URBAN DESIGN AND HOUSING FUTURES

Heaven forbid that Architects have to suffer further injustices. After scanning the Sunday LA TIMES the following three articles jolted my sensibilities.

The first was a story of a “commercial artist” Thomas Kinkade of Santa Cruz and his paintings. Imagine that this Californian is one who is making millions by getting other “artists” to touch-up historic reproductions of his pretty vistas. Then imagine again that Californians have turned this awful trend into real life, as an upscale development, and 300 "nuts and raisins"are visiting the patterned homes in Vallejo each weekend. For all these curious gawkers one can choose from 110 designs done by English architect Taylor Woodrow. Plans from 1,800 to 2,600 square feet sit on 4,000 square foot lots. Just cough up $400, 000 and one of these apparitions is yours.

The second was a story of “false stone veneers.” Imagine a thin veneer of lightweight, synthetic sandstone applied to a new concrete block wall. Tract home developers from Corona Del Mar to Rancho Santa Fe are trying faux stone, limestone amongst dozens of manufactured stone veneers. This next building fad to be sent to the rest of the world as made in California does not deserve more words. Let’s Disney-Up every possible building!

The third story is about the 18 ocean view lots on 6.3 acres in Laguna Beach. Environmentalists are worrying about it’s effects on an adjacent 209-acre wilderness parcel even when a lineal park buffers it. The violation seems to be illegal grading. No documents have been found.

My surprise lately was traveling south toward Malibu on Hwy 101 and observing the grading done to allow for an amazing amount of mega-housing developments. These altercations – housing versus natural parkland -- will never end. How to balance man made versus natural conservation seems to be a loosing set of skirmishes on a major battlefield. Property development rights for the individual are winning in the short term over the plight of natural landscapes for all in the long term.

A solution might be to stretch advertising sheaths over buildings much like Golden Empire Transit has done on their transit buses. One cannot but admire a clothing designer doing this on his building! Maybe Bakersfield can be brightened by such an effort. Let’s start the trend!

BY Graham Kaye-Eddie – Master Urban Designer.

Makabusi Inc. – Bakersfield – California

Email – makabusi@pacbell.net

The Ranstad Deltametropolis / Interactive Megalopolis

November 26th 2001

This past April 30th, we featured a story about The Netherlands, the New Economy and the need for a new transportation technology capable of converting existing intercity travel markets into time, cost, and convenience equivalent mass transit markets.

Well on the 31st of May, The Economist ran a stimulating article on the possibility that the Dutch may reverse the policy encouraging self-contained urban nodes to pursue a policy of urban dispersal. This new policy closely resembles the land use planning principal of the Interactive Megalopolis that the Magplane Commuter System is designed to achieve: centralized urban cores within a decentralized and interconnected network of urban nodes.

In 1998, local councils from the cities and towns that make up the Ranstad decided to treat the urban settlements of this region not as individual self-contained cities but as a single large conurbation. Called Deltametropolis this region of 6 million people, hopes to combat urban sprawl while improving transport between cities. This notion of improving transport links between urban nodes runs contrary to conventional urban and transportation planning orthodoxy. Certainly, the new urbanism movement discourages improved transportation links because of the dispersal effect on land development patterns. Why then, the policy reversal by the Dutch?

For years, The Netherlands maintained an urban growth policy that channels urban development into new towns and cities such as Almere and Leylstad to discourage existing metropolitan areas like Amsterdam from exploding outward. The policy has not been successful because, “People and money go where people and money are” according to urban economists. While Almere and Leylstad were planned to become self-contained cities, much like the Garden Cities of Ebenezer Howard, they have instead become dormitory suburbs of Amsterdam.

In the New Economy, urban economies will become evermore specialized increasing the interdependence between urban nodes while creating new urban economic clusters. For the Dutch, Amsterdam is the center of tourism and finance, Ultrecht in services, The Hague the center of government while Rotterdam relies on its port to drive the local economy.

To promote economic interdependence, the Dutch are examining the benefits and potential pratfalls of urban dispersal but without incurring the land development consequences associated with urban sprawl. To do this, they will have to improve the rail and road links within the Ranstad without endangering the massive “green heart” of the farmland and ecologically sensitive flood plains in the region interior. Can it be done?

(Source: The Economist, May 31st, 2001)

In the article from The Economist, the Dutch are relying on a two-pronged approach:

1. Reduce commuting travel times between any two points to less than one hour.

2. Enforce strict zoning ordinances to restrict the building of residences, employment centers and retail establishments in existing urban nodes.

If a collective transportation mode could be relied upon to transport the vast majority of commuters, a centralized pattern of urban development could be influenced far more successfully. Limiting station access and egress times will influence property developers to locate new developments near stations.

Road transport on the other hand as we have learned in the United States particularly in the Southwest, encourages a far more decentralized urban development pattern. And it is unlikely that road transport improvements in The Netherlands will be able to handle such large traffic volumes while limiting urban commuting to less than one hour.

The Dutch have worked closed with the German Transrapid Maglev system to try to convert this intercity transportation technology for urban travel. However as reported in our story of April 30th, the Transrapid technology is not sufficiently developed to provide urban commuting service.

Because the Magplane Commuter System is specifically designed to convert existing intercity travel markets into time, cost, and convenience equivalent intracity commuting markets, this system would be perfectly suited to promote increased interdependence between the urban nodes of this region while protecting the “Green Heart” of the Ranstad.

This article is drawn from Richard Zavergiu the author sharing comments about Magplane and it's applicability to this new regional transportation need with similar populations all over the world. You may read more articles of his on these changes on the Magplane web page. www.magplane.com

Please visit the April 30th story and The Economist article.

Using Empirical Information to Measure

Volume 1: Review of Literature, Data Sources, and Information Needs Volume 2: Guidelines for Data Collection and Analysis

March 2001

One sincerely hopes that the ALL POWERFUL local Technology Committee directing the URS Consultants on the Bakersfield Freeway Corridor Study have a good explanatory story ready for our Kern COG, County Board and City Council decision makers as well as us Bakerfolks, which fully explains the impacts of their final recommendations. One sincerely hopes that all these experts have at least read these above documents and fully understand the consequences of the final route choices in detail.

Maglev looks south

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