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ARCH 8821 | 'Public' Space Michael Goodwin | September 26, 2002 Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck "What is Sprawl and Why?" |
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The cities will be part of the country; I shall live 30 miles from my office in one direction, under a pine tree; my secretary will live 30 miles away from it too, in the other direction, under another pine tree. We shall both have our own car. We shall use up tires, wear out road surfaces and gears, consume oil and gasoline. All of which will necessitate a great deal of work . . . enough for all. |
After the initial quote the authors go straight into defining sprawl by comparing it to the traditional neighborhood. In the explanation the topic of sprawl is divided into the following five categories. Two ways to grow There are two models of urban growth each of which is the polar opposite of the other. The traditional neighborhood, which was the dominant form of growth in the United States until around the Second World War, is still the method of growth outside of the States. The traditional neighborhood is an organic growth of mixed use buildings that is pedestrian friendly and doesn't destroy the country side. Unlike the traditional neighborhood, suburban sprawl is an unhealthy and inevitably self-destructive form of growth. Land is consumed faster than it can be paid for and many problems arise like that of traffic and social inequality and segregation. As theses areas of sprawl grow out from the city, the inner core drastically deteriorates as more people move further out and fewer people can be convinced to move in. The five components of sprawl The simplicity of sprawl is the main reason that it has been able to continue. The five main components of sprawl while existing next to each other are virtually independent and segregated. 1) Housing subdivisions, commonly confused or categorized as a neighborhood, is simply a place for residential living. 2) Shopping centers, strip malls, corner stores, department malls; a place you normally wouldn't walk to. Places identified by generally large parking lot and the lack of office space or residential. 3) Office parks, places only for work that are normally a box or tower surrounded by a parking lot and normally roads or highways instead of some form of country side. 4) Civic institutions, town halls, churches, schools etc that are normally within the "town center" which serves as a focal point. These places are usually not accessible by the walking pedestrian. 5) Roadways, because of the distance between everything and the many activities that people participate in within suburban areas, these areas are able to produce as much if not more traffic than a larger traditional town. A brief history of sprawl Sprawl started as an encouragement for urban dispersal by the government. Also the cost of commuting began to increase as the interstate highway, which was to connect major cities within America, crossed 41,000 miles of land. As people started moving further and further out the merchants would follow to be where their customers were. As time went on businesses moved out to the suburbs as well because people wanted to work closer to home. As these suburbs continued to grow the development continued to be segregated into single use areas with no flexibility to change. "As a result, the new American city has been likened to an unmade omelet: eggs, cheese, vegetables, a pinch of salt, but each consumed in turn, raw." Why Virginia Beach is not Alexandria The sprawl that is Virginia Beach is very much automobile oriented. The "town center" is an eleven lane highway that is not pedestrian friendly. The sidewalks, between the huge parking lot of the warehouse sized shopping center and the highway, serves mainly as a buffer dividing where one drives and where one parks. This is so because there is no reason for any person to even think about using the sidewalk when where they would want to go is on the complete other side of the parking lot buffer. What makes a traditional, sustainable neighborhood like Alexandria? 1) The center, a place within the neighborhood that focuses on common (civic) activities of the residents. 2) The five-minute walk, the ability to walk anywhere they need to go for daily needs within about five minutes. 3) The street network, a web of pattern generally a grid that allows multiple ways of getting from one place to another. 4) Narrow, versatile streets, many smaller streets that can accommodate the traffic of the town but discourage excessive speed through the town. This also allows for wider sidewalks to promote walking life and activity safely while still allowing automobile mobility for those who want or need to drive where they need to go. 5) Mixed use, having a versatile, flexible definition of use for a building or area of the building. Rather than having single-use zoning of sprawl, there is more of a form of zoning that focuses more on how the physical building fits into the area without regard to what will occur within the building. 6) Special sites for special buildings, devoting unique sites to the building that create the collective identity of the community; special areas for civic buildings which enhance the prominence of the building and its function. Neighborhood plans versus sprawl plans While the neighborhood plan sets a rigid small grid for mixed use development within the grid, sprawl plans flow more like a bubble diagram that only limits the land use of the area. If the area isn't selling or being used in the area that it has been zoned as it sits dormant until it can be used and the developer of the land is "SOL." "[Sprawl] wasn't an accident, but neither was it based on a specific vision of its physical form or of the life that form would generate. As such, it remains an innocent error, but nonetheless an error that should not continue to be promoted." Question: Is there a way to revitalize what has been destroyed by sprawl, and fix the areas of sprawl without totally demolishing the areas and starting over? Could Atlantic Station be a step toward the revitalization of the inner city and realization of the flaws from sprawl? |
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