The Babuk Report

Category: Current Affairs

  • The Shrinking City

    A recent presentation by the President of CEO’s for Cities to the Association of Architecture Organizations spoke of major trends affecting cities, and described scenarios for growing – and shrinking – cities.  The concept of shrinking cities struck a particular note. 

    Anyone familiar with the United States will immediately think of Detroit or a variety of cities across Michigan, Ohio, and perhaps upstate New York.  These are cities that relied on a strong manufacturing economy as a basis for municipal growth, a manufacturing economy since vanished. 

    For me; I’m drawn to rattle off any of several small towns that may have been founded on transportation and commerce systems that have since focused on being “more efficient”, concentrating on fewer, yet larger distribution centres.  The Small Town Design Center at Mississippi State University has done excellent research and tangible project work on the shrinking small town issue.  In smaller economies – like small towns – a simple change of stores on Main Street or realignment of a highway has a proportionally greater impact than it would on a larger economy.  Small towns are particularly sensitive to shrinkage.

    Overall; how does a shrinking city get its residents to invest in buying a house when there may be so many abandoned properties around town? How does a shrinking city encourage new business to take root when so many other businesses – and the potentially “synchronicity” that occurs when businesses network and interact with other businesses – have disappeared?  How can a shrinking city retain and develop quality services like schools, and develop opportunities to retain that prime demographic group of 18 – 34 year olds whom can build a lasting economy?

    The message was to discourage those cities from taking on municipal debt to finance potential growth, as that debt would become impossible to retire on shrinking revenues.  Municipal debt would become detrimental to attracting business and providing services.  Another comment struck a note, and was foreshadowed in previous postings herein: cities have strayed from providing quality public services – schools, libraries, recreation, entertainment and the like. Instead, people are seeking these services from commercial sources (bookstores rather than libraries) or themselves (home gyms and media rooms rather than public parks and cinemas).  It was part of the “McMansion” and “Cocooning” phase that we’ve been through, which one may hope is behind us.

    The message for shrinking cities was to maintain quality municipal services, while holding the line on taxes as a way of attracting the influential “young” population.

  • Tall Buildings Fall Short

    A recent news report from the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat cites fifty major, tall building projects worldwide that have been halted by a global economic downturn.

    Last Friday, the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s “Chicago Model City” exhibit temporarily included the scale model of Santiago Calatrava’s “Spire” condominium project, the real one being on indefinite hold.  Asides from the model representation, the only physical evidence this project has left in Chicago is a large, circular foundation, commonly referred to as the “bathtub”.

    Had the actual project been built, it would have been much taller than anything else in Chicago, including the Willis (nee Sears) Tower.

    Guess which building is the Spire?
    Guess which building is the Spire?

  • The Hanna Roundhouse, and Memories from One’s Past

    November / December 1983 "Minnesota Architect" Cover Photo
    November / December 1983 "Minnesota Architect" Cover Photo

    Many years ago, having just arrived in Washington, DC for my tenure but realizing that I was a long ways from home; an issue of the Minnesota Architect crossed my desk.  The feature story was a photo essay about wooden grain elevators; the front cover photograph was of the “nine in a line” grain elevators from a town I grew up in.  The photo was cropped so as not to show the Canadian Pacific Railway station where we lived, but looking at the grain elevators was comfort enough.  Everyone who visited my desk – wearing crisply pressed shirts with stiffly starched collars – tried to understand what I saw in this.  It seems as though I had an acquired taste for the Canadian Prairies that was difficult for my colleagues to understand.  But for me, it was as soothing as a good cup of tea.

    Moving ahead years later, I was waiting in line for a cup of coffee at the Oak Park Village Market.  It was down the street from my office, and an unlikely place to get coffee.  Oak Park Avenue has all sorts of trendy coffee places; they all sell what people believe to be strong coffee but in actuality, it’s simply coffee whose beans were over-roasted to simply taste strong.  That’s the explanation I read in a catalog from Murchie’s Tea and Coffee in Vancouver.  I think that it just tastes burnt, so I go for the regular stuff.  You know – Maxwell House, or Folgers’s.

    Back to the story – standing, waiting for coffee, they were playing rock videos.  I never watch rock videos.  But, about a month or so before, when a non-confidence vote in the Canadian House of Commons was being televised on CSPAN, my wife made the unconscionable error of saying that she felt that I had lost my Canadian accent.  So I started listening to webcasts of Canadian radio stations to gain it back.  One radio station from Toronto played the song “Photograph” by “Nickelback” often.  This disk jockey described the video for this song, and how it had been filmed at the lead singer’s high school in Calgary. 

    So, this video was playing at the Oak Park Village Market as I was waiting for coffee.  I watched.  They showed a high school gym – I know all eighteen high school gyms that were in Calgary during my day, and this wasn’t one of them.  We Calgarians always suspect the geographical knowledge of our friends from a city on Lake Ontario.  But, this video; it showed a bunch of Canadian Wheat Board grain cars in a railway yard – this video was definitely shot somewhere in Canada, the background looked definitely prairie.  It showed a stucco train station – it had a spray painted sign that read “Hanna”, but anyone could have done that.  Hanna is a town east of Calgary, I recall my father telling me about how it had two different train lines, and that one of those was the Canadian National Railway.  The arch-rival for a Canadian Pacific family.  But they had a roundhouse in Hanna, Dad thought that it had been abandoned or something.  But, back to the video – suddenly it showed one of the band members and a woman running across a turntable bridge – to a roundhouse!  I thought that it had been torn down years before. 

    Everyone in the Oak Park Village Market wondered what had just come over me.  I was numbed – kind of like the feeling after drinking a good cup of tea.

    There is a website I found that has a link to The Babuk Report,  Forgotten Alberta. The link can be found at   http://forgottenalberta.com/ .  It has a story about the Hanna Roundhouse. It reads like a good cup of tea.

    Turntable Bridge, leading to the Hanna Roundhouse
    Turntable Bridge, leading to the Hanna Roundhouse

    And about the over-roast coffee?  Yeah, that takes a bit of an acquired taste, too.

  • Burnham Plan of Chicago, and the Future of the American Metropolis

    This is the last week for the Burnham Pavilions on display at Millennium Park in Chicago.  They were meant as temporary exhibits and with the coming onslaught of a Chicago winter, it’s probably time.  The Burnham Pavilions (see previous posts) were constructed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Chicago Plan of 1909, sometimes referred to as the Burnham Plan, after one of its authors.

    One final event was held last Friday, a roundtable discussion between Mayor Daley and Valerie Jarrett – currently Senior Advisor on Domestic Issues to President Obama, but formerly Mayor Daley’s Chief of Staff and even a Chairman of the Chicago Transit Authority at one point.  About 800 people – mostly invited – packed the Rubloff Theater at the Art Institute of Chicago on a cold and dreary Friday afternoon in October.  Where else could one draw a crowd like that but in Chicago?

    Many of the attendees came from Chicago’s volunteer and charitable community – a setting unique for this city.  Chicago runs on volunteer help and organizations.

    While there was a fair bit said about high speed rail funding and public transit in Chicago; there wasn’t a lot said overall about “grand picture” programs for the metropolis overall as an American entity. While many European and Asian countries have cities, the United States has the Metropolis. I’d argue that the Metropolis is distinctly American (this coming from a Canadian), and in danger of fall from a variety of sources: downfall of manufacturing, suburban flight…. There was a fair bit of discussion about social programs, however.

    Upon exiting the reception afterwards, the sky was already dark, the Burnham Pavilions shone in their lighting, as did various buildings of the Chicago skyline that peeked out between the wings of the Art Institute.  I wish that my camera would focus in night time skies, Chicago truly showed itself off.  Chicago is the American Metropolis, located in the Midwest.

    A reception will be held this week for the display of the entries to the Burnham Memorial Competition.  An Architect who interned under me years ago, Casimir Kujawa, submitted an entry that will be on display.

  • It’s Autumn

    Glowing Trees
    Glowing Trees

    Waking up on an overcast morning, the multi-hued tree leaves were irredescent.  They glowed, and spilt a dazzling display of colour into a darkened interior space.

  • The Single Level Largesse

    In a quest to directly avoid any specifically Olympics related topics today…

    Recently, the Oak Park YMCA recently announced cancellation of its plans to move from its older, multi level facility in the middle of Oak Park, to a sprawling single level facility in a nearby town.  Fundraising in this economic environment wasn’t going as hoped.  The comparison of both facilities provides an interesting contrast, and a lesson in city planning.

    The existing facility was built in the late 1950’s, admittedly in need of repairs and upgrades.  Like many YMCA’s of its day, it located a gymnasium on a second floor overtop a natatorium located on a basement level.  Smaller spaces – meeting rooms, locker rooms and the like – filled in around the larger spaces.  This layout allowed the overall facility to fit on a tight building site, surrounded by other buildings – a city site.  It was common for athletic facilities to be juxtaposed in the heart of the towns in which they were located.  Consider the 1893 YMCA Association Building in Chicago.  It not only stacked a gymnasium over a swimming pool, but fit a 1000 seat auditorium in between the two spaces. Athletic facilities in the middle of the neighbourhood they drew from contributed to an overall public well being.

    1893 YMCA Association Building, Chicago. Arcade Place elevation. Note the varying window heights above the "Burrito Beach" sign, indicating previous double height spaces over what was the ground floor natatorium
    1893 YMCA Association Building, Chicago. Arcade Place elevation. Note the varying window heights above the "Burrito Beach" sign, indicating previous double height spaces over what was the ground floor natatorium

    The proposed facility was spread out over a single level, requiring much more land.  It had a parking lot that met village ordinances for providing parking facilities; the original building did not.  To digress: I recall a friend attending grad school at a university in west Texas.  He spoke of driving from the student dorms to go workout in the campus gym – an oxymoron, I thought. 

    Back to the subject:  though the sprawling site had the advantage of playing fields, it drew on a wider spread population.  The concept encouraged users to approach the new facility by car, not on foot.

    These days, opinion is that athletic facilities must fit on one, maybe no more than two levels.

    It’s like comparing the former Chicago Athletic Association with the newer Olympic Training Facility in Colorado Springs.  Both produced successful Olympians, it very different settings.  They also speak of how we live our lives in both eras: one being an extroverted part of a community, the other being an introvert, hidden behind suburban fences.

  • Is your morning commute still fun to drive?

    Time was, driving was a fun recreation.  From a casual Sunday excursion, to a cross country trip, to something energetic like Nascar racing, the experience generated by being catapulted through ever changing scenery was exciting.

    A happy way to commute...
    A happy way to commute…

    Automotive design enhanced the experience. Swooping masses of sheet metal clad in bright colours, outlined in shiny chrome, housed behemoth power plants and sumptuous interiors swathed in deluxe upholstery.

    It was a see and be seen experience.  People actually drove with their windows down, weather permitting.  That morning commute into work just didn’t seem half bad.

    But then, the morning commute was far shorter then than it may be now.  The US Census Bureau has since started to measure the number of “extreme commuters” who spend more than 90 minutes a trip commuting from home to work.  Regardless how fanciful one’s wheels may be, that much time down the same roads in the same traffic day in and day out can’t help but become dreary.

    And dreary may best describe current automotive design. Body styles are generated by current trends in wind tunnel testing; cars are distinguishable only by slight nuances in wrinkles or folds along sheet metal. Grey – or rather, silver – is a popular colour. Interiors offer much the same choice, perhaps with a cloth or leather option; higher priced cars sport two toned colour schemes. 

    Given parameters, powerplants have improved but that may signal the difference in concept. New powerplants exhibit engineering prowess, as does the styling. Styling – for the sake of styling – played a larger role when the morning commute was still fun.

    Imagine the morning commute in this !
    Imagine the morning commute in this !

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    Still doesn’t say why we started living ninety minutes away.

  • A River Runs Through It, and the Malibu Supper Club

    I used to fly out of Gallatin Field in Belgrade, Montana quite a bit as a student.  During my terms of office with the American Institute of Architecture Students, Gallatin Field became a regular point of departure / point of entry for trips to the east coast and other points.  My alma mater, Montana State University, is located in Bozeman, Montana, and Bozeman is located at the very end of a broad but contained plain, the Gallatin Valley.  The Bridger Range is at Bozeman’s doorsteps, so the only location flat enough, and with enough flat land on either side to support aircraft approaches is a town several miles away – Belgrade. 

    Belgrade’s a small town, out of a Hollywood western movie.  The Malibu Supper Club used to be there before they had a fire and it burned down.  It had a wooden grain elevator that was a seed cleaning plant and a water tower.  They had a ‘walk up’ style mexican restaurant that served food on plastic plates.

    Gallatin Field was a small airport with tremendous airline connections, the only airport at the time in the Northwest Orient Airlines route system that didn’t have a control tower. One year, the MSU “Fighting Bobcats” football team made it to a national championship of some sort.  The Bobcat Booster Association chartered a DC-10 to fly out of Gallatin Field:  waiting until the wind was blowing in the right direction, it barely made it over the mountains.  The terminal building at Gallatin was a comfortable place; it even had a wood burning fireplace.  Peter Fonda – a local – used to have a morning routine of breakfast at the airport cafeteria where other locals would fly in to partake of the runway view over coffee and huevos rancheros with the Bridger Mountains in back. One night, a group of us came across Mr. Fonda in the airport lounge – the cocktail waitress told us that she was ecstatic having  just served Jeff Bridges, and complimented this fellow (actually Peter Fonda) on his movies.  Perhaps Gallatin Field was the perfect hangout for a Hollywood star wanting to remain anonymous, or at least mistaken for Jeff Bridges.

    Then Hollywood moved to Bozeman, more so after the filming of “The River Runs Through It” by Robert Redford.  Glenn Close’s sister bought the Leaf and Bean Coffee Shop on Main Street in Bozeman; they used to sell a Celestial Seasonings tea blend called “Evening in Missoula” that I never drank. Apparently, the airport terminal was expanded to have a third gate, I haven’t heard if the fireplace, or the cafeteria, or the lounge still exist; it finally has a control tower, however.

    This morning’s edition of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle featured a slideshow presentation of Air Force One – on the tarmac at Gallatin Field!  The television networks were abuzz with a Town Hall meeting held inside a hanger – a hanger probably meant for Piper Cubs, maybe the occasional Lear Jet, but not Air Force One.

    It seemed like the end of the age of innocence.  After this event, it’s quite doubtful that Peter Fonda – or anyone else from Hollywood living near the Gallatin Valley in Montana – could ever frequent the airport ever again and be mistaken for Jeff Bridges.

  • More Walls Talking – Vacant Storefronts

    Vacant Storefront for Rent
    Vacant Storefront for Rent

    The current economic doldrums have brought out all sorts of vacant storefronts – not just a tell tale of the economy, but a fascinating take on urban anthropology.

    At first glance, they would indicate that the economy is down, that the activity that previously existed at that location fell victim to a recession.  Any retail leasing agent would be quick to point out that marginal locations die first, and that the economy is really in bad shape if the vacant storefronts syndrome were to hit the more sought after locations and properties.

    At a deeper investigation, one may wonder if the types of commercial activity that went on in any given vacant storefront is sustainable economically, and if things picked up, would this type of activity resurface?

    The concept of selling goods changes presentation and architectural trappings often.  In North America, we’ve seen a progression of:

                Open Air Markets

                General Stores

                Specialty Stores

                Department Stores

                Stores arranged along a main street, accessible on foot

                Stores arranged along commercial highway strips, accessible by car

                Open-air shopping plazas, approached by car, then accessed on foot

                Mall-ified pedestrian street, which closed a street to all but pedestrian   traffic, to  recreate the open-air shopping plaza concept in an urban setting

                Climate controlled, enclosed shopping mall in a suburban setting, with anchor tenants (usually department stores), approached by car but accessed on foot, where every day is always a pleasant 72° Fahrenheit (20° Celsius) regardless if it’s winter or summer

    Midtown Plaza, Rochester, NY
    Midtown Plaza, Rochester, NY

    The climate controlled enclosed shopping mall even saw an urban version, closing off streets and creating“superblocks” with inward focuses.  While the classic examples may be Eaton Center in Toronto, the Galleria in Philadelphia or even the ZCMI Center in Salt Lake City; a more iconic version may be Rochester’s Midtown Plaza.  Opened in 1963, it virtually recreated a controlled suburban environment in an urban setting, complete with a promotional “courtyard” featuring the “Clock of the Nations” that commemorated one of twelve different countries every hour and an elevated “kiddie monorail” made by the Louden Machinery Company of Fairfield, Iowa – also found in department stores like Kresge in Newark, NJ, Sears on State Street in Chicago and the Meier and Frank Department Store in Portland, Oregon.  (Let’s save the kiddie monorails for another entry, I do write about transportation devices from time to time)

    And I’m not even touching on further developments like festival markets (Faneuil Hall in Boston, the Inner Harbor in Baltimore), power centers (name your suburb) and big box retailers (even real cities are clamouring to get big box retailers).

    Who knows what the next step will be.  Web based e-commerce seems to be picking up, but my guess is that retail – as in going out and shopping – is too much of a social event to be relegated to a computer screen. 

     The bigger question is something like, who knows what will happen to all this vacant space, and what sort of impact will this redevelopment have on the visual image of our cities…

  • US / Canada Rail Infrastructure Luncheon

    Yesterday, I attended the US / Canada “Pay the Freight” Rail Infrastructure luncheon presentation, presented jointly by the Metropolitan Planning Council, the Consulate General of Canada and the Union League Club of Chicago, where the luncheon was held.

    The Union League is a tremendous venue for events like this – centrally located, spacious facilities and displaying the largest privately held art collection in the country.  Not to mention that its present clubhouse, opened in 1926, was the product of Chicago’s most prolific Canadian architect, William Bryce Mundie.  Mundie – born, schooled and articled in Hamilton, Ontario – was the successor to the “Father of the Skyscraper”, William LeBaron Jenney in his practice.  Mundie was also a well known member of the Union League; a bit confusing, since the Union League is a patriotic American organization tracing its roots back to the Union vs. Confederacy.  To this day, one needs to be American to join.  My account of how Mundie trained a young architect coming through the Jenney and Mundie office by the name of John Atchison, and how Atchison ended up in Winnipeg as the only local architect with the wherewithal to do “skyscraper” buildings during its pre First World War building boom caught the interest of the Assistant Deputy Minister of Transport Canada.

    While transportation and rail networks in North America have traditionally been oriented east to west, economic realities see more north to south linkages and railway networks are being reoriented to reflect this reality.

    The accounts of Canada’s Pacific, Central and Atlantic Gateways – all of which involve Chicago – are all very industrious.  I mentioned to a consular friend about my family’s Canadian Pacific Railway background, the response being that at one time, some 40% of Canadians worked for a railway.  That much of Canada’s economy depended on transportation. The gateway projects reflect this importance.

    A further presentation compared the amount of the US Gross Domestic Product spent on transportation now, and in 1979.  That amount has been cut in half over this period of time; directly attributable to more and more products being shipped by railroads rather than by trucks.  If just 10% of what currently is shipped by trucks were to be put on a train, the amount of greenhouse gas and energy reductions achieved would be quite astounding.  This reduced amounts of required transportation costs reflected by railway efficiencies become free to be channeled elsewhere in the economy.

    Not a bad deal…

    Otherwise, the luncheon was a great occasion to catch up on old acquaintances and create new ones.