Archinect - News

American Planning Association publishes policy guide to address inequalities in zoning

2023-02-10T12:35:00-05:00

The American Planning Association (APA) has released a policy guide titled ‘Equity in Zoning’ which advocates for planning-led zoning reforms that can dismantle discriminatory barriers. The 53-page guide addresses zoning across local, state, and federal levels and “prioritizes reversing and alleviating the disproportionate impacts of zoning through three aspects of zoning: rules, people, and mapping.”

“The nation is short 3.79 million housing units due in part to exclusionary regulations that disproportionately harm disadvantaged and vulnerable communities,” the association notes. “Planners have the data-driven insights, understanding of broad community impact, and long-term perspective to help decision makers and communities avoid unfair outcomes in all parts of the zoning process and create more diverse housing options in places they are needed most.”

The APA’s approach t...

Segregation by Design: Using visual data and spatial analysis to highlight the racist legacy of urban renewal

2022-08-29T15:12:00-04:00

What started as a self-funded project from New York-based architect Adam Paul Susaneck is gaining attention over its unique ability to paint a picture of the effects of racial segregation in the 180 American cities included in the controversial Federal Highway Act of 1956.

Inspired by Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law, Susaneck launched his Segregation by Design project in early 2021 to "reveal the extent to which the American city was methodically hollowed out based on race."

Susaneck is in league with others who have been calling on the Biden Administration to dismantle the legacy of race-based discrimination laden in America’s aging highway network and says the trifold goal of the project is to: 1. Create an "Atlas of Urban Renewal" in book form; 2. Create digital materials for local groups opposing ongoing freeway expansion; and 3. Continue to grow the followership of Segregation by Design’s social media channels (which to date number some 132,000).

Related on Archinect: St....

Paul R. Williams' first LA home finally gains historic monument status

2022-02-17T14:31:00-05:00

Encouraging news for preservationists and Paul Revere Williams fans as local news outlets are reporting that the architect's first Los Angeles home, bought under the auspices of segregation, has now officially been named a Historic-Cultural Monument by the city's Cultural Heritage Commission.

The Jefferson Park home had been listed in early September for $1.6 million, prompting several local groups to petition commissioners for the designation which now gives the body the formal ability to delay any future demolition efforts for at least a year.

Williams bought the home in 1921 and used it as his principal residence until he moved to Lafayette Park in 1952. His move-in coincided with the opening of his Hollywood Masonic Temple. Commissioner Gail Kennard said the home‘s significance had more to do with the housing covenants that essentially forced the then 27-year-old architect into the neighborhood where he resided over a prolific output that yielded some of Los Angeles' most iconic...

NY Governor Hochul announces investments to reconnect communities divided by disruptive urban renewal projects

2022-01-31T14:47:00-05:00

In her recent Executive Budget address, New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state will inject nearly $3 billion towards infrastructure projects that “promote equity, connectivity, and multi-modal transportation opportunities for communities all across New York State.” This move aims to right the wrongs of post-World War II urban renewal projects that saw highway expansions disproportionately divide and disrupt communities of color across the country.

As stated in the State’s press release, the investments aim to “reunite neighborhoods, promote economic growth, and revitalize many of New York’s most important urban centers.” The money will be spread over the next five years on projects to demolish, cover, or repurpose these longstanding expressways.

Hochul gave this announcement in Buffalo, New York at an event near the Kensington Expressway, the construction of which removed the historic Olmsted-designed Humboldt Parkway and severed the connection between surrounding...

Researchers call for dismantling of 'racist infrastructure' to improve U.S. neighborhoods

2021-09-07T17:54:00-04:00

A group of researchers from Northeastern University and Tufts University has called for funds from President Biden’s infrastructure bill to be diverted to dismantling “racist infrastructure” which is currently disproportionally impacting minority neighborhoods in the United States. The stance is set out in a new thought piece on The Conversation written by Joan Fitzgerald, a Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs at Northeastern University, and Julian Agyeman, a Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University.

The researchers focus on the network of urban highways built across the U.S. in the 1950s and 1960s, which the team posits was deliberately run through neighborhoods occupied by Black families, and other people of color, thus physically distancing the communities from jobs, opportunities, and urban connectivity. Scholars identify the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act as the beginning of a trend whereby transportation planners used highways to form...

Remembering the built environment of segregated America

2020-12-07T13:22:00-05:00

Vestiges of racism and oppression, from bricked-over segregated entrances to the forgotten sites of racial violence, still permeate much of America’s built environment.

For the NYT, photojournalist Richard Frishman shares powerful images of sites, buildings, and places throughout the United States along with their almost forgotten, sometimes preserved, stories from America's segregated past.

"All human landscapes are embedded with cultural meaning," Frishman writes. "And since we rarely consider our constructions as evidence of our priorities, beliefs and behaviors, the testimonies our landscapes offer are more honest than many of the things we intentionally present."

Urban planners take action to defund the police by calling for the American Planning Association to respond

2020-09-23T14:16:00-04:00

2020 has brought an increase in activism as the public reached its final tipping point from the racial and social injustices happening across the nation. With the inexcusable deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, and others caused by police brutality, individuals across industries have taken note and voiced their concerns. With forms of allyship sweeping the nation, architects, academics, and urban planners have expressed their opinions and action plans. Although dismantling racial inequalities and systemic racism within the profession will not happen overnight, groups put their experience and training into action to respond to these injustices.

In early August, Brentin Mock of CityLab in Pittsburgh reported on the responses of "several hundred" urban planners as they call for the American Planning Association to support defunding the police. Housing/food planner Sara Draper-Zievet, who is one of the eight co-authors of the letter, spoke with Mock on their steps ...

Tulane researchers receive grant to repurpose abandoned "separate but equal" schools in Louisiana

2020-08-21T13:36:00-04:00

Laura Blokker, interim director of the Tulane University School of Architecture's Preservation Studies program, and Andrew Liles, assistant professor of architecture at the school, have won the Richard L. Blinder Award, a $15,000 grant from the Trustees of the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation that will aid the researchers in their efforts to repurpose abandoned school facilities originally built to enforce Jim Crow-era racial segregation in education.

The schools, built as part a last-ditch attempt to establish "separate but equal" educational facilities in the state, were abandoned as racial integration began to take hold in 1970, and have sat empty for many years. The grant award will allow researchers to work with alumni of the schools in designing reuse strategies for the buildings, Tulane News reports.

The research project will include identifying the surviving schools across the state so that the research team can "assess and categorize the overall design, plans and...

Highways: Another enduring monument to American racism?

2020-06-24T17:58:00-04:00

The aftermath of George Floyd’s death while in police custody has created a moment for radical truth-telling. So here’s some ugly truth about the city of Los Angeles: Our freeway system is one of the most noxious monuments to racism and segregation in the country.

Mattew Fleischer, Senior Digital Editor of The Los Angeles Times pens an editorial for the newspaper highlighting the indefensible, racist legacy of highway construction in American cities.

Citing historical research regarding the ways in which highway construction and urban renewal practices helped to institute and literally cement racial and income segregation, Fleischer writes, "Local officials rerouted the elaborate designs of freeway engineers — often at considerable expense — to destroy thousands of homes in racially diverse communities."

These highways, Fleischer explains, continue to fuel environmental racism and other negative impacts for communities of color. Should they be torn down too?

HUD continues to whittle away at the Fair Housing Act

2020-01-21T16:24:00-05:00

The Fair Housing Act [...] prohibits not only intentional segregation, but also policies and practices whose effect is to discriminate for no defensible reason, even if there is no evidence of a racial motive. Lawyers describe such actions as having a “disparate impact” on minorities. Now, however, the Trump administration is about to put into effect procedures to make it virtually impossible to prove disparate impact, no matter how egregious a discriminatory policy or practice may be.

Richard Rothstein, author of the influential book The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, presents an opinion piece in The New York Times highlighting the latest multi-pronged efforts on the part of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to dismantle the effectiveness and legal significance of the Fair Housing Act under the administration of President Donald Trump.

The latest efforts aim to make filing lawsuits arguing that policies and practices generate acts of de-facto racial segregation more difficult and onerous.

Are segregated playgrounds the new 'poor doors'?

2019-07-23T04:00:00-04:00

Segregated play spaces are to be banned in all future London housing developments, the Greater London Authority (GLA) has revealed this week. The policy, part of the London Plan for developers and local authorities across the city, follows outrage across the political spectrum at the case of the Lilian Baylis estate in Kennington. [...] families living in the social housing side of the estate were not allowed to use the play area or any communal spaces on the development.

"It is disgraceful that children who live in the same development would ever be prevented from playing together," London Mayor Sadiq Khan told The Guardian.

The case of the segregated play areas at this London housing development (and several others) — only children from Lilian Baylis estate's 'affordable' units were denied access to seemingly communal amenities and spaces — brings back memories of 'poor doors.'

Minneapolis, Tackling Housing Crisis and Inequity, Votes to End Single-Family Zoning

2018-12-14T00:36:00-05:00

In a bold move to address its affordable-housing crisis and confront a history of racist housing practices, Minneapolis has decided to eliminate single-family zoning, a classification that has long perpetuated segregation.

Rigorous Design and Socially Engaged Practice Go Hand-in-Hand at Washington University in St. Louis

2018-04-05T09:00:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis

With its tree-lined streets and stately architecture, Shaw is among St. Louis’ oldest and most elegant neighborhoods.

It is also among the city’s most integrated. According to U.S. Census data, in 2010, Shaw’s population was 51.7 percent white and 41.9 percent black.

But neighbors can be feet away and worlds apart.

Building typologies in Shaw. Courtesy Cierra Higgins, Ashley Holder, Danning Liang, and Suyin Yao.

“In Shaw, segregation is social rather than spatial,” says Cierra Higgins, who is pursuing dual master’s degrees in architecture and urban design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

Last fall, Higgins spent months researching and exploring Shaw as part of Segregation by Design. The class—developed by Sam Fox School assistant professor Catalina Freixas and Mark Abbott of Harris-Stowe State University, with funding from The...

Spirit of apartheid still alive in the architecture of South Africa's gated communities

2018-01-15T15:35:00-05:00

The prevalence of gated communities may also reveal what South Africans think constitutes middle class life. As it did under apartheid, it often means avoiding the poor unless they are servants, nannies or gardeners. Instead of creating racial segregation, gated communities often broaden the economic gap in South Africa and restricts development to privatized progress.

"As state institutions flounder, estate living has gone on to offer attached private schools and clinics," Lynsey Chutel writes for Quartz Africa. "Privatized amenities in gated communities mean citizens don’t have to hold the city accountable, which is a shame because these are the citizens who often have the power to pressure the city to do better."

HUD announces delay of AFFH, an Obama-era rule combating housing segregation

2018-01-08T14:24:00-05:00

Last week, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register announcing its intentions to suspend enforcement of the rule until 2020, the New York Times reports. The notice “tells cities already at work on the detailed plans required by the rule that they no longer need to submit them, and the department says it will stop reviewing plans that have already been filed,” according to the paper.

In 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, under the Obama administration, issued legislation intended to bolster the enforcement of the Fair Housing Act, a decades-old law designed to combat segregation across the country. The new, Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, required cities and towns that receive federal funding to examine their local housing patterns for racial bias and to design a plan to address any measurable bias.

However, HUD announced last week, issuing a notice, that it is will be suspending enforcement of the AFFH, now giving cities until 2020 to submit their evaluations. The notice also states that the department will stop reviewing plans that have already been filed by cities.

While the decision does not necessarily repeal the Obama-era legislation, fair housing experts believe the suspension effectively guts the ruling and significantly waters down the government's assessment tools for fair housing by delaying enforcement. Communiti...

New case of proposed "Poor Door" in Honolulu

2017-12-04T14:01:00-05:00

A real estate developer in Hawaii is under scrutiny for its plans to build a residential high-rise that has two separate entrances: one for high-income residents and another for low-income earners. [...] will include 78 affordable rental units for people earning 80 percent or less of the area median income, as required by Honolulu’s affordable housing strategy. The other 351 units will be market-priced condominiums. If things go as ProsPac plans, the units will be separated with two entrances.

Various examples of so-called "poor doors" in New York City, London, and Vancouver made the headlines in previous years, sparking heated debate across a number of Archinect comment sections.

St. Louis, segregation and how history shapes the urban landscape

2017-03-24T20:32:00-04:00

Segregation is no accident.

Nearly five decades after the Fair Housing Act of 1968, American cities remain racially, culturally, spatially and economically divided. Entrenched conditions and persistent biases undermine the policies and priorities that would heal lingering wounds.

So argues Catalina Freixas, assistant professor of architecture in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts. Last semester, Freixas and Mark Abbott, professor of history and director of the Center for Neighborhood Development at Harris-Stowe State University, launched “Segregation by Design.” Developed as part of The Divided City initiative, their class — which will be offered again next fall — explores both the historic roots and present-day reality of urban separation.

In this Q&A, Freixas discusses St. Louis, segregation and the hidden histories that shape our urban landscape.

You’re from Argentina but joined the Sam Fox School faculty in 2004. What drew you to the topic of American segregation?

My researc...

Carrying a racist legacy, highways today play a central role in civil rights activism

2016-07-13T12:59:00-04:00

Block a highway, and you upend the economic life of a city, as well as the spatial logic that has long allowed people to pass through them without encountering their poverty or problems. Block a highway, and you command a lot more attention than would a rally outside a church or city hall — from traffic helicopters, immobile commuters, alarmed officials.

The article notes that, historically, highway construction decimated black communities, such as in St. Paul, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Oakland, and many other cities. In New York, Robert Moses explicitly used highways to clear "slums," in the process devastating parts of the Bronx and other black neighborhoods.

Highways were also used as weapons in the arsenal of segregation. For example in Chicago, Mayor Richard Daley separated traditionally white Irish neighborhoods from black communities in the South Side with the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Today, highways carry additional symbolic weight for Black Lives Matter protestors. Many of the black men killed by police over the past few years – Philando Castile, for example – were stopped in routine traffic checks.

Infrastructure also has symbolic resonance in the larger history of the civil rights movement. The article mentions as examples the Selma March, the Freedom Rides, and Rosa Park's refusal to sit at the back of a public bus.

For more on th...

Anti-growth zoning codes exacerbate economic disparity, racial segregation

2016-07-07T13:15:00-04:00

To most people, zoning and land-use regulations might conjure up little more than images of late-night City Council meetings full of gadflies and minutiae. But these laws go a long way toward determining some fundamental aspects of life: what American neighborhoods look like, who gets to live where and what schools their children attend. And when zoning laws get out of hand, economists say, the damage to the American economy and society can be profound.

"Studies have shown that laws aimed at things like “maintaining neighborhood character” or limiting how many unrelated people can live together in the same house contribute to racial segregation and deeper class disparities. They also exacerbate inequality by restricting the housing supply in places where demand is greatest."

In related news:

The self-segregation of America's wealthiest class

2016-05-12T13:16:00-04:00

For years now, people have been talking about the insulated world of the top 1 percent of Americans, but the top 20 percent of the income distribution is also steadily separating itself — by geography and by education as well as by income. This self-segregation of a privileged fifth of the population is changing the American social order and the American political system, creating a self-perpetuating class at the top, which is ever more difficult to break into.

"Geographic segregation dovetails with the growing economic spread between the top 20 percent and the bottom 80 percent: The top quintile is, in effect, disengaging from everyone with lower incomes."

In related news:

The architectural vestiges of white supremacy

2016-02-09T17:46:00-05:00

The inequity built into The Lyric Theatre's very architecture is a painful reminder of [Birmingham's] ugly past as one of the most segregated places in America. But it also serves as a living history lesson [...] Across the South, people are struggling with similar questions: What does a changing region do with the vestiges of back-alley service windows, segregated waiting rooms, dual water fountains and abandoned schools that once formed the skeleton of a society built on oppression?

Wait long enough, and anywhere can become a dark tourism site. More from the tricky territory of architectural preservation:

Housing mobility vs. America's growing slum problem

2015-08-14T15:15:00-04:00

If America decides to take on its growing slum problem, people will need to think hard about how to do so. Mobility programs are proven to work for the families who move, but what happens to the neighborhoods that people leave? Can affordable-housing projects in low-income areas also help poor families succeed, or are they doomed to fail their residents, no matter how nice they are, because of where they are located?

Related on Archinect:

Another case of "poor door" for proposed Vancouver high-rise

2015-05-08T17:39:00-04:00

A new building in Vancouver's West End neighbourhood is getting some attention because of its segregated entrances for condo residents and those living in social housing units. The West End Neighbours community group says the market-priced condo units and social housing units for the 19-storey high-rise for 1171 Jervis Street will also be branded differently at the entrances and have separate amenities. The development permit was approved Monday by city staff.

With gentrification, the end of racial segregation moves into LA's Highland Park neighborhood

2015-03-23T14:16:00-04:00

For years, our family journeys have taken us from our hillside home, in the multiethnic Mount Washington district of northeast Los Angeles, into the flatlands of the Latino barrios that surround it. My wife, Virginia Espino, who is Mexican-American, knows these neighborhoods well, especially the community called Highland Park. [...] “I saw them all move out,” my wife said one day, referring to the neighborhood’s white residents. “And now I’m watching them move back in.”

The sudden rise & fall of Oregon's second largest city

2015-02-24T14:14:00-05:00

The mere utterance of Vanport was known to send shivers down the spines of "well-bred" Portlanders. Not because of any ghost story, or any calamitous disaster—that would come later—but because of raw, unabashed racism. Built in 110 days in 1942, Vanport was always meant to be a temporary housing project, a superficial solution to Portland’s wartime housing shortage. [...] In a few short years, Vanport went from being thought of as a wartime example of American innovation to a crime-laden slum.

h/t CityLab

Separate and unequal: The neighborhood gap for Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in metropolitan America

2011-08-02T17:42:06-04:00

It’s an ongoing debate in American society whether class or race is a stronger bond. A new study from the US2010 Project shows that race is still more determinant than class when it comes to where you live. The study found that in almost every measurement, the affluent black or Hispanic American in a household earning more than $75,000 lives in a poorer neighborhood than the average white or Asian American living in a household earning under $40,000.