in a spread-out form that few have come to recognize for what it is. Edge, because they are a vigorous world of pioneers and immigrants, rising far from the old downtowns, where little save Green villages or farmland lay only thirty years before.”

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

- Joel Garreau, “Edge City”


Edge City

NEW CENTER DETROIT, MICHIGAN THE FIRST EDGE CITY

In the early 1920’s the United States was east and the Lodge Freeway to the west.” 2 It experiencing a boom. One result of this is about three miles north of the city’s original was the emergence of New Center, Detroit. downtown and west of the intersection of The district that remains under the name Woodward Avenue and Grand Boulevard. New Center was named after the New Center News, a newspaper concentrated Downtown Detroit was overly crowded and on automobiles that began in 1933 and is factories were getting further away thanks still in print but under the name Detroit Auto to the convenience of the railroad system Scene.1 The fact that it was named after as well as Ford’s invention of the moving an automobile newspaper was appropriate assembly line in 1913. The production of because it was the automobile and the automobiles and other household appliances automobile industries that were vital in the flourished making it less expensive and more creation of New Center, Detroit. New Center readily available to a growing population. brought with it new jobs, retail and became Therefore, instead of continuing to add to a commuter haven and essentially the first the swarming streets of the typical American city, a new type of city began to emerge on edge city. the outskirts. The edge city enabled the Originally the region was made up of rural crowded downtown to spread out. Giving the residential neighborhoods just west of workingman a new cleaner place to go and the Grand Boulevard built in 1891 which make a living. At that time, the environment wrapped 12 miles around the then intended in most cities was unsanitary, overpopulated, footprint of Detroit. The Milwaukee Junction and unsafe. However, New Center offered was also built around the same time to bright possibilities of more office space, access the industrial factories that served retail, and better living conditions. downtown Detroit. New Center is currently “bounded by Virginia Park on the north, the According to Garreau, an edge city is defined Ford Freeway to the south, John R. to the by first, having five million square feet or more

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Kelsey White

Aerial View of New Center, Detroit. A

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Edge City

of leasable office space. Secondly, about “600,000 square feet or more of leasable retail space,” which can be comparable to a regular sized mall nowadays. Thirdly the edge city would need to have “more jobs than bedrooms”, which basically means is a commuter refuge. The edge city would also need to be “perceived by the population as one place,” and does not resemble a “‘city’ as recently as thirty years ago.” 3 Edge Cities are popping up everywhere now; yet New Center could be argued as one of the first edge cities. The automobile industry can take credit for the rise of New Center. The economic boom coincided with increased production and interest in automobiles. Therefore patrons such as W.C. Durant head of General Motors and the Fisher Brothers, whom developed the closed carriage, decided it was time for expansion. Henry Ford was also in the process of buying out buildings on the outlying regions and renovating them. They were ahead of its their time in deciding to expand into a rural area and create more jobs, and retail. Enormous buildings were seemingly built in the middle of nowhere and smaller businesses followed suit. Eventually the place became unrecognizably a separate place from downtown Detroit. The companies brought with them many jobs and lined their main floors with retail. What inevitably followed was a mass amount of commuters jumping at the new opportunities. It was W.C. Durant who first decided to seek out a location for a business hub between the busy downtown Detroit and their outlying factories and settled on what is now New Center. Due to the underdevelopment of the area, W.C. Durant essentially had no restrictions or guidelines for his new GM headquarters. He occupied an entire city block in what used to be a residential neighborhood with his 15-story contemporary office structure completed in 1922 designed by Albert Kahn. The building is approximately 1.3 million square feet and widely mixed-use. So much so that it could be compared to its own miniature city. The original name of the structure was supposed to be Durant Building but it changed to General Motors Building when Durant left the company. Later when GM decided to relocate in 1996, the building was again

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The Fisher Building B

renamed the Cadillac Palace and “now houses over 2,700 state employees and ground floor retail.”2 The district served as a corporate center for GM for over 70 years where they successfully built and cultivated an increasingly up and coming district catering to thousands of people. The Fisher Brothers aided in meeting the quota of office space and retail outlined by Garreau. They built the Fisher Building across from the General Motors and the New Center Building creating a city center

for the district of New Center. The Fisher Building would have been more than three times the size, towering over the General Motors Building had it not been halted due to the Great Depression. However, the one completed side still is truly the emblematic icon for New Center. Also designed by Albert Kahn, the Fisher Building exemplified elegance containing elaborate children’s playrooms employees and clients could drop their kids off, or an eleven-story garage with a valet service. Tunnels were built connecting the three important buildings


Kelsey White

designed by Kahn truly making it a unified entity and center of the district. The Fisher Building was the final development that really pushed the city away from quiet residencies to a growing example of mixed-use, shopping, business and cultural district. Once the trend was set, other buildings emerged sprouting new jobs and opportunities for those seeking to leave the decrepit conditions of the downtown. Examples of those include: the Cadillac Motor Car Co, Assembly Plant relocated in 1920, Westcott Paper Co. shortly followed suit and still remains to this day, the Ladder Company No. 7 and Engine Company No.17 built in 1923, and StewartWarner Speedometer Company built in 1925. Others still followed suit such as: the Cadillac Sales & Service Building in 1927, Chevrolet Service Building in 1927, Walter J. Bemb Buick-Pontiac Dealership in 1927, and the Firestone Building built in 1930. 2 Along with the many jobs and production, a large retail production increased as well. Adding on to the enclosed shops the GM Building and Fisher Building provided, there were retail stores opening businesses all along Woodward Avenue stretching from West Grand Boulevard towards the railroad bridge. This brought an influx of people since the “mall” had not been invented yet; the strip of shops was the place to go. The atmosphere became a plethora of businessmen, workers, and their wives commuting to fulfill the needs not met in their rural residential neighborhoods. Once New Center was running successfully, fulfilling the “American dream,” other edge cities around Detroit started to develop. Other companies saw the advantage of moving outwards, and thanks to automobiles, commuting was no longer a concern. Henry Ford relocated his factory to Dearborn when he switched “from the Model T to the Model A in 1928.” 3 As a result Dearborn evolved into another Edge City. Other edge cities such Troy and Southfield are “currently dominated by General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.” In fact, according to Lang’s study of thirteen different metropolitan areas, “Detroit is the only one in which a single edge city (Southfield) surpasses the central business district” for square feet of office space. 4

Map of Detroit’s New Center district. C

New Center today is a region with an area of less than a 1/2 mile ft2. It is currently enveloped by many neighborhoods and districts and is no longer as distinguishable as a separate place. It does not seem so far away from downtown anymore and more residencies have infiltrated the area. Yet it still remains a separate district in name and continues to be a center for business and shopping. As of 2008 according to city-data, New Center had a population of 2,828, the majority being African American, young, and the average household income distribution on the lower side. The common occupation among males was service, production, and transportation and material moving occupation. Among females, it was service and sales and office occupations. It is safe to say the tenants probably work within the area among the many shopping and service opportunities provided. New buildings have halted, and the last influx of homes built was in the 1970’s. New Center became close, if not at its maximum expansion capabilities.5 The area is not as up-and-coming in all the areas as it was when it was initially built. Low-income housing and some inner-city urban sprawl have extended into the area as over time the population increased and expansion of downtown became necessary, eventually colliding into New Center. However, there is still visible remains of the historic extension out of the city of that

offers what every edge city should and still continues to do.

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Edge City

TYSONS CORNER MCLEAN, VIRGINIA THE ULTIMATE SUBURB

Tysons Corner is the prototypical Edge City. Occupying a 1700 acre area bounded by the Capitol Beltway, Route 7, Route 123, and the Dulles Airport Access Road in northern Virginia, Tysons is larger than many major cities’ downtown areas. In fact, its size, in terms of retail and office space, trumps Portland, Tampa, and even Miami’s downtown. Although it has no unique zip code, area code, school system, or civic structure, Tysons is home to many companies’ corporate headquarters and one of the best business environments in the country. Driven by governmental industry in the 1960s and the technology boom of the 1990s, Tysons has become a business destination: it has more offices than bedrooms and can be compared more to a traditional central business district than a suburb. It is now “one of the heaviest concentrations of high-salary, hightechnology, knowledge-based work on the Eastern seaboard, and may be only second to Silicon Valley as such a center.”1 Although Tysons is an established business environment, it (like most Edge Cities) had

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quite humble beginnings. Now a major commercial road, Route 7 could claim only a feed store and a “beer joint” in 1939 according to Til Hazel, the man responsible for purchasing and developing much of early Tysons Corner. In his book Edge City, Joel Garreau states that Hazel has “done more to shape the Washington area than any man since Pierre L ‘Enfant.” This comparison is a valid one, given that at one point in the 1980s, Tysons Corner was the “fastest growing white-collar job market in North America and Europe for four consecutive years.”2 That is quite a stark contrast to its status in 1945, when Hazel purchased a plot of land-a 95 acre dairy farm on the market for $18,000-his aunt asked him what he planned to do with a property “way out in the country.”1 That piece of land is now part of a Washington metropolitan area that is one of the ten largest urban areas in the country. Tysons Corner’s role as a business hub has been long developing, but can be traced back to a few key events. In 1846, a ten square mile area of land south of


Sam Robinson

View of Tysons Corner near Route 7 and 123A

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Edge City

the Potomac River was reallocated from Washington, D.C. back to Virginia. This land, which came to be known as Arlington, was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s chosen site for the new War Department Headquarters in 1941, later known as “The Pentagon.” The new building’s grand scale required the construction of a network of highways to service it, and the design of the subsequent surrounding roads and parking lots made it nearly impossible to access by foot.3 The reliance on the automobile as a means of access and the location of the Pentagon was the initial driving factor that “led to the development of Tysons Corner.”3 This development of cities at the scale of the automobile rather than the pedestrian is one of the hallmarks of Edge Cities. The View of Tysons Corner looking west towards Towers Crescent.B completion of the beltway in 1964 and the construction of Dulles International Airport that moved to the area to perform contract until the next technological boom. also played a large role in spawning Tysons. work for the Pentagon. The road connecting Dulles to the District, With the explosion of the internet in the along with Route 7 and Route 123, formed One corporation that came to prominence 1990s, Tysons picked up right where it the above-mentioned triangle that had while doing work for the Pentagon was the left off in the 1960s. The scope of the direct high way access to many key points Institute for Defense Analyses. A sort of sprawl was even greater this time, with in the area.3 hybrid of government and private interests, businesses and residential development the IDA received a lot of bad press and spilling out of Tysons into outlying Reston At the time, many of the inhabitants of protest during anti-war demonstrations in and Dulles.2 Given the nature of the work Fairfax County still commuted to the District the 1960s during the Vietnam War. This of many corporations located in Tysons, of Columbia to work. Jobs in Fairfax were left the door open for a slew of entirely most employees were well suited to mostly confined to those that served the private corporations that have moved in adapt, embrace, and take advantage of residential growth occurring in the county: over the years and been the cause of all the opportunities the internet provided building trades, construction, real estate, much of the growth in Tysons Corner and them. There was a paradigm shift from etc.”1 There was a concerted effort by Fairfax. A lot of the work these corporations government contracts to dotcom initiatives. Fairfax County’s officials to try to attract did was classified, but much of it involved However, there is not a massive disconnect commercial interest, and to direct much operations research, which consists of between the Pentagon’s influence and of the commercial growth in Fairfax to reducing weapons systems to equations the internet’s role in the development of Tysons Corner. The taxes raised from the and calculating the way to use them most the area; ARPANET, the precursor to the commercial business would be collected to efficiently. These calculations are inherently internet, was first used in the Pentagon.2 fund public schools and other homeowner’s intensive, and the use of computers as needs. This approach to industrial tools to make these calculations came into Much of the more recent commercial growth development was first presented in the practice in the late 1960s. This was the first in Tysons has been a result of Tysons “Norman Cole report,” and was the model for technological boom that spurred growth Corner Center, the shopping mall that first all of Fairfax’s growth in decades to come.2 in Tysons Corner. The larger corporations opened in 1968. Tysons Mall has become One of the businesses that Fairfax attracted were able to afford their own in-house a destination all its own, as illustrated by was BDM, an engineering firm who was computers, a rarity at the time. As time Garreau’s anecdote in Edge City: previously headquartered in El Paso, Texas. went on, companies began to integrate the Their new headquarters in Tysons Corner, computers into the weapons systems, which “Directly below is the mall in which at the corner of Gallows Road and Route 7 became known as “systems integration.”2 the arrival of Bloomingdale’s-seen in the was located due to its quick, direct access Given the relative obscurity of computer early 1970’s as the epitome of New York to both the Pentagon via Route 7 and Dulles systems at the time and the fact that a good fashion-caused a sensation. When one Airport via the Dulles Access Road. BDM deal of the work going on in Tysons was pioneering diplomatic contingent from Beijing arrived in Washington, the first thing they wanted moved to Tysons in 1965, when the cost of classified, a negative image about the work was not a tour of the Lincoln Memorial or the development was about $10-15 per square was perpetuated. Some even speculated Washington Monument. What they wanted was foot less than in downtown Washington. that the work being done in Tysons was to get out past the legendary eight-lane BDM was the first of many commercial firms illegal and unethical. This image persisted

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Sam Robinson

Beltway that reputedly separates Washington from reality. They wanted to go to Tysons. They wanted to see ‘Bloomie’s.’ They wanted a stiff dose of America.”1

Fast forward to today and Tysons Mall is even more globally relevant. Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, chose Tysons as the site for the grand opening of Apple’s retail stores in 2001. L.L. Bean also elected to open their first store (aside from their Maine based headquarters) in Tysons in 2000. Software giant Oracle recently relocated their headquarters to the area as well.3 This points to the fact that the Edge City of Tysons Corner has become more of a business and shopping destination than the actual city that begat it; 57.7% of the Washington D.C. Metro Area’s office space is contained within its suburbs and Edge Cities, while only 31.1% is concentrated in the District itself.5

Apple chose Tysons Corner as the site of their first flagship retail store.C

land speculators and developers…Venice is a monument to a dynamic process, not to great urban planning.” Many in Fairfax While Tysons has become a burgeoning are aware of the perceived problems with business district and commercial center, it Edge Cities. While some believe that still has the same stigma attached to it that positive growth is impossible due to the other Edge Cities do. Many see Tysons as automobile based infrastructure5, some an unfortunate consequence of America’s change is already underway, with higher obsession and reliance on the automobile. density housing and four Metro stops on tap. Attempts to navigate Tysons by foot are The end goal is a walkable, higher density not just impractical, but rather downright Tysons with gridded streets centered dangerous in many cases. The congested around each of the four metro stops. The traffic and inefficient planning make goal is for “every street, even the major environmentalists cringe. Garreau even boulevards, to be ‘complete streets’ that suggests that some people are “creeped balance cars, pedestrians and bicycles with out” by edge cities. ample greenery.”5 As of now, the plan is on hold until infrastructure can be upgraded “Traditional urbanites recoil because a to accommodate the anticipated increased place blown out to automobile scale is not congestion. Where once infrastructure was what they think of as ‘city.’ They find the swirl the catalyst for growth in the area, it is now of functions intimidating, confusing, maddening. preventing it. Why are all these tall office buildings so far apart? Why are they juxtaposed, apparently higgledy-piggledy, among the malls and strip shopping centers and fast-food joints and self service gas stations? Both literally and metaphorically, these urbanites always get lost.”1

Part of what makes Tysons and other edge cities somewhat unfriendly is their lack of a history or narrative, as it is still taking place. Nobody knows what a fully developed Edge City looks like because none exist yet. The ultimate embodiment of sporadic planning, Venice, is lauded. Tysons, which is following a similar course, is jeered. “Venice was just as mercantilist as Tysons. It was full of

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

“Green architecture is a broad term that refers to the creation or restructuring of buildings so they have a minimal impact on the environment. There are a number of different approaches to green construction, with many of the ideas involving the responsible recycling of existing resources along with the Entertainment efficient use of environmentally friendly systems to provide water and power services to buildings that are created using a sustainable design.� Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

- Malcolm Tatum


Green

VAUBAN

FREIBURG, GERMANY A CAR-FREE COMMUNITY Every morning we get in the car to go to work, to go buy food and commercial goods, and to go everywhere else. But one city in Germany decided to build an experimental suburb, which would try to solve the issues of the car and energy consumption. It was a completely new and radical concept that played a major role in the way we view how communities should be designed.

grid was never supposed to have car usage. The “roads” were narrow alleys between barracks. This was already the perfect layout for an eco-friendly district. Then in 1993, the Freiburg City Council purchased the land from the Federal Authorities for 20,000,000 € and gave the citizen’s association “Forum Vauban e.v.” the power to coordinate the participation process. Then in 1995 it was recognized as the Vauban’s legal body by the city of Freiburg.2

The site of what today is the world famous Vauban, was once a former French military base named after Sebastien Le Prestre de The planning of the city district happened Vauban, who was a famous French Marshal between 1995 and 1999. Forum Vauban in the 17th century who built fortifications in welcomed citizen participation of who would Freiburg while it was under French control. express the wishes and needs of the future The French built the base in 1936 and took inhabitants thus affecting the design.3 The it over after World War II. They left in 1992 main responsibilities of Forum Vauban are and the vacant barracks became occupied to organize far-reaching citizen participation, by various hippies and anarchists, whom supporting community-based building after battles with the city government won project called “Baugruppen” (groups of the rights to four of the twenty barracks.1 building owners) for co-housing and cooperative building, the realization of a But another group was interested in the sustainable model with a focus in the design land too. The so-called Forum Vauban of traffic and energy, and the coordination wanted the land for eco-friendly purposes.1 of social work and the creating of a Because it was a planned military base, the neighborhood center.2 The main objectives

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Chris Warren

Bikes in a car-free neighborhoodA

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Green

developed from the citizen participation process for the district are: a car-free project combined with the specific traffic concept and the special off of alternative mobility, the promotion and support of building within self appointed groups (co-building groups), the design of special areas for passive houses, and the decision for a central market place and a community center.3 Other objectives were designed for the creation of the city district to be a co-operative, participatory way, which would meet certain ecological, social, economical, and cultural requirements. A list of these taken from the Vauban.de website include: balance of working and living areas, balance of social groups, division of land into small lots and preferential allocation to private builders and co-operative building projects, integration of future building owners, conservation of the 60-year-old trees and the biotopes of the bordering creek, priority to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport, privileges to car-free living, co-generation plant and short-distance heating system, all buildings constructed at least with improved low energy standard (65 kWh/m2a, calculated similar to the Swiss SIA 380/1 standard and now (2002) standard in whole Germany, but 6 years earlier preferences for building owners who reach passive house standard (15 kWh/m2 a) in special designed areas, extensive use of ecological building material and solar energy, infiltration of rainwater into the ground, ecological sanitary systems, district centre with shops for the daily needs, primary school and kindergartens, public green spaces, designed together with the local residents, neighborhood center for social interaction, cultural events etc., diversity of building shapes, and family and children friendliness. These objectives are implemented: in the city’s planning process, in a co-operative way (working groups, workshops projects jointly run by the City of Freiburg and Forum Vauban), through the participation process, by private enterprises such as Genova co-operative and Buergerbau AG, by private builders and groups of building owners (Baugruppen), and by many private non-commercial and commercial initiatives within the district.2

legal body for the participation and social work, the “Projektgruppe Vauban” (Project Group Vauban), which is the administration of the local authorities of the Vauban project, and “Gemeinderätliche AG”, a committee from the City Council and consultative members from Forum Vauban to discuss the main Vauban issues. While these are the more political groups that administered the project, Forum Vauban did not want to only administer and organize, but also develop suggestions for the planning and construction of the district. The project was opened up to other partners. The City of Freiburg allowed private builders, “Baugruppen” (groups of building owners), building companies, and commercial developers to build in or to create diversity. The building co-operative, Genova, was founded in 1997, and has built two fourstory apartment buildings with 36 housing units (10 of which are publicly co-financed flats) in the first development section completed in August 1999. In addition, a communal house, a rentable guestroom, The project was structured by three main and a communal laundry were built. There institutions that worked with the Vauban: are access galleries, a bridge connecting Forum Vauban, the citizen’s association and

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Residents customize their balconiesB

the houses, gardens, and a nearby lane created semi-public spaces, which gave it a neighborhood feel. They continued to build 40 units in the second development section. The other main corporation was the Buergerbau AG (Citizens’ building Stock Corporation), who specialized in coordinating community building projects. The corporation offered services ranging from starting the development of the project, planning, and building. This variety of potential buyers and allows for an interesting outcome; a variety, which has both positive urban design and a high level quality of life.2 The new district provides dwellings for 5,000 residents and 600 jobs. Vauban has been awarded national and international recognition as great example of a sustainable city district.2 This is mostly due to the Forum’s hard work and connection to the community. All houses are compliant to passive-house or plus-energy standards saving up to 30% energy of the average house in Germany and 60% relative to an average new house. There is a highly efficient co-generation plan with burns 80%


wood chips and 20% natural gas, but solar collectors provide the remaining heat (hot water) and generate 65% of the electricity in an eco-friendly manner. In fact, the 59 Plus-Energy home community is the first housing community in the world to create a positive energy balance and sell the surplus solar energy back into the grid for a profit. The anti-car lifestyle promotes living without a car and provides for alternative mean of transportation such car sharing and public transportation. Streets turn into open area such as playgrounds and public gardens. There are wide sidewalks around the main street with the old trees still preserved becoming points for social interaction. With the Forum Vauban being in charge of the social work, citizens started other activities such as (co-operative) shops, a farmer’s market, and a neighborhood center.3

Chris Warren

Shared garden spacesC

residents with a rectangular square mile.4 The beauty of Vauban was that it was led by The locals refer to the majority of Vauban’s citizens who created political organizations residential streets as stellplatzfrei, which to make their ideas become reality. They directly translates to “free from parking got the chance to plan and to build their own spaces”. Cars and trucks are only allowed homes, but more importantly a community. to drive down these streets, at a very slow But it was not successful in everyway. speed, to pick up and deliver but are not Instead of having a wide range of ages, it allowed to park. This is mostly enforced was mostly young families that decided to by social standards because there are few make the move into Vauban.3 This has left official laws. There is no street parking, the teenagers feeling a bit disconnected to driveways, or garages.1 The cars must the ideas of the community, many of whom be parked in the two multi-story parking do not plan to stay after college. Also, some garages on the outskirts of the residential view it as a behavioral trap in which one areas. A car-owner can buy a space for has to conform to living an all around green $40,000 with their home. This has resulted, lifestyle, or being excommunicated.4 But as of 2009, in 70% of the families not overall, the positives greatly outweigh the owning a private car. 81% of residents had negative, and the Vauban has become an previously owned a car, and 57% sold their example of what political policy can do to a car to live in Vauban.4 Every year, each city, and possibly serves as a model for what household is required to sign a statement can and will be the future of the suburbs. saying that they do not own a car, or they do, which entails that they must buy a space in one of the parking garages. There is a citywide car club in which the Vauban has the highest concentration of its 2,500 members. It has 10 of its cars positioned around the district. Residents use this system for shopping trips or for traveling. Otherwise they use the local tram, which runs down the main street and connects to downtown Freiburg.1 By the year 2001, 2000 people had moved into the district. After 2006, and after three development phases, the district was complete.2 It is now home to 5,500

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Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

“Culture relates to objects and is a phenomenon of the world; entertainment relates to people and is a phenomenon of life.� - Hannah Arendt


Entertainment

BROADWAY NEW YORK CITY, NY THE GREAT WHITE WAY

American Theatre became synonymous stage of the times. Florenz Ziegfield was one with New York City’s Broadway in the 1920’s. of the many theatre owners in the economic With over 80 live theatres lighting up the boom. He used his shows to entertain theatre district, the elite of pre-Depression and hold sway over the people who came America knew there was no other place to see them. Costumes greatly influenced to find the best and widest variety of live fashion, inspiring those who saw the shows, entertainment. After the stock market crash which then inspired the masses.2 Many of 1929, the theatre’s of New York saw theatre entrepreneurs, like Ziegfield, began a serious decline in ticket sales, causing building their entertainment palaces uptown many either to close their doors forever or to of some of the older theatres further down try to adapt to the changing economy and its broadways immense length. Theatres, like changing audience. The remainder of the so many other establishments, began close 20th century saw some theatre’s fall victim to the tip of Manhattan when the city was to the developer’s wrecking ball; some rose still in its infancy. They were located close up from the ashes to be restored to their to the fringes of high society; close enough former glory, and some, like a chameleon, to be easily reached since the elite were the changed their skin to match the merciless large majority of theatre patrons. As the city law of supply and demand.1 grew the wealthy moved their homes further and further north, and the theatres followed. The Roaring 20’s gave birth to sumptuous live Most of them stayed close to Broadway, just stages meant to entertain the new wealth of moving steadily away from old town and the many Americans following World War I. The many slums left behind. Broadway was one role of the theatres resembled that of the old of the most comfortable streets to walk in the Opera Halls of Europe; people went to see city, being popular with wealthy inhabitants and be seen. They showed off their style who insisted on keeping it well maintained. and money while giving the appearance of It was also one of the first streets to get gas a cultured upper class frequenting the live street lamps which kept it relatively safe.3

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Kristin Fields

The modern Times Square section of Broaday is littered with lights and advertisements.A

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Entertainment

Map of Broadway Theatres 1882-1990B

Variety shows were also present during being known as disreputable and “shady”. the early years of theatre in New York, Burlesque brought in more of the lower class but it wasn’t until the early 1900’s that patrons interested in a much more rowdy such shows became known as Vaudeville. experience. It managed to survive during During the 1930’s, it found its way into many the financial straits of the 1930’s, getting silent and empty theatres along Broadway slightly more risqué with every passing and 42nd street. The full length dramas year.3 This encroachment of uncivilized didn’t appeal to the masses the way they entertainment was partially deterred in the had before when the aura of grandeur still past by the physical relocation of theatres meant something. Such dying playhouses to a more respectable area, but by the time had few hits and many flops, losing money these unseemly shows began appearing for the owner who still had to maintain it was no longer a necessity to follow the the theatre and pay the actors. For these movement of the respectable clientele. owners, vaudeville seemed like an attractive Before the advent of the “el” elevated train, alternative to bring in patrons and keep the public bus, and the metro, travel time the theatre afloat. Variety shows, for the and ease was a major issue. Once distance most part, appealed to a wider audience in from point to point became negligible it was the middle class looking for something to time for theatre’s to settle down on their entertain the whole family. It brought middle established Great White Way. 2 class workers into the same theatre district as the wealthy, allowing them to mingle in a Also during the Depression in New York way and affect one another, such as with the City, many live theatres were converted into cinema rather than being used for fashions mentioned earlier.2 some other form of live show. Films were Vaudeville wasn’t always a family friendly a cheaper and more easily maintainable event, sometimes burlesque shows came way to bring paying customers into what with it, catering to those looking for a more would otherwise have been an empty hall. risqué entertainment experience. Burlesque Theatre’s became extremely attractive for originally aimed to satire high society. Later converting into cinemas considering they on it came to include striptease as another already had all of the main components counter to polite society. The arrival of these necessary except for a screen and the shows in the formerly respectable theatre equipment. This particular evolution district could be considered the beginning seemed completely natural, both in the of the moral decline on Broadway and 42nd architecture of the space and the form and Street that would later result in certain areas delivery of entertainment. Some theatres

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turned cinemas evolved what kind of films they were showing as the time passed, for example, foreign films and action films drew a particular clientele. Many of these converted structures were able to survive until current times when cinema has become just as if not more important to society than live theatre.3 With the rise of radio and television came also the need for studios in which to produce the varying programs; a niche that a few theatres filled. In the 1940’s and 50’s, networks such as NBC and CBS began buying or renting theatres for years at a time in order to film shows on the stages, an already prepared backdrop. Radio also had a stage component sometimes, being broadcast live with a live audience able to watch from the stage seating. For some of these studios, though, the theatres had to be altered to accommodate the needs of the renting production company, for example, balcony seats were usually the first things to go.This happened for many other uses as well, including the movie theatres.3 The sexual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s caused many theatre’s turned cinemas to become home to regular showings of pornographic films and striptease shows. This newest use of the theatres of New York was a response to the new and changing social conditions. Society called for an openness and freeness that the film


industry began exploring and exploiting with a vengeance. Already having a history of burlesque stripteases which were popular in the 1930’s and on, it was easy enough for them to take it to the next level with true striptease and pornographic films. This new openness contributed to the transformation of Times Square and 42nd street into the red light district rather than the theatre district.3 After having a serious part in the moral downward spiral of the Times Square/42nd street areas of the entertainment district, the remaining live theatres became part of the new clean up project meant to restore these areas to some of their former glory. For a long time, Times Square was the center of strip clubs and drug dealers, but in the 1980’s, both Mayor Koch and Dinkins began running such establishments out of the neighborhood. Mayor Giuliani continued their work by redeveloping the area into a much more family friendly environment, all though there are still some advertisements for gentlemen’s clubs. The few historic theatres given landmark status are meant to be restored and reopen their doors as live theatres in the Broadway circle.

Kristin Fields

Earl Carroll Theater 1933b

Earl Carroll Theater (Woolworth) 1990b

Throughout the lifetime of many of the theatres, they were opened, closed, used for something else, and reopened as a live theatre, usually as long as the theatre hadn’t been demolished. Young entrepreneurs felt that they could be the ones to bring life back to the dusty stages, bringing in new actors and actresses, but rarely did it ever work in fully revitalizing the stage. The ones that made it to the 1990’s were usually kept afloat by a variety of uses and often long stretches of being closed and empty.3

the remainder of the theatre district. An district has been shaped and molded to entire section of theatres was demolished fit the needs of the people. Though the to make room for the New York Convention glory of the 1920’s can probably never be Center and its pedestrian walkways. The resurrected, the live stage has regained demand for theatres was just too little after some foothold in modern entertainment, the depression and the dawn of the film showing great resilience in the face of many industry to support so many live stages. cultural dangers. From being unseated by New needs had to be addressed, such as other forms of entertainment, to the crushing the growing number of New York citizens pressure of city developers, Broadway and tourists, giving rise to condos and has carried on thanks to an unshakable hotels. The invention of the car facilitated fascination in Americans and theatre goers the need for parking. As disappointing as around the world for the thrill and excitement it was to replace a historic landmark with a of live entertainment. Though many theatres are being restored, parking garage, it was another example of most of the original 1920s theatres were supply and demand. The people demanded demolished, reshaping the theatre district a place to park their car, the developers into what it is today. The districts surrounding supplied.3 this one began to eat away at it theatre by theatre at the beginning of their decline in The glittering lights of the Great White Way the 30’s. The garment district took a couple once showed patrons the way to a different of the theatres for new work houses. Many time and place. From the birth of this term at some point in their lives were gutted in 1902 to the present, New York City’s and made into retail space, such as the theatres have been affected by economic pictured Earl Carroll Theatre that was later and social change, even causing some of converted into a Woolworth. Still others that change themselves. From the birth of were demolished for parking garages and New York City itself, to the Depression, to restaurants that would eventually service the Sexual Revolution, the Entertainment

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Entertainment

LAS VEGAS

NEVADA, USA

THE CITY THAT WON’T GO AWAY Las Vegas has a reputation for many of things. The city makes a spectacle of itself, time and again. Much of the city’s architecture is meant to be vulgar and dramatic, to arouse a memory of another time. Las Vegas’ architecture is meant to [re] create scenes and moments from around the world. The buildings and the space in between are a place of theater.4 The rate at which the city has grown and recreated itself is unprecedented. One can also not ignore the ominous signs that tower throughout the city. The constant barrage of signs begins to add new layers of communication and data telling. As America heads into the age of information, it only makes sense that the architecture becomes the electronic iconography.3 The buildings get bigger as time passes, and in one way or another, Las Vegas is trying to sell itself. This is captured best on the Las Vegas Strip. The strip is almost four miles long and is part of the Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada.6

one might even consider early Las Vegas a “small-town America- a Main Street of the 1950s, before the evolution of the strip.”4 Before 1931, Las Vegas was a very typical small-town of America. As one walked down the road, the signage was directional and oriented towards the pedestrian. It was commercial and tried to engage the user by being aesthetics from afar and information as one approached. When the casinos started moving into Las Vegas, this is when the city began evolving. The first casino was the “Pair-o-Dice Club” and it was built on Highway 91 in 1931. The first casino on the strip was not built until ten years later in 1941.6 The main gambling culture was prominently in Havana, Cuba up until the 1950s. All of the mobsters would go here to gamble. In 1953, many of the nightclubs in Havana were running a game, “razzledazzle,” where it was fixed so that they were hardly a chance to win but a great chance to lose. The Cuban government finally banned this game and deported most of the American mobsters that were gambling. At In less than a century, Las Vegas has this point, gambling was legal in Nevada and completely revamped its image. In fact, the possibilities of Las Vegas were finally

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Allyn Hughes

Postcard of Las VegasA

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Entertainment

coming to fruition. From the 1950s and into the early 1980s, the mob control was a presence that was felt throughout the city. Most of the money that could have gone to government-funded projects was stolen by members of the mob. This hindered growth until the investment potential was realized in the late 1960s. Howard Hughes began to buy up many casinos, hotels, television, and radio stations. The federal government also began to crack down on the mob and soon the government was getting their own source of income from the revenue generated by the booming tourist economy.2

In 1969, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown chose to study Las Vegas because they believed that is exhibited the phenomenon of “Auto-city of Urban Sprawl” in its most pure form. Los Angeles was the first city that coined this term, but because Las Vegas was much smaller and centered around the strip, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown decided Las Vegas was a more appropriate study.4 Highway 91 was a crucial element to Las Vegas because it moved through the city for the “fast cars.” The signage began to change at this point and became more oriented towards the driver as opposed to the pedestrian. These were big signs that one could read as they sped by in their automobile. Las Vegas itself was a fairly open space and in order to deal with this, the scale had to be huge. It is important to note this scale change. In order to deal with the change of speed, the building facades started to become the actual signs. They were highly decorative and oriented towards the automobile user. The signage and the scale were so crucial to Las Vegas in this time. The signs became a form of iconography, which through the Paris Las VegasB years began to incorporate technology into its décor. A warm neon glow immersed Las the Las Vegas metropolitan area population the city of entertainment.”4 As America Vegas throughout its formative years.5 was 1,865,746.6 Robert Venturi and Denise becomes more immersed in the information Scott Brown refer to the present day state age, architecture will have to move into As time has passed, the neon glow has of Las Vegas as the city of “scenography, electronics and signage, which is a concept faded. The signs have been taken down rather than the city of iconography, where that is clearly embraced in Las Vegas. and the Las Vegas strip has become you can circulate as a pedestrian within more like “The Boulevard.” This is due to a stage-set.” The buildings are symbols Currently, Las Vegas is in a “Disneyland” developers such The Boulevard.” This is that represent other buildings. The Las state of being. Las Vegas embraces “surface due to developers such as Steve Wynn, Vegas Strip is a place where the “space and form, graphic signage and sculpture.” who pictures Las Vegas as a destination between the buildings is the stage where The buildings are sculptural and symbolic place that began to copy other realities. The you circulate, whose scale accommodates and also decorated with signs. Buildings city’s population has greatly increased and pedestrian perception from up close, whose and landmarks are re-created to give a extended out into the suburbs.4 As of 2008, technology remains electric… it is now sense of being somewhere when one is not.

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Allyn Hughes

The Wynn Hotel C

It is exotic and daring. It takes all of the good things about a place and recreates it in a fake reality. Within a thirty year time period, Las Vegas managed to give itself a complete makeover, starting with the strip. A vast majority of the buildings here did not exist even ten years ago. People like Steve Wynn are buying into this fantasy world and they want it to expand worldwide. The Wynn-Las Vegas, a five-star hotel, has a gigantic mountain in front of it. When asked about the concept behind this move, Wynn replied, “Well, I want a mountain because we’ve got so much glitz and activity on the Strip: we’ve got volcanoes, we’ve got Sirens of Treasure Island, we’ve got Paris, we’ve got all that… I want enigma and I want intrigue, and intrigue is humanity’s most important emotion.” When Wynn says this, he is taunting the public. He is well aware of the alternate universe that he has played such a major role in creating. So why not wave a flashy mountain in front of the user’s faces?4 Las Vegas’s makeover is something

that was in the making for years. As the government and private investors began to play a larger government and private investors began to play a larger role in the city, the urban sprawl became urban density. All the empty space that was paved over in asphalt became beautiful gardens and perfectly manicured lawns. Las Vegas became a product of the Disney culture. Las Vegas took all the good things about an attraction and left the bad behind. They neon has become a thing of the past and the electronic signs have turned into pixel signs. Las Vegas is full of theater in the sense that it puts on a real show. This change is a reflection of our society’s need to be constantly entertained. Reality becomes blurred and what is fake isn’t exactly clear anymore and it is an “equivalent reproduction.” This is something that everyone participates in, whether they are conscious of it or not.1

would make most cities disappear. In the 1970s, its economy was based around the lucrative casinos. Tribal gaming became legal around many places in America at this time and most people thought this would destroy the aurora of Las Vegas. This was proven to be untrue since the population and number of visitors has more than doubled since then. Many have also argued that one cannot build in the desert. It has long been suspected that Las Vegas would finally dry up and succumb to the ever-looming drought. Somehow, the state of Nevada always manages to make some kind of deal that ensures water to be piped in. Even recently, Las Vegas suffered the highest foreclosure rate in the United States.6 However, Las Vegas is a city that will not go away—the house always wins here.

Las Vegas has reinvented itself many times and this act is part of the spectacle. Las Vegas has faced many traumas that

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Historic Preservation

Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption Heavy Industry

“We reckon that at least 150,000 people a day will pass our shop window, 70 per cent of them tourists,” said Emmanuelle Gaye, the spokeswoman for Adidas in France. “They will see the label and what products we have to offer, and even if they don’t buy straight away, they may buy later and in another place.” - Emmanuelle Gaye

New Economy


Retail/Consumption

CHAMPS-ÉLYSÉES PARIS, FRANCE

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AVENUE IN THE WORLD

Although considered by the French to be “the most beautiful avenue in the world,” the humble beginnings of this district would not have foreseen the high-style shopping district it has turned into today.

the name was taken from the ancient Greek name of the part of the Underworld where the virtuous souls go to rest for eternity.2 This shows how much importance was placed on the gardens at that point.

Prior to the 1600s, the land opposite the When Napoleon I declared himself Emperor Tuileries Gardens was mostly undeveloped, in 1804, he saw that the orientation of the with only a few scattered houses and capital had changed from the east to the gardens. In 1616, some of the land was west. The Champs-Élysées, previously just bought by Marie de Medicis. Four rows a recreation area for the well-born, became of trees were planted to form three alleys the grand triumphal route leading to the closed at both ends. This walk became emperor’s residence. The eastern route was known as the cours-la-reine, or course of abandoned, with the seat of government the queen, designed for the princess and and power facing west, orienting itself to her court when they wanted to go out in their the fashionable part of Paris.3 The Arc de carriage.1 Triomphe was commissioned in 1806 by Napoleon to mark this new entrance into the The purpose of this landscape remained city and demonstrate his power.4 It stands relatively unchanged over the next 250 in the Place de l’Étoile at the western end of years. The upper classes used the area the Champs-Élysées. as a place for strolling and taking in the air. More trees were planted and fountains and In 1855, the World Exposition took place in statues were added. The name changed Paris and cafés, a circus, and the Palais de to le Grand-Cours and finally to the name l’Industrie were added among the trees. But we know it as today, les Champs-Élysées.1 the avenue still didn’t offer enough attraction Translating literally as “the Elysian Fields,” to bring people in. The long alleys were

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Julie Kroon

North sidewalk at dawn during Christmas seasonA

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Retail/Consumption

Looking down the Champs-Élysées from the top of the Arc de TriompheB

monotonous and dusty with nothing to look at. Crowds of walkers came in on festival days but nothing held them there.1

stood in the way of his visions for wide, breathable roads for traffic and pedestrians. More than 40 percent of all houses in the city were torn down to make way for the new boulevards, some of which were four hundred feet wide. The money spent on this construction, which amounted to 2.5 billion francs over seventeen years, was anticipated to be gained back from taxes and the rise in property prices.5

Turning the Champs-Élysées into a major thoroughfare also established the avenue as one arm of the great cross of the city axes, called the grande croisée. This referenced the Roman tradition of founding a city on two perpendicular axes, called the cardo and the decumanus. The north-south cardo already existed in the Bd. Sebastopol-Strasbourg and Bd. St. Michel. The Champs-Elysées extended the western arm of the east-west decumanus formed by the Rue St. Antoine and Rue de Rivoli.3 This cross created two main arteries for the circulation of the city and bound the city together by having the four cardinal points within easy contact of each other.

To fix this, many improvements were made. The gardens were replanted w ith rare shrubs, large trees, and flowers on both sides of the avenue. Places for games and swings were placed at intervals along the path, a theater was built opposite the circus, a puppet show was started, and stalls selling cakes and toys were established. The Although Haussmann is reviled by some roads were paved and lamps were added to as the destroyer of medieval Paris and line the road. All of this was successful and for displacing people from their homes, it brought more people in, especially families cannot be denied that he cleared many and children.1 slums and rundown areas. The large-scale construction project also provided work for It was not until Napoleon III hired Georges- the unemployed and allowed easy access Eugène Haussmann that the transformation for troops and artillery against the riots that The Avenue des Champs-Élysées soon of the Parisian street system was were taking place in the mid to late 1800s. became the place where any chic Parisian accomplished. Haussmann, who as a baron He also cleared areas around large public came to “see and be seen,” and the location and chief administrator was answerable buildings to provide easier access. As part of the most sophisticated and upscale only to Napoleon, was the man responsible of this grand project, the Champs-Élysées residences. However, as the street became for the boulevards of New Paris. Essentially, was given a facelift, lining the road with trees increasingly desirable, rents were driven he placed a ruler on the map and cut straight and regulating the façades of the buildings up, and more and more people were unable lines through the medieval Paris of crowded, along it with a new Baroque-influenced to afford living in the area. Current rents narrow streets, clearing everything that architecture.5 are as high as 1.1 million euros per 1000

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square feet of space, making it the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe. The rents are higher on the north side of the avenue because of the better exposure to sunlight.6 As a result of these steep prices, companies, stores, and restaurants started to move in, replacing the residences with a new commercial area. By the 1980s, the avenue was dominated by airline offices and car showrooms. The sidewalks were small and blocked in by lanes for parked cars. Rents plunged until 1990 when the mayor of the time, Jacques Chirac, decided to do something. He eliminated the parking lanes, broadened the sidewalks, and laid down large grey granite slabs. More trees and elegant street furniture were added. These improvements made the street a pleasant place to walk along and gave it the look it has currently.7 Today the Champs-Élysées has turned into a tourist location for visitors from all over the world. The avenue runs for two kilometers through the 8th arrondisement.6 Visitors average 300,000 a day, 500,000 on summer weekends.7 The cafés and small stores have moved out to give way to upscale shopping conglomerations. Adidas, Benetton, the Disney Store, Esprit, Nike, Gap, Lacoste, Swatch, Sephora, and Quicksilver, as well as luxury brands like Cartier, Louis Vuitton, and Swarovski are just some of the stores that occupy space along the boulevard. Restaurants are mostly limited to such originals as McDonald’s, Starbucks, Haagen-Dazs, and the French burger chain Quick. The car companies Citroen, Peugeot, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, and Toyota also hold prominent showrooms along the promenade.8

Map of the Grande Croisée with the Champs-Élysées marked in yellowC

business by 2011. The identity of the most famous avenue in France as a place of The takeover of the street by global companies entertainment for Parisians threatens to turn has been the source of much controversy, into a massive shopping mall for tourists.6 with some Parisians claiming that the street is being ruined. One of the only original Every year on Bastille Day, the French restaurants to the street is Fouquet’s café, national holiday celebrated on July 14, the which had its own controversy to staying Champs-Élysées holds the largest military in business. Fouquet’s opened its doors parade in Europe. Since 1975, the last in 1901 and was a favorite with many film stage of the Tour de France and the following stars and writers, including Charlie Chaplin awards ceremony takes place on the and Ernest Hemingway. In 1988, the lease avenue. During the Christmas season, the was up for expiration and the Kuwaitis whole street is lit up and the trees are strung who had invested in the building ten years with lights. The Champs-Élysées has also prior wanted to take it over. A committee become the site for many gatherings, like of celebrities launched a petition to save political protests, New Year’s Eve festivities, The Triangle d’Or, or Golden Triangle, is the the café by getting the French Minister of and World Cup celebrations.6 so-called triangle made up of the avenues Culture to declare it a historical monument.10 Champs-Élysées, Montaigne, and George This prevented the building from becoming The Champs-Élysées connects over three V. These three streets are famous for the another office, bank, or fast-food chain. But hundred years of design, linking the modern La Defense arch all the way to the Louvre. It dense concentration of upscale fashion this was the fate of just one business. represents the French love of elegance and boutiques that can found here. They form the central fashion shopping district of Paris. Both the city of Paris and the French provides a visual relationship between many Besides what has already been listed for government have promised to take action of the great monuments of Paris.5 Whether the Champs-Élysées, the headquarters for to stop the so-called “banalization” of the it has changed for the better or worse over Christian Dior can be found here as well Champs-Élysées.7 In 2007, the Swedish time, it cannot be denied that the Champsas Hermes, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana clothes chain H&M was refused permission Élysées has become a landmark for France stores. 5-star hotels and restaurants are to move in. However, Abercrombie & and one of the most visited places in Paris. also located in this area to match the price Fitch was recently approved and will be in tags of the boutiques.9

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OMOTESANDO

TOKYO, JAPAN THE JANUSIAN EFFECT

The modern-day city has gone through countless iterations. It is in a fragmented state, composed of both the past and the present. This holds true in Tokyo, Japan, which is a city that has been rebuilt multiple times within the past century (on account of man and nature.) Tokyo (along with much of Japan) operates as a mega city of cultural polarity. Historical culture constantly informs modern society, creating a dialectic relationship between society and the built environment. The shopping district of Omotesando is a direct result of these fragmented conditions. Omotesando Avenue is a case in which this relationship has developed to the next level, absorbing Western influences to create a powerful cultural center of contrasting organizations. Known as the Eastern Champs-Élysées, Omotesando’s roots come from the liberal movement of the Taisho period, when the democratic parties planned the road as a wide boulevard that would invite large groups of people to the Meiji shrine in a processional gesture of respect towards the previous emperor.4 Over time, the cultural history of the shrine has instigated a layering

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effect of new cultures of contemporary society, as the street has now become a center for shopping and retail and more recently a haven for the breeding of new architecture. Aside for providing a path to their enshrined souls, Omotesando Avenue plays host to various upscale shopping outlets. As the symbolic approach to the Meiji Shrine, Omotesando Avenue is a modern boulevard based on the traditional notion of a proper approach to a Japanese shrine. Lined with zelkova trees, the relationship between the concept of street trees and that of trees lining shrine approaches were heavily considered. The zelkova trees were regarded as an appropriate choice for such shrine approaches based on its connections with the Kanto landscape and they remain taller than any of the buildings here due to specific building codes.4 This notion of the cultural importance of ritual has been transformed to accept a different role as a tool for public space. Omotesando can be seen as a district of urban transformation on the human scale and building scale based


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Omotesando Avenue

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on history and characteristics of the area. During the transformation of cities over a period of hundreds of years, the things that remain are not simply the physical structures such as buildings or civil engineering works, but also the void spaces such as streets and squares. When buildings change as various world brands and labels go in and out of the area, the space or landscape between continues as before. Omotesando Avenue such as the Imperial Palace Plaza, Yoyogi Park and Hibiya Park also continue to exist longer than any structures. This special presence of public space is an open invitation for the masses. This may constitute the lively atmosphere of Omotesando and the increasing waves of people that flock there for the glamour of its shopping and entertainment. The weekly “festivals” around Harajuku Station can also be a decisive factor in forming the city. Groups of teen rebels and fashionistas use the steps of the station as a stage to engage the world and be models for their own personal styles. It is in these spaces that the heart of this fashion and shopping district really comes alive. The basis of the continuity of Omotesando and the greater Tokyo can be said to be the consciousness of people toward their lifestyles and city space. The spectacle of the grand boulevard serves as the face upon which the masks of the rapidly transforming built environment develop over time. The speed at which these masks manifest and decay are a result of the cultural notions of impermanence. Over history, the Japanese have formed into a culture of impermanence and change. These cycles have created a society of rapidly moving trends in both physical instances Harajuka Girl B and non-physical cultural values. A trend that resonates within the Omotesando district is designed Omotesando Hills in 2005. The of this phenomenon in an expanded time fashion. Fashion itself is an element that is development features one hundred and frame. For centuries, Shinto practitioners in constant flux. Each season, the trends thirty shops and thirty-eight apartments at have built and rebuilt the shrine on two of “what’s in” changes and the temporal a cost of three hundred and thirty million select plots of land, building it up on one element is a quality that is celebrated. dollars. In the development of this area, site, only to deconstruct and reconstruct Fashion is something ingrained in society, many of Japan’s older buildings were it on the opposite plot every fifty years. As whether one chooses to participate in it or destroyed, including the Bauhaus-inspired generations grow up with the shrine, the not. Fashion is a gesture that represents the Dojunkai Aoyama Apartments, which were following generation can look to the future person. built soon after the earthquake of 1923.3 The of the next shrine as their own identity is practice of rapid building and demolition has tied to this constructive process. In another The hyper nature of fashion is translated been a cultural phenomenon in Japanese instance, they have experienced large-scale into the architecture of Omotesando, more society for many years. From an historical changes not on their own terms, such as the specifically, Omotesando Hills. Tadao Ando perspective, the Ise Shrine is an example 1923 Kanto earthquake or the bombings of

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shop architecture of Tokyo often only goes lower down in the hierarchy, but even if the as deep as the façade. The interior of the structures and spaces lower down undergo spaces is often left up to the discretion of some transformation, the structures and the interior designer. This is exemplified in spaces high up in the hierarchy remain Toyo Ito’s Todd’s. The concept of spectacle stable. One of the reasons for the chaos in integrates and explains a wide variety of Tokyo, and for the extremely short life period external phenomena of consumer society of buildings there, is because the high level The culture of Omotesando is that of where a cult of commodities has begun to structures and spaces which should have a consumerism and architecture. If Paris or create a commodity fetish. In a contemporary long life span and should be stable, have Milan is the centre of the world of fashion urban landscape such as Omotesando, the shown major changes in a short period of design the Omotesando is the centre of spectacle primarily expresses a colorful time. In order to build a flexible city, which world fashion consumption. At the end of this image, it inherently maximizes the strategy is able to meet the extreme social and magnificent procession is Harajuku station, of using advertising effects to sell, masked economic changes, there must be control of the center of Japan’s most outlandish by the entertainment provided by the the order, to control city structural elements teenage cultures and fashion styles.5 It is spectacle and the dynamic expressions that should be maintaining continuity, and here that the energy and spontaneity of that attract and entice the viewer. The for changes in the short term.3 Omotesando Avenue culminates to create a creation of depth less, superficial images, cultural haven for the visionary future city. It or the phenomenon of spectacles as Consumption and architecture are not always is here that consumption is celebrated, and aesthetics, is architecturally comprehended two things traditionally linked. However, unlike in Western culture, there is no shame and expressed in urban landscapes of Omotesando presents a rather compelling associated with it. The greatest architects consumption. These images sensibly argument that this might be the future of of Japan are buying into this idea. In Tokyo, interact with the public and penetrate into the city. In a time that demands money and cultural identities are formed through loyalty the environment in which we live.1 The attention, it is important to recognize the to what particular brand on associates structures and spaces that form a living significance of social awareness. Tokyo has themselves with. environment are hierarchical in structure. proven that buildings are replaceable and The higher the structures and the spaces it is the actions of the people that carry a Certain fashion staples begin to create layers in the hierarchy, the longer their life spans. lasting history. of one’s identity and begin to determine their The transformation of these structures and interactions with others. Like fashion, the spaces transform the structures and spaces Hiroshima. Moments of large cultural impact had a powerful effect on the city as a whole.5 This brought to the surface the question of Japan’s blooming contemporary culture and how the history and culture of the Japanese people plays a role within that.

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Gentrification

Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.� - Henry Ford

New Economy


Manufacturing

THE MOTOR CITY DETROIT, MICHIGAN, USA THE RISE OF THE AUTOMOBILE

Detroit has for decades been known as the Midwest. By 1909 Detroit was home to the world’s foremost automotive center. It more than 200 automobile producers and is a metonym for the American Automobile became an automobile center, but it wasn’t Industry and no other city has created such until the ensuing time period that Detroit a heavy iconic image of the prototypical rose to dominance in the industry. After industrial manufacturing city. There are 1909, the number of car manufacturers about four thousand factories in the area. in the industry fell and within ten years New vehicle production, sales, and jobs almost all of the leading manufacturers related to automobile use account for one were produced by makers in Detroit. Detroit of every ten jobs in the United States. It has and the surrounding region became the also recently been in an economic decline of preeminent manufacturing center as home massive proportions. Detroit is so strongly to the Big Three automobile companies, bound with the automotive industry that the General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler. 2 outcome of the automobile itself may dictate the fall of its respective “birthplace”. Detroit was originally had a diverse regional influence in manufacturing but Between 1900 and 1930, Detroit was not considered a top industrial city. A experienced unequaled growth for a city, as considerable portion of its population lived it grew six-fold from a population of 305,000 very close to downtown. Detroit’s growth to 1,837,000. This exponential growth was as a city followed the plan of a common fueled by the concentration of automobile nineteenth-century industrial city as its manufacturers around Detroit and by 1929 manufacturing areas stayed close to the the automobile industry was the largest river. The river served as a source of power industry in the U.S.1 But the industry was and a path from which goods and supplies not always concentrated around Detroit. could be brought into the city. During this Various companies entered the Detroit time, Detroit had industries such as metal area through the eastern seaboard and working, food production, stove manufacture,

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Skyline along the Detroit International Riverfront.A

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drugs and chemicals, and tobacco goods. At the turn of the twentieth century, the manufacture of motor vehicles was among the city’s growing, but still relatively small, industrial concerns.3 Detroit’s first auto plants were very small scale factories. As manufacturing technologies grew, especially through entrepreneurs such as Henry Ford, automobile production grew as firms were expanding on the machine tool and coach building industries. Factories such as the Highland Park Plant had cutting-edge mass production techniques such as assembly lines. It was during this time that Detroit’s stake in the industry was claimed and by the mid-1910s, Detroit area firms were dominating the industry. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler were all based in Detroit, Michigan and would overtake the industry for the next 45 years. This rise to prominence in the American industrial scene transformed the city of Detroit, attracting over a million new migrants. Utilizing this growing number of immigrants, the automobile industry capitalized. Hopeful auto workers rushed into the city from the rural areas of the Midwest, providing a ready supply of workers who had been looking for economic opportunity in Detroit. Ford was at the forefront of this industrial speed and mass manufacturing, especially after announcing a profit plan in 1914 that would pay workers five dollars a day. Thousands of immigrants flocked to the factories in search of these opportunities.

Detroit underwent its most rapid growth in the 1920s, which happens to be the same time period when automobile production soared. By 1930, Detroit’s population had Postcard of the Model T Ford Plant in Highland Park, Michigan, 1917.B grown to about 1.6 million, making it the fourth largest city in the United States. 50 years, the city’s blue-collar workers streets overshadowed by red-brick factories Although auto production and population would gradually become more and more and warehouses. In Detroit, by contrast, growth slowed during the Great Depression, decentralized. two-thirds of the structures were detached, the city continued to attract migrants until single family homes and another fifth were the early 1950s, when the city’s population Detroit’s landscape was uniquely impacted by two-family homes, nearly all of them with peaked at nearly two million.2 the rapid developments in car manufacturing. gardens and yards. Rowhouses, high rise The low-rise city was sprawled outward in apartments, and tenements were rarities in The incoming wave of immigrants and every direction, with endless monotonous the Motor City”.3 migrants completely transformed the city’s grids of suburban developments expanding landscape. After settling in Detroit, many block by block. In comparison, “in New York, In terms of the land, Detroit is positioned immigrant groups decided it best to live workers lived in cramped tenements and in an area that is ideal for the formation of farther away from the industrial districts’ apartment buildings; in Philadelphia, they an industry center. Detroit is in the center many large auto factories. Over the next lived in tiny rowhouses, often on treeless of America’s Industrial Belt, a region

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that extends from lower New England to Pennsylvania and across the Appalachians westward through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The area provided much, if not all, of the raw materials required for the production of automobiles and it was easy to access these materials via river access through the Great lakes and railroads. Pennsylvania and West Virginia’s vast coal resources were accessible by rail no farther than a day’s travel. In Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Cleveland, Gary, and Chicago, large quantities of industrial steel were being produced and were all within a few hundred miles of Detroit. Detroit industries could also access the iron and copper ore regions of northern Michigan and Minnesota through shipping on the Great Lakes. Detroit’s location as the central hub of all these various industries gave its automobile producers easy access to the capital and markets necessary for its extraordinary growth.

Daniel Choi

Detroit Autoshow, 2003.B

In recent times, Detroit has become a major example of the current recession, as the fall of the U.S. auto industry brings down the city with it. This fall indicates Detroit’s inextricable link to the U.S. automobile industry. But the city of Detroit is in the very rare position of being able to reinvent itself at the turn of an economic, cultural, and political crisis. Over the last 100 years, the argument could be made that the automobile industry as a whole has had one of the greatest impacts on modern America. Starting from very simple and humble beginnings, the U.S. auto industry of Detroit grew explosively in the first fifty years of the twentieth century, decentralized and reconstituted its workforce. The Motor City was “made, remade, and unmade by its dominant industry”.2

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Ethnic Enclave

Urban Village

Regenerated

Edge City

Green

Entertainment

Retail/ Consumption

Heavy Industry

New Economy

“Great discoveries and improvements invariably involve the cooperation of many minds. I may be given credit for having blazed the trail, but when I look at the subsequent developments I feel the credit is due to others rather than to myself.� - Alexander Graham Bell


New Economy

SILICON VALLEY

SANTA CLARA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA BIRTH OF INNOVATION

Silicon Valley refers to the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area and includes all of the Santa Clara Valley, including the City of San Jose, California. Today, it is best known for its development of semiconductors and other modern computing advancements, but it was once referred to as the “Valley of Hearts Delight.” From the era of the Spanish missionaries who established the Santa Clara Mission in 1777 until the 1900s, the valley was largely an agricultural community. Historically, San Jose and Palo Alto were the only cites with populations of over 5,000 people. With the City of San Jose, the county seat of Santa Clara County, as the commercial center for the agricultural economy, Santa Clara County was ranked in the top 15 agricultural areas in the United States. Then, the rapid metamorphosis of this verdant valley in the twentieth century into the densest collection of electronics and semiconductor companies in the world was the result of innumerable key players and events. The most influential were the expansion of Stanford University and the war-time spending for research and development by the United States Defense Department.1

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In 1876, former Governor Leland Stanford purchased more than 8,000 acres of land in the Santa Clara Valley and founded the City of Palo Alto. On this tract of land, Stanford University was founded in 1885. At that time, the University was one of the few co-educational and non-denominational universities in the Country. In 1925, Professor Frederick Terman, commonly referred to as one of the fathers of Silicon Valley, came to Stanford University with the intent of improving the electrical engineering program. Under his watch, the engineering program was primarily focused on vacuum tubes, circuits, and instrumentation. The campus’ year-round moderate climate and its proximity to the San Francisco Harbor and to the Moffet Field Naval Air Station gave the engineering program the perfect conditions needed to flourish in the years to come. With the influence of Stanford University’s Engineering Department, Silicon Valley’s numerous technological innovations actually began during World War I. At


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View of Silicon Valley.A

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that time, inventions created by Charles Herfold, Cyril Ewell, and other great minds, often under Government contracts with the United States Navy, created the Pulson Arc, global telegraph, and early improvements in radio technology.2 These early developments paved the way for the more radical transformation of the Valley during World War II. Because of the war, there was a massive influx of people to work in the many industries supporting the war effort. Many of the former agricultural areas were transformed into industrial areas used for military purposes. Canning plants transformed into shipbuilding facilities, tractor producers began developing tanks and new aeronautics, and electronics firms were established which were all clustered around Stanford University. Because of the Valley’s climate, on-campus research facilities were able to perform year-round atmosphere while avoiding the obtrusive testing. Wartime federal funding also led to and industrial feel of most similar parks. A the creation of a technological watershed at major factor in determining where to build Stanford University dedicated to developing structures on the site was the necessity of electronic components and equipment for placing the buildings on flat areas which the military to support the war effort. made construction on the surrounding hills impractical. Leaving the hills untouched in After the end of World War II, Frederick the site plan, allowed for a verdant backdrop Terman, returned to Standford University of public parks, hiking trails, and picnic after spending the war years at the Radio areas and provided an improved quality of Research Laboratory at Harvard University. urbanization in the Stanford Industrial Park. Terman was appointed Dean of the School of The result of this site plan was a campus Engineering. Dean Terman was interested of light industrial buildings that conveyed in providing support to the local industries. an architecture of clean, modern, and In this respect, Stanford University’s innovative structures. As Stanford Industrial engineering program was closely aligned Park expanded, the lack of useful land for with the needs of the Valley’s high-tech farming pushed many of the remaining companies. Terman was insistent on agricultural producers out of the Santa developing a new relationship between the Clara Valley. This allowed the expansion of University and the local industries.3 the Stanford Industrial Park which now had the available space and types of facilities Dean Terman’s views on the future of the that small new firms required to survive with Santa Clara Valley led to the proposal to limited resources.5 create the Stanford Industrial Park. Created in1951, the Stanford Industrial Park was Two of the important early firms in the originally comprised of 35 acres of land Stanford Industrial Park were Varian leased only to high technology firms. This Associates and Hewlett-Packard. Varian was intended to not only bolster the local Associates, whose headquarters building industries, but to provide post-university was designed by the signature architect employment for the large number of Eric Mehdelssohn, was the first tenant. students trained at Stanford University. Started in 1948 by Russell and Sigurd The Stanford Industrial Park became a Varian, two Stanford University graduates, model for other high-technology districts Varian Associates developed the Klystron. with its exceptional landscaping and high This was the first tube that generated architectural standards. The goal of these electromagnetic waves at microwave was to preserve a suburban campus-like frequencies which was essential for later

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Aerial view of Silicon ValleyB

developments in radar and in microwave communications. Another early tenant in the Stanford Industrial Park was HewlettPackard. Initially located in a shop in a garage in Palo Alto circa 1938, the company was begun by the Stanford graduates, William Hewlett and David Packard, who moved the company into the Stanford Industrial Park in 1953. Hewlett-Packard’s successes quickly led to innovations in the realm of personal computing and printing, which allowed the company to become the largest personal computer manufacturer in the world. Contemporaneous with the creation of the Stanford Industrial Park, the Korean War began, and with it came new Government defense spending. The Korean War continued the flood of federal funds to Stanford University and to the local electronics and defense research and development (“R&D”) companies. Defense contractors sprang up in the area and national companies came into the Santa Clara Valley to be near Stanford University and the Stanford Industrial Park. These companies included IBM, ITT, Admiral, Sylvania, General Electric, Philco-Ford, Intel, Kaiser, and others. Overtime, Dean Terman used the Engineering Department’s faculty, students, and facilities to secure Defense Department research contracts totaling over 13 billion dollars. Under these contracts, researchers and defense contractors in Santa Clara County developed ballistic


missile systems and the early semiconductor technology which would soon redefine the Valley and dynamically change the world’s information and computer technologies. Arguably, the semiconductor industry began in 1955 when William Shockley, one of the three inventors of the technology, left the Bell Laboratory to establish the Shockley Transistor Company. At the time, germanium was the semiconductor material used for transistors, but Shockley developed a new three-element design with silicon as the primary material (the Shockley diode). Although they later halted research on the Shockley diode, this was the Santa Clara Valley’s first semiconductor company, and from this company came almost all of the companies which exist today. In 1957, eight of Shockley’s best scientists left the company to continue to continue their work on semiconductors, and founded Fairchild Semiconductors. By 1979, there were at least fifty new spin-off semiconductor companies in the Valley including Intel.4 The unbelievable growth of the semiconductor market was fueled by the Government’s contracts with local firms. By 1960, California companies had been awarded twenty percent of all defense related prime contracts of $10,000 or more, and forty-four percent of all National Aeronautics and Space Administration (“NASA”) contracts or subcontracts. By the mid-1960s, approximately thirty-six percent of all Defense Department R&D expenditures, and approximately forty-seven percent of all NASA R&D expenditures were for research performed by California companies.1

for the influx of venture capital to create and later expand new companies. These developments financed local businesses and also created a large group of wealthy individuals to the Valley. Over time, the creation and expansion of numerous silicon semiconductor technology companies in the Santa Clara Valley led to the coining of the name “Silicon Valley”. The term was originated used by Don Hoefler in 1971 when he wrote as series of articles on “Silicon Valley USA,” and it has been used ever since.4 Semiconductors are still a major component of Silicon Valley’s economy but the majority of recent innovations have involved software and Internet services. Silicon Valley has significantly influenced computer operating systems, software, and user interfaces through the visionary work of Xerox PARC, Cisco Systems, Apple Computer, and Microsoft. The combination of a massive assembly of minds, the tight aggregation of scientific/electronic firms, and the technology industry’s rapid growth and funds, Silicon Valley is the prototypical high-technology district and is still known today throughout the world as a leader in innovation.4

William Morrison

Map of Santa Clara CountyC

The center of R&D research in the 1960s were the many small semiconductor firms in the Santa Clara Valley. As the semiconductor components of defense systems grew increasingly complex, there was a large demand to locate companies near their electronic subsystem prime contractors. Also, the interaction and collaboration between the aerospace companies and their semiconductor producing subcontractors was essential given the contracts’ requirements. Even so, industrial space and housing in the Valley was still plentiful and inexpensive. Given this, the Santa Clara Valley prepared

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New Economy

INOVALLÉE GRENOBLE, FRANCE THE FRENCH INNOVATION VALLEY The innovation center, Zone pour l’Innovation et les Réalisations Scientifiques et Techniques (ZIRST), is based in Grenoble, France. Founded in 1972, ZIRST has emerged as a nanotech leader and the hub of one of Europe’s prime high-tech ecosystems. The success of its growth has much to do with its tradition of moving quickly from research to fabrication. Now ZIRST has been followed by many research centres, both corporate and national, in the Grenoble valley -- which has prompted the name of the area to change to Inovallée, an allusion to Silicon Valley in California. In this paper, ZIRST will be looked at from its genesis to its booming present and recent developments as Inovallée with its over 9,500 employees. Fuelled by an industrial past, Grenoble has emerged as one of the leading hightechnology centers of the world. The development of the high-technology valley is an outcome of long-standing relationships between industry and science. These relationships created an industrial tradition of high-value-added market niches ever

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since the seventeenth century glove making industry, which was centered on luxury gloves. This tradition is partly a result of the geographical location of the town: surrounded by the Alps, preventing mass-production industry growth. Also the appearance of hydroelectricity in the region encouraged growth and development of other industries and of academic scientific expertise. At the end of the nineteenth century, the local industries encouraged the development of applied science institutes such as the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, which is still one of the leading engineering institutes in France and in all of Europe. Now Grenoble is the second research pole in France after Paris with 55,000 students and 13,000 research staff in 10 engineering schools, four universities, and five public research institutes.1

The onset of innovation centers in France began in the post-Second World War era when the French began to develop statesponsored research centers, but most failed to prosper due to very little investment in science and engineering. The second


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Isère River Valley A

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wave of such centers called for regional development and decentralization to “mobilize the country’s research potential” (Prime Minister Pierre Mendes). This would “rebalance” and normalize the French landscape as a result of Parisian domination of the academics and economics. ZIRST was then founded in 1971 outside of Grenoble in Meylan. Its beginning and growth has been supported by the local authorities in Meylan, being that the mayor, Hubert Dubedout, at the time of its early development was a scientist. One important aspect to its early growth was that there was no central authority in charge contrasting that of the state-sponsored centers. Meaning no direct state funding was given, and new developments were the result of local initiative and strong local identity. This idea of this collective of enterprises in a regional cluster has been sustained by the ability of the companies to keep a balance of cooperation and competition. Its ability for firms to subcontract to other firms that have the specific expertise to do the work or research. ZIRST continued to flourish by its industrial/academic relationship and its history of moving to from R&D to fabrication for the more lucrative contracts by its ability to get to the consumers fast.2 The idea of the design of ZIRST is highly influenced by the project’s goals of promoting scientific and technological innovation while managing these strengths to promote progress of capitalist production and consumption. ZIRST was a first of its kind in France. It was to combine the highcaliber university research environment and high-tech industries to produce a “milieu of innovation,” enhance the scientific standing of France, and add to the regional economic development. This centre was made to create a utopian place as well as a utopian practice. The planning was led locally by research engineers, scientists, economists as well as local politicians. Many of whom spent time at universities in the US that were closely linked to early innovation centers like Boston’s Route 128 and Silicon Valley in California. This influenced the design as well as incubating an elitist mentality within the scientific community. Some researchers ran for public office in order to allow for public subsides for the project.

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Montbonnot Area B

These subsidies and zoning regulations led to the ability of the developers to create a grand design. This grand design was to serve as “extensions of the urban fabric” and also to symbolize Grenoble’s “dynamism and excellence.” It also was designed for spatial disposition to influence “social behavior and the capacity for creative work”. It’s elements were of power, authority, and prestige for the appearance of science. Its show of form and rational design became the official image

of applied science in modern France and created the alternative to the “esotericism of the older academic traditions of Paris.” The design called for a natural landscape to enhance the quality of life. ZIRST is sited along the Isère River next to a patchwork of farms and woodlands. This utopian design gave a parklike setting for the buildings to inhabit. The images of its structures were intended to exemplify the ideals of science including strict environmental responsibilities. The selection of companies


Ross Ritchie

and their zoning in the centre was to stratify the center for optimum potential. It was to become a “city of sciences” with gardens and ponds that allowed for its people to have plentiful “living space” for leisure, art, and culture.3 The reality of the grand design of ZIRST is much like Le Corbusier’s vision of the city that has an urban hierarchy of the “best qualified people” that bring “prosperity, order, and beauty to society through rationalization.” The criterion of efficiency was very narrow and its selection formalities and exclusions of certain firms hampered any organic development. This modernist ideal of a calculated reorganization of urban territory into socially ranked geography resulted in a technical division of labor as well as a social division. The plan and further development upon the base made ZIRST become a garden suburb rather than a center of urban activity. This resulted in the upscale neighborhoods nearby for the technical elites to find other places of the urban culture that distinguishes the professional middle-class life, which was found in the historical center of Grenoble.3 The first businesses to be located at ZIRST during the 1970’s were oriented towards computing and electronics. These were spinoffs of a larger computing firm in Grenoble. This was the first wave of businesses to populate the area zoned for high-tech activities. Due to the early successes of these enterprises, ZIRST began to grow with incubator firms with help from technology transfer policies in universities, engineering schools, and research institutions. By 1985, 130 firms had populated the ZIRST site. This growth resulted in the expansion to 10 business parks by 2000 in the greater Grenoble area. Minatec and Crolles 2 make up the newest developments in the valley. Just at Crolles 2, a $1.7 billion investment by U.S. based Motorola, Dutch Philips and Franco-Italian STMicroelectronics was made in 2004, which will further expand the valley’s global image as a leader in innovation. The phenomenon of this expansion of the region is largely based through the multiplication of firms through spin-off technology-based enterprises from existing firms and an attraction of large corporations into the valley. Although Grenoble’s long tradition

Montbonnot Plan of industry favored their industry-university relationships, national regulations restricting the involvement of public servants in companies limited the amount of spinoff companies as a means to transfer technology over other forms of universityindustry collaboration.1 The area has grown due to the successes of spin-off enterprises, but the valley’s natural beauty has also played a role in keeping them. The center is located along the Isère River between the Chartreuse and Belledonne mountain ranges of the French Alps. These mountains offer twenty ski resorts in the surrounding area. Also ZIRST’s location at Grenoble offers quick escapes to Paris and the Cote d’Azur in just three hours by train. Inovallée and its history as ZIRST have transformed the Isère valley as well as the international standing in science of France. After going through the main crises of the end of the century without any major incident, questions arose about the future ahead for the entire Isère valley, which

C

were answered be major expansions at the Crolles 2 site as well as Minatec. Inovallée has just recently reiterated its stance on environmental responsibilities by turning around its catch phrase by the founding fathers a “Green belt for grey matter” to “Grey matter for a green belt.” This is hoping to expand on its image as a sustainable development center. In 2008 Inovallée launched the Sustainable Development Charter to insure that the entire valley including the other research centers develop with a general eco-attitude for a continuous improvement approach. This manages the consumptions notably in terms of energy, optimization of resources, limitation of environmental impacts, decrease and recycling of their waste, but also compliance with the fundamental human rights, such are the main foundations of a corporate social responsibility that the Inovallée companies will be greatly encouraged to follow into the future.

115



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Vauban Freiburg, Germany

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Les Champs-Élysées Paris, France

A “Champs-Élysées.” Wikipedia. 18 March 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. B “Champs-Élysées.” Wikipedia. 18 March 2010. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. C Jordan, David P. Transforming Paris. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995.

Omotesando Avenue Tokyo, Japan

A Dior Omotesdano. Web. 3 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/92822489@N00/4115137276/>. B Harajuku girl. Web. 3 May 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/marxpix/>.

Detroit Automobile Sector Detroit, Michigan

A Mustafa, Shakil. “Detroit (Michigan, USA) skyline from Windsor (Ontario, Canada) from across the Detroit River.” Jan. 29th 2006. Wikipedia. May 1, 2010. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Detroit_Night_Skyline.JPG> B “Highland Park Ford Model T Plant Postcard.” 1917. Flickr. May 1, 2010. <http:// www.flickr.com/photos/steve_frenkel/3367948166/> C “Detroit Autoshow.” Jan. 2003. Flickr. May 1, 2010. <http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeross/2194122300/>

Silicon Valley Stanford, California

A Center of Silicon Valley. Santa Clara Valley, California. Flickr. Web. B A World Dressed in Technology. Palo Alto, California. <http://www.christopherautry.com/blog/?paged=2>. Web. C Benbennick, David. Map of California Highlighting Santa Clara County. Wikipedia. Web.

Inovallee Gernoble, France

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A AMase, Randolph, “New York – The Most Entertaining City in the US!” [Weblog entry] Randolph Mase’s Weblog. 18 Sept. 2009. 30 April 2010. <http://randolphmase. wordpress.com/2009/09/18/new-york-%E2%80%93-the-most-entertaining-city-inthe-us/> B Hoogstraten, Nicholas van. Lost Broadway Theatres. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1991. 214

A Azana, Pilar. La robe et l’échelle. 2010. Photograph. Flickr. B Kossa, Marc. Aerial Photos. 2005. Photograph. vBulletin. C Montbonnot. Map. Grenoble: Blanc-Lapierre. Web.


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