DESIGN
OF CITIESMichael Bednar
FALL2000PLAN
563/ARCH 563
Thursday1:00
- 3:45Campbell 105
Cities
are places formed by cultural forces which enable people to dwell. Design
is one of those cultural forces which gives shape tosettlement
on the land. When design operates in conjunction with social, political
and economic forces, it gives rise to coherent settlement forms which are
both memorable and supportive of human enterprise.
This
is a course in urban design which adopts a humanistic view of the city.
The artifact of the city, both historic and contemporary, is studied from
the viewpoint of the people and groups who dwell there. What psychological
and social mechanisms do they utilize to perceive, use, navigate, remember
and experience the city? The premise is that through understanding these
mechanisms, planners and designers can develop more humanisticallymeaningful
urban realms.
The
course begins by analyzing the city as a physical artifact. The role of
natural forces is studied; topography, water, climate and vegetation. This
is followed by a study ofopen spaces
and buildings as typological elements which givespatial
form to the urban place. Design is the artful composition of these elements
to create meaningful visual and spatial order through the use of form,
hierarchyand geometry.
Cities
are built environments experienced and used by people as individuals and
groups. Individuals experience the city through sensory perception, motion
and memory.People use cities as
functional entities for living, working, learning, recreating and socializing.
The urban realm provides activity settings and social settings beyond the
scale of individual buildings, collective settings for the conduct of life.
All occurs through the dynamics of time; past , present and future.
Successful
city design occurs when physical forms and humanistic needs coalesce, when
the physical artifact creates positive human responses, when the setting
enables life to prosper. This has occurred in some superb European citiessuch
as Rome, Paris, Berlin, London, and Copenhagen and some notable American
cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, Washington,San
Francisco and New Orleans.
This
course will be conducted as a lecture/seminar with extensive readings and
slide shows. Their will be weekly debates, discussions and class exercises.
Student work will include an analysis project in Washington, a book review
and a design sketch problem.
COURSE
OBJECTIVES
I.To
gain an understanding of the constituent elements that compose the physical
urban
realm.
II.To
gain an understanding of the means by which individuals (including yourself)
experience
and comprehend the urban physical world.
III.To
understand how people dwell in the urban world and useurban
public space.
IV.To
learn about the mechanisms available to shape and control urban design
and
development.
V.To
explore thehistoric and contemporary
role of the center city within the
burgeoning
urban region.
VI.To
gain exposure to the prevalent theories of urban design by reading the
classic texts in urban design
literature.
VII. To
gain an appreciation of the way that social, political and economic forces
influence
the form of the urban realm.
VIII.To
provide a multitude of successful examples of urban design so as to develop
a
repertoire
of knowledge.
The
basic intent of this course is to give students the knowledge, values and
means for understanding the physical urban realm, its constituent elements
and design composition.
KNOWLEDGE:
case studies, slide shows, videos
VALUES:
book reviews, discussions, debates
MEANS:
urban place analysis and design sketch problem
DESIGN
OF CITIESMichael Bednar
COURSE
SYLABUS
Viewing
of videos is required. They are on reserve at Clemons Library. At least
one reading should be done for each class session. The books are on reserve
in the Fine Arts Library.
Aug.
31INTRODUCTIONCourse
concept, content and requirements
Washington,
DC case study
URBAN
FORMFormal models and characteristics
(axes,
nodes, hierarchy, geometry)
Readings:Lynch,
Good
City Form (Appendix D, 373-389)
(Chap.
16 277-291)
Bacon,
Design
of Cities (117-147)
Kostof,
The
City Shaped (Chap. 2,The Grid)
Rowe,
Civic Realism (Chap. 4, 124-159)
Video:Understanding
Cities (Rome and Paris)
Sept.
7NATURE Organic
models; natural forces
ECOLOGYCity
as ecosystem; sustainable urban design
Readings:Lynch,
Good
City Form (Chap. 4, 73-98)
Kostof,
The
City Shaped (Chap. 1, Organic
Patterns)
McHarg,
Design
with Nature (67-78, 175-186)
Discussion:Future
of sustainableurban design
Sept.
14URBAN SPACESTypology
and evolution; squares and parks
URBAN
STREETSTypology and parameters
Readings:Koetter
& Rowe, Collage City (50-85)
Kostof,
The
City Assembled (Ch. 3, Public Places)
(Ch.
4, The Street)
Jacobs,
Great
Streets (Part 4 269-316)
Debate:Planner/Designer
versus community consensus
Sept.
21URBAN BUILDINGSFigure
and ground; infill and object
BUILDING
TYPESPalazzo,
monument, tower
Readings:Rasmussen,
Towns
and Buildings (117-132, 39-54)
Sitte,
Art
of Building Cities (skim
entire book)
Bednar,
The
New Atrium (Chap. 1, 3-32)
Goldberger,
Skyscraper
(Chap. 2 and 8)
Discussion: Strategies
for Downtown (Carl Abbott)
BOOK
REVIEWS ARE DUE AT THIS CLASS
Sept.
28TRANSITTrains,
subways and cars
MOVEMENTSequences,
orientation, mental maps
Readings:Sennett,
Flesh
and Stone (Chap. 10)
Cullen,
Townscape
(17-96)
Stea
and Downs, Image of Environment
(8-26,
63-78)
Kay,
Asphalt
Nation, Part I
Video:Divided
Highways
Discussion:Mental
maps
Future
of the car culture
Oct.
5IMAGEABILITYPath,
edge, node, district, landmark
NEIGHBORHOODSTheory,
form, social order
Readings:Lynch,
Image
of the City (46-91)
Lynch,
Good
City Form (Ch. 13, 239-250)
Banerjee
& Baer, Beyond the Neighborhood Unit,
Ch.
1, 2, 7
Discussion:Personal
neighborhoods
Oct.
12URBAN HOUSINGHousehold
types, lifestyles, housing design
NEW
URBANISMTraditional neighborhood
design
Readings:Lynch,
Good
City Form (409-417)
Jacobs,
Death
and Life of Great American Cities,
Part
I
Calthorpe,
The
Next American Metropolis (13-38)
Debate:New
urbanism versus the democratic city
Oct.
19URBAN TIMEHistory,
growth, change, cycles
PRESERVATIONCity
as repository of cultural history
Readings:Lynch,
What
Time is this Place? (29-64)
Koetter
& Rowe, Collage City (118-149)
Huxtable,
The
Unreal America (12-36, 30-71)
Bacon,
Design
of Cities (243-271)
Debate: Authentic
versus inauthentic
Oct.
26PEDESTRIANSPublic
behavior and socialization
PEDESTRIANIZATIONDesign
of public spaces
Readings:Goffman,
Behavior
in Public Places (3-30)
Bednar,
Interior
Pedestrian Places (Chap. 1)
Gehl,
Life
Between Buildings (Chap. 4)
Whyte,
City
(103-141)
Video:Social
Life of Small Urban Spaces
Discussion:Public
activity in the digital age
Nov.
2STUDENT PRESENTATIONSWashington,
DCanalyses
Nov.9LARGE
CITY CASE STUDYSan
Francisco, California
MEDIUM
CITY CASE STUDYPortland or Denver
Readings:San
Francisco Urban Design Plan
Nov.
16SMALL CITY CASE STUDYCharlottesville,
Virginia
Readings:Urban
Design Plan,
Carr/Lynch, 1989
Bednar,
“The Modern Era of Urban Design in
Charlottesville,”
Colonnade,
Vol. VIII
Walking
Tour: Charlottesville
Mall and Court Square
Nov.
23THANKSGIVING
Nov.
30NORMATIVE THEORYVitality,
Sense, Fit, Access, Control
CIVIC
REALISMWell grounded contemporaneity
Reading:Lynch,
Good
City Form (Part II, 243-271)
Kostof,
The
City Assembled (Ch. 5)
Balfour,
Berlin:
The Politics of Order (skim)
Rowe,
Civic
Realism, (Chapter 6198-227)
Video:Back
from the Brink
Discussion:Course
summary: the well designed city
Dec.
7PRESENTATIONS:Design
Concept Problem
STUDENT
WORK
Each
student will be required to complete three assignments to be submitted
in written form: Book Review, Urban PlaceAnalysis and Design Concept
Problem. The instructor will review these submissions and provide written
evaluations. Each of them will be 25% of the course requirement andgrade.
Active
participation
in the class is also a requisite and the remaining 25% of the course grade.This
includes the required videos, selected required readings and participation
in the debates and discussions held in class. Much of the material presented
is in the form of slide lectures which can only be obtained through mandatory
class attendance.
BOOK
REVIEW
Each
student should write a critical review of a book from the following list.
Other books from the Bibliography which put forth a point of view, as opposed
to formal content, can also be reviewed with the instructor’s approval.
The 1000 word review should not summarize the book but rather offer an
appraisal of its value to an urban designer. How do the concepts and content
of this book aid our ability to design humanistic cities? Placing this
book’s content into the context of other similar subject matter on urban
design would be a useful introduction to the book.
Each
student will be asked to make a critical commentary on thechosen
book during a given class. What issues does the book address regarding
urban design theory or knowledge?
Death
and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs (1961)
Design
of Cities, EdmundBacon (1968)
Design
with Nature, Ian McHarg (1969)
Collage
City, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter (1978)
Image
of the City, Kevin Lynch (1960)
City:
Discovering the Center,William
Whyte (1988)
The
Next Metropolis;
Peter Calthorpe (1993)
The
City Shaped ,
Spiro Kostof (1991)
The
City Assembled,
Spiro Kostof (1992)
The
City in History,
Lewis Mumford (1961)
Civic
Realism,
Peter Rowe (1997)
The
New Urbanism,
Peter Katz (1994)
URBAN
PLACE PROJECT
The
role of urban places in the city is undergoing considerable change in our
era. As a culture, we are reconsidering the relevance of public encounters
and activities, the value ofpublic
life. The electronic age has brought new challenges to the validity of
public space as the locus for socialization and the need for pedestrian
movement.
When
Pierre Charles L’Enfant planned the city of Washington, he established
public spaces at critical points and joined them together with streets
and avenues to create a web-like urban infrastructure. As a focus for the
monumental core, he designated a “Grand Avenue” (today’s Mall) to relate
the “Congress Garden” to the “President’s Park”. This generosity of public
space and avenues is the hallmark of the city, the basis for its beauty
and grandeur. Many of these spaces have survived well and are cherished
by citizens and visitors alike. Others have eroded or disappeared, the
victims of traffic planning, social conditions or uncontrolled development.
The
focus of the class study project for this term will be the Washington,
DC Mall including the Capitol and Whitehouse.The
project is funded by a Teaching Initiative Grant from the Office of the
Provost.
The
Mall area will be divided into segments with two person teams conducting
the following analyses:
1.
Evolution:
How has this space evolved to its present form? Complete figure
ground
diagramsfor 1900, 1925, 1950, 1975
and 2000 to depict the historical development.
2.
Context:
What is the present area context in terms oftraffic,
land uses and population? Are there good views to or from this space?
3.
Form and Design:
What is the geometric form and dimensional proportion of this space? Describe
the architectural frame which defines the space through a series of cross
sections and facade studies. Whatdefines
the present design of this context in terms ofstreet
furniture, lights, trees, landscape, etc.
4.
Pedestrian Uses:
What activities occur in this space throughout the hours of the day and
the days of the week? Who are the participants?
5.
Critique:
What are the positive and/or negative characteristics of this space in
terms of urban design? What pressures for change will occur? What public
improvements do you recommend?
Each
team will make a class presentation of the results of this study
using slides, maps and drawings.
These
results should also be presented in a written report with supporting
graphic documentation. The report should make specific reference to
the concepts and readings discussed in the class.
SECTION
I
of the report should be presented in the format utilized for the Washington
Urban Places web site (http://arch.virginia.edu/dcplaces/)developed
previously. Graphics and text should besubmitted
in “camera ready” form so that they can be directly utilized for a Washington
Mall web site.
SECTION
IIof
the report should address the five areas of analysis. Itshould
also include additional material gathered during the course of this study
including slides, maps, photos, drawings, sanborns, etc.
You
should make extensive use of the bibliography, the Washingtoniana Section
of the Martin Luther King Libraryat
9th and G Streets. There are many articles and book chapters
writtenabout the architecture of
Washington, DC Mall as given in the bibliography.
Here
are some web sites which will prove useful to you in your research.
National
Capitol Parks:http://www.nps.gov/nacc/
Index
of Mall Maps:http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/mall/index.html
Capitol
Project @ UVA:http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/cap_home.html
Chad
Allen DC Maps:http://www.mindspring.com/~chadallen/dc/layers/
World
Aerial Photos:http://www.terraserver.com/
Extending
the Legacy:http://www.ncpc.gov/planning.html/
Virtual
DC:http:www.planet9.com/indexnetscape.html
UNIVERSITY
OF VIRGINIA-SCHOOL
OF ARCHITECTURE
DESIGN
OF CITIESMichael
Bednar
DESIGN
SKETCH PROBLEM - AIRPORT ROAD
Airports
have become significant focal points in the development of late twentieth
century commerce and technology. They provide the vital link to national
and international expertise and marketing. They also serve as shipping
points for technological manufacturers, computer software and specialized
consumer products. A good example is the burgeoning development around
Dulles Airport in northern Virginia. America Online, MCI and numerous other
computer industries have located near there resulting in the development
of Dulles Center and rapid housing growth in Loudoun County.
In
Charlottesville, the airport terminal and runways were recently expanded
as an inducement to high technology development. The University of Virginia
Real Estate Foundation has initiated a large industrial park known as North
Fork near the airport. Crutchfield Corporation, distributor of electronic
components, is located across from the airport and a new U. S. Postal Service
facility has just been completed on Airport Road.
The
approach to Charlottesville along Airport Roadis
so abysmal in its image it makes visitors want to turn around and get back
on the airplane. This approach has been developed in a totally ad-hoc manner
without any vision and little respect for the natural setting.The
results are a confusing place without spatial order. What should this approach
be if it is to function as a primary entry road to Charlottesville?
The
junction of Airport Road and Route 29 is developing as a significant node
in Albemarle County termed Intersectionville by planner William Lucy. In
the last decade, the community of Forest Lakes has been built in the southeast
quadrant with a shopping center and day care center. Martha Jefferson Hospital
has recently built a branch in the northeast quadrant of this intersection
but without any connection to it because there is a bank in front of it.
The north west and south west quadrants have the usual disarray of highway
strip development.
The
comprehensive plan, zoning plan and land-use plan of Albermare County can
do little to direct these projects. An urban design plan is needed to coordinate
this developmentinto a coherent
node and corridor.
Assume
you have been retained by Albemarle County as an urban design consultant
to prepare a report regarding the future of this urbanized zone. Assume
you were developing the design a decade ago.What recommendations would
you make for developing or redeveloping Route 649 (Airport Road) from the
airport to Route 29 (approximately 4400 feet) including the node at this
intersection?Assume an access road
to North Fork and a new road south from that intersection.
How should the elements along
Airport Road havebeen arranged to
create a humanistic urban place?New
buildings should also be added and some may need to be removed. Add a multi-screen
cinema, hotel, offices, neighborhood shopping and multi-family housing.
Airport Road should be widened to four lanes(100
foot right of way) and realigned to provide a better approach to the airport.
(The Dulles Airport approach road by landscape architect Dan Kiley is a
superb example) Streetscape improvements in the form of landscaping, signage,
lighting, trees, sidewalks, etc. should be considered. Develop both a theoretical
design concept and detailedrecommendations.
Each
student should submit the following:
Report:
A 1500 word report (6 double spaced pages) which presents an analysis of
design problems in this area as well as a conceptual design approach. This
should be supported with photographs and/or diagrams. References to class
readings and presentations should be made to support your proposals.
Sketch
Plan:A
sketch plan of the area (1” =200’) showing the proposed final scheme including
new buildings, landscaping, trees, streetscape, etc. with color and labels.
Road sections at a larger scale should be included.
When
you arrive for your twenty-fifth reunion at UVA, on your private jet, and
drive down Airport Road, what would you like to see along this approach
route? Will this approach corridor provide a satisfying visual and spatial
sense of arrival to the City of Charlottesville?
