OSPURIdeas + action for a better city Issue 518/November 2012

THE URBANIST

GRANDREDUCTIONS

10 DIAGRAMS THAT CHANGED PLANNING

NOVEMBER 2012

NewsatSPURFeds Give Go-Ahead forHigh-Speed Rail ConstructionIn September, the federal government approved con st ruction of thefirst part of Califo rnia's hig h-speed rail network, a 55 -mile str etch

bet w een Merced and Fresno, and t he Whi te House approvedexped ited pe rmit ti ng . As a result, const ruction in the Centra l

Valley cou ld begin early next year, barring lawsuits designed todelay the project. A lso in September, th e Californ ia Transportat ion

Commission voted to release $40 million for Caltrain to inve st ina new train control system. In addition to allowi ng trains to operate

close r together, and thus add serv ice to meet growing demand

(Caltrain already has more than 50,000 average riders daily andthis month added six new train s pe r day), th e train control system

is a necessary step toward swi tc hing Caltrain from d iesel to electricpower, wh ich wi ll allow it to share tracks with high-speed rail.

BRT Approved in theSouth BayIn Septemb er the Valley Transpor­

tation Auth or it y (VTA) board reaf­

firmed its support for a 17.3-mile

bus rapid transit (BRT) project

connecting San Jose, Santa Clara,

Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Los Al­

tos and Palo Alto along EI Camino

Real, the "Main Street" of Silicon

Valley. After the cit ies of Mountain

View and Sunnyvale both voted

against ded icated bus-onl y lanes

on EICamino Real, the VTA board

could have elected to slow downor abandon the proje ct altoge ther.

Instead, board members decided

to cont inue with a project that

includ es dedicated bus-only lanes

in Santa Clara and mixed-fl ow

travel (i.e., buses travel in lanes

wit h cars) in cities to the north.

VTA also agreed that the project's

environmental impact report

wou ld study an alternative plan for

ded icated lanes throughout the

corridor, in case other South Bay

cities do become support ive of

dedicated lanes. VTA will formal ­

ize these recommendations at its

November board meeting.

Central Subway ReceivesFederal FundsAt long last, the $1.6 billion Centra l

Subway projec t, a longtime

priori ty for SPUR, has been given

the stamp of approval from the

Federal Transit Adm inistr ation

(FTA). On October n,the San

Francisco Municipal Transit

Agency (SFMTA) of ficia lly received

the Full Funding Grant Agreement

for Phase II of the T-Third line.

This will provide the SFMTA wit h

$942 million under the FTA's

Capital Investment Program (also

known as "New Starts") and

allow full constr uctio n to begin on

the 1.7-mile line that will run from

the Calt rain stat ion at Fourthand King streets to Chinatown and

include four new stations.

Local Vehicle License FeeSigned by Governor BrownAfter an eight-year lapse, San

Francisco will again have the

abi lity to raise vehicle license feeson locally registered vehicles to

benefit local services. SB1492

enables the Board of Supervisors,by a two -thirds major ity vote,

to submit to voters a measure to

restore the local VLF to a maxi­

mum of 2 percent of a vehicle's

value - up from the current limit

of 0.65 percent enacted by former

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

in 2004. If San Francisco voters

restore the VLF to the maximumof 2 percent, the fee could

generate up to $75 million per

year for city services. -

SPUR BOARD OF DIRECTORS CHAIRS & COMMITTEES SAN JOSE

ADVISORYChair Advisory Council ChrisIglesias Chi-HsinShao Program Committees Regional Planning Finance

BOARDlindaJoFitz Co-Chairs LaurieJohnson OntarioSmith

BallotAnalysisLarryBurnell BobGamble

Michael Alexander KenKirkey Bill Stotler libby Seifel Teresa AlvaradoExecutive

PaulSedway DickLonergan Stuart SunshineBobGamble Human Resources AndyBarnes

Vice ChairEllen Lou MichaelTeitz Disaster Planning Operallng Committees

Mary McCue ChrisBlockAnneHalsted

Board Members JanisMacKenzie MikeTheriault LaurieJohnson Individual J.RichardBraugh

Vice Chairs Carl Anthony JohnMadden JamesTracy ChrisPolandAudit

Membership LarryBurnell

AlexaArena VeronicaBell JacintaMcCann Will TravisJohnMadden

Bill Stotler BrianDarrow

EmilioCruz ChrisBlock ChrisMeany Jeff TumlinHousing

Nomlnallng GordonFeller

David Friedman Larry Burnett EzraMersey SteveVettelEzraMersey

Stuart SunshineInvestment KarlaRodriguez

Bill Rosetti MichaelaCassidy Terry Micheau DebraWalkerLyd iaTan AnnLazarus Lomax

LydiaTan MadelineChun Mary Murphy CynthiaWiluszLovell Project ReviewBuilding

Major Donors JamesMacGregor

V. Fei Tsen Michael Cohen JeanneMyerson CindyWu CharmaineCurtisManagement

li ndaJoFitz ConnieMartinez

CharmaineCurtis Adhi Nagraj MaryBethSandersLarry Burnett

AnneHalsted AnuNatarajanSecretary

Gia Daniller-Katz Brad Paul ReubenSchwartz Business Dr.MohammadMary McCue

OzErickson ChrisPoland MembershipPlanned Giving Qayoumi

Treasurer Manny Flores TeresaReaTransportation

Tom HartMichaelaCassidy Robert Steinberg,

Bob Gamble GillianGil lett ByronRhettAnthony Bruzzone

TerryMicheau SilverSPUR FAIA

ChrisGruwell WadeRose Water Policy Board DaveHartley LydiaTanImmediatePast

Dave Hartley VictorSeeto BrySartreExecullve

TeresaRea KimWaleshCo-Chairs

AidanHughes ElizabethSeifelli ndaJoFitz JessicaZenk

AndyBarnesMary Huss Carl Shannon

GoodGovernment AnneHalstedLeeBlitch Bob Gamble

GRA ND REDUCTIONS

GrandReductions:10 DiagramsThat ChangedCity Planning

BAY or RIVER ?

C o urt••)" Oak land T ribu ne

FIGURE 1 The "Bayor River?" diagram helped galva­

nize supportfor Save theBay in thesixties.

Many ideas that have most influenced the shape of ourcities have been expressed through simple diagramsthat have become iconic distillations of values, policyagendas and ideologies

By Benjam in Grant

Benjamin Grant isSPUR'sPublic Realmand

Urban DesignProgram Manager

Special Thanks toPeter Bosselmann, Noah

Christman, John Ellis, AndyShanken,

Daniel Solomon, Joshua Switzky, Michael

Teitz, JeffreyTumlin andJennifer Warburg

THE URBANIST

The power of visual communicat ion lies in its abilit y

to convey urban ideas and the impact - for bett er or

worse - those ideas have had on urban communit ies

and discourses.

"Planning indulges in the same world of image making

that ar tists and adver tisers do. Some of these

images are at once analytical diagrams and ar t ful,

even mesmerizing, images. If p lanners have opted

most often for dry imagery, it is still imagery, with

all of the complicated and rich imp lications of that

term. Every plan is an act of persuasion, an argument

for an alternative way of life that attempts to posit or

convince an audience of that alternative."

- Andrew Shanken

Many of the ideas that have most influenced the

shape of cit ies have been expressed through

diagrams - simple visual statements that distill

part icular values, ideologies and policy agendas. A

few have become iconic images, inspiring imitation,

elaborat ion and crit ique. They are touchstones in thevisual lexicon of urban planning and design.

This issue of The Urbanist and the accompanying

exhibit ion at the SPUR Urban Center gallery

invest igate the iconography of city planning andthe impact - for bett er or worse - of these images

on the shape of urban communities in the United

States. As new technologies enable new kinds of

visualizatio n, we pause for a look back at the f ield 's

visual culture th roug h 10 of its most influentialdiagrams, asking not only what planners were

thin king about cities but also how they used the

power of imagery to persuade and to communicate.To planners, many of the images in this illustrated

tour are instantly recognizable. Others may find

them brand new or perhaps strangely familiar, eitherbecause they've been wide ly reproduced or because

of the familiar places they've shaped and inspired.

Consider New York City's 191 6 Zoning Resolution.Some planning geeks may know its original

illustrat ions. A few more will recognize Hugh Ferriss'

vivid renderings of its impact on a theoretical

site or Frit z Lang's imaginary city from the 1927

film Metropolis. But nearly everyone will recognizethe Chrysler and Empire State buildings and the

unmistakable form of midcentur y Gotham that the

policy generated.

Similarly, the township and sect ion grid created

by the 1785 Land Ordinance (see p. 9) may seem like

a bit of arcane Federal Land Off ice history - until

one connects it to the view of the Midwest from an

NOVEMBER 2012 3

GRAND REDUCTIONS

FIGURE 2

Renaissance idealcitiesinspired by

Vitruvius (15th-16th c.) 1.Filarete, 2.Fra Gio­

condo, 3. Girolamo Maggi, 4. Giorgio Vasari,

5.Antonio Lupicini , 6. Daniele Barbaro, 7.

Pietro Cattaneo, 8/9 di Giorgio Martini.

h ;;';l.'\

aI 1'0."

<'tl! 1'\ ~ ~")

• J: ::iI'I IIII Jl ~ •' .I

~ ~~-r-D~

... "-

Maps, Plans and Plan ViewEvery map is a diagram, in the sense that a map is an

abstracted representat ion of some but not all facets

of a place. This is essential: A road map that showed

the deta ils of the electrica l power grid and mineral

resources would be unnecessarily confusing .

Most maps compress bot h the curvat ure of the

earth and its topography onto a two-d imensionalplane with vary ing degrees of rigor, a leap of abstrac­

tion so commonplace that we scarcely not ice it.

Ar tists at least since Robert Rauschenberg have beenwork ing to confound that plane, and more recent ly,

new tools from computer-aided design (CAD) to

geographic information systems (GIS) have allowed

designers to approac h it ever more dynamically. It is

wort h remembering, however, that even the once­

unimaginable tri ck of casually flying through a thr ee­

dimensional landscape on one's desktop st ill happens

on a flat surface . Our newfound technical prowess

has only deepened our reliance on pictoria l space.

The word "p lan" implie s forethought and

aspirat ion, not simp ly a representation of what is. But

at tim es, maps and plans converge. The contextualist

What Isa Diagram?The word "diagram" (literally "marked out by lines" in

Greek) refers to any schematic visual explanation of

an idea. Diagrams take advantage of the differences

betwee n how our minds process language and

how they process images. They are ofte n set

alongside a writ ten or verbal argument to highli ght

a particu larly impo rta nt idea.

Charts, grap hs and maps are all diagrams,

and their particu lar syntax - of lines, arrows and

shapes, of ten mixed with language - di ffers

from the illustr at ive representat ion in drawings

and photographs.

Diagrams seem to have a special power when it

comes to the representati on of place since they

are able to comb ine spatial and nonspatia l ideas.

Pictures and data . Real and imagined worlds .

Abstract ideas and concrete proposals . In this way,

the diagram becomes a remarkably fertile space

in which to expl ore the shaping of cit ies.

airplane window, with its endless one-mi le-by-one­

mile gr id subdivided into square farm plots with

pivot-irrigat ion circles. Fly at night into Chicago, Las

Vegas or Phoenix, and the imp licat ions of this simple

diagram on urban form become vividly apparent.

What Doesa Diagram Do?The power of a diagram is reductive: It disti lls a

comple x idea into a simple and powerful visual

statement. Its clarity results from omission as much

as inclusion, so it is ofte n achieved at the expense of

nuance and specif icity. Unencumbered by pragmatic

concerns, diagrams allow for experimentat ion andimaginat ive leaps.

At their worst, diagrams can become bases for

exclusion or margi nalization . The clean, compelling

illustrations of the modernist city, with its abundant

green space and eff icient orga nizat ion, helped

cement the idea of "slum clearance" under the federal

urban renewal programs of the 1950 s and '60s, forexample.

But at their best, d iagrams crystallize emerging

points of view, framing challenges and choices in

a new light, as when the Oakland Tribun e's arresting1961 "Bay or River?" graphic helped to spur major

new protect ions for San Francisco Bay. Similarly, the

use of figure-ground maps by urban designers in

the 1970s (see p. 16) vividly expressed the nebulous

idea of urban pat tern, making the case for its value

in planning decisions . Once an insurgent view takes

hold, its imagery often comes to represent a new

orthodoxy, becoming the target of new critiques and

new assert ions.

4 NO VEMBER 2012 THE URBANIST

FIGURE 3

Acontemporary aerial viewof thecity

of Palmanova (1593), anItalianmilitary

settlement based onaVitruvianplan.

THE URBAN IST

revolt in city planning in the 1960 s and '70s insisted

that a major part of the disciplin e consists of

analytica l mapp ing of existing condit ions, in cont rast

with the grandiose erasures of modernist urbanism.The cognit ive mappin g of planners like Kevin Lynch

and Donald Appleya rd pref igured the explosion

of alternat ive cartog raphy and data visualizat ion

now made possible by dig ital media. The too ls of

cartog raphy - and its tacit filt ering of reality - have

been radically democratized, and map-making has

become a discourse in which art ists, act ivists,tech nerds and planners can assert the ir own visions

of what is and what ought to be.

Plans and maps share a visual system called

"ichnogra phy" or simply "p lan view:' a shorthand that

represents every point as if the viewer is di rect ly

above it. looking down. Of course, in any real aerialview, only one point is seen this way, with all others

seen at an oblique angle that increases with distance.

Plan view is all-seeing, god-like, but also decept ive

and illusory. Keeping the viewer at a comfortab le

distance, it hides not only the thi rd dimension but thedynamic, tempor al and sensual qualit ies of place.

Utopian TemplatesPeriods of great social and cultural upheaval haveoften prod uced upsurges of utopian thinking. To a

surprising degree, ideal societies come with a recipe

for good urb an form, embodying the values of

their proponents and colored by the anxiet ies of their

circumstance.

In Renaissance Italy, art ists and designers joined in

the broader humanist ic assert ion that society could

and should be shaped by human ideals. Hemmed in

by the tangled, narrow medieval streets around them,

they became fascinated with ideal cit ies, imagining

serene and unpop ulated spaces, out of time and

out of any real place. The too ls of perspecti ve and

the development of abstract rules of proportion and

symmetry made space itself an objec t of study.

Many seized on and repeatedly imi tated an ideal

city described (b ut never illustrated) by the ancient

Roman architect Vitruvius, rediscovered in the 15th

century. The radially symmetrical fo rm is beautiful in

plan view and lends itself to the kind of abstract.

crystalline order that popu lated Renaissance dreams.A few Vitr uvian cities were actually constructed,

largely for mil itary purposes, but, unable to evolve,

they could only be frozen curiosit ies. Renaissance

designers did find ways to graft moments of sereneorder into existing medieva l cities, showing that even

the most utopian of ideas can find some incremental

expression in the city.

Renaissance ideal cities reveal a few of the

fund amenta l powers - and also some of theshortcomings - of planning diagrams. First, they are

every place and no place, clearly representing

urban space in plan view but with no geog raphical

references, and therefore none of the contex t or

const raint that comes with building actual cit ies.

Second, they contr ibute to a broader discourse aboutsocietal ideals and how they might be manifested

in the good city . Finally, they provide a kind of forma l

DNA, a template repeatedly expressed, mod ified and

reproduced both on paper and on the ground .

Sometimes a diagram is meant to be taken quite

literally. Such is the case wit h the Radiant City (p . 8),

Le Corbusier's seminal 1935 statement of modernist,"towers in the park" urbanism. Like Ebenezer

Howard's Garden Cit ies three decades before it,

the Radiant City sought to address the congest ion,

pollut ion and disease of the 19th -century industr ialcity, " inspired by the prospect:' as planning historian

Robert Fishman put it. " that a radical reconstructio nof the cit ies would solve not only the urban crisis,

but the social crisis as well."For Le Corbusier, this meant eradicat ing the dark,

tub ercular alleys of the old city and replac ing

the m with wide ly spaced ranks of crucifo rm towers ,

ringed with expressways and sorted into separate

secto rs for commercial, industr ial and residentialuses. Although one can read the Radiant City as

a diagrammatic manifesto of planning princip les,

it was also a literal architectu ral proposa l, one that

was taken up and applied who lesale in a staggering

number of locations from the suburbs of Paris to

the center of Chicago. Built expressions of th is vision

are virtually indistinguishable from the utopian

scheme, except for the disastrous outco mes of

some. The simplicity of the design (t he basis of its

appea l and aesthetic elegance) is a lot like a diagram,

and quite unlike a city .

NOVEMBER 2012 5

GRAND RED UCT IONS

Other Ways of LookingSome types of graphics suggest part icular ways

of looking at a city, and thus lend themselves

to part icular sorts of insights. For example. in 1909

Patri ck Geddes used a "tra nsect," borrowi ng the

visual language of a cross sect ion from architecture

(an imaginary slice through space. viewed from

the side) and deploying it as an analyti cal tool at a

much larger scale borrowed from ecologica l science.

The diagram perfect ly suited Geddes's purpose,revealing the way condit ions and contexts change

across the landscape. Thus, as a way of representing

and looking at space, it makes the case for context

sensit ivity, for a broad considerat ion of a site 's urban,

regional and ecological situat ion.

Similarly, the figure-ground or Noili plan (p.16),

named for Giambattista Nol li's masterful 1748

map of Rome. excels at revealing the way in which

build ings define streets and ope n spaces,

creating a legible pattern . In the 1960s, crit ics

of the mod ernist app roach to city for m used the

graphical conventio ns of th e Nolli plan to

demonstr ate the value of spatial definit ion and

t raditi onal urb an patt erns.

Quantitative DiagramsAlthough city planners and urb an policy makers use

data and language to assert their arguments,

often it is a single image that st icks in the public

imaginati on. Diagrams can be encapsulat ions

of numerical data, like Michael Mann's "hockey stick

graph" of average temperatur es over t ime, whose

shocking crysta llization of the effects of global

climate change helped put climate impac ts at the

core of planning discourse.

Practical DiagramsSeveral of the diagrams presented here are simply

planning too ls, designed for clarity , not inspirat ion.

They nevertheless have a complex relat ionship toa specific set of values and assumpt ions. The urban

grid, in use since ancient Greece, has proved the

default geometr y wherever quick and efficient urban

developm ent has been needed. most famously in

notoriously imp atient Manhatt an.

The 1785 federal township and sect ion grid was

also basically mechanical but revealing of underlying

concerns. The rural grid served to normalize the

set tlement (or conquest) of the American West but

embodied Jeff ersonian ideals about small landowning

farmers as the backbone of the democrat ic ideal.

After the West had been parceled out , Frank Lloyd

Wright would take up the rural gr id as the basis

of his Broadacre City, a utopian ant i-metropo lis fir st

6 NOVEMB ER 2012

presented in 1932,which spread the popul ation

across the American interior on one-acre house lots.

In the case of the setback diagram of New York's

191 6 Zoning Resolut ion, the purpose was to illustratea new regulatory code. This diagram sketched an

ambit ious new governmental power - the regulation

of not only land use but buil t form as well. But itsmost profo und innovation was accidental: the deeply

evocat ive pro file of skyscraper New York at its

midcentury apex.

Anti-PlansSome diagrams are about resistance. In the early

1960 s, the Oakland Tribune published a diagram that

traced and great ly simplified an Army Corps

of Engineers map projecti ng the future extent of fil l in

San Francisco Bay if histor ic rates of infill cont inued.

The image (shown on page 3), which showed only a

piti ful channel remaining in the center of the bay,

was capt ioned "Bay or River?" A perfect expression

of the power of diagrams, it became the rallying

cry of a movement led by Save the Bay that ushered

in powerful new environmental pro tections.

In the 1950s, a group of radical scholars, art ists

and architec ts in Europe that called themselves

the Situatio nist International grew increasingly

alarmed at the rationalist urban renewal schemesof modernist architect s. The city, they argued,

was consti tuted from the bott om up by the

exper iences of indiv iduals. They cult ivated resistance

to the soullessness of the modern city throug h play,

serendipity and aimless but open wandering . They

coined the term "psychogeography" to describe

this personal encounter with urban space, illustrated

by evocat ive maps of the pro cess. This crit ique of

top-down planning would be taken up by resistance

movements around the wor ld - led by Jane Jacobs

and ot hers - who turned back freeways and

bulldozers and dared to question the authority ofthe experts. It would also lay the foundation

for a new culture, now in full flower, of omnivorousdelight at the experience of city life.

Planning AheadA crit ical examinatio n of the assumpt ions and

narratives of planning as a discipl ine is an essential

aspect of responsib le pract ice and informed

cit izenship. It reveals something of the fascinating

histo ric relat ionship betw een values, ideologies

and planning practi ce. mediated in this case

by visualizat ion. But , more important , it calls us to

examine our own assumpt ions and ideals about

cit ies and the ways in which we shape, imagine and

represent them.

THE URBANIST

OJ Garden CitiesIn 1902, Ebenezer Howard, an unassuming

stenographer and amateur inventor, published one

of the most influential visions in the history of

city planning, called Garden Cities of To-morrow.

In it, Howard created a series of diagrams that

helped to establish the orthodoxy of 20th-century

city planning. The crisis behind what Howard

called the "Garden City idea" - the pollu tion and

overcrowdin g of the industr ial city - is encapsulated

in one diagram's tit le: "A Group of Smokeless,

Siumiess Cities."

Howard proposed decentra lizing industr ial cities

by construct ing a regionally coordinated series

of smaller Garden Cit ies in the countryside. Linked

by railroads and canals and separated by a

permanent greenbelt. the Garden Cit ies would

offe r the best of both town and country life to their

32,000 residents, including emp loyme nt in factories

and work shops, affo rdab le rent s and abundant

open space. The Garden City was predic ated on a

quietly radical program of economic reform , in

which coopera tive associations would own the land

and lease it to tenants, reinvestin g the proceeds

in public impr ovements.

It is hard not to read Howard's compelli ng circu lar

diagrams as plans, tho ugh they pointedly claim

not to be. The Garden Cities seemed to emerge as

full y form ed (and quaintl y named) sate ll ites,

their utopian English landscape awash in prog ressive

social institu tions (like "homes for waifs") and

producti ve rural enterprises. Nearly a centur y later,

th e graph ic treatment of circular pearls on a string

of transit infrastruct ure would be picked up by

planners advocat ing tr ansit-oriented developm ent.

Alt hough Howard and his followers init iated two

Garden Cities, Letchworth and Wellwyn, the industrial

and collec t ivist aspects of the effo rt languished.

But the spat ial concept of comprehensively planned

decentralization through the establis hment of

new towns of a more humanizing scale and character

was profoundly influent ial, and Howard's diag rams

are widely admired to this day. In the 1920s, Howard's

idea found an enthusiastic reception in the Regional

Planning Association of America, which was looking

for ways to add ress congestio n in the New York

area. RPA leaders including Lewis Mumford, Clarence

Stein and Clarence Perry, adopted the idea of

decentralization through planned communit ies in

permanent greenbelts.

TH E URBANI ST

FIGURE 4

Above: One ofaseries of diagrams by

Ebenezer Howard, "AGroup ofSmokeless,

Slumless Cities" encapsulated thepollution

andovercrowding of theearly20thcentury

industrial city.

FIGURE 5

Right: The American Garden City:Clarence

Perry's "neighborhood unit" (1929) reshaped

Howard's vision for theprivatecar.

NOVEMBER 2012 7

8 NOVEMBER 20 12

Satellite cities. e.g.: govern­ment buildings or center forM)CiaJstudies, e tc.

The business center

Railroad station and airterminal

HotelsEmbassies

lIouo;ing

Factories

Warehouses

Heavy industry

GRAND REDUCT IONS

mThe Towers inthe ParkModernist architects, most famously in the person of

Charles- Edouard Jeanneret (known as Le Corbusier),

offered quite a different appr oach to the congest ion,

disease and pollutio n of the industr ial city . As revered

for his masterf ully poetic building s as he is reviled for

his grandiose urban planning schemes, Le Corbusier

remains a polarizing t itan of the 20 th century.

Beginning in the 1920s, Le Corbusier developed

a series of rationalist ideal cities, which he claimed

woul d solve urban probl ems through the applic atio n

of scientific method s by pow erful cadres of expert s.

Workin g with ClAM (In French, "International Congress

of Modern Architecture"), he created the At hens

Charter, a manifesto for the mod ern city.

Le Corbusier's vision of the "Radiant City" (also

referr ed to as "Towers in the Park") set large slab

towers far apart to prov ide resident s with equal

access to light, air and open space. The green space

in between would be available to all, even passing

below buildings that were raised on st ilt- like pi/otis.

Where the traditional cit y ran on messy mixture , the

Radiant City sought order thr ough separat ion. Large,

pedestrian-o nly superb locks would be surrounded

by expressways wi th interchanges that eliminated

crossings and intersect ions. Land uses would also be

radically compa rtmenta lized, with separate sectors

FIGURE 6

Top: le Corbusier's "Radiant Cities" (1935)

were built around largetowers setfarapart

to provide residents withequal access to

light, airandopen space.

FIGURE 7

left: In1947, theRadiant Citycomes to San

Francisco's Western Addition. Throughout

theU.S.,le Corbusier's ideas provided

thedesign template for "slumclearance,"

urban renewal andmuch of publichousing.

THE URBANI ST

THEORETICALT OWNSHIP DIAGRAM

SHOWING

METHOD OF NUMl3ERING SECTIONSWITH A D ,JOI N ING SEC T IONS

"townships"and"sections"onarepeating

grid, latershaping settlement patterns.

2

36 3 1 32 33 3'1 35 36 3 1 I~----- ------ 5 Mile.- 'f8fJCh",n -- - -- ---- ...... 800,.

;tJOCh. ,

( I Mil. (J()Ch.

I1I

6 5 4 " 2 1 6I

I

I ,I i

12 I 7 8 ~ 10 II 12 7 iI I., I

] I13 \J IS 17 16 15 14 13 18 I~

I I I.,24 ~ 19 20 2 1 22 23 24 19 I

~ II() I I

,II I

25 I .30 29 28 27 26 25 30 I, II II

36I

3 1 32 .33 34 35 36 3 1I

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I 6 5 4 . 3 2 I 6

1. I' . ,s .

FIGURE 8

The Public Land Survey System (1785)

dividedU.S. landwest of theOhio River into

mThe Rural Grid

devoted to housing, offices, industry and government.

The Radiant City and the modernist vision it

encapsulated had a powerfu l impac t on the planning

and building of citi es in the 20t h century. Its promise

of light, air and open space direct ly addressedthe prevailing concerns about crowded urban slums,

and its separatio n and rat ionalizat ion of both land

use and traffic promised to protect people from the

threats of pollution and automobiles.

It became the predominant template for pub lichousing and for urb-an reconstruction schemes in

general, includ ing American "slum clearance" effo rts

under federal urban renewal programs. Public

housing projects across the country opened with

great fanfare, only to succumb to a grim cockta il

of economic isolation, under investment and the

intrinsic shortcomings of their physical design. Parks

became parking lots or grim no-man's-lands. Basicserv ices were unavailable, and the st igma of being

isolated in a separate world compounded structural

shifts away from manufacturing that marooned

tho usands of working-class families in concentrated

enclaves. In 1972, just 18 years after their completion,

for example, the Pruit t- Igoe project s in St. Louis

were dynamited, becoming a symbol of the failures of

modernist urbanism.

FIGURE 9

Above. amodel section 01 Frank Lloyd

Wright's anti-urban utopia,Broadacre City

(1932-59).

With th e 1785 Land Ordinance, Congress created thePublic Land Survey System, in which three-qua rters

of U.S. land area would ultim ately be surveyed,

sold and sett led. Beginning west of the Ohio River,

the system laid a grid of 6-mile-square townships

across the count ry's midsect ion, ignor ing the natura lgeography. Each township was composed of 36

one-mile-square sections. It was one of the most

influent ial acts of spatia l planning in human history.

The Land Ordinance solved several pressing issues

for the young repub lic. First, it provi ded a fund raising

mechanism for the federal government, which had

limited powers of taxation and deep Revolut ionary

War debt. Second, its simplicity facilitated rapid

and orderly set t lement of newly conquered territory

minim izing conflict over land claims. And th ird, it

helped realize the aspiration of its sponsor, Thomas

Jefferso n, that the United States should be a nat ion of

small landow ning farmers.

The towns hip diagram, repeated tho usands of

times , estab lished a pattern (what geog raphers

call the "cadaster") that would shape every thing that

followed. Farmhouses stoo d in their square fields,

so villages rarely formed. State and county borderswere ruler-straight. Roads were placed along parcel

boundaries. and urban development occurredin sect ional increments. prod ucing the characte ristic

one-mile grid of arte rial st reets seen today in cit ies

like Phoenix, Chicago and Las Vegas.In the early 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright began

work on a utopian scheme called Broadacre City,

which was unique in that it was inspired by and built

on the dimensions of the township and sectio ngrid. By grant ing each family one-acre and dispersing

them across the American interior, the idea

was that cities would disappear, to be replaced

by a hybrid of Jeffersonian yeomanry and Corbusian

social engineering.

THE URBANIST NOVEMBER 2012 9

GRAND RED UCT IONS

~ The Street Grid"The heritage of the gridiron plans goes back at

least to the Roman camps. The basis for the grid as

an endur ing and appealing urban form rests on fi ve

main characteristics: order and regulatory, orientation

in space and to elements, simp licity and ease of

navigation, speed of layout, and adaptability tocircumstance. rr

-Patrick Geddes

The gridiron plan has been used to lay out cities

since architect, urban planner and mathematician

Hippodamus planned the Greek colony of Miletus

around 450 BC It would reappear throughout urban

history whenever cities needed to be built quickly

and could be planned in advance . It would recur

in China's ancient imperial capita ls, in the military

encamp ments of Roman legions and in the medieval

bastides from which Europeans launched their

crusades. But its heyday was the Age of Reason,

from the late 16th to the early 19t h centur ies, when

rational philosophy, imperial conquest and explosive

economic expansion made the grid the defau lt

urban pattern in many sett ings. The grid embo dies a

rati onal, Cartesian concept ion of space, but its chief

10 NOVEMBER 2012

virtues are its simp licity , scalabi lity and pragmatism.

It is easily surveyed and subdiv ided into regular

parcels that are easily built out. It is also modular, so

new distri ct s can be added incrementally as a city

grows.

The form reached its apotheos is in the 1811

Commissioner's Plan for New York City, which sought

to regu larize the development of Manhattan (and

its hodgepodge of colliding grids) north of Houston

Street. The relentl ess app licat ion of the grid is

especially notable for what is omitted: the diagonal

of Broadway, which predated the plan and would

resist its erasure; the island's natura l topography of

hills and rocky outcrops, which would be partially

blasted away but survive in places; and of course

Central Park, which would be created later, prov iding

a curvaceo us Romantic counterpo int to the grid and

a real estate bonanza for adjacent properti es.

But the grid had its drawb acks, and 19th -centur y

skeptics of its relent less rationality began idealizing

the winding streets of the past and injecting curves

wherever they could . By the 1950s, huge tracts of

suburban cui-de-sacs were being laid out, and the

vir tues of the grid were forgo tte n.

FIGURE 10

Above: The 1811 Commissioner's Plan lor

Manhattan sought to regulate whatsome

leltto bearelentless application 01 thegrid

in thecity.

A

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THE URBAN IST

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FIGURE 11

Right: San Francisco's streetgrids

ignored thecity'shills,wetlands, and

coastline, all of which areall visiblein this

1852 map.

FIGURES 12 AND 13

The anc ientRomancastrum, (at lefl) agrid­

dedmilitaryencampment, became thebasis

for theplans of latersettlements including

Florence, Italy(below).

THE URBANI ST

·"s. ...

~:::=::::.:=~:::.

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NOVEMBER 2012 11

GRAND REDUCTIONS

[[] The Megaregion

FIGURE 15

left: In2009,theRegional Plan Association

(RPA) mapped 10"megaregions" in the

United States, where mostof thegrowthin

thecoming decades isexpected to occur.

FIGURE 14

Top: Jean Gollman's seminal bookMega­

lopolis(1961) argued that thenortheastern

U.S. could bestbeunderstood asasingle,

complexly integrated urban megaregion.

Thin kin g abo ut urban regions has mostly focused

on the idea of a center city and its periphery, whether

an agr icultural hinterland or a ring of bedroom

communities . Indeed, the idea that important

challenges could - and should - be add ressed at

the regional scale (the nine-county Bay Area, for

example) had by the early 20th century become a

major st ream of planning thought.

In the 1960s, however, sociologist Jean Got tmann

describ ed "a new order in the organizat ion of

inhabited space," emerging at a scale well beyond

convent ional definit ions of the region. His 1961 book ,

Megalopolis, described an urban agglomerat ion

compr ising Boston, New York, Philadelph ia, Balt imore

and Washington, D.C. that exhibited considerable

economic, geographical and cultural inte gration.

The idea proved prescient, as the megalopol is (also

known as the "megaregion" or "megapolitan region")

has become an increasingly distinct and pervasive

phenomenon of the global age.

Megaregions are loosely integ rated urban clusters

of 10 milli on people or more, with an ind istinct

physical form, cont aining a wide range of land use

and demographic conditions and a comp lex set of

internal economic relationships. No single metri c

can defin e a megaregion, but its logic might be

revealed in a series of commonalit ies: overlappi ng

job and housing markets, key industr ies in common,

integrated transportat ion systems, ecological context

and cultural out look. This new unit brings with it a

new imp erative: institutional and policy frameworks

with a megaregional perspective .

SPUR's 2007 report, The Northern California

Megaregion, describes an area with a core extending

out f rom San Francisco, taking in Sacramento,

Modesto, Monterey and Lake Tahoe, and whose

sphere of inf luence includes both Fresno and

Reno. It uses a variety of metrics and pro poses

_______---=s:.:e~ve ra l pol icy init iat ives to tackle challeng es at a

megaregional scale.

Seal. in Milsso 25 50 7 5 100.............-g E"3 I

o

12 NOVEMBER 2012 THE URBANIST

MINER WOODMAN HUNTER SHEPHERD PEASANT GARDENER FISHER

[I] The TransectA transect diagram combines th e visual language

of the architectural cross sect ion with a scale

and analyt ical approac h borrowed from the science

of ecology. It reveals how cond itions change across

a landscape, suggest ing the importance of contex t

to both natu ral and built communities.

The technique was deployed more than 200 years

ago by Prussian geog rapher Alexander von Humboldt ,

who used a transect to diagram the biogeography

(the study of the distribution of species, organisms

and ecosystems in geog raphic space and through

geologic al t ime) of Patagonia from ocean to ocean.

In 1909, th e Scot t ish planner and sociologist

THE URBANIST

Patri ck Gedd es drew his influent ial "Valley Sect ion" ­

a t ransect that showed how ways of life, or "natural

occupat ions," emerged from th eir geographical

context. His emphasis on extract ive industr ies like

hunting and mining notw ithstanding, his way of

thin king had a profound influence on the regionalism

and environmental consciousness that became a

powerful force in 20 th-century planning. Landscape

architect Ian McHarg would also deploy the

transect as an analytica l tool in his influentia l 1969

book Design with Nature, which estab lished the

framework for today's ub iquitous use of geographical

information systems (GIS).

FIGURE 16

Top: Patrick Geddes'1909 Valley Section

demonstrated howways of life or

"natural occupations" such asmineror

hunter, emerged fromtheirgeographical

context.

FIGURE 17

In1999, Andres Duany created the"urban

to ruraltransect," which identifieda

series of conditions fromtheurban core

to wild nature, andproposed that planning

policies change asdensities varied.

NOVEMBER 2012 13

14 NOV EMBER 2012 THE URBANIST

I

'.1

II

II

I

GRAND REDUCTIONS

FIGURE 18

Left:Hugh Ferris's renderings fromThe

Metropolis of Tomorrow (1922) tested the

implications of the1916 zoning law,butalso

defined anew urban aesthetic.

FIGURE 19

Right: In thisaerial viewof New York City.

the impact of theresolution onbuilt formis

clearly visiblebythe1930s.

[l] Sculpting FormMany of the tools of city planning were created in

ord er to regulate the excesses of th e 19th -centu ry

industrial city, includ ing unregulated developm ent,

overcrowd ed tenements and noxious industrial

uses. Like many early planning codes, New York

City 's 1916 Zoning Resolution established Euclidean

zoning that regulated land use, defin ing residentia l.

comme rcial and industrial zones. But unlike

many such laws, it also regulated the "b uilding

envelope," or the allowa ble volume that a st ructure

could occupy. This was in response to previously

unregulated steel skyscrapers like the 1914 Equitab le

Building, which angered its neighbors by blocking

light, air and views. The zoning was part of a broade r

Progressive Era planning agenda that included

tenement reform and building fir e and safety codes.

The new law allowed a "st reet wall" propor tio nal

to the width of the adjoining street, above which

a building wou ld need to step back and fit within a

"sky exposure plane" that would allow at least some

light to reach street level. This subtract ive approach

to urban design was well suited to the intense growth

pressures of early-20th-century Manhat tan. In 1922.

an architec tural draft sman named Hugh Ferriss set

out to illustrate th e impli cations of th e new law.

His moody charcoal renderings were eerily predict ive

of the Manhattan that would emerge in the

subsequent decades, a machine-age metropolis that

would pop ulate count less comic books and films.

The approach to regulating built form would

become part of the toolkit of city planning. San

Francisco's 1985 Downtown Plan included both tower

setback and height limits ( later superseded by

Propo sit ion K shadow regulat ions) to ensure that

the sun reached open spaces.

TH E URBA N IST

SETBAC K P RINCIPLE

Typical example in a I U! tunes dIstrict, for streets50't()100'WIde

Th e set bacK Iine always hruns up from the ce n- Zter of the st reetthrough the limit­ing height at the

st reet line

FIGURE 20

Right: The 1916 Zoning Resolution setback

principle regulated landuse anddefined

commercial, residential andindustrial

zones with New York City.

NOVEMBER 2012 15

GRAND REDUCTIONS

~ The Nolli MapGiambattista Nolli 's 1748 map of Rome was a majormilestone in cartography. It presented the ent ire

city to scale in plan (or " ichnographic") view - with

every point seen as if from directly above. At the

tim e, most urban views were imagined bird's-eye

aerial perspect ives that were not technically rigo rous.

The Nolli map's impact on urban design and

planning stems from its graphical convent ion: In

f igure ground diagra ms, building s are shown as dark

masses, with streets and open space left white.

The effect - now a common analyt ical techniq ue ­

is to reveal the characteristic pat tern of streets and

build ings that underlies urban form.

16 NOVEMBER 2012

The figure-ground or form-void relation ships

that these diag rams illustrate proved to behotl y contested in the 20th century. In tr aditi onal

urban patterns like Nolli's Rome, streets and

open spaces generally read as the for eground,

defined and shaped like urban rooms by background

buildings. Modern architec ts inverted th is

relation ship, with buildings as foreground object s,

set in background space, which tended to be poorly

def ined. Beginning in the 1970s, urban designers

like Colin Rowe turned to fig ure-ground maps

to illustr ate the qualit ies that were being lost, and to

make the case for t raditiona l patte rns.

FIGURE 21

Giambatlisti Nolli's1748 mapof Rome

(Nuova Pianta DiRoma) presented

theentirecity to scale, with every point

seen asif fromdirectlyabove.

TH E URBA NIST

" l M ikI I° mo 2''' ' ,om 41)(0 5280Fett, , , , , ,j

I

" 50U !l l(l(l !MllJJ\kft n

FIGURES 22

Allan Jacobs' seminal treatise Great Streets(1993) takes figure-groundanalysis to

anewlevel, showing 50one-mile-square

maps of cities around theworld, all

drawn to thesame scale. Four examples are

seen at right.

THE URBANIST

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AM S T E H:O AM

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S AN F RANC ISCO(J" Il'rttOIH I)

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NOVEMBER 2012 17

GRAND REDUCTIONS

WThe Bottom-Up City

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In the 19505, t he Situat ionist Internationa l, a group ofradical scholars, art ists and architects in Europe,had grown increasingly alarmed at the rationalisturban renewal schemes of modernist architects.Ancient quartiers were being demol ished andreplaced with clean, ordered inst itut ional buildings.Though the Situationists sympathized with the radicalsocial agenda espoused by modernism, they feltthat the soulful part icularit ies of the cit ies theyloved and the bohemian demimondes they occupiedwere threatened by the cold absolut ism ofmodernism. They set out to confound and resistnot only the excessesof bourgeois capitalismbut also the tyranny of modernism's urban formagenda, however progressive its mot ives.

The Situat ionists urged a different sort of

resistance, one that happened through play,

18 NOVEMBER 2012

serendipity and of being deeply att uned to theexperient ial qualities of the city. They coined theterm "psychogeog raphy" to get at the way

in which the city was created not by architectsand planners but rather by the sum of indiv idualexper ience and meaning. For them, to encounterthe city was to create the city . Guy Debord's "Guidepsychoqeoqraphlque de Paris" diagrammed oneparticu lar set of wanderings through the city,its route snipped from a favori te illustrati ve map.

The idea that the city was constituted throughthe experiences of its residents also emerged

in planning pract ice as an analytica l strain of urbandesign, one that sought new ways to understandthe nuances of city life. Kevin Lynch from theMassachusett s Institu te of Technology developeda system of "cognitive mapping" in which subjects

FIGURE 23

Above: Theorist Guy Debord's 1957 Guide

Psycl1ogeographique deParis records one

observer's "drift" though theatmospheres

andemotions of Paris.

FIGURE 25

In"Infinite City: ASan Francisco Atlas,"

(2010) writer Rebecca Solnit created unique

portraitsof San Francisco fromscores of

thematic (and imaginary) maps likethisone,

"Monarchs andQueens."

THE URBAN IST

100 0 ...

/

I-­._---------,.......

-----­:-------! c;ty: ~ Hoepillli

i····..··..· FIG. 35. The Boston image as derived from verbal interviews

mapp ed the city from memory. The result s from a

sizable sample could be aggregated, revealing

a city's most memor able or "imageable" featur es.

This newfound emphasis on the experience and

memory of urban residents was part of a major

reorientation of city planning away from top-

down tra nsformat ion and toward a more contextual,

citizen-based appro ach.

The Situat ionist emphasis on experiment. play and

happenstance has found a new voice in the 21st­

century public realm. Often described as " tact ical

urbani sm," urban interventions like PARK(ing ) Day,

Crit ical Mass. Sunday Streets and Burning Man

have blurred the lines between art, play and act ivism,

each taking the city and its possibilit ies as it s

subject and each assert ing the value of the ephemeral

and the experime nta l in today's civic discourse.

FIGURE 24

Above right:The"city image"of Boston

was compiled andcreated byKevin Lynch

fromtheinputof many individuals in "The

Image of theCity" (1961).

THE URBANIST NOVEMBER 2012 19

GRAND RED UCTIO NS

FIGURE 26

Michael Mann's seminal (and controversia l)

"hockey stick" graph was oneof thefirst to

show howEarth's temperatures have been

increasing rapidlyin recent limes.

Whil e most of the diagrams featured here were

created by planners and architec ts, few have had

as much impact on the practice and rationale of

planning as Michael Mann's "hockey st ick," which

combines several sources of pro xy data ( like ice

cores and tree rings) with recent records to show a

dramatic spike in Northern Hemisphere temperatures

in the industrial era. Nicknamed for its shape,

thi s graph was famously featur ed in AI Gore's AnInconvenient.Truth, and altho ugh it has come under

scrut iny by climate skeptics, its scientific validity has

been repeatedly confi rmed .

The specter of global climate change and the role

human set t lements play in it has become a centra l

organizing idea in planning and architecture. Simply

put , peop le who live in cit ies consume less energy

and emit less carbon per capita than their suburba n

counterparts. The fundamental effi ciencies of .

cit ies - walkability, tran sit access, smaller homes,

fewe r cars and more eff icient infrastructur e - make

them a critica l tool fo r lessening our climate impact.

The shape and location of growth thus become

critica l factors in our climate future. Denser growth,

well integrated with transit and other amenities,

helps reduce our climate footprint, and dispersed,

uncoordinated growth worsens it. Many othe r

factors - like public health, civic life, open space

preserva tion and more equitab le access to basic

amenit ies ( like parks and transit) - also benefit from

thi s kind of "smart growth," and planners often link

the climate argume nt to other pr ioriti es.

This argume nt is reflected in po licies like

California's Senate Bill 375, passed in 2009, which

atte mpts to improve the integra t ion of transportation

and land use decisions by tying transportation doll ars

to more sustainable growth patterns. It is in the

process of being imp lemented and its impact remains

to be seen. -

FIGURE 27 The shape andlocation of

growtharecriticalfactors inourclimate

future. AsthisMetropolitan Transportation

Commission mapreveals, mostBay

Area growthisoccurring incar-dependent

suburban areas at theregion's edges.

[!Q] The Hockey Stick

200018001600Yea r

Data from thermometers (red) and from tree rings,corals, ice cores and historical records (blue)

14001200

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20 NOVEMBER 2012 TH E URBANIST

INTRODUCTI ONS

New Facesat SPUR

Shannon FialaShannon is t he assist ant project

manager for th e Ocean Beach Master

Plan. She has worked in environmenta l

p lanning in th e Bay Area for ov er

nine years for organ izations like the

Marin Munic ipa l Wat er Dist rict and th e

Napa County Resource Conservati onDistrict. Shannon rec eived ma ster's

degrees in ci t y p lanning and landscap e

architecture and env ironmenta lp lann ing from UC Berkeley and a

BS in ecology f rom the Univer sity of

Michigan .

THE URBAN IST

Pier DavisPier graduated from the Universit y of Vermont with

a degree in environmenta l studies and community

and internati onal development. One of SPUR's publ ic

programming interns, Pier is most excited about

streetscape tra nsforma tio n. bike/pedestrian planning

and food systems . She keeps busy outside of SPURby

applying to grad schoo l and rock climbing .

Sarah DominguezSarah is SPUR's food systems and urban agriculture

program intern. She is current ly study ing for a mas­

ter 's in urban planning at USC with a focus on susta in­

able land use but is in the Bay Area for her fe llowship

with the U.S. Environmental Protecti on Agency.

Atreyee GhoshA graduate of Columbia Universit y's Crit ical, Concep­

tual and Curato rial Practices in Architecture pro gram,

Atr eyee is SPUR's edito rial intern . Her prim ary inter­

est lies in architecture and design publ ications. When

she's not photograph ing her latest explorat ions in the

Bay Area, At reyee is an avid crafter and blogger.

Salma MousallemSalma is a recent grad uate of the Master of City

Planning program at the University of California,

Berkeley, where she focused on housing, community

and economic developm ent. She has been working

with SPUR on the Proposit ion C campaign and is

interested in learning as much as possible about

models of affo rdable housing in the Unit ed Sta tes.

Mary SekMary is SPUR'sGIS Intern and a fourth year architec­

tur e student at California College of the Arts. She is

an act ive member of NOMAS (Nat ional Organization

of Minorit ies in Architec ture) and the AlAS (A merican

Inst itute of Architectu re Students). Born and raised in

Sonoma, she has a love for the environment and being

in the outdoo rs.

GeneStromanFront desk ambassador Gene Stroman received his

bachelor's deg ree in urban and regiona l studies from

Virginia Commonwea lth University and is interested in

pursuing a career in urban planning. When not work­

ing at SPUR he's a bicyclist, musician and dedicated

coffee snob.

NOVE MBER 2 1

URBAN FIELD NOT ES

Case Study #53:

The Sidewalk EconomyRegu lated, info rmal, sometimes illicit,

sidewalk businesses and vendors

bring vitality and life to urban cities,

especia lly at the pedestrian scale.

Caseworker: Sergio Ruiz

Planners generally vi ew sidewalks as a way for

people, or pedest rians, to get around from one

place to anot her but sidewalks also provide a vita l

economic funct ion. Not only is there stro ng evidence

that walkable neighborhoods increase property

values and bring more customer traff ic to commerc ial

d istr icts , but in fact, much economy activi ty occurs

on public sidewa lks. Throughout the Bay Area,

it 's not hard to find examples of the sidewa lk

economy, especially with the recent surge of food

tru cks and pop-up businesses throughout the city.

22 NOVEMBER 2012

B Flower CartFlower vendors have been part

of San Francisco for generat ionsand are regulated by the city

to operate on publi c sidewalks.

Flower stands, like this onein the financial distr ict, are a feast

for the eyes--and the nose.

III Sidewalk Cafe

This cafe in dow ntow n Oakland

makes use of the sidewalk so

people can enjoy the weather and

watch passersby.

THE URBAN IST

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THE URBANIST

Ii MusiciansStreet musicians are all over San

Francisco, from subway stat ions

to commercial districts. They

come from a var iety of economic

backgrounds to share th eir sounds

with peop le walking by. This

st ring duo at Geary and Powell

had to compete with percussive

rhythms coming from th e opposite

corner.

mProduceMarketsStock to n Street in San Francisco's

Chinatown is lined with produ ce

markets spilling out from the

storefronts, serving the local

community . Stacks of cardboard

boxes help buffer th e shoppers

from vehicular traffic.

o Angry BeaniesTables like this one displaying

kit schy apparel and souvenirs are

common in touri st distri ct s like

Union Square or Market St reet.

This vendo r, selling beanies that

resemble Angry Birds, takes

advantage of the light foot traffic

to read his newspaper.

D ScarvesA vendor on Folsom and 24'h

Street in the Mission makes use

of st reet tr ees to d isplay color ful

scarves.

Sergio Ruiz isatransportation planner for

theCalifornia Department of Transportation

andisSPUR's photography intern.

NO VEMBER 2012 23

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KEYSTONE SPONSORS

A ECOM • ARC AD IS/Malcolm Pirn ie • Arup • California Paci fic Med ica l Center/Sutter West ·Degenko lb Eng ineers· Delo itte • Eastd il Secured· EHDD • Emerald Fund, Inc. • Gens ler·Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP • Go lden Gate University· Hathaway Dinwidd ie Construction Co. •The John Stewa rt Company • JPMorgan Chase· KMD A rchi tect s · Lennar Urban · McKesson ·Mi llennium Part ners · MJM Management Group · Park merced • Perkins + Wil l · Pill sbu ry W inthro pShaw Pittma n LLP • Reco logy • Bill & Dewey Rosetti· San Francisco Intern ati onal A irport •San Francisco Wat erfron t Partners, LLC • Ste inbe rg A rchitects · Rose lyne C. Sw ig · Tw itter · Uni on Bank ·Web cor Builders· West f ield San Francisco Centre· Wil son Meany

PILLAR SPONSORSAcademy of Art Un iversity· A llen Matkins· Anchor Brewers & Distil lers· Archstone • Atkins · A spiriant • AvalonBayCommunities, Inc . • BAR A rchitects· Andy & Sara Barnes· Bohlin Cywinski Jackson· BRE Properties· Bucha lter Nemer ·Cahill Contractors· California 'Acad em y of Sciences· Cannon Constructors North , Inc.• Ca rm el Partners · Charles Salter& Associates· Coblentz, Patch, Duffy & Bass, LLP • Comcast • Co m m une Hotels & Resorts · Cox Castle & Nicholson, LLP •

The Cou lt er/Weeks Charitable Foundation · David Baker + Partners, Architects · Equity Community Bui lders ·Rob Eva ns & Ter ry Mich eau, Ho rizons Foundation· Fare lla Braun + Martel LLP • Fine Arts Mu seums of San Fra ncisco·FME A rc hitect u re + Design · David Fr iedman & Paul ett e Meyer · Ge rson Baka r & Associates· John & Marci a Go ld man ·Go u ld Evans· A nne Halst ed & We lls Whitney · Hanson Brid gett LLP • Davi d & Jane Hartley · Vin ce & A manda Hoeni g man •Jackson Pacifi c Ve nt ures· Th e Koret Fo undation· Len d Lease · Ric ha rd Lonerg an · John Kr iken & Kathe ri neKo elsch Kriken • macys.com • MBH Architects· McKenna Lo ng & Aldridge, LLP • Mission Bay Development Group ·Moscone Emb lidge Sater & Otis· Larry Nibbi • Serg io Nibbi • Nibbi Brother s Genera l Contractors· Ni shkian Menn inger·Northern California Carpenters Regional Council · NRG Energy Center SF • Ogden Contract Interiors, Inc.• PB •PIER 39/Blue and Gold Fleet· Po laris Group· Port of San Francisco· Th e Prado Group > Pre sidio Trust ·Project Management Advisors, Inc. • Related California · Reuben & Jun ius , LLP • ROMA De sign Group · Sack Properties·Safeway • Saint Francis Memorial Hosp ital · San Fra ncisco Hea lt h Plan · San Fra ncisco Fo undation· San FranciscoState University · San Fra ncisco Trave l Association· Sedgwick, LLP • Lynn & Paul Sedway • Elizabeth Se ife l Fund/Seifel Consu lting Inc. • Sheppard, Mu lli n, Ric hter & Ham pt on LLP • Sk id more, Owings & Merrill , LLP • So lo mon CordwellBue nz • The Sw ig Co mpany· Swi ne rton Builders · Tishman Speyer · TM G Part ners/Avant Hou sin g · Tom Elio t Fisc h ·Trea d we ll & Ro llo, a Lan g an Co mpany· V. Fei Tsen & Chinatown CDC· Turnstone Co nsu lt ing · UCSF • Un ion Sq ua reBusiness Im p rovem en t Di st ri ct · Uni ver sal Paragon Corporation · Un iversity of San Franc isco · U.S. Bank No rthernCa liforn ia· Dede W ilsey· W SP Flack + Kurtz

CORNERSTONE SPONSORS

A. R. Sanchez-Corea & Associa tes · Backst rom McCarley Berry & Co., LLC • Barnes Mosher Whitehurst Lauter & Part ners· Bay WestShow place· Valli Benesch & Bob Tandler • BCV Architects· The Boldt Compa ny· BRIDGE Housing Corpo ration· Buro HappoldConsult ing Engineers, Inc. • Cassidy Turley BT Commercial · Cathedral Hill Plaza, an ADCO company · CH2MHILL • Jim Chappell •City CarShare • CMG Landscape Architecture· Daniel So lom on Design Part ners· Jean Fraser & Geof frey Gord on-Creed ·First Republ ic Bank · Golden Gate Warr iors · Goodyear Peterson, LLC • Goog le • Handel Architec ts, LLP • Ruth & Alfred Heller·Stanley Herzstein • HKS Architects, Inc. • Hunt Const ruction Group· Impark • Jones Hall · Bever ly Mills· MITHUN • Moss Adam s LLP •NicholsBooth Architects, Inc.• Novog radac & Company LLP • On Lok Lifeways • JaMel Perkins· Pfau Long Architec ture, Ltd .•Plant Constru ct ion Comp any· Presid io Bank· Public Financial Management, Inc. • N. Teresa Rea· Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai LLP •Simpson Gump ert z & Heger · SKS Investments, LLC • St rada Investment Group · Urban Pacif ic Group of Companies·Walker/ Warner Architect s · Wil bur-Ellis Comp any· Woods Bagot Architec ts · YMCA of San Francisco

CAPSTONE SPONSORSCaro l Benz · Claud ine Cheng· Paula R. Collins · John Conley · Emilio B. Cruz · Greg Dalton · Berna rd Deasy· Brendon Farrell· Andy Fry · John E. Hirten •Geo rge H. Hume • David Jo hnso n · Patricia Klitgaard • Tom Lockard· Marc Madden · Toby & Sally Rosenblatt· Mark Schlesinger· Janet & Michael Smith-Heimer ·Michael Teit z, Ph.D. • Chuck Turner

Sponsor list as of 70.24.72

CITY NEWS FROM AROUND TH E GLOBE

UrbanDrift

Informal Vertical Communities

There is in the middle of Caracas,

Venezuela, the Torre David, a45-story building that was aban­

doned before it was finished. In

an example of spontaneous urban

reuse, the structure has been in­

vaded and taken over by the more

than 3,00 0 people who now live

there - and who, some suggest,

display more invent iveness than

most architects. For their exhibitfor the Venice Archit ectur e Bien­

nale, architects of Urban Think

Tank and photographer Iwan Bann

researched the deserted Torre

David office building over the

course of a year. It would be easy

to idealize what is st ill an instant

slum but Urban Think Tank and

Bann instead see in these informal

sett lements a potential for innova­

t ion and experimentat ion, with the

goal of putting design in service

to a more equitable and sustai n­

able futu re.

"Caracas's Torre David at the Venice Biennial,"by

Aaron Betsy. Architect. August 29. 2012

26 NOVEMBER 2012

APOPS@MAS

Midt own Manhattan is full of

publ ic spaces. Nearly every plazayou see in front of a towering of­

fice building? Public space. Jerold

Kayden, a professor of urban

planning at Harvard, discovered

that 41percent of all corpo rate

plazas were of "marginal use"

and now, thanks to Advocates forPrivately Owned Public Spaces at

the Municipal Arts Society (which

has one heck of an acronym:

APOPS@MAS), we can see exact ly

where the city 's 500+ privately

owned public spaces are. On their

new website, an interactive maptags papas by amenity. Each has

its own page, complete with rat­

ings, and info on everything from

seating and artwork to food and

climate cont rol -sort of like Yelp

for corpora te plazas. "A Matchmaker l or

New York's Privately Owned Public Spaces,"by

Henry Grabar, TheAtianticCities.com, October 2012

Parklets 2.0

At the San Francisco Urban Proto­

typing festival in October, visito rs

experienced a living laboratory

at Fift h & Mission Streets that

featured everything from a fruit

fence to a sound installation,from

an LED-lit hopscotch to a gardenplanter-slash-ur inal. "So many

people have ideas for civic par­

t icipation, but there's nowh ere

for them to take their ideas,"

said Alex Michel, directo r of the5M Project , which hosted the

festival. "This is like a pinball

machine. Ideas are bouncing all

around here."

"SFUrban Prototyping FestivalOpens," by Erin

Allday. slgale.com. October 20. 2012

Contaminated by Nature

We design our cit ies to be orderly,

geometric and predictab le. But

what if we allowed them, instead,to be "contaminated" by nature?

Asemic Forest ( image below)

by architect Shahira Hammad

envisions a new train station for

Vienna, Austria, that would do

just t hat. Equal parts biomimicry

and Alien, Hammad's "modified"

Westbahnhof Train Stat ion takes

its cues from spontaneous order,

the spontaneous emergence of

order out of seeming chaos which

occurs in physical, biolog ical and

social netw orks. "Yes, it is exces­

sive," she acknowledges. "But

essentially it tr ies nothing else but

to br ing the complexities present

in nature into the urban fabric."

"Train Station Infiltrated by the SpontaneousOrder

of Nature," weburbanist.com, 9/10/12

Super Park!

Superkilen is a new urban park

that cuts through the heart of

Copenhagen's diverse Nerrebro

neighborhood, home to more than

60 natio nalit ies. The kilometer­

long "super park" consists of threethemed part s - "Red Square,"

"Black Market," and "Green Park"

and is dotted wit h art ifacts andcultural mementos "sourced"

from the home countries of thearea's inhabitants - every thing

from manhole covers fro m Paris

to Islamic tiled fountains from

Morocco. Designed in collabora­

t ion with art group Superf lex and

Topotek 1architects, Bjarke Ingels

Group (BIG) saw the park as a

" fusion of architecture, landscape,

and art."

"Copenhagen's Super Park PromotesDiversity

andFun!" architizer.com, 10/ 22/12

THE URBAN IST

MEMB ER PROFILE NEW MEMBERS

How th e un settling experience o f an

ea rt hq uake inspired a vo cati on.

In 1999, Ayse Hort acsu was a junior without a major

at Stanford University when a large earthquake

hit near her hometown in Turkey. She accompanied

a pair of structural engineers from the Bay Area on

their reconnaissance mission for a week and sawthe devastation fir sthand. It was a week that

determined not only her major (civil engineering)

but her career. For the past four years, Hort acsuhas been the research applicat ions manager at

the Applied Technology Council (ATe), a nonpr ofit

that aims to develop and promote state-of-t he-art,

user-fri endly engineering resources and applicatio nsfor use in mitigating the effects of natural and other

hazards on the bui lt environment.

RaviAlimchandaniTeresaAlvaradoRatnaAminBobBillinghamTaganBlakeBrendanCagneyJoeCarpenterCarlos CastellanosShafaqChoudryLeighConnorsAnnaDuningDebbieEspinoNicoleFarrarRobert FishkinStephenGardnerBrian HaagsmanJeff HammerquistLauraHammettPaul HayduDaveHendrickson& Daniel SonnenfeldStevenKingDeborah KoskiTinaLeeAlexandral.eumerCharles LewisAlanLoomisErinMcAuliffRobert McCarthyMaureenMcGeeMcKenna-LouiseMcKettySusieMcKinnonSumitaMukherjee MedleyHannahMensingSandraMillerChristina (Izzie) NixonStephanieOhshitaKevinPedronanMikePetersonKellyPretzerCharles ReamBobby Reich-PatriAnnaRocheDaveRonakAbigail SandbergLauraSassoJessica StanleyJennifer ETaiAriel Takata-VasquezNikTanSachikoTanikawaThomasTellefsenAnne TurnerSydWayman

New Members

New Business Members

Buro HappoldConsulting Engineers,Inc.Chinese CommunityHealthCare AssociationCityof FremontImparkNovogradac&Co LLP

Marvel of urbanengineering:The Galata Bridge in Istanbul,

spanning the Golden Horn.

A bridge has been in that

location since the sixth century.

It's got every thing - cars,

tr ains, pedest rian walkways,

restaur ants - and it moves! •

City:My hometown of Istanbul. It 's

a city fu ll of history, cult ure,

character, great views and

delicious food! I visit once a yearand it' s amazing how much

it grows and changes just in that

tim e. The traffi c gets worse,but every thing I love about the

city remains the same.

of the Palace of Fine Arts. Having

a three-year-old, I visit the

Explorato rium there regularly andenjoy both the grounds and

the bui lding . Whi le I look forward

_ to their new location on Piers

15 and 17, I will surely miss

the Explorato rium at the Palace

of Fine Ar ts.

Asa lover of cities,what's yourfavorite.. .

Urbanview:The tennis courts at the recreation

center in Potrero Hill have the bestviews in the city. From there you

get a great view of the east side

of San Francisco and downt own,the Bay Bridge, the Port of

Oakland and even Mount Diablo

on a clear day.

is to reach earthquake resilience.

I'm prett y sure my house wi ll st illbe standing aft er an earthquake,

but if there is no place to buy milk,

will i stay [th ere]? I found this

to be an intr iguing point of view

and turned to the Resilient City

initi ative of SPUR to find out more.Once I joined SPUR, I found

many other things to lovebeyond planning for the next big

earthquake.

Building:Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge

toward San Francisco, I love being

welcomed by the glowing dome

Tell usabout the work youdo atthe Applied Technology Council.Our goal is technology tr ansfer.

Whil e some of our projects are

highly technical, some are moreapproachable, such as "Reducing

the Risks of NonstructuralEarthqu ake Damage." I

recommend that everyone readit! (available at ww w.fema.gov/

earthq uake-pubiicat ions/fema-e­

74- reducing-rtsks-nonstructu ra1­earthquake-damage).

Ayse Hortacsu

And youworked with SPUR on itsResilientCity initiative?As a structural engineer and

resident of San Francisco, the"big one" is always on my mind .

At ATC, we recently completed

the Community Act ion Plan for

Seismic Safety (CAPSS) project

for the City of San Francisco,

which studied the impact of fourearthquake scenarios on privately

owned build ings in San Francisco.

It' s great to know that the city is

act ively working on imp lementing

the findings of the project. One of

the recommendations of the study

EngineeringResilience

THE URBANI ST

OSPUR654 Mission StreetSan Francisco, CA 94105-4015

(415) 781-8726

spur.org

Tim e-d ated mater ial

Ideas + action for a better city

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oZin

OSPURLEGACY SOCIETY

Shape the future of San Franciscoand the broader Bay Area

SPUR graciously thanks Florence McCormack Scarlett

and Samuel Lloyd Scarlett, M.D. whose generous bequest

will provide core support to promote good planning

and good government through research, education

and advocacy - helping SPUR shape the future of San

Francisco and broader Bay Area. Samuel passed away in

November of 2011 at the age of 96, and was a loyal donor

to SPUR during his lifetime.

spur.org/legacy

SPURis a S01(c)(3) non-profit organization with tax 10# 94-1498232 . All contributions to SPURaretax-deductible to the full extent of the law.

SPUR LEGACY SOCIETY

We are grateful to Samuel and Florence Scarlett,

and to everyone who remembers SPURthrough

a bequest, life income plan, or other type of

planned gift. Your support strengthens and

ensures the future of SPURand the Urban Center.

Legacy Society members are invited to an

exclusive annual gathering and become part

of the Urban Leaders Forum - our major donor

society - which gathers several times a year

to hear from noted experts about urbanism.

planning and the future of our region.

We hope you'll tell us when you have named the

SPUR in your will. We would very much like the

opportunity to thank you for your generosity.

ENSURING YOUR LEGACY

For more information about how to include SPUR

in your estate plans in a way that best fits your

needs today please contact SPUR's development

director at 415-644-4281 or donate@spur.org .