The Babuk Report

Category: History

Traditional Media vs Social Media, and it’s Similarity to Urban vs Suburban Design

The recent passing of Walter Cronkite and the commemoration of the Apollo 11 lunar landing spawned much commentary about how as a culture, we’ve lost not just trusted voice and a collective goal, even the ability to dream. There are many indicators supporting this notion, even some directly related to the design of our cities.

I recall a physics professor describing the theory of entropy. No matter how hard we may try to bring about order, things will always fall into disorder. An evenly manicured lawn will grow into an unkempt shag. A machine in good upkeep will fall into disrepair if left untended. And on.

While twentieth century media grew during the course of that era, it remained strong and focused. It was “ordered”. Print media – newspapers – were the first “gold” standard of reporting. Granted, there were “yellow” tabloids, they quickly gained an unsavory reputation. Publications with good reputations survived and grew. Radio came along, giving “live” presentations from a world away while they happened. Radio stations combining into broadcast networks emerged in order to pool the resources necessary that would allow news from a world away to find its way into our homes. Television came, doing much the same as radio but with images. In the States, there were three major broadcast networks. They took their responsibilities seriously, delivering impartial reporting.

Three networks worked to produce a collective, national consciousness. They had untold influence on society, in many untold ways. A society’s sense of taste is a good example. When I was the Managing Editor of CRIT Magazine, a story crossed my desk by a student who noted the cultural influences of television.

Note the sunken living room on the Dick Van Dyke Show stage set

His theory was that we never had “island kitchens” or “sunken living rooms” prior to the Dick van Dyke Show. Here, the stage set was arranged along a line to facilitate television cameras and an in-studio audience sitting on bleachers. The stage set portrayed a house arranged linearly for the audience and cameras to see, with bedrooms opening off either side of a living room, and with a kitchen in the middle. One would never build a real house that way. The front door leading from outside into the living was on a level slightly higher than the living room, so that the audience could see overtop anyone in the living room and focus on who was at the door. Thus came the image of a sunken living room. Likewise, Mary Tyler Moore was forever chopping vegetables in the kitchen while speaking her lines. She had to talk to the audience, not to a wall, and so was born the “island kitchen”. Her on screen portrayal of Mrs. Petrie promoted it to be quite acceptable to peel potatoes as part of dinner party entertainment – a concept previously unacceptable, or even unknown. So, a small number of media outlets wielded tremendous cultural influences.

Initially, three national networks seemed to work well. But they only had so much advertising space to sell to a rapidly expanding economy. Enter cable television, and the law of entropy. More media outlets, more choice, less uniformity of direction. One could easily argue, more quantity, less quality. In a very disparaging description, Bruce Springsteen wrote a song entitled “Fifty Seven Channels and Nothing On”.

Society has gone beyond cable television, or even any other of the twentieth century media models.

Nissan Canada, in wanting to promote its new vehicle, the “cube”, held a contest publicized only on social media – Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, its website “hypercube.ca” , and the like. They gave away fifty Nissan cubes during an extended talent contest broadcast only on social media, indicating that they anticipated tremendous target-market exposure from social media.

Traditional, twentieth century media was organized around funneling a large amount of information to a few sources. This new social media takes an enormous amount of information and distributes it in many directions to people directly.

But, culture imitates art.

In the late nineteenth century, there was an accepted growth model of US cities, which became the advent of the original American suburb. It was built around controlled, major transportation – public transit – that delivered people to a specific point, supported by a much smaller scaled “scatter pattern” of individual transportation – walking. Mechanized, mass transit and walking were two very different means of transportation, and urban planning took on a very controlled appearance. Much like news delivered by three major television networks.

Sir Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City Concept

Sir Ebenezer Howard’s concept of the “Garden City” describes this urban development model. Here, clearly definable and ordered urban areas are contained and built around mass transit stations; and separated by greenbelts of more rural areas. Enter the law of entropy, and the invention of a “middle ground” of transportation – individual yet mechanized – the automobile. The automobile introduced “point to point” transportation, which allowed the previously rural areas between towns to be developed into what we know these days as ‘sprawl”.

In city planning, while there is a movement back to what’s known as “transit oriented development”, it’s all predicated on removing the automobile as a means of mass transit.

1975 Lancia Fulvia

In as much as automobiles are much like suburban buildings – works of art on their own without context – I hope we can keep them around as museum pieces, at least…

July 21, 2009
A Perfectly Suburban Afternoon

Christopher Hume, the architecture critic for the Toronto Star newspaper, recently wrote of his ten most favourite streets in the “905 area code”, a euphemism for the Toronto suburbs. True to the title, he wrote only of the streets, not of specific buildings on the streets, but of the streets themselves, and how the backdrop of architecture contributed to the ambience.

Now, Oak Park is a nice town. Like any Chicago neighbourhood, it has nice, but not great, streets. I grew up with an insatiable admiration of Frank Lloyd Wright and that period of about twenty years or so that came to be known as the Prairie School. Now that I live in Oak Park, and am surrounded by landmark Prairie School architecture, I have an understanding of why it only lasted twenty years or so. It’s very formal, predictable and dare I say boring, after twenty years or so.

I’ve grown to like mid century modern design. Oak Park has a couple notable mid century modern houses, but they stick out like a sore thumb and it’s doubtable if these days that they would ever make it past the litany of committee approvals required in this town.

Come to think of it, neighbourhoods of mid-century modern design usually don’t have great, walkable streets, though they quite likely have streets that are sensational to experience at higher speeds, in motion.

Thinking of mid century modern in the Chicago area, we have Flossmoor, Lake Forest, the Illinois Institute of Technology campus – all wonderful communities, but hardly known for delightfully sensual, engaging and walkable streets.

A house in Las Vegas – lots of street presence, but no pedestrian interaction

Granted, the Chicago area isn’t really known for mid century modern. Some of the greatest mid century modern works appear in the “desert communities” – like Las Vegas or Palm Springs. Definitely not walkable streets, but sensational to drive at night.

British historian Reynar Banham used to refer to this as the “architecture of energy”, Regina architect Clifford Wiens described this as being “motion is the aesthetic of modern man”.

A gas station in Palm Springs, with pedestrian stairs leading up to the plaza level with filling pumps

Mid century modern buildings are quite fabulous to experience – they were big on defining spaces through abstract elements that could be imagined as all sorts of things. This concept of mid century modern supported exuberant stand alone buildings, separated by other stand alone and equally exuberant buildings by non descript space.

Palm Springs house with patio

Mid century modern spaces are inward and private, not public.

Even the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair – a very mid century modern event – defined its spaces in relatively private ways by turning its back to existing, defined streets and creating “plazas”.

Perhaps on of the best examples of exuberant architect and a walkable street could be Frank Lloyd Wright’s JC Morris Gift Shop on Maiden Lane in San Francisco. The street would be walkable regardless what someone built on it. Frank Lloyd Wright’s wall – however beautiful and elegant – really doesn’t contribute to the street in a constructive and supportive way.

While I’m a great fan of both walkable streets and exuberant architecture, finding the two together in harmony is a rare occasion.

July 12, 2009
Rencontre avec Darrel G. Babuk – Architecte, spécialiste en réseau de transport

Publié le 9 septembre 2006

In english: some time ago, I was recommended to Christophe Loustau, Recipient of the prestgious Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. Christophe’s research project was to document the original New York City – San Francisco transcontinental railway across the United States. I did an amalgamation of many of my usual railway & architectural history presentations. This presentation completely zapped every single word of french vocabulary I knew, as I’m sure that it did the same for Christophe’s english. An entry from Christophe’s journal follows, which can be seen at www.christopheloustau.com . Maintenant, en Français:

Darrel G. Babuk est un passionné de transport ferroviaire. Il est architecte AIA, membre de l’institut royal d’architecture du Canada, reconnu comme LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professional) et associé chez DLK Civic Design à Chicago. Il travaille pour différents clients comme Chicago Transit Authority sur le développement de leur réseau de transport. Actif dans le milieu associatif local, professeur à l’école d’architecture de Triton College et féru d’histoire de l’architecture, il participe à de nombreuses conférences pour faire partager cette passion. D’origine canadienne, il a grandi dans les gares même de Grassy Lake et Vulcan, Alberta dans les prairies de l’Ouest canadien où son père était opérateur télégraphiste. Notre rencontre s’est faite ici, à Chicago où nous avons traversé en long et en large la ville et sa banlieue dans sa superbe Chevrolet Corvair de 1965. Chicago a toujours été la plaque tournante commerciale dans le transport des marchandises des Etats-Unis. Sa position stratégique au croisement des Grands Lacs et des canaux et le formidable essor de son réseau ferroviaire en ont fait le berceau d’innovations architecturales et techniques. Nos différentes escales nous ont menées à parcourir différents thèmes étroitement liés au réseau ferroviaire : gare, entrepôts de fret et ponts ferroviaires et, à l’incontournable Frank Lloyd Wright.

A la fin du XIXe et au début du XXe siècles, plus d’une vingtaine de compagnies ferroviaires convergées vers Chicago. Six gares principales les accueillaient. Aujourd’hui, sur ces six gares, il ne reste plus que deux d’entre elles : Dearborn Station qui a été reconverti en complexe de restaurants et de services et Union Station qui est toujours utilisée par Amtrak. Les autres ont été détruites pour faire place à l’appétit des constructeurs. Union Station est l’œuvre de la compagnie d’architectes Graham, Anderson, Probst & White exécutée entre 1913 et 1925. Elle est l’un des plus beaux exemples de l’architecte néo-classique de la ville. A l’origine, elle était implantée sur deux blocs avant que celui côté Est, le long du canal, soit en partie démoli pour implanter un tour de bureaux. De ce bâtiment, seules les voies en sous-sol sont toujours existantes et encore en fonction.
De ces gares majeures implantées en cœur de ville près du Loop, qui est le nom du métro aérien qui dessert le centre de la ville en formant une boucle, les trains se dirigeaient vers la proche banlieue où chaque gare formait alors le centre d’un nouveau quartier, d’une nouvelle communauté. Celle-ci se développait autour de la gare sur un rayon d’un kilomètre environ, distance pouvant être facilement parcouru à pied. Les gares de Riverside et River Forest, que nous avons visité, sont deux exemples de ce développement. Ce modèle a été étudié et promu par Sir Ebenezer Howard dans son livre « Garden Cities of Tomorrow » en 1902, basé sur sa thèse de 1898.

Du fait de son réseau dense de canaux navigables, l’accès à la ville par les voies ferrées nécessitait la construction de ponts permettant la libre circulation des bateaux. Après le grand incendie de 1871, de nouveaux principes de ponts métalliques sont construits par les compagnies ferroviaires permettant de libérer le passage. Plusieurs systèmes sont inventés par leurs ingénieurs : pont tournant (swing-span bridge), pont à bascule (bascule bridge), pont transbordeur (vertical-lift bridge), … Plusieurs de ces ponts ferroviaires sont en cours de protection par la ville de Chicago dont le pont tournant de la compagnie Illinois Central Railroad, le pont basculant de la compagnie St Charles Air Line, le pont basculant de la Pennsylvania Railroad appelé « Eight Track » et le pont transbordeur de la même compagnie. Tous ces ponts ont un fort impact dans le paysage, souvent industriel, dans lequel ils se trouvent. Leur préservation est un repère important de l’histoire ferroviaire de la ville de Chicago.

De cet intense transit, les entrepôts de fret de l’Union Freight Station sont encore visibles. Ces imposants bâtiments de plusieurs centaines de mètres de long sur une cinquantaine de large et sur cinq étages de haut montrent l’impressionnante capacité de stockage que devait avoir la ville de Chicago. Aujourd’hui, ces bâtiments sont en majorité utilisés pour leur fonction originale. Toutefois, pour quelqu’un d’entre eux, des reconversions en loft commencent à se faire.

D’autres traces restent toujours visibles comme les silos de stockage (grain house). Ils sont les précurseurs des premiers gratte-ciels. Suite au grand incendie de Chicago, le bois avait été abandonné au profit du béton armé, leur donnant cette silhouette qui a inspiré Le Corbusier dans son livre « Vers une architecture ». Aujourd’hui, ces ouvrages sont à l’abandon.

More of Christophe Loustau’s journal may be viewed at http://www.christopheloustau.com/

July 9, 2009
Deux journées de folie en compagnie de Darrel Babuk

session du 8 au 9 septembre 2006

In English: some time ago, I was recommended to Christophe Loustau, Recipient of the prestgious Richard Morris Hunt Fellowship. Christophe’s research project was to document the original New York City – San Francisco transcontinental railway across the United States. I did an amalgamation of many of my usual railway & architectural history presentations. One of those sites was Riverside, Illinois, one of the first – and currently best preserved – transit oriented development, or classic American suburbs, in existence. On the way to Riverside, we happened to stumble across the Route 66 Car Show in Berwyn, Illinois. Christophe politely asked if we could stop to take a look, I think that he underwent a form of culture shock. An entry from Christophe’s journal follows. Maintenant, en Français:

J’ai rencontré à Chicago une véritable personnalité, architecte et passionné de gares. Darrel est d’origine canadienne, où il a grandi dans une gare avec sa famille, son père était opérateur télégraphiste. Notre rencontre c’est faite un vendredi en début d’après-midi. Nous devions nous rencontrer pour un café avant de se revoir le lendemain pour parcourir la ville sur différents sujets tournant autour des gares. Mais le café, c’est très rapidement transformé en road trip dans sa superbe Chevrolet Corvair bleu turquoise de 1966. A l’intérieur, des tapis blancs à petits pois noirs donnent un effet rétro.

Nous sommes parti vers la banlieue de Chicago pour flâner autour de Oak Park et pour voir les différentes maisons de Frank Lloyd Wright tout en discutant. C’est impressionnant de voir l’effet que peuvent produire de simples maisons que l’ont a étudiées, vues dans des livres et de se retrouver là, en face d’elles. Il faut dire que cet architecte est le plus célèbre des Etats-Unis. Son architecture est tout simplement remarquable. Le soir, la pause café à continuer en dîner avec Darrel et sa femme dans un très agréable restaurant.

Le lendemain, nous sommes partis à nouveau à l’assaut de Chicago au volant de sa superbe américaine. Nous avons traversé de long en large tous les endroits les plus intéressants pour mon étude. C’est formidable de rencontrer quelqu’un passionné par un sujet et prêt à vous le faire partager. En chemin, une autre surprise nous attendait sur la célèbre route 66. Une manifestation de voitures américaines anciennes était organisée. Nous nous sommes arrêtées une petite heure pour voir toutes ces magnifiques voitures avec leurs lignes extravagantes, leurs intérieures grands luxes et leurs chromes étincelants. Quelques unes sont de véritables cultes à la culture des années 60 et 70. La célèbre expression “mettez un tigre dans votre moteur” était mise en scène ainsi que le plateau repas haut en couleurs des drive-in.

More of Christophe Loustau’s journal may be seen at http://www.christopheloustau.com

July 9, 2009
Big People. Little Cars. Tiny Houses. The Scale of our Neighbourhoods

It was an odd conversation over the July Fourth barbeque. One side started talking about the increasing waistlines of various people. The other side was talking about my Mini, and their new-found interest in Microcars. Then – like a flyswatter hitting a mosquito – the two groups found out about each other. A sort of reverse serendipity in a way.

For some years, I’ve been promoting the virtues of smaller houses, and expounding on my theory of how we’ve designed our neighbourhoods around cars, and that the size of our cars has directly influenced the size of our houses.

A building with people, built to the scale of jetliners

Think of an airport terminal, and how gates need to be spaced far enough apart to allow adequate space between airplanes, and enough internal space to accommodate enplaning and deplaning passengers and supporting areas. Same kind of idea.

1957 Chrysler 300

There is fresh, new interest in smaller houses, as I predicted in “The Rise and fall of the McMansion and other Midwestern Housing Trends”. The most notable example of interest in market driven, small houses – like the line of Katrina Cottages marketed by Lowe’s Home Centers.

1972 Fiat 500L

While this change was driven for reasons other than our taste in automobiles, it’s ironic that this is just in time for Chrysler – formerly known for very large cars – to become part of Fiat – known for very small cars.

Land uses and traffic along the Chicago River

During the age of canal building, substantial monetary capital was invested into building canals. Land along the canals – a manmade feature – became very valuable because of the uses one could put beside this new transportation artery. This concept was magnified with the advent of railroads and became known as “frontage”. Build the largest building possible on the smallest of frontage, for economy and efficiency’s sake. This concept was extended to a hierarchy of roadways, and gave rise to “skyscrapers”. Not every land use wants to be in a neighbourhood of tall, closely built buildings. Dwellings – where people live – need sunlight, and a connection to land.

The type of transportation used between places defines the physical area covered by a neighbourhood of places.

A “mews” or backstreet, in London

Walking between places usually led to places located within a half mile or a kilometer of each other. These neighbourhoods are more apt to have a variety of services on a smaller scale, built closer together. Think of how many groceries one could carry while walking – this may define how many grocery stores one could find within the radius, while that radius area needs a certain population density to support these stores. At one point in history, to support a walkable economy, grocery type items were sold in “general stores” – increasing product lines to allow financial viability. And likewise, to maintain this density, dwellings were closer together. In Chicago, we have “bookend” neighbourhoods – blocks of single family houses that are terminated with walk up flats.

An unknown regional mall in an unknown city

Personal, mechanized transportation – the automobile – exaggerated this notion to an extreme; in doing so, this scale of neighbourhood – the scale of the automobile – dedicated the most amount of land necessary for transportation uses while increasing the area of our neighbourhoods. One won’t bat an eyebrow to travel more than a mile to shop at a store where one could purchase an entire week’s worth of groceries. In dispersing the apparent neighbourhood so sparsely over such a great area, the social fabric unwinds. People become anonymous. Driving everywhere cuts down on exercise opportunities, just as a loose urban fabric doesn’t seem to care as much about physical appearances – like obesity.

Light rail transit on sodded trackbeds in Grenoble, France

The perfect compromise seems to be public transit – capable of carrying large numbers of people varying distances.

The coming of smaller cars to North America may create denser, closer knit neighbourhoods. Anyone who has spent any amount of distance in my Mini will attest to its lack of comfort, one shies away from travelling far. One would tend ot patronize closer services, or use transit. The smaller dimensions may give way to smaller streets. Chicago neighbourhoods were a mass of two way streets until cars came to be so large that only one drive aisle – not two – could fit on a roadway. Yet, one still needs streets to allow travel between places. Movement between places is an important concept in this era.

The small house movement is an interesting one. A sustainable community needs a critical mass – a density that will allow a certain number of people to be within a certain distance of employment, cultural and shopping services to support the same. A hallmark of land planning since the industrial age has been the importance of movement between places, manifesting itself in transportation.

Federal Hill, Baltimore. These houses measure sixteen feet (about five metres) wide

And certainly, smaller houses with smaller footprints could use far less land than McMansions. Smaller houses could be placed together in relatively dense groupings and achieve the same sort of – whatever openess – one may achieve in low density, large footprint dwelling configuration.

An interesting study could be the ratio of transportation right of way area per capita of a post war suburb vs. a pre war neighbourhood to find efficient and effective land use. Further, my gut feeling is that some of the more effective land uses may be more livable neighbourhoods.

July 7, 2009
Two National Holidays, One Week

What could be more cumbersome to get things done and to maintain a schedule than two national holidays – one mid week, one on a weekend – in the same week?

Independence Day celebrates the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, signaling the creation of the United States of America. It happens on July 4. Many towns, like Chicago, have their giant fireworks displays the night before, on July 3. July 4 is a Saturday this year; I guess that everyone is observing their day off from work on Friday, July 3 – no?

Dominion Day (or more recently, Canada Day) celebrates Queen Victoria signing the British North America Act and creating Canada. It occurs on July 1. Knowing that this somewhat British element had to compete with mammoth American celebrations on July 4, the thought was to try to upstage this all by having the Canadian celebration a couple days earlier.

Dominion Day is Wednesday this year. I guess that people are putting their unused vacation days and comp time towards Monday and Tuesday, not being able to wait to enjoy time off in sunshine – ? Maybe it’s just convenient to take the whole week off.

Who knows? It’s challenging to schedule anything this week.

July 3, 2009
Land Development Strategy on Autopilot

First we shape our buildings, and then they shape us”

                Sir Winston Churchill

“Motion is the aesthetic of modern man”

                Clifford Wiens

Maybe it was driving through a crowded parking lot, looking for a parking space. In amidst the row of SUV’s there appeared to be an empty space, only to come upon it and discover that it’s simply a smaller car packed between the Escalades. Or maybe it’s noticing the difference in scale between neighborhoods built at different decades; and that their scale varies directly with the size of their garages. Whether we want to acknowledge this or not, we’re designing our housing stock around our taste in automobiles.

“In the Industrial Age: first we build our cars, then build our communities around them”

                Darrel Babuk

A Forward Thinking concept at the time

Take the ’51 Ford as example. In retrospect, it might seem to be something akin to a lunchbucket on wheels; yet in it’s day, it was a Ford’s first revolutionary design of the modern automotive era. Revolutionary in more ways than one; as the embodiment of the GI Housing Bill and the Interstate Highway Act of a few years later, it conquered countless acres of former rural farmland and helped populate these territories with people and commercial strips.

Levittown was another Forward Thinking concept of its time

In 1951, the sought after housing stock was a single family home of two, maybe three bedrooms with only one gathering space not related to food. These houses were probably configured as two separate levels, one being built inside a roof attic space to conserve materials, thus price. It allowed its occupants to spend more money on other things, like fancier cars…

Cars had smiles in this era – this was our dentist’s car

Later on, by the late 1960’s, it was commonplace to expect our cars and houses to be exuberantly flamboyant. Houses had grown into sprawling ranches and split levels; despite experiments with swoopy rooflines, they still weren’t too large in floor area.

Note that the roofline of this house creates the same sort of smile as did our dentist’s car

Instead, individual houses sat on large plots of land, requiring cars to ferry their occupants back and forth. The idea of a two car family had just entered American lexicon, a two car garage proudly displayed to the street was a status symbol to behold. Cars enveloped similarly swoopy masses of sheet metal, they were difficult to manouever through city street. Chicago reverted many of its neighborhood streets to one way traffic, to accommodate these vehicles.

The freshness of sixties design got a bit tired, then mired in the seventies. Maybe it was the energy crunch, or maybe it was by a series of laws that controlled, rather than encouraged design. By the time the eighties came to be, a book by Jane Jacobs “The Death and Life of Great American Cities” came to be better accepted, and we sought ways to do more with less. A few indulgences came in small packages. Sudden interest in condominiums and townhouses were met by happy buyers in BMW 5 Series sedans. Oddly, while we learned to drive more fuel efficient cars, we started to drive more cars, it really didn’t stem our consumption of resources. We rebuilt our cities, yet kept developing new suburbs. We simply found ways to use more resources.

These days, we have McMansions and SUV’s of all sizes, though the family units that live inside the McMansions are smaller than what lived in the 50’s or 60’s tract homes. The McMansions lack design originality, though they boast rare and expensive finishes, like kitchens with granite countertops. Didn’t the original marble cladding of the Amoco Building mine out one of Michelangelo’s historic marble quaries? Our freeways are constantly choked with traffic. Our expectations have become supersized as we simply want more of everything – good design doesn’t really count, just that there be more of it! The car enveloped by a swoopy mass of sheet metal in the late 1960’s is no larger in floor area than a 21st century full size SUV, yet our SUV’s take up considerably more volume and weigh substantially more. And about the original marble cladding of the Amoco Building – once it was removed due to damage, wasn’t it pulverized and used as roadbed gravel for an extension of the Stevenson Expressway?

Would we have a different urban infrastructure design if we had started to drive vehicles like this?

It makes one wonder about the preponderance of human nature to simply go on autopilot without question: where would we be now if during the fifties and sixties, we had stuck not to the large cars but rather to concepts like the original Austin Mini or Fiat 500; the concepts being produced in Detroit as Ramblers or Crossleys. Would our cities be much more geographically compact, would we be using public transit more often, and would we be living our lives in public rather than in the cocoons of gated communities?

“How often I found where I should be going, only by setting out for somewhere else”

                Buckminster Fuller

June 29, 2009
Forecasting Global Economic Strategy, Understanding Urban Planning and the 1977 Mini Clubman Estate

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

While I’ve been avoiding the temptation, the removal of General Motors from the Dow Jones Index may provide a good reason to describe my own car, to draw parallels to the direction of this economy, and to the future of urban planning, of all things.

Both General Motors and Citi Group were recently removed from the Dow Jones Index, and replaced with Travellers Insurance and Cisco Systems. One could argue that the financial conditions of both GM and Citi had made them dead weight, they were not reflective of the US economy. It was curious that General Motors was not being replaced by another car company. Could it be that the automobile industry is not being seen as the driver (pardon the pun) of the overall economy that it once was?

1977 Mini Clubman Estate

Now, I drive a 1977 Mini Clubman Estate complete with right hand drive and British plates.

People stop me on the street and ask what it is ( “a car” ).

Some ask what kind of mileage it gets ( ” about forty in town” ).

Others ask if it’s legal to drive something with the steering wheel on the wrong side ( “of course it is, I’m driving on the right side” ).

Still others: how fast can it go? ( “I’ve had it opened up at 65” )

And still others wonder if it’s safe on the same road as giant SUV’s. Why one feels a need to drive a mammoth SUV in the middle of a large city and try to park it somewhere is beyond me. My Mini Clubman Estate belongs in a big city. That said, we don’t live in a big city, nor do we make a living by hauling things. The Mini wouldn’t be at all appropriate there, or in places where snowdrifts are bigger than it is.

In 1959, Minis were produced by the British Motor Corporation, sometimes known as Austin – Morris. It was designed by a team led by Sir Alec Issigonis during a one week design charette and was a revolution automotive concept – the absolute minimum car possible to transport four people. In 1969, a jazzed up version, the Clubman, was introduced. It had a flattened front to appear more modernand several trim upgrades. Like the regular Mini, the Clubman also came in a “wagon” version, the “Estate”. A Mini Clubman Estate Estate is what I drive.

If it didn’t make so much sense, it would be fun. Maybe it’s so fun because it pushes one’s bounds of tolerance so much.

In fact, my Mini makes perfect sense as something to be driven in the city. Asides from great mileage, it takes up less space and can manoeuvre around some of the tightest places. From an urban planning standpoint, our cities have been designed and redesigned around transportation. In recent memory, cities have come to be designed around cars.

Combining examples from previous posts and from my “Secret Streets of Chicago’s Loop” presentation, one can point at the original layout of the Chicago Loop. It was designed around slower modes of transportation supporting a smaller population. It was eventually necessary to accommodate faster and heavier modes of transportation, the Great Fire providing a clean palate for redesign. The solution was to widen every second street with the other streets left as original.

Arcade Place at LaSalle Street, Chicago

Street upgrades have continued to accommodate faster modes of transportation, and to accommodate more traffic generated by a larger population base. The avenues that became primary streets of Chicago’s Loop are big and wide, able to accommodate the largest of vehicle. Out in the suburbs, where traffic travels even faster, streets are much wider and consume far more land while oddly supporting a sparser density. Back in Chicago, the remaining narrower streets – several of which still contain storefronts – make my Mini feel right at home. It’s a great example of designing streets around and the scale of our cities around the transportation we use. Going further, several sections of Chicago’s “L” use little more than a back alley’s right of way, while a subway can snake its way around, virtually unknown.

But I digress – enough about urban planning and back to my Mini and its irony concerning our economic direction…

By the time my Mini was built in 1977, the British Leyland Corporation was making itself more apparent. A variety of British marques were having difficult economic times, so the British Government and other parties stepped in, consolidated models, cut costs and proceeded on. While the Countryman version of a Mini came with real wood trim, the Clubman Estate came with a “swoosh” of fake wood trim along each side. Most Mini Clubman Estates came off the assembly line painted a “Harvest Gold” beige kind of colour with dark brown velour upholstery – the sort of fabric of jammies sold at Woolco that wound up under the Christmas tree. One would gather that producing many cars in one colour would reduce costs. As the model progressed on in years, many components came to be made from cheaper and cheaper materials. The marque’s image took a hit.

It took a solid change of course to right the Mini’s image – drop the Clubman, improve quality, and to build on the ‘fun’ aspect by producing special “themed” models.

If one were to change a couple names, this story may seem much like a drama being played out in Detroit as of this writing. Emotional connection to automobiles aside, indicators may be saying that the automobile industry isn’t going to play the major part in a manufacturing economy that it once did. Perhaps our cities have reached a point where traditional transportation systems are maxed out, and we need to return to mass transit to make our cities liveable.

Will the automobile ever regain its influence on the economy? Perhaps not. Getting around and moving about will continue to be a driver of the economy. The mode of transportation will simply have changed.

This begs the question: if Cisco replaced General Motors, are Wall Street’s forecasters envisioning that electronic communications will replace physically moving people from one place to another and that social skill known in Chicago as “schmoozing” ? I hope not.

June 3, 2009
Breakfast with the Consul General of Canada

Thursday, May 28, 2009

This morning, the Canadian Club of Chicago hosted a breakfast presentation by the Honourable Georges Rioux, Consul General of Canada. It was held at Chicago’s Cliff Dwellers Club.

It was a great opportunity to catch up on some old friendships and to hear the Consul General speak, a tradition in its third year. I was able to converse with Georges alongside some new consular staff, giving them my sixty second tour description of Chicago. For this group, I mentioned Eglise Notre Dame de Chicago – a Roman Catholic parish built on the site of the original Pere Marquette mission but since enveloped by the University of Illinois at Chicago campus. This neighbourhood is described on census maps of the 1870’s as being populated by “French Canadians”. An historic though unusual octagonal building with a pipe organ made by Casavant Freres of Ste. Hyacinthe, Quebec that has maintained french speaking clergy throughout its years; it claims to boast Quebecois roots. My observation is that now and again, I have noticed the term “expulsion” in describing its original congregation; I think that they may have actually been Acadiens from New Brunswick. Still others from the Consulate theorize that they may originated with french language people groups from Saskatchewan, though I couldn’t imagine the numbers of those people being able to populate a neighbourhood in Chicago.

However, in conversing with a group at the Cliff Dweller Club about Historical sites in Chicago, little compares to the lumpy old leather couch in the Cliff Dwellers’ Reading Room. Urban legend has it that as Louis Sullivan fell difficult financial times, he used to crash on that particular couch and maintain his Club membership, rather than rent a boarding room. This couch is still there in original condition, though one would think that it has since been cleaned.

Next month, the Canadian Club will host a similar presentation by Marc Boucher, Head of the Quebec Government Office in Chicago. M. Boucher’s presentation is timed to occur on St. Jean Baptiste Day.

Meanwhile, I am part of a group that has been asked to explore founding the United States / Canada Business Council; an organization within the Canadian Club of Chicago dedicated to furthering business ties and understandings, and to promote opportunities between the US and Canada. The idea is to build off of this series, beginning with a series of breakfast presentations featuring topical speakers.

May 28, 2009
Presentation to Fachhochshule am Main Frankfurt and Ryerson University

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Yesterday, I made a presentation of “The Canadian Side of the Chicago School of Architecture 1884 – 1935” to a group of architecture students and faculty visiting Chicago from Fachhochscule Frankfurtam Main of Frankfort, Germany and Ryerson University of Toronto, at their request. It was a group of about fifty people, they had booked the Lecture Hall at the Chicago Architecture Foundation.

While the important role of William LeBaron Jenney towards the development of the skyscraper building format is well known, the substantial Canadian influence in his practice at that time tends to be overlooked.

YMCA Association Building, Jenney and Mundie, Architect. 1893, Chicago, Illinois.

Jenney’s practice was one of a few noteworthy architectural practices in Chicago at the time of the Great Fire in 1872. In 1879, he designed and constructed the First Leiter Building, which is seen as a significant contributing building to the skyscraper format, both technically and aesthetically. In 1884, William Bryce Mundie, a young architect from Hamilton, Ontario, entered the Jenney practice. Mundie was immediately made Site Superintendant of the Home Life Insurance Building, widely considered by historians as being the first true skyscraper. Mundie was exceptionally talented and capable. Working his way up in the Jenney practice, Mundie was made Partner in 1891, at which point the practice’s name was changed to “Jenney and Mundie”. In 1897, the State of Illinois adopted an Architect’s Act, which defined who may practice architecture and what that practice may entail. Mundie obtained licensure as an Architect; Jenney did not, and passed away in 1907.

The period of time from 1891 – 1897 was very lucrative for the Jenney and Mundie practice, producing some of the most memorable projects associated with Jenney that are rarely associated with Mundie, though it appears that Mundie had considerable influence. Those projects would include the Fair Store (1890 – 96), the Ludington Building (1891), the World’s Fair Horticultural Building (1893), the YMCA Association Building (1893) and the New York Life Building (1894).

Union Bank Tower, John D. Atchison, Architect. 1912, Winnipeg, Manitoba

During this time, another young architect, John D. Atchison, passed through the Jenney and Mundie practice. After leaving to persue his own practice, Atchison did a string of unknown greystones and courtyard apartment buildings in Evanston, Illinois; he established an architectural practice in Winnipeg that was the only local practice with the knowledge and ability to take on ‘skyscraper’ projects.

Interior Stairway, Bank of Hamilton Building, John. D. Atchison, Architect. 1916, Winnipeg, Manitoba

John Atchison was the Architect of many skyscraper in Winnipeg’s Exchange District, such as the Fairchild Building (1906), the Maltese Cross Block (1909), the Great Western Insurance Building (1909), the Union Tower Building (1912) and the Bank of Hamilton Building (1916).

William Bryce Mundie continued on, being a guiding force in the Chicago Architectural Club, developing its curriculum and competition formats, becoming a major influence for incoming generations of Chicago architects. There is evidence that he stayed in contact with Atchison, who was also a member of the Chicago Architectural Club.

Meantime, Winnipeg’s economy took a prolonged downturn. John Atchison became a civic planner, being the force behind the establishment of the “Capitol Mall” concept leading up to the Manitoba Legislature Building. Atchison also persued out of town work, first in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, then in Pasadena, California.

There are many unanswered questions I’ve come across in my limited research, all of which would make excellent research topics for students of architectural history. Any takers?

May 26, 2009