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Alex Krieger Professor in Practice and Interim Chair Department of Urban Planning and Design |
Studios
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An Urbanism for Las Vegas, Nevada
One of the most familiar 'downtowns' in America, famous internationally, does not bear much resemblance to most people's image of a conventional downtown, nor evoke many memories of traditional urbanity. The famous Las Vegas Strip, being 'repositioned' regularly, is not even located within the city limits of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada. Nonetheless, the Strip occupies the center of a major and rapidly spreading metropolitan area; a metropolitan area that some suggest has supplanted Los Angeles as the pre-eminent laboratory for emerging patterns of early 21st century American urbanism. The studio considers these emerging patterns and pose alternatives — via design — for how in particular the region of the Strip might continue to evolve. Without fully shedding its mid-twentieth century reputation as the place for condoning, even celebrating, the "victimless crimes" of drink, gambling and sex, Las Vegas has grown, as rapidly as any other American metro area sine the mid 1990's, into a rather conventional, middle-class, sprawl dominated urban region. At the moment growing Las Vegas serves as a poster-child for two distinct conditions: excess optimism in growth colliding with a collapsed housing and mortgage market, and determination to stay apace of the worldwide competition for the tourist/resort economy, with 'upstarts' such as Dubai and Macao challenging its primacy. The exaggerated bifurcation in Las Vegas between its 'extraordinary' center and the miles-upon-miles of ordinary sprawling perimeter seems archetypal, or indicative of things to come. The fact that the city occupies a desert, water-short landscape, not at all well suited for extensive settlement, adds to the mystique and to the challenges ahead. As the Strip continues to transform, most notably today by the construction of the immense MGM MIRAGE City Center development — which advertises a more encompassing, mixed-use, 'urban' future for the Strip, not only more gaming venues — there are two remaining sizeable landholdings that will serve as the primary focus for the studio. These occur at either end of the Strip, near the airport and towards the City of Las Vegas' actual downtown. How should these, the southern and northern termini for the Strip, be conceived? In the 'Manifest Destiny' tradition of American urbanization Las Vegas remains new and ripe for change. Whether one sides more with Sorkin's condemnation of waste, or Harvey's admiration of authenticity, Las Vegas will continue to grow and evolve. What should that entail? Is its urban DNA pre-disposed to more and more megaprojects only? Remains private investment willed only? Will success depend only on more fantastical, themed, venues, or can one envision a 'post-themed' era for the Strip? Can an economy so doggedly focused on tourism also provide for the more mundane needs of the citizens who service this economy? Should the Strip also become a good place to live, go to school, shop for daily necessities? Most urban formations in early manifestations appear mono-purposed or chaotic. Should the Strip be made more familiar or more unprecedented? How or should it transform to accommodate the varied components of contemporary urban life, albeit in very non-traditional spatial configurations? Lastly, how does one bring to the Strip genuine innovations in environmental stewardship, so essential for the long term viability of Las Vegas to flourish? These are among the questions that the studio addresses through design and planning probes. The studio is open to, indeed, welcomes the participation of students from each of the disciplines at the GSD, but a proclivity for physical design and planning exploration is required. The studio is sponsored and includes a funded trip to Las Vegas early in the fall semester. The Urban Roles of a Semi-Dry River: Chihuahua & Its Chuvuscar River Humanity delights in and finds inspiration at waterfront settings, and often chooses to celebrate or express civic ambitions at water's edge. Imagine the Sydney Opera House, or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or even Cleveland's Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, not juxtaposed against that city's body of water? The London Eye, London's majestic Ferris wheel, actually sits in the Thames. Much of contemporary Chicago's identity and self-image, not to mention wealth, comes from its spectacular 20-mile long facade stretching along Lake Michigan. Where else but along their portion of the mighty Mississippi would the citizens of St. Louis construct their monumental Gateway-to-the-West? In their post-industrial eras in particular, cities worldwide are rediscovering the pleasures — and competitive advantages — of direct adjacency to bodies of water. But what if the local river is a mere trickle for much of the year, yet prone to seasonal flooding? What if the climate is semiarid? What if the river's banks have been canalized and largely abandoned? What if a city has for years treated its river less as an amenity and more as a nuisance? What if the city is growing rapidly, yet still relatively poor in terms of modern infrastructure and amenities, but wishes to grow in a more sustainable way relative to its desert environment? What roles should its river play? The relationship of the Chuvuscar River to its host City of Chihuahua in North Central Mexico is the subject of this studio. The studio develops strategies both at the citywide scale for better reconnecting Chihuahua to its river, and at individual sites requiring specific programmatic intervention and specific design solutions. The studio and a studio field trip to Mexico is being sponsored by the City of Chihuahua, whose leadership asks: how can the city take greater advantage of its river environment, both to achieve wiser environmental stewardship and to improve its citizens' quality of life? Historically cities needed to be near a body of water for transportation, sustenance and trade, but also to protect their citizens from those same bodies of water from floods and, not uncommonly, secure approach routes of potential enemies. As modern societies continue their millennial shift to service and lifestyle-based economies the potential civic 'uses' of rivers change. The studio will explore potential uses and how to achieve these. The Studio is open to, indeed welcomes, the participation of, students from each of the disciplines at the GSD: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning. Reconnecting City & River: Vienna, Austria & the Danube One imagines the City of Vienna along its Danube as readily as London along its Thames or Paris along its Seine. But while the Thames and the Seine wind through the center of their respective capital cities, indeed centering city life around them, the great Danube rushes past Vienna — realigned, re-engineered, and remote from the city center. Having been radically manipulated for well over a century, to subdue its propensity for seasonal flooding, and to enable it to become a more efficient transport channel, the Danube River today (apart from its romantic status in book and song) is a broad canal accompanied by an equally broad, parallel flood relieving channel both separated from the old city, and separating it from the 'new' Vienna far off on the opposite banks. Whereas historic cities needed to be near a body of water for transportation, sustenance and trade, they also had to protect their citizens from those same bodies of water from floods and potential enemies. This meant lining banks with industrial and mercantile enterprises, while locating the civic and residential districts at some distance. Today cities worldwide are rediscovering the competitive advantages — and pleasures — of direct adjacency to great bodies of water. Urban waterfronts are unrivaled in their potential for providing for an exceptional or celebratory enterprise. Imagine the Sydney Opera House, or the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, or even Cleveland's Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, not juxtaposed against each city's body of water? The London Eye, London's majestic Ferris wheel, actually sits in the Thames. Much of contemporary Chicago's identity and self-image, not to mention wealth, comes from its spectacular 20-mile long facade stretching along Lake Michigan. Where else but along their portion of the mighty Mississippi would the citizens of St. Louis construct their monumental Gateway-to-the-West? Humanity, it seems, delights in and finds inspiration at waterfront settings, but increasingly asks more of them than mere spectacle. Along an urban waterfront it seems possible to accommodate the changing needs of today's urban dweller, as modern societies continue their millennial shift from industrial-based economies (and their spatial demands) to service and lifestyle-based economies and their requirements. The studio develops design ideas and strategies for how the City of Vienna can reconnect with its great river. The Vienna/Danube River Studio is open to, indeed welcomes, the participation of, students from each of the disciplines at the GSD: architecture, landscape architecture, urban design and planning. Centers for an Edge City: Transforming Tysons Corner, Virginia One of the largest "downtowns" in America does not bear much resemblance
to anyone's image of downtown, nor evoke any conventional notions
of urbanity. Tysons Corner, Virginia, located a mere dozen miles
west of Washington DC, is the poster child for sprawled America.
Literally a rural intersection as recently as mid 20th century,
today's near incomprehensible assembly of autonomous shopping "centers" and
office parks (and recent demand for housing) represents in gross
amount of built space the 13th largest commercial center in the
nation. And the area has the traffic congestion to prove this.
Transit, however, is on the way, with a new transit line connecting
Washington to Dulles Airport soon to deposit four stations in the
area of Tysons Corner. This arrival of an archetypal urban instrument,
public transit, serves as the departure for the studio. The studio
explores the phenomena of the "Edge
City," a
term coined by journalist Joel Garreau in a book of the same name
published in 1991, while postulating its next transformations. A New Neighborhood for
Charleston, SC Participation: The Charleston Studio is open to, indeed welcomes the participation of, students from each of the disciplines at the GSD: urban design, planning, landscape architecture and architecture. Site: Approximately 150 acres of largely undeveloped land located on the edge of Charleston’s growth ring, a part of the country which is experiencing substantial growth pressures. Program: Whatever would produce a vital, mixed-use, reasonably dense, non-generic, public amenity rich, choice in housing laden, attractive to multiple economic and demographic segments, environment protecting and conservation minded new neighborhood for the City of Charleston. In other words, the studio explores the qualities, programs, planning and design strategies that are necessary to creating good places to live in contemporary urban America. Pedagogic Intent: Urban observers, including students and faculty at the GSD, seem better able to articulate the shortcomings of homogenized development patterns, privatization, real estate theming and New Urbanism then to postulate plausible alternative models. This studio presents the challenge to do the latter. As we critique sprawl and imagine (hope) that existing urban centers will repopulate with aging baby-boomers, empty nesters and young cosmopolitans, 90% of all new development continues to – and will continue to – occur at the periphery of existing cities. We ignore this fact at our own professional peril, and disdain for conventional development is not a convincing substitute for the posing of wise and imaginative alternatives. Four Key Questions:
Format and Working Method: Students ultimately produce plans and designs for much or all of the 150 acres of land in Charleston. However, there is a major analytical and investigatory component to the studio. Research and documentation of housing prototypes, of historic and contemporary urban precedents, of housing density gradients and their implications for related facilities and infrastructure, and about strategies for developing environmentally sensitive territories engage us for the first third of the semester. Much of this investigatory work is done in teams. It is expected that final planning and design solutions are developed and advanced individually. Class Trip: The studio travels to Charleston and visit other nearby historic and new communities, including Savannah, Georgia, in late February. The purpose of the trip is to visit the site, of course, meet with landowners, neighbors and city representatives, and also gain insight and some familiarity with the traditions of urbanism in the region. Travel and accommodation expenses are covered by the studio sponsors. Sponsorship and Support: The major landowners in the area, along with the planning department of the City of Charleston are supporting the studio, and provide the resources and data necessary for the work of the studio. The Honorable Joseph P. Riley, longstanding and legendary Mayor of Charleston and one of the truly urban-minded of American mayors, is especially interested in following the studio progress. Detroit Over time, cities inhale and exhale. Detroit grew from a frontier trading post to an industrial metropolis, reaching its population peak of about 2 million people in 1955. Since then, like manufacturing cities around the world, Detroit has shrunk, losing over 350,000 jobs and over 1 million residents. Although efforts to revitalize the downtown and riverfront seem to be bearing fruit, over 40,000 land parcels have reverted to city ownership and the city continues to demolish more than ten times the number of housing units it constructs each year. Detroit’s situation presents unique challenges for the urban planner: how to reconceptualize a city whose physical form accommodates twice its current population. Using extensive research into the origins and scope of Detroit’s current situation and into possible new uses and their constraints undertaken during a fall term research seminar, students develop land use strategies and physical plans for Detroit. A student trip to Detroit is arranged at the beginning of the term to see the city firsthand and to meet with studio sponsors. While students who participated in the fall term research seminar are encouraged to apply for the studio, such participation is not a prerequisite. Planning in Paradise:
Urban Redevelopment - Honolulu, Hawaii Situated on the southeastern shore of the Island of Oahu, within the Urban Core of Honolulu, is Kakaako, a 670-acre postindustrial district. To the east of Kakaako is the world-renowned Waikiki Beach, and to the west is Honolulu's financial and business district. At Kakaako's southern boundary, where the land meets the sea, it is now a scenic recreation spot for tourists and residents alike; as well as an ideal location for harbor activities. Hemmed in on the north by the foothills of the Koolau mountain range, and one of the major transportation arteries into the city, Kakaako's northern edge is a no-man's land of vacant lots and derelict buildings; casualties of the 1980s when private enterprises were planning high-rise mixed-use residential structures to be marketed mainly to overseas investors. Kakaako, sandwiched between two densely populated areas, is ideally situated for a multitude of uses. As such, any new development proposals for the area immediately become controversial. Between the 1950s and 70s, Kakaako was a thriving residential area that was rezoned for industrial use to take advantage of its close proximity to Honolulu Harbor. As Honolulu grew into a major metropolitan city, (today's population approximately 840,000) the state recognized that a major sector of the urban core was being under-utilized and its infrastructure neglected. In the 1970s, the land was rezoned as mixed-use and placed under the jurisdiction of a single state agency, the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA). HCDA, patterned after the New York Port Authority, was created specifically to shepherd the redevelopment plans for Kakaako. The agency's goal remains to this day to "reclaim and transform Kakaako's shoreline and waterfront lands into a magnificent new public place." Since the 70s when Kakaako was rezoned, the quaint but vibrant cottage industries have all but disappeared. In recent years, the State has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in creating unique park settings, widening roadways, and upgrading the existing utility infrastructure. Yet little private redevelopment has occurred beyond a hand-full of high-rise residential structures. The warehouse type structures that remain in Kakaako have become appealing to automotive showrooms, and big-box retailers. The firm of Cooper Robertson and Partners, designers of the 1979 Master Plan for Battery Park in New York City, was recently hired by The Kamehameha Schools to create a master plan at one corner of Kakaako for a new medical center intended to spearhead the revitalization of Kakaako. While the future looks promising for this portion of Kakaako, outdated development guidelines and regulations based on zoning-by-density and land-use designations hamper the future development of the balance of the district. Since the late 1920s when Hawaii enacted the first comprehensive land-use plan in the nation, residential development patterns in Hawaii have followed the traditional subdivision patterns of the United States. Suburban sprawl now stands on some of the most fertile lands in the islands. Where once there were fields of sugarcane and pineapple, there are now housing developments. Much of the available lands considered to be greenfields by housing developers have already been converted to subdivision-type communities, or is designated conservation or agriculture. Accordingly, a viable, high-density, urban redevelopment plan for Kakaako is both essential and vital to the near-future sustainability of Honolulu's housing market. The studio semester is divided into roughly three parts. First, an investigation into the language analogous to "urban intensity"— spatially, functionally, and conceptually. A study of other successful models around the world also forms a part of this first phase. The second part of this studio focuses on the investigation of urban design and planning strategies that can integrate the existing juxtaposed land-uses into to a specific master plan intervention for the Kakaako district. The third and final part of this studio focuses on a series of selected sites, from which the student groups may choose to develop an integrated urban design/architectural/landscape architectural response to the proposed master plan intervention strategy. The solutions are multiuse in nature, and should address residential, retail, commercial, light-industrial and recreational uses.
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