The Babuk Report

Category: Transit

Barn Doors, Department Stores, Kiddie Monorails and Urban Transit Systems

Louden Monorail, 10th Floor, Meier and Frank Department Store, Portland, Oregon

Some time ago, I was at a friend’s office and noticed a photograph on his desk. It almost seemed like something ‘photoshopped’ – it showed a bright, shiny metal tube with children, buzzing overtop the sales aisles of a department store. It was real – the photo was an image of the late 1940’s of the kiddie monorail installation at the Sears & Roebuck store located in the former Second Lieter Building at the corner of State and Congress in Chicago.

Second Lieter Building, Chicago. Jenney and Mundie, Architects

Sears moved out of this building years ago. Trying to keep a building this size full of the sorts of merchandise sold by Sears at that time was an awful lot of inventory. There’s only so many Craftsman Tool products one can sell – to a market that’s a bunch of office workers, no less. When I first landed in Chicago, there was an occasion when I was walking south from the Loop to retrieve my parked car when suddenly Congress closed up with security vehicles and there came the Clinton’s Presidential motorcade, Hillary Clinton on the side of the car facing the old Sears store which made me wonder how many times she – in her Chicago youth – passed that corner before, not realizing that she would ever pass by again waving to crowds as the First Lady. Moreover, the old Sears Store – the Second Lieter Building – was a watershed commission for the architectural firm of Jenney and Mundie. It was a mammoth skyscraper cage building capable of accommodating many different uses; it came with a beautiful pattern of window openings. Chicago is a city where, in the Loop, the ground floors of buildings always have corridors going in and out; the buildings are a permeable extension of the streets. The former Second Lieter Building – or former Sears Store – or whatever one called it was a handy short cut for me on days of inclement weather. I never imagined it to have something like this kiddie monorail suspended overhead.

Louden Monorail, Basement, Herpolsheimers Department Store, Grand Rapids, Michigan

The Louden Machinery Company of Fairfield, Iowa was a late 19th century leader in the invention and manufacture of farm equipment. A hay bale stacking machine was one of the company’s first patents; one can still find plan books that describe standard “Louden” barn configurations. One of their inventions was for a sliding barn door assembly. Looking at this particular invention in abstract terms: it allowed a heavy object to be suspended off of rollers that glided on a rail… use a bit of imagination, a couple machinery parts and something capable of accommodating people and voila! – one has a type of overhead monorail system that can convey passengers.

Louden Monorail, Kresge Department Store, Newark, New Jersey

After the Second World War, the Louden Company put all of these together and started manufacturing a child sized “kiddie monorail” that was snapped up by large, urban department stores to be a prominent feature in their toy department. Kind of like a toy train one could ride. Apparently, there were more than two dozen kiddie monorails installed. Asides from installation at Sears in Chicago, I know of others at the Kresge store in Newark, NJ; at Wanamakers in Philadelphia, PA; Herpolsheimers in Grand Rapids, Michigan; at the Midtown Plaza in Rochester, NY; and at the Meier and Frank Store in Portland, Oregon; this latter example being the last installation to operate. They must have been absolutely thrilling!

It reminds me of the Alweg Company building the Monorail for the 1962 World’s Fair in Seattle. Operated for a profit, sold at minimal cost to the City after the Fair, it presented a concept of moving people around at a minimal cost. Why can’t we do this nowadays?

August 28, 2009
More Walls Talking – Vacant Storefronts

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

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…

August 13, 2009
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.

August 12, 2009
Cars with Lots of Real Estate

A friend wrote in reply of my 4 July 2009 post “Big People. Little Cars. Tiny Houses. The Scale of our Neighbourhoods”, which spoke of our neighbourhoods being sized around our mode of personal transportation which, in modern day North America, tends to be our cars. To quote Alex:

“There are a couple of arguments against the move to smaller-more-sustainable automobiles in particular. I’ll coin it “larger-and-more-survivable”.

Not that I have anything against the cute and vulnerable Cooper Mini nor it’s reincarnation, the 21^st Century BMW Mini, it’s just that with the striking deterioration of our public highways, a larger vehicle with adequate ground clearance is soon to become an advantage. By the way, it strikes me that the sudden downfall of public infrastructure is very much mirrored by the downfall of print media. I have a hard time seeing my younger nephews and nieces with their passels of kinder and requisite accoutrements actually fitting into the current generation of mini-vehicles. Indeed, with three or more small children in a vehicle, your old Mini Clubman just couldn’t hold the child seats, let alone the toys, diaper bags, etc that – at least – the younger generation of my family is saddled with. I don’t think that your Mini could even hold an SUV – Stroller Utility Vehicle!”

I’ve always maintained that we design our neighbourhoods around our cars. More succinctly, we design our neighbourhoods around the prevalent mode of personal transportation. We always have – for the longest of times, that mode was on foot – walking. Not until the Machine Age / Post Machine Age has transportation become so notable in our neighbourhoods, because the type of transportation we’ve invented is so different than what we as humans are capable of on our own.

The type of neighbourhood that I live in was built around people walking to a rapid transit or commuter train station, so the buildings and landscape look the way they do to reflect this. Since then and quite suddenly, we’ve built entire cities around the automobile – the prevalent method of personal transportation currently used in North America. Not only would it be difficult to “retrofit” an automobile neighbourhood to be function “walkably”, but trying to get around one of these automobile neighbourhoods by another method becomes challenging, if not dangerous. I know of someone who drives a perfectly restored 1969 Fiat 500 with a bumper sticker that reads “…my other car is a race car…”; he drives it on the expressways of Chicago fearlessly, leaving everyone breathless. The rest of us could never achieve this talent without intense professional training!

So becomes the quandary of dodging potholes and 18 wheelers at high speeds. Part of the format of automobile oriented development is to have an abundance of supply of transportation routes. Abundant infrastructure becomes very expensive to maintain properly.

Personal. mobile spaces within a larger, very public space, both quite flambouyant – "Superdawg", Chicago IL

Now, I do have this thing about the automobile and its allure. As architecture, automobiles are highly sculptural, display the personality and identity of their owners. Automobiles are not just personal spaces with their own environmental hierarchies and transitions, but they are personal space that moves, taking its occupants from place to place while experiencing the space within, and the spaces outside – in motion, in sequence no less. It’s a very contemporary, Machine Age experience – quite exhilarating, since it removes mankind from the need to have ties to the earth.

Although Frank Lloyd Wright was apparently an automobile enthusiast. Oddly, this notion of automobile as architecture goes against his philosophy of architecture being part of the earth. Two very exciting, diametrically opposed concepts.

July 27, 2009
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
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
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
Great Chicago Places and Spaces 2009, Part 2

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Great Chicago Places and Spaces took place yesterday. While the overall program was shortened (one day rather than two, 100 presentations instead of more than 200) it was very well attended. All three of my presentations sold out. It was beautiful weather, albeit a bit windy at times.

Secret Streets of Chicago’s Loop was able to get up close to the ghost sign on court place in back of the Cadillac Palace Theatre that advertised the lounge inside the former Bismarck Hotel. Speaking of ghosts, no one reported capturing any mysterious orbs on photograhs they took on Couch Place, in back of the Ford Theatre. We even had a good look at what was Pickwick Place, now addressed as 22 E. Jackson Boulevard.

Delivering a lecture as part of an Architectural Walking Tour

The Great Train Stations of Clinton Street was back after a year’s hiatus; fortunately, Johnny Depp’s filming of “Public Enemies” was not. That production reaked havoc on last year’s Union Station presentation, as the entire station – Great Hall, Concourse and platforms – was closed at the last minute for filming. This year, everything was open. Amtrak, the Union Pacific Railroad and the Chicago Transit Authority were all very helpful, it all came off well. We even had a presentation from Mason Pritchett of Casimir Kujawa Architect, Mason being part of the design team that won an Honorable Mention in the Chicago Architectural Club’s design competition to integrate high speed rail into Union Station. Caz – who was one of my interns years ago – couldn’t make the presentation and Mason was an excellent stand in. A college chum in town from California for a conference in Chicago who took this tour noted that an intern of an intern of mine made the presentation.

This presentation of Just a Bit of Chicago’s Transit Archaeology was a walking tour adaptation of a trolly bus presentation I made last year. There are many bits’n’pieces of transit archaeology all over Chicago. The trolley ride between the sites was a bit much of dead air, so a walking tour od a portion of that presenattion was tried this year.

I trust that Great Chicago Places and Spaces will continue on next year. Am hoping that some of the really classic tour presentations, like “Inside a Bridgehouse” or the rendition of “Rooftop Real Estate” that saw the entire group taken up to the roof of the Sears Tower may be back.

May 17, 2009