An Urban Design Masterpiece: The NY High Line

South end of the High Line

Space to wander or to sit and wonder

Old rail lines were preserved!

Taking a break

Awesome landscape architecture

New opportunities created for public art...

...Along with new development by Zaha Hadid!

AND retail space

A great separation from cars

What a fun experience!

The Yard at Mission Rock

Last month at a SPUR forum entitled Activating San Francisco's Southeast Waterfront, I learned more about the history and current activity in this unique part of the city. I do know a few things about this area, as my best friend works at a restaurant off 3rd and 16th Streets. First, it doesn't really feel like San Francisco. The streets are wider, it lacks car and people traffic, and empty lots, parking lots, and big commercial style buildings are common. It doesn't feel walkable, especially absent storefronts and housing - I kind of feel like an ant walking around in a giant maze-park when I'm here, and this doesn't happen often in this city. Part of this may be due to the spot's shipyard history, or maybe because of the large UCSF/Mission Bay campus. Nonetheless, I will definitely agree with SPUR that this tiny 1-mile stretch of SF will blow up in the coming years. Based on proximity alone, but also with the Warriors Stadium going up at the 3rd and 16th Street intersection, and being connected to the waterfront as well as MUNI, this place has a lot of potential. 

The point of this post, though, was to draw special attention to the Yard at Mission Rock, a "pop-up shipping container village" located in this neighborhood across the water from AT&T Park. The space is a "unique neighborhood gathering spot created out of repurposed shipping containers to provide daily shopping, food and beverage & cultural and community events." This concept curiously reminded me of my experience at Papirøen, a "public space experiment" in Copenhagen, Denmark. Much like Papirøen, a re-purposed public space that once served as paper storage, the "Yard" at Mission Rock once housed shipping containers. I think it's a beautiful comparison and more importantly an incredible idea to conduct an "experiment" that draws people to a place that was formerly off-limits or separate from the public. It's a chance to use the space without much planning or construction, and to quite literally experiment with how people interact with and feel about a space. Whether the space will turn into something else, time will tell, but for now it's a great way to make use of it! 
 

It's quiet today, but I bet it's poppin' on game day.

HUGE parking lot at the old Port of SF

Eat, drink, socialize, rest.

Welcoming space facing the ball park.

Step across the street to China Basin to get next to the water.

Wide streets...lots of potential :)

Pano!

Is Perpetual Densification to Eliminate the Suburbs the Answer?

A Planetizen article published in 2011 uses the case study of Athens to explore a "city without suburbs."

Athens, Greece started eradicating its suburbs in the 1970s and continued this densification goal through the 80s. There were four main reasons for this push: 1) confined land space, 2) a capitalistic political system, 3) developer lobbying, and 4) increasing population pressure. In 1981 the municipality peaked at a population of 885,000 with a density of approximately 60,000 people per square mile. Although its population has been on the decline since the 2000s, it remains one of the most dense urban areas in the developed world. 

As the city's compactness and so-called walkability in the suburbs grew, car ownership did not decrease, and positive impacts for modes of walking, cycling, and transit were not reported. Between 1990 and 2000, public transit actually fell while private transport increased. To paraphrase the conclusion from the Planetizen article: "Athens exemplifies every single urbanist approach, yet fails to deliver anticipated results. Elements in the Athenian version of natural urbanism have produced unwelcome outcomes; the pinnacle of urbanisn that achieved the eradication of suburbs came at substantial quality of life and environmental costs. 
"Dysfunctional cases in any discipline trigger insights by demanding explanation.
Athens is a case of dysfunctional urbanism and offers a true laboratory for testing assumptions, principles, and theories toward a more robust model of an urbane city."

I will take it upon myself to address the last part of this article. The first and most important question is: was there a plan from the beginning? What was it? Was it simply to answer the demand for population increase, or were there additional, more comprehensive goals? At least from this article's information, the 4 reasons mentioned above seem to answer that question. The article points out that Athens ranks lowest on a quality of life ranking for Western European cities; it's filled with noise, traffic, and pollution. Traffic fatalities also rank among the highest comparatively. These are indications that the city may not have incorporated plans to manage the consequences of an increasing population. 

My conclusion: Athens is not the case of dysfunctional urbanism, it's the case of dysfunctional planning, or lack thereof. The city's goal was to eradicate the suburbs and increase density - this was achieved. So it did succeed, if only in this way. It seems to me that quality of life was pushed under the rug in the attempt to attract and fit more people. Yet a place can immediately loose its appeal as social and environmental issues are sacrificed. Shelter alone won't cut it; people need connection and community as well. Athens may exemplify a few elements of urbanism very well, so while those can be used as a lesson, the case study as a whole can be used to see interconnectivity at work. And because of this dense web of connections, we will never get a complete story of the past, nor will we be able to predict the future. But we sure can plan with intention, holistic goals, and measurable targets towards better living situations and healthier lives for people in our cities and on this planet.

Food for thought: "If you build it, they will come" ...

Sources
Planetizen 
newgeography 

Suburbs: Twin Cities vs Munich

Woodbury - 10 miles to downtown St. Paul, 20 miles to Minneapolis

Vaterstetten - 12 miles to downtown Munich (the scales on these two maps are the same)

The colors show transit ways: freeways and major roadways in Woodbury, and in Vaterstetten the green is the train and yellow is the only "major" roadway (the Autobahn is in the upper left corner). Every home on the Vaterstetten map is a walkable or bikeable distance from an S-Bahn (train) station, which is a 20-minute ride into downtown Munich. The suburb of Woodbury was built around automobiles - any one of the houses is likely only accessible by car, a 25-minute drive to downtown Minneapolis without traffic.   

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Munich - darker lines show S-Bahn and U-Bahn (subway) routes, situated like spokes on a bicycle wheel to support sustainable growth and development along corridors 

Twin Cities - two new light rail systems travel between downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul (2014) and from Minneapolis to the MSP International Airport and Mall of America (2004). The last ~50 years of growth and development that took place in the Twin Cities and Region was planned around the car versus a mass transit system, in the fashion of laying separate blankets (individual cities) of sparse residential areas next to each other.

Urban Growth and Development in Copenhagen

In an outing with a local guy (my Danish host dad!) I hit a couple pockets of Copenhagen that are the focus of the most recent developments to the city. Nothing beats local knowledge!

In most cases a photograph cannot capture what we are able to take in and observe with our eyes and other senses. But pictures are better than nothing, and will help do a lot of the talking. Before bringing you on an adventure with my own photos, take a look at the following slides that give a general overview of way the City of Copenhagen is managing its growth and development. The two areas of development I explored are identified on the second slide - Ørestad and Eastern Amager.

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Click on image to enlarge

The Metro - serves as the subway system as you get closer to the downtown area.

High density along a transit line

A place to hang out by the water

More green than gravel

Elevated Metro, street for cars, walkway for peds, and water flow seamlessly together

The thick line of trees through the middle of the picture depicts the junction of old and new.

The older mostly single-family housing is separated by the newer, high density and diverse housing, by a bike and pedestrian-only pathway along a small stream.

Another view of the water-ped-bike-way.

Who needs a car garage when you have a bike garage?

The apartment building to the left was designed by Danish architecture group BIG - see Nov. 3 post.

The building even has a name - "Mountain Dwellings"

No mountains in flat Copenhagen? Okay, we'll build one.

"Nothing is not a process" -Shannon Judd

The next series of pictures features "8 House" - a mixed use building shaped like an eight.

Similar to the "Mountain Dwelling" building, the figure building also starts from high points at the "top" and "middle" of the large 8, and then angles downward from there. The 8 is positioned for views, sunlight and fresh air.

Green roof on one of the sides coming down. In this picture I'm standing at the "bottom" of the 8.

Layers of grass in one of the 2 courtyards.

I notice details like this: a convex line of bricks leading to a drain. Since the walkway here is uneven, I imagine it may get slippery when wet; a drainage path moves water more efficiently. Smart.

No need to drive your kids to kindergarten when you can drop them off at the one downstairs!

The full courtyard near the ground level

From above

The second courtyard gives a different experience

Each unit has an outdoor area

View from the top looking south to the parkland

The preferred mode of transportation for many Copenhageners

More living spaces to the west

And east

Eastern Amager - New apartment building

360 degree wrap-around porch (each floor is split into 2 residences)

Bike park - believe the bikes will come with the residents

View from the top

There are 2 additional things to point out about the "Mountain Dwelling" apartment building that I did not capture great photos of: 2 of the 4 facades of the building actually resemble a mountain - a giant mural of the Himalayan peaks, Mount Everest among them. And second, underneath the 80 penthouses (yes, each residence is technically a penthouse), there is room for 480 cars. But one would never suspect that the building was also designed as a car park - space-saving shelter for cars without the eye-sore! More photos and info here.

More about 8 House

Ørestad Website - "Invest in Copenhagen's New Neighborhood"


Source:
City of Copenhagen, World Bank