Public Place/Public Process

Course of Action

If criticism is a method that gets to the truth, then so be it. But, when it does not, then what? The Urban Design Discussion group put together a “Public Place Public Process” to get started on engagement methods.  After all, criticism begins and ends with a public that is by many accounts in a coma.  This link opens up a 40 page summary of submissions to an Urban Design Committee. It is a PowerPoint (2.4M pdf): San Antonio Presentation.

The Urban Design discussion combines the thinking of planners, designers, and architects to accomplish one thing – to move social and environmental equity forward on the nation’s list of priorities.  The solution to the global challenge is urban.

In 2006, fifty projects identified by New York Magazine (NYM) offered a start by scrunching some of the world’s best architects into a group to stimulate the mind’s eye.

The signatures are clear in the image pictured left. There is coherence as individuality but could an advanced public process improve it as a statement ” of a larger community?”

The lack of reciprocity between the tightly defined images of the developer’s market image research and the experience of the public.

The following examples (1-5 or more) will require ongoing review.  As Brooklyn’s northwest coast begins to develop, we expect it to reveal a new public realm in a receding industrial waterfront.

Community pressure produced a demand for inclusionary housing bonuses to exact 20% to 30% of the units as affordable in Brooklyn and opened the gate for the first expansion of the General Exclusion Area, formally known as the Manhattan Exclusion Zone.  (Note: all maps are by Jason Lee for New York Magazine)

1. The Edge: Stephen B. Jacobs; master plan by FXFOWLE and TEN Arquitectos, September 2008  (view NYC Construction Top Projects pdf: here) Scaled back from 1.5 million to 1….  what else?
2. Palmer’s Dock: FXFOWLE, phase one, 2008; phase two, 2009  (Impact of tax credits on design discussion in Journal of Tax Credits pdf article: here
3. North 8: Greenberg Farrow Architecture, spring 2007
4. Domino Sugar Site: Rafael Vinoly Architects, no completion date.  The story at this link must be a hoax: Hoax?
5. Schaefer Landing:  Karl Fischer Architects, 2006

SEE: Sites 6 – 17: Lower Manhattan