Community by Design: A Boomer Gift to the Next Generation

VIA Architecture is pleased to announce an upcoming event in conjunction with McGill University:

Community by Design: A Boomer Gift to the Next Generation
Alan Hart, AIA
VIA Architecture

Sunday May 22, 2011
12:30 – 3:00 pm
Smith Tower – Chinese Room
506 2nd Ave, Seattle, WA 98104

Refreshments will be served
No charge for admission

The Baby Boomer generation began as one of the most idealistic that engendered hope for the future and the planet. Although highly energetic and innovative, Baby Boomers have taken a lot more from the planet than we have given back.

Many of those born between the World War II and Vietnam War years only deferred thoughts of saving the world in order to make a living. Now they want to return to their roots and “make good” on early promises to themselves, and to their communities. Retirement may not be appealing either professionally or financially, but “returnment” or “encore” careers have become hugely popular as Boomers seek to spend the next chapter of their productive years doing work that is meaningful both to themselves and to the world. Embracing community, and being active agents of positive change, will be this generation’s legacy for the next generation.

This generation of 78 million now has an unprecedented opportunity to make our cities greener, healthier and happier places to live. Ideas like alternate housing choices, generational continuity, increased mobility, urban agriculture, intelligent grids, local energy/sufficiency and incremental framework for change will be explored using real world examples including some from VIA Architecture’s projects and initiatives.

Alan’s talk will be followed by a discussion of McGill University’s initiatives in campus greening, alternative energy projects, and community involvement.

Tacoma wins Home Depot's Sustainable Community Development Award of Excellence

The Home Depot Foundation awarded its second annual Awards of Excellence for Sustainable Community Development to Tacoma, WA; Burlington, VT, and Boston, MA. The awards recognize and celebrate cities that are incorporating real-world sustainability initiatives into their day-to-day operations, with a focus on wise use of budget dollars and increasing the livability of each community for all residents.

City of Tacoma won the "large city" award for 2010 -- with the announcement stating that they have "incorporated sustainability throughout its comprehensive plan ensuring that sustainable policies and business practices are considered when making all departmental decisions"

Here are some examples of sustainability practices that they have already implemented:

• 25 new bike racks in the public right of way
• Public Works is using recycled road material, including chip seal oil containing 5 percent recycled rubber tires
• Fifteen hybrid vehicles were purchased as pool vehicles this last year, encouraging the use of fuel-efficient and alternative-fuel vehicles within the City of Tacoma. A fleet anti-idling policy has been established for General Government.
• Tacoma Rail has installed idle reduction technologies on 10 of its 17 locomotives that have resulted in a 40 percent fuel savings.

Click here and here to see other posts that we've written about Tacoma.

To read more about their submission, click here.

Designing for Loss: The Shrinking City

by Amanda Bryan, VIA Architecture

Philipp Oswalt and Tim Rieniets; Atlas of Shrinking Cities © 2006, Germany

Whether we’re comfortable with saying out loud or not, the American Dream is based on the idea of expansion and acquisition. First exemplified by the Louisiana Purchase, then modernized by the Interstate Highway Program, and now globalized by our corporate prosperity in countries around the world, we have gotten very good at dealing with growth. If there is one thing that Americans know how to do, it is expand, expand, expand (and yes, I know the same can be said of our waist lines). But do we know how to deal with the antithesis of expansion - shrinkage? To be specific, I’m talking about The Shrinking City, a phenomenon synonymous with the words suburbanization, deindustrialization, and decentralization.

Philipp Oswalt; Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research © 2005, Germany

While the issue of the Shrinking City is not unique to the United States, having found perch in old industrial belts like Eastern Germany and post-socialist regions of Russia, our Shrinking Cities are a little different because they are not the products of war, natural disaster, or governmental upheaval. The American Shrinking City is a once vibrant urban center, formerly dependent upon a highly industrialized local economy, which finds itself subject to a rapid population decline within its city boundaries and bloated with an excess of abandoned spaces and buildings.

If we look at the poster child of our nation’s car manufacturing industry, Detroit, we can see that its population has decreased more than 50% over the course of the last 60 years. According to the newest census report, this declining trend is still continuing with a population loss of 25% over just the last decade. The physical reality of this drastic population means that The City of Detroit is now facing the demolition of 10,000 empty residential buildings, 3,000 of which are slotted for demolition by the year’s end. The economic reality is an eroding tax base while the cultural implication is a culture of resignation that pervades the psyche of those left behind.

Philipp Oswalt; Shrinking Cities Volume 2: Interventions © 2006, Germany

So how can a city like Detroit move forward from its shrinking urban form? There have been many ideas proposed over the years, all of which focus on the reclamation of excess space and concentration of existing residents. One such proposal came from the Community Development Advocates of Detroit, a nonprofit trade group of local development organizations, which suggested that Detroit could be classified into 11 neighborhood zones like homestead sectors, village hubs, and traditional residential sectors.

The vision for one of these urban homesteads involves instituting rural living conditions geared toward agricultural uses in exchange for disconnecting from city services like water. Another community group, Detroit Declaration, has suggested creating urban farms in areas deemed as “weedy wastelands” and consolidating smaller parcels to promote urban infill. These ideas represent just two groups’ efforts out of the half dozen who are turning the notion of the city on its head in order to rethink the possibilities of a shrinking city.

http://www.takeabite.cc/category/blog/•urban-agriculture-community-gardening/

However, one thing that these groups have not done is specify which areas should be demolished and which should be preserved because there is a strong belief that this decision belongs to the city. While some skeptics are worried about placing this decision in the hands of government out of fear of a huge land grab, the general belief is that the doing nothing is only a recipe for continued shrinkage and misery. According to Richard Florida, the key to reimagining The Shrinking City is not to hand over whole sections of the city to the government or developers but instead to enable residents to spearhead the revitalization and build quality places they can identify with.

I would dare to suggest that maybe the City of Detroit ought to be the facilitators of a large-scale collaboration between the developers and residents because as Jane Jacobs put it, “The key is to engage the residents of the area, the business owners, the shopkeepers, the workers and the commuters. They’re the ones that can show the way to rebuild.”

Why not use our best asset, a culture based on growth, and harness it within a framework that can be held accountable by the people?

Canada Line featured in Canadian Architect Magazine

"Eighteen months have now passed since the inaugural run of the new Canada Line, which connects the cities of Vancouver and Richmond with the Vancouver International Airport, and has already reached the capacity ridership anticipated for five years hence."

-- Sean Ruthen, writer for Canadian Architect

The Canada Line was featured in Canadian Architect's March magazine, and covers five of our stations, along with stations designed by other architecture firms. To read the article, you either need an online subscription, or need to request a copy of the magazine.

Our firm provided master planning for the line, and completed prototypical work for all 17 stations, including each station's schematic design. Here is a feature of the inspiration and ideas behind the three underground stations: Yaletown, Vancouver City Centre, and Waterfront, and the two elevated stations: Marine Drive and Bridgeport.

Underground Stations

These three downtown stations represent rail, road, and the sea, and we tried to make a reflection of each of those ideas in very subtle ways.

Yaletown -- Rail

Yaletown Station pulls its inspiration from the historic Yaletown loading docks in the design of its roof canopy (as seen in the photo below):

image source

 

It expresses the rail by using continuous horizontal bands of colored accent tile. We knew that the architecture needed to be receptive to advertising and art, so we placed the patterning so that they would become a backdrop:

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Vancouver City Centre -- Road

Vancouver City Centre Station was inspired by the intersection of Georgia and Granville.  Once you get down into the station, the accent tiles on the walls were randomly spaced, like the pattern of cars on a road. And just like Yaletown, there isn’t a pattern that would be “blocked” by the ads. And like randomness, you can go any which way.

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Waterfront – Sea

Waterfront Station tells the story of the water that comes into a tidal pool as seen in the arched wave feeling on the ceiling:

The tile pattern throughout the station has blocks of blue color, which represent pools of water:

Elements of Continuity:
Waterfront and VCC: both had granite frames; stone band with a window in the middle
VCC and Yaletown: wood roof

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Elevated Stations

The following two elevated stations addressed the industry located on either side of the Frasier River.

Marine Drive Station -- Pioneer Logging Industry

 
Marine Drive Station took its cue from the saw mills and planing mills down at Eburne. Portrayed as a “launching pad” where the tunnel comes above ground (visualize being on a log ride at the county fair).

 Actual exit to Marine Drive station

Log Ride at a County Fair :)

Very streamlined, dynamic, industrial-oriented form:

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Bridgeport Station -- Air

Inspired by the ships and the early days of airplane manufacturing, Bridgeport Station's original design had a curved roof that was based on the mosquito warplane.

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*images and renderings copyright VIA Architecture. Please do not use without permission.
*Professional photographs taken by Ed White