David Adams - Steve's passion as a communicator

MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2012

Steve’s passion as a

communicator STEVE TIESDELL LEGACY SEMINAR

David Adams

Steve’s teaching style

• Steve taught both Urban Design and Public Policy

at Glasgow – a rare combination indeed!!

• With an unforgettable style of lecturing and using

illustrated powerpoints of up to 200 slides, Steve

was a legend of the lecture theatre

• Drawing on some of his own powerpoints, this

presentation seeks to demonstrate how much

thought and effort he put into communication

“To communicate effectively, you need to know precisely what it is that you are trying to say.”

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

I found this slide in a lecture Steve gave within

his Designing Places courses. It encapsulates

so much of Steve’s approach to teaching

Diagrams

Steve loved diagrams and loved constructing them

from scratch himself. Here are a few examples …

PLACE

PRODUCTION

PROCESS

This first series of five slides were produced as an

early prototype for the Delivering Better Places

research, but subsequently used in his lectures

POLITICAL

CHANGE

TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE

DEMOGRAPHIC

CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL

CHANGE

EXISTING

PLACE

Factors driving change

SOCIAL

CHANGE

ECONOMIC

CHANGE

Anticipation

STAGE 0

Conception

POLITICAL

CHANGE

TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE

DEMOGRAPHIC

CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL

CHANGE

EXISTING

PLACE


Strategic (place promoter)

SOCIAL

CHANGE

ECONOMIC

CHANGE

Anticipation

STAGE 1

Project

Promoter

FRIENDS-IN-HIGH-PLACES

THE SUPPORT COALITION

Conception

FUNDING

DESIGN

CONTROL

POLITICAL

CHANGE

TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE

DEMOGRAPHIC

CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL

CHANGE

EXISTING

PLACE


Strategic (place promoter) Executive (place delivery body)

Project

Promoter

SOCIAL

CHANGE

ECONOMIC

CHANGE

Anticipation

STAGE 2 THE SUPPORT COALITION


Conception

FUNDING

DESIGN

CONTROL

Implementation

POLITICAL

CHANGE

TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE

DEMOGRAPHIC

CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL

CHANGE

EXISTING

PLACE



SOCIAL

CHANGE

ECONOMIC

CHANGE

Anticipation

STAGE 3

Project

Promoter



Conception

FUNDING

DESIGN

CONTROL

Implementation

POLITICAL

CHANGE

TECHNOLOGICAL

CHANGE

DEMOGRAPHIC

CHANGE

ENVIRONMENTAL

CHANGE

EXISTING

PLACE



SOCIAL

CHANGE

ECONOMIC

CHANGE

Management

Anticipation

TRANSFORMED

PLACE

STAGE 4

Project

Promoter



The next two slides come from a lecture on multi-level

governance

They illustrate his design approach to getting students

to understand key policy concepts, in this case about

local government reorganisation

Glasgow

District

Council

Glasgow

City Council

Strathclyde Regional

Council (two-tier

arrangement)

Post-Strathclyde

Regional Council, with

network arrangements

Glasgow

District

Council

Glasgow

City Council

Strathclyde Regional

Council (two-tier

arrangement)

Post-Strathclyde

Regional Council, with

(multiple) network

arrangements

Timeline

1910

PUBLIC HEALTH

& AMENITY

1940s/1950s

STANDARDS

& UTOPIA

1950s/1960s

MODERNISM &

ARCHITECTURE

1970s

DESIGN OF

BUILDINGS

& SPACES

1980s

REACTION

AGAINST

DESIGN

CONTROL 1990s

RE-EMERGENT

URBAN DESIGN

Late 1990s

URBAN

RENAISSANCE 2000s

SUSTAINABLE

COMMUNITIES

1960s/1970s

CONSERVATION

& HERITAGE

And here’s how

Steve conveyed a

sense of time in the

evolution of urban

design through a

diagrammatic

chronology

The next set are what you might have expect from

Steve – the first slide has 13 separate animations!

Florence

Sequences

Steve liked to construct sequences of photographs to

make his point – here are two examples, one from his

design teaching and the other from his policy lectures.

Detail • Buildings seen in different ways – near & far, straight on or

obliquely

• Detail is required at varying scales on facades depending on its position in townscape

In power

• (New) Labour

Government elected in

1997

• Desire to put distance

between its approach &

that of both ‘New Right’

& ‘Old Left’

• Won subsequent

elections in 2001 & 2005

GORDON BROWN

from 2007

HURRAH!!!

GORDON BROWN

from 2007

OH DEAR!!!

Surprises

Steve would often surprise students with the unexpected -

just to make his point – here’s an example about context

ABERDEEN

History

Steve often used old photographs to put recent and

current development proposals in their historical context

Opposite what is now the Gallery of

Modern Art in Glasgow City Centre

Watch this space

Developer: Valad Property Group

Architect: Holmes Partnership

Floor space - 250,000sq/ft (13-floors)

Cost - £40 million

11

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

6

5

4

3

2

1

Current proposal

Romance

It could be said that Steve was married to his

work, or at least saw romance in urban design!

EDGE/BOUNDARY

CORE/HEART

exclusive

inclusive

“Her feet are too big. Her nose is too long. Her teeth are uneven. She has the neck, as one

of her rivals has put it, of a „Neapolitan giraffe.‟ Her waist seems to begin in the middle of her

thighs, and she has big, half-bushel hips. She runs like a fullback. Her hands are huge. Her

forehead is low. Her mouth is too large. And mamma mia, she is absolutely gorgeous.”

Time Magazine

6 April 1962

In-the-round

He was very keen this quote (and I suspect this picture

of Sophia Loren!) and insisted it should go in our book!

Celebrities

Steve often introduced celebrities into his lectures. The first

example highlights the attractions & dangers of directly

elected mayors

The second example makes an important point about the

transition from urban to rural areas by comparing it to the

transition in celebrity fashions (or not, as the case may be!)

Who should lead Manchester …?

Directly-elected city-region mayor … ?

The Transect

Rather than a one-size-fits-all code, the transect allows elements of the code to be

varied to suit a range of intended characters (multiple, related codes rather than a

single code)

The Tornagrain Transect

The David Beckham Transect

Andres Duany: Brad Pitt & Paris Hilton

Steve Tiesdell: David Beckman & Posh Spice

The Victoria Beckham Transect

People

Steve didn’t just mention notable people in passing – he

aimed to bring their personalities alive in the lecture theatre.

And sometime he showed himself in a self-deprecating way!

A monstrous

carbuncle on the

face of a much

loved older friend

Ugh!!

Design Champions can be instrumental in changing the mindsets

of key city actors about the value/importance of place-making –

especially the mindsets of politicians and other key decision-

makers …

Sir Terry Farrell – ex Edinburgh Design Champion

“… control & freedom can co-exist most

effectively when incorporated in

regulations that precede the act of

design, framing parameters of a given

programme, rather than conflicting in

judgement exerted on the completed

design. Review without regulations, or

some clearly articulated intention, is

nonsensical, painful at least, & often

resulting in banal compromise as holistic

conceptions submit to fragmented

adjustments.”

Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk

(in Case Sheer & Preiser 1994: vii)

“Some cities are emerging from a

prolonged crisis of confidence in

which they abdicated initiative to

market forces rather than providing a

predictable environment for the

market to thrive in.”

(Andres Duany et al, 2000)

“Places provide the ‘thick’ & fluid

labour markets that help match

people to jobs; jobs to people.

Places support the ‘mating market’

that enable people to find life partners.

Places provide the ecosystems that

harness human creativity & turn it

into economic value.”

Richard Florida (2005: xix)

Always see urban buildings as part of an ensemble - a collective

Relationship between “the part” (the individual building) & a greater

“whole” (the collective)

Politicians

Steve took a jaundiced view of most politicians, although

he certainly recognised the importance of political power

POWER IS THE

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

• Presidents: Concentration of power in a single

individual (albeit legitimised by being popularly

elected)

Nearly 60 million people

voted for the current US

President in 2004

How could they be so

DUMB?

Presidents & Prime Ministers • Very difficult to remove a sitting president

• Much easier to remove a PM

Compare the situation in the US … with that in the UK …

Compare the situation in the US … with that in the UK …

(i) Politicians

More venal or incompetent?

• Economic & managerial incompetence

• Truth, lies & spin

• Corruption & sleaze

Architects and

Developers

Steve didn’t care too much either for most

architects and developers, although there were

certain notable exceptions to this

Entrenched positions

Another arrogant self-

appointed architect

imposing his

monumental aesthetic

prejudices on us, to see

you Sir!

A reductionist view of developers Developers seek to:

• Buy development land as cheaply as possible

• Get the public sector to put in the infrastructure around the site

• Get the public sector to fund the on-site infrastructure &/or to subsidise development

• Get the highest value planning consent (& may sell on the land at this point)

• Build the development as cheaply as possible

• Sell the development for as much as possible

… & then LEG IT

How can we, as urban

design policy makers, get

inside property

developers’ heads … and

then press the right

buttons?

“You can get much farther

with a kind word and a gun

than you can with a kind

word alone.”

Al Capone

He thought he

had discovered

the secret from an

earlier age on

how best to deal

with troublesome

architects and

developers

• There now follows one of Steve’s most

elaborate powerpoint animations

• It concerns how developers can be

persuaded to follow good urban design

principles rather than just build suburban

sprawl

• The developer is depicted as particular type

of animal who responds differently to

regulation (sticks) and incentives (carrots)

“Want to”

“Have to”

“Worth it”

Achieving something better?

SOMETHING

BETTER

THE

DEFAULT

• Detailed historical research now reveals the

great care Steve took to recruit the right

participants for this cartoon. Here are some

of those who failed his auditions!

Steve was a keen sportsman and sports followed. Let’s

first see how he saw himself as described in an unfinished

academic paper on “Urban Design as Football” (to be

written jointly with Kevin Murray) and then look at how he

used sports illustrations in his lectures.

Sports “Steve is an avid fan of

West Ham United … a fleet-

footed striker, playing off

the shoulder of the last

defender – a combination of

the better qualities of

Michael Owen and Jermain

Defoe

Watch out for these co-

conspirators who are here

today, but they’re not as

young as they used to be!!

CASE ONE

CASE TWO

CASE THREE

Criteria A Criteria B Criteria C Criteria D

Credit for identifying

& justifying themes

& criteria in student

dissertation

weighting of criteria

CASE ONE

CASE TWO

CASE THREE

Elegance Poise Tackling Spirit

So you can use the same

approach evaluating

dissertation case studies

as you would comparing

the qualities of West

Ham greats!

Getting students

to read

Steve didn’t just hand out reading lists – he introduced

students personally to books & their authors

KEEP THE

ASSIGNMENT

IN MIND DURING

THE COURSE

Policy networks

• Rod Rhodes

Dramatic manifestation

of fragmentation,

polarisation & divisions

within society

Multiple public

realms?

Those living in ‘sealed

communities’ are ‘diminished in

their development’

“The wounds of past experience,

the stereotypes which have

become rooted in memory, are not

confronted. Recognition scenes

that might occur at borders are

the only chance people have to

confront fixed, sociological

pictures routinised in time.”

Richard Sennett (1990)

“… increasing diversity of

lifestyles & cultures is splintering

public space into a patchwork of

specialised monocultural

enclaves.”

(Mean & Times, 2005)

Q: But if there are multiple realms,

is there still a public realm?

On site

There are few photographs of Steve on field visits

(mainly because he was normally behind the camera)

but here’s one, followed by his instructions of where

the visit was to end

Why do they

need

umbrellas? It’s

only Glasgow!

Buchanan Street

subway

Queen Street

Station

BABBITY BOWSTER

Blackfriars Street

Ending the lecture

And here’s four classic ways in which Steve would

end his lectures

“The place matters most”

(Tibbalds, 1992)

LESS

• What a place looks like?

MORE

• How it works?

• What kind of place is it?

• How we can make ‘better’

(people) places?

WHAT KIND OF PLACE IS IT?

“Rules are for the

obedience of fools and the

guidance of wise men.”

DOUGLAS BADER

A caveat …

THE END!!! Enjoy your drinks and chat …

Original illustrations © Steve Tiesdell

produced between 2004 and 2010,

as adapted by David Adams

And now a short interview with Georgiana Varna:

Steve’s PhD student 2007-11

Documents

David Adams - Steve's passion as a communicator