Category: sustainability

looking through windows of who and where in the city

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, postcards, sustainability, urban viewsLeave a comment

Nothing has become more symbolic of city resurgence than hybrid “third place” venues, where in neighborhood settings, social and work lives merge by both night and day.

For me, this assertion is most interesting with illustrated detail. Photographs, I learned, tend to emphasize not only social activity and technological tools, but also the relationships of each to the city– visible through windows nearby.

Consider the three Seattle portrayals below. All show the merger of a public/private venue, technology and neighborhood from vantage points located both without and within.

VeriteCoffee_ChuckWolfeVictrola_ChuckWolfeBauhaus_ChuckWolfe

Images of Seattle, Washington composed by the author. Click on each image for more detail. © 2009-2013 myurbanist. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy.

learning from “the crossing” and “the urban bench”

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, sustainability, urban views2 Comments

I’ve often written that there is no substitute for imagery that humanizes urban trends and brings to life popular city pastimes.

The two black and white photographs below are no exception, and, by design, need little interpretation. One is passive, the other active, but together they illustrate the increasingly shared nature of the American city street.

In “The Crossing”, a distant pedestrian shows the way to the protagonist, as she forcibly takes back the street with willful abandon.

In “The Urban Bench”, three women–one independent of the others–share a space carved out for sitting, observing and interacting with the urban fabric.

In the end, both “The Crossing” and “The Urban Bench” invite reflection, and infuse a European flair to otherwise traditional American asphalt settings.

All images composed by the author. ©2012 Charles R. Wolfe

perhaps all the world’s an urban driveway

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views2 Comments

In urban places, man-made features, such as buildings, pavement and vehicles can compromise the human connection to the surrounding natural environment.

In the image above, the prominence of the skyline, the parking lot, the car and its doors all deeenphasize the relationship between the two individuals and the adjacent lake.

To parody Shakespeare in As You Like It, perhaps all the world’s an urban driveway.

Image composed by the author.

displaying a survival kit of urbanism

On By Chuck WolfeIn compact development, everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability2 Comments

In one way or another, as city-dwellers, we all have our urbanist survival kits—our daily tools of transport and leisure. They are often clustered in a front hall or front porch, usually in a private space.

Yet. increasingly, I’ve seen them shown for public display, or even stored in the public realm, perhaps evidence of a humanizing urban trend.

Here, on the street side of a fence on a city sidewalk, someone shows us a survival kit for walking, riding, playing, and getting protection from the rain.

Image composed by the author.

towards a more visual measure of people and place

On By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views7 Comments

In cities, people and place mix seamlessly, as inhabitants interact both with each other and the locations where they live, work or play. These “people and place transactions” are relationships worthy of further study as visual manifestations of organic urban life.

In this context, “employment” in the modern sense gives way to a range of underlying roles, such as observer, thinker, vendor or helper. Sometimes alone and forlorn, sometimes passive, inquisitive and in motion, such roles define the day-to-day urban landscape.

The images below present selected examples compiled over a recent three-hour period. No matter what the currency and measure of profit, each has worth in depicting the vernacular. Surely in our own contexts, most of us have played these illustrated roles of contemplation, education, shopkeeping—even feeding pigeons—at the intersection of the public and private domains.

Accordingly, in the changing city, shouldn’t we better design for who we really are?

All images composed by the author. Click on each image for more detail.