Originally an email to James Bowen on November 13 2009
What does fit mean with respect to an architectural project?
In a general way, it describes the extent to which we make the project "what it wants to be." To me, at least, this “what it wants to be” is a surprising confluence of the mantras of Ian McHarg and Louis Kahn.
First of all, that means that we need to find as many of the legitimate individuating forces, clues, as we can. These clues are inherent tendencies of our specific site and our specific program. To the extent that our solutions are supportive of and consistent with these inherent tendencies, we will have good fit.
There is also value in the individuation itself, if it is legitimate. The test for legitimate is whether the clients and users understand it. Our world is enriched by specific places and specific places result from legitimate individuation. This individuation can happen at every scale, from windows, to rooms, to buildings, to neighborhoods, to cities.
Our moves also need to be polyvalent. That means, design decisions, in plan, section and elevation, should always increase fit in more than one way. So, for example, if our building is to be sided, does the siding avoid creating glare, does it help the residents to identify positively with their specific dwelling, does it make noise in a desirable way when the wind blows, and of course does it help to keep water and pests away from the structure and the interior? Polyvalent design moves are often the very best way for us as architects to add value that our clients can and do understand. Not only is a polyvalent move efficient, clients understand and are pleased with the description and explanation of such moves.
Good fit also occurs when the architecture makes use of the building trade skills that are traditionally (trade and traditional, hmmm?) a significant part of a community. If there is some building or decorative skill that local Mom’s or Dad’s regularly pass on to kids, well, let's make sure we incorporate that into our solution.
Here are some of the fitness issues in a typical housing project:
Do we orient our dwellings appropriately toward the sun?
Are our dwellings asymmetrical in ways that clearly respond to the sun’s path and its relationship to the lives we imagine being lived in these dwellings?
Do we do the same with respect to desirable prevailing breezes and also, if there are any, undesirable winds?
Does our project shade areas that might want to be shaded at certain times of the year but allow sun to areas when that is advantageous?
Do the openings and outdoor spaces respect the neighbors? Can the residents use their windows and outdoor spaces without an unacceptable compromise of someone’s privacy?
Do we respect the age and infirmity of some of our residents? And the age, naivete, and inexperience of others?
Does our project cause more people to want to be on the street? Building community?
Does our project cause more businesses to want to locate near it? Sustaining community?
Does our project enable, inspire, require the residents to use resources more efficiently?
Is our project buildable? That is, will it attract the enthusiasm of the stakeholders and then will it attract the enthusiasm of the community at large?
I believe that it is much easier for clients and residents to get excited and agree on issues of fit than it is for them to agree on issues of aesthetics.
Please don't misunderstand. We don't stop for one minute caring about aesthetics. We do everything we can to satisfy ourselves that the feel, proportion, atmosphere, yes, even details, make us happy in terms of our aesthetic goals and beliefs. But, in the end, I think that's mostly between us and us (which in no way is to belittle its importance!!!). What matters more in the big picture is whether our project works and whether our clients and the community can see in advance that it is indeed going to work. And then after we have built it, they continue to recognize on a day to day basis that the decisions the architect made, the recommendations the architect provided, they really do make life better every day. "Oh, god, I love having coffee on my front porch in the morning." That should not be an accident and it should not be understood as an accident. It should be something we knew would happen, something we promised. I don't know how many times I have had that experience, that experience of people saying, you said this would happen and doggone it, it did!
This is not a plea for slavish devotion to whatever the client and the residents say they want. Often they say they want "x" because no one has ever shown them something more valuable. One of our jobs is to find legitimate individuating tendencies. My experience is that explaining understandable tendencies is often the best way to avoid unhappy disagreements with my clients about design.
This is all very important because architecture as now imagined by most architects is a marginal, elitist, self-absorbed, pastime. For the sake of the American economy, and for the sake of the sustainable future of humanity, architects need to switch to something much more important. They need to get down and dirty and make a building for the local hardware store guy that really works for him and his customers (in ways that he and his customers can see, can even, can we say it out loud, even maybe measure). Then architecture will begin to more directly contribute to the quality of human life, and, boy howdy, we'll have all the work we can possibly ever do.
2.03.2010
1.16.2010
How To Build a Better City -- notes for OLE Jan 15, 2010
How to build a better city.
Explore the role of architecture, planning and construction in the future well being of Anchorage as a sustainable human community. Learn how to read architecture and urban design - how to look at buildings and streets, and how they work. Discuss how to create ugly cities, so you can get grumpy when you see architects shaping them. Study the special conditions of building a sustainable and humane city in the cold and dark north.
Mike Mense has practiced in Anchorage as mmenseArchitects (this is not a typo) for over 30 years. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a member of the Advisory Group of the AIA Committee on Design and former Chair of the Anchorage Urban Design Commission. He recently served as the Alaska Coordinator for the US Green Building Councils regionalization effort on LEED Neighborhood Development.
Write the books and the email addresses and the blog address on the board.
3:20 take it over from Ed
Today we are going to talk about “citiness”, what it might mean for a city to become better and what we can do through architecture, urban design and construction to accomplish that betterment. I have found a certain inescapable dissonance inside myself in the last few days as I contemplated what I hope will be this enjoyable look at citiness in the face of the absolutely essential role that citiness has and continues to play in the nightmare that Port au Prince has become. I hope you will all do what very little you can to help those people recover as soon and as thoroughly as possible. Silence. And for me, that has nothing at all to do with the other unavoidable presence, that we, living where we do, face inevitably, eventually, a large earthquake. We hope that our efforts will result in much less damage and injury, be we won’t really know until that day.
Next week we will talk about how to make Anchorage Ugly. Please note that ugly and its opposite are not necessarily the most important issues when we are talking about making our city better, but clearly many of us have thought it important over time to improve the appearance of the Anchorage. Though we seem able to agree on the goal of improving Anchorage’s appearance, we never seem able to agree on the specific strategies to accomplish that. I have come up with an alternative strategy. I think it will be much easier to agree on what we don’t want. So I have developed a slide show on how to make Anchorage ugly. Someday I hope someone pays me and Julie Decker to turn it into a small book that we can put on the desk of everyone involved in the construction of our city so that they might notice and back off when they find themselves headed towards one of the items illustrated and explained in the book.
The following and last week of this course will be devoted to the special opportunities and limitations of building a sustainable city in the relatively far north.
The three topics aren’t really mutually exclusive, but I will try to some extent to avoid the issues of next week and the following week today.
A few ground rules. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time with a question or a comment.
I hope you will not be offended if I cut you off if I think you are taking too much time or taking us too far off topic. Also, please feel free to email me, mike@mmense.com, if you have further questions or comments. Also, if anything that happens here, inspires to want you to send me pictures or drawings, please send those to my big mailbox, elcommunicodo@mmense.com.
And finally, I will post my notes for today’s class on my blog tonight, if you want to go back and see what I said, or at least what I thought I was going to say. www.housescience.blogspot.com
A couple of years ago, I heard Arlo Guthrie make some comments when he was being interviewed by Terry Gross. I found it to be very enabling. He said that he had come to believe that he didn’t necessarily need to know that everything he said was true or that he necessarily believed it. He wasn’t suggesting that he had the right to fib. What he was suggesting was that it is more important to get ideas out there so others can work on them rather waiting and only expressing them after you are sure you are right. I think there is actually quite a bit of respect built into that sentiment. Rather than presuming to know the truth, and I do believe that objective truth exists, somewhere, I am going to suggest things and then see what you think.
Having said that, here is one of my tentative ideas. I don’t believe that most Americans believe that anything is really much better or worse than anything else. In my 30 years of practice, I have mostly come to see that my clients have very little faith that I can make anything better for them. Its not something we me personally or professionally. It is something about our culture. I think it is a result of our consumer culture and the ads we encounter through so many different media. Everything is better, cars, toothpaste, shampoo, medicine, now even doctors and lawyers sometimes. And we know that the claims in those advertisements are almost always false. Toothpaste and shampoo are for all intents and purposes, that is, in terms of the stated goal of cleaning your mouth and your hair, one is no better than the other. So we have become jaded, and I think we tend to think everything is equal. It’s just not true. While all toothpastes may be essentially equal, all houses and all cities are not. Now, there is another caveat. What might be better for you may not be better for me, but there are systems and I very much believe that I can predict and produce a significantly better “fit” between you and your house. I believe we can work our way towards a better “fit” between ourselves and our city.
Let me give two examples. Most of us, that is most of the people I encounter in my life, upper middle class couples and families, most of the adults work five days a week during the day and their children go to school five days a week. Consequently, when any of them want to spend some time outdoors relaxing (something many of this group in fact do), it is most often late afternoon or evening. In Alaska, we know that it is almost always going to be desirable to be in the sun if we outdoors, in fact it is going to be best if we are in a place where can experience sun doubling, that is, where the sun strikes us directly but also bounces off a wall behind us and then strikes us again. It is also the case that very often in much of Anchorage experiences prevailing winds from the east. In Anchorage, the temperature is just barely high enough for us to be comfortable relaxing outside. We won’t be comfortable if we are sitting in the wind. So, all houses and their patios and decks are not equal. Those which only have a patio or deck on the east or north, or frankly, even south sides, are not nearly as likely to be able to enjoy being outside than those of us who have west and even preferably northwest facing patios or decks. Now, of course the best deal, again depending on your lifestyle, is to have a morning deck on the east for coffee and evening deck on the west for evening relaxation.
But it is also important to recognize that some things are taste or opinion based. For example, I believe Town Square Park is dumb. I don’t believe it is appropriate to try to make a fake forest when we are twenty minutes away from an almost endless expanse of the real thing. I think urban parks should generally reflect their man madeness. That is the, trees and topography should be very ordered, clearly reflecting the ideas of the designers and installers. In my opinion the “human constructedness”, ala John Ruskin, if you are familiar with his thoughts, this “human constructedness” is one of the important aspects of a city. But that is an opinion and I don’t think my opinion is any better than anybody else’s. In a big way, the French and English have been having this argument about gardens for about 300 years now. I think that pretty well establishes that neither is the right answer.
If you get nothing else out of your experience with me, I hope it is that you spend some time in the next few months seeing if you can spot things that could have been better or could be worse in your environment. And try, try, to distinguish between taste questions and practical, objective system questions. Let me ask you about this one. Last week I was driving through Iowa on a blue highway, you know, a two lane road that passes through all of these small towns. At some point I went by a long senior housing facility, not very old, all one story and all with living room windows looking at the highway. I suppose that might be bad enough, but for almost the exact length of the senior housing, across the street is the community cemetery, something that clearly has been there long before the housing was built. I don’t think that can possibly be understood as a right answer. Am I wrong? What were they thinking? Were they thinking?
3:29
Also, before we start, I would like to recommend a few books, for those of you who might want to delve more deeply into these subjects.
The Uses of Disorder by Richard Sennett
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall
Life Between Buildings by Jan Gehl
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
And finally, before we really start. What are you expecting from this? I don’t know how well I will be able to adjust if you tell me things completely different from what I have planned, but maybe. It would be good for me to understand at least a little bit of what you are expecting.
Both in terms of experience and in terms of the subjects.
3:34
OK, well , we seem pretty much on track. I plan today to deal with four big questions in this order.
1. What is a city? What is citiness? It seems to me we have to know what a city is before we can decide how to improve it.
2. What are some great cities and why are they great? Mostly you are going to tell me about those, I hope.
3. What does it mean to build a city? What parts of the city do we have control over through design and construction and how can we use that control to further our agreed upon goals.
4. And finally, I have seven questions for you about improving Anchorage which I am hoping my thoughts will allow you to answer in enlightening ways.
3:35
What is a city? A concentration of human artifacts on the land and the people who create and inhabit those artifacts. Why do cities exist? I think they came into being when too many children survived to adulthood. When families managed to keep more children alive into adulthood than were necessary to work the farm, the extras had to leave. I think that is the beginning of cities. Cities, I believe are the essential incubator of what we call human progress. Cities are the place where people end up with free time that they can and do use to contemplate the possibility of change. Cities are also the place where humans live close to other humans who are different from them. At the beginning, it was the place where humans first started to live close to non-relatives, but, of course, today, cities are the place where we live close to pretty much every kind of “other” imaginable. So, you combine the time to think with the presence of the other, and you get new ideas, you get change, you get, again, what we call progress. I, for one, believe that progress is real. I do think humans, both individuals, and the species is in a better place than it was 200 years and 2000 years ago. But that is another debate, not for today. Living in some proximity to “other” people is the essential fact of citiness, I think. Places like the Hillside in Anchorage, are not really urban, in my opinion. They are instead an artificially hyperdense farmstead landscape, from which you can occasionally, go to town. Or, maybe they are a form of urbanity that is too new for me and most other humans to understand. This would be the automobile based form of urbanity. For that reason, I am not sure we need to spend that much time understanding it, because it seems likely to be a chapter of human history not much longer than that of the typewriter.
The residents of cities then are there for one of two reasons. They have chosen to live in a city because their life is about progress in some way. Some enjoy the experience of the other. Others are less excited about it, but recognize that this experience is necessary to whatever they are pursuing in life. Often this is as simple as a personal desire for economic advancement. Millions of people choose to live in poverty in great Chinese and Indian cities because they believe they have a better chance for economic advancement in those cities. But there are many others who live in cities because they are the current version of the rejected extras I mentioned earlier who started the cities in the first place. There is a somewhat nasty metaphor here about how the majority of certain races and cultures of people have come to be deemed unnecessary to the operation of the farm. I think it is important to realize that not everyone who lives in a city chose or chooses to live in a city. Many of them are there because they are not, or at least do not believe they are, welcome elsewhere.
I would also point out that I think the people who still live on the farm, in some deep way, understand that the rejects, in the end, got the better end of the deal. In all countries, as the standard of living rises, as vacation travel increase, cities also become more and more important as vacation destinations. People from the farm want a taste of what it is like to be free from the farm responsibilities.
3:39
Now, what might all of this mean about the design and building of cities? First of all, of course, we must build shelter from the elements. We must be able stay relatively warm in the winter and relatively cool in the summer. We use buildings to accomplish that goal. And we must have food and water. We are not on the farm, though there are those who think that has been a mistake, that we should have brought the farm with us, or that we now need to introduce the farm into the city. But that, too, is a discussion for another day.
It is an essential fact of citiness that we are dependent on others for our food and water. Many of us have encountered the term social contract. Cities cannot work without the understanding and execution of a social contract. Residents of cities are codependent. In 21st century America, we seem to be losing touch with that. The anti tax rhetoric ignores the essential interdependency of living in a city. It’s not just about police and firemen and roads. It is also about heat and food and water. We depend on each other, we depend on the city, for everything essential for our lives. We must all realize that infrastructure of every sort, power lines, waterlines, railroads, docks and so on are not essentially about making money, they are essentially about making it possible for us to live somewhere other than on the farm.
So, a city as a physical construct is a tool for creating shelter and delivering utilities, water and food. And there is one other essential piece. Cities must support our ability to live with the “other”. Practically that means we need two kinds of spaces. We need private space where we can reconstitute ourselves. Where we can sleep and eat and relax. It seems this space is necessarily isolated from the other. And we need social space, space where we can experience the other. As human beings, we necessarily want to control how this happens, the closeness and the temporal extent of this experience. Nonetheless, those of us who have chosen to live in the city, and those of us who understand the necessity of citiness in our goals, revel in the experience of the other. That I think is the essential point of cities. I say that is what we must improve when we improve our city. To the extent that we can also make the experience of other a positive one for those who are not here by choice, they may choose to stay when they are so empowered, and thus contribute to the vitality of the city. In the meantime, we cannot survive as a city if we do not make sure that those who are not here by choice, have adequate shelter, food and water. That means we must operate our city in an efficient enough way that we can afford to support those who need our help. Efficient government is not a conservative anti-government goal, it is an essential part of a sustainable, humane city. Efficient industry is not primarily about creating profits for the shareholders. In a city, we all have an interest in efficient industry so that that industry can afford to make the contributions necessary for a city to survive.
3:43
Any comments?
3:47
What are the seven best cities in the world? At least what are the seven best cities in the world with which you are familiar?
Write the seven on the board and establish the seven teams.
You chose
Boston, transit, harbor, neighborhoods
Sydney, harbor and ferries and crystal clear water, and neighborhoods, the Opera House
Paris, I am sad to say that I cannot remember your reasons
Kyoto, integration of nature and the community
Vancouver BC, living downtown, mountains and ocean
Venice, more water and wonderful old buildings
Stockholm, but nobody talked about this one
3:50
What is it about each of those cities that makes them great?
3:55
Report out
4:04
I bet we decided that the best cities are the ones that were built before automobiles. The ones that are scaled to pedestrians. As I have said before and will say again, I think the automobile is a small, soon to be forgotten, blip in human history. The cities that are most ready to return their streets and roads to human scale are going to be the winners in 20-40 years.
It seems to me that one of the most important things we can do to improve our cities is simply to slow down. In Amsterdam, the streets are this incredible agglomeration of transportation modes, trains, cars and trucks of every sort, bicycles and similar conveyances of every sort, and pedestrians of every sort all share the same right of way. It is amazing that more people don’t get injured or killed but they don’t.
The other thing is that city building is not an easy task. You don’t get much right the first time through. Rome was not built in a day and it wasn’t built right the first time. I believe Anchorage remains a teenaged city. We have gotten lots of things wrong, but if we continue to rebuild and rebuild, we will eventually get it right.
I would also point out that architecture is not generally an important piece of the puzzle. Mediocre buildings can make great streets. But a few great buildings helps. And we come to the issue of local architects and their relationship to their community.
4:05
What does it mean to build a city?
What can we control and how can we use that control to make our cities better in the ways we have discussed?
What do we build?
Streets, roads, airports, railway stations, bus stations, powerlines, waterlines, sewer lines, parking, parks,
Buildings, houses, places of work, places of worship, stores, restaurants, buildings for government, schools, warehouses, factories, hospitals and clinics
What must we be aware of as we build?
The sun, wind, views, topography.
How do we build?
Whether we build with an eye to the future or we build solely with concern for this year’s bottom line
Where do we build?
First of all, I think it is important that every city recognize and keep track of its wealth, its advantages, its inherent strengths. Most cities happen at a specific place for a specific reason. That reason is usually about the most important strength of the city. I trust you all know why Anchorage is where it is.
We need efficient connections to surrounding rivers, waterways, oceans so that it is relatively inexpensive to deliver things to us. We need to have efficient connections to transportation systems. That is important so that those systems choose to pass through our community on their way to other places. That means making sure that those systems do not conflict with other aspects of the community. (I am not sure I understand who is driving from south Anchorage to Wasilla that necessitates the big cut and cover project, but it certainly is unfortunate that 5th and 6th Avenues are also the main east west commercial highway through Anchorage.) Transportation systems passing through almost always create revenue for the community they are passing through.
If we have desirable views at the perimeter of our city, we need to make it possible for as many as possible to have access to those views (we could spend an hour on why that is important).
In this day and age, we need to make our city desirable to visitors, because visitors also create revenue.
We need amenities like universities and performing arts centers and parks and trails and good schools and a handsome downtown because those things attract desirable residents.
We must provide hope for those of us who are not here by choice, because only with that hope will they eventually move into the “here by choice” camp. It is simple efficiency for us to reduce the number of needy people in our community.
For the long term sustainability of our city we must create efficient utilities. To a great extent, that means density. Unfortunately, in the past density has been an excuse to make awful stuff. That needn’t be the case.
We also need to try to reduce our waste of resources. We need to save and reuse, not tear down and rebuild. Especially given Chipperfield’s decision to expressionally ignore the existing museum, and just put a different building next to it, why did we tear down Ed Crittenden’s charming little building that used to sit just west of the Museum on 7th Avenue. Chipperfield would have created an even richer collection of buildings if he had had to deal with that one too. And we would have saved perfectly good square footage and we would have saved all the various expenses of demolition. What were we thinking?
We need to build well so that we don’t find ourselves constantly repairing.
We need to build intelligently. Parking lots belong on the south sides of buildings, always!! Because they exposed the south side of the building to the sun and the sun reflecting off the south side of the building helps to melt the snow in the parking lot.
We need to create those pedestrian spaces where we can experience the other.
We need strong boundaries between vehicular space and pedestrian space so that pedestrian spaces feel safe and secure. Partly we do that by reducing the number and width of curb cuts.
We need more sidewalks.
We need to reduce the ground floor expanses of blank walls.
We need to think of our streets as rooms and that means we can’t leave out some of the walls. If we think of every street as a room, we will know that we cannot tolerate these expanses of parking lot. At the very least we must surround parking lots with dense landscaping.
We need to maximize everybody’s access to natural light and ventilation.
I think in Anchorage we need more intermediate space. These are outdoor spaces that are not quite public. Patios, porches, decks, that front on streets.
Talk about north south zoning.
(street furniture and the courthouse)
And finally let me talk about the Knik Arm Crossing.
And let me talk about a truly forward looking planning community. Fort Rich and so on.
4:25
Now remember, we are trying to build a better city. Let’s talk about things we can achieve through architecture, urban design and construction.
So 7 groups for five minutes.
1. What is the worst thing about Anchorage and how could we make it better?
2. What is the best thing about Anchorage and how could we make more of it? Our access to the wilderness.
3. What don’t we have enough of and how could we get more? Alleys, trees and sidewalks!
4. What do we have too much of and how can we make it go away? The appearance of parking lots. Just enforce the existing laws.
5. What’s the best block in Anchorage, what is good about it, could we replicate it?
4th Avenue between E and F.
6. What is our greatest underutilized resource and how could we make better use of it?
Our waterfront, move the airport to Fort Rich.
7. What is going to change the most in the next ten years and how can we make that a positive change? Our use of fossil fuel.
8. What is the single most important thing we could do to make Anchorage a better city?
4:30 to 4:40 they report
4:40 I sum up and read the story of Sophronia
Explore the role of architecture, planning and construction in the future well being of Anchorage as a sustainable human community. Learn how to read architecture and urban design - how to look at buildings and streets, and how they work. Discuss how to create ugly cities, so you can get grumpy when you see architects shaping them. Study the special conditions of building a sustainable and humane city in the cold and dark north.
Mike Mense has practiced in Anchorage as mmenseArchitects (this is not a typo) for over 30 years. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and a member of the Advisory Group of the AIA Committee on Design and former Chair of the Anchorage Urban Design Commission. He recently served as the Alaska Coordinator for the US Green Building Councils regionalization effort on LEED Neighborhood Development.
Write the books and the email addresses and the blog address on the board.
3:20 take it over from Ed
Today we are going to talk about “citiness”, what it might mean for a city to become better and what we can do through architecture, urban design and construction to accomplish that betterment. I have found a certain inescapable dissonance inside myself in the last few days as I contemplated what I hope will be this enjoyable look at citiness in the face of the absolutely essential role that citiness has and continues to play in the nightmare that Port au Prince has become. I hope you will all do what very little you can to help those people recover as soon and as thoroughly as possible. Silence. And for me, that has nothing at all to do with the other unavoidable presence, that we, living where we do, face inevitably, eventually, a large earthquake. We hope that our efforts will result in much less damage and injury, be we won’t really know until that day.
Next week we will talk about how to make Anchorage Ugly. Please note that ugly and its opposite are not necessarily the most important issues when we are talking about making our city better, but clearly many of us have thought it important over time to improve the appearance of the Anchorage. Though we seem able to agree on the goal of improving Anchorage’s appearance, we never seem able to agree on the specific strategies to accomplish that. I have come up with an alternative strategy. I think it will be much easier to agree on what we don’t want. So I have developed a slide show on how to make Anchorage ugly. Someday I hope someone pays me and Julie Decker to turn it into a small book that we can put on the desk of everyone involved in the construction of our city so that they might notice and back off when they find themselves headed towards one of the items illustrated and explained in the book.
The following and last week of this course will be devoted to the special opportunities and limitations of building a sustainable city in the relatively far north.
The three topics aren’t really mutually exclusive, but I will try to some extent to avoid the issues of next week and the following week today.
A few ground rules. Please feel free to interrupt me at any time with a question or a comment.
I hope you will not be offended if I cut you off if I think you are taking too much time or taking us too far off topic. Also, please feel free to email me, mike@mmense.com, if you have further questions or comments. Also, if anything that happens here, inspires to want you to send me pictures or drawings, please send those to my big mailbox, elcommunicodo@mmense.com.
And finally, I will post my notes for today’s class on my blog tonight, if you want to go back and see what I said, or at least what I thought I was going to say. www.housescience.blogspot.com
A couple of years ago, I heard Arlo Guthrie make some comments when he was being interviewed by Terry Gross. I found it to be very enabling. He said that he had come to believe that he didn’t necessarily need to know that everything he said was true or that he necessarily believed it. He wasn’t suggesting that he had the right to fib. What he was suggesting was that it is more important to get ideas out there so others can work on them rather waiting and only expressing them after you are sure you are right. I think there is actually quite a bit of respect built into that sentiment. Rather than presuming to know the truth, and I do believe that objective truth exists, somewhere, I am going to suggest things and then see what you think.
Having said that, here is one of my tentative ideas. I don’t believe that most Americans believe that anything is really much better or worse than anything else. In my 30 years of practice, I have mostly come to see that my clients have very little faith that I can make anything better for them. Its not something we me personally or professionally. It is something about our culture. I think it is a result of our consumer culture and the ads we encounter through so many different media. Everything is better, cars, toothpaste, shampoo, medicine, now even doctors and lawyers sometimes. And we know that the claims in those advertisements are almost always false. Toothpaste and shampoo are for all intents and purposes, that is, in terms of the stated goal of cleaning your mouth and your hair, one is no better than the other. So we have become jaded, and I think we tend to think everything is equal. It’s just not true. While all toothpastes may be essentially equal, all houses and all cities are not. Now, there is another caveat. What might be better for you may not be better for me, but there are systems and I very much believe that I can predict and produce a significantly better “fit” between you and your house. I believe we can work our way towards a better “fit” between ourselves and our city.
Let me give two examples. Most of us, that is most of the people I encounter in my life, upper middle class couples and families, most of the adults work five days a week during the day and their children go to school five days a week. Consequently, when any of them want to spend some time outdoors relaxing (something many of this group in fact do), it is most often late afternoon or evening. In Alaska, we know that it is almost always going to be desirable to be in the sun if we outdoors, in fact it is going to be best if we are in a place where can experience sun doubling, that is, where the sun strikes us directly but also bounces off a wall behind us and then strikes us again. It is also the case that very often in much of Anchorage experiences prevailing winds from the east. In Anchorage, the temperature is just barely high enough for us to be comfortable relaxing outside. We won’t be comfortable if we are sitting in the wind. So, all houses and their patios and decks are not equal. Those which only have a patio or deck on the east or north, or frankly, even south sides, are not nearly as likely to be able to enjoy being outside than those of us who have west and even preferably northwest facing patios or decks. Now, of course the best deal, again depending on your lifestyle, is to have a morning deck on the east for coffee and evening deck on the west for evening relaxation.
But it is also important to recognize that some things are taste or opinion based. For example, I believe Town Square Park is dumb. I don’t believe it is appropriate to try to make a fake forest when we are twenty minutes away from an almost endless expanse of the real thing. I think urban parks should generally reflect their man madeness. That is the, trees and topography should be very ordered, clearly reflecting the ideas of the designers and installers. In my opinion the “human constructedness”, ala John Ruskin, if you are familiar with his thoughts, this “human constructedness” is one of the important aspects of a city. But that is an opinion and I don’t think my opinion is any better than anybody else’s. In a big way, the French and English have been having this argument about gardens for about 300 years now. I think that pretty well establishes that neither is the right answer.
If you get nothing else out of your experience with me, I hope it is that you spend some time in the next few months seeing if you can spot things that could have been better or could be worse in your environment. And try, try, to distinguish between taste questions and practical, objective system questions. Let me ask you about this one. Last week I was driving through Iowa on a blue highway, you know, a two lane road that passes through all of these small towns. At some point I went by a long senior housing facility, not very old, all one story and all with living room windows looking at the highway. I suppose that might be bad enough, but for almost the exact length of the senior housing, across the street is the community cemetery, something that clearly has been there long before the housing was built. I don’t think that can possibly be understood as a right answer. Am I wrong? What were they thinking? Were they thinking?
3:29
Also, before we start, I would like to recommend a few books, for those of you who might want to delve more deeply into these subjects.
The Uses of Disorder by Richard Sennett
The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
The Hidden Dimension by Edward T. Hall
Life Between Buildings by Jan Gehl
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
And finally, before we really start. What are you expecting from this? I don’t know how well I will be able to adjust if you tell me things completely different from what I have planned, but maybe. It would be good for me to understand at least a little bit of what you are expecting.
Both in terms of experience and in terms of the subjects.
3:34
OK, well , we seem pretty much on track. I plan today to deal with four big questions in this order.
1. What is a city? What is citiness? It seems to me we have to know what a city is before we can decide how to improve it.
2. What are some great cities and why are they great? Mostly you are going to tell me about those, I hope.
3. What does it mean to build a city? What parts of the city do we have control over through design and construction and how can we use that control to further our agreed upon goals.
4. And finally, I have seven questions for you about improving Anchorage which I am hoping my thoughts will allow you to answer in enlightening ways.
3:35
What is a city? A concentration of human artifacts on the land and the people who create and inhabit those artifacts. Why do cities exist? I think they came into being when too many children survived to adulthood. When families managed to keep more children alive into adulthood than were necessary to work the farm, the extras had to leave. I think that is the beginning of cities. Cities, I believe are the essential incubator of what we call human progress. Cities are the place where people end up with free time that they can and do use to contemplate the possibility of change. Cities are also the place where humans live close to other humans who are different from them. At the beginning, it was the place where humans first started to live close to non-relatives, but, of course, today, cities are the place where we live close to pretty much every kind of “other” imaginable. So, you combine the time to think with the presence of the other, and you get new ideas, you get change, you get, again, what we call progress. I, for one, believe that progress is real. I do think humans, both individuals, and the species is in a better place than it was 200 years and 2000 years ago. But that is another debate, not for today. Living in some proximity to “other” people is the essential fact of citiness, I think. Places like the Hillside in Anchorage, are not really urban, in my opinion. They are instead an artificially hyperdense farmstead landscape, from which you can occasionally, go to town. Or, maybe they are a form of urbanity that is too new for me and most other humans to understand. This would be the automobile based form of urbanity. For that reason, I am not sure we need to spend that much time understanding it, because it seems likely to be a chapter of human history not much longer than that of the typewriter.
The residents of cities then are there for one of two reasons. They have chosen to live in a city because their life is about progress in some way. Some enjoy the experience of the other. Others are less excited about it, but recognize that this experience is necessary to whatever they are pursuing in life. Often this is as simple as a personal desire for economic advancement. Millions of people choose to live in poverty in great Chinese and Indian cities because they believe they have a better chance for economic advancement in those cities. But there are many others who live in cities because they are the current version of the rejected extras I mentioned earlier who started the cities in the first place. There is a somewhat nasty metaphor here about how the majority of certain races and cultures of people have come to be deemed unnecessary to the operation of the farm. I think it is important to realize that not everyone who lives in a city chose or chooses to live in a city. Many of them are there because they are not, or at least do not believe they are, welcome elsewhere.
I would also point out that I think the people who still live on the farm, in some deep way, understand that the rejects, in the end, got the better end of the deal. In all countries, as the standard of living rises, as vacation travel increase, cities also become more and more important as vacation destinations. People from the farm want a taste of what it is like to be free from the farm responsibilities.
3:39
Now, what might all of this mean about the design and building of cities? First of all, of course, we must build shelter from the elements. We must be able stay relatively warm in the winter and relatively cool in the summer. We use buildings to accomplish that goal. And we must have food and water. We are not on the farm, though there are those who think that has been a mistake, that we should have brought the farm with us, or that we now need to introduce the farm into the city. But that, too, is a discussion for another day.
It is an essential fact of citiness that we are dependent on others for our food and water. Many of us have encountered the term social contract. Cities cannot work without the understanding and execution of a social contract. Residents of cities are codependent. In 21st century America, we seem to be losing touch with that. The anti tax rhetoric ignores the essential interdependency of living in a city. It’s not just about police and firemen and roads. It is also about heat and food and water. We depend on each other, we depend on the city, for everything essential for our lives. We must all realize that infrastructure of every sort, power lines, waterlines, railroads, docks and so on are not essentially about making money, they are essentially about making it possible for us to live somewhere other than on the farm.
So, a city as a physical construct is a tool for creating shelter and delivering utilities, water and food. And there is one other essential piece. Cities must support our ability to live with the “other”. Practically that means we need two kinds of spaces. We need private space where we can reconstitute ourselves. Where we can sleep and eat and relax. It seems this space is necessarily isolated from the other. And we need social space, space where we can experience the other. As human beings, we necessarily want to control how this happens, the closeness and the temporal extent of this experience. Nonetheless, those of us who have chosen to live in the city, and those of us who understand the necessity of citiness in our goals, revel in the experience of the other. That I think is the essential point of cities. I say that is what we must improve when we improve our city. To the extent that we can also make the experience of other a positive one for those who are not here by choice, they may choose to stay when they are so empowered, and thus contribute to the vitality of the city. In the meantime, we cannot survive as a city if we do not make sure that those who are not here by choice, have adequate shelter, food and water. That means we must operate our city in an efficient enough way that we can afford to support those who need our help. Efficient government is not a conservative anti-government goal, it is an essential part of a sustainable, humane city. Efficient industry is not primarily about creating profits for the shareholders. In a city, we all have an interest in efficient industry so that that industry can afford to make the contributions necessary for a city to survive.
3:43
Any comments?
3:47
What are the seven best cities in the world? At least what are the seven best cities in the world with which you are familiar?
Write the seven on the board and establish the seven teams.
You chose
Boston, transit, harbor, neighborhoods
Sydney, harbor and ferries and crystal clear water, and neighborhoods, the Opera House
Paris, I am sad to say that I cannot remember your reasons
Kyoto, integration of nature and the community
Vancouver BC, living downtown, mountains and ocean
Venice, more water and wonderful old buildings
Stockholm, but nobody talked about this one
3:50
What is it about each of those cities that makes them great?
3:55
Report out
4:04
I bet we decided that the best cities are the ones that were built before automobiles. The ones that are scaled to pedestrians. As I have said before and will say again, I think the automobile is a small, soon to be forgotten, blip in human history. The cities that are most ready to return their streets and roads to human scale are going to be the winners in 20-40 years.
It seems to me that one of the most important things we can do to improve our cities is simply to slow down. In Amsterdam, the streets are this incredible agglomeration of transportation modes, trains, cars and trucks of every sort, bicycles and similar conveyances of every sort, and pedestrians of every sort all share the same right of way. It is amazing that more people don’t get injured or killed but they don’t.
The other thing is that city building is not an easy task. You don’t get much right the first time through. Rome was not built in a day and it wasn’t built right the first time. I believe Anchorage remains a teenaged city. We have gotten lots of things wrong, but if we continue to rebuild and rebuild, we will eventually get it right.
I would also point out that architecture is not generally an important piece of the puzzle. Mediocre buildings can make great streets. But a few great buildings helps. And we come to the issue of local architects and their relationship to their community.
4:05
What does it mean to build a city?
What can we control and how can we use that control to make our cities better in the ways we have discussed?
What do we build?
Streets, roads, airports, railway stations, bus stations, powerlines, waterlines, sewer lines, parking, parks,
Buildings, houses, places of work, places of worship, stores, restaurants, buildings for government, schools, warehouses, factories, hospitals and clinics
What must we be aware of as we build?
The sun, wind, views, topography.
How do we build?
Whether we build with an eye to the future or we build solely with concern for this year’s bottom line
Where do we build?
First of all, I think it is important that every city recognize and keep track of its wealth, its advantages, its inherent strengths. Most cities happen at a specific place for a specific reason. That reason is usually about the most important strength of the city. I trust you all know why Anchorage is where it is.
We need efficient connections to surrounding rivers, waterways, oceans so that it is relatively inexpensive to deliver things to us. We need to have efficient connections to transportation systems. That is important so that those systems choose to pass through our community on their way to other places. That means making sure that those systems do not conflict with other aspects of the community. (I am not sure I understand who is driving from south Anchorage to Wasilla that necessitates the big cut and cover project, but it certainly is unfortunate that 5th and 6th Avenues are also the main east west commercial highway through Anchorage.) Transportation systems passing through almost always create revenue for the community they are passing through.
If we have desirable views at the perimeter of our city, we need to make it possible for as many as possible to have access to those views (we could spend an hour on why that is important).
In this day and age, we need to make our city desirable to visitors, because visitors also create revenue.
We need amenities like universities and performing arts centers and parks and trails and good schools and a handsome downtown because those things attract desirable residents.
We must provide hope for those of us who are not here by choice, because only with that hope will they eventually move into the “here by choice” camp. It is simple efficiency for us to reduce the number of needy people in our community.
For the long term sustainability of our city we must create efficient utilities. To a great extent, that means density. Unfortunately, in the past density has been an excuse to make awful stuff. That needn’t be the case.
We also need to try to reduce our waste of resources. We need to save and reuse, not tear down and rebuild. Especially given Chipperfield’s decision to expressionally ignore the existing museum, and just put a different building next to it, why did we tear down Ed Crittenden’s charming little building that used to sit just west of the Museum on 7th Avenue. Chipperfield would have created an even richer collection of buildings if he had had to deal with that one too. And we would have saved perfectly good square footage and we would have saved all the various expenses of demolition. What were we thinking?
We need to build well so that we don’t find ourselves constantly repairing.
We need to build intelligently. Parking lots belong on the south sides of buildings, always!! Because they exposed the south side of the building to the sun and the sun reflecting off the south side of the building helps to melt the snow in the parking lot.
We need to create those pedestrian spaces where we can experience the other.
We need strong boundaries between vehicular space and pedestrian space so that pedestrian spaces feel safe and secure. Partly we do that by reducing the number and width of curb cuts.
We need more sidewalks.
We need to reduce the ground floor expanses of blank walls.
We need to think of our streets as rooms and that means we can’t leave out some of the walls. If we think of every street as a room, we will know that we cannot tolerate these expanses of parking lot. At the very least we must surround parking lots with dense landscaping.
We need to maximize everybody’s access to natural light and ventilation.
I think in Anchorage we need more intermediate space. These are outdoor spaces that are not quite public. Patios, porches, decks, that front on streets.
Talk about north south zoning.
(street furniture and the courthouse)
And finally let me talk about the Knik Arm Crossing.
And let me talk about a truly forward looking planning community. Fort Rich and so on.
4:25
Now remember, we are trying to build a better city. Let’s talk about things we can achieve through architecture, urban design and construction.
So 7 groups for five minutes.
1. What is the worst thing about Anchorage and how could we make it better?
2. What is the best thing about Anchorage and how could we make more of it? Our access to the wilderness.
3. What don’t we have enough of and how could we get more? Alleys, trees and sidewalks!
4. What do we have too much of and how can we make it go away? The appearance of parking lots. Just enforce the existing laws.
5. What’s the best block in Anchorage, what is good about it, could we replicate it?
4th Avenue between E and F.
6. What is our greatest underutilized resource and how could we make better use of it?
Our waterfront, move the airport to Fort Rich.
7. What is going to change the most in the next ten years and how can we make that a positive change? Our use of fossil fuel.
8. What is the single most important thing we could do to make Anchorage a better city?
4:30 to 4:40 they report
4:40 I sum up and read the story of Sophronia
5.19.2009
My Dinner with Lutherans
Thoughts on Place Making after a visit to Minneapolis
A version of this was originally published in Places Magazine in the fall of 2007
September 2007
architects sans programme
Does it start with us or our clients? Minneapolis, like most American cities, doesn't evidence faith in its local architects. For major facilities, Minneapolis hires architects from the coasts or Europe. The Walker Art Center brought in Herzog & de Meuron (with Hammel, Green and Abrahamson as Architects of Record led by Project Architect, John Cook, AIA).
In more than one American city, a wealthy benefactor has funded a monument before the beneficiary organization knew it had a need for more building. This appears to be what happened here. It's a recipe for a mess. Even great architects like these benefit from a client that knows its needs. The tension between program and vision nourishes the architect's creativity. Without program, the architect's task is hollow. Architecture is not just sculpture. To be worthy it must also fulfill programmatic duties. A community rightly expects its leaders to carefully prioritize its needs and spend its resources accordingly. This Walker addition provides a theater, a sculpture garden and a parking garage. In the context of everything else happening in Minneapolis, it is hard to understand how these could be the priorities.
Since the client did not have heartfelt goals, the architects created their own tasks. In response to the completely opaque Edward Larrabee Barnes building of 1971, they sought transparency. Museums need opacity to protect their objects. What is accomplished by exposing a building's corridors to the out of doors? The metal skin at the Walker, in the end, is not transparent at all. Though it presents some arresting visual reflections of the sky and the sun, it also provides a home for birds and insects and seems vulnerable to damage from freeze thaw cycles.
The architects also developed an idea of a commons. Galleries would be discrete expressed masses with level floors while the commons would be interstice that could accommodate the topographical challenges of the site. In this case, someone spilled coffee on the Nolli map and the ink bled – the differentiation between figure and ground is never clear. It comes closest to success on the back of the building in the proposed new sculpture garden, but, unhappily, the building provides no access to that garden. In terms of massing, the Barnes tower stuffily ignores its ambiguously proportioned and trendily cantilevered counterpoint. John Cook acknowledged that the theater box had grown a bit more than he hoped.
The tragedy at the Walker is the demolition of the original Rapson Guthrie. How can Minneapolis, with over fifty theater companies, the home of Prince and Garrison Keillor, not find a use for an outdated architectural landmark? It's legitimate to hire non-resident architects when they know something we don't know. Minneapolis should import a few architects from Rome. They know how to remodel.
Nouvel and the Guthrie
In 1959, Sir Tyrone Guthrie, seeking to do non-commercial theater, put out a call for a new home. Seven Midwestern cities responded but it came down to "Minnie" or "Milly" (Milwaukee, Wisconsin). Minneapolis won and Ralph Rapson, FAIA, as architect and Tanya Moiseiwitsch as theater designer created a thrust theater at the Walker Art Center site that opened in 1963. A number of years ago, the Guthrie was struggling -- limited apparently by its lack of a proscenium stage and the aging nature of Rapson's building. Meanwhile, the Walker, too, was looking to expand. The powers that be decided to move the Guthrie. Inspired it seems by characteristically Midwestern frugality and respect for elders, the original Moiseiwitsch thrust stage has been recreated in the new building.
Sir Tyrone originally wanted to be on the Mississippi. Aware that the French (Joseph Nicollet, Father Hennepin and the "voyageurs") were here before the Lutherans, the Guthrie hired Jean Nouvel (associated with local architects Architectural Alliance, led by Tom DeAngelo, FAIA). The result is a magnificent building, a real presence in the city, and the performers and their directors seem very happy. This facility, along with the adjacent Mill City Museum of 2004 by local architect Tom Meyer, FAIA, of Meyer, Scherer & Rockcastle, does seem to promise a strengthening of the Mississippi River's role in Minneapolis life.
The problem here is not with the building, but rather with the gospel according to Joe Dowling (the exceptionally well-spoken, appropriately Irish, and apparently exceedingly competent artistic director of the Guthrie). Nouvel came to the site and told Dowling he would do the building if he could raise the stages fifty feet in the air so he could see the river. Dowling, a practical theater man, imagined the nightmare of lifting scenery and props that far and balked. Nouvel then lifted Dowling into the air in a cherry picker and according to the gospel, Joe saw the light. Never mind that Nouvel had recommended a similar move a year before in Pittsburgh at The Carnegie Science Center. Never mind that the important view in a theater is onstage. Never mind that the rehearsal rooms and costume shops where people work long hours are on or near the ground without the grand view.
As in the Bible (we are dining with Lutherans here, remember), there is an alternative gospel. A Minneapolis sky bridge is at the heart of this building. Most companies build their sets in a shop, take them apart, cart them to the stage, and reconstruct them. At the Guthrie the sky bridge allows the sets to be constructed just once and rolled into place on both main stages. Lifting the stages made it possible for the scene shop to be above the parking garage across the street a block back from the view. This saves the rest of the riverfront property for more appropriate uses.
The Guthrie is at the end of a line of old millworks (factories and silos) that have a certain scale, mass and geometry. The raised stages foster an urbane contextualism. The expressed form of the thrust theater mimics the silos and the mass of the new building fits right in. Nouvel could have chosen to punctuate the line. Instead his building seems to suggest another facility, someday, south of the Guthrie.
Shopping with Mary Tyler Moore
There is a sense that things move more slowly in the middle of the country and Minneapolis reflects this. Hardly anyone lives in the city center, yet. Light rail will probably change that (just when it becomes reasonable to live in the suburbs, everyone will move into town). Beginning 45 years ago, Minneapolis was the first city to skywalk itself to death, connecting buildings at the second floor with enclosed pedestrian bridges. That pretty much killed commerce (and life) on the street. Rebirth is under way as a result of pedestrian friendly streets, farmers' markets, professional sports and conventioneers. The street level shopping seems aimed at Mary Tyler Moore – Macys, Saks, Nieman Marcus, but not much else. It feels like an old-fashioned downtown where Dad works and Mom shops. Except now Mom works too.
When New York was building Woolworth and Chrysler and Chicago the Wrigley Building, Minnesota was building the Foshay Tower (designed in 1929 by Léon Eugène Arnal, chief designer for the architects Magney & Tusler), a particularly handsome masonry obelisk now dwarfed by its neighbors. People don't put their names on their own buildings much anymore. Nowadays the rich fund libraries and theaters and corporations put their names on ball fields. With the public realm ravaged by the anti-tax tsunami, it's surprising how often we demolish and rebuild hundred million dollar facilities.
In an apparent attempt to spur downtown domesticity (and catch up with the coasts), Minneapolis has just built a new headquarters library. Pelli Clarke Pelli were brought in from New Haven (and teamed with local architects Architectural Alliance, Tom Hysell, AIA, Project Architect). It is two very simple boxes connected by an atrium (think Johnson at IDS or more thoroughly Meier in The Hague). This is Pelli taking it easy.
The curve of the river occasionally reorients the street grid. The library site is at a boundary and the two boxes are on separate grids creating the forced perspective of the atrium. In a deep way, this is the river informing the architecture. The architects and the librarians are very proud of the transparency of the building (glass skins being one of the fashions of the moment), but in daylight, this skin is as opaque as stone. From a distance, this building looks like books on shelves, layer cake architecture with no expressed structure.
Inside, a forest of mushrooms holds up the painted concrete slabs. The greatest success of this building is the clarity of these slabs and the resolution of the consequently exposed utilities. With all the interior and exterior glass and reflective surfaces, the sad thing about this building is that Minneapolis probably traded librarians for window washers.
denouement
Thursday, September 28, 2007, the day we arrived, there were two headlines on the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune
RESTROOMS AT AIRPORT TO BE REMODELED!
(no word by the way on how many visiting COD members applied for the job)
and
CROSS BURNING A HOAX!
This one was about a cross burned in the front yard of the only black family in an Anoka neighborhood. Minneapolitans were up in arms threatening bake sales and gifts of money to the victims and eternal damnation to the miscreant who so rudely disturbed the peace. Unhappily, the next day (and thus the headline) it turned out the man had burned his own yard in hopes of collecting sympathy money from his neighbors. Architecture is that medium through which we tell our descendants who we were. If present trends continue, our architecture may become as fleeting as a cross burned in a yard.
5.16.2009
Affording the American Dream
Dense Affordable Single Family Housing
Nowadays, there seems to be a garden apartment orthodoxy (in what might be called the new urbanist style) that separates architects from the consumers of affordable housing. Most affordable housing is just downright awful and not worthy of discussion. But some attempts to be better than that. Unfortunately, even in the best cases, developers and taste makers want trendy apartment buildings while most of the public prefers a single family dwelling. This results in solutions that favor developers over residents and architecture instead of community. In an apartment building, the developer keeps ownership and accrues wealth if the project is a success. With single family dwellings that wealth can and should be flowing to the residents. Architects tend to side with the developers for two reasons.
A. The developers are paying them.
B. A groovy apartment building is a more lucrative project and is much more likely to win accolades than is a group of inexpensive single family dwellings.
Our purpose here is to challenge that orthodoxy, to suggest that there are valuable choices being ignored that foster both community and architecture, and that benefit both the direct beneficiaries and the taxpayers who are subsidizing this housing.
We believe first of all in diversity. So, yes, there is a place for apartments and row housing. There are people who want and need to rent. But there is also a place for inexpensive single family dwellings. There are low income families and individuals who will make greater contributions to our communities if they are property owners. Single family dwellings can and should be a central element in the provision of affordable housing. In the USA at least, home ownership, at some point, becomes an essential part of full-fledged citizenship. That sense of ownership fosters the development of healthy communities.
There is a place for mass transit. But, outside of our largest central cities, automobile ownership and use is an essential aspect of living in North America, no matter the income level. Even in low income families, this often means 3-5 cars per residence. Because everybody has to work and everybody has to drive to work, everybody has a car (or a pick up truck). A significant portion of affordable housing must acknowledge this.
In the 1950’s single family housing (think Levittown) was being built in subdivisions with a density of approximately five units per acre. Today’s typical winding street subdivision generates a typical density of about 3 units per acre. In the north especially, these lower densities result in especially burdensome infrastructure costs. More deeply buried utility lines and greater snow plowing requirements are two of the infrastructure costs that increase dramatically as one moves north.
With some thought though, sustainable, affordable, practical fee simple single family housing can be built at approximately 10 dwelling units per acre. Streets should be very narrow, just wide enough for two sidewalks, two lanes of very slow traffic, two lanes of parking and lots of stickball. It happens that these streets are also just wide enough for fire and emergency vehicles and smaller scale snow removal equipment. Side loading trash trucks are also essential for these small streets to work in today’s world. In northern climates, when topography allows, these streets should run primarily north to south. That means the sun can warm the pavement even in the darkest days of winter. It also means the houses can be laid out to have outdoor spaces in the sun on both sides of the street. Lots are just wide enough for two parallel parking spaces on the street and a driveway. The higher density and smaller streets both support more pedestrian activity. The higher density also increases the likelihood that commercial services will be available within walking distance.
Fences and walls must clearly define the boundaries between automobile and human activity without unnecessarily isolating the street from the homes. The car is accommodated, but it is not allowed to take over. Where cars are allowed to take over, the properties are misused and property values and citizen self-respect falls. Fences and walls allow for precise boundaries. That makes it possible for comfortable human activity and automobile storage to coexist happily on a smaller piece of land.
Houses are built against two property lines, becoming walls for the neighbors’ outdoor spaces. Light can pass through glass block in these property line walls but they are otherwise strong fire, sound and visual barriers. Instead of having two useless five foot wide side yards and a small front yard and a small back yard, we provide one large yard. This yard is private and thoroughly integrated into the interior of the house. This yard is set up to take the maximum advantage of any available sun and to pass that sun into the interior of the house.
It is also important that the wealth created by affordable housing programs accrue to its residents instead of going to developers. This gives residents the incentive to maintain and improve their homes. It also turns them into tax payers instead of tax consumers. The government, federal, provincial, state or local, through its housing agency, should be the developer. There is no need for developer profit here. Homeownership should occur under a cooperative regime. Down payments can be minimal or non-existent. Capital gains that occur at resale should be shared by the individual and the cooperative. The cooperative’s share can then be used to create more affordable housing.
Affordable housing programs that do not foster home ownership and at least tolerate automobile ownership (unless mass transit is available and generally used by everyone) tend to segregate their residents from the rest of the community. Once we begin to create affordable housing that fosters good citizenship and results in increased property values, we will have a much easier time creating mixed housing developments – the ultimate goal if we are to have a healthy society. Affordable housing programs must be about bringing us together, not keeping us apart.
Nowadays, there seems to be a garden apartment orthodoxy (in what might be called the new urbanist style) that separates architects from the consumers of affordable housing. Most affordable housing is just downright awful and not worthy of discussion. But some attempts to be better than that. Unfortunately, even in the best cases, developers and taste makers want trendy apartment buildings while most of the public prefers a single family dwelling. This results in solutions that favor developers over residents and architecture instead of community. In an apartment building, the developer keeps ownership and accrues wealth if the project is a success. With single family dwellings that wealth can and should be flowing to the residents. Architects tend to side with the developers for two reasons.
A. The developers are paying them.
B. A groovy apartment building is a more lucrative project and is much more likely to win accolades than is a group of inexpensive single family dwellings.
Our purpose here is to challenge that orthodoxy, to suggest that there are valuable choices being ignored that foster both community and architecture, and that benefit both the direct beneficiaries and the taxpayers who are subsidizing this housing.
We believe first of all in diversity. So, yes, there is a place for apartments and row housing. There are people who want and need to rent. But there is also a place for inexpensive single family dwellings. There are low income families and individuals who will make greater contributions to our communities if they are property owners. Single family dwellings can and should be a central element in the provision of affordable housing. In the USA at least, home ownership, at some point, becomes an essential part of full-fledged citizenship. That sense of ownership fosters the development of healthy communities.
There is a place for mass transit. But, outside of our largest central cities, automobile ownership and use is an essential aspect of living in North America, no matter the income level. Even in low income families, this often means 3-5 cars per residence. Because everybody has to work and everybody has to drive to work, everybody has a car (or a pick up truck). A significant portion of affordable housing must acknowledge this.
In the 1950’s single family housing (think Levittown) was being built in subdivisions with a density of approximately five units per acre. Today’s typical winding street subdivision generates a typical density of about 3 units per acre. In the north especially, these lower densities result in especially burdensome infrastructure costs. More deeply buried utility lines and greater snow plowing requirements are two of the infrastructure costs that increase dramatically as one moves north.
With some thought though, sustainable, affordable, practical fee simple single family housing can be built at approximately 10 dwelling units per acre. Streets should be very narrow, just wide enough for two sidewalks, two lanes of very slow traffic, two lanes of parking and lots of stickball. It happens that these streets are also just wide enough for fire and emergency vehicles and smaller scale snow removal equipment. Side loading trash trucks are also essential for these small streets to work in today’s world. In northern climates, when topography allows, these streets should run primarily north to south. That means the sun can warm the pavement even in the darkest days of winter. It also means the houses can be laid out to have outdoor spaces in the sun on both sides of the street. Lots are just wide enough for two parallel parking spaces on the street and a driveway. The higher density and smaller streets both support more pedestrian activity. The higher density also increases the likelihood that commercial services will be available within walking distance.
Fences and walls must clearly define the boundaries between automobile and human activity without unnecessarily isolating the street from the homes. The car is accommodated, but it is not allowed to take over. Where cars are allowed to take over, the properties are misused and property values and citizen self-respect falls. Fences and walls allow for precise boundaries. That makes it possible for comfortable human activity and automobile storage to coexist happily on a smaller piece of land.
Houses are built against two property lines, becoming walls for the neighbors’ outdoor spaces. Light can pass through glass block in these property line walls but they are otherwise strong fire, sound and visual barriers. Instead of having two useless five foot wide side yards and a small front yard and a small back yard, we provide one large yard. This yard is private and thoroughly integrated into the interior of the house. This yard is set up to take the maximum advantage of any available sun and to pass that sun into the interior of the house.
It is also important that the wealth created by affordable housing programs accrue to its residents instead of going to developers. This gives residents the incentive to maintain and improve their homes. It also turns them into tax payers instead of tax consumers. The government, federal, provincial, state or local, through its housing agency, should be the developer. There is no need for developer profit here. Homeownership should occur under a cooperative regime. Down payments can be minimal or non-existent. Capital gains that occur at resale should be shared by the individual and the cooperative. The cooperative’s share can then be used to create more affordable housing.
Affordable housing programs that do not foster home ownership and at least tolerate automobile ownership (unless mass transit is available and generally used by everyone) tend to segregate their residents from the rest of the community. Once we begin to create affordable housing that fosters good citizenship and results in increased property values, we will have a much easier time creating mixed housing developments – the ultimate goal if we are to have a healthy society. Affordable housing programs must be about bringing us together, not keeping us apart.
The recent article about the Anchorage Industrial Land Assessment (AILA) misrepresents the report and the availability of industrial land in Anchorage. This was one of the weakest attempts yet to revive the thankfully expiring Knik Arm Crossing project.
AILA predicts a need for 720 to 1080 acres of industrial land in Anchorage between 2010 and 2030. It acknowledges the existence of 801 acres of undeveloped industrial land and 662 acres of underutilized industrial land. This math says that we have between 383 and 743 acres of available industrial land in excess of our needs between 2010 and 2030. AILA’s own summary page (Table 1, page 3), projects an excess of land!
In addition, AILA specifically excludes the 2442 acres (see Anchorage 2020, Chapter 2, Table 2) owned by the Airport, Port and Railroad. Much of this land is vacant or underutilized. All of these owners are devoted to nurturing industrial development. Further, AILA suggests the possibility of military land expansion instead of the much more likely reduction.
AILA manages to suggest the possibility of a shortage by claiming the difficulty of developing 201 of these acres because they are in Eklutna, Chugiak and Eagle River and rejects another 401 acres because of soils limitations. But remember the recent article’s proposed solution. Which is more expensive? Land at Eklutna or land across Knik Arm? Land in the Anchorage bowl with a soils problem or land across Knik Arm? To its credit, AILA does not recommend the Knik Arm Crossing as a solution, but rather recommends the same redevelopment efforts supported here.
By ignoring Eagle River, Chugiak, Eklutna, the Airport, the Port, the Railroad, most underdeveloped land and any land with a soils limitation, AILA manages to suggest a worst case scenario shortage of 484 acres. According to Anchorage 2020, in 1998 there were 24099 developed acres of residential, commercial, and institutional land in the Anchorage bowl. Even if we ignore the better options listed in the previous sentence, converting just 2% of this land would accommodate all predicted industrial uses. The worst case scenario, created only by ignoring all of the options that would become viable should the market actually demand industrial land, amounts to 8 parcels the size of the Park Strip. For that we should construct a 2 billion dollar bridge?
We have just spent months listening to mayoral candidates talking about reducing the cost of government. Especially in Anchorage with frost, snow and darkness, the cost of government is directly related to any reduction in density. Water, sewer, electricity, police, fire, schools, everything the government does costs much more the more it is spread out. Between McHugh Creek and Eklutna, most of the infrastructure is already in place. We are already paying for it. I can’t imagine there are many taxpayers who want to start buying all those things for the properties at the other end of the proposed Knik Arm Crossing.
The City of San Francisco has an area of 232 square miles. Anchorage is 1,697 square miles.
San Francisco’s population is 744,230. Anchorage’s is 282,810. The density in San Francisco is 3,208 people per square mile. In Anchorage, it’s 167 people per square mile. Given the presence of the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, and given the typical topography in San Francisco, it is completely implausible to suggest that Anchorage is out of industrial land or any other kind of land. We need to concentrate on redeveloping and improving the land we have. This land already has most of the necessary infrastructure in place.
The AILA report was produced by a firm from Sacramento with funding from Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) and MOA. One might ask why AEDC sent this work to California when there are a number of qualified Alaska firms. I am guessing the answer would be low bid. I think that proves my case. Industrial development across the Knik Arm will never be the low bidder without subsidies from you, me, our kids and our grandkids.
AILA predicts a need for 720 to 1080 acres of industrial land in Anchorage between 2010 and 2030. It acknowledges the existence of 801 acres of undeveloped industrial land and 662 acres of underutilized industrial land. This math says that we have between 383 and 743 acres of available industrial land in excess of our needs between 2010 and 2030. AILA’s own summary page (Table 1, page 3), projects an excess of land!
In addition, AILA specifically excludes the 2442 acres (see Anchorage 2020, Chapter 2, Table 2) owned by the Airport, Port and Railroad. Much of this land is vacant or underutilized. All of these owners are devoted to nurturing industrial development. Further, AILA suggests the possibility of military land expansion instead of the much more likely reduction.
AILA manages to suggest the possibility of a shortage by claiming the difficulty of developing 201 of these acres because they are in Eklutna, Chugiak and Eagle River and rejects another 401 acres because of soils limitations. But remember the recent article’s proposed solution. Which is more expensive? Land at Eklutna or land across Knik Arm? Land in the Anchorage bowl with a soils problem or land across Knik Arm? To its credit, AILA does not recommend the Knik Arm Crossing as a solution, but rather recommends the same redevelopment efforts supported here.
By ignoring Eagle River, Chugiak, Eklutna, the Airport, the Port, the Railroad, most underdeveloped land and any land with a soils limitation, AILA manages to suggest a worst case scenario shortage of 484 acres. According to Anchorage 2020, in 1998 there were 24099 developed acres of residential, commercial, and institutional land in the Anchorage bowl. Even if we ignore the better options listed in the previous sentence, converting just 2% of this land would accommodate all predicted industrial uses. The worst case scenario, created only by ignoring all of the options that would become viable should the market actually demand industrial land, amounts to 8 parcels the size of the Park Strip. For that we should construct a 2 billion dollar bridge?
We have just spent months listening to mayoral candidates talking about reducing the cost of government. Especially in Anchorage with frost, snow and darkness, the cost of government is directly related to any reduction in density. Water, sewer, electricity, police, fire, schools, everything the government does costs much more the more it is spread out. Between McHugh Creek and Eklutna, most of the infrastructure is already in place. We are already paying for it. I can’t imagine there are many taxpayers who want to start buying all those things for the properties at the other end of the proposed Knik Arm Crossing.
The City of San Francisco has an area of 232 square miles. Anchorage is 1,697 square miles.
San Francisco’s population is 744,230. Anchorage’s is 282,810. The density in San Francisco is 3,208 people per square mile. In Anchorage, it’s 167 people per square mile. Given the presence of the Presidio and Golden Gate Park, and given the typical topography in San Francisco, it is completely implausible to suggest that Anchorage is out of industrial land or any other kind of land. We need to concentrate on redeveloping and improving the land we have. This land already has most of the necessary infrastructure in place.
The AILA report was produced by a firm from Sacramento with funding from Anchorage Economic Development Corporation (AEDC) and MOA. One might ask why AEDC sent this work to California when there are a number of qualified Alaska firms. I am guessing the answer would be low bid. I think that proves my case. Industrial development across the Knik Arm will never be the low bidder without subsidies from you, me, our kids and our grandkids.
6.08.2007
No Bridge to Nowhere
Originally Published in the Anchorage Daily News January 10 2007
Don’t Stay This Course!
Governor-Elect Palin has an opportunity to do great things for Alaska and her own political future – in one simple move. She should give back the Bridges to Nowhere monies.
I was in Washington, DC, just after the election. I noticed that everything, from the Iraq war to potholes in northern Virginia, gets blamed on our bridges to nowhere. It is truly amazing how many ways the press in Washington finds to deliver snide references to Alaska and its congressional delegation. At the same time, the Governor-Elect’s party is getting hammered about pork and ethics and the election day results reflected that. On the other hand, Ms Palin was one of the few happy stories for the Republicans. She’s a fresh face and she won big on a night when Republicans were losing all over the country. Now, she has an opportunity to come forward with a fresh idea that perfectly resonates with the will of the majority in the country today.
Although the public relations impacts are reason enough for this gesture, there are many other potential benefits.
She partly made her name exposing the misuse of public funds. Those increased salaries at KABATA cannot have pleased her. Shutting down that operation gets rid of one headache and frees up funds and personnel for the problems she really wants to solve. I hope she also knows that the Knik Arm Crossing is not a good deal for Wasilla and the Mat-Su. I hope she’s looked at the map. If built, both rail and highway traffic will eventually completely bypass Wasilla. She knows that if it gets built in the near future, it will saddle both the Mat-Su and Anchorage with huge new and growing infrastructure costs.
Some have said that you just can’t give back federal monies. Some also said you can’t elect a young relatively inexperienced woman to the governorship of Alaska. So far, Sarah Palin has been all can-do in the face of a chorus of can’ts. I hope she keeps it up.
We don’t want our next Governor to get crosswise with our Congressional delegation. She needs to get them on board. Senator Murkowski, I think, would love to be rid of the personally painful conflict between her Government Hill roots and her devotion to progress for Alaska. Senator Stevens can say out loud what many have been thinking from the beginning. It is not a good idea in this day and age to route a public right of way across the end of the main runway of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
Ms Palin must be most respectful of Congressman Young. He has made great efforts on behalf of these bridges. But he is an Alaskan and a big Alaskan, and a big Republican too! He is big enough to admit that this one got a little bit ahead of itself. He can share the credit for restoring the honor of Alaska and the Republican Party.
The return of the funds need not imply disrespect for the efforts made to date on behalf of these bridges. The studies have made valuable contributions to our understanding of Cook Inlet and its surrounds. Some day, when Wasilla has expanded west to Point MacKenzie and Anchorage has redeveloped itself into a more important regional hub, the Knik Arm Crossing can be built to connect two real places. This bridge could be consistent the guidelines for Federal Highway funding. By that time, there will be infrastructure, and taxpayers, on both sides of the Arm, ready to share the burden of the cost of the bridge. (I know little about Ketchikan’s bridge to nowhere, though on the face of it, it appears less well conceived than the Knik Arm Crossing.)
Yup,
It’s a win-win-win-win-win. With one decision, Governor Palin erases years of national talk about Alaska pork and pfd selfishness, not to mention nepotism, and replaces it with the most astoundingly generous gesture ever made by one of these United States. Who knows, if she goes through with it, we might begin to hear talk about the possibility of Vice President Palin.
Don’t Stay This Course!
Governor-Elect Palin has an opportunity to do great things for Alaska and her own political future – in one simple move. She should give back the Bridges to Nowhere monies.
I was in Washington, DC, just after the election. I noticed that everything, from the Iraq war to potholes in northern Virginia, gets blamed on our bridges to nowhere. It is truly amazing how many ways the press in Washington finds to deliver snide references to Alaska and its congressional delegation. At the same time, the Governor-Elect’s party is getting hammered about pork and ethics and the election day results reflected that. On the other hand, Ms Palin was one of the few happy stories for the Republicans. She’s a fresh face and she won big on a night when Republicans were losing all over the country. Now, she has an opportunity to come forward with a fresh idea that perfectly resonates with the will of the majority in the country today.
Although the public relations impacts are reason enough for this gesture, there are many other potential benefits.
She partly made her name exposing the misuse of public funds. Those increased salaries at KABATA cannot have pleased her. Shutting down that operation gets rid of one headache and frees up funds and personnel for the problems she really wants to solve. I hope she also knows that the Knik Arm Crossing is not a good deal for Wasilla and the Mat-Su. I hope she’s looked at the map. If built, both rail and highway traffic will eventually completely bypass Wasilla. She knows that if it gets built in the near future, it will saddle both the Mat-Su and Anchorage with huge new and growing infrastructure costs.
Some have said that you just can’t give back federal monies. Some also said you can’t elect a young relatively inexperienced woman to the governorship of Alaska. So far, Sarah Palin has been all can-do in the face of a chorus of can’ts. I hope she keeps it up.
We don’t want our next Governor to get crosswise with our Congressional delegation. She needs to get them on board. Senator Murkowski, I think, would love to be rid of the personally painful conflict between her Government Hill roots and her devotion to progress for Alaska. Senator Stevens can say out loud what many have been thinking from the beginning. It is not a good idea in this day and age to route a public right of way across the end of the main runway of Elmendorf Air Force Base.
Ms Palin must be most respectful of Congressman Young. He has made great efforts on behalf of these bridges. But he is an Alaskan and a big Alaskan, and a big Republican too! He is big enough to admit that this one got a little bit ahead of itself. He can share the credit for restoring the honor of Alaska and the Republican Party.
The return of the funds need not imply disrespect for the efforts made to date on behalf of these bridges. The studies have made valuable contributions to our understanding of Cook Inlet and its surrounds. Some day, when Wasilla has expanded west to Point MacKenzie and Anchorage has redeveloped itself into a more important regional hub, the Knik Arm Crossing can be built to connect two real places. This bridge could be consistent the guidelines for Federal Highway funding. By that time, there will be infrastructure, and taxpayers, on both sides of the Arm, ready to share the burden of the cost of the bridge. (I know little about Ketchikan’s bridge to nowhere, though on the face of it, it appears less well conceived than the Knik Arm Crossing.)
Yup,
It’s a win-win-win-win-win. With one decision, Governor Palin erases years of national talk about Alaska pork and pfd selfishness, not to mention nepotism, and replaces it with the most astoundingly generous gesture ever made by one of these United States. Who knows, if she goes through with it, we might begin to hear talk about the possibility of Vice President Palin.
Northern Urban Density
Originally Published in the Anchorage Daily News May 23 2007
KABATA (Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority) and its supporters have managed to frame the debate on the Knik Arm Crossing (one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere) as if it was one between progressives (them) and no growth environmentalists (us). That is not and never has been the case.
Anchorage’s future depends on our successful devotion to conservatism. We must be fiscally conservative and make civic decisions with an eye toward minimizing the operational costs of our city. We must be environmentally conservative, making sure that we don’t make a mess of the most pristine urban environment left in the United States. And, finally, we must conserve the essential, irreplaceable wealth of our city – its proximity to the magnificence that is undeveloped Alaska.
Alaskans are especially and legitimately wary of density. We love our blue skies, open spaces, clean water and air. That’s why we live here. We don’t want to live in Detroit or Seattle or even Portland – too much traffic and smog and too far away from wilderness. We have started to experience the awful impacts of poorly, or unplanned, density – site condos and the traffic at Lake Otis and Tudor. We don’t want to turn Cook Inlet into the Potomac River and so we must stop pouring sewage into Cook Inlet. We must get beyond onsite septic systems before the hillside slides down on a layer of . . . . . . . .
Nonetheless, density is essential for successful conservatism in Anchorage.
Imagine Government Hill with the charm of San Francisco’s North Beach, Bootlegger Cove with the excitement of Miami’s South Beach. Think of the Hillside as a future Berkeley, California, and Spenard as Pioneer Square. Density can create great neighborhoods. Density makes possible a first class east-west rapid transit line with stops at the Airport, Historic Spenard, the Midtown Shopping District, the University District, the Medical District, and the MountainSide Residential District. It connects Kincaid Park and the Coastal Trail with Hillside Ski Areas and Chugach State Park. It fosters a similar line from Government Hill to Girdwood with stops at Ship Creek Center, Downtown, the Midtown Shopping District and park and ride facilities at Dimond and Huffman. How great would it be if you could jump on something like BART to get to Kincaid or Girdwood, no matter what the weather?
Rapid transit saves tax dollars, especially in a place the where the cost of building, maintaining and plowing roads is so great. Rapid transit makes possible affordable housing – housing with economical access to all of the amenities of Anchorage.
Density means we don’t have to sprawl. Encouraging our community to sprawl, whether it’s up the Parks Highway, or across the Knik Arm, moves Alaska farther away from those of us who live in Anchorage. When we keep our community compact, we keep Alaska close.
We live in an extreme environment. Everything costs more as a result. Utilities have to be buried twice as deeply as in communities with more temperate climates. Decisions that reduce the compactness of our community will inevitably raise somebody’s taxes. It costs more to live farther away in a northern city. The bridge will not make more affordable housing available. How can families with limited incomes afford to build (and maintain) their own roads, schools and fire stations? How can people with limited incomes afford to be the only tollpaying commuters in Anchorage?
Manhattan is 23 square miles. The City of San Francisco is 47 square miles. The non-military, non-airport, non-Chugach State Park portion of the Anchorage Bowl is 84 square miles. We have not run out of land!
During discussions this spring, members of the Anchorage Assembly expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of the Knik Arm Crossing, but voted to keep it in the plan for the purpose of further study. Now KABATA has hired a public relations firm to convince us that building the bridge is the right thing to do. Advocacy is not study! Fiscal conservatives must stop this misappropriation of public funds now! Instead, let’s get on with building a sustainable Big Wild Life for Anchorage here in the Bowl.
KABATA (Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority) and its supporters have managed to frame the debate on the Knik Arm Crossing (one of the infamous Bridges to Nowhere) as if it was one between progressives (them) and no growth environmentalists (us). That is not and never has been the case.
Anchorage’s future depends on our successful devotion to conservatism. We must be fiscally conservative and make civic decisions with an eye toward minimizing the operational costs of our city. We must be environmentally conservative, making sure that we don’t make a mess of the most pristine urban environment left in the United States. And, finally, we must conserve the essential, irreplaceable wealth of our city – its proximity to the magnificence that is undeveloped Alaska.
Alaskans are especially and legitimately wary of density. We love our blue skies, open spaces, clean water and air. That’s why we live here. We don’t want to live in Detroit or Seattle or even Portland – too much traffic and smog and too far away from wilderness. We have started to experience the awful impacts of poorly, or unplanned, density – site condos and the traffic at Lake Otis and Tudor. We don’t want to turn Cook Inlet into the Potomac River and so we must stop pouring sewage into Cook Inlet. We must get beyond onsite septic systems before the hillside slides down on a layer of . . . . . . . .
Nonetheless, density is essential for successful conservatism in Anchorage.
Imagine Government Hill with the charm of San Francisco’s North Beach, Bootlegger Cove with the excitement of Miami’s South Beach. Think of the Hillside as a future Berkeley, California, and Spenard as Pioneer Square. Density can create great neighborhoods. Density makes possible a first class east-west rapid transit line with stops at the Airport, Historic Spenard, the Midtown Shopping District, the University District, the Medical District, and the MountainSide Residential District. It connects Kincaid Park and the Coastal Trail with Hillside Ski Areas and Chugach State Park. It fosters a similar line from Government Hill to Girdwood with stops at Ship Creek Center, Downtown, the Midtown Shopping District and park and ride facilities at Dimond and Huffman. How great would it be if you could jump on something like BART to get to Kincaid or Girdwood, no matter what the weather?
Rapid transit saves tax dollars, especially in a place the where the cost of building, maintaining and plowing roads is so great. Rapid transit makes possible affordable housing – housing with economical access to all of the amenities of Anchorage.
Density means we don’t have to sprawl. Encouraging our community to sprawl, whether it’s up the Parks Highway, or across the Knik Arm, moves Alaska farther away from those of us who live in Anchorage. When we keep our community compact, we keep Alaska close.
We live in an extreme environment. Everything costs more as a result. Utilities have to be buried twice as deeply as in communities with more temperate climates. Decisions that reduce the compactness of our community will inevitably raise somebody’s taxes. It costs more to live farther away in a northern city. The bridge will not make more affordable housing available. How can families with limited incomes afford to build (and maintain) their own roads, schools and fire stations? How can people with limited incomes afford to be the only tollpaying commuters in Anchorage?
Manhattan is 23 square miles. The City of San Francisco is 47 square miles. The non-military, non-airport, non-Chugach State Park portion of the Anchorage Bowl is 84 square miles. We have not run out of land!
During discussions this spring, members of the Anchorage Assembly expressed serious doubts about the wisdom of the Knik Arm Crossing, but voted to keep it in the plan for the purpose of further study. Now KABATA has hired a public relations firm to convince us that building the bridge is the right thing to do. Advocacy is not study! Fiscal conservatives must stop this misappropriation of public funds now! Instead, let’s get on with building a sustainable Big Wild Life for Anchorage here in the Bowl.
11.25.2006
NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN
Michael Graves in Louisville (The Humana Building, 1982) on the left, Josip Plecnik (The Church of the Sacred Heart, 1932) in Prague above.
Photo on left courtesy Humana Inc.
Photo above courtesy John Morris Dixon FAIA.
11.14.2006
RULES FOR ENTRANCE
You can break the rules but you must know you are doing so and why.
Entries should present a memorable aspect of the house.
Guests are ready to learn something about the residence and its occupants when they enter. You must take advantage of this opportunity. Reward them with some exceptional architecture – a special space or detail or view.
Don’t make the guest look up at the owner. The exterior floor should be essentially at the same level as the interior floor. See also the Gerald Ford Rule – don’t make people climb a step and negotiate a door at the same time.
Don’t let the entry be dumb. Inflect towards the guest. For most houses, we know from what direction most guests arrive. The entry should bow towards those guests. Entries that face the street directly often appear dumb – in the technical sense of the word. They do not greet the guest. They do not wink about the knowledgeable architect who knew they were coming. If the house faces south and the guests arrive from the west, the entry needs to somehow acknowledge that fact. This is a way to humanize a home.
Entries should generally be smaller, lower-ceilinged, spaces. We come from the out of doors. The scale of the grandest living room pales before the ceiling height outside. It is good to squeeze people through a low ceilinged and or narrow space and then show them a grand space. The living room can feel grand in comparison to the entry. The entry can feel grand in comparison to the front porch. Squeeze people through a smaller space before presenting a large room.
Entry geometry should always inflect towards the likely path of the guest. The occupants know how to use the house because of repetition. Guests may not. The hall or opening to the living room should be wider than the path to the kitchen. The entry geometry should lean towards the public spaces and away from the private spaces. The front door should open in the way that presents something public and important. It should not open to present the coat closet door.
Front entries and rear entries may be different in that guests or delivery people may be waiting to be allowed in at the front entry. That means there is more need for weather protection at a front entry.
Front doors are often disastrous!
Some houses have a pair of doors. What is that about? Even in California or Florida, I can’t imagine the purpose of a pair of doors. No one ever opens both doors. A front door is usually an important psychological boundary. I can imagine throwing open the pair of french doors between the house and the back yard. Often we want to connect those two spaces. They are both within the family or personal domicile. The front yard, on the other hand, is almost always a somewhat public space. We do not control who is in the front yard. We do control who is in the entry. Double doors at this boundary make no sense. Of course, they make even less sense in a northern climate. They make it relatively impossible to seal the front door even when it is closed (because the second door does not provide the rigid jamb that a wall can.
Because it is the front door, Owners often want to spend some extra money. The American market is overflowing with horrendously designed, very expensive, front doors. These doors almost never have anything to do with the rest of the house. Avoid! An overdesigned (whether well designed or not) front door obviously does not fit. The message is clear. The Owner spent a lot of money (or even worse, spent very little money on a bad fake) with no guidance from the architect. It’s not a good introduction.
This is also an example of the “We don’t hire the designer in Indianapolis” rule. We don’t like to use designed products. We like to use plain materials and arrange them in a unique way. We don’t like tiles and doors and sinks with applied designs. Details and finishes in our houses regularly remind occupants and visitors of the sentient creator in the background. I don’t think store bought design provides this humane wink.
We have collaborated with local craftsmen on many unique wood doors. A simple flush insulated metal door can be punctured and painted or otherwise decorated to make a door that is specific to the Owner at relatively small cost.
Glass in a door is less expensive than a relite. In the north, this glass must always be insulated.
In the north, we use something we call the igloo entry. One enters an igloo by climbing under the edge of the wall and back up into the space. This allows the warm air (the lighter air that tends to rise) to remain inside. We accomplish the same thing in our houses by lowering the entry and placing three risers between the entry and the main floor.
For a variety of reasons, the interior floor is almost always higher than the exterior grade. A “sunken” entry has the added advantage of moving this grade change indoors. One never has to shovel snow off the interior stairs.
In warmer climates a reverse strategy is appropriate. Keep the cool air in the space by raising the entry. This is the corollary to a “sunken living room”. It is also consistent with the strategy of using the entry as a constricting transition between the sky as ceiling and whatever ceiling one provides at the interior spaces.
In both directions a stair near the front door is a dud. In the north a stair to the basement allows the cold air to rush in and down. In the south, the “prom stair”, that grand stair coming from the bedrooms to the entry, empties the upper floor of cooled air whenever the front door is opened.
A stair opening into the entry is also generally the wrong answer in conventionally arranged two story homes. The entry is a transitional space. It is shared with guests and therefore feels partly out of the house. It often has harder floors. It does not make sense to walk through the entry on the way from your bedroom to your kitchen.
Arctic Entry
This is a greeting space with doors at both ends. The strategy is that the interior door is always closed when the exterior door is open, maintaining the thermal enclosure. I am not sure how often the Owners actually open and close all these doors, but we do it anyway. We do try to make sure that the interior door is a pocket door so that in warmer seasons, the door can disappear.
Entry Heating in the North
Entries are a great place for a radiant floor. (More on radiant floors some other day.) Snow and ice get melted and evaporated. It’s a win, win, because this is an excellent source of clean, unpolluted, humidification for the house, too.
Entries should present a memorable aspect of the house.
Guests are ready to learn something about the residence and its occupants when they enter. You must take advantage of this opportunity. Reward them with some exceptional architecture – a special space or detail or view.
Don’t make the guest look up at the owner. The exterior floor should be essentially at the same level as the interior floor. See also the Gerald Ford Rule – don’t make people climb a step and negotiate a door at the same time.
Don’t let the entry be dumb. Inflect towards the guest. For most houses, we know from what direction most guests arrive. The entry should bow towards those guests. Entries that face the street directly often appear dumb – in the technical sense of the word. They do not greet the guest. They do not wink about the knowledgeable architect who knew they were coming. If the house faces south and the guests arrive from the west, the entry needs to somehow acknowledge that fact. This is a way to humanize a home.
Entries should generally be smaller, lower-ceilinged, spaces. We come from the out of doors. The scale of the grandest living room pales before the ceiling height outside. It is good to squeeze people through a low ceilinged and or narrow space and then show them a grand space. The living room can feel grand in comparison to the entry. The entry can feel grand in comparison to the front porch. Squeeze people through a smaller space before presenting a large room.
Entry geometry should always inflect towards the likely path of the guest. The occupants know how to use the house because of repetition. Guests may not. The hall or opening to the living room should be wider than the path to the kitchen. The entry geometry should lean towards the public spaces and away from the private spaces. The front door should open in the way that presents something public and important. It should not open to present the coat closet door.
Front entries and rear entries may be different in that guests or delivery people may be waiting to be allowed in at the front entry. That means there is more need for weather protection at a front entry.
Front doors are often disastrous!
Some houses have a pair of doors. What is that about? Even in California or Florida, I can’t imagine the purpose of a pair of doors. No one ever opens both doors. A front door is usually an important psychological boundary. I can imagine throwing open the pair of french doors between the house and the back yard. Often we want to connect those two spaces. They are both within the family or personal domicile. The front yard, on the other hand, is almost always a somewhat public space. We do not control who is in the front yard. We do control who is in the entry. Double doors at this boundary make no sense. Of course, they make even less sense in a northern climate. They make it relatively impossible to seal the front door even when it is closed (because the second door does not provide the rigid jamb that a wall can.
Because it is the front door, Owners often want to spend some extra money. The American market is overflowing with horrendously designed, very expensive, front doors. These doors almost never have anything to do with the rest of the house. Avoid! An overdesigned (whether well designed or not) front door obviously does not fit. The message is clear. The Owner spent a lot of money (or even worse, spent very little money on a bad fake) with no guidance from the architect. It’s not a good introduction.
This is also an example of the “We don’t hire the designer in Indianapolis” rule. We don’t like to use designed products. We like to use plain materials and arrange them in a unique way. We don’t like tiles and doors and sinks with applied designs. Details and finishes in our houses regularly remind occupants and visitors of the sentient creator in the background. I don’t think store bought design provides this humane wink.
We have collaborated with local craftsmen on many unique wood doors. A simple flush insulated metal door can be punctured and painted or otherwise decorated to make a door that is specific to the Owner at relatively small cost.
Glass in a door is less expensive than a relite. In the north, this glass must always be insulated.
In the north, we use something we call the igloo entry. One enters an igloo by climbing under the edge of the wall and back up into the space. This allows the warm air (the lighter air that tends to rise) to remain inside. We accomplish the same thing in our houses by lowering the entry and placing three risers between the entry and the main floor.
For a variety of reasons, the interior floor is almost always higher than the exterior grade. A “sunken” entry has the added advantage of moving this grade change indoors. One never has to shovel snow off the interior stairs.
In warmer climates a reverse strategy is appropriate. Keep the cool air in the space by raising the entry. This is the corollary to a “sunken living room”. It is also consistent with the strategy of using the entry as a constricting transition between the sky as ceiling and whatever ceiling one provides at the interior spaces.
In both directions a stair near the front door is a dud. In the north a stair to the basement allows the cold air to rush in and down. In the south, the “prom stair”, that grand stair coming from the bedrooms to the entry, empties the upper floor of cooled air whenever the front door is opened.
A stair opening into the entry is also generally the wrong answer in conventionally arranged two story homes. The entry is a transitional space. It is shared with guests and therefore feels partly out of the house. It often has harder floors. It does not make sense to walk through the entry on the way from your bedroom to your kitchen.
Arctic Entry
This is a greeting space with doors at both ends. The strategy is that the interior door is always closed when the exterior door is open, maintaining the thermal enclosure. I am not sure how often the Owners actually open and close all these doors, but we do it anyway. We do try to make sure that the interior door is a pocket door so that in warmer seasons, the door can disappear.
Entry Heating in the North
Entries are a great place for a radiant floor. (More on radiant floors some other day.) Snow and ice get melted and evaporated. It’s a win, win, because this is an excellent source of clean, unpolluted, humidification for the house, too.
11.04.2006
WHY SCIENCE?
The case for a disprovable architecture.
There are many ways in which architecture can be important to a community. Public buildings and spaces not only fulfill their daily practical functions but also reflect who we are and who we wish to be. They remind us of the values of our forefathers and tell our great grandchildren something about us. From a functional point of view, city hall is often a very simple office building. But it is also the ongoing physical representation, the front door or the face, of its community. Architects with exceptional skills in the appearance of buildings should be hired for this type of project. This is a modern day version of monumental architecture and it still has its place in our world.
(All but the most adventurous of communities are going to hire a predictable architect, an architect with a recognizable style, so the community has a fairly clear idea in advance of what it will be getting. If there is a good place for the star architects of our media saturated world, this is it. Ironically, these are not the most exciting architects of our day. They offer us predictability, but it is precisely that predictability that limits their ability to give us the very best design for our specific needs.
It is a sadness of our time that local architects do not dominate this field. Local architects have the opportunity to be brilliant about their own locales, to know them the best. Local architects have a much better chance of creating a design that tells a richly true story about its community. This is only true if the local architects have prepared themselves. Not many have, but more have than get this opportunity. Instead of documenting and celebrating our specificity and diversity, we bring in the famous architect who makes our architecture just like someone else’s.)
Houses are at the other end of the architectural spectrum.
Houses must first of all be tools for living.
(There are, of course, those houses that are just for show, or primarily for show – by definition, they are not houses. Rather, they represent a private highjacking of architecture’s appropriate public representational role described in the first paragraph above. Depending on the astuteness of the observer, these houses tell much more than the owner ever intended.)
Individuation is the house architect’s most important task. A house must accomplish the very best fit between the needs of its occupants and the opportunities and requirements of its site. In the hands of a skilled architect, this fit will produce a design that also reflects the values of the site and the occupant. Skilled house architects must have an eye (and ear and nose and skin) for composition, for color, proportion and texture. But first they must know how to read sites and read clients. They must be students of how we live and how we interact with the physicality of construction. For the most part, this knowledge is not opinion based. It is scientific, objective, repeatable fact. House architects operating on opinion are charlatans. House architects who don’t have an exceptional understanding of all the humdrum details of daily life cannot possibly provide the value their clients deserve.
I start with a generic concept of house. I’ve done the “perfect house”. What do I do with the rest of my life? Happily, the perfect house is only perfect once, and in fact, probably not even once. So, I modify the generic concept in response to the forces presented by the site, the prospective occupants, and my own architectural education. House design is an exhaustive process of moving the specific design further and further away from the generic concept – but always with legitimate, genuine, reason.
Art? I think I must do everything for a reason (elegance is a measure of how many different reasons inspire one move), but I must do everything artfully.
What makes me think my reasons are legitimate and genuine? My own test is whether my client understands.
Architectural education? After thirty years, I do think I understand most of the forces. Many of the fits I have found are less than perfect and every project is an opportunity to improve the fit. These can be technical – avoiding the damaging effects of rain, and functional – how best to light a dining room.
(Clients who have their homes designed by architects with a recognizable style are subverting their own identity to that architect. Certainly, an individual has the right to do that. These architects have chosen a role similar to that of writer or painter. I can understand the desire to have your portrait painted by Picasso, but I would think you would want to have Wayne Thiebaud do a portrait, too. I can’t imagine that you would want Nabokov to write your biography. Picasso’s portrait and Nabokov’s biography are going to be more about them than you. These products will be judged on the artist’s execution of their personal goals. That’s not what a house should be about. A house is a tool for living, a specific tool for a specific environment. The owner and the architect should be clear that the fitness of that tool is the goal. All other things are secondary.)
The possibility of a scientific architecture has been a revelation to me. Conversations about architecture within the profession are generally of two types. Most are about business, about how to make money. The others are about design. What I have come to understand is that aesthetic ideologues dominate this conversation. They set the agenda. We talk about the relative merits of critical regionalism and classic modernism and so on. I am glad I live in a world where these kinds of things are discussed. I like to read the New Yorker and I like to debate the merits of this or that style. I do not believe that either is very important.
Improving the relationship between mankind and the built environment is, on the other hand, very important, as important as any task facing humanity. Aesthetes can have their esoteric world and I will enjoy it as a form of entertainment. When I am working, though, I want to do important architecture and I want my profession to get back to where it concerns itself primarily with important issues.
I do not believe that all buildings are equal. I do not believe that the only differences in architecture are a matter of aesthetic judgment. HOUSE SCIENCE can show you how a house can be truly, objectively, better. Architects who make houses that are truly, objectively, better will increase the stature of architecture and architects in our culture.
There are many ways in which architecture can be important to a community. Public buildings and spaces not only fulfill their daily practical functions but also reflect who we are and who we wish to be. They remind us of the values of our forefathers and tell our great grandchildren something about us. From a functional point of view, city hall is often a very simple office building. But it is also the ongoing physical representation, the front door or the face, of its community. Architects with exceptional skills in the appearance of buildings should be hired for this type of project. This is a modern day version of monumental architecture and it still has its place in our world.
(All but the most adventurous of communities are going to hire a predictable architect, an architect with a recognizable style, so the community has a fairly clear idea in advance of what it will be getting. If there is a good place for the star architects of our media saturated world, this is it. Ironically, these are not the most exciting architects of our day. They offer us predictability, but it is precisely that predictability that limits their ability to give us the very best design for our specific needs.
It is a sadness of our time that local architects do not dominate this field. Local architects have the opportunity to be brilliant about their own locales, to know them the best. Local architects have a much better chance of creating a design that tells a richly true story about its community. This is only true if the local architects have prepared themselves. Not many have, but more have than get this opportunity. Instead of documenting and celebrating our specificity and diversity, we bring in the famous architect who makes our architecture just like someone else’s.)
Houses are at the other end of the architectural spectrum.
Houses must first of all be tools for living.
(There are, of course, those houses that are just for show, or primarily for show – by definition, they are not houses. Rather, they represent a private highjacking of architecture’s appropriate public representational role described in the first paragraph above. Depending on the astuteness of the observer, these houses tell much more than the owner ever intended.)
Individuation is the house architect’s most important task. A house must accomplish the very best fit between the needs of its occupants and the opportunities and requirements of its site. In the hands of a skilled architect, this fit will produce a design that also reflects the values of the site and the occupant. Skilled house architects must have an eye (and ear and nose and skin) for composition, for color, proportion and texture. But first they must know how to read sites and read clients. They must be students of how we live and how we interact with the physicality of construction. For the most part, this knowledge is not opinion based. It is scientific, objective, repeatable fact. House architects operating on opinion are charlatans. House architects who don’t have an exceptional understanding of all the humdrum details of daily life cannot possibly provide the value their clients deserve.
I start with a generic concept of house. I’ve done the “perfect house”. What do I do with the rest of my life? Happily, the perfect house is only perfect once, and in fact, probably not even once. So, I modify the generic concept in response to the forces presented by the site, the prospective occupants, and my own architectural education. House design is an exhaustive process of moving the specific design further and further away from the generic concept – but always with legitimate, genuine, reason.
Art? I think I must do everything for a reason (elegance is a measure of how many different reasons inspire one move), but I must do everything artfully.
What makes me think my reasons are legitimate and genuine? My own test is whether my client understands.
Architectural education? After thirty years, I do think I understand most of the forces. Many of the fits I have found are less than perfect and every project is an opportunity to improve the fit. These can be technical – avoiding the damaging effects of rain, and functional – how best to light a dining room.
(Clients who have their homes designed by architects with a recognizable style are subverting their own identity to that architect. Certainly, an individual has the right to do that. These architects have chosen a role similar to that of writer or painter. I can understand the desire to have your portrait painted by Picasso, but I would think you would want to have Wayne Thiebaud do a portrait, too. I can’t imagine that you would want Nabokov to write your biography. Picasso’s portrait and Nabokov’s biography are going to be more about them than you. These products will be judged on the artist’s execution of their personal goals. That’s not what a house should be about. A house is a tool for living, a specific tool for a specific environment. The owner and the architect should be clear that the fitness of that tool is the goal. All other things are secondary.)
The possibility of a scientific architecture has been a revelation to me. Conversations about architecture within the profession are generally of two types. Most are about business, about how to make money. The others are about design. What I have come to understand is that aesthetic ideologues dominate this conversation. They set the agenda. We talk about the relative merits of critical regionalism and classic modernism and so on. I am glad I live in a world where these kinds of things are discussed. I like to read the New Yorker and I like to debate the merits of this or that style. I do not believe that either is very important.
Improving the relationship between mankind and the built environment is, on the other hand, very important, as important as any task facing humanity. Aesthetes can have their esoteric world and I will enjoy it as a form of entertainment. When I am working, though, I want to do important architecture and I want my profession to get back to where it concerns itself primarily with important issues.
I do not believe that all buildings are equal. I do not believe that the only differences in architecture are a matter of aesthetic judgment. HOUSE SCIENCE can show you how a house can be truly, objectively, better. Architects who make houses that are truly, objectively, better will increase the stature of architecture and architects in our culture.
11.01.2006
CURRENT MANIFESTO
This is a manifesto for radical functionalism. AIA COD is, arguably, after the schools, and possibly the press, the most important forum for the discussion of architecture in the United States. So, it seems appropriate, here a mile from one of Lou Kahn’s masterpieces, to open the fight for the heart of the profession. For too long we have sought our meaning from academic wordsmiths. Architecture is not about art or politics. Architecture is about buildings. Buildings are tools. Architecture, therefore, is about maximizing the fitness of buildings. I am not the only one who has been troubled by the intellectual shallowness of the theoretical discourse in the 20th century. Architecture or revolution, give me a break. It is time to take back and put back the majesty of architecture. If you listen carefully enough to the programmatic requirements, the building will tell you what it wants to be. You don’t need a style or an ideology based in art or literature. You just need to tailor the building exceptionally well to the program. All architecture must spring from radical functionalism. Great architecture happens when we achieve a sublime functionalism. Of course, form follows function. Form is not architecture. We need to close the gap. Architecture follows program. That is all we need to make a great architecture. Architects and the public will recognize it as such.
Originally presented to the American Institute of Architects Committee on Design in May of 2004 in La Jolla California.
Originally presented to the American Institute of Architects Committee on Design in May of 2004 in La Jolla California.
10.31.2006
RULES FOR HOUSES IN ANCHORAGE ALASKA
In design, all rules must be broken occasionally. The important part is to know when you are breaking a rule.
When you go to buy a house – see if these aspects are present.
TO MAKE EFFECTIVE USE OF THE SUN
Extend the house east to west instead of north to south so as to maximize south walls. When we need the sun the most, it is only in the south.
Create high space and high walls on the south – this allows low angle sun to penetrate deeply into the building.
Provide open spaces on the south, enclosed spaces on the north – this allows the sun to penetrate more thoroughly into the building.
Provide sit down spaces on the south, stand up spaces on the north – don’t want the standers to shade the sitters.
Provide decks with sun doubling – places where the sun hits you and also bounces off the wall behind you and hits you again.
Know when you want to be outside and where the sun is at that time and put the decks there.
Make sure breakfast spaces and bathrooms face east and have east facing windows – good morning sunshine.
Locate houses on the north side of the lot so you can be outside south of your building.
Make sure that the windows provided are not required to be covered because of privacy concerns. A curtained window is often worse than no window at all.
TO DEAL WITH THE SNOW
Know that gutters do not work. Gutters require serious maintenance and even then rarely work in winter. They fill with ice and then the glaciers and icicles flow right over the gutter.
Never slope the roof so that it drains above the front door (or the back door either)!
Never slope the roof so that it drains above the garage door!
Never use a hipped roof – hipped roofs drain to all four sides – that is never the right answer.
Never create a roof with a valley! Valleys are impossible to adequately ventilate and they concentrate drainage. That means they generate glaciers and icicles. Not good for the roof, not good for anything beneath the icicle.
Never use a skylight. Our sun angles are low so south windows are better than skylights. Skylights melt water on the roof that becomes an icicle below.
Given the difficulty of plowing and shoveling, make walkways and driveways as short as possible.
Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t have the energy for the debate about what is beautiful or ugly. I care about the appearance of my buildings. I must satisfy my clients that they will be pleased with the appearance of their building. After that, well, everybody else can have their opinion. Everybody involved with the design of our city, at every scale, has much more important tasks than appearances. If the building drips on you or is dark or puts you in the shade, my guess is, you will think it is ugly. There are many examples around town of prettification. These are attempts to directly beautify the city. They mostly fall on blind eyes. Think about the circles incised in concrete on Northern Lights or the Concrete Blobs on 15th or even the various pieces of sculpture along C Street. Some of these are nice and all, but I can’t imagine that anyone really believes they are going to turn the tide on our ugly city. The wide sidewalks on 4th Avenue downtown on the other hand have allowed the street vendors to flourish and its fun to be there. The speculative house builders are always struggling to make a more attractive house – they seem to add another roof to their compositions every year – do any of us think they are succeeding? But if we could buy a house that doesn’t have ice on the front walk and where the sun shines in the family room – now, that might be a beautiful house.
I think my first task is to convince people that things can be better. My impression is that most people think all houses, all buildings, all cities are more or less the same so don’t worry about it. Buy something stupid, like everybody else, and then make do as best you can. Its not true. Houses, buildings and cities can be better! If we think of them as tools to support our lives and demand that they be designed and judged as tools, instead of debating about their ugliness, well, I bet we will end up with a beautiful city.
When you go to buy a house – see if these aspects are present.
TO MAKE EFFECTIVE USE OF THE SUN
Extend the house east to west instead of north to south so as to maximize south walls. When we need the sun the most, it is only in the south.
Create high space and high walls on the south – this allows low angle sun to penetrate deeply into the building.
Provide open spaces on the south, enclosed spaces on the north – this allows the sun to penetrate more thoroughly into the building.
Provide sit down spaces on the south, stand up spaces on the north – don’t want the standers to shade the sitters.
Provide decks with sun doubling – places where the sun hits you and also bounces off the wall behind you and hits you again.
Know when you want to be outside and where the sun is at that time and put the decks there.
Make sure breakfast spaces and bathrooms face east and have east facing windows – good morning sunshine.
Locate houses on the north side of the lot so you can be outside south of your building.
Make sure that the windows provided are not required to be covered because of privacy concerns. A curtained window is often worse than no window at all.
TO DEAL WITH THE SNOW
Know that gutters do not work. Gutters require serious maintenance and even then rarely work in winter. They fill with ice and then the glaciers and icicles flow right over the gutter.
Never slope the roof so that it drains above the front door (or the back door either)!
Never slope the roof so that it drains above the garage door!
Never use a hipped roof – hipped roofs drain to all four sides – that is never the right answer.
Never create a roof with a valley! Valleys are impossible to adequately ventilate and they concentrate drainage. That means they generate glaciers and icicles. Not good for the roof, not good for anything beneath the icicle.
Never use a skylight. Our sun angles are low so south windows are better than skylights. Skylights melt water on the roof that becomes an icicle below.
Given the difficulty of plowing and shoveling, make walkways and driveways as short as possible.
Ugly is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t have the energy for the debate about what is beautiful or ugly. I care about the appearance of my buildings. I must satisfy my clients that they will be pleased with the appearance of their building. After that, well, everybody else can have their opinion. Everybody involved with the design of our city, at every scale, has much more important tasks than appearances. If the building drips on you or is dark or puts you in the shade, my guess is, you will think it is ugly. There are many examples around town of prettification. These are attempts to directly beautify the city. They mostly fall on blind eyes. Think about the circles incised in concrete on Northern Lights or the Concrete Blobs on 15th or even the various pieces of sculpture along C Street. Some of these are nice and all, but I can’t imagine that anyone really believes they are going to turn the tide on our ugly city. The wide sidewalks on 4th Avenue downtown on the other hand have allowed the street vendors to flourish and its fun to be there. The speculative house builders are always struggling to make a more attractive house – they seem to add another roof to their compositions every year – do any of us think they are succeeding? But if we could buy a house that doesn’t have ice on the front walk and where the sun shines in the family room – now, that might be a beautiful house.
I think my first task is to convince people that things can be better. My impression is that most people think all houses, all buildings, all cities are more or less the same so don’t worry about it. Buy something stupid, like everybody else, and then make do as best you can. Its not true. Houses, buildings and cities can be better! If we think of them as tools to support our lives and demand that they be designed and judged as tools, instead of debating about their ugliness, well, I bet we will end up with a beautiful city.
Seattle Public Library
It has always been Venturi’s role. He shows the way. He does it first, maybe not so well, but then others follow. In Seattle it has happened again. At the Seattle Art Museum, Venturi attempted to integrate the hillside topography into the form and function of the building. Bohlin Cywinski Jackson learned that lesson and improved upon it in the new Seattle City Hall. Now, Rem Koolhaas has brought this idea to its apex in the new Seattle Central Library. It is hard to imagine a building more thoroughly infused with its topography. One could start another way. The Seattle Central Library succeeds where Wright’s Guggenheim fails. The sloped and spiraling stacks are a master stroke. It is almost like being in a Jorge Louis Borge novel. How can one possibly be in the same room at the same time with so many books? Sometimes the views are disturbing – have we had an earthquake?, is the structure sagging under the weight of the books?, but mostly the spiral is just a joy.
Architectural moves, if they are to be valued, must have multiple reasons. The form of the Library qualifies. The spiral floor might have led to the exterior appearance of an overdressed parking garage. The form and the skin release the floors from the look of the place. In often dark and gloomy Seattle, the undulations of the skin serve to cut back the corners of the building. This increases the open space at the street intersections, opens up views of Elliot Bay below and allows much greater sun to the maturely tree canopied foreground of the Courthouse to the east. There is also the much deeper question about the walls of a street. This building would not work nearly so well if it did not cover an entire block. Gaudi’s row buildings in Barcelona often read as overbearing boors next to their buttoned-down neighbors. Because the library occupies an entire block, the unhappy, seemingly anti-urban, juxtapositions in Gaudi’s work do not occur. This building opens up a new way of doing the walls of the street. In the context of the otherwise unremitting verticality, Koolhaas’ walls are a breath of fresh air – at the same time, presumably, not nearly the wind generators of their neighbors either. In the early twentieth century, architects eroded the four walls and introduced interconnected, flowing interior space. With this building, Koolhaas suggests that we here in the twenty-first century have the opportunity to do something similar with our cities, with our outdoor urban spaces.
We don’t seem to be ready for a library as a tall building – think Phoenix or Chicago. This is a tall building but it does not give that impression – except at the back of the elevator tower in the central space. At first, the grid of the skin seems a waste. It seems the architect is wasting public resources in a self-indulgent extravaganza. But on further reflection, maybe this is not the case. Compared to a tall building with all of its columns and spandrels and mullions? The blurring of the differences between wall and roof, and the rigorous separation between skin and partition has profoundly simplified the skin and the labor necessary to complete it.
The entrances are curious, unmarked penetrations of the otherwise in many ways undifferentiated skin. The doors are unmarked. In some sense, there are no doors. What is this about? Once again, this opens up new possibilities for the character of the space we call the street. There is a strong technical boundary between the interior and exterior space. But the lack of a ceremonial entrance, the lack of arches or columns or even significant signage tends to soften the psychological boundary between the street and the library. The low psychological impact of the entrances avoids creating a strong boundary between the indoor and outdoor spaces. Combined with the relatively extravagant volume of the interior space and the tall, vertical building constrained outdoor street space, one feels very strongly that the library is as much a public space as the street itself.
One might make a few small complaints. The building is a bit of a secret. There is little indication on the outside of the richness of life inside. One might suggest that the stunning exterior demands a walk inside. No, I’ve been disappointed by that assumption too many times. The floor finishes are consistently demanding of ones attention in ways that are inappropriately distracting. Don’t miss the view of the carpet from above, though maybe it go a little out of hand where it attempts to mimic the real landscaping outside. The wood block floors are noisy and feel as if they are not quite securely fastened to the structure. The floors in the spiral ramps look like they will be the first thing in this building to be replaced. And the big steel stairs, in a library? Huh?
The city and the architects seem unquestionably to deserve high praise, but I must admit, it might be too early to tell. I haven’t seen it in the rain and in the dark. This is a building that will change under those conditions. That’s a good thing. Let’s hope it’s a good thing, inside and out, in this specific case.
While you are there, don’t miss the following items in the neighborhood. On a medium sunny day in the afternoon, have a seat facing south at the sidewalk tables at Tulio. Enjoy the reflections in the glazing on the black glass skyscraper two blocks south of the Library.
Then, walk south a block and look up and back at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. At this distance and in a certain light, this building is a gloriously soft pastel drawing. At the street and close up, the exposed aggregate and reflective glass panes are harsh and heavy, but from a distance they are a joy to behold. Finally, don’t miss the Plymouth Congregational Church – a Noah’s Ark of divinity fudge that suggests how far Edward Durrell Stone and others might have, but did not, go.
Originally written in September of 2004.
10.29.2006
COMPOSITIONAL RULES
As designers, we try to make something new and unique. Sometimes breaking a rule is the way to do that. It’s ok to break a rule, but you must know that you are doing so and you should know why.
REALITY IS DIFFICULT
Architects are profoundly different from all other artists and creators. We can’t pick what parts of the scene we want to detail. A novelist almost never mentions the bathroom and that’s ok. Painters can gloss over the window trim. Architects cannot leave anything out. If we leave anything out, the contractor and reality fill it in for us, often with disastrous results. And we can’t cheat reality. Creativity and persuasion don’t compel reality. Reality has its rules and those rules are inviolable. The successful practice of architecture involves respecting reality's rules.
THE GERALD FORD RULE
Never try to do two things at the same time.
This is actually two rules in one so maybe it’s a violation of itself.
First of all, this is an acknowledgment of one of reality’s fundamental rules. If you try to do certain things at the same time, lines converge and the dimension becomes zero. But architectural elements always have thickness. The solution is often to separate transitions. Make sure the roof valley does not happen at the same place that the eave becomes a gable end. At handrails and guardrails, separate the transition from diagonal to horizontal from the change in plan direction.
The second part of this rule has to do with architecture as tool. It is almost never a good idea to ask people to do two things at once. If there must be a step between the interior and the exterior, move it away from the door. Do not ask people to open a door and climb a step at the same time.
NEVER DO ANYTHING ONCE, NEVER DO ANYTHING TWICE.
Once I submitted one of my favorite projects for an AIA design award. We did not receive the award. I was told that the reason was that my project lacked a discernible theme. That has lead me to try to understand why a theme might matter. An important characteristic of architecture is that it is recognizably a product of human endeavor. Ruskin believed in the importance of the presence of handicraft in architecture. I believe that doing things more than once in a building is like winking at the occupants. Seeing repeated details tells you that the building was consciously designed.
On the other hand, we never want to do the same thing twice. Partly it's just boring to do so, partly it's because we believe that it's our responsibility to enrich the world with as much genuine diversity as possible, and partly it's that each condition is slightly different. If we listen carefully enough, we can discover the specifics of the condition and modify the design to suit those specifics. So, we never do the same building twice, and we never do the same detail again in quite the same way.
HIT OR MISS A MILE.
This too relates to the way in which a building betrays its human creators. Finishes must either match or clearly be different. Lines and shapes must clearly align or be positively misaligned. When things are almost, but not quite, the same, the condition reads in one of two ways. Either no consciousness was involved in the selection and the building or space, as a result, lacks that reflection of human creation that I think is essential to architecture, or; it is disappointing architecture. The person who made the selections tried to match or align and failed.
If one thing would do, use one thing. Fine architecture is always elegantly economic. I think this is because, deep in our genes, we know that waste damages our possibility of survival. If the situation requires more than one thing, make sure the sensual messages are clearly different. We seek clarity. We don't enjoy being confused, except maybe at an amusement park. If things are different, but don’t read (through whatever sense is operating) as different, the architecture is sending a mixed message. There are certainly times when you might want to send a mixed message, but you must positively decide to do so – for a reason. Otherwise, one of the sheltering aspects of architecture can and should be the clarity of its sensual messages.
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