timeless or time-bound in the city?

On August 18, 2014February 25, 2024 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views, vignettes2 Comments

Take away context clues, and cities become more interesting matrices—with blank cells to complete—where each of us personalizes how space meets time.

A uniform filter applied to multiple urban scenes can easily warp time and location, and obscure—yet somehow enhance—the reality of place.

This simple premise informs our point of view about city life. For every image, topic or discipline, our values and belief systems inform what we see, especially when familiar guideposts get filtered away.

Remove color, crop, leave only hint and nuance, and the city can become an off-trail place where inquiry is a form of intellectual rescue and rediscovery.

In the ten examples below, five questions set the tone for this rediscovery process:

Is it apparent when the photo occured?
Is the location clear? If so, is such clarity based on personal familiarity with the location?
Is the context of the scene readily understandable? What more would be needed to offer a more complete answer to questions of when and where?
Which element of urban life seems the most important to the composition (e.g. safety, environment, mode of transportation, role of public space, public/private interface)?
What questions remain?

The answers are for each of us to develop and consider, but one message stands out. Take apart the most fundamental things we see everyday. Inquire, and on the rebound, literally and figuratively, each of us will see things in a whole new light.

An interesting footnote: I captured all photos above between 2010 and 2014, on four different continents. During test runs on Facebook, several people commented that most of the photos looked dated, and many did not believe that I was the photographer, nor Lightroom the robber of color.

Perhaps ironically, the city featured the most (Seattle), is barely 160 years old. The second-to-last photo (Jerusalem) belies simultaneous claims of place dating back thousands of years. Yet the antique filter creates equal partners in the rediscovery process.

The other photos show, inter alia, how a shopping gallery floor (Sydney) still projects a historic building’s nineteenth century pattern, how London streets and former Lisbon fairgrounds are both fair game for blended bicycle traffic, and how a classic older car (Minneapolis) can cast a retro-era feel on an entire intersection.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

activating common sense in the city

On August 6, 2014August 6, 2014 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infill development, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views, vignettesLeave a comment

An entry in the new series, depicting the common sense dimensions of urban places

Around the world, the sit-able city (a new term that I termed here last October for an age-old concept) increasingly surrounds us, whether installed to honor ongoing, traditional cultural norms, or interposed more aggressively on an experimental basis to encourage safe participation in downtown life.

The above two images show, sequentially, each installation alternative, first, in Porto, Portugal, and, second, in Seattle, Washington.

Do the relative purposes of the benches, tables and chairs shown here really matter, as much as the results themselves? After all, the scenes seem to show use-as-intended, whatever the purpose.

I suggest that there is a distinction, with lessons learned.

While the first, Portuguese image shows a modern moment in a long-term way of life, the second, Seattle example reflects a more portable undertaking; part of a recent, purposeful activation of downtown space, a joint effort of the City and the Downtown Seattle Association.

Some would champion this Seattle example as another instance of a tactical urbanism intervention, and call it a day. But I think a more fundamental point merits an ironic mention.

There is often nothing new in common sense human endeavors, planned or otherwise. What will work going forward is, very simply, often what has worked before.

Images composed by the author in Porto, Portugal, in May 2012, and, in Seattle, Washington, in July, 2014. Click on the image for more detail. © 2009-2014 myurbanist. All Rights Reserved. Do not copy.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

cities: where children learn to fly

On August 3, 2014 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, pedestrianism, placemaking, sustainability, urban views, urbanism without effort, vignettesLeave a comment

An entry in the new series, depicting the common sense dimensions of urban places

In Seattle’s Volunteer Park one recent evening, the landscape yielded expression befitting an urban open space—a reflection of childhood speculation that maybe, with adult guidance, we really can learn to fly.

As with the earlier two examples in this series, I was lucky to find a vantage point for another stage-set story, and captured this image with a small Panasonic LF-1, with telephoto extended.

Both home and abroad, this has been a meaningful summer for observation, full of images like these, showing cities as theater for display of simple, yet universal, human hopes and dreams.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

framing common sense moments in urban places

On July 4, 2014July 5, 2014 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, placemaking, sustainability, urbanism without effort3 Comments

An introduction to the new series, depicting the common sense dimensions of urban places

A few days ago, in Moustiers Sainte Marie, France, I watched several shopkeepers return a lost young bird to a part of town closer to its natural habitat.

This small drama was a play of few acts, but reflected a pattern of human conduct embedded in urban life. I was well-positioned to capture the moment with a Fuji XT camera, and was immediately reminded that the complex issues of wildlife in the city are often first framed by common sense, ingrained patterns—a “let the bird go moment”—readily captured by watchful eyes.

I’ve made little secret in past writing of my strong belief that these simple, underlying patterns merit repeated attention and illustration as we attempt to set up best practices in the urban environment. Best practices often begin as first principles worth capturing, but the question remains how to recognize such “teaching moments” for use going forward.

I suggest that in many instances, these moments are obvious to the beholder, and essential to record and later evoke for illustration and discussion.

How we should capture such first principle, “teaching moments”? What tools should we use? What are the secrets of documenting compelling examples for posterity’s sake?

This series will answer these questions, and explain how to capture common sense portraits of the urban environments for later use, and why.

Stay tuned.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

why do we write about cities?

On March 30, 2014March 30, 2014 By Chuck WolfeIn everyday urbanism, infrastructure, placemaking, politics, sustainability, urbanism without effort1 Comment

When we write about cities, sometimes we do best when we take the metrics away.

In 2011, amid a visit to San Francisco and just back from Africa, I offered some thoughts about why we write about cities. Three years later, I’m not sure much has changed.

I continue to believe that visiting and photographing cities worldwide can take the metrics away, often amid economic boom, or bust, next to revolution or facing or remembering the challenge of reconstruction. In such settings, qualitative and interactive experiences and comparison seem more important than documenting carbon emissions, census data, rankings or ratings.

While data and catch-phrases have merit to enhance background principles and to support goals, so does the sense of wonder with which people explain where they live, and ask about how other places are different, day-to-day, at the human scale.

Witness the frustrated commuter, who will authentically share perceptions, no matter the transportation mode. People will earnestly talk about neighborhood safety, a sense of economic well-being or challenge and satisfaction or concerns about a child’s education. With sincerity, others will refer to the weather, green or water surroundings or the music of place and time.

And transfixed, the world listens to and watches revolutions and disaster, where the urban setting is entirely disoriented and must rebuild again.

The fundamental reason that successful cities resonate is because they satisfy and/or complement some very basic human needs, often related to mental and physical health: congregation, safety, and the three “e’s” of education, environment and economy. In our policy and regulatory discussion of such urban settings, I continue to think we might perform at a higher level by starting with reminders of the core: the basic human needs which cities can give, or frustrate.

Only after acknowledging the fundamentals—and pausing to watch and listen— should we debate the circular arguments of ends versus means.

For more information on the role of personal experience in understanding the changing city, see Urbanism Without Effort, an e-book from Island Press.

myurbanist

Category: sustainability

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