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The reinvented city
The two days that some 42 journalists and Nieman fellows spent at the Journalists Forum on Land and the Built Environment: The Reinvented City, late last month were packed with compelling conversations about all the re-engineering, re-imagining and retrofitting metropolitan regions need to be doing these days. The writers, editors, producers -- and one artist! -- gathered in Cambridge as they do every spring for the forum, put on by the Lincoln Institute, the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, and Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Though part of the idea is to take a break from the daily pressures of the newsroom, there was much real-time blogging and the filing of weekend stories: Mary Newsom of the Charlotte Observer in The Naked City, Tim Halbur at Planetizen, on Andres Duany's talk and the former mayors of Seattle and Miami; Tim Bryant of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Building Blocks, Josh Stephens at California Planning & Development Report and Roger Showley of the San Diego Tribune on housing and recovery. Here's our own review:
Andres Duany of DPZ made an impassioned plea against what he called "the orgy of public process," NIMBYism and government requirements that drive up the cost of housing, and predicted a new form of "agricultural urbanism" where food is grown in the place of ornamental landscaping. In adapting to peak oil and the inevitable impacts of climate change, he said, going green can transform urban design if properly framed in terms of saving money and quality of life. "Our metric is human happiness."
Elizabeth Heider of Skanska detailed the retrofitting of an American icon -- the Empire State Building -- for energy efficiency, and noted how plotting out return on investment will drive LEED performance for the operation and management of existing buildings.
Wellesley College's Karl E. "Chip" Case, co-founder of the Case-Shiller Index, suggested there might be a "V" shaped recovery from the housing meltdown, as existing home sales pick up and the market-clearing process continues, but over-supply and unemployment remain concerns. "Some optimism is returning," he said. "But we've never been here before."
Rick Tetzeli, editor at large for Time Inc.'s Assignment Detroit, assessed the attempt to tell a complex story of "moving from what a disaster (the city) is to how it can reinvent itself." Time purchased a home in the city that is the base for embedded coverage of the shrinking city. "Stories about Detroit are about fighting back," he said.
John Frece, director of the EPA's smart growth program, and David Goldberg from Transportation for America walked the group through the Obama administration's sustainability initiatives, and the coordination of housing, transportation, and the environment in making grants and encouraging local and regional initiatives. What's needed in the upcoming reauthorization of federal transportation spending, Goldberg said, is a new "statement of purpose" and city-driven national transport objectives, to replace the "backroom dividing of spoils."
Shlomo "Solly" Angel, a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute, shared his research on urban expansion -- to be published soon -- using satellite imagery, population and other data and historical maps, that shows surprising declining densities worldwide. He advised less emphasis on containment and more on planning infrastructure and making sure there is open space within cities.
Stanford University economist Paul Romer was the dinner speaker at the Nieman Foundation's Lippmann House, provoking a spirited discussion of his concept of Charter Cities.
Former mayors Manny Diaz (Miami) and Greg Nickels (Seattle) reflected on the challenges of leading the reinvented city, bemoaning the lack of federal and especially state support on issues such as transportation and climate change. Diaz was instrumental in the citywide rezoning initiative Miami 21, an overhaul of the rules of development for smarter growth.
June Williamson, author of Retrofitting Suburbia, expressed hope for a "systematic transformation" of re-inhabiting, redeveloping, and re-greening low-density and car-dependent environments, highlighting efforts in Denver, Phoenix, and a partnership with the Long Island Index called Build a Better Burb.
John Fregonese, principal at Fregonese Associates, said visualizing was key for citizen buy-in transforming areas such as Tulsa, Dallas, Waco, and Supersition Vistas in Arizona, with modeling and clear scenarios of what the future will look like - akin to the Burnham Plan of Chicago or Futurama.
As author of Wrestling with Moses, this writer explored how narrative non-fiction can prompt a dialogue about the 21st century city -- both the human-scaled urban neighborhoods embraced by Jane Jacobs, and the importance of infrastructure espoused by Robert Moses.
Tim Love, principal at Utile, shared a new approach to urban form replicating the density of triple-deckers with contemporary wood-frame construction built around courtyards, as an alternative to the "suburban building types on steroids" that characterize most transit-oriented development.
Robert Brown, the Cleveland planning director, concluded the gathering with an account of reinventing what was once the nation's 5th largest city, with the creative re-use of vacant land for wind turbines, greenhouses, community gardens, geo-thermal heating systems, and urban farming facilitated by "chicken and bee" zoning that relaxes rules for coops, hives and the like. "A radical re-platting of the city may be required," commented GSD professor Alex Krieger.
The final roundtable discussion of the reinvented city was led by Jerold Kayden,professor of urban planning and design at the GSD, and Lincoln Institute senior fellow Armando Carbonell.