Several have written about building a city around happiness, and how to measure the cumulative “urban smile”.
Does the spontaneous expression below—an artistic grin—tell the story?
Author: Chuck Wolfe
Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe, M.R.P., J.D. provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long time writer about urbanism worldwide and an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting. In particular, his work involves the use of sustainable development techniques and innovative land use regulatory tools on behalf of both the private and public sectors. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level. He contributes regularly to several publications including Planetizen, CityLab/The Atlantic Cities, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Grist, seattlepi.com, and Crosscut.com. He blogs at myurbanist.com.
“getting there, going there and almost there”: an audit for urbanists
Think about human journeys in the city. Every trip begins on foot, usually in a private place. In order to reach the next place, paths cross and the way we travel diversifies. The urban experience is the system of mutually crossed paths. Amid the paths is the public realm, the historic locus of regulation addressing appropriate conduct, health, safety and land use.
The urban experience is also the best spectator sport we have, free of charge.
The opportunity to draw back and observe the sport of “getting there, going there and almost there” yields memorable snapshots of daily life, some of which are displayed below from around the world.
Such snapshots of the interaction of people and places illustrate far more than our best spectator sport. They prescribe salient points of public-private interface and frame the quality of the urban experience—and most importantly—define questions of considerable value to today’s urban dialogue.
In particular, these observations frame an audit for us all about today’s urban quality of life and the success of our urban agenda.
- What is the role of signage in governing human conduct?
- Are public right-of-ways maintained to facilitate safe pedestrian passage and shopping carts?
- Are we facilitating storage of bicycles and other human-scale vehicles?
- Do land use regulations allow for sight-lines and storefront uses that can enhance small business?
- Is transit well-integrated with other vehicular and pedestrian infrastructure?
- Do public places and byways allow for safe seating and waiting?
- Are we continuing to explore the possibilities of reclaimed pedestrian environments?
- Are we enhancing or detracting relationships with surrounding natural resource amenities?
- Are we encouraging interesting and diverse treatments of private spaces?
- How best to cordon off public places in the interest of enhanced security and when are such measures appropriate?
- How are we addressing the increasing preoccupation with cell-phones and other electronic devices?
- Are we encouraging simultaneous recreation and transportation in urban environments?
- How do we protect against the human tendency to cross in front of vehicles without crosswalks?
- How can we supply the maintenance and upkeep to assure the success of public places?
- What “private” activities should be limited on public rights-of-way?
Let the urban audit begin. Ponder the questions above as you consider the imagery below, in light of your own perspective. You may emerge as an urban policy maker, or, at a minimum, a fellow observer of the pending moments of our urban experience.
Click on each image for more detail.
[showtime]
accepting the urban invitation
A gateway to the city emerges along a path of trees in twilight.
sustainability and authenticity, personified
Seattle entrepreneur, developer and philanthropist Mark Schuster’s Lofty Pursuits, published last September (Brown Books Publishing Group (2010)), is a must-read, for true believers and cynics alike, as a unique contribution to today’s dialogue about the sustainable city.
Schuster’s book focuses on family tradition and a related business ethic infused by his grandfather, George Mosler, and their embodiment not only in Schuster’s career, but in an award-winning downtown Seattle building, Mosler Lofts. In the spirit of Tracy Kidder’s 1999, House, the reader is left with a multi-disciplinary, emotional and technical experience of building creation, with multiple lessons learned.
Mosler Lofts was Seattle’s first LEED Silver-certified condominium, completed in 2008, and has won over 60 awards at the local, regional and national levels. The story of the building’s challenges—from concept stage through financing and construction— could have been the book’s sole story-line, complete with notable detours such as overcoming cracked foundations on adjacent property.
Yet the inspirational—and, more commendable—aspect of Schuster’s storytelling shows how the initiatives of his development team towards achieving green construction and LEED criteria merged with something far more universal: family values and giving back to the community with the future in mind. Given Schuster’s long resume of community service and social responsibility, his sustainable outlook evokes an authenticity which defies easy challenge.
Lessons learned? Countless family memories, reflections from self-education and business start-ups, on the job CEO and community service learning as well as the richness of a collaborative, team environment. Schuster is frank and self-critical throughout, particularly amid the hard knocks of project delay and complexity, which is particularly key to the book’s holistic success.
While Schuster’s narrative is sometimes truly “lofty”—by including a personal 2005 visit with Israeli and Palestinian leaders amid the story of Mosler Loft’s early marketing–he cannot be faulted for irrelevance. He does not miss a beat with such stories—admirably evoking the practical virtues of voluntarism and mission in building sustainable community.
Although the book’s subtitle, “Repairing the World One Building at a Time” might seem overly incremental and short of comprehensive, Lofty Pursuits is a must-read for its complete, implemented example.
In the process of telling one building’s story, Schuster evokes a much larger community, without getting lost in overused jargon, or impracticalities of the intangible.
the angular convergence of an urban night: a postcard
In the angular city, water and light converge with the sky.
