For a concert hall, Los Angeles requires, at a minimum, 50 times more parking spaces than San Francisco allows as the maximum. This difference in planning helps explain why downtown San Francisco is much more exciting and livable than downtown Los Angeles.
In a recent post over at New World Economics, Nathan Lewis posted a series of photos of great urban streets (see one below) and asked: “Does the place you live/work/shop look as good as this? Why not?” He’s making the obvious point that most people don’t interact with spaces like this on a daily basis, at least not in the United States. There are many reasons for this; Lewis looks at the economics behind it, which makes sense as he’s an economist. I’m an architecture and urban planning student, so I’m interested in the design of these spaces. What about those streets makes them universally appealing?
Quebec City, Canada via Nathan Lewis
As the title to this post has indicated, the texture along the street is what makes the street in Quebec City and the others so appealing. Just look at the picture to the right. Check out at all of the signs, balconies, awnings, stairs, and vines. All of these elements create a visually interesting space for our eyes; we could walk up and down this street many times without being bored. There are plenty of windows, as well, for looking into. Many of the elements, like the window displays, awnings, and landscaping, change with the seasons. Furthermore, all of these elements are designed for humans passing by at walking speed. Signs are placed just high enough so that they can be seen above the heads of other people along the street. In a typical suburban strip mall development, the signs are incredibly high so that speeding motorists can see them from a mile away. Of course, this street is helped because there are no cars on it at all. Cars are big and streets designed for only them tend to be incredibly ugly for pedestrians. I guess the hope is that in a car you’re moving by so fast you don’t notice.
Wells Fargo Center, Portland, OR
This poor attention to human detail even occurs in the downtowns of America’s cities. These are places that originally were the bastion of pedestrians, but in many places have become wastelands. The picture at right is an example of what happens when architects stop designing for humans. Instead of thinking about the texture of street level, the architects cared more about how their skyscraper would look as a piece of modernist art. Thankfully, due to this building, the city of Portland requires that a majority of a facade at street level be transparent. This means that some form of retail will occupy street level, with the hope of creating more pedestrian-level texture.
Texture is only one element of a beautiful city street, but without it a street can’t truly be successful for pedestrians. It’s the primary indicator that people are welcome, not (just) cars.
When done right, modern interventions into older public spaces can enhance the magic of the place.
The New York Times did this piece on the world’s most expensive parking spaces, located up a car elevator adjacent to the owner’s condo. These units, on 11th Ave. in New York, go for $7 million, and the real estate dedicated to the car is valued at $800,000. The real estate agent notes that the parking spaces aren’t the primary selling point, but they do help differentiate the property from others in the luxury market.
Heerstrasse, Bonn, Germany. You almost certainly couldn’t build a road with the trees that close together in the United States. You can’t have permanent obstructions that narrow the road to 20’ or less in most municipalities. Too bad.
Paranapiacaba Village, in Sao Paulo state, Brazil.
I love this type of street, where the “sidewalk” does little else but create a barrier between street and building. It also provides a place for pedestrians to go in the event a car passes by.
This is a view of a street in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, NY. Clarence Stein and Henry Wright planned the development in 1924 with the idea that the interior of the block should be a garden, with the streets serving a utilitarian function. It’s funny, because when we look at the streets today, they’re absolutely charming by modern standards. Narrow (though they could be narrower), with trees and 8-10’ setbacks. Not bad, considering the urban designers turned their back on the street.
Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong
There’s a whole great collection of urban time-lapses over at The Urbanophile.
Twitter is moving from Silicon Valley to San Francisco. They offer their employees free lunches at their cafeteria. Will this inhibit the propagation of street life nearby?
