Haverhill, Massachusetts

 

Although it's a state route, the street is narrow which slows traffic. On street parking is a physical barrier between pedestrians on the narrow sidewalk and moving cars in the street. This part of Haverill survived the "urban renewal" demolition that affected other parts of town. Three to four story buildings. Built to the front property line. Limited on site parking. Traditional architecture and building materials.  Small town urbanism.

Related: Why walkable streets are more economically productive.

Decent Urban Form

You might not like the color. You might not like the architecture and you might not like the chain stores, but this is a pretty good project. 

This commercial development on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles has a Ross Dress for Less, CVS Pharmacy, and several chain restaurants. Nothing to get too excited about and no "game changing" tenants. The positives of the project are its height and the placement of the building at the sidewalk and the fact that all the stores have entrances that face the street. I can take or leave the architecture. I'm sure there's lots to criticize, but at least the facade is broken up a little and it doesn't look like one massive building (which it is). You can imagine how different this project would look were it built in a traditional suburban style behind a sea of asphalt parking.

 

The entrance to the parking is aligned with the cross street so although it's not a real street it is placed in a location that drivers and pedestrians would expect cars to be entering and exiting.  

This is the project looking east. There are awnings and patio dining. My biggest complaint is the lack of shade trees.

The newsstand has succumbed.

In a previous post I noted the longevity of this newsstand in Westwood Village, but it looks like it has closed. Because as cool as it is, do people still buy magazines and PHONE CARDS in large enough numbers to sustain such an enterprise? If the employment and residential density in the area were significant enough there might be enough people to support a newsstand, yet even with the nearby condo and office towers as well as UCLA a few blocks away it couldn't survive. 

Downtown Pomona (Post 1 of 3)

Downtown Pomona has all the basic elements of "new urbanism" which, as I've mentioned in a previous post, is really just old urbanism rediscovered. Downtown Pomona, like many original downtowns in Southern California's "suburbs" provides a case study in how to redesign and retrofit the sprawl that surrounds it. Like many American cities in the 1960s Pomona pedestrianized one of their downtown streets (Second Street) in an attempt to compete with suburban malls. And like most other pedestrian malls, it failed. A couple decades later Pomona, like most of the other cities, reopened Second Street to vehicular traffic. One end of the street is called the Arts Colony and the other is Antique Row. Second Street seems to be the heart of downtown and you can see the great potential in the many old buildings to form the basis of a full fledged revival.

  Welcome to downtown Pomona! Sorta...

 Arts Colony entry

Arts Colony entry later in the evening. 

Second Street. On-street parking, tree-lined, historic buildings built to the sidewalk, and patio dining. 

 

Second Street later in the evening. 

 The other end of Second Street is Antique Row, which I wish they would drop because it sounds lame. They should consider a name change. "Second Street East"or something like that. Notice that although they've reintroduced vehicular traffic to the street, there are still driveways that signify to visitors that this is a shopping center rather than part an urban setting.

Metrolink Station provides connection to Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. One of the challenges for downtown Pomona is that this is also a freight route so there is a god deal of train noise. I suspect this might be one of the reasons that the residential development is practically non existent.

More on downtown Pomona in the next two posts.

Good Main Street Urban Design in Downtown Burbank

There are many great urban design elements in just this one little section of downtown Burbank.

 

 

Nice wide sidewalk, street trees, benches for sitting, narrowed street at a mid block crossing, pergola that calls out the paseo to the parking in the rear. (See the picture below.) The location of the office building on this frontage is unfortunate. Offices are no longer permitted on the ground floor along San Fernando Boulevard in downtown. The other corner of this building at the end of the block has a good restaurant with lots of patio dining so it's not a complete disaster. (Notice the ribbon of bricks. Typical of downtown redevelopment in the past, but Nate Hood of Strong Towns will be happy to know that I have observed workers systematically filling in grout and maintaining the investment rather than letting it decay.)

This paseo is one of a half dozen in downtown Burbank. It makes San Fernando easily accessible from the parking in the rear and it is also a perfect place for a mid block crossing. This paseo is also a great opportunity to inject some excitement and visual interest into downtown. 

 

 

Mid block crossing that narrows the street which slows vehicles and makes the crossing shorter and safer for pedestrians. The street trees are a simple row with a large canopy that makes this the favorite downtown block for many people.

 

The design elements in these photos are repeated throughout downtown Burbank and make it a highly trafficked shopping and entertainment destination in the eastern San Fernando Valley. Some cities have successful spaces like this, but they refuse to implement similar improvements in other parts of their cities. They seem to think it's just fine for the charming little downtown district, but the real money is made elsewhere. The reality is that shopping districts like this generally are more profitable per square foot than the larger big box properties many cities pursue. I'm not sure why more cities don't aggressively encourage the growth of their traditional downtowns.

Persian Square Possibilities

There is an intersection in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles that was designated "Persian Square" a few years ago. Immediately across the street is a 7-Eleven with a surface parking lot.  Wouldn't it be incredible if the very large Persian community got together to purchase that parcel and build a small park on it? A place for a statue, trees, and a water feature and some benches.  It could be a community asset rather than an eye sore. 

Urban Open Space

This is picture of "Lake Elizabeth" in Allegheny Commons Park on Pittsburgh's North side. The downtown Pittsburgh skyline is in the background. This is a beautiful bit of open space in an area of the city that has seen a good deal of improvement in the past decade or so. This space is an urban respite, but the view connects you to the city. This is an incredible community asset. It it vitally important that cities preserve places like this and create them in existing neighborhoods where it is possible.

Simple Urbanism

The building is simple and plain, but it's placed right at the sidewalk and integrates well into the public realm. Four floors of residential above. Simple urbanism. Nothing fancy. Just put the mixed-use building in the right place on the property.  The queen palms are nice accent trees that help define the outdoor room, but they don't provide shade which is important on the north side of the street.  The shade in the colonnade depends on the time of day. (These pictures were taken around 9 AM.) It would make a great place for some outdoor dining without intruding on the sidewalk.

Building placement matters.

This the the intersection of Chippewa and Delaware in downtown Buffalo, NY.  Look at the difference the proper placement of a building at the sidewalk can make on a neighborhood.  Two of the buildings are built to the sidewalk and a third is built like a tacky strip mall. Shame on Starbucks. So desperate to be across the street from a local coffee shop that they choose to lease that hideous building. The building under construction on the fourth corner will be placed at the sidewalk edge as it should be and help make this a vibrant intersection. Perhaps the Starbucks corner will follow suit.

Luxuriously wide sidewalks.

This is a luxuriously wide sidewalk. The trees will grow to filter the sunlight. The City of Burbank set a good example with this sidewalk. Note the bike lanes as well. A little piece of good urban design. I would love a mid block crosswalk right about where the red brick building begins. 

UPDATE 7/24/14: I've been thinking about this post and I realized I hadn't noted what was lacking on this block. On street parking would make pedestrians feel a little safer, but there's no room in the existing right of way Also, the walls and windows don't provide anything interesting for people to look at as they walk, nor a reason to walk on this block unless they have business with the city.

 

Don't try to compete with the suburbs.

This is a dead mall in downtown Buffalo, New York. One day before I took these pictures Andres Duany insisted that cities should never try to compete with the suburbs because the city will always lose. In other words, the correct response to "competition" from the suburbs is not to become more suburban. The response should instead be to double down on the urban character of the city. And now that we are witnessing the death of malls in even the suburbs we should especially avoid trying to mimic the suburban shopping experience. (That empty food court in the last photo is the most depressing image.)

LA Needs More Of This

The patio of the now closed CoffeeBar. Spring Street and 6th. Downtown Los Angeles.  Charming, pleasant, urban. (Some information about the KRKD tower.) As downtown LA continues to grow and improve places that provide a moment to pause and enjoy the city will be more commonplace.

Needs More People

This is Spring Street in downtown Los Angeles. The picture was taken in late afternoon a week or so ago. Like most areas of Downtown LA the blocks are hit or miss as far activity goes. On this particular block there are a dozen or so businesses with outdoor seating that brings some vitality to the neighborhood. On the left you can see one of several "parklets" on this block. It is intended to expand the "public realm," but what I observed is that it served the customers of the businesses and wasn't really a place that residents or visitors might chose to simply hang out. I'm not sure how I feel about the parklet phenomenon. Seems a little gimmicky. On the right you can see a car peaking out of a driveway which of course poses some problems relative to pedestrian safety. The only real issue I see here besides the need for more people is the mid-block driveway.

What do you think about this scene? Does it appeal to you? Would you like to walk down this street or sit at one of these cafes?

City as Art and Theater

The essential physical means of a city's existence are the fixed site, the durable shelter, the permanent facilities for assembly, interchange, and storage...The city in its complete sense, then, is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional process, a theater of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity. The city fosters art and is art; the city creates the theater and is the theater. It is in the city, the city as theater, that man's more purposive activities are focused, and work out through conflicting and cooperating personalities, events, groups into more significant culminations. 

Lewis Mumford as quoted in Urbanism Without Effort