It Fakes a Village
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30 CITE 66 i SPRING 2006 K < N x •: r «,.^. BEAUTX uft-Bm-lorn it It Fakes a Village B Y D A I S Y K O N E "The 20th century ti'iis ahuut getting this open space evolved into the agora, a quarter mile radius of the school's around. The 21st century trill he about town plaza, or square. location at Westheimer and Woodhead. staying in it place worth staying in." While I louston lacks an abundance Sidewalks are included within the public — James Kuntsler of pla/as and squares, this doesn't mean frontage of the streets, while the grounds we can't have a vibrant public realm of the school provide a type of park or ASIDE FROM THE splendid gift of I lermatm defined by the street. Street patterns are open space. Westheimer Road to the Park, with its perpetual endowment ol the framework for some of the most north is lined with restaurants, bars, LMininnn.il grace, the puhlit realm i>l desirable urban places ever built, such as and shops. Westheimer's widening over Houston is, for the most parr, the street. those found in Savannah, New York (ary, tune to four lanes has compromised the I ike mam cities whost development Mt. Carmel, or Princeton. Hut Houston's original pedestrian environment, but tins occurred primarily after World War [I, urban places arc formed by streets and is mitigated by parallel parking on the I louston lacks the urbanity that makes public frontages designed to the standards street, which provides both a traffic calm- Charleston or San Francisco so beguiling. ol the suburb, a place whose very exis- ing effect anil a buffer that makes those For the last 50 years, almost without fail, tence depends on the car. These standards who choose to walk rather than drive feel we have built Houston's urban plates make the street's primary purpose the safer. The older buildings that were once primarily tor the convenience of cars and delivery ol a car to a parking lot, whose grocery stores, gas stations, jm\ simps trucks. In doing so, we have unwittingly overpowering prominence makes many remain commercial, and are open to the nurtured a quality that fosters a dull of our favorite I louston places simply street with porches or storefronts. Many ambivalence to our own culture, a cul- conduits to destinations, not destinations neighborhood residents chouse to walk ture that evolved in part from our com- on their own. The only important experi- from their homes to shop or eat, a choice munal experiences within a human-scaled ences occur inside the buildings, rarely made in the (lalleria area, a place public domain. with no lack of shopping and dining dc\ City forms evolved from the pattern The Measure of Urbanism filiations and one also replete with condo- of shelters grouped around an open, com- Places in I louston do exist where experi- miniums lull of potential pedestrians. munal area. I he vital functions ol food ences include not just the destination, but The difference between the two neigh- preparation, policy making, childcare, and also what might happen along the way to borhoods is that in the one around lamer weapons manufacturing were performed it. One o f these is the narrow street grid Middle School, the one with walkers, the in the open area, making it more impor- around Lanier Middle School, A mixture phenomenon ol the Pedestrian Shed is still tant than the surrounding shelters. Later, of homes and shopping is louiul within working. The Pedestrian Shed, codified CITE 66 ; SPRING 2006 31 m » , : Finding a place worth walking in Houston isn't impossible, but it isn't easy .is .i design tool of the New Urbanism, determined by Vitruvuis. The measure ol is equivalent to a five-minute walk or a each part is a function of its relationship y ^ distance of 1.41)0 feet (a quarter mile). to the whole. From this we know a palm ' Comma cul I iHnj|:T:"*K In general, this is the distance people are is the width of four lingers, the length ot .* willing to walk to reach a destination. a man's outspread arms equals his height, I in anything exceeding tills, we tend to the length of the hand is one-tenth the go hack to our cars. This phenomenon height, and so on. The symmetry and har- can be observed in many existing situa- monic relationships so clearly illuminated W^"1 ' Wttmwvv Hd tions. Anchor stores in shopping malls are in the drawing were incorporated over placed accordingly. In many I'uropean cit- and over again into Renaissance architec- hft«iN.«i - PI ies, pubs are situated at points separated tural proportions. In tins distance. I Ins is also the bask The Pedestrian Shed, like the Golden IH]1IIH-HLJ| standard tor the placement of Starbucks Mean or Golden Section (proportioning cafes along Madison Avenue. From histor- ratio of 1:1.618), is universally found. It . - I..I ic American neighborhoods to European is as observable in the traditional urban .1. • >. I villages, this measure is a constant both environment as the Pibonnacei Series is ft AUBi»m.ai rational and empirical, in nature. The square mile containing T I In- Pedestrian Shed is a simple mea- Lanier Middle School as its center is a sure, like the two finger width between good example, and is abutted hy several Opposite page, t o p : lew-way Mops, eyebrow and brim that determines the other such square mile areas that more or single-depth purkmg, and short blocks correct placement of a cowboy hat. Think less adhere to this principle. I Tins, when slow dawn luiflii in Rue Village, allowing pedestrians a sense ol solely. of it as the urban equivalent of Vitruvian employed as a canon for planning, the Top: The single crosswalk thar tcHinech the Man. This famous drawing by Leonardo 1,4(10 loot maximum distance that should two sides ol Highland Village tan be daunting to pedcsltians. whs hove to conlconi tats da Vinci, depicting a male figure in two be between destinations sets the "neigh- moving quickly along on otteiiol sheet superimposed positions with his arms borhood" boundaries. As in the Lanier Above: K diagmm of the Pedeslnan Shed uiiiounding I mum Middle School, indicating, apart, circumscribed in a circle within a example, each "neighborhood" is planned the distnnce people me willing to will square, is also referred to .is the C anon ol with an accessible center (a park, shops, (a icoch a destination, and the dilleienl rtcsti notions nvmlnble willnn ibnl [famine Proportions. Da Vinci made the drawing i school). Walking from home to the post to study the male body measurements as office, the library, the school, or the shops TAPAS RESTAURANT & BAR iAMPT^ ;c* In Riie Village, a closely connected mix ol retail and setvice businesses, along with a good supply ol restauionts. gives shoppers a reason ID stoy out ol theii cais and on thsii leet provides s o c i a l c o n t a c t . S u c h s o c i a l c o n - over of a calligraphic shroud that encodes tute facsimiles. Hence we append certain they might possibly ger over there. tact within the Shed is further supported uses and limitations. The codes are hiero- nomenclature—village, plaza, courtyard, A small plaza sits in front of the by the human scale of buildings, whose glyphs, powerful as symbols bur dispos- square, meadow, woods, plantation. grouping, completing an assembly whose frontages accommodate not just sidewalks sessed when translated into real actions. 1 colony—to contemporary built forms. entirety is, for the most part, viewed by wide enough tor two people to walk tend to agree with Andres Duany's com- Meyerland Plaza, Highland Village, and people in cars speeding along Westheimer. abreast in both directions, but .ilsn con- ment on the failure ot planning as pro- First Colony arc actually nothing of the As it this were not enough visual stinnila- veniently located benches, lighting, and cess: When the |ob seems loo difficult, the son. Yet bizarrely, we accept these appel- rion for the cars, an enormous berm is landscaping, all ot which help to make tool is probably wrong. lations despite the discrepancy. Does this currently being constructed on either side walking desirable and secure. Buildings Huckmmster Fuller once said that reveal some crack in the psychology of of the sculpture plaza with the words should be permeable, with large windows when he was working on a problem he individual and collective identity? Or is it •'Highland" on one side and "Village" on allowing views into their interior, where never thought about beauty, he mil) merely nostalgia? the other. The letters are set at an angle, food, goods, and activity entice people thought about solving the problem. Me To extend the question, consider the once again for the viewpoint of passing to come inside. Most important, the also said that when he arrived at a solu- purpose of a shopping center name: that motorists, although a better vantage point assembly of the street, public frontage, tion, if ir was not beautiful he knew it ot improving customer capture ratio and might be from the air. Thus the Village's and buildings is conceived as a unified was wrong. Charles Bold, director of the brand recognition. Nostalgia is frequent l\ only example of public art and public- whole, with the geometry ot the cross Knight C entei *..i I rb in Studn s n tin called upon for the job.