Artist/environmental sculptor Ran Morin’s “Floating Orange Tree” in Jaffa, Israel: the dawn of “urban forestry” in the ancient port’s historic center.
Category: urban views
Making wok-able urbanism more walkable
Discussions by Christopher Leinberger and others frequently reference “walkable urbanism,” premised upon increasingly compact, dense neighborhoods.
Ironically, on Seattle’s Capitol Hill, one of the city’s best examples of such neighborhood form, the evening depictions below show the historic, auto-based Dick’s Drive-In as a pedestrian center. Nearby, a classic parking area stands in front of a wok venue.
As the everyday urbanism of neighborhoods such as Capitol Hill evolve, chances are that “wok-able” and “walkable” will more completely align.
This article appeared in slightly different form in Crosscut, here.
two new postcards of “urban renewal”: cottage style and green
The Thoreau-like cottage first identified here presents imagery of renewal in the urban woods. Collectively, these vignettes present a city cabin on the way to rebirth in an era of green, retaining existing walls as an element of land use permitting, in order to facilitate such rebuilding in a constrained, hillside setting. Small-scale projects like this one may be the true harbingers of the changing American metropolis.
two postcards: posing in the city
A woman and girl, of diverse age, show respective urban gestures: one of universal cellphone pragmatism, and the other of wistful play on a screened balcony.
ode to the street: grate and cover edition
Click below for a multimedia tribute to “little places”: the industrial grates and covers which have graced urban rights-of-way since Roman times. These street-level barriers provide public safety and maintenance gateways to the inner workings of infrastructure. Like coins, they carry symbols and patterns from industrial process, often symbolizing local heritage or factory name.