The last several posts have tracked the primacy of pedestrianism as a lead motivator in reshaping our cities.
We know that attempts at making American cities more walkable are not new.
In 1962, M.R. Wolfe. Professor of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, issued an early rallying call in the AIA Journal for the inevitable role of the pedestrian on the shopping street. He argued that increasingly autocentric mall development should not forget the commonality of street culture with forebears of the Western culture overseas, and plainly and with illustrative principles suggested that the pedestrian should not be forgotten.
We provided the backdrop last year in Crosscut and in seattlepi.com.
Now, here is the May 1962 AIA Journal article, seemingly forever timely in this year of sustainable communities:
urbanists at work
New post: shopping streets and the pedestrian rediscovered–so goes the nation? (part 1) (http://cli.gs/Jp9Hb) http://cli.gs/Jp9Hb
shopping streets & the pedestrian rediscovered–so goes the nation? (part 1) (myurbanist) http://cli.gs/Jp9Hb #urbanism #walkability #cities
shopping streets and the pedestrian rediscovered–so goes the … http://bit.ly/dhcfhC
I am a retired urban planner and a former student of Prof. Wolfe. I think we have made some progress for pedestrians in our cities in the 30 years since I was his student but not nearly enough. We all love places that are friendly to walking but don’t seem to choose to live there. How much healthier we would all be if we lived in those kind of places.
@bernarducho re your citation from Time Magazine–see http://www.myurbanist.com/?p=1487–credit my father
!!
Father and son, redux for Father's Day http://bit.ly/9LC3fc and http://bit.ly/9qSs5L. #walkability , #urbanism and #placemaking in genes!