The Nature of Urban Design A New York Perspective on Resilience
The best cities become an ingrained part of their residents’ identities. Urban design is the key to this process, but all too often, citizens abandon it to professionals, unable to see a way to express what they love and value in their own neighborhoods.
- PDF / 38,252,162 Bytes
- 261 Pages / 612.35 x 741.32 pts Page_size
- 3 Downloads / 186 Views
T H E N AT U R E O F
URBAN DESIGN
A New York Perspective on Resilience
ALE X ANDRO S WA S H B U R N
Wa s h i n g t o n | C o v e l o | L o n d o n
Copyright © 2013 Alexandros Washburn All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher: Island Press, 2000 M Street NW, Suite 650, Washington, Island Press would like to thank Furthermore: a pro-
DC 20036.
gram of the J. M. Kaplan Fund for generous support of Island Press is a trademark of Island Press/The Center
the design and printing of this book.
for Resource Economics. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Washburn, Alexandros. The nature of urban design : a New York perspective on resilience / by Alexandros Washburn.
page i: Prague’s resilient waterfront. (Credit: Alexandros Washburn) page iii: Athena in the south cove of Battery Park City, a few blocks from Wall Street. (Credit: Alexandros Washburn)
pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61091-380-5 (cloth : alk. paper) -- ISBN
Book design by Roberto & Fearn de Vicq de Cumptich
1-61091-380-9 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. City planning--New York (State)--New York. I. Title.
Keywords: civic virtue; climate change adaptation;
HT168.N5W37 2013
climate change mitigation; density bonus; greenhouse
307.1’21609747--dc23
gas emissions; the High Line, PlaNYC; planned retreat; 2013014789
Red Hook, Brooklyn; sustainability; transit-oriented development; urban resilience; zoning regulation
Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed on recycled, acid-free paper
Dedicated to Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Hurricane Irene moves in. (Credit: Alexandros Washburn)
CONTENTS
Preface
xi
Acknowledgments Introduction
xvii
1
CHAPTER 1
Why Should We Care About Cities?
CHAPTER 2
The Process of Urban Design
CHAPTER 3
The Products of Urban Design
CHAPTER 4
The Process and Products of the High Line
CHAPTER 5
97
137
161
217
Endnotes Index
51
Urban Design for Greater Resilience
Epilogue
15
225
229
IX
P R E FA C E
wrote this book out of a sense of self-preservation. I had to convince some very powerful people to do what they otherwise wouldn’t do. I had just become the chief urban designer for New York City at the Department of City Planning and entered with the notion that good design changed things. I immediately found out that I was naïve. No one was going to listen to me proffering sketchy notions of good design. They wanted to build bigger buildings. The megadevelopers, power-lawyers, and “starchitects” that fuel the riot of construction that makes New York new every day wanted to do things their way. And as I got to know the full spectrum of stakeholders, I saw that it was not just the rich, the powerful, or the famous that sought to change things. The stakeholders were also the community leaders and the homeowners
XI
and the small-business owners, and they also had ideas about
