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Letter from the Editor Urbane (adj.) Definition: (of a person, especially a man) suave, courteous, and refined in manner. Synonyms: affable, cosmopolitan, cultured, elegant, polished, civilized. The Society for Planning and Architectural Media, the student publication operating under the clever guise of a formal organization, is none of these things. Conceived amidst late nights copy-pasting cut-out trees, waiting for GIS to process, poring over lines of R, and sipping complimentary Grad Center coffee, S.P.A.M. is a reaction against the lifestyle of intellectual rigidity and social isolation one adopts while in pursuit of higher education. Despite our total immersion in an environment replete with the inspirational work of our mentors and the brilliant minds of our peers, it often feels as though our interpersonal connections amount to little more than the aggregation of nodes in a professional network. S.P.A.M. is a manifestation of these frustrations; it is an opportunity for a cohort of individuals to collaborate on material which thoughtfully melds our idle musings with critical reflections on the current discourse in planning and design. Beyond the physical product you’re holding now, S.P.A.M. has engendered countless discussions, jokes, and opportunities to engage in academic material for the fun of it. It is likely that one will complete grad school with a wealth of new knowledge and plenty of connections, however it is also quite possible to make it through grad school without taking the time to forge new friendships or to invest in genuine personal growth. After many rounds of peer-edits, hours of scavenging for the goofiest cutouts, and myriad conversations with collaborators, we, the collective behind this magazine, have created a product which we truly enjoy. We hope that you will enjoy it as well – and that it will offer you a moment to appreciate the absurdity of the spaces we inhabit.
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An Ecological and Urban Approach to Defining Landscape Ecological Urbanism At the Global Conference for Climate Relief, hosted on the top floor of a corporate Manhattan skyscraper.... Moderator: It is with great pleasure that I welcome today’s panel to the Global Conference for Climate Relief. We look forward to the insights and new perspectives that we will no doubt take away from this event. As we have realized from our experience in the field, the more you learn and listen, the less guilty you feel about not doing anything. Landscape Architect: It’s a pleasure to be here. Urban Planner: For me as well. Ecologist: Absolutely. Ominous thunder booms in the distance. Moderator: Let’s get right to it. At the top of our agenda is how to deal with the imminent effects of climate change in urban spaces. To which field do we turn? Who has the
silver bullet? New Urbanism, perhaps Landscape or Ecological Urbanism? How do we, as designers, contend with these atmospheric terrors? A heavy rain commences outside, visible through the large glass windows. Ecologist: Thank you for providing this platform - and as a representative of the scientific community, I hope we can acknowledge today that climate change is not imminent, it’s effects are in full swiLandscape Architect: Yes, the imminent nature of climate change is haunting. That is why the landscape field has stepped up to provide a solution: Landscape Urbanism. The undeniable benefits of sinuous curves, organic forms, and infusion of native plantings in urban space will halt the pending impacts of large scale climate shifts. Ecologist: But, those dramatic patches of grass don’t do much for the ecological integrit5
Urban Planner: If I could just cut in here, our conversation would be remiss if we didn’t discuss the incredible contributions to sustainability from New Urbanism - truly ‘the way’ as prescribed by seminal figure of mixed uses - Andres Duany. (Urban planner leans closer to his microphone)... Steven? (Intern pulls cord to reveal giant gold-plated banner of Andres Duany riding a Lime Scooter [the coveted stallion of active mobility] through the Form Based Code-induced triumph that is Seaside, FL.) Urban Planners in the Audience: (Bowing profusely and muttering/chanting in unison) Duany! Density! Walkability! Duany! Moderator: We truly are making excellent strides today. The storm outside intensifies. Debris and hail are seen whipping past the windows behind the panel. Lightning strikes in the distance. Landscape Architect (cuts in dramatically, pointing fingers): You New Urbanists and your dense urban forms should think twice. 6
What will living on top of your neighbor do for you if you can’t access beautiful man-made gardens? I mean - if the Highline doesn’t convert you to our view what will? Urban Planner: True, the Highline is sick. Landscape Architect: Yes. Yes it is. Moderator: I love the Highline. Right, everyone? (Looks to crowd, everyone’s eyes shine, reminiscing about their singular experience on the Highline.) The weather has reached unfathomable ferocity. The glass windows crack and water floods into the room, filling the entire conference with a mixture of sleet and rain. The building trembles while the panelists, knee deep in water, continue their discussion, unphased. Landscape Architect: Yes, we took a self-sufficient natural ecosystem - a real metropolitan miracle - and transformed it, adding curves and increasing surrounding property values. Urban ecologist: You made it zig-zaggier and more expensive.
(brings palm to forehead) I need some water...(stands up and treads to water cooler.)
Still, they carry on nonchalantly, craning their necks to keep their mouths above water as they banter...
Moderator: Stop! That is not for drinking. Audience laughs. Ecologist looks confused. Moderator: I purchased that vintage Dasani cooler from Jeff Bezos’s ecosystem services elite summerfest 2025 ™. It is a $3 million vintage status symbol NOT a watering hole. (Ecologist stares and swims out of the room.) Urban Planner: Now back to my point! If we build as many sidewalks as we can possibly cram into each neighborhood, people will run into their neighbors on their way to buy milk. These chance encounters will develop among our population a sense of community. Equity concerns will evaporate - high-fives will be rampant. This will substantially offset the amount of carbon in our atmosphere. The water in the room has risen to a level just below the speakers’ heads. 7
It’s gritty, the words are spit through his teeth. Why do you like Philadelphia?
Consider this: Who have you heard revel in the city’s crumble?
I step down the last white rider to depart this trolley and proclaim my belonging to this place.
I step down the first marble step stoop fractured yet polished, eyes worn I gaze across my past.
Sidewalk cracks underfoot blocks vined and overgrown The city reclaimed by beauty yet unknown.
Of traces erased And history frozen we are wildflowers calling this grit our home.
Rubble, weeds, fences slowly replace memories The life suspended in my reveries.
Of soul forgotten And places unwritten these blocks do speak so long as you listen.
Eyes wide, atilt a gaze returned my fingers through this auburn mane, I’m burdened by a past and present thoughts on my own I cannot maintain. 8
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LiveWorkPlayEatWorkLoveLaugh Denver, Colorado is embracing new and exciting trends in real estate with their new mixed-use development LiveWorkPlayEatLoveLaugh (LWPELL). Located at the intersection of MLK St. and 51st Avenue in a chronically underserved neighborhood, LWPELL will boast 300 new residential units and over 40,000 sq. feet of retail space. The developers, NextGEN(trification), are hoping to capitalize on the renaissance of the gritty, disinvested downtown atmosphere that millennials crave. Several historic homes were demolished, and communities destroyed in historic Mountain Gully Square neighborhood in the process of construction LWPELL. However, NextGEN(trification) has promised the Denver Planning Commission they will build a pocket park for local disadvantaged youth in exchange for the approval of LWPELL. While the final location of the park has yet to be determined, developers have said, “the pocket park will definitely be built by 2050”. LWPELL offers top of the line amenities in a LEEDZirconium certified building, using the latest in stormwater management to offset the massive environmental impact of the development. LWPELL goes one step further than other innovative, green projects. Using large suction pipes to siphon off water before draining into the city’s sewer system, stormwater is never even seen and so is not an issue. The rooftop garden also boasts four large solar panels that support heat lamps, so residents can catch a tan even during the dead of the Colorado winter! Other building amenities include a HoneyGrow and LuluLemon store at street level, which developers said will support the local economy and act as spaces for new and existing residents to enjoy. The building also offers climbing walls, electric vehicle charging stations and a yoga mat exchange, as well as top floor, resident-exclusive retail enterprises. 10
When asked about the mix of retail offered at street level, NextGen(trification) stated, “we wanted to really invest in the community here in the Mountain Gully Square neighborhood. Providing these retail opportunities will allow residents and community members to interact over an acai bowl at HoneyGrow and come together as the new MoGu2.” This exciting new infusion of activity into the oncedead neighborhood is just one project on the horizon for NextGEN(trification). They hope to complete twelve other similar projects in traditionally disadvantaged neighborhoods around the Denver Metro Area in the next year. Meanwhile, eager twentysomethings do not have to wait long as LWPELL is expected to begin leasing in Fall 2019.
NextGEN(trification)’s new project, LWPELL will offer premium amenities and activated community spaces for residents. Studios and one-bedrooms are expected to range between $5,000 and $5,675.
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Funereal Aesthetics: Six feet under-stated? If you have had the misfortune of finding yourself in multiple funeral homes throughout the course of life, you may have experienced the passing thought, “Wow! Why do all funeral homes look the same?� Your thoughts may not be unfounded. Funeral homes exhibit distinct patterns in lighting, flooring, color palette as well as a distinctive olfactory experience. Yet, beyond looking the same, all funeral homes also tend to feel the same. Throughout the years, funeral 12
homes have managed to change the discourse surrounding death and inform the ritual of grief through a set of unique aesthetics. In this way, the bereaved have been socialized to experience death in a certain way and have come to expect a particular environment with a distinct set of design standards. So bright it hearse! While the funeral industry has been criticized for the commodification of death and its use of stark lighting in the
space of the funeral home, this deliberate design choice creates a liminal space appropriate for processing loss. Through the combination of harsh florescence and dim overhead lighting, the bereaved are able to confront the duality of life and death more effectively. Bite the dust[mites] Despite claims of funeral home carpeting appearing “out of date”, “unsanitary”, or even “dystopian”, the choice of plush flooring helps the bereaved to process death through its harkening to the “womb tomb” metaphor. By reminding funeral-goers of the cyclical nature of life, designers have effectively created an aesthetic simultaneously comforting and unsettling. Is this color tomb much? “Something about the drab mauves and teals of the nineteen-nineties signals closure,” discusses seminal funerary design scholar Felix LaMorte in his latest publication, “Designing the Deathscape.” The radical experimentation of textures, patterns, and styles creates a feeling of endless possibility despite times of concentrated
Don’t put all your eggs in one casket!
sorrow. In what other space could styles reminiscent of the Moulin Rouge and a suburban dentist office meld effortlessly into one Lynchian aesthetic? Olfactory overload: Of corpse! As the combined scent of stale mints, niche cookies, and instant coffee permeate the air, the bereaved experience a spiritual and olfactory palate cleanser. In this regard, society has come to associate these scents with comfort and solace. Next time you find yourself aggrieved yet agonized by the choice of wallpaper, find peace in the fact that the grave detail with which the post-modern funeral home is curated was not without the utmost intention and purpose.
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The Jargony Search for URBANIST Jargon S X T M V P Y F I R T N E G E AG FR
J Z
F Q B X S C T E Y X Y M M L D O M P C B H L D P Y A Y T C F T T O Y P X N E I J I I T A G Q J I P Q L U M W V C O D Q L I Q F E F M T D L R B E F T C T O A L Y A A P A G O T O H N K D Y G D X M R M M L G N A B R U X E C A L P Z H P E N C P J Z U X W Z E Z P G E N I C O X L Z S V U IT N M L V N Y E Q V S U F K U L X B Z A D T W P U A C S A T T T E H B B P E Y T H R S CL G N A D D H D Y I BG I N E N P N N I G UE L C VJ CU L P S GX C D O L J T Q WX IZ EV A T J Y X B M T G N E G TU DK C B O N C I A E J T A U AH AU E T I C E T I K K L D I LA RP M X Q E G L U G E I G G MD ID L Y A I D BO XM I T L U M X C D O L J T T C P L M Z L K H B S H K W C P EQUITABLE G WY Z X XB EMRT I GO NE AL MEXURBAN V VH A J O ONNE C GI AA N E R JS TQNGATEWAY J IG C H F I XC QE XT NI G K P K G DD GGENIUSLOCI S JQ P E D QS E DG RL AU H GS EG P G TGENTRIFY B D X V Z O V E Q L B YM XUI LT VL U I MJ R L MHARDSCAPE BT GS G S TI H C SKP W C P T K Y SMAKERSPACE EN LA V P M H V A J O D EMULTIMODAL S Q J G C H F Z H W A J T N I NUMTOT G M H C K D D S G Q J P E D A UPLACEMAKING G M B Y E E G P BT D X V Z Y I RESILIENT J Q L A BREVITALIZE W M LR V M E T S M YROADDIET P Y K G S 14 O D E P F Z H W A
TOD WALKABILITY
Z V Z T H N L W G U I M M X E Q D U I X T A T D P R K D Z A Y A M
E C J U P G X Z V T U K T H U L A P I G D D Y I B X C D O L J T Y X B M T G N O N C I A E J I C E T I K K Q E G L U G E O M I T L U M B S H K W C P E L VEQUITABLE H A J O S Q JEXURBAN G C H F G D SGATEWAY Q P E D G G BGENIUSLOCI D X V Z J L VGENTRIFY E Q L T Y GHARDSCAPES
G R T R S E N P N V C L S I E A J T D C B A A E T L R M X I L A D Z L K H E R I O G A N R X N G P R A H S L V I S EQUITABLE C P EXURBAN M V GATEWAY N I GENIUSLOCI G J GENTRIFY T HARDSCAPE M MAKERSPACE S MULTIMODAL E P NUMTOT H W A PLACEMAKING U M H C RESILIENT I M B Y E REVITALIZE B W ROADDIET Y TOD WALKABILITY YIMBY
X T A T D P R K D Z A Y A M
MAKERSPACE MULTIMODAL NUMTOT PLACEMAKING RESILIENT REVITALIZE ROADDIET TOD WALKABILITY YIMBY
C P M V N I G J T M S E P H W A U M H C I M B Y E B W Y
EQ EX GA GE GE HA MA MU NU PL RE RE RO TO W YI
CityLab: Tom Cruise Has A Bold Vision for the Traffic-free City of the Future “The thing about these people is that they’re all going somewhere. But nowhere. Slowly and quickly. Respectively. And so are we. Voluntarily. You know what I’m saying?” Tom Cruise speaks with the staccato lyricism of a karaoke singer who only knows the chorus. He lets go of the wheel and looks over. I nod dutifully, and he lets slip a smile before turning back toward the road. Traffic on Chicago’s Dan Ryan Expressway is especially bad today. The hybrid engine on Cruise’s bright red Prius – “René DesCar,” he calls it – cuts off in the standstill. The driver behind us leans on her horn while it purrs back to life. “It’s astounding to me that people just ignore the data. How can you live your life that way? It’s been proven over and over again that cities are the single greatest generators of traffic congestion in existence, and yet people continue to live in, visit, and move to cities. It makes no sense.” 16
Cruise, 24, made waves this year following the release of his book, Treatise on Contemporary Urban Transportation Issues (and equity too!). The self-published volume (available on Medium. com) articulates a theory of “radical traffic reform,” whereby cities would attack the motivations for travel itself, rather than the conditions that cause traffic jams. “Travel is a ‘derived demand,’ right? I learned that in graduate school. Besides like, hiking or NASCAR or the Tour de France, no one travels just for the sake of it. Travel is the result of wanting to do other things. For centuries, cities have been addressing traffic by building new roads and subways and buses, but that’s beside the point. What cities need to do isn’t treat the symptom – like they’ve been doing – but cure the disease. They need to attack activity.” Traffic has come to a halt, and René drifts to sleep once more. To our right, a sedan full of beachgoers waits happily,
bopping along with the radio. “Lake Michigan beckons, eh?” Cruise says, strangely. He had been in the middle of the first semester of the Master of City and Regional Planning program at the University of Pennsylvania Jim E. Chu School of Design when he published Treatise. The piece took off immediately, spawning a group of supporters called “The Anti-Urbanists” and gaining traction among comment
section trolls across the urbanist internet. The Anti-Urbanists were recently suspended from Facebook for brigading the popular NUMTOTs group, inundating their home page with low effort iterations of the Distracted Boyfriend, Thomas the Dank Engine, and other memes. One recent troll attempt reads, “Broke: City car traffic / Woke: City bus traffic / Bespoke: No city, no traffic.” That this post leaves the mind begging for a raison d’être is beside the
Cloud Gate, more commonly known as The Bean, was completed in 2006 and is the centerpiece of Downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park. While the structure, which is hollow, began as a theater providing fully immersive VR experiences, it recently pivoted to a coworking space. Over 8,000 Chicagoland freelancers and creative professionals work inside The Bean every day. Tom Cruise proposes the structure be demolished or, at a minimum, filled with concrete.
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point; Tom Cruise has birthed a movement, and it cannot be ignored. He left the city planning program shortly after publishing, citing irreconcilable philosophical differences. I ask him how life is different now that he leads the Anti-Urbanist revolution. “If you mean ‘am I rich now?’, the answer is definitely no. Everyone I know has read Treatise, but it’s only 200 words long with three pictures, and it was originally a Twitter thread. There’s no money in Twitter threads. “Anyway,” he continues, “let’s get back to the data. There’s something called the ITE Trip Generation Manual, right, and it tells you how many trips a place generates. So that Al’s Beef – you see that over there? Let’s say 400 people go to that every day. That’s 400 people who maybe you get stuck behind in traffic. So, let’s get rid of that Al’s Beef – it’s gone – now traffic is 400-people-off-the-road-better. Or take those people next to us – they’re going to the beach. The beach creates, what, 10,000, 20,000 trips per day in the summer? So, let’s get rid of the 18
beach too. The beach is gone, fill that shit with concrete and -” I interrupt, “Say that again? Fill the beach with concrete?” Cruise takes a long breath. He shifts René into park – to the chagrin of the woman behind us – and squares his shoulders to me. He pulls a laminated card, displaying a single graph, from his wallet and places it in my hands. The drivers behind us spew vitriol at Cruise, but he waits for me to take in his work, paying them no mind. “It’s powerful, isn’t it. What’s not on that graph,” he adds, “is that Chicagoans spent nearly 8 million hours in traffic last year – that’s the area under the curve. “Listen, you need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. These are massive, intractable, wicked problems we’re dealing with. That’s why this is called Radical Traffic Reform. If it doesn’t shock you, something’s wrong, and it won’t work. So yeah, fill the beach with concrete. It’ll help traffic.”
I ask how far he wants to take this. What’s the endgame for Tom Cruise? “Until there’s no traffic. And when traffic comes back, we do it again, until there’s no traffic again. Wrigley Field – gone. Willis née Sears Tower – gone. The Art Institute – gone. St. Patrick’s Day – abolished. And you know what else is gone? Traffic. People can reclaim their time. They can sit at home doing all the things they want to do at home, not sitting in traffic not doing things at home. It’s so obvious, but no one will do it. Everyone keeps ignoring the
data, but it’s right there. Follow the data. Data is all that matters. That’s why we’re here, to wake everyone up, to point to the data. We’re moving towards a post-mobility society, a state of enlightened stillness.” “So what about The Bean – what’s going to happen with that?”
“Fuck The Bean.”
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Saadiyat Cultural District: More Culture Than You Can Handle
This text is an except from a larger project developed in Fall 2018 for Arch 719 taught by Annette Fierro.
Of course Saadiyat Cultural District, located on one of Abu Dhabi’s islands, was going to be successful. The sheer star power of its institutions and designers made success inevitable. But it was just how successful Saadiyat became that took everybody by surprise. As soon as the Louvre and Guggenheim museums opened their doors, millions of tourists flocked from all around the world to experience these architectural wonders. Spectacular images of Saadiyat were on the front pages of every international publication. Celebrities made sure to be ‘spotted’ there. Art curators begged and bribed to have their names included in exhibitions. Journalists flew to Abu Dhabi at their own expense for the opportunity to publish an article on this cultural phenomenon. The world could not get enough of Saadiyat, and Saadiyat always had more to offer. With the opening of every new project, of which many were in the works, the 22
media craze was reignited. Announcements of newer, bigger, and better buildings were a monthly occurrence. The number of visitors exponentially grew and ambitious infrastructural projects were quickly built to accommodate them: new roads, bridges, airports, hotels, bus routes, and subways. Starchitects raced to be included, with no reservation on the type of commission. Koolhaas proposed a new ironic city grid. Eisenman designed functionless bus stops. Calatrava designed over-budget street lamps. It didn’t take long before prestigious institutions, having naively dismissed Saadiyat has a temporary fad, to feel the pressure and seek a presence on the island. The British Museum was the first to be allowed in, followed by the Smithsonian, Hermitage, and Uffizi. Each was designed by a world class architect, and each renewed international interest in the small island.
Saadiyat Cultural District Masterplan, courtesy TDIC.
The competition between these institutions was fierce. To have the hottest exhibition in Saadiyat was the ultimate goal. One turning point was when the Louvre calculated that more people would see the Mona Lisa if it was permanently moved to Abu Dhabi, and that’s exactly what they did (despite protests from French nationalist groups, and to the disbelief of Florentines). To match the Louvre, the Guggenheim decided to join forces with La Biennale di Venezia to hold the Venice Art Biennale in the Guggenheim building in Saadiyat. Similar publicity stunts accelerated in number, becoming more bizarre and ridiculous with every new announcement.
A shocking realization came when Saadiyat’s board of directors found out that the income generated by the culture industry far exceeded Abu Dhabi’s oil revenues. Cultural tourism and art sales were more lucrative than anyone previously imagined. The city announced shutting down all its oil rigs. All of Abu Dhabi was to be reoriented to become an infrastructural appendage, allowing Saadiyat to operate as smoothly as possible. The city’s office towers were occupied by Saadiyat’s organizers, promoters, and curators. The Trade Exchange focused on artists, artworks and auction houses. Warehouses were taken over as artist studios, or automated
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storage facilities for the world’s most expensive private collections. Local newspapers dedicated all their front pages to art. Local TV channels showed art news and documentaries almost exclusively: ‘Shark Week’ was the week they dedicated to Damien Hirst. But this formula was destined to reach a point of diminishing returns. Eventually, growth slowed, and tourist numbers stagnated. The world was getting immune to new art and architecture. As a consequence, the board of directors decided to search for the world’s most visited monuments and import them to Saadiyat at any cost. The surprise came after meeting several tourism and cultural ministers from around the world. They realized that the name of Saadiyat had reached such high esteem that those ministers were only too eager to ‘donate’ their national monuments for the honor of being shown in Saadiyat. Soon, the plan was put into action. Sections of the Great Wall of China were cut up and shipped to Saadiyat to be used as 24
Zayed National Museum, courtesy Foster + Partners.
pedestrian bridges. The Sphinx of Giza was also brought to Abu Dhabi, destined to become the centerpiece of Saadiyat’s cultural water park, where gondolas filled with screaming members of the world’s elite would shoot out of its chest and land in a splash of water between its ancient paws. Then, the Stonehenge was sold to the Zayed National Museum (Brexit hit the British economy pretty hard), where it was hung above the main atrium with steel wires and called “the world’s first Neolithic chandelier”. The crowds loved these new additions, a sentiment that translated into an increase in visitor numbers and spending. Saadiyat solidified its position as the world’s cultural hotspot for at least the next few decades. The dramatic success of Saadiyat and the drastic overhaul
world became more beautiful and more terrifying. Throwing anything away was accompanied by tremendous guilt. Moving furniture was blasphemy. Hoarding became commonplace.
Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, courtesy Gehry Partners.
of Abu Dhabi were bound to produce some social effects on the city’s residents. Several years after becoming the undisputable cultural mecca, the residents stopped thinking of ‘art’ and ‘culture’ as referring to special items and events enclosed in museums and theaters. For them, art and culture became part their everyday life. It was what they saw, worked on, and talked about. Their whole lives were ‘art’ and ‘culture’. They began to see the world differently. Every visit to the grocery store was like going to an Andy Warhol exhibition. Every trip to the bathroom was dominated by the ghost of Duchamp. Every clock was a Dali. Every stain was a Pollock. Looking out a window was like starring in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. Smiling felt like impersonating the Mona Lisa. For them, all was art. The
They learned to walk slowly, taking in their surroundings, touching surfaces and appreciating textures. They looked for explanatory plaques wherever they could find them. Their tastes became so elevated that the drudgery of an office job was unbearable. They were too cultured for the mundanity of life. Many thought earning money was socially demeaning. Others refused to eat unless the food was expertly prepared. Things were getting out of hand. The city’s board of directors realized this was a threat to Saadiyat’s continued success, and even survival. They brought in the world’s top psychiatrists to study this phenomenon and find a solution. Surprisingly, the experts quickly came to a unanimous conclusion: Abu Dhabi’s population was suffering from a widespread case of Starving Artist Syndrome.
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PHILADELPHIA
What You Focus On Is What You Get: A Photographic Travel Essay
PHILADELPHIA
PHILADELPHIA
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C H I N D O G U
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Our Sincerest Thanks
Amie Patel
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