In many cities in the United States there is rapid population growth that is not being properly planned and that is causing urban sprawl.  This is being done because many people need places to live and the layout was based off how the car can move through the neighborhood.  There are other neighborhoods in this county that were built in with more planning when the growth was not as intense.  These neighborhoods are Traditional Neighborhood Design.  The Sustainable Cities Institute defines Traditional Neighborhood Design “as a village-style development, includes a variety of housing types, a mixture of land uses, an active center, a walkable design and often a transit option within a compact neighborhood scale area.”  This can be seen in larger cities were a growth created a need to convert warehouses into places for people to live.  In these places where people had their homes they also needed places to shop and meet.  I went to Portland last year and near our site in the Pearl district there were many different housing types and within a few blocks was a centralized hub of retailers and a few parks.  This was something that I had not seen before, because where I grew up the residential and commercial were always separated.  Throughout the rest of Portland there were many other examples of this type of neighborhood.  These neighborhoods focused on walking but still had options were driving or public transportation.  This compilation or transit types takes what used to be a small town and brings the idea to larger city and uses transit to connect all of city.  This neighborhood design is seen in large cities and can be seen in very small towns, but it is not being integrated into the middle size cities very well.  Looking locally at Moscow there is a great possibility for it to be a great example of what traditional neighborhood design, but because of the expansion to the west with a large mall complex and to the east with residential it takes away from the centralized downtown.  There are more examples such as Idaho Falls, Missoula, and Dillion; or a larger city such as Las Vegas.  This type of urban design comes from an idea that people have in America needing a house and a white picket fence.  Many people in America cannot afford to buy a house, but are still forced to because there is no other option where they live.  To create the traditional neighborhoods of the future there needs to be more multipurpose buildings, or large scale apartments that can used for families.  This is going to take a change in the idea of the American public to understand the state of the environment and how much land can be taken up by buildings before resources cannot longer keep up.  One idea that Moscow has that some other the previous examples do not have is there are already some multipurpose buildings, mostly in the downtown area.  I believe this was done because of the need for apartments for students of the U of I to want to live off campus.  This can be seen with the Garden Lounge and Mingles that both have apartments above, and in the case of the Garden Lounge also has a pizza place in the same building complex.  I do not believe that it should take a university to start the change in many cities in America, there needs to be an education about where we live and how we interact with what directly surrounds that space.

As I was going through the reading and the lectures for this section the one that I found the most connection to and the most connection to what my blog is about is, The Future of Public Space by Tridib Banerjee.  The most engaging part of the article was the idea of “engag[ing] in advocacy for parks and open spaces”(Banerjee).  This is referring to the need for people to step up in the community and say that a park or open space has value and helps improve the quality of life in the neighborhood.  This can be done by peacefully protesting the construction of a building or opening up negotiations for how to keep the park or open space while bring the building onto the site, so that the two can work harmoniously.  This can only be done by engaging in your own personal community and trying to understand what can be done to build a better space for you to thrive.  I have seen this in my own community.  While I was growing up there were three green spaces where I could go and run and just enjoy myself and that improved my overall experience of childhood.  As I grew up those spaces always held something special to me and I always felt that I understood how important green spaces and parks were to have in a community.  When I finally had the chance to go to different cities and go to Europe I learned more about the importance of parks and public spaces.  When I went to Chicago a month ago I felt that if the park system by the lake were not there the city would fail because the people there would have no escape from the steel and brick of the city.  The only way that this was able to happen was because one man decided that the parks were needed to help in the growth and prosperity of the city.  If one man was able to do that it makes it possible to believe that I as one architect can make changes to how green space can be incorporated into very dense populated areas and make them highly trafficked.  When I went to Europe many of the public spaces were not heavily populated with vegetation, but they worked in the same way that many other green spaces that I had encountered in the United States worked.  These spaces have been around for a long time and have worked because the original idea for that plaza or public space has not lost force or significance with the passage of time.  The people in these cities find having a place to come, meet, and gather to be important to the way they live their lives.  Having gone to the places I have personally seen the gathering that happens so naturally in these plazas that have been around for thousands of years.  Living in a city or community means more than just going to and from work and home and living with our imitate surrounds; it means involving yourself with the aspects that build your community up and makes it more sustainable.  

Millennium Park Chicago

Millennium Park was part of the Plan for Chicago done by Daniel Burnham and the most well-known structure that exists in the park is Frank Gehry’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion that opened in July of 2004 (Millennium).  The design is a structure for a performance space that is made of steel.  The steel is used above and on the side of the orchestra; area directs the sound out to people but also deceases the reverberation to the people who are playing the instruments.  In addition to the steel structure where the performers are, there is a steel structure covering for a grass area.  In the structure, there are speakers that increase the sound out to the large grass area that is two thirds of the overall seating area (Millennium).  This performance space is intended to be for the public of Chicago and that is the same as the rest of Millennium Park.  The methods and techniques that were used are very powerful because the steel does not look like it can be held up but the structure works.  The space is very inviting because of how unexplainable the pavilion is that it draws you in to learn more and try to understand the structure.  One improvement to the space that could be made is other ideas for the green space while it is not being used for performances to make people come and use the space in more interesting ways.

KL Metropolis Master Plan

The KL Metropolis Master Plan is an idea for a community that includes “residential, commercial, office, hotel, cultural, and civic buildings” folded in with the first LEED and other environmentally conscious structures (KL).  This master plan came from SOM and they designed eleven different structures on the site.  This was designed for the people of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for people to live and work in a vibrant community especially the “central business district” (KL).  This project seems to well thought out to make it possible that the project to be successful.  The stand out building is the MITCE that is the stands for the Trade and Exhibition Center.  There is a large glass facade and a large open floor plan that is open to business district but also for the public for art exhibits.  This space is very versatile because of the variety of different type of spaces that are created and can be created.  This allows for all the types of people to use the space and the makes the space successful.

High Line New York

The High Line Project is a redesign of an abandoned elevated train track into park and garden system with an expansive variety of types of plants.  The train was used to transport the goods from the industrial district before the trucking company made the train system obsolete.  The city wanted to destroy it “while Peter Obletz, a Chelsea resident, activist, and railroad enthusiast, challenges demolition efforts in court,” because he saw what the railway could be (About).  The head of the group that helped in the construction was called Friends of the High Line that was founded by Joshua David and Robert Hammond (About).  The first section of the renovation to the railway was completed on June 9 2009, the next section was completed on Jun 8 2011, and the final section was completed September 21 2014 (About).  The ideas for the different types of gardens came from the photos taken by Joel Sternfeld.  The piece represents a revitalization of this area because when the railway was abandoned the shops in the area started losing business, but when the park open not only did that revitalize the old shops but new business came into the area and also young artists started renting out lofts.  Therefore, the High Line and the surrounding area was designed and constructed for neighborhood of Manhattan and all of New York.  Out of all three of these designs, the High Line does the best job of telling a story to the people who enjoy it what the space was and what it will become.  It does this by bringing together the wild vegetation when the rail way was abandoned with the new landscaped vegetation that was brought in.  The connection can also be seen in the walkways and benches as they are constructed with wood similar to the material used for the railway and slides and bends into the natural landscape in the movement of a train.  The plants are the strongest part of the park because of the precision for which each of the plants were chosen and where they were placed in the park.  They tell a story of the natural plants that occur in the area that are taught in classes by the Friends of the High Line who also do upkeep of the vegetation.  This creates a dynamic space of relaxation, exercise, and education.  This design speaks to me because it did not just tear it down and start over but renovated and breathed new life into an old and beautiful space.

About the High Line | Friends of the High Line. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.thehighline.org/about/

KL Metropolis Master Plan. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.som.com/projects/kl_metropolis_master_plan

Millennium Park. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.architecture.org/architecture-chicago/buildings-of-chicago/building/millennium-park/

William H. Whyte grew up in West Chester Pennsylvania before he went Princeton University and joined the Marines.  He then went on to join the magazine Fortune for a time before he wrote his book The Organization Man, which “sold over two million copies” (William).  After his book, he moved on to urban sprawl and revitalization to help with the development of cities and to advocate for them.  In 1969, he helped the “New York City Planning Commission in drafting a comprehensive plan for the city” (William).  He did this after years of research on the streets of New York taking notes and pictures of the way that people moved through the city and through the plazas.  This is seen in this film The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces where he uses time-lapse photography and film with narration to explain where his ideas for the Planning Commission came from.  In addition to the film he also wrote a variety of books throughout his life such as “The Exploding Metropolis (1958); Cluster Development (1964); The Last Landscape (1968); The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (1980); and City: Rediscovery of the Center (1988)” (William).  One of the things that he believed that could be seen in the film was how important public spaces are to a city.  “He believed that we have a moral responsibility to create physical places that facilitate civic engagement and community interaction” (William).  This has become a common idea in all towns that are being built in the urban and residential setting.  When this is not being done, it is easy to see how a downtown or residential neighborhood can become separated and unapproachable.  Whyte’s next idea is connected to the creation of public spaces; he believed that public spaces should designed bottom-up.  By this, he meant that when designing the space you should start with the way that people use it, and to make sure it is comfortable if it is not it will never be used.  The last topic that he believed in was “the power of observation” (William).  He believed that the best way to design was to watch how people interact and use spaces so that the design of the space can be as productive as possible.  His normative models for city design and urban form are the ways that people move and congregate in the cities they live in.  Whyte wanted a variety of different people strangers and friends to be able to have spaces to meet and talk in the city naturally and not be forced.  This can be seen in his film when he talks about the different cafes at the end of the movie.  At some of these cafes, he guessed there has been the start of a marriage or business deal.  He also put great importance on the street as a connection to the small urban spaces, but also to the city as a whole.  “The street is the river of life of the city, the place where we come together, the pathway to the center” (William).  Whyte wanted the street to connect the people to the infrastructure and direct them to the civic experience of the city naturally. 

William H. Whyte - Project for Public Spaces. Retrieved October 12, 2016, from http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/

Boechat, J. P. (2016, January 31). The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Retrieved October 12, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_9g5qk0kbY

After reading the texts, the one that stood out the most in connection to the topic of my blog was Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph”.  This text goes through the main points with some self-interpretation of what Relph was saying in this text and points out where people in the past have misinterpreted the text that Relph wrote.  The way this text is written makes the reader to do his or her own interpretation of what was written.  By doing this, it made the concepts that were discussed impact me more, because I was forced in some sections to come to my conclusions about what this text was saying and also what Relph was saying in his original text.  One of the instences where is occurred was when the author starts talking about insideness and outsideness that is connected to my blog topic about physically entering interpreting a space.  “Relph suggests that the more profoundly inside a place a person feels, the stronger will be his or her identity with that place (p. 45).  This can be physical but also mental insideness a person can feel about the space.  In the physical realm a person being able to enter a building, plaza, or empty lot can bring them a deeper understanding of what the designer wanted to make you feel or what potential the empty lot has for a dynamic experience.  I was able to experience this when I went to Chicago this past week and went to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio for the first time.  I had seen pictures and read descriptions of what the experience of the space was but it was different and inspiring to be able to walk through the different rooms and see how Wright wanted the people who walked through his house to experience it.  The experience was the most powerful in the playroom and main entertaining room in the house.   In this room, I was able to experience the differing heights and how Wright wanted people to move and see each wall and what was on each wall.  I feel that the deep understanding that Wright had about his architecture can be drawn from when staring and moving through a design process.  I believe that Wright had what Relph would call “existential insideness” which is “a situation of deep, unself-conscious immersion in place and the experience most people know when they are at home in their own community and region” (p. 45).  This feeling was created inside Wrights home where he created a micro community and region that he had designed every part.  This deep immersion and sense of home is what is possible to achieve in every building that is designed but is impossible to achieve without being able to go the space and understand the community and what will deepen the sense of home.  The sense of home goes beyond residential buildings though, a commercial building where people go the work every day must also make those people feel part of a region of community.  By being able to go to Chicago this past week, I feel that my design of museum will deepen the identity of the community and buildings that surround it.

P. Hubbard, R. Kitchen. G. Vallentine. (2008). Place and Placessness, Edward Relph. Key Texts in Human Geography (43-51). London: Sage

Being There is All the Fun

Understanding a city, neighborhood, or other Urban Designs in the way that they work economically and socially can be investigated in two ways that connect to the “primary and secondary resources” (powerpoint 3).  In each way, the designer learns information about a space that can help them design the space to be used in the best way.  Primary resources such as “Built form, street structure diagram, Network of public open space, Functional mix diagram, Interview, and Experience of place have in my personal experience given me the chance to be a better designer than looking at the information in data points and demographics of people.  Exploring a place before coming the conclusion of how the city should be expanded or how a neighborhood is going to interact with another neighborhood can be most well learned by physically understanding the area.

The first time that I experienced this feeling I was not participating in a studio or architecture class, I went to Italy, France, Germany, and England with my family.  During my time in all of those countries, I felt like I learned more about the culture of how the people live in these countries in addition to investigating the monuments.  I know from reading I have done in textbooks that I would not be able to learn all the information that I learned from physically being there from the books that I have read.

Now being in a classroom and studio environment other students and I have had to do site analysis and city analysis and I have learned how hard it is to understand the site completely until we have been able to go to the site.  This can be seen in my design process because I start my design with an idea that changes almost every time after I see the site because I want the feeling and understand how people move through and around the space.  The best experience I have had with being able to go to a site was in Moscow in second year studio where the program was a restaurant. During the first day of studio, we were able to go to the site.  In addition, my precedent for the project I had also physically been to this restaurant and seen the city that the restaurant was in and helped me design my project and pushed it further than I have pushed any project since.

As I progress through this class and think about how to understand and keep using Urban Design in my future, I want to use that knowledge for site analysis and other analysis in future projects.  This is will also effect the area of architecture that I want to go into, restoring and reiterating old buildings.  By knowing how a building connects to the past and current economy, demographics, network of spaces, and public opinions I can be a better Urban Designer and Architect.  I have seen this being used on a few HGTV shows when they are restoring a building or house in a neighborhood they investigate the surrounding area before they even start doing any demolition is that was needed to know what they might want to keep.

Hi my name is Ian Lund and I am a Senior at the University of Idaho.  I came directly from Idaho Falls High School to the University knowing that I wanted to pursue a degree in Architecture.   I grew up in Idaho Falls and during late Junior High and into High School I was trying to decide which area of study I wanted to pursue between Architecture and Medicine.  I was drawn to Architecture because I watched HGTV and thought it was interesting building a new house, or building, but I enjoyed the renovation shows even more because they kept the character of the building.  After I showed a little interest in that, my parents bought me some books about Architecture and I did some research online to find out as much as I could about this area of study.  I was drawn to Medicine because my Dad was a paramedic and I naturally understood and enjoyed learning about how the body works through the focus of injury.  During high school I took Anatomy & Physiology and Zoology and enjoyed both of the classes but learned that I did not get as much enjoyment from that as I did when I looked at architecture.  I firmly choose Architecture after my senior project in high school where I job shadowed an architect in Idaho Falls and did a small project that he created for me.  This was my first introduction to a project similar to studio.  I have stayed in contact with this architect and did an internship at his firm this past summer.  Now as a senior, thinking to the future, I want to further my education in pursuing a Masters in Architecture and after that I want to find a job  in the South West maybe in Portland or Seattle renovating old buildings to be more energy efficient.