Managing civic space for climate change

http://thefastertimes.com/greeneconomy/2011/06/22/do-we-need-a-greensward-manager-for-urban-growth/

YOU ARE INVITED!

You are invited to attend a reception at the Kansas City Design Center for the exhibition of Kansas State University landscape architecture studio projects.

Friday, July 22 from 5:00 to 7:00 PM

Hosted by the Kansas City Designer Center, 1018 Baltimore Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri

Students from the landscape architecture summer studio have been imagining the future of downtown Kansas City through the development of visionary civic space strategies. The students are anxious to discuss their projects with residents and stakeholders, and the discussion promises to stimulating. We invite you to share your feedback to help move the project into its second phase.

Light hors d'oeuvres and drinks will be provided.

Here is a preview of some of the students' work:

#nucleus

On companies moving away from suburban business parks: http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20110528/ISSUE01/305289984/crains-special-report-corporate-campuses-in-twilight

citizen ballot initiatives for Kansas City transit

A few links about citizen ballot initiatives - current and past - for rail transit in Kansas City:

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/07/07/3000385/chastain-submits-petition-for.html

http://www.pitch.com/2006-10-26/news/crazy-train/
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/stories/2006/11/27/daily6.html?from_rss=1

#civicspace #highline

A good general interest article on the design process for the High Line:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/07/first-drafts-james-corners-high-line-park/240695/

#civicspace

From the wikipedia entry on Tahrir Square, civic space at the center of the Arab Spring, "tahrir means liberation"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahrir_Square

Michael Swann's Studies of Shifting City Centers in Kansas City

Stephanie Rolley mentioned Mike Swann, associate dean of KU's School of Architecture Design and Planning, and his work related to geographical shifts of city centers, as may occur with some of our projects in studio.

I emailed him asking about this study and this was his reply:

Anne:

I think I know what you're talking about.

I gave a presentation at the 1991 ASLA national meeting in Kansas City as part of a session on the Parks and Boulevards system of Kansas City. My talk was called "Kessler's Plan: The Organizing Structure." I prepared a hand-written version to go with the graphics that I presented. I later incorporated this into a larger typescript of a paper called "The City Beautiful Movement and Kansas City's Parks and Boulevards." This paper compared Kansas City's internal growth with other North American cities using some classic models drawn from urban spatial theory and I also used the rise and decline of the historic east-west national trail system and the railroads to show how the focal point within the greater metropolitan area migrated southward as transportation technology evolved during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The final part of this larger paper included what I presented at the ASLA meeting. My research involved the measurement of the Boulevard system as it existed in the 1893 plan and the 1915 plan. I transformed it into a simple network with links and nodes and calculated a connectivity index for each of the two networks. This allowed me to rank order the "connectedness" of each node or intersection in the boulevard network based on a value that represented first-, second- and third-order links. Doing this allows you to identify the primary node in the network. This is a measure of relative centrality. In 1893, the "center" of the boulevard network was east of downtown at the intersection of Benton Boulevard and Independence Avenue. By 1915, the boulevard system had expanded in density and direction to the extent that the center had shifted southwest, around the downtown to a location at Armour Boulevard and Harrison Street approaching what would soon become the Country Club Plaza district. In other words, the boulevard system facilitated growth outside the downtown and helped promote the development of secondary service and retail centers.

I don't think I ever had time to send this out for review and publication--I moved on to a few years of work at the old Quindaro townsite in KCK where I had a lot of fun working with Professor Rolley and other great faculty at K-State. The work I did there has been published, but I think that's outside your current project.

Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you or anyone else.

Mike Swann

BIG Architecture in Copenhagen: Hedonistic Sustainability

BIG believes sustainability does not require sacrifice. Rather, good design can simultaneously improve quality of life and address sustainability.

CNN Video: http://www.archdaily.com/145049/video-hedonistic-sustainability-in-copenhagen-featuring-big/

Preserve or Demolish?

A Barcelona firm was just selected to design a new cultural quarter in the Swiss city of Lausanne. Their bold proposal to shift from the historical toward the contemporary set them apart from the other finalists.

"They found EBV's the most convincing entry because it was the only one to propose replacing a historic building with a new home for the Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts.

The judges felt this would be the best way of fulfilling the brief, which sought to create a new cultural district for the city centre on a site currently filled with abandoned rail yards.

The practice aims to preserve the area's industrial atmosphere by retaining some of the existing buildings and infrastructure.

"Whether to preserve or demolish was one of the biggest questions," said Samsel"

Full story: http://archrecord.construction.com/yb/ar/article.aspx?story_id=160448017

More: http://www.musees.vd.ch/en/musee-des-beaux-arts/exhibition/past-exhibitions/the-winning-design-in-the-architecture-competition-bleu-for-the-new-mcba/

Arch Record Articles

In case you missed them, you may want to check out two articles in a recent online issue of Arch Record, both of which refer to changing civic space in major cities. In different ways, they both emphasize the political and economic processes influencing civic space.

NYC opens Highline Section 2: http://archrecord.construction.com/news/2011/06/110607-High-Line.asp

An Unwelcome Overhaul at Chicago's Trump Plaza: http://archrecord.construction.com/yb/ar/article.aspx?story_id=159921227

Studio off to a strong start

The studio is off to a strong start. We have completed three weeks of classes, and are already nearing the midpoint of the semester. Last week the students met with Kansas City stakeholders representing a variety of interests in the city, including residents from downtown neighborhoods, professionals from the real estate community, and the Kessler Society of Kansas City. The input from these people will help inform the students’ research and design projects.

Back on campus, the students have been researching urban conditions and testing potential futures through a process of critical mapping. This process is building a compendium of maps framing critical issues, dilemmas, and strategies that will lead to design proposals for Kansas City civic space.

This week the students are mapping the concerns and aspirations shared by stakeholders, refining long-term scenario thinking, and developing specific strategies to address dilemmas we have identified. The work is promising, but much remains to be done...

#cityecologies #civicspace #JamesCorner

From Philadelphia Inquirer architecture critic Inga Saffron, on recent civic park initiatives in Philadelphia:

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/inga_saffron/20110527_Changing_Skyline__A_bumper_crop_of_new_parks_sprouting_in_Philadelphia.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/inga_saffron/20110508_Changing_Skyline__Philadelphia_has_long_been_cheap_when_it_comes_to_parks.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/inga_saffron/20110506_Changing_Skyline__Delightful_pier_park_brings_hope_to_waterfront.html

#quickresponse

Articles on hashtags and QR codes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/fashion/hashtags-a-new-way-for-tweets-cultural-studies.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=hashtag&st=cse

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/fashion/paperless-business-cards-noticed.html?scp=1&sq=QR&st=cse