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Skywalks as Heritage: Exploring Alternatives for the Cincinnati Skywalk System

A thesis submitted to

Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF COMMUNITY PLANNING

School of Planning College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning

August 2009

By SILVIA GUGU Bachelor of Urban Design, Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urban Design, Bucharest

Thesis Committee: Chair: MAHYAR AREFI, Ph. D. Faculty Member: FRANK RUSSELL, AIA. Abstract

Skywalks are a unique typology of second level covered pedestrian networks linking parking and downtown destinations. They were implemented throughout North American cities to attract pedestrians and sustain retail in central business districts. The relative rarity of skywalk systems (Robertson 1994), their relevance to the particularities of American urban design history

(Fruin 1971; Robertson 1994) and their position at the intersection of major concerns of the 20th century American city: traffic (Fruin 1971; Robertson 1994), downtown revitalization

(Robertson 1994), and identity (McMorough 2001) provided the departure point for examining skywalks as 20th Century heritage.

As the viability of skywalks is questioned, this paper employs a toolkit based on the theory and values of heritage preservation to evaluate skywalks as built heritage. The results are used to determine appropriate management solutions that utilize the significance of skywalks to take them into a new cycle of sustainability through re-use and preservation.

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Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables v

Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Purpose of the Study 1 1.2 Problem Statement 2 1.3 Research Questions 5 1.4 Document Roadmap 7

Chapter 2. Literature Review 10 2.1 What is Heritage? 10 2.2 Preservation of the Built Heritage 13 2.2.1 A Conceptual Definition 13 2.2.2 The Origins of Preservation 16 2.2.3 Historic Preservation in America 22 2.2.4 Preservation of the Recent Past 25 2.3 Values and Criteria for Evaluation of Built Heritage 29 2.4 Criteria for Evaluation of Skywalk Systems 32

Chapter 3. Methodology 40 3.1 Nature of the Study 41 3.2 Values and Criteria for Evaluation 41 3.3 Research of Thematic/Historic Context 42 3.4 Case Study 44 3.5 Data 48 3.6 Limitations 48

Chapter 4. Identification of Skywalks’ Areas of Significance and Precedents 50 4.1 Pedestrian Networks and Their Evolution 50 4.2 Skywalks and Downtown Revitalization 63 4.3 Precedents of the Skywalk Typology 67 4.3.1 Covered Bazaars 68 4.3.2 Shopping Arcades 71 4.3.3 Shopping Malls 76 4.4 Comparative Analysis 79

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Chapter 5. The Case of the Cincinnati Skywalk 82 5.1 The Plans and Designs for the Cincinnati Skywalk System 83 5.2 Evaluations of the System’s Performance 91 5.3 Public Perception of the Cincinnati skywalk 97 5.4 Analysis and Findings 101 5.4.1 Historic-Informational Value 101 5.4.2 Symbolic Value 103 5.4.3 Use Value 104 5.4.4 Aesthetic Value 106 5.4.5 Social Value 109

Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations 112 6.1 The Cincinnati Skywalk System in the Light of Heritage 112 6.2 Skywalks as Heritage 118 6.3 Recommendations for the Evaluation, Preservation and Reuse of Skywalks 120

References 123

Appendices 133 Appendix A The Cincinnati Skywalk Bridges 133 Appendix B Serial View: The Cincinnati Skywalk Experience 136

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List of Figures and Tables

Figures

Figure 2.1 Is everything heritage? 11 Figure 2.2 Preservation’s scope and role expansion through time 21 Figure 2.3 Graphic showing the relationship of the invention of modern preservation to other modern inventions 21 Figure 2.4 Recurrent values in heritage preservation 32 Figure 3.1 Methodology flowchart 40 Figure 3.2 Thematic/Historic research and precedent analysis 43 Figure 4.1 Bazaar of Tabriz, Iran, founded 2nd millennium BC. 51 Figure 4.2 Trajan’s Market, Rome, built 107-110 51 Figure 4.3 Via Appia had dirt pathways for sidewalks, 312 B.C. 51 Figure 4.4 The purple lines indicate the Rows 52 Figure 4.5 Chester Rows around 1800 52 Figure 4.6 Grosvenor Shopping Centre served by second level walkways, Chester, UK 53 Figure 4.7 Second-level walkways, Chester, UK 53 Figure 4.8 Il Corridoio Vasariano 53 Figure 4.9 Route of Corridoio Vasariano 54 Figure 4.10 Corridoio Vasariano between Palazzo Vecchio and the Uffizi Galleries 54 Figure 4.11 Passage Choiseul, Paris 1829 55 Figure 4.12 Passage des Panoramas, Paris 1910 55 Figure 4.13 Crystal Palace, London 1951 56 Figure 4.14 Ebenezer Howard, Garden City. Grand Avenue, 1902, in Garden Cities of To-morrow 57 Figure 4.15 Lijnbaan, Rotterdam 1954 58 Figure 4.16 Louis I. Kahn’s sketch of Viaduct Architecture over the existing plan of central Philadelphia 59 Figure 4.17 Alison and Peter Smithson, with Peter Sigmond. Berlin Haupstadt, competition entry 1957-1958 59 Figure 4.18 Archigram, Plug-In City 59 Figure 4.19 Diagram showing types of pedestrian networks 68 Figure 4.20 Map of the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul 69 Figure 4.21 The old bazaar in Isfahan 69 Figure 4.22 Prayers in the bazaar 70 Figure 4.23 Nineteenth Century: With the Parisian arcade system, shopping becomes an urban network 73 Figure 4.24 The Vittorio Emmanuelle Gallery 75 Figure 4.25 Cleveland Arcade 75 Figure 4.26 The dumbbell versus the cluster: pedestrian circulation patterns within the malls 78 Figure 5.1 Proposed circulation plan, with pedestrian conveyors illustrated in red 84 Figure 5.2 Typical conveyor terminal 85

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Figure 5.3 Aerial view of Southdale Mall 87 Figure 5.4 Southdale Mall, interior, 1956 87 Figure 5.5 Map of the Minneapolis skywalk system 87 Figure 5.6 Minneapolis skywalk, interior 87 Figure 5.7 Plan of the skywalk system as projected for Cincinnati 2000 89 Figure 5.8 Cincinnatians say the skywalk should remain as is 97 Figure 5.9 Skywalk bridge concealing bland street view 107 Figure 5.10 View blocked by skywalk bridge and signage 107 Figure 6.1 Bridge between Carew Tower and Lazarus 114 Figure 6.2 View of the Ohio River from the skywalk over Vine Street 115 Figure 6.3 The Cincinnati skywalk as a place 116 Figure 6.4 Design aesthetic varies among skywalks: skywalk bridge in Detroit 120

Tables

Table 2.1 Key authors discussed in the literature review 8 Table 3.1 Criteria for use value 46 Table 3.2 Criteria for aesthetic value 47 Table 4.1 List of cities with notable skywalk systems 66 Table 5.1 Evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system based on use criteria 103 Table 5.2 Evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system based on aesthetic criteria 106

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Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 Purpose of the Study

This project seeks to explore skywalks through the lens of built heritage, in the larger

context of North American and world-wide history of pedestrian network design. The relative

rarity and uniqueness of skywalk systems (Robertson 1994) as well as their relevance to the particularities of American urban design history (Fruin 1971; Robertson 1994) and to the local communities in which they occur provided the departure point for starting an investigation on the premise of heritage. There are no studies that discuss skywalks from a heritage perspective, and there is little literature on skywalks in general.

Built heritage is part of the residents’ sense of place, the tangible manifestation of the identity of a place and a physical expression of the people’s cultural heritage (Schuster, de

Monchaux and Riley 1997). Even though it is often taken for granted by the citizens, it is in the subconscious of people living there and provides a daily sense of belonging and security. The residents quickly notice any major change in their built environment. There are more and more studies in contemporary urban sociology that demonstrate that the role of the built environment and its collective representations play an important part in attempts to alter or maintain the physical form and spatial configuration of the built environment. It is also a well established fact that the preservation and integration of built heritage in local (re) development plans enhances the quality of a place and provides numerous benefits, from cultural and aesthetic, to social and economic (Schuster, de Monchaux and Riley 1997).

Skywalks are the heritage of major transforming facets of the 20th century American city: traffic (Fruin 1971; Robertson 1994), downtown revitalization (Robertson 1994), and

1 identity (McMorough 2001). The complexity of their position should require more examination.

A product of the Urban Renewal policies of the 1960’s and 1970’s (Robertson 1994), they are a typology unique to North American downtowns (Robertson 1994) designed to stimulate their growth, help them cope with the expanding car culture and respond to the trends created by sprawl and suburbia (Robertson 1994; Boddy 1992). Skywalks consist of second level pedestrian networks connecting parking structures with regional destinations downtown (shopping, conference centers, hotels, stadiums) and are meant to attract pedestrians and sustain retail in central business districts (Fruin 1971; Alexander 1974). Other similar pedestrian networks, devised for retail areas and segregated from vehicular traffic, such as bazaars, arcades, and even abandoned malls, continue to be maintained, even if they are outdated, on the premise that they constitute important built heritage of the community and serve as active catalysts of local development (MacKeith 1986).

The purpose of this effort is to offer a framework for putting skywalks in a wider historic and spatial perspective and for considering alternatives that highlight and exploit their significance.

1.2 Problem Statement

The impetus for taking a closer look at skywalks was generated by the surprise of seeing the Cincinnati skywalk, which has mobilized substantial resources for construction - more than

16 million dollars (The Enquirer, 1 June 2003) - and additional resources for maintenance, and scored high popularity within the local and visitor population (Forusz 1980; Robertson 1994;

The Enquirer, 1 June 2003), to be partially demolished only three decades later with no serious preliminary studies (Healy 2005; 3CDC 2005).

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The reasons invoked for the demolition were that the skywalk drains the pedestrian flow

from the street, segregates people by class and race and shades the areas below (3CDC 2005).

These criticisms have been frequently associated with skywalk systems during the past few years. They are to be found in articles and studies written after 1990, riding the waves of panic

that followed the failure of such pedestrianization strategies to revitalize downtowns with deeper rooted problems and rendering skywalks obsolete (Robertson 1994; Boddy 1992).

The Cincinnati Skywalk system, started in 1964, was implemented as a redevelopment tool for the downtown area (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958). Skywalks were considered to help downtowns compete with suburban developments by promoting density, creating a new layer of commercial activity, and ensuring a safe, weather protected shortcut between retail locations and other activities (Robertson 1994). Skywalks were adopted by more than 20 cities of various sizes, climate, and geographic positions (Robertson 1994). While some of these cities successfully accomplished a vibrant downtown environment by applying various strategies in conjunction with the skywalk, some had deeper rooted problems they failed to address. Cincinnati was one of the cities whose downtown did not completely recover due to a multitude of factors that did not get the required attention. For that reason, the City is now considering other potential revitalization strategies – which involve the removal of the skywalk

(3CDC 2005). Other cities have taken down skywalk links as well: Baltimore removed several pieces of its skywalk around Charles Center, a downtown mix of shops, restaurants and entertainment (The Enquirer, 1 June 2003).

Obviously, the viability of skywalks is being re-examined. Like other typologies that emerged in response to the particular circumstances of the post World War II American city, such as the strip mall, enclosed suburban shopping center, ‘cookie-cutter’ Levittown and its

3 various incantations, highways, drive-ins, diners, and so on. Skywalks are no longer part of the trend: “They are artifacts of an earlier, 1964 World's Fair era, when convenience -- insulation from nature and from the urban hurly-burly -- was the great American goal, neurotically pursued” (TIME: Architecture & Design, 1 August 1988).

However, just as all of the above typologies are identified as heritage of the past century and their most significant examples preserved, skywalks should be at least examined from a heritage perspective before they are torn down completely. Redevelopment pressure is high today in many urban areas, which leads to rapid change and replacement of the existing built environment - as demonstrated by a number of specific building types which have almost disappeared: early gas stations, drive-in movie theaters and the first generation of Las Vegas casinos (Abele and Gammage Jr. 2000). For a long time, preservationists have relied on the passage of time to explain the significance of built heritage and be able to explain what elements of the past are worthy of preservation. But more recent resources are disappearing too rapidly to afford the luxury of allowing specified periods of time to pass before studying them (Shiffer

1995).

This work is taking a first step towards researching the significance of skywalks as recent past heritage. The major challenge associated with the resources of the recent past is that many of them are the product of phenomena, policies and trends that are labeled as “bad” and “wrong”

(Abele and Gammage Jr. 2000). In the case of skywalks, they are perceived as an outcome of automobile domination, sprawl and the suburbanization of downtowns (McMorrough 2001).

Because of that, such resources seem presumptively ineligible for preservation (Abele and

Gammage Jr. 2000). Yet even those who decry such phenomena and policies have a hard time arguing that they are insignificant. A majority of Americans embraced them just as many

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embraced the skywalks (The Enquirer, 1 June 2003). These phenomena and policies changed the

nature of American life and cannot be ignored (Abele and Gammage Jr. 2000).

1.3 Research Questions

“We Europeans change within changeless cities, and our houses and neighborhood

outlive us. American cities change faster than the inhabitants do, and it is the inhabitants

who outlive the cities… For us a city is, above all, a past; for them it is mainly a future;

what they like in the city is everything it has not become and everything it can be . . .

these cities that move at a rapid rate are not constructed in order to grow old, but move

forward like modern armies; encircling the islands of resistance they are unable to

destroy; the past does not manifest itself in them as it does in Europe through public

monuments, but through survivals . . . they are there simply because no one has taken the

time to tear them down, and as a kind of indication of work to be done.”

(Sartre’s comments on American cities soon after the World War II in Le Figaro, quoted

by Collins 1980, 87)

Sartre masterfully captured the difference a European experiences encountering

American cities. European cities are inconceivable without their heritage: showcased, staged and celebrated (Boyer 1994) in historic centers, it is their Alpha and Omega and their very identity.

In contrast, American cities, as the post-World War II boom rendered them and Sartre described them, are inconceivable without their constant change, growth and movement.

Paradoxically, even change passes on a heritage: there are plenty of sites and artifacts that are being preserved in American cities today, and they range from churches and memorial homes to gas stations, wartime housing, public-housing complexes, shopping centers, motels, parking lots and garages (Bronson and Jester 1997). 5

The dawn of the American preservation movement targeted objectives of historical interest and monumentality (Fitch 1982, Bluestone 1999, Collins 1980), just like in Europe. The academia disapproved of and found irrelevant most of these monuments, rooted in a “pseudo- tradition”, an “empty mannerism” or tribute to the dependence of the American businessmen on

European prototypes, as Walter Gropius put it (Bluestone 1999, 303). In the light of the differences between European and American cities that Sartre described, Gropius had a point. He was highlighting the difference between the old world culture and the emerging new world modern, dynamic identity. Decades later, preservationists did start to pay tribute to the modern and changing landscape of the post-World War II American City. But how can preservation avoid freezing “a human landscape which, by its very definition, resulted from dynamic, changing events” (Lewis 1975, 9 quoted by Schwarzer 1994).

This is the first question this study is trying to address, in the attempt to explain that preservation is a mean, not an end, and how it plays in the larger picture of a developing, transforming environment. The Cincinnati downtown area, where our case study is located, is still undergoing redevelopment and certainly needs improving. This study looks at the mechanisms of heritage preservation in order to tailor adequate alternatives for the Cincinnati skywalk system, turning it into a potential asset for the community.

Further, what is the significance of skywalks? Skywalks are indubitably a product of

“Urban Renewal” in all senses. Their design does not speak about permanence and their history is associated with a period of unfortunate transition. Unlike architecturally innovative, aesthetically stunning and historically re-assuring artifacts, and also being out of fashion, the significance of skywalks is not immediately obvious. However, researching their significance is paramount not only to preservation purposes but to redevelopment projects as well. Effective

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management of built heritage requires a clear understanding of what makes something significant

(and how that significance might be vulnerable).

Finally, can the evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk case study from a heritage

perspective inform alternatives for handling the system’s role in the city, and how? Once we

have established that the preservation of the built environment is a mean, and not an end, the

Cincinnati skywalk system can be re-examined in the light of new possibilities.

In summary, the present study answers the following questions:

1) How can preservation avoid freezing change and participate in development?

2) What is the significance of skywalks?

3) How can the evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk case study from a heritage

perspective help design alternatives for the system?

1.4 Document Roadmap

This research is structured in 6 chapters.

The first introduces the reader to the purpose of the study, the problem statement and the

research questions.

The second chapter is dedicated to literature review and has 4 sections. The first two

sections explore the meaning of heritage and the approaches of preservation practices, from its

origins to the present. This exploration intends to reveal the nuances that dwell under the

umbrella of preservation, a relatively limitative and conservative term, especially in the US

where the wide-spread terminology is “historic preservation”. The aim of these sections is to

build an understanding of preservation as an integral part of a changing world, precisely because

traditionally, preservation has been interpreted as an obstruction to development, which imposed

restrictions on the use of a property (Bluestone 1999). When it comes to heritage of the recent

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past, still in use, that perception of preservation is particularly harmful. However, if preservation is not understood as a separate direction of action but is integrated in a holistic view of the

environment, the obstacles are always erased by coordinating development and resource

conservation. The preservation of the recent past in particular displays a high flexibility in

dealing with its resources, adaptive reuse and value-based preservation allowing for a wide

variety of creative solutions that simultaneously preserve the memory of the place and make it a

destination for the future (Sande 1984).

Table 2.1 Key authors discussed in the literature review

Key Aspects Key Authors

Is everything heritage? LeBlanc, Fitch, Lowenthal

Heritage as commodity Kirshenblatt-Gimblett

Preservation roles Bianca, Lowenthal Proto-preservation and reuse of the Greek and Choay, Bratuleanu Roman artifacts French Revolution and national heritage: Babelon and Chastel, Loew, Boyer preservation of the religious and royal heritage International heritage and cultural heritage Bronson and Jester, ICOMOS

Preservation in the US: private enterprise Fitch, Kimball, Bluestone, Collins Bronson and Jester, ICOMOS, Sherfy and Preservation of the recent past Luce Values and criteria for the evaluation of built Riegl, Lipe, Laenen heritage Values and criteria for the evaluation of Fruin, Forusz, Robertson skywalk systems Source: Author

The third and fourth sections provide an overview of the values and criteria utilized in the

evaluation of built heritage in general and in the evaluation of skywalks in particular. These

values and criteria will be applied in the evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system.

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The fourth chapter establishes the area of significance – a thematic and historic sphere -

of skywalks as built heritage. Based on existing typological classifications of skywalks, this

chapter investigates their relevance to a centuries-old history of segregating pedestrian traffic, as well as to Urban Renewal pedestrianization strategies. Precedents are identified and analyzed in the context of heritage and preservation.

The fifth chapter zooms in on the case study provided by the Cincinnati skywalk, and examines its significance and heritage value according to the criteria derived from the literature review.

The final chapter summarizes the findings and recommendations of the research. These provide recognition to the role that heritage evaluation and approaches can contribute to designing alternatives for the built environment and suggest a framework for rethinking alternatives for the Cincinnati skywalk system that address its shortcomings. The case study evaluation clarifies the implications of designating skywalks as heritage and what may constitute potential challenges in pursuing their protection. Recommendations are also provided for designing preservation and reuse strategies for skywalks based on their significance.

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Chapter 2. Literature Review

2.1 What is Heritage?

Heritage, despite being a term with familiar connotations, has a versatile content. Its degree of significance is determined by individual and collective values that vary widely. “Its territory is fluid; its edges changing. Heritage is tied to values of history, aesthetics, and use; and these values evolve with changing epochs. Those charged with preserving heritage set aside for preservation the buildings and sites which our society does not yet "see" as valuable.” (Saint

Aubin 1990).

The high degree of subjectivity entailed by the notion of heritage frequently generates questions regarding its definition and coverage, what can be considered heritage and what cannot. François LeBlanc, in a lecture entitled “Is Everything Heritage?”, made an attempt to provide an answer that everybody understands, and placed heritage in the following tridimensional matrix:

“Put in simple terms, I explain that heritage is whatever each one of us individually or

collectively wish to preserve and pass on to the next generation. If we want to preserve

something, then it is our heritage. This of course varies quite a bit, depending on the

person or the group of persons expressing their interest. To explain the whole range

covered by heritage, I use the following three dimensional diagram” (LeBlanc 1993).

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Figure 2.1 Is everything heritage? Source: LeBlanc 1993 LeBlanc’s diagram places heritage at the intersection of two planes: people and values.

Depending on the scale of the community and its values, heritage slides on their intersection

axis, progressing from elements that are relevant to one individual towards elements that are

relevant to the whole world. This scheme suggests that the set of tools to examine and determine

the relevance of the heritage has to include a sensitive microscope, able to zoom in and out of the

context in which the heritage is crystallized and put into perspective.

It also argues that heritage is circumscribed by personal or collective values; therefore it

depends on the cultural circumstances which create these values. Because values change with

time and trends, heritage changes as well. That means that something we consider insignificant

today may become significant at a point in time, either by a change in values or by the mere

passing of time.

Either way, it seems safer to depart from the assumption that “everything is heritage” and

start eliminating after careful analysis what is redundant and/or irrelevant: “The artistic and

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historic patrimony is as immense and as complex as the whole physical environment itself. At once God- made and man-made, this environment is not merely the locus of the patrimony: very often, it is the patrimony itself” (Fitch 1976, 14). Present generations are temporary owners or

‘managers’ of heritage, who should adopt a prudent, respectful, sensitive attitude with as little as possible drastic and irreversible interventions on the resources (Ruskin 1989, Laenen 2007).

This ethic seems easier and easier to argue for in a world where globalization threatens local traditions and lifestyles, climate change affects the overall life of the planet, and awareness increases about natural and cultural resources: "That the natural heritage is global is now beyond dispute. Fresh water and fossil fuels, rain forests and gene pools are legacies common to us all and need all care. Cultural resources likewise form part of the universal heritage" (Lowenthal

1997 quoted by Blake 2000).

This, however, raises questions regarding how much of the material heritage can be kept and at what cost, since keeping it often requires costly interventions. In parallel with the

“everything is heritage” stand of preservationists like LeBlanc, Fitch, or Lowenthal, a more

prosaic expectation has developed that heritage, in order to be artificially kept, has to pay off not only culturally, but also economically: “There is pressure to see heritage as a commodity rather

than as a cultural resource” (Jamieson 1998, 65). According to Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,

after identification, evaluation, conservation, and celebration, heritage becomes a new form of

cultural production: “[Heritage] is a mode of cultural production in the present that has recourse

to the past. […] If heritage as we know it from the industry were sustainable, it would not require

protection. Heritage adds value to existing assets that have ceased to be viable (subsistence

lifestyles, obsolete technologies, abandoned mines, the evidence of past disasters) […] The

12 process of protection, of "adding value," speaks in and to the present, even if it does so in terms of the past.” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1995, 370)

In other words, Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett argues that heritage is an industry in itself, because it uses obsolete or quasi-extinct cultural resources as prime matter and turns them into something else, i.e. exhibits, instruments of learning about the past or the local culture, landmarks, or simply recycles them into newer artifacts or folklore. While the previous definitions present heritage as something that is already there, waiting to be discovered, her point of view encourages us to realize that we have an active role in the “production” of heritage in the way we preserve it and pass it over to the next generations.

2.2 Preservation of the Built Heritage

2.2.1 A Conceptual Definition

The preservation of the built heritage has an ample umbrella that has expanded from architectural preservation focused on the historic and aesthetic values of buildings, to elements of the built heritage that are more important through their associative qualities than the physical ones (Abele and Gammage Jr 2000). There is not only one understanding of this broad discipline, especially if we consider its outcomes, ranging from various types of restoration and re-use strategies to cultural tourism.

Therefore, what we are looking for a priori to the evaluation of the objects we are considering preserving or demolishing is not a prescriptive definition of preservation, it is a conceptual one. One that helps us define the purpose of going through an evaluation effort, what we are looking for and what course of action should be taken on a case by case basis.

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A good such definition is offered in “Preserving the Built Heritage: Tools for

Implementation”, edited by Schuster, de Monchaux and Riley, explaining how heritage

preservation represents society's quest for deeper values and meaning and “by transmitting their

messages through time, heritage assets can root contemporary societies, give them a sense of

place and continuity, and validate their deeper aspirations" (Bianca 1997, 16 -17).

The quest for deeper meaning and values makes preservation an ethical pursuit, a

rewarding effort that follows a process of evaluation. As Lowenthal highlights, the benefits of

preservation are numerous: it “endears the familiar, reaffirms purpose, validates custom,

enhances identity; it guides, enriches, and diversifies life” (Lowenthal 1989, 69). These aspects

clarify that preservation does not have economics as primary purpose, and even if heritage does

come to act as a commodity, its social, community-wide benefits exceed private benefits.

In order to go beyond these definitions and better explain preservation’s span, scope, and means, an overview of its milestones and transformations is to follow in the next sections. For structuring these sections a broad series of authors were reviewed.

For the purpose of this study, engaged in the delicate task of exploring the virtues of an abandoned and disgraced structure, an overview of the evolution of the preservation mentality and approaches from the oldest times – hence, also outside of the United States - was considered useful in order to refresh the research perspective. Choay (1998) and professor Bratuleanu’s course notes (published in 2008) provide information on the dawn of preservation, from antiquity to modern times; Babelon and Chastel (1994) and Loew (2004) present the genesis of the notion of heritage as articulated by revolutionary France; Boyer (1994) best explains the mechanisms of the cultural industry that turns heritage into a consumption category and manufactures its marketing mechanisms. Fundamental texts such as Alberti’s “De Re-Aedificatoria”, Riegl’s “The

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Modern Cult of Monuments. Its Character and Origin” and Ruskin’s “The Seven Lamps of

Architecture” were revisited as well.

A look at the historic preservation curricula in the United States found several, but

relatively aging texts. They include Fitch (1982), Stipe and Lee (1987), Murtagh (1997), and Lee

(1992). Of these, Fitch and Murtagh wrote comprehensive descriptions of historic preservation as

a field in the Journal of Planning Education and Research; the other two, both anthologies, were

stock-takings of the progress of the field since the passage of the National Historic Preservation

Act (NHPA) of 1966. All were written or edited by preservationists and focused primarily on

preservation in the United States. The newer work edited by Schuster, de Monchaux, and Riley,

(1997) complements these books by broadening the discussion of preservation to an international realm and focusing on implementation. Articles published by Bluestone, Kimball and Collins helped the most to portray the spirit, values and history of the American movement for preservation.

Finally, the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) and

DOCOMOMO (The International Committee for Documentation and Conservation of Buildings,

Sites and Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement ) web archives delivered the information on recent heritage preservation ( www.icomos.org and www.docomomo.com). In addition, Jester

(1995), Bronson and Jester (1997), and Schwarzer (1994) provided insight on philosophical and methodological matters central to the recent past preservation.

This “return to the origins” of preservation is intended to strip the dogmatic coat which often accompanies well established disciplines and introduce preservation as an act of common sense, genuinely performed on a case by case basis for centuries before it became institutionalized and universalized. In this overview we are trying to emphasize how preservation

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was part of major renewal processes throughout history, without impeding the development of

new trends and typologies, but rather emerging as an outcome of a changing world.

2.2.2 The Origins of Preservation

There is a long history of deference towards the built heritage, dating all the way back to the Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Emperors Augustus and Hadrian are known to have been concerned with the preservation of Greek heritage – “exemplaria Graeca” as called by

Horace in his Ars Poetica. Attalos I of Pergamum searched the entirety of Greece for classic art and in 210 BC he ordered the first archeological research in Aegina (Choay 1998). During the early medieval age, Theodoric the Great (471-526) protected the old walls of Rome as well as the Roman and Greek heritage of antique art, nominating Cassiodorus as “curator statuarum” –

curator of the Roman statues (Bratuleanu 2008). In 609 the Pantheon, instead of being destroyed, was re-used as a Christian church, “Saint Mary of the Martyrs”. Trajan’s Column was designated a protected monument by the Roman Senate in 1162, to be preserved “as long as the world shall be” or face death punishment and confiscation of all property (Choay 1998, 29).

Overall, the official measures as well as the spontaneous preservation actions during the

Roman Empire and the early Medieval Ages show that the interest in ancient art and architecture

resulted preponderantly in the re-use of these objects, sometimes in their original form, and often

fragmented or employed as prime matter for the erection of new edifices (Choay 1998).

This trend continued in the early Renaissance, when ancient artifacts were used as models, described, measured and interpreted, and often reused – rather than targeting preservation, they were analyzed mainly to be surpassed (Choay 1998). The Coliseum became a stone carrier for the new Roman palaces; the guilds occupied and transformed the antique theaters, thermal structures, circuses and porticoes during the 15th century (Choay 1998). Leon

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Battista Alberti synthesized the spirit of the time arguing that the mistakes (in the works of the past) justify intervention and correction, with the purpose of a new and perfect work (Alberti

1485).

The 17th century registered an increased interest in ruins reflected in the work of artists such as Piranesi and Sir Williams Chambers, an increased interest in art collections, and a more encompassing interest in the past that was extended beyond the Roman and Greek antiquity

(Choay 1998). In England, Antiquarian interests present since 1533, when the King’s Antiquary was established, became a familiar and generalized aristocratically pursuit after the mid 17th century, developing in tandem with the rise in scientific curiosity (Bratuleanu 2008).

The French Revolution (1789) caused the destruction of a large number of buildings associated with feudalism and aristocracy and led to the nationalization of the royal, aristocratic and clerical possessions in France. Priest and abolitionist Henri Grégoire called for the preservation of monuments as national treasures capable of teaching and morally elevating the people (Boyer 1994, 378), thus introducing the idea that historic buildings had cognitive, educational, esthetic and economic value. The unprecedented amount of nationalized structures convinced the revolutionary authorities of the necessity of an inventory. A commission was formed to study and classify the clerical built heritage (Babelon and Chastel 1994). Though the first measures taken by the French revolutionaries were not very effective and did not represent a national policy for the protection of heritage, they indicate an attitude towards heritage, closely linked to education and patriotism, and particularly strong because it was not discussed or challenged but rather taken for granted (Babelon and Chastel 1994).

After the Napoleonic wars, the Romantic Movement gave new impetus to heritage preservation. Victor Hugo summarized this new concept in “Guerre aux demolisseurs” (1832 -

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War on the Demolishers!”), arguing that a building is defined by use and beauty; and while its

use belongs to its owner, beauty belongs to everybody and destroying it is beyond anyone’s rights (Loew 2004).

At a time of the rise of power of the bourgeoisie which accompanied the industrial revolution, ancient monuments established a link with the past that was central to the romantic period. The French bourgeoisie was trying to legitimize its role in society as keeper of the heritage of the old aristocracy (Boyer 1994, 378). The first operational organism for heritage protection was put together in France as the Commission of Monuments (1837), which led to the first comprehensive law of protection of historic monuments, issued in 1887. Previous legislation only protected historic monuments against willful or criminal damage. The 1887 law extends the protection by offering the possibility of listing buildings in the national interest from the point of view of historic or artistic merit (Babelon and Chastel 1994).

There are two important concepts introduced by the 1887 law. The first is that the sacred property rights could be restricted, as demolishing, modifying or restoring a classified building required ministerial authorization. This represented a first form of socialization of property rights; until then only through expropriation could a building and its surroundings be protected.

The second concept resulted from the application of the law which saw the protection of the setting of the building as important as that of the building itself (Loew 2004). This approach changed the thinking about historic monuments as isolated objects.

In England, the initiatives to preserve the built heritage were the offspring of private enterprise. However, beginning with the “Ancient Monument’s Protection Act” from 1882, the

State had taken over some of the responsibilities by promoting conservationist legislation. One of the most prominent figures of the time concerned with the preservation of built heritage was

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John Ruskin (1819-1900), a poet and art critic. His work Seven Lamps of Architecture written in

1848 argue that architecture is instrumental to remembering the past. Ruskin sets the base for an

anti interventionist approach to the built heritage, which allows for a monument to be

consolidated or maintained, but in an invisible manner that does not alter its physical appearance.

He denounces restoration as a lie about the real status of the building (Ruskin 1989). This doctrine was radically different from the one initiated by E. E. Viollet-le-Duc (1814-1879), in

France, who promoted “stylistic unity”. This allowed a monument to be restored in a form that never existed before in order to achieve stylistic coherence, at the expense of the historic substance (Choay 1998). The opposition of the two schools of thought shows how the primacy of different values (the historic, or memory value in Ruskin’s case and the stylistic value in Viollet- le-Duc’s case) can lead to very distinct actions meant to “preserve” the built environment.

Ruskin’s concept of architectural preservation and his stress on the value of memory would largely influence the modern preservation approaches.

The 20th century witnessed an increased focus on preservation and its escalation from a national to an international debate. In 1921, The International Committee on Intellectual

Cooperation was created, a predecessor of UNESCO. The organization had an advisory role for the League of Nations aimed at promoting international cultural/intellectual exchange (Bronson and Jester 1997). Until the end of the 19th century, architectural heritage had been a matter of national concern only. Cultural internationalism emerged as an outcome of the First World War, with the creation of the League of Nations, and most of all of the second World War, with the creation of the United Nations Organization and the establishment of the UNESCO in 1945

(Bronson and Jester 1997).

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In 1931 the International Museums Office organized The Athens Conference on

restoration of historic buildings, and the Athens Charter, drafted by Le Corbusier at the fourth

Assembly of the International Congresses on Modern Architecture (1933) was published in Paris

in 1941. Both represent a major step in the evolution of ideas because they reflect a growing

consciousness among specialists all over the world, and introduced for the first time in history

the concept of international heritage (ICOMOS, n.d., Bronson and Jester 1997).

In 1964, the international heritage-conservation community adopted the International

Charter for the Conservation and Restoration of Monuments and Sites (Venice Charter) to

establish international standards for practice in the field. The Venice Charter is hailed as a

cornerstone of modern practice, and it stands on the shoulders of charters and preservation

efforts from decades and centuries past (Reich 2006).

It is enough to take a close look to the timeline outlined above and the connection of the major

moments in the history of preservation with historical moments of renewal, progress and

emancipation becomes obvious. Stefano Bianca, director of the Historic Cities Program of the

Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Geneva, finds the origins of the Western preservation movement in the alienation from traditional values in Western culture initiated by the Enlightenment of the

18th century and accelerated by later Industrial Revolution (Bianca 1997). It is interesting to

acknowledge that, while preservation is often perceived to be in conflict with the

modernization/renewal of a place, its very proliferation was in effect a by-product of the

moments of renewal and modernization.

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Figure 2.2 Preservation’s scope and role expansion through time Source: Author

Figure 2.3 Graphic showing the relationship of the invention of modern preservation to other modern inventions. Source: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, n.d.

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The very awareness of the limitations of a resource starts a process of questioning our

rights to exhaust it, and social and political initiatives tend to coagulate to stop the extinction of

what has been passed over from generation to generation. Once the Romans inherited the classic

Greek art and architecture they became interested in collecting and reusing them (Choay 1998);

once the French revolutionaries inherited the nationalized possessions of the church and

aristocracy, they stopped destruction and initiated a management process. The more educated we

are about something, the more responsible we become in dealing with it. We could say, based on

this interdependence, that while renewal, emancipation, and modernization led to the destruction

or abandon of historic heritage, it also made possible its preservation. Without emancipation or modernity a lot of the preservation initiatives would have never actually taken place, not to mention the modern technologies that actually made possible the conservation of older artifacts.

2.2.3 Historic Preservation in the USA

In the United States, the preservation of built heritage began with the monuments of the

Revolution and, like in England, was mostly rooted in private enterprise (Kimball 1941,

Bluestone 1999). Moreover, during the nineteenth century there were mainly women who stood in the forefront of historic preservation (Bluestone 1999, 301). They often viewed their work in

preservation as important in their stewardship of domestic and national morality and as part of

their role in educating children for citizenship. Starting in 1853, Ann Pamela Cunningham led a

national crusade to preserve George Washington's home and tomb at Mount Vernon as a site that

would stir national memory. She created The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union,

which provided the model for subsequent patriotic preservation efforts undertaken by women

throughout the United States (Fitch 1982).

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Several other private initiatives followed, similarly targeting buildings in the preservation

of which historical interests, monumentality, and architectural uniqueness were dominant (Fitch

1982, Bluestone 1999, Collins 1980). Often, preservation projects originated in the local chapters

of women's patriotic and civic organizations, including the Daughters of the American

Revolution, the Society of the Colonial Dames of America, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and various other garden clubs, women's federations, and voter and educational leagues (Bluestone 1999).

As the American constitution, in traditional interpretation, prevented measures that would subject private property to restrictions (such as preservation against demolition or modification), the characteristic form of preservation in America continued to be purchase by agreement

(Kimball 1941, 16) for the most part of the 19th century. However, there were exceptions such as

the use of eminent domain exercised in 1896 to condemn private property in order to preserve

parts of the Gettysburg battlefield which was upheld as a legitimate public purpose by the U.S.

Supreme Court (Collins 1980, 89). At the beginning of the 20th century, a remarkable

governmental initiative was the Historic Sites Act of 1935, which extended the concern of the

National Park Service with sites of scenic beauty to a wider range including those of historic and

artistic importance (Kimball 1941).

In the post-World War II period, residents of many older neighborhoods started

launching urban preservation movements. The US National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded non-profit organization, was founded in 1949 to provide "leadership, education,

advocacy, and resources to save America's diverse historic places and revitalize our

communities" according to the Trust's mission statement (The National Trust for Historic

Preservation).

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On the other hand, at the same time, the schools of architecture pursued a pedagogy devoted to Modernism and within the academia preservation was often perceived as irrelevant and an obstructionist threat to the creativity of the modern architectural and urban project

(Bluestone 1999). Walter Gropius, professor at Harvard, found the 19th century monuments

irrelevant to the American culture, rooted in a “pseudo-tradition”, an “empty mannerism”

tributary to the dependence of the American businessmen on European prototypes, rather than

the product of a genuine American approach to architecture. Gropius also disavowed efforts to

"freeze certain esthetically pleasant town patterns"; he viewed both preservation and historicist

architecture as an evasion of the architect's responsibility to invent forms expressive of the spirit

of the modern age (Bluestone 1999, 303).

In the 1960s the American cities were faced with extensive urban renewal that coupled

demolition of older buildings and neighborhoods with construction of new city centers and

highways (Robertson 1994). In Boston, one of the oldest American cities, almost a third of the

old city was demolished to make way for new development. This came to be seen as a tragedy by

many residents and planners (Bluestone 1999). In 1961, Jane Jacobs published The Death and

Life of Great American Cities, one of the first—and most popular—critiques of contemporary

large-scale urban renewal. Other events, like the destruction of Pennsylvania Station in New

York City in 1964, a popular historic landmark, shocked many into supporting preservation

(Bluestone 1999).

The National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 was the outcome of the increasing

advocacy against the urban renewal interventions and the efforts supporting preservation of the

built heritage. The act noted that "in the face of ever-increasing extensions of urban centers,

highways, and residential, commercial and industrial development, the present governmental and

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non-governmental historic preservation programs and activities are inadequate to insure future

generations a genuine opportunity to appreciate and enjoy the rich heritage of our Nation." (The

Historic Preservation Act of 1966, P.L. 89-665, quoted by Collins 1980, 89).

The 1966 Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places administered

by the National Park Service in conjunction with a newly designated state partner - the State

Historic Preservation Officers. For the first time a broad national historic preservation policy existed in the United States, designed to promote the preservation of historic buildings,

structures, sites, and districts (Fisher 1998). The National Register soon became an important

planning tool as the survey and identification began of historic resources that exhibited federal,

state, or local significance (Fisher 1998).

The Preservation Act created the base for the modern American heritage preservation.

Other country-wide policies followed. Starting in 1976 federal tax incentives have been available

to promote the preservation through rehabilitation of income-producing historic properties (until

1976 the federal tax code favored new construction over the reuse of existing buildings) (Collins

1980). Other tools designed to help the preservation of built heritage in the US came in the shape

of standards and guidelines. The Secretary of the Interior's Standards for Architectural and

Engineering Documentation address the documentation of historic properties. Standards for the

Treatment of Historic Properties address four broad treatments - preservation, rehabilitation,

restoration, and reconstruction. Accompanying these standards are guidelines for historic

buildings and guidelines for historic landscapes (Fisher 1998).

2.2.4 Preservation of the Recent Past

As seen in the previous pages, preservation of the built heritage started logically with ancient monuments, then religious buildings, historically significant buildings, and so on. The

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first lists of Historic Monuments, in France of the years 1830-1840, were composed of churches

and castles. These buildings were valued because of the royal and re-Christianizing values of the

age (Saint Aubin 1990). Later, structures with less and less sacred substance and more and more sociological substance were preserved (Schwarzer 1994). While initially the notion of heritage was designated by the multi-generational appreciation, that soon proved to leave out valuable things that have not survived multiple generations because of accidental neglect or unawareness of their role. The preservation rationale evolved towards reconsidering its definition of historical structures to include more and more recent heritage, or “the recent past heritage”.

The scope of the built heritage of the recent past includes new types of resources developed in response to changing needs and technologies (gas stations, wartime housing, public-housing complexes, shopping centers, motels, parking lots, garages, etc.), as well as earlier types that were redefined during this period (houses, planned communities, schools, university campuses, hospitals, industrial buildings, plazas, etc.) (Bronson and Jester 1997).

In 1991 the "Principles for the Conservation and Enhancement of the Architectural

Heritage of the Twentieth Century" were published by ICOMOS. They addressed the identification, protection, management, conservation, and awareness of recent resources both within and outside Europe (Bronson and Jester 1997, ICOMOS, n.d.).

Another important development was the establishment in 1988 of DOCOMOMO,

International Working Party for the Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and

Neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, a membership organization with working parties in about 35 countries (Bronson and Jester 1997). DOCOMOMO was formed to facilitate the exchange of documentation and conservation information, protect threatened Modern Movement

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buildings, stimulate interest in the Modern Movement, and create a register of significant

Modern Movement buildings (Jester 1995).

In the United States, properties that have achieved significance within the past fifty years are generally not considered eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic places, unless they are “of exceptional importance” (Sherfy and Luce 1998). The fifty-year standard was established by National Park Service historians in 1948. “This principle safeguards against

listing properties which are of only contemporary, faddish value and ensures that the National

Register is a register of historic places” (Sherfy and Luce 1998). However, there are multiple

programs for conserving the built heritage of the recent past at various state and local levels,

besides national organizations such as DOCOMOMO.

The programs aimed at conserving the recent past heritage, just like those for conserving

earlier heritage, include a number of interrelated processes that complement, and in many cases

precede, physical interventions (Bronson and Jester 1997). These include identification (or

definition), inventory (or framework for analysis), listing (or commemoration, classification, designation, registration, depending on the jurisdiction), protection, research, and awareness.

Approaches vary considerably from country to country and at the local level within the same country (Bronson and Jester 1997).

Identification: When discussing the built heritage of the recent past, time parameters are less obvious than scope (Bronson and Jester 1997). Most jurisdictions define their focus on the recent past according to the needs. The definition of the built heritage of the recent past varies

from state to state and municipality to municipality; in New York City, properties only thirty

years old can be nominated as landmarks.

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Inventory or Framework for analysis: There is no comprehensive international

inventory or framework for the analysis of the heritage of the recent past, and the U.S. does not

possess a comprehensive nationwide inventory or framework either. However, the Park Service

has conducted a number of studies on important resource types (such as post offices) and themes

in American history (such as "Man in Space" and "World War II"), and these have led to the

inventory of particular groups of resources. (Bronson and Jester 1997). At the state/provincial and national levels, frameworks for analysis - more general studies that identify important themes and focus on representative examples of these themes - provide an alternative to comprehensive inventories that complement more detailed local initiatives. (Bronson and Jester

1997).

Listing: In the U.S., for properties less than fifty years old, the citizen nominating the resource must show that it has been the object of scholarly evaluation and demonstrate that sufficient historical perspective and scholarly analysis exist to justify its "exceptional importance" at the national, state, or local level (Sherfy and Luce 1998, 1). The nominated resource is then assessed according to the same National Register Criteria for Evaluation that

apply to earlier properties (Sherfy and Luce 1998, 1). At the local level many municipalities

have adopted the well-established National Register process, sometimes adapting it to reflect

local considerations, and preservation ordinances are frequently used to list and protect

significant resources (Bronson and Jester 1997).

Protection: Listing in the U.S. National Register is largely honorific, but some protection

is afforded when federal funding or licensing is involved (Bronson and Jester 1997). The

National Historic Preservation Act requires federal agencies to assess the impact of their

activities on listed properties and those that are eligible for listing. At the local level historic

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district commissions and architectural review boards protect resources from inappropriate

changes.

Research: When compared with works of the 1970s and 1980s, recent writings on the

cultural history of the built heritage of the Modern era tend to consider a wider range of

resources (the vernacular, as well as landmarks) and to pay more attention to resources that combined local traditions with new ideals, as well as those that exemplified mainstream ideologies (Bronson and Jester 1997). In addition, the art-historical approach that emphasized aesthetics is being superseded by one that considers cultural factors, technology, and function, in addition to form (Longstreth 1991).

Awareness: Some of the earliest and most successful awareness efforts were inspired by inappropriate rehabilitation projects or demolitions that became the object of media attention through advocacy efforts (Bronson and Jester 1997). Other awareness initiatives at the local level are being carried out by regional working parties of DOCOMOMO. In the U.S. DOCOMO-

MO's New York/Northeast Chapter organizes lectures and tours, and other chapters in the

Midwest, northern California, and the Southeast are developing programs of activities.

Exhibitions and publications also enhance awareness (Bronson and Jester 1997).

2.3 Values and Criteria for the Evaluation of Built Heritage

The identification of what is culturally significant and therefore worthy of preservation has always been difficult. In the case of the recent past it is even more so as broader definitions of significance allow many examples of cultural property from diverse times, places, and cultural groups to be considered for preservation (Matero 1993). Most of the charters, recommendations

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and publications consider heritage values as the core for the understanding of the significance of

the subject and as the basis for conservation concepts and practice.

Alois Riegl (1858-1905), an Austrian art historian, was one of the first and most

significant authors to discuss preservation values. According to Riegl, heritage consists of

intentional monuments, which are concerned with commemoration, or prospective memory, and

are invested with a priori value, and the unintentional monuments, which earn their value a

posteriori. The intentional monuments are "human creation, erected for the specific purpose of keeping single human deeds or events (or a combination thereof) alive in the minds of future generations" (Riegl 1982, 21). Unintentional monuments, much more numerous, are remains whose meaning is determined not by their makers, but by our modern perceptions of these monuments, i.e. by retrospective cultural memory (Riegl 1982, 23). Riegl added that deliberate monuments can also become 'unintentional', when they were built for the benefit of contemporaries only but survive much longer.

Rigl distinguishes between values of remembrance, that are linked to the past and involve memory, and values of the present (Choay 1998, 122).

The values of remembrance, or commemorative, consist of historic value and the age- value (Choay 1998, 122). The historic value resides in the cognitive properties of the heritage that offer information about the past. Age-value depends on the knowledge of age, which rests partly on the perception of traces of decay and aging (Riegl 1982, 29-31). Age-value contributes to the aura and authenticity of an object, and creates a context for nostalgia. This description of the age value is similar to the one John Ruskin (1819-1900) has described as the value of memory that he attached to architecture “We may live without her [the Architecture], and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her” (Ruskin 1989).

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Riegl contrasts these with two present-day values, use-value and art-value. The use-value refers to the benefits to people actually using monuments for utilitarian purposes, including curatorial ones: "use-value is indifferent to the treatment of a monument so long as the monument's existence is not affected and no concessions whatsoever are made to age-value... On the other hand, use-value may also require the destruction of a monument; for instance, if decay endangers human life" (Riegl 1982, 39).

Art-Value: According to Riegl (1982, 42–50) every monument possesses art-value

insofar as it responds to the modern Kunstwollen (artistic will).

These values and their appraisal change over time (Laenen 2007), but the categories

established by Riegl remain more or less valid. While heritage appraisal was based on artistic or

historic values in the 19th century, towards the end of the 20th centuries environmental, social

and associative values were included.

As of 1984, Lipe defines them as associative or symbolic value, informational value,

aesthetic value, and economic value (Lipe 1984). Laenen groups them in two major categories:

substantive qualities (historic, aesthetic, environmental, social, associative values) and use- values (monetary, functional values) (Laenen 2007).

Thus, the age value - mostly a sentimental value, reminiscent of the antiquarians’ era regarding the idea of “vintage” as a value in itself – has lost its importance once heritage

evaluation stepped up towards a more scientific approach. At the same time, the “art” value has

evolved towards the more comprehensive and general term of “aesthetic” value. The “historic”

value has evolved towards an “informational” value that better fits more recent resources with

predominant cultural significance as opposed to historic significance. New values fit for the

listing of entire districts/areas have emerged, such as “environmental” value.

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Figure 2.4 Recurrent values in heritage preservation Source: Author

One of the central questions to the matter of recent past heritage has always been whether different criteria than those used for “traditional” heritage are needed for evaluation (Jester

1995). While opinions on this issue vary, it is largely accepted that new resource types currently pose evaluation challenges as countries move away from a purely “architectural” view of cultural heritage, and away from focusing on monuments and masterworks (Jester 1995). However, certain values have been maintained through time (Fig. 2.4), and even if they lost emphasis in the case of many types of resources (such as historic or aesthetic values) they are still being considered.

2.4 Values and Criteria for the Evaluation of Skywalk Systems

The literature on skywalks is sparse compared to the debate that targeted them, and its tone reflects the change in the trend and attitude towards skywalks. Most of the first early books and articles (Fruin 1971, Podolske and Heglund 1976) are descriptive and do not actually analyze the skywalks.

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In “Pedestrian Planning and Design”, Fruin (1971) recommends that the pedestrian planning process should rely on goals and objectives for the planning, study design, inventory and data collection, analysis and data collection, analysis and forecast, alternative plans and plan selection, and design phase. He then proceeds to discuss general criteria and design standards for pedestrian systems, outlining the following goals and objectives for an improvement program dedicated to pedestrians:

ƒ Safety: Fruin defines safety primarily as “the reduction of the pedestrian-vehicle

conflict” (Fruin 1971, 115), and points at two ways of attaining it: space separation

(either horizontal or vertical), or time separation.

ƒ Security: Fruin pleads for considering surveillance as a necessity for the pedestrian

design: buildings and streets should enhance clear observation by police and other

pedestrians, as well as provide for television surveillance.

ƒ Convenience: Pedestrian convenience is referred at in terms of clearing pedestrian ways

of obstructive elements and favoring the pedestrian flow as opposed to the vehicular flow

at crossings, as well as special needs facilities.

ƒ Continuity: The necessity of integrating new pedestrian systems into the existing

network.

ƒ Coherence: A pedestrian system should lay out clear itineraries and address the

perception by providing immediate sense of orientation and direction.

ƒ Attractiveness: Fruin attaches the concept of “excitement” to that of “aesthetic deign”,

supported by variety, elements of surprise and events.

Fruin underlines that the last three objectives are essential to the grade-separated pedestrian networks.

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Alexander (1974) discussed the multi-level pedestrian development in general. He was

skeptical of the skywalks arguing that they may cause discontinuity in the city fabric and activities and could generate unexpected external costs that could outweigh their benefits.

The 1980s produced a more analytical approach in the work of Forusz (1981), Jacob and

Morphew (1984), Dillon (1985), Robertson (1994), and Maitland (1992).

The study produced by Forusz was an in-depth analysis of the Cincinnati skywalk system, and will be discussed in the case study analysis. Jacob and Morphew also focused on a particular skywalk: the system in the downtown Minneapolis. The authors tried to provide an accurate data base of the organization and operation of the elevated pedestrian ways. After an overview of the entire system, five major system aspects were addressed: design criteria, system access, system usage, costs and public operation of the privately built system. We should note the difference between Fruin’s design-oriented evaluation criteria and the operation-based criteria employed by Jacob and Morphew.

William Whyte, a photographer, also dedicated a chapter of his 1988 book “City:

Rediscovering the Center” to skywalks, accusing them of participating in the “dullification” of the city. His argument was that vehicular traffic benefits from the prime street-level space, while the pedestrians are exiled in above-grade or underground corridors. Besides, he argues, a downtown can support just so many stores and restaurant, and if another level is added, stakeholders will tend to protect their investment in the skywalk and dullify the street level.

Kent Robertson (1994) conducted a comparative case study on the skywalks of five

Midwestern cities: Cincinnati, Des Moines, Duluth, Minneapolis, and St Paul. The initial phase of his study consisted of several days of observation dedicated to each system, with particular focus on design, usage, signage, obstacles, activities, and unique characteristics. Next, Robertson

34 made an inventory of the land uses in each of the blocks connected by the skywalk systems. The final phase involved surveying about 100 skywalk users in each city to assert their usage patterns as well as their perception of the system. The research made use of interviews, surveys, field observation, and inventory studies. Robertson’s conclusions were that while planners believe that skywalks do play a crucial role in the downtown redevelopment process, the actual success of the skywalks may be based on inevitable popularity since they are harbingers of the increasingly indoor-oriented and privatized space of the 21st century. Thus, skywalks could only be successful since they were tailored for the contemporary society (which, on the other hand, caused and feeds the decay of downtowns), but they may not necessarily be instruments of redevelopment. However, Roberson was convinced that skywalks could cause shifts in where and how people walk, shop, commute and do business. He stressed that skywalks increase pedestrian access to business, provide shelter from harsh weather, improve traffic flows, and provide accessibility to new spaces, allowing for more retail and business uses. On the other hand, he noticed that skywalks constitute yet another way for people to isolate themselves according to class – and consequently, to race. Skywalk users had indicated in his study that they feel safer on skywalks than they do on sidewalks, so, given a choice, they choose the skywalk.

Robertson used the particular examples he compared in order to inform his conclusions about the general validity of the skywalk typology. He considered that “cities adopt the skywalk as a panacea for solving downtown mobility and development problems without first assessing their positive and negative attributes and, more importantly, evaluating their long-term impact on the downtown environment” (Robertson 1994, 89), underlining that a comprehensive and comparative research was still needed. Therefore he proceeded to comparing 5 case studies

(Cincinnati, Des Moines, Duluth, Minneapolis, St Paul), based on the following criteria:

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ƒ Skywalk usage, based on weather and user profile.

ƒ Access and orientation, broken down into four problem areas:

- Hours –related to the expectation that a public / semi-public space should be

opened around the clock. Robertson does not discuss the private nature of

skywalks versus public space.

- Street level access – although the enhanced visibility of stairways and escalators

leading to the system is supposed to increase the system usage, the surveys

conducted by the author do not reveal any interdependence between perceived

and actual accessibility.

- Signage – similarly, the surveys do not indicate a clear relationship between the

quality of the signage system and the orientation of the users.

- Elderly and physically handicapped users – the older parts of the skywalks were

not designed to comply with special needs requirements.

ƒ Safety and security – Robertson emphasizes that this criterion refers more to the

perceived safety than to documented crime statistics.

ƒ Economic activities – the reported survey results show that a majority of people in all

the 5 case studies prefer the establishments accessible via skywalk than the ones at the

street level.

ƒ Downtown Redevelopment – as resulted from:

- Enhancing accessibility –facilitating pedestrian speed, trajectory legibility

- Acting as a unifying force – the superblock development trend generated a need

for links that are able to tie the development together.

- Increasing density – providing an extra-level of retail

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- Degree of coordination with other redevelopment strategies such as pedestrian

malls; indoor shopping centers; stadiums and convention centers; improved

access into and within the downtown; orientation toward the office / financial

sector; open spaces; historic preservation; waterfront redevelopment.

ƒ Design and aesthetics. Robertson breaks down this category in four design-related

categories, based on his 5 case studies findings:

- Harmonious design – referring to the aesthetic relationship between the skywalk

bridge and the two buildings it connects

- Systemwide bridge design – the unity and coherence of the system design

- Effects on the street – here, Robertson mentions three effects that are more

activity-related than aesthetics related: supposedly, the success of the skywalk

translates into 1) lack of human traffic at street level; 2) relocation of

businesses at the skywalk level; 3) streetscape oblivious to sidewalk pedestrians

– blank walls.

- Blocked vistas - skywalks can cut across important vistas.

In addition to the studies that addressed skywalks as a type, a special mention is owed to

Harris N. Forusz’s study of the Cincinnati skywalk system, which will be more thoroughly analyzed under the case study. His report considered the following criteria:

ƒ The Evaluation of Function:

- Function – defined as the ability to move people quickly, comfortably and more safely.

- Pedestrian network: the skywalk is part of the downtown pedestrian network.

- Functional components: entrances, doorways, stairs, escalators, elevators,

connecting corridors, spaces, bridges, street furniture, and signage system.

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- User experience

- Visual signage

- Access

- Amenities

- Continuity

ƒ The Evaluation of Health and Security was based on

- Police protection

- Maintenance

- Repair

- Fire

- Weather protection

- Noise & Air & Odor Protection

ƒ The Evaluation of Physical Design is based on the original design criteria: “any

portion of the walkway should be considered as part of an integrated skywalk system

with similar characteristics and image, rather than isolated individual elements” (City

of Cincinnati, Cincinnati planning Comission 1986 quoted by Forusz 1980)

- Photographs

- Context

- Internal relatedness

- Access

- Function and Form

- Common element

- Role.

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Overall, these studies are concerned with skywalks as “live” systems and do not examine them from any historic, symbolic or social perspective. The criteria for evaluating skywalks so far have not involved a heritage perspective. However, they are helpful in the measuring of the

“values of the present”, as defined by Riegl, namely the use and aesthetics values of skywalks.

Robertson provides the most substantial and detailed functional criteria for the use value.

The use value attributed to skywalks is based on foot traffic, access from the street, continuity, signage and universal accessibility. While safety and security are not included in the usage category, both Robertson and Fruin imply that it is inherently indispensable for the operation – and the appeal – of the skywalk. On the other hand, Robertson does notice that skywalks tend to segregate people by race, though without making the assumption that perhaps the extra security and the surveillance feel added to the controlled impression of private space may be the cause

(Boddy 1992)

The aesthetic criteria used in the evaluations of skywalks stress the principle of visual and experiential coherence, with an addition of “excitement” (Fruin 1971). Forusz also insists on visual cohesiveness: “any portion of the walkway should be considered as part of an integrated skywalk system with similar characteristics and image, rather than isolated individual elements.”

(Forusz 1980). This adds to Robertson’s request for harmonious design (Robertson 1994), entailed in the relationship of the skywalk bridges not with the rest of the system but with the adjacent buildings. Robertson also discusses the impact of skywalks on street image and vistas.

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Chapter 3. Methodology

This study uses a toolkit based on the theory and history of heritage preservation to evaluate skywalks as built heritage and determine the appropriate future management approach for these structures as their initial purpose is being questioned. This methodology serves as a guide for answering the following research questions:

1) How can preservation avoid freezing change and participate in development?

2) What is the significance of skywalks?

3) How can the evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk case study from a heritage

perspective help design alternatives for the system?

Figure 3.1 Methodology Flowchart Source: Author

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3.1 Nature of the Study

Any evaluation of built environment resources from a heritage perspective requires a qualitative method, due to its exploratory (i.e. hypothesis-generating) purposes and the capability to establish content validity.

A typical evaluation of built heritage follows identification of a certain type of resource and precedes its inventory, which compares resources of the same type in order to create a framework for analysis of the individual case studies and determine which one is to be preserved

(Bronson and Jester 1997).

This study aims at building the hypothesis that skywalks are a built heritage resource and does so in three steps:

- Interpretive analysis of heritage preservation to extract values and criteria for

evaluation

- Inductive analysis of historic and urban design data to develop an area of

significance or thematic/historic context

- Case study

3.2 Values and Criteria for Evaluation

In order to evaluate the skywalks’ significance from a heritage perspective, I extracted a series of heritage categories of values based on the literature review. Since different authors have different classifications, and these categories are generally employed in a selective manner depending on the type of resource analyzed, I used the classifications of several authors, produced at different dates, in order to determine the persistence and recurrence of certain categories of values through time, regardless of the changes in the heritage preservation scope

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and roles. The recurrent categories were the historic, aesthetic, symbolic and use values (Fig.

2.4).

These recurrent values are used in assembling the framework used in the case study

analysis. The social value – a more recent category - is also included in the framework because

of its particular relevance to recent past heritage in general and to skywalks in particular, as a

building type that occurred and evolved in very distinct social conditions.

3.3 Research of Thematic/Historic Context: Area of Significance

Thematic/historic context is a critical element in assessing heritage significance and it

requires in depth research of cultural situations through which a property was created and

evolved (Tyler 2000).

Determining the historic context associated with a property is necessary when evaluating

local, regional, statewide or national significance, as this background helps the evaluator gauge

the specific level of significance attributed to the structure (Tyler 2000).

The discussion of resources as types – such as discussing skywalks as a type versus one

particular skywalk - is based on the current common practice of heritage preservation, which has

evolved from identifying individual objects to identifying classes of objects or even broader

themes with cultural relevance that encompass several resource types or classes (Matero 1993).

For example, the Park Service has conducted a number of studies on important resource types (such as post offices) and themes in American history (such as "Man in Space" and "World

War II"), and these have led to the inventory of particular groups of resources. At the local level some states have undertaken surveys that provide frameworks for analyzing specific resource types (Bronson and Jester 1997).

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For this study, I used a well established classification of skywalks in order to research the thematic and historic themes associated with skywalks as a type.

Figure 3.2 Thematic/Historic Research and Precedent Analysis Source: Author

Section 4.1 of this study analyzes the origins, conceptual evolution, and impact of the skywalks within pedestrian network design and section 4.2 closely investigates their relationship with the pedestrianization of downtowns, which are historically focused in the post-World War II

Urban Renewal strategies in the US. This establishes the significance of skywalks to pedestrian design as well as their significance to post-World War II urban design practice and theory, federal policy and lifestyle.

Section 4.3 identifies and compares the typological precedents of skywalks and analyses their particularities as well as the approaches for their preservation/reuse strategies.

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3.4 Case Study

The Cincinnati skywalk system, a popular overhead pedestrian system connecting retail, service and parking structures throughout downtown, is particularly relevant to the discussion of skywalks as heritage because of its partial demolition in 2006. The system was one of the first to be built in the United States, modeled after the Minneapolis skywalk (Garvin 1988).

Its demolition questions the system’s viability as defined by its original intent and as a

“live” structure, raising the possibility of discussing alternatives: business as usual, abandon to decay, full demolition, or evaluation for potential re-purposing and entering a new cycle of sustainability. This study, needless to say, addresses the last alternative. As mentioned in Chapter

2.1, “If heritage as we know it from the industry were sustainable, it would not require protection. Heritage adds value to existing assets that have either ceased to be viable […] or that were never economically productive” (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 1995, 370).

The City of Cincinnati approved the decision of demolishing part of the Cincinnati skywalk system, in June 15 2005. There was no study or report assessing objective reasons for demolishing the skywalk. The argument provided by 3CDC - The Cincinnati Center City

Development Corporation, which initiated the Fountain Square Revitalization Plan and the demolishing of the skywalk, presented the following:

ƒ The project calls for removing only the section running above the retail between Vine

Street and the Fifth Third Tower.

ƒ The remainder of the City's skywalk system remains intact.

ƒ This change will bring more activity and more people onto the Square.

ƒ It improves the value of first floor retail space along the Square's northern edge by

improving access and visibility.

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ƒ With the removal of this portion of the Skywalk, outdoor dining options are enhanced.

ƒ The plan supports 525 Vine's redevelopment plan which encloses and upgrades their lobby.

ƒ The plan supports Fifth Third Bank's plans to renovate its corporate center around this

new configuration.

(3CDC 2005)

The decision to demolish part of the Cincinnati skywalk does question, on one hand, the system’s role and integrity from now on, and on the other hand, the decision-making process in dealing with the existing built environment, worthy of preservation or not. The Cincinnati skywalk system offers a comprehensive case study for the purpose of this investigation.

The assessment of the Cincinnati skywalk’s significance is based on:

1) Evaluation of historic/informational relevance: analysis of local planning documents

that describe the system’s origins, intent, design and context.

2) Evaluation of symbolic value: analysis of the events and phenomena that the Cincinnati

skywalk system has became representative of.

3) Evaluation of use: comparative analysis of two studies that evaluate the Cincinnati’s

skywalk’s performance in different time periods: Forusz 1980 and Robertson 1994,

reviewed in Chapter 2.4.

For a comprehensive evaluation of use of the Cincinnati skywalk system, Forusz’s

Evaluation of Use, Safety and Security and Robertson’s evaluation of Skywalk Usage,

Access and Orientation, and Safety and Security were used.

In order to be able to compare the two authors despite their use of different criteria, their

criteria were re-grouped in Comparison Criteria that brought their analysis to a common

denominator:

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Table 3.1 Criteria for use value Use Value Forusz Robertson Comparison criteria

Evaluation of Function Skywalk usage Use (Foot Traffic) User experience Foot traffic Visual signage Access from the street + Access Access and Orientation Continuity Amenities: Hours Continuity Street level access Signage Signage Evaluation of Safety and Security Elderly and disabled Accessibility for the disabled Police protection Maintenance Safety and Security Safety Repair Fire Weather protection Noise,Air & Odor Protection Source: Author

4) Evaluation of aesthetics: 2 components

- Comparative analysis of the Evaluation of Physical Design (Forusz 1980),

Design and Aesthetics analysis (Robertson 1994) and observation analysis.

Again, the two authors had used distinct criteria for their evaluations therefore

the comparison is grouped on “common denominator” criteria.

- Observation based on comparative series of recent photographic images and

“serial vision” montages.

“Serial vision” was a method used by Gordon Cullen in “The Concise

Townscape” (1961) to define the urban landscape as a series of related spaces.

This method was used to visually describe the skywalk experience, with its

alternation of interior views of the skywalk space and exterior views of the city

(Appendix B).

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Table 3.2 Criteria for aesthetic value Aesthetic Value Forusz Robertson Observation Comparison criteria

Evaluation of Physical Design and Aesthetics: Coherence Coherence Design: Unity Continuity Coherence Cohesiveness Cohesiveness Cohesiveness Harmonious Design Impact on views Impact on street level Harmonious Design Harmonious Design

Excitement Excitement

Impact on Street Level Impact on Street Level Source: Author

5) Social Evaluation: For evaluation purposes, the social value is sometimes interpreted as

the accumulation of social significance for the community, whether intended or not (e.g.

the case of Shopping Malls), but mostly as the capacity of the resource to reflect the

changing social patterns of the period of time that defines the theme (DOCOMOMO).

Another aspect considered is whether the design/ designer attempted to improve either

living or working conditions, or human behaviors through the work's form or function

(DOCOMOMO). In order to best respond to the social value, both the original intent as

spelled by the design plans and the public perception should be considered.

The social evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk relied upon research of local newspapers

and survey of web archives that recorded the public perception of the Cincinnati skywalk,

based on Google information search and retrieval.

With few exceptions, local newspapers articles focus on collecting the opinions of city

officials. To compensate for the lack of data reflecting the population’s opinion, a series

of relevant websites and blogs were consulted.

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3.5 Data

The purpose of this study determined a vast reliance on secondary sources for the extraction of data: historic information, scholarly evaluations, and public perception as recorded in the local press were essential to the study.

When possible, cross examination (triangulation) was employed in the case study analysis. In social sciences, cross examination is often used as a methodology to combine two techniques with the goal to double check the results. The idea behind cross examination is that one can be more confident with the outcome of an analysis if different methods or techniques lead to the same result.

The sources used for data were:

1. Observation: maps, photographs, sketches, plans

2. Secondary sources:

2.1 Scholarly studies

- Studies in heritage preservation, pedestrian design, and skywalks

- Evaluations of the Cincinnati skywalk’s performance

2.2 Planning documents: Analysis of the Cincinnati planning documents to assess

the historic and informational values of the Cincinnati skywalk, as well as its

design and intent

2.3 Local newspapers, websites, blogs: Assessment of the social value of the

Cincinnati skywalk system

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3.6 Limitations

There are several limitations that need to be acknowledged and addressed regarding the

present study.

First, the author of this study is an urban designer not a specialist in heritage preservation.

In addition, the breadth of this study did not allow the use of all methodological steps that are customary to resource evaluation for heritage purposes.

Another major limitation of this study is the specific and contextual nature of the case study, and the extent to which the findings can be generalized beyond the sample. Every other skywalk is likely to return a different result when evaluated with the same framework.

Also, bias introduced by the investigator in the collection and analysis of the data remains a constant threat.

Finally, a last limitation - which could also be argued a strength – involved by the nature of qualitative research is that the research has to define the reality it purports to measure. The notions of “heritage”, “preservation” and “skywalk” were employed after being defined – therefore circumscribed - in a specific way. This also means that the scale of measurement shapes the understanding of these terms.

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Chapter 4. Identification of Skywalks’ Area of Significance and Precedents

Most authors classify and analyze skywalks as part of the downtown pedestrian

infrastructure (Robertson 1994; Fruin 1971; Forusz 1980). Even more specific, skywalks are

classified as pedestrianization strategies (Fruin 1971; Robertson 1988; 1994; 1995), a strategy devised for the revitalization of downtowns in the post World War II period.

An interesting perspective is presented by the Harvard Design School study “The

Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping”, where skywalks are pinned in the evolution of the

“retail mechanisms”, a classification that sheds a different light on the purpose of the skywalks

as private pedestrian facilities (Chung and others 2001). In the process of this research it has

become clear that the segregated pedestrian network has been considerably tied into the history

of shopping patterns, more so than to any other activity patterns. Historically, most forms of

pedestrian segregation occurred in market places / retail areas (bazaars, arcades, malls) (Leong

2001). Therefore, for the purpose of this study, it was not found necessary to follow pedestrian

networks and retail mechanisms separately, since the same historical timeline cross-references

both.

4.1 Pedestrian Networks and Their Evolution

The present chapter will unfold the evolution of pedestrian networks in all instances in

which they occupy separate territory from any other form of transportation.

In “Pedestrian Malls and Skywalks”, Kent Robertson traces back the evolution of

pedestrian and vehicular traffic separation to the arcades of the 19th century (Robertson 1994).

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However, shopping arcades with separated and covered pedestrian circulation have a precedent

in the earlier typology of the bazaars (MacKeith 1986), dating back millennia BC (UNESCO

World Heritage Centre, 2009.).

Figure 4.1 Bazaar of Tabriz, Iran, founded 2nd Figure 4.2 Trajan’s Market, Rome, built 107-110 millennium BC. Source: Flickr Source: Flickr In ancient Rome, around year 45 B.C., Emperor

Caesar banned carts and chariots throughout the city between

sunrise and sunset, establishing the city center streets as a

pedestrian-dedicated zone during day-time (Breines and Dean

1974). Sidewalks – the first systems exclusively designed

for pedestrians – also emerged from the Roman city (Geist

1983). They disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire

in the fifth century and became “an unknown amenity for Figure 4.3 Via Appia had dirt pathways for sidewalks, 312 B.C. Source: www.appianengineering.com

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centuries” (Geist 1983). Later on, in the 1st century, Trajan’s Market in Rome, known as the

“Roman mall” displayed small shops aligned along vaulted galleries. (Chung and others 2001).

In medieval times, the English town of Chester developed a two level street system because of periodic flooding (Boeschenstein 1985, MacKeith 1986). The elevated walkway network today “encompasses the Rows, which are pedestrian galleries recessed from and parallel to the streets one level below; a promenade on the old town wall that encircles the city center; an elegant Victorian arcade; and a modern enclosed shopping precinct” (Boeschenstein 1985, 3).

The combination of half-timbered bridges, wattle-and-daub walkways hung on buildings and hand-hewn stairs to the street below make it very similar to contemporary skywalk systems

(Boddy 1992, 127).

Figure 4.4 The purple lines indicate the Rows Source: www.chesterwalls.info

Figure 4.5 Chester Rows around 1800 Source: www. chesterwalls.info

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Figure 4.6 Grosvenor Shopping Centre served by Figure 4.7 Second-level walkways, Chester, UK second level walkways, Chester, UK Source: Flickr Source: Flickr Also for security reasons, sidewalks were provided for pedestrians on the reconstructed streets of London after the Great Fire of 1666 (Geist 1983).

A notorious example of a pedestrian bridge, or corridor, is the “Corridoio Vasariano”, in

Florence, Italy. In order to connect the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence's town hall) with the Palazzo

Pitti, in 1565 Cosimo I de Medici had Giorgio Vasari build the famous Vasari Corridor above it.

The “corridor” ran almost a kilometer from the Palazzo Vecchio across Ponte Vecchio, and on to

Palazzo Pitti, and had windows that offered spectacular views of the city without the clash of

classes and the smells of the streets below (Boddy 1992).

Figure 4.8 Il Corridoio Vasariano Source: www.italiadiscovery.it

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Figure 4.9 Route of Corridoio Vasariano Figure 4.10 Corridoio Vasariano between Palazzo Vecchio and Source: www.seetuscany.com the Uffizi Galleries Source: Flickr The idea of an enclosed passageway was motivated by the Grand Duke's desire to move

freely between his residence and the government palace, when, like most monarchs of the period,

he felt insecure in public (Boddy 1992, 128). The meat market of Ponte Vecchio was moved to

avoid its smell reaching into the passage, its place being taken by the goldsmith shops that still occupy the bridge (Boddy 1992).After the Ponte Vecchio the Corridor passes over the loggia of the church of Santa Felicita; at that point it had a balcony, protected by a thick railing, looking into the interior of the church, in order to allow the Grand Duke's family to follow services without mixing with the populace (Boddy 1992).

It was in the nineteenth century that the controlled pedestrian environment revealed its full potential, with the flourishing of the shopping arcade (Boddy 1992). Emerging in late 18th century, arcades spread throughout Paris and London during early 19th century, and were

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imitated in other wealthy mercantile cities such as Milan, Bordeaux, Brussels, Glasgow and

Newcastle (Wyman 2001).

Figure 4.11 Passage Choiseul, Figure 4.12 Passage des Panoramas, Paris 1829 Paris 1910 Source: University of Berkeley Source: University of Berkeley It is interesting to notice that once Paris established a successful shopping network with

the arcade system, a revelation of the importance of foot traffic to the urban economy led to the implementation of the first sidewalk system between 1838 and 1870, with the contribution of shop owners (Geist 1983, 64). This was the most ample effort for providing sidewalks since the

Roman Empire (Leong 2001, 479).

Arcades enjoyed great popularity in Great Britain, where it peaked with Joseph Paxton’s

Crystal palace conceived for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London’s Hyde Park (MacKeith

1986). Crystal Palace is considered a model for London’s earliest department stores, Whiteley’s of Bayswater (Wyman 2001). Whiteley’s, in its turn, inspired the organization and appearance of several other department stores in London and Paris, such as Bon Marché (Wyman 2001), the setting described by Emile Zola in his masterpiece “Au Bonheur Des Dames” (“The Ladies’

Paradise”).

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Figure 4.13 Crystal Palace, London 1951 Source: Encyclopedia Britannica Another notable influence exercised by the Crystal Palace was on Ebenezer Howard’s

“Garden Cities of To-morrow”. Howard saw in it a huge potential for his clustered suburban developments, and he incorporated the prototype under the same name. Crystal Palace is replicated in his designs as a huge shopping arcade and winter garden located at the center of his suburbs, circling a Central Park (Wyman 2001; Leong 2001). He envisioned the arcade as one of the favorite resorts of the people and carefully addressed the need of making the shopping experience enjoyable. In addition, he prescribed that no dwellings in town should be situated more than 600 yards away from the arcade (Leong 2001).

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Figure 4.14 Ebenezer Howard, Garden City. Grand Avenue, 1902, in Garden Cities of To-morrow Source: The William Morris Society The evolution of the arcade stumbles into several decades of decay, brought by the

flourishing of sidewalks in the late nineteenth century. Meanwhile, the modern movement takes

shape and other solutions for segregating pedestrians from the heavy traffic are envisioned. The idea of a multilayered city becomes increasingly popular, starting from fictions like Fritz Lang’s

movie Metropolis or Vincent Korda’s “Things to Come”, or Moses King’s visions of New York,

and ending with emerging projects like Rockefeller Center, or Grand Central Station in New

York (Boddy 1992).

Le Corbusier’s Ville Contemporaine and Ville Radieuse, imagined at the beginning of the

twentieth century, are plans with a surprising anticipation of the domination of the automobile in

the city. As a consequence, both plans deal with the separations of the pedestrian paths from the

automotive traffic. The Marseille Unité d'Habitation hosts up to 1600 people in a single-slab

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'vertical village', complete with an internal shopping street halfway up, a recreation ground and

children's' nursery on the roof, and a generous surrounding area of park land made possible by

the density of the accommodation in the slab itself (Boddy 1992). In Towards a New

Architecture, Le Corbusier also recommends removing the pedestrian movement from the

ground level (Boddy 1992).

During post World War II reconstruction years, the pedestrianization of historical

European city centers emerged as a strategy of accommodating increased traffic and greater building density (Leong 2001). Stockholm’s Torg and Rotterdam’s Lijnbaan, based on separating pedestrian traffic, inspired most of the European Cities to designate areas of the

historic center for exclusive pedestrian use (Brambilla and Longo 1977).

Figure 4.15 Lijnbaan, Rotterdam 1954 Source: www.familiennederland.nl During this time, the cities of the United States were booming under the Marshall plan

following the War. For the young generation of European architects, who, as Christine Boyer

puts it, were living in coldwater flats, America was a land of luxury and promise, as depicted in

the glossy paper of its magazines (Boyer n.d.). The emerging car-dominated landscape, suburbs, and organized shopping centers had an almost romantic quality with its courageous

58 reconstruction and reconfiguration of a new world. The increasing vehicular speeds led to a more radical segregation of the pedestrian paths, which started to be envisioned as grade- separated systems that were moving up to make room to faster automobiles (Leong 2001).

Influential architecture groups of the new generation found inspiration in this new

American cityscape and drew on the multi-layered esthetics of interchanges and overpasses.

Louis Kahn’s vehicular traffic studies for the center of Philadelphia graphically depicted a system of streets, decks and bridges in the center of the city (Kahn 1953; Fig.4.16). In their

Hauptstadt Plan for Berlin, which Alison and Peter Smithson developed in 1957-1958, cars became the spectacle as pedestrians looked down on their roads; people became the spectacle as passengers looked up to see them moving on escalators and looking over terraces (Fig. 4.17).

Archigram’s Plug-in City was designed for white-collars who lived in a little apartment-capsule and used waterproof tubes for their journey to work (Fig. 4.18).

Figure 4.16 Louis I. Kahn’s sketch of Viaduct Architecture over the existing plan of central Philadelphia Source: Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

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Figure 4.17 Alison and Peter Smithson, with Peter Sigmond. Berlin Haupstadt, competition entry 1957-1958 Source: Team 10 Online

Figure 4.18 Archigram, Plug-In City Source: Archigram

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Overhead pedestrian bridges were not reduced to pure utopia. It was as early as 1874 that

New York had received a proposal for a moving sidewalk: an elevated platform moving on

wheels at a speed of 20 km per hour (Leong 2001). The idea was later patented by a French

engineer, M. Blot, in 1886, who submitted it for consideration in the 1889 Paris World’s fair. It

would get implemented during the 1893 World’s Columbian exposition in Chicago, with a

design submitted by an American architect (Leong 2001). Paris, in its turn, adopted a larger

moving platform in the 1900 Exhibition: of 2.5 mile long, it operated for 8 months and carried

6.5 million people at a speed of 2.5 and 5 miles per hour (Tough and O’Flaherty 1971).

Two unbuilt proposals for Manhattan, one in 1904 and one in 1923, encased the moving

platforms in a continuous shopping arcade (Tough and O’Flaherty 1971). The moving sidewalks

would mostly get implemented in the mid century, during the postwar economic boom, when the

large retail areas re-discovered them and their derivate, the escalator (Leong 2001). They are still

to be found in airports today. Even though they did not proliferate at an urban scale, they conceptually connected the pedestrian movement with the mechanized movement and advanced the idea of the elevated sidewalk, as the operating mechanisms lifted them up from the ground

(Leong 2001).

Around the middle of the 20th century, the typology of the arcade was rediscovered by

Victor Gruen, an Austrian architect (Leong 2001). Gruen’s comments on Ebenezer Howard’s

Crystal Palace were full of admiration: “I found it interesting recently, while reading Ebenezer

Howard’s Garden Cities of To-morrow, to see that he proposed and foresaw not only the regional shopping center but its latest version, the shopping center with completely enclosed pedestrian areas.” (Gruen 1964, 195). Gruen was the father of the American mall with fully enclosed pedestrian traffic (Robertson 1995). Inspired by the European pedestrianization of the historic

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centers, Gruen envisioned the malls as places that could accommodate multi-purpose town

centers, centered on shopping but also surrounded by a school, a hospital, apartments, houses, a

park, and a lake (Leong 2001). The mall would provide the perfect environment for social

interaction, like the old town square did before, only in an ordered, stable, and car-protected

environment. However, from this entire scheme it was only the mall that got implemented

(Longstreth 1977).

Not only would malls become urban centers, Gruen thought, but they could serve as a

template for organizing the city himself and revitalizing the decaying downtowns (McMorrough

2001). Gruen believed in walking; he believed that separation of the auto traffic and pedestrian traffic should not be done by displacing the pedestrians from the street level and placing them above or underground. Neither did he believe in moving sidewalks, which he only employed in one of his shopping centers (Leong 2001).

The remodeling of the American downtowns, outcompeted by suburban developments and faced with rapid decline, found its financial and instrumental support mainly under the rubric

of Urban Renewal (Robertson 1995; Boddy 1992). The widespread application of this policy

produced the first large scale alternate pedestrian systems in North America (Boddy 1992). The

civic places created by urban renewal increasingly adopted interiorized, protected links to

connect them with the city (Leong 2001). Sometimes traffic was banned and a mall was created,

in a Gruen fashion of adapting the center to the suburb’s taste; most often though, tunnels and

bridges joined the new buildings (Boddy 1992).

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4.2 Skywalks and Downtown Revitalization

“Skywalks and tunnels are at the forefront of one of the most important processes of the

1990’s: the suburbanization of downtown” (Boddy 1992).

After reaching its pinnacle during the 1920s, the American downtown has steadily declined. Continuous decentralization has shifted downtown functions to the surrounding suburbs, particularly since World War II (Robertson 1995, Kaplan, Wheeler, and Holloway

2004). Rising automobile use has allowed activities that had been the exclusive domain of downtown (e.g., department stores, movie theatres, business offices, hotels, medical services) to follow middle-class residents to suburbia. Many retail shops went out of business or relocated to suburban malls (Kaplan, Wheeler, and Holloway 2004). In 1954, downtown retail sales still accounted for nearly 20 percent of the nationwide metropolitan total; by 1977, only 4 percent of metropolitan sales occurred downtown” (Robertson 1995, 431).

Moreover, urban renewal policies enacted during the 1950’s and 1960’s cleared many downtown blocks, and with them many small independent businesses (Boddy 1992). Most times, these could not be replaced by viable development projects to fill in the gaps in city fabric.

Distances between activities increased, making them less walkable; sidewalks narrowed, to widen streets for more automobiles; walking came to seem more dangerous, from both heavy traffic and increased downtown crime; and reduced on-street activities (e.g., shops, other pedestrians) made walking less of a pleasure (Robertson 1995).

Books like Jane Jacobs’s “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” (1961) voiced at the time the alarmed reaction of the communities confronted with the decay of their downtowns. In an almost unanimous effort of bringing pedestrians back to downtowns, a series of “revitalization strategies”, based on urban design and land use, were crafted for cities

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(Robertson 1995). In most cases these were integrated with financial and promotional tactics and

were used in concert. Robertson classifies them as follows:

ƒ Pedestrianization

ƒ Indoor Shopping Centers

ƒ Historic Preservation

ƒ Waterfront Development

ƒ Office Development

ƒ Special Activity Generators

ƒ Transportation Enhancement

Pedestrianization benefited of the wide acclaim of planners at the time (McMorrough

2001). Lewis Mumford, Jane Jacobs, Bernard Rudovsky, William W Whyte and Jacquelin

Robertson are among the many well known public figures that argued for the environmental

soundness of the pedestrian mall, in a well known collection of essays “For Pedestrians Only:

Planning, Design, and Management of Traffic-Free Zones” (1977)

Brambilla and Longo (1977) highlight the benefits of the pedestrian-only environment

into four categories: traffic management (a balanced transportation system), economic

revitalization (pedestrians are consumers), environmental improvements (less air, noise and

visual pollution), and social benefits (social interaction and safety).

Towards these aspirations, several pedestrian planning strategies were considered.

Roberson (1994) breaks them down as follows:

ƒ Widen sidewalks

ƒ Discourage automobile traffic

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ƒ Climatization of the pedestrian environment – through indoor shopping galleries and

enclosed skywalks, heated sidewalks, and canopies.

ƒ Improve safety and security – including improved lighting and increased police patrols.

ƒ Increase attractiveness of walkways – supported by colorful storefronts, outdoor exhibits,

attractive landscape, sidewalk cafes, street performances etc.

ƒ Increase quality and quantity of seating spaces – considering orientation towards the sun,

quality of view, weather protection.

ƒ Change existing zoning ordinances – facilitating mixed-use, enforcing a strong street

edge, limiting parking.

ƒ Separate vehicles from pedestrians – by underground concourses, above grade skywalk

systems, and grade-level pedestrian malls.

The last category, as mentioned above, received a lot of attention from planners. Fruin in1971, Richards and Thompson in 1974, and Robertson in 1994 described pedestrian and vehicular segregation models as valid methods of stimulating development and solving traffic problems. Robertson notices how in the last category the underground concourses are most of the times integrated with shopping complexes and/or underground transit (Robertson 1994).

Shopping malls are by definition integrating pedestrian movement with retail. Skywalks were rather thought of as connectors instead of destinations, although sections of them were included in buildings (Fruin 1971).

Skywalks are defined as “a network of pedestrian walkways including skybridges over streets and second story corridors within buildings, linking retail and service establishments that often have no direct access to the street level. For the most part the network is enclosed and climate-controlled” (Robertson 1995)

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Skywalks were considered to help downtowns compete with suburban developments by promoting density, creating a new layer of commercial activity, and ensuring a safe, weather protected shortcut between retail locations and other activities (Fruin 1971; Robertson 1994).

“First, they facilitate pedestrian mobility, allowing most trips to be made in less time and in more comfort, especially in bad weather. Second, since pedestrians are separated from vehicular traffic, improved pedestrian safety is accommodated. And finally, […] whatever the reasons for their implementation, skywalks have been proven to be immensely popular with the public, who use them heavily regardless of weather conditions” (Robertson 1994, 88).

Skywalks were adopted by more than 20 cities of various sizes, climate, and geographic positions. The first system to be built was in Minneapolis, 1961 (Morphew 1984), and soon other cold-weather cities in Canada and the US Upper Midwest followed: Calgary, Des Moines,

Edmonton, Milwaukee, Spokane, St Paul, Winnipeg, Cedar Rapids, Duluth, Fargo, Lincoln,

Sioux City. Even milder climate cities such as Charlotte, Dallas, Ft Worth and Portland embraced the skywalks.

Table 4.1 List of cities with notable skywalk systems City Length Blocks Connected Atlanta, Georgia 14 blocks Calgary, Alberta (+15 or +30 Walkway) 10 miles (16 km) ~64 blocks Cedar Rapids, Iowa 15 blocks Cincinnati, Ohio 1.3 miles (2.1 km) 15 blocks (Skywalk) Des Moines, Iowa >3.5 miles (5.6 km) 30 blocks (Skywalk) Detroit, Michigan 10 Buildings ~ 8 blocks Duluth, Minnesota ~17 blocks (Skywalk) Edmonton, Alberta ~13 blocks Fargo, North Dakota Grand Rapids, MI (Skywalk) >1 mile (1.7 km) 7 blocks Houston, Texas >6 miles including ~35 blocks (95 total) (skyways are a small part of the larger Houston tunnels Downtown Tunnel System)

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Oklahoma City, Oklahoma ~30 buildings Paradise, Nevada (skyways provided in lieu of street level pedestrian crossings) Minneapolis, Minnesota >8 miles ~80 blocks Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 16 blocks Rochester, Minnesota ~17 blocks

Rochester, New York 20 buildings over 13 blocks Saint Paul, Minnesota >5 miles 30 blocks Sioux City, Iowa 13 blocks Spokane, Washington 16 blocks Source: Wikipedia

Cincinnati was among the first cities to plan for a skywalk system, and not from weather

considerations, but as an outcome of the new expressways arriving downtown: the skywalks

were to provide a fast link between the main downtown parking garages to the core of the central

business district, where pedestrians could descend to the street level again (City of Cincinnati,

City Planning Commission 1958).

After the fact, skywalks attracted several criticisms, which argues that economically, they

often reduce the value of ground-level space and of buildings not connected to the system; aesthetically, they can damage the facades of older downtown buildings and the major sightlines for landmarks and vistas, and socially, they have the potential to segregate people by social class, since skywalks are often perceived as reserved for white-collar office workers. (Maitland 1992;

Robertson 1993).

4.3 Precedents of the Skywalk Typology

As one can notice, there is a long history of creative attempts to segregate pedestrian from vehicular traffic (Breines and Dean 1974; Alexander 197; Brambilla and Longo 1977).

Several of these attempts evolved into full-blown typologies that proliferated for a while and

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acquired world-wide notoriety. While sidewalks are the most common such typology nowadays,

it is interesting to notice that they did not gain popularity before the typology of 18th century arcade, now extinct in its original form (Leong 2001).

Several precedents of the skywalk typologies are identified and compared below: bazaars, arcades, and shopping malls. Tunnels are another attempt to vertically segregate the pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and they were successfully implemented in cities like Montreal, Houston,

Pittsburg, Chicago and Dallas, in some cases in conjunction with skywalks. However they are just as recent as the skywalks and offer no insight in how the skywalks heritage could be handled, so we could not count them among the skywalks precedents.

Figure 4.19 Diagram showing types of pedestrian networks Source: Author

3.2.1 Covered Bazaars

A bazaar – also named “souk” - is essentially a street or complex of shops found in

Oriental, Middle Eastern, or other countries where characteristics of underdevelopment in an

industrialized sense still exist (Wolfe 1963, 24). The covered bazaar has presumably developed

in the Middle East in response to fierce climatic conditions (MacKeith 1986). Covered streets,

not only market streets, existed in a very early period of Islamic civilization as is shown by the

excavations of Ali Bey Baghat and Albert Gabriel in Fostat (Riefstahl 1932).

Of particular note is the fact that the covered bazaars are not terminals, and the pedestrian shopping streets extend to and through them, continuing the street network of the city. “Principal flow avenues are established depending on the entrance connection, as more indirect streets

68 absorb fewer passers. A hierarchy of pedestrian traffic flow therefore utilizes arterials and collector aisles.” (Wolfe 1963, 28).

Figure 4.20 Map of the Grand Bazaar, Istanbul Figure 4.21The old bazaar in Isfahan Source: Photos by author Source: Gharipour, 2003

Some of the basic patterns of the bazaar also persist elsewhere: the multiplicity of those shops, the specialization of each (the green grocer, fishmonger shops of contemporary England, other European countries, and earlier American cities), and the clustering of similar or related groups (Wolfe 1963).

While MacKeith argues that the typology of the bazaar or souk “remained firmly in the

Middle East (MacKeith 1986, 9), Wolfe notices that even in highly developed areas the physical patterns of the bazaar as marketplace have not essentially changed, with the exception of the

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ownership patterns and, of course, making abstraction of the underlying cultural determinants

(Wolfe 1963).

Wolfe offers as example the emergence of the American general store, which later led to

the institutionalized trinity of the dime store, drugstore, and supermarket (Wolfe 1963, 24). “If the latter, the supermarket, is accepted as the latest manifestation, it may be observed that a great number of 'special shops' have been gathered under one roof; it also serves as a point of articulation in the urban land use pattern; it possesses almost institutionalized status since it has become a meeting place, a carnival, a nursery, etc., in addition to the foodstuffs and wares that are offered for sale. What are gone are the individualized ownerships - the corporate structure, as such, has taken over this function as well, but manifestations of the physical arrangement remain.” (Wolfe 1963, 24-25).

Besides the retail function, bazaars are one of the focal points of the community (in addition to the mosque) in the Muslim cities

(Von Grunebaum 1958 cited by Wolfe 1963).

They include workshops (Wolfe 1963), fountains, mosques, schools, music chambers, and public baths (Bakhtiar 1974), and act as is a Figure 4.22 Prayers in the bazaar cultural, social, commercial, educational and Source: Photos by author sanitarian area (Moradi & Nassabi 2007).

It is interesting to note that bazaars have not ceased to thrive for hundreds and hundreds of years, keeping their original activity patterns and original role in the community, with tourism being the most significant and influential addition to their function. Most of them were enlarged,

70 altered and restored, and undergo regular maintenance operations and updates, without much concern for their original architectural substance (Bakhtiar 1974), which reinforces their condition as “live” typologies - despite the fact they are not being built anew anymore.

3.2.2 Shopping Arcades

“The most refined street coverings, a tangible expression of civic solidarity – or, should

one say, of philanthropy – are arcades. […] The function of this of this singularly

ingratiating feature goes far beyond providing shelter against the elements or protecting

pedestrians from traffic hazards. Apart from lending unity to the streetscape, they often

take the place of the ancient forums. Throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia, arcades

are a common sight because they also have been incorporated into “formal’ architecture.

Bologna’s streets, to cite but one example, are accompanied by nearly twenty miles of

portici.” (Rudofsky 1969, 13)

As visible in Rudofsky’s description, there are two typologies referred to as arcades: the covered passageways running between two buildings and lined up with shops (the shopping arcade) and the covered sidewalks (known as porticoes or colonnades). For the purpose of this study we are resuming to the discussion of the shopping arcades that emerged in the 18th century

Paris.

The glass arcade is particularly relevant because of its continuity in time under various forms and scale; the use of the skylight being the first mechanism that allows light in large enclosed retail spaces (Leong 2001).

The arcades were very similar to bazaars in their morphology, as pedestrian streets protected by weather by a vaulted roof with skylights or fully glazed (MacKeith 1986). Spatially they originated in the idea of a pedestrian promenade, and took the form of glass-covered

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passage-ways that connected two streets and are lined on both sides with shops (Geist 1983).

Unlike bazaars, arcades were not designed to create a network although they ended up actually

articulating one in 19th century Paris (Leong 2001).

Arcades were developed as independent units, inward looking streets with external

facades towards their entrance buildings and to their shop fronts. Their architecture owed its

origins to the Exchanges of the 16th and 17th centuries and the arcaded streets of classical Rome and Greece (MacKeith 1986). They were made possible when large expanses of land became available for development in Paris, after being cleared by the Revolution (MacKeith 1986). The

first arcade constructed as an independent building is considered Passage des Panoramas, opened

in 1800 when Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul, and still in existence (Rollanson 2002).

Similar to the bazaars, the arcades had an important social role, however in contrast to the

latter they addressed the high society and bourgeoisie through the predominance of high-end and

fashion merchandise as opposed to primary goods and in their time they came to symbolize the

separation of classes (Boddy 1992; MacKeith 1986).

“By the end of the 18th century there were exchanges and colonnaded shopping

pavements, a growing population with enough wealth and a desire for luxury goods,

unconsidered trifles and personal adornment. It was an age when people loved to

promenade, to keep in fashion, to be seen, and when window shopping was as attractive a

diversion as visiting pleasure gardens and assembly rooms. The French were the first to

sense the commercial possibilities of bringing all these aspirations together, and the result

was the shopping arcade. Covered top lit passages for rich, the idle, the fashionable and

the growing middle class, provided spectacle and display, free from the vagaries of

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weather, the dangers of traffic and the dirt of the unmade and fouled streets” (MacKeith

1986, 14).

Figure 4.23 Nineteenth Century: With the Parisian arcade system, shopping becomes an urban network Source: Chung and others 2001 “The arcades establish an important training ground for the modern consumer […]

Separated from the contamination and distractions of the city, the arcades offer an

undiverted focus on goods and consumption and provide a steady stream of customers by

encouraging movement within an urban network that allows pedestrians, for the first

time, to traverse the city with minimal contact with other forms of traffic” (Leong 2001,

479).

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Arcades are also associated with a new form of social restlessness symptomatic for the

modern individual, defined as flanêurism, a term coined by Walter Benjamin to describe the

anxious and purposeless stroll through an increasingly incomprehensible and alienated city.

Arguing that the arcades constitute the most important architecture of the nineteenth century,

Benjamin sees them as a phenomenon of extreme cultural ambivalence: both an expression of

oppression (by the ideology of consumption) and liberation (into a utopia of plenty) (Rollanson

2002). Benjamin also linked the arcades to the utopian project of Charles Fourier (1772-1837),

the phalanstery (Rollanson 2002).

The arcades became very popular across Europe and in Great Britain. Joseph Paxton’s 19

acre Crystal Palace conceived for the 1851 Great Exhibition in London embodied a peak of the

arcade typology (Wyman 2001).

Other proposals inspired by the arcade typology and closely related to the scheme of

Crystal Palace were conceived in 1855: Crystal Way envisioned by William Moseley and the

Great Victorian Way, whose author was again Joseph Paxton. The Crystal Way scheme proposed

shopping as a connective tissue for London, by developing an almost 4 km shopping arcade and

underground train system to link the City of London and the West End (Leong 2001). The Great

Victorian Way was even more extensive: a 16 km arcade linking every one of London’s train

stations, and meant to solve all its traffic problems (Leong 2001).

As noted earlier, the arcades (including Crystal Palace) are also featured in Ebenezer

Howard’s “Garden Cities of To-morrow”, which further influenced Victor Gruen in the

conception of the indoor mall (Wyman 2001).

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Figure 4.24 The Vittorio Emmanuelle Gallery Figure 4.25 Cleveland Arcade Source: University of San Diego Source: University of San Diego

Another grandiose exemplar of the arcade typology is to be found in Milan, and it is

actually the largest arcade in the world (MacKeith 1986). Begun in 1865, the arcade symbolizes the dream to rebuild the medieval city and pride for national unity (MacKeith 1986).

There are many fine examples of arcades in the United States as well: Weybosset Arcade in Provence, Rhode Island, from 1827; several iron and glass arcades in Philadelphia and New

York; and finally, the Arcade in Cleveland, Ohio, planned in the manner of the early department

stores in Paris, with five floors of shops and a centre light-well crowned by a steel and glass roof

(MacKeith 1986).

As opposed to the bazaars, most arcades have not had a continuous utilization since they

were built. However, their decline during the 19th century was followed by restoration programs

that rehabilitated them according to their initial boutique-retail purpose and they act as a popular

local and touristic destination (MacKeith 1986). The restoration and conversion of the Cleveland

Arcade into a 293-room Hyatt Regency, 48,000sf of retail space, and a 10,000sf restaurant

received the National Preservation Award (Thomas 2002). Arcades are seen as a “social,

historical and cultural phenomenon” (Rollanson 2002) and are considered an important heritage

of the industrial era and of the beginning of the modern city.

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3.2.3 Shopping Malls

“Take 100 acres of ideally shaped flat land. Surround same by 500,000 consumers who

have no access whatever to any other shopping facilities. Prepare the land and cover the

central portion with 1,000,000 square feet of buildings. Fill with first rate merchandisers

who will sell superior wares at alluringly low prices. Trim the whole on the outside with

10,000 parking spaces and be sure to make same accessible over first-rate under-used

highways from all directions. Finish up by decorating with some potted plants,

miscellaneous flower beds, a little sculpture, and serve sizzling hot to the consumer”

(Gruen 1963, 21, quoted by Herman 2001)

The shopping mall was introduced in the emerging suburbs of the American cities shortly after the Second World War (Leong 2001, Longstreth 1977) with precedents in the pre-war

“community shopping center”, a much smaller type and much more focused on the daily needs retail and the department store (Longstreth 1977; Cohen 1996). Its fervent promoter, Austrian architect Victor Gruen, was originally inspired by the European pedestrianization of the historic centers and envisioned the malls as safe, stable, car free places that could act as perfect replicas of the (now decaying and unpopular) old town center, and act as a social substitute for it (Goss

1993). Gruen intended for the malls to accommodate various functions normally associated with a city center: a school, a hospital, apartments, houses, a park, and a lake, insisting that “shopping malls become, increasingly, multipurpose town centers” (Gruen 1963, 21 quoted by Leong

2001).

This intention, although not realized, would have probably brought the shopping mall closer to the social function of the bazaar or any traditional market place: “By affording opportunities for social life and recreation in a protected pedestrian environment, by incorporating civic and educational facilities, shopping centers can fill an existing void. They can 76

provide the needed place and opportunity for participation in modern community life that the

ancient Greek Agora, the Medieval Market Place and our own Town Squares provided in the

past” (Gruen and Smith 1960, 24, quoted by Leong 2001) However, malls were implemented

with a single scope: retail (Longstreth 1977). Despite that, they still turned out to play a

tremendous social role, most times being treated by people as if they were an actual town center

(Zepp 1986).

Shopping malls developed in various types and configurations, in both suburban and

downtown areas. Suburban and downtown malls shared the same key characteristics:

“centralized management, a carefully planned retail mix, the domination of national chains over

local independents, and a clean, secure, attractive, and climate-controlled environment.

Downtown shopping centers differ from their suburban counterparts in their vertical construction-due to higher land costs-and the lack of free parking” (Robertson 1995, 432).

It is generally interpreted that part of their tremendous success was owed to the orderly, controlled environment they provided, which excluded certain classes (such as beggars, prostitutes, and the poor), protected from weather, prevented traffic distractions and generally ensured that the shopping experience was as convenient as possible (Cohen 1996). “Americans have shown a strong preference for climate-controlled indoor environments. Over the past twenty years, this country has witnessed a proliferation of not only enclosed downtown skywalk systems, but indoor sports stadiums and, above all, enclosed suburban shopping malls”

(Robertson 1995, 431).

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Figure 4.26 The dumbbell versus the cluster: pedestrian circulation patterns within the malls Source: Chung and others 2001 However, later trends have led to the development of very successful outdoor shopping

malls even in fierce climatic conditions (e.g. Las Vegas), which questions the assumed

fascination for climate control of the shoppers (Blum 2005). The now successful “lifestyle

center” typology has pretty much eliminated all the features resembling the traditional shopping

mall: “At lifestyle centers, the most discernible theme is urbanism itself. […] More incredibly,

lifestyle centers do all the things that urban planners have promoted for years as ways of

counteracting sprawl: squeeze more into less space, combine a mix of activities, and employ a

fine-grained street grid to create a public realm—a ‘sidewalk ballet,’ in Jane Jacobs' alluring phrase. The irony is almost too perfect: Malls are now being designed to resemble the downtown commercial districts they replaced” (Blum 2005).

Shopping malls are not only precedents to the skywalk typology; they were a direct inspiration (Boddy 1992, McMorough 2001). They could potentially continue to be an

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inspiration in providing ways to handle the skywalks after they became outdated: The Los

Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design initiated an architecture and urban design

competition for the outdated and “dead” malls (The Dead Malls Competition) (Sokol 2003), and the conversion of old malls into mixed used centers is escalating (Langdon 2008).

4.4 Comparative Analysis

So far this study has demonstrated how skywalks fit in the larger theme of pedestrian typologies, a theme that has been relevant to the history of cities throughout history. These typologies are very different because they were produced at enormous distances in time and each of them reflects a different culture, but in essence they serve the same purpose: offering pedestrians (more or less selectively) a comfortable, protected environment in which they can consume goods or services.

While it may be hard to conceive these typologies as related, consider comparing an average house, belonging to a middle-class person, built at the same time with the Great Bazaar of Istanbul – in the 15th century – with an average bourgeois house built in the 19th century, with

one of the cookie cutters produced after World War II. The differences in quality, architecture

and the behavior they host may make it hard to believe they bear the same name. Similarly,

bazaars, arcades, shopping malls and skywalks seem hard to dwell under the same roof of

pedestrian networks. Still, they evolved one from another, inspired one another, and serve the

same purpose.

We have also showed that, in the light of history, these precedents were considered

valuable heritage and their preservation and re-valorization has been successfully pursued. A

comparative look at these typologies and the skywalks will reveal similes as well as unique

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qualities of skywalks. The criteria used are based on the literature review and refer to the historic and cognitive values, use values, aesthetic values and social values.

Historic/Informational values. Arcades, shopping malls and skywalks in particular are responses to specific cultural attitudes that manifested during a limited period of time. All these

typologies responded to a mentality shift, economic boom and emancipation, and reveal

information regarding the cultural transformations during that period of time. In contrast,

bazaars have maintained their role through centuries because they were the product of a more

steady culture that resisted drastic cultural changes (Bianca 1997).

Symbolic values. The symbolism of these typologies varies widely, reflecting the

phenomena that fueled their existence. While bazaars are a symbol of timeless spirit of

community and the quintessence of the marketplace and trade, arcades came to symbolize the

emerging consumerism of the industrial revolution, the taste for luxury and purposeless strolling

– flanêurism – and the modern urban culture (Rollanson 2002). Shopping malls, in their turn, are

a symbol of suburbia and endless consumerism (Leong 2001), while skywalks are the symbol of

the abandoned city, scarred by fear, and privatization of the public realm (Boddy 1992,

Robertson 1994).

Use values. Bazaars, arcades, shopping malls and skywalks have the same basic role, that

of protecting customers of the bordering businesses by vehicles, weather, and other inconveniences. All three precedents have not ceased to satisfy this role through centuries, and their appeal did not fail, which validates their initial logic. Skywalks are the only one of these typologies that employs vertical separation of pedestrians from vehicular traffic.

Aesthetic values. All the precedents discussed above have esthetic particularities that have established them as distinctive architectural typologies, and, as shown, they have further influenced the architecture of other building types. While bazaars and arcades excel in the 80 architectural detail of their domes, ceilings, and arches, malls and skywalks have failed to impress through similar qualities, although there are exceptions among them that can claim interesting aesthetic.

Social values. All examined typologies play a significant role within the community - while the bazaars are most intrinsically tied into the daily life of the city, the arcades, malls and skywalks earned great popularity immediately by responding to specific needs and cultural expectations of the community, and then faded due to shifts in thought and cultural advances.

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Chapter 5. The Case of the Cincinnati Skywalk

It was in 1964 that the Cincinnati skywalk system started to be built after the publication

of the Central Business District Urban Design Plan, the Urban Renewal Plan for Downtown

Cincinnati (Forusz 1981, Garvin 1988). The first segment was completed in 1975 at a cost of 5.6

million dollars and linked the Cincinnati Convention Center with Fountain Square (Forusz

1981). The link was merely a roof-covered walkway built over an alley between existing buildings. As more links were added over the next two decades, the system became more sophisticated with heating and air conditioning and windows shielding pedestrians from the weather (Herpich 2003).

The Cincinnati 2000 Plan proposed the extension of the skywalk system as part of “An

Improved Pedestrian Environment” (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1981). The

Urban Land Institute’s Evaluation of the Cincinnati 2000 Plan for The City of Cincinnati also recommended additional extensions of the skywalk (ULI 1981).

The last link connecting Carew Tower to Founatin Place was completed in 1997 with the opening of Lazarus. In 1999 the demolition of shops and an office tower at Fifth and Race streets severed the skywalk system (Herpich 2003), causing disconnected links to jut out over

Fifth Street from Saks Fifth Avenue and Vine Street from Fountain Place.

Finally, the 2005-2006 Revitalization Plan for Fountain Square required the removal of the links above the Square. The segment that was demolished was bridging Macys with Fifth

Third bank across Vine Street and Fountain Square. This segment carried a little more than 2,000 pedestrians over a two-and-a-half hour period, according to a March 2003 count conducted by

Downtown Cincinnati Inc (Herpich 2003). The busiest period was noon to 12:30 p.m. when

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almost 1,000 pedestrians used the skywalk (Herpich 2003). There was no previous analysis of

the skywalk leading to this decision.

The following three sections in this chapter provide information on the plans and designs

for the Cincinnati skywalk system, the performance of the system, and the impressions it left on

its users. Section 5.4 gauges the historic, symbolic, use, aesthetic and social values that the

system bears based on the first three sections.

5.1 The Plans and Designs for the Cincinnati Skywalk System

The City of Cincinnati has been concerned with the idea of a downtown elevated sidewalk system since 1925 (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1925). At that time, this was envisioned to simply replace the ground-level sidewalks in order to make room for the increasing vehicular traffic. The idea was considered undesirable and did not pass the planning commission (Forusz 1981). The section “Overhead Sidewalks” contains the following evaluation: “Overhead sidewalks have been tried only for very short stretches, and they are not used because of the necessity of climbing up to them. They darken the first floors of stores and prove troublesome to the fire department in case of fire. Supports have to be provided in the roadways area, which are comparable with the elevated columns on some New York City streets.

Traffic tallies on the latter streets show that the columns cause a great reduction in traffic flow.

While overhead sidewalks do physically widen the roadway, they actually reduce the street usefulness and, at a very small cost, would be inadvisable.” (Official Plan of the City of

Cincinnati, 1925, 98)

Between 1957 and 1964 various plans for the downtown area were made. The 1964

Urban Renewal Plan for Downtown Cincinnati, which incorporated provisions for the Cincinnati

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skywalk system, was the final product of a 7 year long planning process, and a follow-up on

Victor Gruen’s 1962 Plan (Garvin 1998).

However, before the 1964 Plan was published, the Circulation section of the 1958

Cincinnati Central Business District Plan explicitly incorporated an “overhead pedestrian ways”

proposal (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958).

This document is of particular importance because it precedes the realization of the

Minneapolis skywalk system which is admittedly the source of inspiration for the Cincinnati skywalk as it was built (Garvin 1988, Forusz 1980), and it helps establish the differences between how the system was originally conceived and how the influences of the Minneapolis system reshaped it.

The foreword to the plan eloquently sketches the planning vision and its reasons for a pedestrian-friendly downtown:

“The twentieth century task of reshaping the center of the city and its central business

district requires in the main, a comprehensive approach free from the traditional concept

of the city’s downtown area. […] In the last decade, the merchandising world has […]

produced the phenomenon of the regional shopping center […] They offer ample and free

parking. Therefore, the Central Business District, to be effective, must challenge the

attraction of free parking by offering not only adequate parking facilities, but greater

choice and variety of goods in more attractive surroundings. Basically, the Central

Business District must appeal to the pedestrian. It was built for the pedestrian and must

be redesigned for the pedestrian.” (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958)

The plan identified the Core of the CBD as the main focus for retailing: “Retailing is increasing

in the Core even though it has decreased in the Central Business District as a whole” (City of

Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958, 107). 84

Based on these trends, the section dedicated to “Pedestrian Circulation” outlined a plan centered

“on the decision that pedestrian circulation should be retained at the street level within the core”

(City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958, 108), for the reason that all shopping facilities within the core area were accessible at the ground floor level. The pedestrian oriented design of the street level was to be reflected by the conversion of portions of each of the streets within the Core into pedestrian plazas or malls.

Figure 5.1 Proposed circulation plan, with pedestrian conveyors illustrated in red Source: City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958 For these reasons, the “Overhead Pedestrian-Ways” were envisioned strictly as links from the parking garages to the Core (Fig. 5.1), or from other, exocentric development areas to the

Core, but not within the Core: “They are to be constructed at the second or third floor level of the garages, passing over the traffic thoroughfares and descending to the street level in the Core.”

(City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958, 115). They were described as sheltered and 85

well lit bridges, but complete enclosure or acclimatization were not implied. However, they were

in turn supposed to be equipped with conveyor belts operating in both directions, and escalators were to be used for any change in level. According to the 1958 plan, the “Overhead Pedestrian-

Ways” would constitute the only overhead construction proposed in the Core of the Central

Business District, and they would only be necessary to transport people from garages and redevelopment areas to the Core. However, the Plan assumed, the overhead pedestrian system was flexible enough to accommodate new connections to any area where redevelopment would have generated pedestrian agglomerations. The most likely redevelopment areas anticipated in the Plan were the Central Riverfront, the Garfield Park Area and the Court Street market area.

The Central Riverfront redevelopment was to be connected by an overhead pedestrian conveyor over the Distributor, while the Garfield Park and the Court Street Market areas were to be linked by a single stretch on the West side of Vine Street from Court Street to Seventh Street (City of

Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958, 118).

Figure 5.2 Typical conveyor terminal Source: City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958

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Finally, the 1958 Circulation Plan presented the anticipated “Effects of Conveyors on

retail Store Frontage”, underlining that the “Conveyors have been carefully located to maximize

their functional use and to minimize any detrimental effect on retail store frontage”, and showing

that the retail frontage is only 10% of the length of the Sixth and Seventh Street conveyors. The section concluded “A decrease in the existing normal pedestrian movement on the sidewalks under the conveyors is not anticipated, since this is short distance movement” (City of

Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1958, 119).

In 1962 the Central Business District Plan drafted by Victor Gruen proposed traffic improvements for local streets, re-establishing public gathering places at Fountain and

Government Squares, building downtown apartments to provide street life after office workers had gone for the day, and constructing a convention center on Fifth Street (Garvin 1998). The traffic improvements included (1) convenient perimeter parking, (2) an underground bus terminal north of Fountain Square, (3) selected rear-alley truck delivery areas, (4) selected pedestrian-only streets, and (5) a double-loop of one-way streets: counter-clockwise on Ninth, Plum, Third, and

Broadway, and clockwise on Seventh, Sycamore, Fourth, and Elm Streets (Garvin 1998). There was no mention of overhead pedestrian connections.

Two and a half years later, when the City of Cincinnati published the Urban Renewal plan drafted by Rogers, Taliaferro, Kostritsky and Lamb (RTKL), it was right after Minneapolis had opened the first comprehensive skywalk system in 1962 (Robertson 1994). The Minneapolis skywalk system had been a direct response to America’s first air-conditioned shopping mall,

Southdale, which opened in 1956, in Edina, Minnesota, just outside the city (Garvin 1998). The skywalk system was devised to help downtown merchants compete with suburban shopping malls like Southdale by providing second-story, climate-controlled pedestrian connections to a variety of downtown destinations (Garvin 1998). 87

Figure 5.3 Aerial view of Southdale Mall Figure 5.4 Southdale Mall, interior, 1956 Source: University of San Diego Source: University of San Diego

Figure 5.5 Map of the Minneapolis skywalk system Figure 5.6 Minneapolis skywalk, interior Source: www.minneapolis.org Source: Flikr

The Minneapolis skywalk crystallized the final vision for the Cincinnati skywalk. Thus, while the 1964 Central Business District Urban Renewal Plan remained largely within the framework that Gruen had laid out two years earlier, in a less expensive, watered-down version

(Garvin 1998), it did take a radically different approach regarding the “pedestrianization”

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strategies. As previously mentioned, Gruen believed that separation of the auto traffic and

pedestrian traffic should not be done by displacing the pedestrians from the street level and

placing them above or underground (Leong 2001).

RTKL (like Gruen) thought of Fountain Square, the symbolic and most significant open

space of the downtown, as the centerpiece of a revitalized downtown. Therefore the main link of the skywalk connected the heart of the plan, Fountain Square, with the brand new Convention

Center. From this E-W central span, the system was growing to the north and to the south to connect the major department stores and hotels, and further to the South reaching the stadiums on the banks of the Ohio River (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1964).

In contrast to the 1958 Circulation Plan, the 1964 Plan did not spare the core of downtown of overhead bridges, on the contrary. The emphasis moved from connecting the parking garages with the main destination in the CBD core to connecting the main buildings within the core one to each other and to Fountain Square.

From the 1925 to the 1958 Plan of Cincinnati to the 1964 Urban Renewal Plan the differences in expectations regarding the evolution and impact of the skywalk are quite obvious.

In 1925 we are looking at a proposal that seeks to elevate all downtown sidewalks to the second level allowing cars to take over the ground level at full speed, and the idea is openly rejected.

Twenty-three years later, in 1958, Cincinnati is getting ready to build a sophisticated, multi- modal system to bring pedestrians to the downtown that has now to compete against the suburban regional shopping centers: people will arrive conveniently by expressways, park, and be shuttled by elevated moving sidewalks that will drop them in a pedestrian friendly core where they can stroll and shop. In 1964, the skywalk system is seen as a complex alternative to the

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sidewalk system, offering connections to all the main buildings of the downtown and unfolding straight from the heart of the city, Fountain Square.

Figure 5.7 Plan of the skywalk system as projected for Cincinnati 2000 Source: City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1986 The Cincinnati 2000 Plan (also in collaboration with RTKL), released in 1986, mentions

that the Plan “builds upon the existing street-level and skywalk system, and extends it to link the

core to other districts” (City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1986, 33). The 2000 Plan

states that the skywalk enhances “the efficiency of both pedestrian and vehicular movements by

minimizing areas where the two are in conflict”. Consequently, a list of proposed skywalk extensions is to follow:

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• From the Atrium One Office Building to the south, linking to a pedestrian bridge over

Front Washington Way.

• Elm, Race and Fifth Street skywalk connections to the Hyatt-Saks’s project, south of

Fifth between Race and Elm.

• From the Terrace Hilton north to the Federated Office Building and west of

Shillito/Rikes.

• From the Westin Hotel south across Fourth Street and west across Vine Street to

McAlpin’s.

• From Fourth Street and McAlpins south across Fort Washington Way to Riverfront West

Park.

• A combination of upper level platforms and skywalks linking the Riverfront West mixed

use development to the Riverfront Stadium.

• From Riverfront Colisseum across Mehring Way to One Lytle Place.

• From One Lytle Place to the Sawyer Point Park.

• Extension from the 580 Building east through the Federal Building to the present Columbia Olds site.

• Extension from the present Columbia Olds site south to the Central Trust Center, Phase II

and the Atrium II development site. This would connect the downtown skywalk system to

the Riverfront Stadium Garage.”

(City of Cincinnati, City Planning Commission 1986, 33).

5.2 Evaluations of the System’s Performance

Once built, the Cincinnati skywalk was for the most part, until its partial demolition, taken for granted and did not benefit from much attention from planners. There are only two

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authors that dedicate substantial room to the Cincinnati skywalk: Forusz in 1980 and Robertson

in 1994.

Professor Harris N. Forusz at the University of Cincinnati put together the most extensive

analysis of the Cincinnati skywalk system at the end of the year 1980: “The Cincinnati Skywalk,

Cincinnati, Ohio: A Case Study from the Viewpoint of Users and Public Authorities”. It is the

first analysis specifically targeting the Cincinnati skywalk system, conducting an empirical evaluation “from the Viewpoint of Users and Public Authorities”. His 29 page report (still, the most extensive) starts with an overview of the context that led to the development of the skywalk; the analysis comprises a section dedicated to the development process and an evaluation of the function, health and security, and physical design. The last section contains

“user benefits and development lessons”.

Forusz explains that the skywalk development was not based on an analysis of quantifiable data reflecting pedestrian needs and preferences, and that this data is basically unavailable, therefore his evaluation will also be empirical instead of quantitative. He divides his evaluation into 3 main chapters: Evaluation of Function, Evaluation of Health and Security, and

Evaluation of Physical Design.

Under the Evaluation of Function, Forusz states that skywalks are part of the downtown pedestrian network and defines their function according to their initial intention, to move people quickly, comfortably and more safely. He finds this criterion to be well satisfied by the

Cincinnati system. The functional components of the skywalk are: entrances, doorways, stairs, escalators, elevators, connecting corridors, spaces, bridges, street furniture, and signage system.

Forusz promptly concludes that the bridges are the most visible physical structures from the street level. He also stresses the difficulty of the first time user to comprehend the system is

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acknowledged, “due to the lack of cohesion between the Skywalk functional components and

their related buildings.” (Forusz 1980, 11) In addition, the visual signage system is unable to

communicate the organization and coherence of the system (Forusz 1980, 11).

Forusz then moves on to discuss the access to and within the skywalk system, which is

provided by steps, escalators, and elevators. The lack of amenities for disabled persons or parents

with strollers is mentioned, as well as the limited accessibility because of the use of private

elevators that close during the night. He notices that the major second level space – Opera Place

– created at the crossing of the major North-South and East-West connections, has seating, trees and plants, and toilets are provided by the adjoining uses, but the lack of space prevents the location of mailboxes, telephone booths, newsstands, refuse cans. There is lack of streetscape emphasis on the connection to the bus system and pedestrian streets at ground level.

Forusz also discusses system continuity, which he assumes will be supported by the system expansion.

The Evaluation of Health and Security states that the skywalk is perceived as less dangerous than the commercial streets below by the police, but at night there is a perceived danger on the part of users. Forusz also comments under this section that the agreements with private owners have proved to provide better maintenance to the system than the City. The repairs are also shared between the City and the private owners. The system has the advantage to protect from weather, being partially air conditioned and covered for the most part, and is quieter than the surrounding streets and more comfortable to move on. The air conditioned areas protect the user from the pollution of the street (Forusz 1980 13-14).

Forusz’s Evaluation of Physical Design is based on the design criteria stated by the

Cincinnati 2000 Plan: “any portion of the walkway should be considered as part of an integrated

93 skywalk system with similar characteristics and image, rather than isolated individual elements.”

(RTKL Associates et Al., n.d., 1, as cited by Forusz 1980, 21)

The author uses a series of photographs as evidence of a lack of continuity between the skywalk and the buildings it connects. He remarks that: one, the skywalk cuts the vistas of certain streets it overlaps, and second, that it lacks unity in appearance. He also signalizes discontinuity in scale and size of spaces, architectural language, materials and textures, related to the piece-meal process of development. While initially intended as a unifying element that improves the user’s perception by establishing a clear visual relationship between the parts they wish to use, the skywalk does not manage to convey a statement of connection (Forusz 1980). In regards to the access points, Forusz notices that the lack of a “place” or a “gateway” prevents the user from noticing the beginning or the end of the system (Forusz 1980).

Forusz also comments on a few aspects that impacted the aesthetics of the skywalk. In order to develop a particular section of the Skywalk, the City of Cincinnati was negotiating with private property owners for construction easements and public access easements. Depending on the agreement, the city could have a great deal, or limited responsibility for connecting to and improving property that connects to the skywalk. In most cases the private property owners were responsible for remodeling their interior connecting space (Forusz 1980). Only approximately

10% of the costs of each new section were used for lighting, design and development of pedestrian places, street furniture and landscaping (Forusz 1980). This shows that aesthetics were not a capital concern in the development of the skywalk, and also suggests that the piecemeal approach may have influenced the visual coherence and cohesiveness of the system.

In his 1994 work, “Pedestrian Malls and Skywalks: Traffic Separation Strategies in

American Downtowns”, Kent A. Robertson conducted a comparative case study on the skywalks

94 of five Midwestern cities: Cincinnati, Des Moines, Duluth, Minneapolis, and St Paul. Robertson based his analysis on Skywalk Usage, Access and Orientation, Safety and Security, Economic

Activities, Downtown Redevelopment, and Design and Aesthetics. Robertson made use of interviews, surveys, field observation, and inventory studies. His inferences, drawn from comparison, are redirected to the skywalk typology in general, and the individual case studies serve to highlight particular features. As a result, his study does not offer extensive information about the Cincinnati skywalk system, but provides informed and valuable data.

Robertson remarks that Cincinnati has one of the most accessible skywalks, being open

24/24 with the exception of the sections that go through the department stores, closed at night.

Also, of the five systems studied, Cincinnati's is the most accessible because many of the stairways and escalators leading to the skywalks are linked directly to the sidewalk. This enhances the system’s visibility and encourages people to use it more. In terms of skywalk usage, while the results derived from weather considerations prove to be location-specific and un-linear in relationship with climate, the prevailing users of the skywalks seem to belong to a homogenous category of high income, white, suburbanite, predominantly female white-collar workers (Robertson 1994).

The most common incidents regarding safety and security in Cincinnati are related to groups of teenagers who reportedly harass women and senior citizens (Robertson 1994). Some people surveyed, Robertson remarks, feel less secure on skywalks, particularly during off-hours and on under-frequented linkages, because of the sense of being closed in, where no one could hear pleas for help.

Also, as a particularity, Cincinnati’s skywalk system displays a comparatively high number of blue-collar workers and minorities and appeared to be the least elitist, by providing

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direct connection to the sidewalk (Robertson 1994). Robertson also mentioned as a positive the

connection of the skywalk with a major public space of the city, which referred to the now

demolished Fountain Square links. “The city experiences the mildest climate of those studied,

one consequence of which is a greater orientation towards the outside in terms of system design

features. For example, it is the only system which is coordinated with a major open space

(Fountain Square). It also is the only system not entirely enclosed, thereby suggesting that the

skywalker's overwhelming preference for using the system rather than the sidewalk below is not

necessarily a statement indicating their complete abandonment of the outdoors, as seems to be

the case in Des Moines and St. Paul.” (Robertson 1994, 102). Overall, the skywalk satisfies the

premise of enhanced accessibility and generates additional links necessary for the superblock

development approach (Robertson 1994).

From an aesthetic point of view, Robertson remarks that the skywalks in Des Moines,

Duluth, and Cincinnati follow the St. Paul model, with bridges that tend to be uniform and

neutral in style (Robertson 1994). Some of the older bridges have an unusual design that breaks

up the monotony, being open on the sides and wrapped around the outside of buildings

(Robertson 1994). Most of the recent bridges, however, conform to the more conventional

midstreet, enclosed, unobtrusive design (Robertson 1994).

Robertson notes that skywalks have some negative effects on the streets below. First, if a

skywalk system is successful, it removes people from the sidewalk which leads to the impression

of an inactive, barren city center. In addition, skywalk bridges can cut vistas - for example, the

now removed links around Fountain Square in Cincinnati used to interrupt the vistas of the

square (Robertson 1994).

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Despite the loss of views caused by skywalks, Robertson points out that the elevated walkways do create new and interesting vantage points: “New second-story, midstreet perspectives offer opportunities to see the city in fresh and sometimes enlightening ways”

(Robertson 1994, 116).

It is interesting to notice that the study conducted by Forusz, dedicated exclusively to the

Cincinnati skywalk system, returns less positive results than the comparative study performed by

Robertson on 5 different case studies.

5.3 Public Perception of the Cincinnati Skywalk

Just like it was for the most part taken for granted by planners, the Cincinnati skywalk was also taken for granted by its users. Only when rumors about the plans to demolish some of the bridges started spreading did newspapers set aside room for asking people how they feel about the skywalk.

The plans to demolish the skywalk were first dissected by Ken Alltucker in the Cincinnati

Enquirer. An article explains that while “Cincinnati's skywalk once was touted as a bold new way to create a better downtown”, now the focus has shifted: “Rather than develop the riverfront, two New York consultants [John Alschuler and Cooper, Robertson and Partners] say the city should polish the eight blocks around Fountain Square. The symbolic heart of the city needs a new mix of shops and restaurants - and less of the ugly skywalk, they say.” (Alltucker 2003) The reporter contrasted the opinions of a few city officials (Lisa Haller, chief executive officer of the

Greater Cincinnati Convention and Visitors Bureau, Councilman David Pepper) and stakeholder

Jerry Hill (Manager of the Palomino restaurant), who agreed with demolishing parts of the skywalks, to the users’ opinions, who are against it. A survey realized by Survey USA on 500

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Cincinnati residents was also published, showing that a 65% majority thought the skywalk should not be torn down (Fig.

5.10).

Another article in The Enquirer “A Web of Walkways” explained that “When the first skywalk bridges linking

Fountain Square to Cincinnati's convention center were completed in 1971, the city was in the vanguard of a trend.

[…] But after years of complaints that the system removes people from the downtown streetscape, Cincinnati will be joining in another trend: the demise of the skywalk.” (Rose

2005) After describing the plans for Fountain Square and the demolition of the skywalk bridges over Vine Street, the author mentions there are funds allocated for repairing some other sections of the skywalk and finishes with quoting the city architect: "We don't really have what I would call a policy direction on the system from City Council," said Moore, the city architect. That means more skywalk sections could be either restored or torn down in coming months and years, as conditions change, he said.” (Rose 2005)

The Associated Press also published an article on the demolition, “Elevated skywalks start coming down. Once- popular urban fixtures suck life out of streets, planners say” Figure 5.8 Cincinnatians say the (Cornwell 2006), which reiterated the same opinions as the skywalk should remain as is Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer 2003

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previous ones.

The opposition city officials/planners who want to tear down the skywalk versus skywalk

users who think the skywalk should be kept is reiterated in each and every of these articles supported by brief quotes and descriptions of the interviewed persons. While no other polls could be found besides the one shown in Fig.5.10, the articles reviewed above support the impression that the general public is favorable to maintaining the skywalk.

There were a few other articles, but with little relevance to the Cincinnati skywalk system: “Fast Life Along the Skywalks (Andersen 1988), in Architecture and Design, a critique of skywalks in general; “Different cities see pluses, minuses in skywalks” (The Enquirer 2003), comparing the Baltimore, Milwaukee and Minneapolis systems; “Decades old, skywalk idea doesn't seem to fly anymore” (Healy 2005), in New York Times, collecting the negative opinions of various city officials or planners from different cities and touching briefly on the Cincinnati skywalk.

UrbanOhio.com, an on-line forum and image database, had an entire thread started March

25, 2005, dedicated to opinions on the skywalk demolition, and so does the blog “Queen City

Discovery”.

While the responses are not summarized in any statistical results, there are numerous comments that reveal sentimental attachment to the skywalk:

“My memories of the Skywalk are mostly from the 80s when my Dad would take me around the city. Our tradition was 5-way chili, then the Carew Tower observation deck, then the skywalk, which was much more alive in those days. Your pictures brought back some great memories! Maybe, some day the Skywalk might come "alive" again” (Eric Liming, 2009, http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/02/take-virtual-tour-of-cincinnati-skywalk.html).

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“I grew up in L.A. and sadly you never see skywalks there. They look very convenient & fun, as you get a great view of the city each time you walk across one (and you can avoid the noise and dangers of the street level)” (Langue.dor, 2009, idem).

“It's one of the things that distinguishes Cincinnati from other Ohio cities” (Cincinnatus

2005, http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,2822.0.html).

“I will say it again. I love the skywalks” (Cincyimages 2005, idem).

Another thread, “Skywalk to Nowhere”, on visualingual.wordpress.com, proposes ideas for the re-use of the disconnected links at 5th and Race streets:

“Ah, the skywalks of Cincy, I remember bragging about being able to get from The

Westin to Shillitos without ever touching the ground. You could even get an awesome chocolate chip cookie and catch a movie on the way! […] I love ‘em, they are just so Cincy to me. I want to see something bursting out of the left side of it, or pouring down to street level. Anything besides flying pigs! (becky 2009, http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/skywalk-to- nowhere/#more-226 ).

“The skywalks are total Cincinnati, and totally out of vogue at this point [well, for cities without crazy winters, at least]. I’m with you, Becky, in that they could transformed in some way. I’d prefer that over razing them, and over leaving them in their current state [especially this particular one]” (Visualingual 2009, idem).

“I would love to propose an installation for this crazy site” (Ben C. 2009, idem).

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5.4 Analysis and Findings

5.4.1 Historic-Informational Value

The plans and designs for the Cincinnati Skywalk System reveal two important aspects of the historic-informational relevance of the Cincinnati skywalk system: one related to Urban

Renewal and the second one related to the particularities of the Cincinnati history and urban morphology.

The first aspect resides in the fact that the Cincinnati skywalk was implemented as a

pedestrianization strategy for downtown Cincinnati by the 1964 Urban Renewal Plan for

Downtown Cincinnati, and followed soon after the first skywalk ever implemented in the United

States in Minneapolis. This makes the system relevant to the history and knowledge about Urban

Renewal plans and policies and the associated cultural phenomena: social and racial segregation, central city decline, downtown revitalization strategies, and in particular pedestrianization.

The second aspect derives from the recurrence and persistence of the proposals to implement overhead pedestrian systems, from the 1925 proposal of an overhead sidewalk system

to the 1958 proposal of overhead conveyors to the 1964 actual skywalk proposal and the follow-

up studies that consolidated and re-affirmed the necessity and the expansion of the skywalk. This

recurrence expresses a steady interest in Cincinnati, for almost the entire duration of the 20th

Century, in the vertical segregation of pedestrians from vehicular traffic. Throughout all the above plans, the vertical segregation was the focus of the proposals, not the weather protection – going from the radical separation proposed in 1925 through complete removal of ground-level sidewalk systems, to “pedestrian expressways” from garages to the core in 1958 and to the core unification realized in 1964. A further argument lies in the fact that the first links realized

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between 1964 and 1975 was merely a roof-covered walkway built over an alley between existing buildings (Forusz 1981, Herpich 2003).

An explanation of this recurrent concern lies in the characteristics of the traditional urban fabric of Cincinnati. Cincinnati was platted in 1789 by colonel Israel Ludlow with a regular grid of 400 ft by 400 ft blocks, and between 60 and 66 ft streets, in a grid parallel and perpendicular to the Ohio River in order to give the broadest frontage to the river (Klein 1958). At the turn of the century, the population of Cincinnati was more than 60% German Americans (Hetzer 2007).

Fondly called "Zinzinnati" by its German residents, Cincinnati developed by tight urban patterns that reflected the culture of its European immigrants. This efficient layout didn’t allow for the easy reconfiguration of the streets to accommodate the increasing number of cars with rising speeds endangering the pedestrians. Therefore starting from the 1920’s, the accommodation of car traffic has been a concern in Cincinnati. After subtracting the width of the sidewalks from the right of way, the downtown typical street width is 40 feet. This allows four moving lanes of traffic during rush hour and two moving lanes of traffic during non-rush hours (City of

Cincinnati, n.d). At a time when building highways and widening streets was seen as the only way to adapt downtowns to emerging lifestyles, the first Comprehensive Plan of Cincinnati in

1925 was inevitably concerned with the downtown circulation and the place of pedestrians, hence the overhead sidewalk proposal.

The idea of the vertical segregation of cars and pedestrians persisted throughout 20th century, fueled by the concern for increasing volumes of car traffic. Apart from being reflective of the Urban Renewal revitalization strategies, the skywalk is thus indicative of a long-time struggle to adapt the city fabric to automobile culture, which may have otherwise resulted in

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more drastic solutions such as larger scale demolitions to make room for wider streets

downtown.

5.4.2 Symbolic Value

The symbolism of the Cincinnati skywalk has developed out of its original intent and has

been expanded by layers of cultural significance added though the several decades of its existence.

First, the skywalk was conceived after the model of the Minneapolis one, which was a direct response to the Southdale Mall. This translates in a deliberate attempt to make the

downtown read like a mall, rather than a downtown: a collection of services and shopping

brought together under the same roof, tied to convenient parking, and neatly maintained at

constant temperature and without social friction. From this perspective, the Cincinnati skywalk is

symbolic of the post World War II city centers’ identity crisis, or suburbanization of downtowns

(Herman 2001). Skywalks are probably the most prominent features that embed this symbolism

besides downtown enclosed malls.

Secondly, the skywalks’ hybrid nature as public-private places has generated another

dimension of their symbolism. As seen in Forusz (1980), the skywalk was built by the City of

Cincinnati, but the private nature of the skywalk sections within buildings, as well as the

agreements for private and public-private partnerships for the maintenance of certain sections of

the skywalks have eroded the perception of skywalks as public places. Additional measures, such

as surveillance, increased police patrols and code of conduct notes limit the freedom of behavior

within the system contributing to the equivoque of the skywalk. The Cincinnati skywalk system

is thus no exception from the overall management pattern that made skywalks a symbol of the

privatization of public space in the second half of the 20th century, as discussed by Boddy

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(1992), or “harbingers of the twenty-first century downtown, which is likely to become

increasingly indoor-oriented” (Robertson 1994).

5.4.3 Use Value

Based on the reports authored by Forusz in 1980 and Robertson in 1994, the use value of

the skywalks can be assessed as satisfactory in quantity, in the sense that the skywalk is heavily

used, but less satisfactory in quality, in the sense that the experience fails to be a great pedestrian

experience. Comparing the two authors based on the criteria explained in Chapter 3.4 helps

gauge the strengths and weaknesses of the Cincinnati skywalk’s usage (Table 5.1).

Table 5.1 Evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system based on use criteria Access from the Accessibility Source Use (Foot Traffic) Signage Safety street + Continuity for disabled

Forusz Well satisfied By steps, by escalators Unable to Lack of amenities Skywalk is where density of communicate the for disabled perceived as less pedestrian use is high organization of persons and parents dangerous than (1980) and by elevator the system with strollers the commercial streets below Night time use of the Color is not used Perceived danger skywalk is curtailed to help order the at night on the system part of users Continuity will be supported by expansion The agreements with private owners provide better maintenance to the system than the City

Robertso Overwhelming Open to the public Visible but not The steps and 56- 68% of the preference for using 24/24 except the quite as escalators linking users said that the system rather than sections that cross conspicuous Cincinnati's they felt safer on n (1988) the sidewalk through department signing skywalk to the the skywalk than stores street level are on the sidewalk Used independently of troublesome the weather, but The most accessible Main problem mostly during the because many of the centers on groups working hours stairways and escalators of teenagers who leading to the skywalks reportedly harass Used by a mixed class are linked directly to the women and public, including blue sidewalk. senior citizens collar workers

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Integrated with the sidewalk system and Fountain Square

Observation “The connection to Continuity has been the lakefront stadium affected by has proven to be one demolitions of the most valuable links of the system” by bringing large numbers of persons to downtown (for parking) during sport events and “[…] has significantly increased downtown restaurant and shopping business volumes on these days.” (Fruin 1971, 190). Source: Author

Overall, the analysis suggests that from a usage point of view the main strengths of the

skywalk are its popularity among workers downtown, shown by the foot traffic, and the safety

and security features. The weakest feature of the skywalk seems to be its accessibility for

disabled. On the other two criteria, access from the street level and signage, the two authors

disagree regarding the performance of the skywalk. Once again, the study conducted by Forusz,

dedicated exclusively to the Cincinnati skywalk system, returns less positive results than the

comparative study performed by Robertson on 5 different case studies. These results basically

inform us that among skywalks, Cincinnati is scoring better than other systems.

The two studies mention that the skywalk is being used considerably during the day, and

mostly by the people who work downtown. Also, as a particularity among skywalks, Cincinnati’s

skywalk system seems to displays a comparatively high number of blue-collar workers and

minorities and appeared to be the least elitist, by providing direct connection to the sidewalk

(Robertson 1994). Cincinnati has one of the most accessible skywalks, being open 24/24 with the

105 exception of the sections that go through stores, closed at night. Also, many of the stairways and escalators leading to the skywalks are linked directly to the sidewalk, which enhances the system’s visibility and encourages people to use it more.

The Cincinnati skywalk is still active and functions relatively well according to the criteria of evaluation. Its continuity has been severed by two demolitions, one in 1999 of shops and an office tower at Fifth and Race streets and the second in 2007 that removed the links across Fountain Square and over Vine Street.

5.4.4 Aesthetic Value

The assessment of the aesthetic value of the Cincinnati skywalk is informed by the evaluations performed by Forusz and Robertson, as well as personal observation. Series of photographs that support the aesthetic evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system are included in the Appendices of this document.

The first series of photographs addresses the exterior of the skywalk bridges as seen from the street, and it provides information on the relationship of the bridges with the adjacent buildings, appearance of bridges, and impact on the street level (Appendix A).

The second series is a step-by-step, serial view pictorial of the interior of the skywalk, looking along bridges and outwards to the street, in an attempt to describe the actual experience of walking through the skywalk. This series provides information on the degree of coherence of the system and the quality of the walking experience (Appendix B).

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Table 5.2 Evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk system based on aesthetic criteria Sourc Impact on Coherence Cohesiveness Harmonious design Excitement e street level

Forusz Discontinuity in Lacks unity in Lack of continuity Lack of a “place” or Skywalk scale and size of appearance between the skywalk a “gateway” bridges cut spaces, and the buildings it vistas (1980) architectural Does not manage to connects language, materials convey a statement and textures, of CONNECTION related to the piece- meal development.

Robert N/A Uniform and N/A Creates new and Unobtrusive design neutral in style interesting vantage points Block vistas to son Fountain Square (1994)

Observa The quality of Most bridges have Bridges try to relate to The skywalk There are no skywalk’s bridges three visible the materials and the experience is less situations where the and interior components: the expression of at least ordinary than the skywalk caused tion corridors varies bridge and the roof, onethe buildings they street experience blank walls at the (Appendix B) made out of similar connect (Appendix A) street level (2009) solid materials, and The views from the fenestration in skywalk are better Skywalk bridges between. due to the altitude add tridimensional (Appendix A) (Appendix B) value to the streetscape One can get the feel (Appendix A) he “inhabits” the downtown (Appendix B) Source: Author

The comparative analysis highlights that Forusz and Robertson are both dissatisfied with

the impact of the skywalk on the street level vistas, and also agree that the bridges are not

harmoniously connected to the adjacent facades. Observations based on Appendix A show that

most bridges attempt to relate to at least one building (given the buildings across from each other

most times are radically different and the design cannot relate to both).

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The coherence of the system is best reflected by Appendix B, a serial view of the spaces

that define the skywalk. The experience is varied, which can lead to positive perception, but way

finding becomes problematic at main junctures.

Excitement, although a vague criteria, is the characteristic that best defines the findings

of Appendix B. The alternation of second-level interior views of the buildings and above the

street exterior views of the city offers a sense of unusual exploration.

Finally, while the impact of the skywalk on the street views is regrettable sometimes, there are situations when the skywalk adds an extra dimension to bland streetscape (Fig. 5.8). In some cases, the vistas are not blocked by the skywalk alone, but by a clutter of signage and skywalk bridges (Fig. 5.9).

Figure 5.9 Skywalk bridge concealing bland street view Figur 5.10 View blocked by skywalk bridge and signage Source: Photos by Author Source: Photos by Author All the above being said, one should not forget that skywalks were not built with a focus

on their aesthetics, but with the intent of modifying the perception on a decaying downtown by

providing a different “reading”, focused on its amenities and convenience. The Cincinnati

skywalk conceals the views of barren sidewalks, the gaps in the downtown’s fabric, and the

closed storefronts smeared with graffiti, displaying in exchange distant views of the streets, with

spectacular focal points, impressive landmarks, lush lobbies and department stores and gourmet

108 restaurants. The Cincinnati skywalk is not a destination in itself, and certainly not an aesthetic attraction. However it does succeed in presenting downtown Cincinnati in an attractive light: at least 6 of its most glamorous landmarks are framed in the skywalk views (Carew Tower, PNG

Towers, Contemporary Art Museum, Paul Brown Stadium and Fifth Third Bank, not to mention the views of the Kentucky shore), and several of them can be explored via skywalk, including

Carew Tower, the Convention Center, and Cincinnati’s best hotels (Appendix B).

5.4.5 Social Value

The social value of skywalks has not been discussed in any previous studies as a separate concern. However, Robertson does mention that skywalks constitute yet another way for people to isolate themselves according to class and to race (Robertson 1994, 1995). In “Underground and Overhead: Building the Analogous City” Boddy also insists that “marginal social groups and political activity have been quietly excluded” (Boddy 1992, 150)., but “already, there is evidence of strategies of subversion […] The prostitutes on the Calgary bridges […] are not failures of the analogous city, but harbingers of its possible redemption through use by those who were first excluded” (Boddy 1992, 152).

The first, long time acknowledged social impact of skywalk systems is the wide spread accusation that skywalks segregate by class and race (Robertson 1994). This is a valid accusation because, for example, the Cincinnati skywalk was built by the city (Forusz 1980) so it tends to be perceived as public infrastructure (Robertson 1994). However, the negotiations between the City and the private buildings operators led to a semi private nature of the skywalks space, which is often maintained by the commercial establishments it connects (Forusz 1980). Just like the arcades of the 19th century, skywalks are not meant as a democratic space, they are meant for shoppers. They were built to offer a safe and comfortable environment just like the one in

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suburban shopping malls (Robertson 1994). While this is an aspect of the skywalks that should be reconsidered and readjusted, it was not accidental or an afterthought, it was part of the

original intent and it reflects the interests and spirit of the redevelopment strategies of the time

(Boddy 1992). Practically, the skywalks were supposed to make it safer and more comfortable

for consumers to come to downtown and they responded to this purpose well.

This section is also concerned with assessing the social meaning that the Cincinnati

skywalk has acquired in the community as a place. A look at the public perception of the

skywalks as presented in the newspapers and on-line blogs shows that the skywalk enjoyed

significant popularity. 65% of the people interviewed in an Enquirer-WCPO TV poll voted for

the skywalk sections across Fountain Square to not be torn down. Had the final decision been

made based on democratic vote, the demolition would have been rejected with an overwhelming

majority.

Public users’ entries in blogs and forums, although hard to organize and analyze

rigorously, indicate a vivid interest in the skywalk. They seem to reflect a similar tone to the

signed newspaper articles, where opinions are divided between negative on the side of planners

and city officials and favorable on the side of skywalk users. Similarly, the blog users seem to be

divided between a category which bases its assumptions on the planners’ and city’s officials’

statements, read in the newspapers, and the other category that speaks from a personal

perspective. While the first category tends to be negative to skywalks, the second tends to be

positive about them.

One segment of positive comments about the Cincinnati skywalk regards the system as a

useful path to reach lunch destinations, be protected by weather, and benefit from all the

convenience the skywalk was intended for.

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Another segment designates the system as a place that recalls memories, and generates

nostalgia and fondness: family moments, special events, childhood memories.

Finally, one last dominant segment of the positive comments listed on skywalk topics

fantasizes about the fate of abandoned sections of the skywalk, showing particular interest in re- purposing the bridges rather than demolishing them.

Overall, the on-line comments on the Cincinnati skywalk indicated that the skywalk has been assimilated as a place, and has become rooted in the collective memory of its users.

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Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations

6.1 The Cincinnati Skywalk System in the Light of Built Heritage

As the literature review of this study sets forth, the hypothesis of heritage preservation

requires an intervention, in the form of several steps: evaluation, classification, protection,

restoration, reuse, etc. It is a hypothesis that rejects the status quo and demands substantial

research and a precise, well tailored management process of the built environment. These aspects are often overlooked in the development process, e.g. the redevelopment of the Cincinnati

Fountain Square was not accompanied by any substantial study or strategy to handle the changes that affected the skywalk system.

Moreover, preservation is not about an unnatural process of embalming anymore; it is about maintaining and highlighting significance. These actions however are often more costly than the status quo, and they require a payoff, which takes the built environment into a new cycle of sustainability.

The premise that “everything is heritage” puts our environment in a light that requires more cautious action before removing or diminishing a resource. The simple association of existing things and places with events that impacted our life offers a richer departure point that tabula rasa, therefore preservation of existing resources in one form or another may lead to added value for the new developments.

While preservation has handled heritage in various ways along history, most times the perception that it “freezes” heritage in time is not accurate. Preservation emerged as a side-effect of intense development and emancipation cycles with destructive consequences for the heritage

112 of previous generations. Thus, preservation is a balancing intervention, a natural reaction of maintaining the memory of an order of things that is about to disappear.

If preservation and emancipation/development are not perceived as antagonistic and irreconcilable, it becomes obvious that regarding the environment from a heritage perspective can help in performing a more complex analysis and coming up with a better tailored management program of resources. By investigating significance and including associative values in the evaluation of built environment the output is more informed, richer and may lead to better design solutions or policies.

In the case of the Cincinnati skywalk, the investigation from a heritage perspective highlights several findings.

First, the system was one of the first to be built in the US and it is representative of the relationship of skywalks to Urban Renewal policies. Its existence is one of the most prominent reminders of phenomena that powerfully impacted Cincinnati and other cities after World War

II, such as central city decline, automobile domination, suburbanization and attempts at downtown revitalization. While most of these phenomena are considered regrettable, and there is great effort invested in correcting them, they cannot be ignored or dismissed as insignificant, as they set the foundation for the contemporary lifestyle of a great part of the American population.

Secondly, there are very few and aging studies that have actually examined the Cincinnati skywalk system. These studies find the skywalk to be in good condition and to function well, but relatively deficient from an aesthetics point of view. They do not comment on the public perception of the skywalk but discuss its social values from the perspective of professional planning critique.

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These studies also highlight that the piecemeal implementation of the skywalk is one of

the causes for its deficiencies, and the partial demolishing of skywalk links, as well as buildings

that are connected by the skywalk, is a continuation of this piecemeal approach and it is likely to

produce more functional and aesthetic inconveniences.

The criteria utilized in the analysis of the Cincinnati skywalk use value were: foot traffic,

access from the street and continuity, signage, accessibility for the disabled, and safety. The

analysis shows that the skywalk is being used considerably during the day, and mostly by the

people who work downtown. Also, as a particularity among skywalks, Cincinnati’s skywalk

system seems to displays a comparatively high number of blue-collar workers and minorities and

appeared to be the least elitist, by providing direct connection to the sidewalk (Robertson 1994).

Cincinnati has one of the most accessible skywalks, being open 24/24 with the exception of the

sections that go through stores, closed at night. Also, many of the stairways and escalators

leading to the skywalks are linked directly to the sidewalk, which enhances the system’s

visibility and encourages people to use it more. The weakest feature of the skywalk seems to be

its accessibility for disabled.

However, using the skywalks fails to recall a “real” pedestrian experience (equivalent to

the sidewalk experience) by having less public amenities (landscaping, mail boxes, restrooms,

phone booths etc), creating confusion through its relationship with the interior building spaces,

and being weather proof. Safety also creates a distinction in the sense that the skywalk induces the perception that undesirable presences are kept out of its realm.

In summary, the Cincinnati skywalk is used as an interior corridor, for its convenience, safety and weather insulation – precisely what it was intended to provide by the original plans and designs. A seamless continuity between the sidewalk experience and the skywalk experience

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would prevent the skywalk from inducing the safety and protection feel that it was intended for,

in order to recall the indoor atmosphere of the suburban enclosed shopping malls. The Cincinnati skywalk is still active and functions relatively well according to the criteria mentioned above. Its continuity has been severed by two demolitions, one in 1999 of shops and an office tower at

Fifth and Race streets and the second in 2007 that removed the links across Fountain Square and over Vine Street.

The aesthetic evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk was based on coherence, cohesiveness, harmonious design, excitement and impact on street level.

The analysis revealed that the bridges have a neutral aesthetic, based on a form and function approach. In a few cases, they obstruct vistas from the street, and often harmonizing their design with both buildings they connect proved to be a challenge. They do add a more dynamic quality to the otherwise quaint feel of the downtown, and in some cases they help diminish the feel of uneven density and empty lots the Cincinnati downtown features.

The impact of the skywalks on the street level is highly influenced by the quality of the bridges execution and materials, and by their degree of transparency. Segments like the one between Carew Tower and Lazarus hotel

(Fig. 6.1), realized in 1997 mostly out of sheer glass, have a sleeker appearance and cause less Figure 6.1 Bridge between Carew Tower and Lazarus harm to the vistas. Source: Photos by author

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From within the system, the elevated walkways create new and interesting vantage points

(Fig. 6.2). The alternation of second-level interior views of the buildings and above the street

exterior views of the city offers a sense of unusual exploration.

Figure 6.2 View of the Ohio River from the skywalk over Vine Street Source: Photos by author The social evaluation of the Cincinnati skywalk has also revealed that the system is a

place that earned quite an interesting position within the community. On one hand, it is reflective

of the lifestyle preferences of the post World War and current Cincinnati, a city whose still latent downtown shows the population still prefers the convenience of the suburbs. On the other hand, this research indicates that the skywalk system has become a place, rooted in the collective memory of its users, just like a street or any other public space. There are people who express

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their affection for the system, and recognize it as a landmark for the community. The majority, as

shown in the survey published by the Enquirer, does not want to see it torn down.

Figure 6.3 The Cincinnati skywalk as a place Source: www.mrandmrsvandike.com In conclusion, to the extent to which skywalks constitute a valuable heritage of the 20th century, the Cincinnati skywalk system is also significant as the second system that was implemented in the US, through an Urban Renewal Plan, with a long history of proposals behind its implementation. The Cincinnati skywalk has also distinguished itself as one of the most complete, accessible and democratic systems, features supported by its design and relationship with the public space. In addition, the Cincinnati skywalk system is popular among downtown office workers and is perceived as a local landmark. With its integrity severed by demolitions, the Cincinnati skywalk is not complete anymore, and has never been one the most extensive systems, like Calgary or Minnesota. While other skywalks are more complex and may score higher aesthetic and use values, it is recommended that the significance of the Cincinnati skywalk is not ignored at the level of its local community, which is likely to support its preservation especially in conjunction with corrections of its aesthetics.

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6.2 Skywalks as Heritage

“Pedestrian skywalks […] create an image of a modern and utilitarian downtown […] the

emphasis on convenience, comfort and climate control creates a very “American style”

environment not dissimilar to that provided in an enclosed suburban shopping mall.

Obviously, this image is consistent with the mainstream values held by many Americans,

particularly those living in suburbia” (Robertson 1994).

Like in the case of other recent past resources, looking at skywalks from a heritage perspective may require getting over many prejudices. Just like the unusual Tour Eiffel was considered an insult to the aesthetic of Paris when it was erected, a long series of significant artifacts that followed in the modern era challenged their acceptance as heritage because of an immediate perception rather than a long-term projection of their role and importance in the evolving landscape of the last century.

Skywalks have many shortcomings, as highlighted from the beginning of this study. That is not the point; regardless of their negatives, their cultural impact cannot be denied. Evaluating skywalks from a heritage perspective does not imply the perpetuation of their negatives, but the perpetuation of their significance and the dissemination of the lessons that can be learnt from this bizarre typology.

Skywalks are the only grade separated pedestrian networks besides tunnel systems, which are generally less extensive and less programmatically diverse. They are reflective of the privatization of public space that manifested towards the end of the 20th century but they are the only pedestrian networks with private maintenance or/and ownership that do not insulate users from city views. Skywalk share programmatic similarities with bazaars, arcades and malls, in the sense that they are protecting their users from weather and discomfort. In short, skywalks

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symbolize the concept of convenience. They also have a particular value of uniqueness because they are present in a limited number of cities and only in North America.

As Post World War II heritage, skywalks were a response of downtowns to the indoor suburban malls and were developed at the same time with downtown indoor shopping malls and downtown pedestrian shopping streets as pedestrianization strategies of downtowns. Skywalks

(and pedestrianization in general) are connected to the automobile domination, central business district decay and the rise of suburban economies, decentralization of cities, white flight, and class and race segregation. From this angle skywalks are a considerable resource with rich cognitive value, which can be used for narrative and exhibitive purposes. Tearing down skywalks completely would leave a big gap in the history of American cities and would prejudice the heritage of urban design for pedestrians.

This study has demonstrated that skywalks as typology have significant heritage potential, by examining them from a thematic/historic perspective. The evaluation of the case study from historic, symbolic, use, aesthetic and social angles proves that these heritage-related categories can apply to skywalks and they are likely to return unexpectedly complex results that help measure their significance on a regional-local scale. While an inventory of all skywalks would be necessary to determine which of them are the most complete and rich in terms of significance, individual case studies can be employed to better assess the significance at the local level.

In summary, it can be stated that the significance of skywalks is tied to their relationship to Urban Renewal, the success of the suburban mall, suburbanization of downtowns, and to the extent they satisfy use criteria according to their assigned purpose, satisfy requirements for

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unobtrusive design, legibility, enhance the perception of downtown, and have impacted the local

population.

6.3 Recommendations for the Evaluation, Preservation and Reuse of Skywalks

Resource evaluation and formulating preservation and reuse strategies for skywalks are

likely to take on a special twist because they lack appeal to planners, city officials, and very

likely to preservationists concerned with older resources. They do not easily fit the popular

concept of “old” or “historic” and they also defy the general understanding of “aesthetically

appealing,” which consciously and unconsciously drive decisions about the worth of elements of

the built environment.

While few people besides planners acknowledge the negatives of skywalks - such as class

segregation, impact on street level -, planners and city officials seem to be dissatisfied with the

fact that “people like the skywalks” (Boddy 1992) that they themselves proposed, designed and

implemented. The image of the skywalks is predominantly a negative one amongst decision

makers and this may influence the evaluation of the skywalks as heritage resources.

Dissemination of knowledge about the skywalk relevance and role in the history of American

cities and of urban design could be of great help in creating a more positive attitude towards

skywalks. Drawing parallels with skywalk precedents that have already been accepted as historic

landmarks despite having similar segregating social implications, such as the arcades, or shopping malls may also help in putting skywalks in a broader historic perspective.

Preservation and reuse strategies for skywalks should recognize that artifacts which become culturally meaningful are important to different types of constituents for different reasons. They should take into consideration that meaning and value change over time: in order

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to fully understand the meaning of a place, and its potential for the future, one must examine the

various ways in which the place is valued by different contemporary constituents. This requires

looking at the economy, the built environment, and the culture of a place, as a whole, before

determining what should be retained or transformed, which can only be done on a case by case

basis. The integrity, aesthetic and functional virtues of the skywalks vary widely; an inventory

of all the systems will help compare and establish more specific criteria.

Figure 6.4 Design aesthetic varies among skywalks: skywalk bridge in Detroit Source: Flikr Preservation and re-use strategies may also consider alternatives for offsetting the negative effects of skywalks. One approach could be to redefine skywalks as “public space”, by

shifting the maintenance and repairs responsibility to the municipality, reducing surveillance,

using outdoor finishes instead of indoor ones, providing more public space amenities such as

landscaping, phone booths, benches, and negotiating the ratio between fully enclosed and

weather protected links. Programming is also an option that could be considered, by allowing

vendors, performers, exhibits and other uses.

Increasing the private space nature of the skywalks can also help eliminate the equivoque

of systems by introducing them as extensions of the buildings they connect. In this case the

121 bridges should show a clear belonging to the program that they serve or be programmed.

Programs may include cafes, lounges, restaurants, reading rooms, art galleries, gyms, preferably programs that allow for the exhibition of the skywalks as built heritage, and can accommodate displays explaining the significance of skywalks.

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Blog Entries

Eric Liming. “My memories of the Skywalk…” Weblog comment. Feb. 16, 2009. Take a Virtual Tour of the Cincinnati Skywalk System. Feb. 15, 2009. Queen City Discovery. http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/02/take-virtual-tour-of-cincinnati- skywalk.html. Accessed July 30, 2009.

Langue Dor. “I grew up…”. Weblog comment. April. 8, 2009. Take a Virtual Tour of the Cincinnati Skywalk System. Feb. 15, 2009. Queen City Discovery. http://queencitydiscovery.blogspot.com/2009/02/take-virtual-tour-of-cincinnati- skywalk.html. Accessed July 30, 2009.

Cincinnatus. “It's one of the things…”. Weblog comment. April 18, 2005. Cincinnati Skywalk Demolition. The Cincinnati Kid. March 25, 2005. Urban Ohio. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,2822.0.html. Accesed July 30, 2009.

Cincyimages. “I will say it again…”. Weblog comment. April 18, 2005. Cincinnati Skywalk Demolition. The Cincinnati Kid. March 25, 2005. Urban Ohio. http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,2822.0.html. Accesed July 30, 2009.

Becky. “Ah, the skywalks of Cincy…”. Weblog comment. March 25, 2009. Skywalk to Nowhere. Visualingual. March 23, 2005. http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/skywalk-to- nowhere/#more-226. Accesed July 30, 2009.

Visualingual. “The skywalks are total Cincinnati …”. Weblog comment. March 25, 2009. Skywalk to Nowhere. Visualingual. March 23, 2005. http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/skywalk-to-nowhere/#more-226. Accesed July 30, 2009.

Ben C. “I would love …”. Weblog comment. March 25, 2009. Skywalk to Nowhere. Visualingual. March 23, 2005. http://visualingual.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/skywalk-to- nowhere/#more-226. Accesed July 30, 2009.

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Appendix A

The Cincinnati Skywalk Bridges

Bridge connecting Duke Energy Center over Elm St. Source: Photos by Author

Bridge connecting Sak’s Fifth Avenue with Carew Tower over Race St. Source: Photos by Author

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Bridge connecting Fountain Place over Race St. Source: Photos by Author

Bridge connecting parking structure with offices over Plum St. Source: Photos by Author

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Bridge over Walnut St. Source: Photos by Author

The final link connecting Carew Tower to Founatin Place over 5th St. is completed in 1997 with the opening of Lazarus.. Source: Photos by Author

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Appendix B Serial Vision: The Cincinnati Skywalk Experience

Bridge over E 4th St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Looking west down E. 4th St. Image Key Map Source: Author Source: Author

Looking east down E. 4th St. Image Key Map Source: Author Source: Author

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Entering the office building at 5th and Sycamore Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

The bridge over E 5th St towards the Chiquita Center Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Looking west down E 5th St.: View of the Carew Tower Image Key Map and Fifth Third Bank Headquarters Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

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Looking east down E 5th St: View of the Procter & Gamble Image Key Map World Headquarters Source: Author Source: Author, Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Inside Chiquita Center, world headquarters of Chiquita Image Key Map Brands International Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Skywalk route passing through Chiquita Center Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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View of the Chiquita Center courtyard Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Bridge between the Chiquita Center and the Federal Image Key Map Building Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Bridge over Main St. towards the 580 Building Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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Looking South down Main St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Looking North up Main St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

At the entry of the 580 building there are a photo studio, a Image Key Map souvenir shop and a café, closed for the weekend and Source: Author evenings. Many small businesses located in the skywalk close down after the business week when foot traffic on the skywalk dies down. Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

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Continuing through the 580 Building into its main lobby Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

The exit from the 580 Building onto the bridge over Image Key Map Walnut St. towards Fifth Third Bank’s headquarters. Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking south down Walnut St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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Looking north up Walnut St.: view of the Contemporary Image Key Map Arts Center Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Stairs to the street level, Image Key Map connecting to Fountain Square Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

The Westin lobby, a “four- Image Key Map diamond” hotel Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

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The bridge over Vine St., between the Cincinnati Westin Image Key Map and the Hilton, located in Carew Tower Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking south down Vine St towards the riverfront and Image Key Map Kentucky shore Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking north up Vine St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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Inside Carew Tower, an Art Deco masterpiece built Image Key Map between 1929-1931, one of the tallest buildings in Source: Author Cincinnati (49 stories). The adjoining plaza contains a Hilton hotel and the main spire features offices and an observation deck at the top. Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

After passing through Carew Tower Image Key Map and Hilton Hotel the skywalk leads Source: Author to the Tower Place Mall. Source: Queen City Discovery 2009

Exiting Tower Place, the skywalk crosses over Race St. Image Key Map before continuing to a set of escalators . Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

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Looking south down Race St.: another section of Skywalk Image Key Map connects Tower Place Mall (left) with Sak's Fifth Avenue (right). Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking north up Race St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Hyatt's main lobby Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Source: Author Multimedia 2009

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Crossing over Elm St. towards an office complex. Image Key Map Throughout this section much of the signage is old, Source: Author displaying the wrong names of buildings and even listing sections of the Skywalk that no longer exist. It's not uncommon to occasionally see a panhandler sitting along the Skywalk for warmth as well. Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking south down Elm St. A section of Paul Brown Image Key Map Stadium, home of the National Football League's Source: Author Cincinnati Bengals franchise, can be seen at the far center. Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Looking north up Elm St. Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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After crossing over Elm the skywalk features a metal Image Key Map catwalk with round features connecting to the Duke Energy Source: Author Center, Cincinnati's main convention center Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

Bridge over W. 5th St., heading to the Duke Energy Center Image Key Map Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

Looking west along W. 5th St. Duke Energy Center seen at right. Image Key Map Source: Author, Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009 Source: Author

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Looking east down W. 5th St towards the core of downtown Image Key Map Cincinnati. Source: Author Source: Queen City Discovery Multimedia 2009

The skywalk continues through the convention center to the Image Key Map Millennium Hotel towards Fountain Square. The removal of Source: Author the Skywalk sections that reached Fountain Square forces pedestrians to go down to the street level and use the sidewalk. Source: Author

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