The Dirt has initiated a new bi-weekly feature highlighting news stories from around the Web on landscape architecture. For more LA in the News, check out LAND, ASLA’s newsletter. If you see others you’d like included, please email us at info@asla.org.
“… the advances taking place in landscape architecture right now are no less monumental. The past few years have brought changes that promise to reinvent planned outdoor spaces over the next few decades, in ways as transformative as the ones that took place more than a century ago. Here are a few important developments that herald a new golden age for landscape architects and the projects they’re working on.”
“According to a recent survey by the American Society of Landscape Architects, outdoor living spaces—defined as kitchens and entertainment spaces—were ranked at the top of the list of growing trends among American homeowners.”
“Sanders began incorporating edible landscaping techniques into his limited growing area. The techniques Sanders began incorporating have been popular in more densely populated urban areas for a number of years but have since spread to residential suburbs and beyond. The basic premise of all these techniques is ensuring every pot, every flowerbed, every window sill box, is planted with something that is not only visually appealing, but can also be eaten.”
In an editorial piece from ASLA President Thomas R. Tavella: “The city of St. Louis is truly on the way to becoming ‘Historically & Dynamically Sustainable,’ as the motto for the city’s sustainability plan suggests. Through careful crafting and consideration, many believe that this plan, formally adopted just over three months ago, may be one of the most impactful decisions made by the city.”
“Landscape architecture encompasses the design of almost anything under the sky. Think of iconic places like Boston’s Emerald Necklace and the FDR Memorial in Washington, D.C. But also consider your downtown square, your local park, or even your own backyard. Green roofs, urban farms, and corporate campuses—all define landscape architecture.”
These articles were compiled by Phil Stamper, ASLA Public Relations and Communications Coordinator
2013 is the Year of Public Service at ASLA. The goal is to highlight the public service activities performed by landscape architects and advocate for a deeper commitment to community service by all. ASLA invites current members to submit projects. Selected projects will be highlighted in the campaign’s Web site and outreach materials. Descriptions, quotes, and multimedia content may be used – with proper credit – on the YPS2013 web site, blog and The Understory Facebook page. Here are two recent public service projects, performed as part of the ASLA’s partnership with the National Park Service Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance Program. These projects were recently submitted by Heather Rice, NPS-RTCA & Jonny Hayes, ASLA, ASLA’s Alaska Chapter.
Kachemak Bay Water Trail (KBWT): ASLA Alaska Chapter members Jonny Hayes, ASLA, and Mark Kimerer, ASLA, have been actively engaged in this project from its inception, working in tandem with the KBWT Steering Committee, National Park Service Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance Program, and City of Homer.
Hayes and Kimerer began the trail branding process by working with a special committee of KBWT to facilitate and generate logo concepts. The pair worked with the committee during the process to refine the selected concept and produce a final logo that has been used extensively to promote the water trail vision, which will serve as a basis to guide future marketing efforts. Hayes and Kimerer have continued to lend their expertise to assist the Steering Committee to identify water trail branding options, develop a site inventory review form, evaluate potential launch sites, and prepare an RFP for the design and build of a water trail web site.
In April, Hayes will be leading a planning and programming design charrette with key stakeholders and the City of Homer to begin the design and permitting of the Kachemak Bay Water Trail launch in Homer, with a similar effort to take place in Seldovia at a later date.
Palmer Bike Park: The Palmer Bike Park, in Palmer, Alaska, is envisioned as a place where cyclists of any ability can hone their biking skills so they can enjoy all types of terrain. Cyclists of all ages will be able to learn how to bike safely and have fun. At the park, they will gain the confidence they need to ride their bikes anywhere, from sidewalks to roadway bike lanes to back country mountain bike trails.
To help move this project forward, Eric Morey, ASLA, Alaska Chapter, and Luanne Urfer, ASLA, Washington Chapter, collaborated with the the National Park Service Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program. They volunteered a generous amount of their time and expertise as participants in every part of the planning and early concept development process, including crafting the initial vision and building community support.
Viewed as stepping stones toward the larger Palmer Bike Park, smaller neighborhood parks and bike pump parks are also being developed to encourage kids and families to get outside and play. The goal is to create a constituency for the bike park. In the Wilson Neighborhood Park, Morey, Urfer, and Zach Babb, ASLA, Alaska Chapter, put kids’ dreams to paper during the 2012 Wilson Neighborhood Park design charrette. Thanks to these ASLA members’ colorful conceptual drawings, the City of Palmer approved funding for design and engineering and the community now looks forward to construction beginning this summer. With continued support from ASLA – and the community – the Palmer Bike Park is sure to be a success soon.
Image credits: Heather Rice, NPS-RTCA & Jonny Hayes, ASLA
Contact Phil Stamper at pstamper@asla.org with any questions related to the Year of Public Service. Join the conversation on Twitter by using the hashtag #YPS2013.
Throughout March, the University of Virginia School of Architecture has celebrated the work of local landscape architecture firm Nelson Byrd Woltz (NBWLA) and its recently published book Garden Park Community Farm. The celebration kicked off with a lecture by Warren Byrd, FASLA, former student and faculty member. He explained his life-long “meandering with purpose,” starting as a curious boy with a sketchbook, through his 25-year journey founding the firm, and its expansion into one of the most well-respected practices in the country.
It’s a unique occasion for a landscape architecture program to honor the lifetime achievements of a designer who has been personally tied to the school throughout his career. For me, as one of the program’s students, it was an opportunity to better understand my program and profession and glean insights from a lifetime of dedicated teaching and practice. As a professor for more than 25 years, Byrd had several lessons to impart on future landscape architects. These are the ones that I took with me:
Lesson #1: Live your Values
Byrd said he has been given the opportunity to do three of life’s most important things: “to teach, to parent, and to plant trees.” These three values permeated not only his talk, but also his roles as husband, father, educator, and designer.
As a teacher at UVA, Byrd stressed the value of plant knowledge and the importance of planted form as a foundation for landscape architecture. Students of his recall many hours treking around Charlottesville and the Blue Ridge mountains, drawing and memorizing native plants in their indigenous environments. Similarly, in the lecture, he reminded us to “think of plants from the beginning” and showcased an incredible array of plant uses in NBWLA’s work, a characteristic that has become a hallmark of the firm.
As a father, Byrd displayed a moving devotion to his wife Susan and his daughter Susanna. However, his notion of family did not stop there. He emphasized that all of NBWLA’s work, at the core, is about families—from the firm’s family, the families of visitors that visit sites, and the families of plants and animals considered in the designs.
As a planter of trees, Byrd noted not just the significance of planted form, but also reminded us of how lucky landscape architects are to devote their careers to improving the world through its own natural beauty and systems. It’s important, as we go through our daily lives, projects, and careers, not to lose touch with this unique gift and responsibility that we have been given.
Lesson #2: Be humble
His talk also reminded me of the importance of staying humble. Even though he was a founding partner and leader of the firm for over 25 years, at every opportune moment, he attributed his success and the success of the firm to the people around him—his partner Thomas Woltz, NBWLA’s staff of designers, his wife Susan, clients, and visitors of his sites. This was a reminder that no project is the work or vision of a single person, but they all require a dedicated team to come to fruition.
Lesson #3: Draw
The last lesson Byrd imparted during his talk was to draw. Every day. Draw to understand how something works or fits together. Draw thoughts and ideas. Draw to see the world differently. Draw to aid memory. He said that “you never know when your mind will bring up something from the past, and drawing helps you remember better.”
He emphasized drawing as a tool—both for understanding what is and for creating what could be. And this also touched at the heart of his design philosophy. Drawing requires one to be still and observe. He stated: “preparation in design is about listening and learning.” Drawing requires distillation. The “best designed places share a simplicity of purpose and expression—they express just a few salient qualities.” Lastly, drawing requires both logical understanding and an intuition for how that can be expressed.
He noted that the best design work is a combination of what is rational and intuitive.
The works highlighted in Garden Park Community Farm —from the Dell at the Univeristy of Virginia to the City Garden in St. Louis—are all manifestations of these lessons. Much more than just a compilation of successful design projects, it’s a testament to Byrd’s career dedicated to teaching, parenting, and planting trees.
Harriett Jameson is a student at the University of Virginia, pursuing a dual masters degree in Urban and Environmental Planning and Landscape Architecture
Image credits: (1) Garden Park Community Farm / Princeton Architectural Press, (2-3) The Dell at University of Virginia / Nelson Byrd Woltz
With the rise of “smart growth” approaches to urban development, which promote dense, walkable urban centers as an alternative to sprawl, there are questions about whether smart growth is actually equitable. Those compact, walkable neighborhoods are in hot demand across the country so it costs more to live there. So this also means not everyone gets to reap all the health benefits from living in a walkable community. In gentrifying neighborhoods, the issue is further compounded. People who lived in these communities and got to walk everywhere are being pushed out because they can’t afford the rising rents and property taxes. They are instead being shunted to the suburbs, the growing place for the poor in the U.S. There, many of the poor can’t afford cars so they are even more affected: they’ve lost their community, ability to walk around and get exercise, and can’t get to work easily. At the American Planning Association (APA) conference in Chicago, a group of really-smart smart growth advocates, David Dixon, Goody Clancy; Dena Belzer, Strategic Economics; and F. Kaid Benfield, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and The Atlantic Cities blogger, took a hard look at these issues.
Dixon painted a pretty gloomy portrait of inequality in the U.S., arguing that it’s just going to get worse given how the U.S. economy is now set up. While manufacturing’s share of the total economy has grown 50 percent over the past decades, the share of jobs in manufacturing has fallen by 30 percent. Manufacturing is becoming much more efficient, which means fewer middle class jobs. At the same time, 60 percent of employers demand educators workers, those with at least a college degree. But by 2020, only 40 percent will find those workers. More and more college students aren’t completing their programs due to rising education costs. “This is a built-in engine for greater economic fragmentation and increased inequality.” Dixon added that the middle tier of workers will be “lucky to stay in place” over the coming decades.
At the same time, demographics are also changing so that there’s a greater demand for walkable neighborhoods. Married couples with children are less than 25 percent of the population now. Singles or couples now make up 62 percent of the country. “Non-traditional households outnumber traditional families.” These different families want different places to live. “In the ’90s, it was about golf courses, escaping from work, homogeneity. In 2012, it’s about walkability, transit, diversity, and living near work. Sustainability is also important.” Moving toward 2030, there will be a “tectonic shift in values, with the majority of people in cities as opposed to suburbs.”
Where are all those people who want to live in dense, walkable environments going to go? For Dixon and the others on the panel, they are most likely going to displace the people already living in cities. “In fact, people are already being displaced at a rapid rate.”
In Brooklyn, Dixon explained how that city has two of the country’s fastest gentrifying neighborhoods. There, “the cost of a good walkscore means poverty has moved to the suburbs.” Housing nearer to transit is expensive, but housing further out that requires more transportation is even more expensive. Some 40 percent of low-income people can’t afford a car “so moving to a suburb is a catastrophe.” Beyond that, pushing these people to the suburbs is condemning them to a less healthy life.
For Belzer, who is an economist, the big issue in the ’90s was “dumb growth or suburban sprawl.” The response was to try to save farmland and preserve open space. The Congress for New Urbanism (CNU) pushed for “traditional neighborhood development,” really new cities that replicated old ones with their dense, compact, mixed-use neighborhoods. In the ’00s, the issue became how distant housing was from transit and employment centers and rising greenhouse gas emissions. To combat these trends while also improving health, advocates began to push for urban infill and “transit-oriented development.”
Now, according to a recent Brookings Institution report, for the first time in nine decades, major cities had more population growth than their combined suburbs. This means that white flight is certainly over: in fact, the opposite trend is now at work.
Belzer said gentrification is certainly happening but not uniformly everywhere. She argued that the only way to prevent widespread negative impacts of gentrification is for “smart growth advocates and equity advocates” to join forces and become “community advocates.” These community advocates can then force infill growth. So what do these community advocates need to make happen? She said they must make “social investing central to any physical planning strategy.” Healthcare, daycare, and food banks are important. “Every $1 invested in childhood education can return 4-5 times in social value.” Another priority must be preserving and even adding to the stock of affordable housing, particularly in places where high income households are coming in. If done right, affordable housing can even boost property values. She added that communities need to diversify their sources of income. “You can’t just rely on hipsters coming in to finance urban amenities.”
Benfield complained about the gloomy picture painted by Dixon, saying that many low-income communities may not be rich, but are rich in culture, leadership, possibility. Restoring or revitalization these communities is really the smartest growth strategy. To prove this, NRDC has been working with the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) to help disinvested communities. Applying the LEED for Neighborhood Development (ND) rating system, which Benfield co-created, communities can think through the issues. LEED-ND is unlike LEED because it focuses on the broader context of development, not just inside the building. With its point system, LEED-ND incentivizes walkability, affordability, diversity, and density. “It’s about the green management of systems, the totality of the environmental performance.”
Codman Square, Boston, is an example of one of these rich low-income places. It’s an area that has faced disinvestment, but a new transit station has brought new possibilities. The area, Benfield said, is highly walkable, even pleasant, but “if you look closely, you see elements of decay.” There are brownfields, abandoned properties; other buildings aren’t in good shape. Working with local leaders and LISC, Benfield came in and helped them apply LEED-ND as a planning tool in a two-day charrette to “see the opportunities.” He made a point of applauding two local leaders — Larry, who runs a “net-zero” car body shop that we wants to put a green roof on, and Paul, who runs the Boston Project, a faith-based ministry that aims to restore older, disinvested neighborhoods. Part of his home is a community drop-in center.
Benfield found that the community would achieve a low-level certification as it is now. There were also a lot of “maybe” points that could be achieved. These were what intrigued Benfield the most. To get those points and also make some real gains, the community has decided to “redesign New England avenue corridor, making it much more dense and green; conduct deep energy retrofits; create a new eco-innovation district; and go for LEED-ND certification.” (see a fascinating set of posts by Benfield on Codman at NRDC’s site).
Dixon outlined some other positive examples of smart growth in depressed urban areas. He described how efforts are underway to tear down Claiborne, a freeway running through Treme, New Orleans, and replace with a boulevard. At the center of the effort is a plan to use the amazing local culture to fight gentrification and improve neighborhood cohesion. Local groups are using the deep-rooted culture of Treme to build “human capital” that can have economic benefits. In Minneapolis, Juxtaposition Arts is building social capital in an effort to rebuild the neighborhood.
Also, Baltimore is undertaking a project to avoid the harsh effects of gentrification and create more “equitable density.” There, the goal is to encourage people to stay as density rises. “Otherwise, something has got to give, and it’s usually the poor people.” Dixon said Baltimore will probably need three-times its existing density to “keep existing people.”
Richard Florida, the innovative thinker about cities, once said that economic development is about the hundreds and thousands of small things done at the local level. In a few examples of those small things that together have a big impact, Marisa Novara, Metropolitan Planning Council (MPC), brought out a set of fascinating temporary projects that show how to make vibrant, valuable places in the left-over spaces in between buildings, in all those vacant, abandoned lots that dot cities. At the American Planning Association (APA) conference in Chicago, winners of MPC’s “Placemaking Chicago” contest explained their approaches to DIY urbanism.
Novara learned that rehabilitating buildings “takes a long time. There are lots of professionals involved. Lots of financing is needed.” So, given all the hassle, there must be better options. Novara said that “just because there’s a vacant space, it doesn’t mean there has to be a building there.” She believes that those space in between buildings, particularly those with iffy property ownership situations, can be used as temporary public spaces. “Temporary can still be valuable.”
To find out how communities in the broader Chicagoland are using spaces in a temporary fashion, her group launched a contest. Submissions could be projects that just popped-up over a weekend, or could be semi-permanent. Some 46 entries were received, with the majority from Chicago. Navaro said the broad categories of projects sent in were vacant building transformations, “vacant concrete transformations,” programming, and community gardens / farms. A jury picked winning projects, while more than 11,000 public voters picked the people’s choice award.
One project turned a vacant Border’s store into a writers’ workshop and local gallery. Another turned vacant concrete into a parklet. Lots and lots of community gardens were created. Interestingly, Novara said some went “far beyond getting together to grow vegetables. There was a continuum of engagement.” A few examples were explored in detail, by the actual people who put together the gardens.
Avers Community Garden
Karen Trout said the Avers Community Garden (see video above), which received an honorable mention in the competition, has transformed an “impoverished neighborhood.” In a dead-end street filled with lots of “bad activities,” Trout and her group reclaimed the block with a new community space cherished by all its neighbors. The church-owned space had been vacant for more than 20 years. Exploring how to purchase the space, Trout found there was no one to be found so they “ventured out with the idea that if we turn the space into something productive, perhaps we can own it later.” This is because Chicago actually has a program that turns over vacant land to people who maintain it and use it productively. Her team found a fence on Craigslist, added flower beds, and a track for bikes for the neighborhood’s kids. Removing garbage, they also added mulch, a pavilion, and picnic tables. The space is now used for “parties, family get-togethers, and gardening.” A wall was painted with the text, “Something good grows in the ‘Hood.” Trout said the idea behind the sign, and really the garden overall, was to “reclaim the space with positive energy. This helps displace all the negative energy.”
An adorable local middle schooler, Deanna Shields, showed a photo of herself playing and said “this was me 6 years ago.” Last summer, she became one of the guidance counselors, helped in the garden, and took training classes. She took compost and planting workshops (8 hour classes). She made the point that “children don’t like to see vacant unproductive spaces either.”
Laura Michel, Lawndale Christian Health Center, another garden founder, said the community garden has gotten a lot of positive attention from other blocks in the neighborhood. “Everyone wants to know about it.” But, perhaps counter-intuitively, once the garden got into the press, including local TV, “bad activities,” including drug dealing and late-night trysts, started to happen in the garden. To fight criminals in the garden, the whole block came out and met there for an emergency meeting in “the dark and rain.” Some 30-40 people decided to take turns watching the space, day and night. A fence donated by Home Depot also helped secure the space. Slowly, over time the neighborhood reclaimed the space, once again.
Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm
The Altgeld Sawyer Corner Farm in Logan Square won the popular vote, said Margaret Hartmann, the force of nature behind the project. She said the lot had been vacant for 30 years, but found that the owner was open to using the space for art and food (at least, until he moves to Florida, which he threatens to do every year). Hartmann said the organic food movement is great but “not everyone can afford to go to Whole Foods.” So to access to healthy foods, they decided to create a “corner” garden because they believe every community should have a corner garden like they have a corner store. Opening the garden also boosted the amount of public green space in a place with nearly the lowest per-capita green space in Chicago. Bringing in local activists and artists, Hartmann’s team created big sweeping forms — berms — along with raised planting beds to avoid the lead in the existing soils. They purposefully left it “open access,” without fences, so anyone in the neighborhood can gain entry.
The garden itself has evolved over time. Gardeners grow vegetables collectively, which are then turned over to the local food pantry. Herb gardens are available to all, because “Whole Foods charges a ridiculous prices for herbs.” There’s an educational program for kids, with treasure hunts to “find the sunflowers.” Their goal is to bridge “social, cultural, generational gaps.”
Brienne Callahan, a co-creator of Altgeld farm, said gang activity was a big problem in the neighborhood in the past, but the garden has helped end the problem, at least in their block. Citing the “broken windows” theory of crime prevention, which posits that “if something doesn’t look well cared for, people won’t care about it,” she said adding green space people do care about has made the community safer. “It’s open 24 hours a day and there are no drug dealers there.” Still, the neighborhood, which has one of the hottest real estate markets in the U.S., is gentrifying, so there are other issues: rents are rising and a growing share of the community faces daily food insecurity.
Since winning the popular vote, there’s been rapid growth in the number of volunteers, particularly among those 6-8 blocks from the garden, and the team is scaling up and starting other temporary gardens on other sites (some of which they hope will become permanent). In another garden they’ve set up, they are exploring a new model: gardeners get to grow vegetables in one plot for themselves if they also grow one for the food pantry.
Climb, Jump, Leap, Imagine
This amazing project won best in show from MPC. This is because this model really should be replicated in as many other places as possible. According to Stephanie Morris, a local high school student who was involved in putting it together, “we got to use power tools.” Smiling, she said, “we built a table.” Stephanie wasn’t alone in this work. A team of middle and high school girls were collected by Katherine Darnstadt, a Chicago architect and urban designer, and set loose on the community to gather feedback about what to do about an abandoned, derelict lot between some buildings in south side Chicago. Morris said “lots of people gave opinions. Hundreds of people gave input on slips of paper.”
Based on the community feedback, Darnstadt and the girls decided to create a playground called “Switzerland in Chicago,” a peaceful, “neutral” space where everyone can come. “It’s a place where people can relax.” In a community with a lot of drugs and violence, more neutral spaces are what’s needed. The girls used their “science and math skills” to create the playground design, with mountain peaks made of rope, and decks around the site. “Someone gave us $20 dollars so we decided to do a fundraiser.” The girls eventually brought in $250 for new benches. Morris said this was quite a feat since “people in this neighborhood have to hustle to make $2 a day.”
Once the neighborhood saw that the girls were out there designing and building something, word got around. Harold, a local out-of-work carpenter, provided advice, while the aptly named Big Ron “helped with the muscle work.” Roy helped “because he could.”
Darnstadt said the project helped change perceptions about what youth can do. “Teenage girls with power tools can do that.” Given the sight of girls asking for feedback on a vacant lot must have seemed so wild, the project stimulated a lot of community engagement and got many participating in the design process. Darnstadt laughed and said “wherever there are girls that age, there are boys.” The boys later brought it men to help. Given “there were all sorts of egos, with people aged 13 to 80 participating, everyone became a great psychologist.” The “soft sell” from the girls worked, with the labor done by the community. The result: a fantastic space built to withstand Chicago’s winters and that can be easily moved to a new abandoned lot.
Just to note: Darnstadt actually put her girls through an intensive two-week urban design “bootcamp,” with courses in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, public health, and design-build. Each day, a different professional came in and explained their role in the design process, starting with a researcher and moving all the way through the process. Darnstadt also recommended using IDEO’s Human centered design toolkit to teach “empathy and how to capture authentic input.”
Cities around the world with any sort of waterfront or riverfront have been revitalizing these places, which are often saddled with polluted ports and factories, creating vibrant community spaces and recreational areas in the process. But cities vary in their ability to take advantage of their water. Some cities have flush budgets while others don’t. Some cities can tap great local planning and design talent while others must import this talent, which can be expensive. At a session at the American Planning Association (APA) conference in Chicago, Peter Murphy, Ville de Quebec, explained how Quebec City has been lucky enough to use some $250 million in federal, provincial, and local funds and tap an amazing set of local planners, landscape architects, and architects to transform its riverfront for its 400th anniversary.
Murphy said Quebec City was the only walled city north of Mexico. It’s the “cradle of French culture in North America.” But perhaps it’s most defining characteristic is its rivers, which have shaped its evolution. Quebec actually means “the place where the river narrows.” In its early history, the city came into being to transport lumber, which was moved from ports down its rivers. Quebec City provided much of the wood for Britain’s warships during the “Napoleonic blockade.” The lumber economy led to vast fortunes, with the estates of lumber barons coming in, all with river views.
Beginning around 1800, industrial development took off in Quebec City, with the riverfronts playing a critical role in this move towards the machine age. Over 200 years, development was mostly centered in the Quebec City limits, but beginning in the 21st century, the city began to sprawl out. “Development could no longer be accommodated by the riverfronts.” But by the mid-20th century, the riverfront had also become a place for recreation, at least in parts. Beaches were used for swimming, at least until the water pollution got so bad people could no longer go in.
In 2002, Quebec City was swallowed up by its surrounding areas, a “forced amalgamation process” that swelled its population from around 150,000 to more than 516,000. There was also a 6-fold increase in land area. So Quebec City decided to use this as an opportunity, creating a new “integrated planning process” and a new master plan, “Green, Blue, White,” to “rethink public space and parks and trails” in the expanded city. To get funding, projects had to have widespread public support and be found in diverse neighborhoods.
Murphy went through a slew of great projects, but highlighted here are just a few. Along Parc de la Plage Jacques Cartier, a 1.5 mile-long walkway, that was previously an access road, a new contemporary art wall was put in that commemorates the colonial presence, the early French settlers. A public walkway done by a local landscape architect uses both formal and informal spaces, featuring lighting, benches, and pavilions. There are framed views at different spots.
In another part of the riverfront, the Samuel de-Champlain promenade transformed a 4-lane highway into pedestrian and bicycle-friendly parkway. The highway along the riverfront had previously cut off access to the water, like so many other riverfront highways in other cities. The existing road was narrowed by nearly 30 feet, with lanes removed, and made windy, to slow it down, turning it into a parkway. Some 1,200 trees were added along with thousands of shrubs. Picnic areas and soccer fields were added. Murphy said “the redesign was an instant success and quickly appropriated by the public.”
For the St. Michael Church, which sits on top of one of the best vantage points to see all of Quebec City, the city identified the need to revamp the sight lines so that there’s a better view of the church and river views. The terrace was redesigned with great sensitivity. The city team and designers decided to improve bicycling access, bury utility lines in some streets leading to the church (to remove visual obstacles), and open up the “visual connections.” The project “restored the views,” while updating the site and making it more accessible.
Other projects: the new Beauport Bay recreation area, one of the most ambitious projects, also had a “rocky start” but but “finished nicely,” with a new landscape that takes advantage of the site’s great winds. People visit for kite-flying and wind surfing. The St. Charles River corridor, a new 30-kilometer-long linear park, offers a network of bridges and boardwalks. Concrete walls originally added along the riverfront were removed in favor of low-maintenance native plants. “The re-naturalization has led to new wildlife habitat.” Pointe-Aux-Gerves (Hare Point) changed from a highly polluted brownfield, with contaminated soils down 13 feet deep, to a new green neighborhood. The really costly remediation and redevelopment project was done with private sector partners.
While all the redevelopment work mentioned was viewed as successes, he said there were also failures. The Old Port Agora, which is right below old Quebec, was to get a new plaza. The existing metal benches needed repair. The plaza felt isolated, underused. While the planning process, led by a 20-30 member committee, had moved forward successfully with the other sites mentioned, here it ran into the “Save the Agora from Drowning,” a local social activist group, which objected to the urban design plans put forward. He said the “vast majority of the city supported the design proposals,” yet some 100,o00 emails came in against the plan. Murphy said designs had to change midstream. The result: a “cutting-edge site from a technical point of view,” with bold native plant landscape and separate bicycling and pedestrian access, but an underused space. Apparently, this isn’t due to the design though: the port authority hasn’t been able to find an operator for the new outdoor stage they created. Murphy said this has been a “planning failure. It’s a beautifully landscaped dead space.” (To note: Cirque Du Soleil is expected to move to the area for a set of free summer shows, potentially transforming the place into the lively space it was designed to be.)
The city now has a new riverfront along its 10-kilometer-long Eastern side, with more pieces coming in along the west. With all the places to go, the city is also focused on “programming” these spaces, particularly for seniors. As Murphy noted, Canada is the second fastest aging society on Earth, behind Japan. So “we need to not only add years to our life, but life to our years.”
Image credits: (1) Walled City / Vagabond Dish, (2) Parc de la Plage Jacques Cartier / Trip Advisor, (3) Samuel de-Champlain promenade / Trekearth, (4) Samuel de-Champlain promenade / ArchDaily, (5) Old Port Agora / Agora
For the daily subway, rail, or bus rider, accessibility is a huge issue. A public transit system is detested if it’s difficult to use, then people simply stop using it (unless they have no other options). This is equally true for those walking or biking to mass transit. Given some $50-60 billion is spent each year in the U.S. on transportation infrastructure, getting access right makes smart economic sense, too. In a session at the American Planning Association (APA) conference in Chicago, transportation planners Daniel Goodman and Roswell Eldridge, Toole Design Group, Adrienne Smith-Reiman, City of Boston, and Matthew Zych, Washington D.C. Metropolitan Transit Authority (WMATA), explained how to create better systems for people accessing on foot or bike and overcome the obstacles that can undermine a transit system.
With gas costing more, Americans are driving less. According to research cited by Goodman, in 2009, there were 24 percent more bike trips than in 2001. Similarly, people walked to their destination 16 percent more frequently. Public transit ridership is up a whopping 40 percent over the same period.
While all these trends are positive, there are also some growing challenges. Using North Carolina as example, Goodman said baby boomers are aging and soon masses of “older people will need alternative forms of transportation,” taxing already strained systems. Obesity rates are skyrocketing, especially among children who don’t walk to school in the same numbers as before, perhaps a sign that too many car-centric communities lack adequate sidewalks. There are also social justice issues: Many communities focus on improving access to rail and subways, but fail to do the same for buses. Different demographics use different types of transit. Finally, while many communities see public transit as a way to “catalyze economic development” and create places, there are new fiscal realities. Budgets are tight almost everywhere.
In a few different cities, the presenters outlined how smart planning and design can truly make a difference though, maximizing existing investments in transit systems by improving how pedestrians and bicyclists access these networks.
In Boston, explained Smith-Reiman, Connect Historic Boston, a program in its early planning stages, aims to make all the historic National Park Service sites in downtown Boston and Charlestown more easily accessible to tourists and locals. Downtown Boston can be intimidating, with its mess of tiny streets and lack of signage. “Tourists are terrified they’ll get lost.” To encourage navigation and “discovery” of the area, the National Park Service, City of Boston, and an array of local organizations are trying to understand the current problems and deal with them. Tourists can get around via the T, ferries, water taxis, trolleys, or Hubway, the local bikeshare system, so there are lots of options. However, a tourist can get out of the T line one block from Faneuil Hall and not know they are anywhere near it and totally miss it. One project will “reactivate” the spaces around the station, making transit to historic sites easier.
The goal for the team is a set of “tear sheets,” or guidelines that can guide preliminary design improvements. Also in the works is a “comprehensive physical and digital wayfinding plan,” that can result in a “kit of parts” that can be distributed to all the different city agencies involved. Beyond these projects, Connect Historic Boston will use street art, a transportation quest (a kind of game), along with transportation-related curricula for kids (a kind of urban design 101), and web sites to show people how to access the area.
In Durham, North Carolina, a pilot study for the department of transportation yielded new guidelines and design for bus stops. Eldridge at Toole Design explained that many bus stops don’t have adequate sidewalk connections, offer shelter or any amenities, or “address passengers’ needs.” He said far too many bus stops have no sidewalks, forcing riders into the street, or seating, which is why you see garbage cans turned upside down (they’ve been turned into benches). In this pilot, the goal was to improve three bus corridors — targeting the conditions at bus stops, access to stops, and the crossings near stops.
While designing a new approach is central to these fixes, getting all the different government agencies that deal with aspects of the system is also important. One agency is in charge of plotting where stops are, while another deals with the streets, and yet another is in charge of sidewalks. With all these different groups involved, there were “conflicting standards and policies” that had to be addressed. With a shared vision, the different agencies were able to reconcile all the conflicting approaches.
With revised policies and aligned organizations in place, the team then conducted a user survey, getting the best data out of “on-board intercepts.” Eldridge said rich input from riders is key if you are going to create a “customer-oriented system.” (We wish all public transit systems would take his sage advice). Through the survey, they found that 74 percent were using the bus to go to work or home, 16 percent were going shopping, and 10 percent were going to school. Some 84 percent of riders didn’t own a car. Their issues were safety, access, and comfort. To improve safety, riders wanted more lighting at bus stops and shelters. To improve access, they wanted sidewalks they could use and stops free of utility poles and other impediments. To make waiting more comfortable, riders wanted shelters with seating.
Once the issues had been identified, the next step was surveying the system to identify where fixes could be made. Problem stops and crossings were identified and prioritized for revamps. Given budgets are tight, only $5 million could be spent on access improvements. But still, now there’s a model in place that all vendors building bus stops must replicate for new stops.
To improve pedestrian and bicycle access for D.C.’s Metro system, which is the second largest subway system in the U.S. with more than 80 stations, it’s important to understand capacity, said Zych. “Is there enough capacity? Are stations too crowded? Is there enough bicycle parking? Are there sidewalks?” As important as capacity is convenience. “Are there buildings, rivers, or freeways in the way?” Stations have to be in people’s sight lines as well.
D.C.’s Metro has some 750,000 trips a day. The city’s 1,500 buses get 450,000 trips daily. Paratransit gets another 8,000 trips. During the AM peak where some 250,000 trips happen, 37 percent walk to the Metro, 26 percent park and ride, 24 percent take the bus to a station, and only 1 percent bike to a station. Given D.C. wants to get the share of bicycle commuters up to 2 percent by 2020 — meaning some 7,000 trips — the system needs to improve its bicycle access while also making it still easier for pedestrians.
Zych said there are system-wide goals but stations have different issues. A bicycle census in the district found that bike riders live in certain neighborhoods, so some stations will need ample bicycle parking while others won’t at all. Then, there’s the issue of where to put bicycle parking racks? Metro had to go out and “personally survey” stations to find spots.
Some $25 million in pedestrian and bicycle access improvements were identified, but only $7 million in financing was available, so again, tough decisions had to be made about priorities. Asking a set of stakeholders what their priorities were, the Metro team found that “60 percent want improved safety and security.” So safer crossings were created for some stations, separating vehicles from pedestrians. In other projects, new raised sidewalks were created to further improve safety. For bicycle security, one station created a new “bike & ride,” an enclosed, limited access space for “members only.” Bicyclists would have to sign up and become members to gain access to the secure space at the Metro station, which includes cameras and lighting. Also worth noting: the Metro team found that the upside-down U-shaped bicycle racks were the “most secure.”
Another innovation: some stairs were retrofitted so there was a bike channel along the side. This means no more lugging bicycles up stairs. Bicyclists can simply roll it up the incline while walking up the stairs.
Eldridge encouraged planners and designers in other communities to “piggyback” on existing transportation projects and get in early to add in pedestrian and bicycle access improvements. Given the Federal government only requires that 1 percent of transportation project funds go to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, those interested in access clearly have to get creative — in creating access and finding money to do it.
Image credit: (1) D.C. Metro bicycle parking / Urban Indy, (2) Durham bus stop / Toole Design Group, (3) D.C. Metro bicycle parking / Urban Indy
