Archinect
anchor

Ephemeral City

Mason White

Debatable article in Metropolis this month:

Even at their best, places like Cleveland and Philadelphia will never be able to complete on a global scale with the likes of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Paris for the dollars of young professionals, the nomadic rich, and tourists. "There are simply not enough yuppies to go around," demographer William Frey says. These "cool city" wannabes are unlikely to be anything other than "me too" copies of hipper, more alluring places. It would make more sense for these cities to work on the basics--public safety, education, regulations, taxes, sanitation--so they could woo entrepreneurs and cost-conscious homeowners. The amenities will follow once there is a market to consume them.

and more:

A great city is more about clean and workable neighborhoods, thriving business districts, and functioning schools than massive cultural buildings or hipster lofts. Architects may prefer to design stunning museums or luxury high-rises, but they would do better to focus on middle-class housing, places for artisanal industry, family-friendly public spaces, and houses of worship both large and small.

read the entire article

Is this the Architect taking the profession back from the contractors? Or submitting to uninspired work / projects?

 
Apr 28, 05 12:21 am
driftwood

A thesis advisor recently told me:

"To solve the problems of [name of depressed, post-industrial, mid-west city], you need to solve the problems of America."

The question we need to ask is, "Should places like [name of depressed, post-industrial, mid-west city] be saved at all?"

Apr 28, 05 3:10 am  · 
 · 
Alan Loomis

Mason - I think this article is another chapter in the "creative cities" debate started by Richard Florida. (I've only scanned the Kotkin Metropolis article, but Kotkin's other writings has been critical of Florida's analysis, and the Michigan "cool cities" initative he references was inspired by R.Florida.) In their past three issues, Next American City has been running a series of articles around this theme.

I'm not sure how I would position this debate or article relative to the architecture profession...

Apr 28, 05 3:13 am  · 
 · 
oe


yea, thou I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil;
for thou art with me;








"Everything can collapse. Houses, bodies, and enemies collapse when their rhythm becomes deranged.

In large-scale strategy, when the enemy starts to collapse you must persue him without letting the chance go. If you fail to take advantage of your enemies' collapse, they may recover.

In single combat, the enemy sometimes loses timing and collapses. If you let this opportunity pass, he may recover and not be so negligent thereafter. Fix your eye on the enemy's collapse, and chase him, attacking so that you do not let him recover. You must do this. The chasing attack is with a strong spirit. You must utterly cut the enemy down so that he does not recover his position. You must understand utterly how to cut down the enemy."


that we might firmly grasp this opportunity, this weakness in space, to strike quickly into its belly, let the cubicles and cocktail parties spill out of the windows of office buildings and fall screaming into the streets.

Apr 28, 05 6:28 am  · 
 · 

not sure about collapsing enemies and throttling them when they're down, but Florida's point is that the whole concept of IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME simply doesn't work, so better to spend money on things that will have a real impact on quality of life.

Seems the ideas in his book are likely enough true and most objections are by conservatives who are afraid that the tolerance of gay people might actually indicate a chance for prosperity (if gay people are accepted then other flakes like architects and programmers will be accepted too, so the story goes; and then he pulls out the data that seems to support it)

The article in Metropolis appears to take both sides of Florida's argument; saying essentially that cultural buildings are not evidence of culture, but then pointing out that the demographics of cities pandering to the so-called creative class have skewed, and problematic, demographics. This latter point is a good one and resolving it would really mean solving the problems of the entire nation. Not likely to happen any time soon. And what can an architect do at that level anyway? new usonia maybe?

Apr 28, 05 8:11 am  · 
 · 
evilplatypus

Again the point is missed - industry and jobs make a city. Period. The city is a machine for the trade of commodities, goods and services. If this fails, the city fails. The rust belt cities' problem was their over-relianc of the Fordist production model. While it's demise was particularyly bad for large swaths of Chicago, it has survived because of economic diversity, research institutions and geographic location within the transportation network. That said, business makes the city, not planners. No amount of planning will change the fact that we dont need waterfalls to power spinning mills or to be within 100 miles of the farmers' fields.

Apr 28, 05 9:02 am  · 
 · 

ah, but mr platypus, what happens when business becomes less a matter of production in a shop and more about producing designs, making software, spinning information. What happens when a third of the jobs in america are creative based?

Industry in the old sense is gone or going fast, thanks in large part to Wal-Mart and and the new system of product pricing that they represent. And that means that the importance of proximity is changing. Not in the sense that globe-spanning technology makes it easy to tele-commute, but rather that the money making creative types of the emerging system want to live where they are comfortable, and they tend to congregate in great lumps.

So planners are taking the lesson from m. Florida that it is not the physical infrastructure that draws people to move to a new city, but rather the possibilities of a rewarding position and a stimulating environment; and apparently some of the signs of the right kind of atmosphere are a high gay population, cultural institutions, and so on.

Jobs do make the city, but what jobs? Florida talks about enticing the creative elite to cities through various incentives. The author of the metropolis article is saying that maybe just making it easier for gay people to live in the city isn't enough either.

But getting to your point, the planning profession in America is not the best, but even in its own bumbling way it has managed to radically change the way that we all live. Not on its own of course, and no one would ever say so, but it had a big impact. And while the spinning mills (not sure what ypur point is there at the end) may not be necessary to entice financial growth it would be foolish to assume that some other, equally ridiculous, element is not going to be the very thing that brings in a Microsoft-size company. In the modern city it is the social/cultural climate that attracts the creative people, and maybe they want to have a windmill to tilt.

btw, planning is still pretty important. and a city has never been a machine. That is the kind of thinking that the Fordist's caught messed up with way back when. If you want a better metaphor emergence is where it is REALLY at ;-)

Apr 28, 05 9:52 am  · 
 · 
CalebRichers

Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
by Steven Johnson

great intruduction to this new "science"

Apr 28, 05 10:07 am  · 
 · 
Mason White

The most interesting aspect of these arguable spark plugs for urbanism is that it suggests a shift from urban form to urban program.
There is more a focus on what activitty is built than on the idea of masterplanning axes, density, etc.

Though I think second-tier cities will always emulate the successes of first-tier, there is the possibility to invent regionally specific programs / events that lure future population. In a way, sports teams (hockey / baseball, etc) can have this effect. For example, the central location of a baseball stadium - and other associated programs - in Memphis has raised the cache of that city as its occupants flock downtown to that event. Whereas a city like Columbus, OH still struggles with a downtown culture, yet it also has a new stadium and team for hockey downtown. But it does not have the same draw.

Maybe the invention needed with this form of urbanism is invention for an evolution of otherwise drab programs: the parking lots, shopping centers, police / fire, puiblic schools.

Apr 28, 05 10:40 am  · 
 · 
Metropolis

is a second-tier magazine.

Apr 28, 05 3:47 pm  · 
 · 

really?

Apr 28, 05 6:02 pm  · 
 · 
evilplatypus

Jump - I want so bad to believe it but after the 90's I ve realized that model you speak of is more hype. It doesnt create the kind of economic multipliers needed to create a vibrent economic base in which a middle class can grow and thrive long term. I wouldnt call industry dead just yet - I believe "creative design" will hearold an industrial renaissance. A new industrial age based on bio and nano technologies. This factory could be the sterile factory where production occurs at the smallest levels rather than large. I poke at the planning proffesion because their visions of the future got us into this mess and I find it interesting that people seem to desire nieghborhoods created before "proper" planning principles were introduced.

Apr 28, 05 9:26 pm  · 
 · 
imagebytekid

Whilst we sit in our cubicles inside tower cubes, we imagine,we think, we create... We bend rigidity...a living city.

A site of thought, science, arts and literature...grows...no matter the articles of steel concrete and glass.
Metropism.

Apr 29, 05 12:37 am  · 
 · 
grasshopper

a little letter to the editor of metropolis:
image of katamari damacy's city
It's too bad you didn't use the Katamari Damacy image to illustrate the
Ephemeral Cities article. It succinctly, if not cynically, illustrates the
current trend of third-tier American cities' attempts to revitalize their
downtowns as entertainment districts. The rainbow in the image could
represent Florida's enigmatic "creative class" that these cities so
desperately desire for economic and cultural salvation. However, instead of
green pastures in the foreground, there should be sprawling McMansion
surburbs, excuse me--ex-urbs, and land-gobbling cloverleaf interstate
interchanges which look like the knots of a limited-access highway noose
choking the central city. Like any other trend, the "ephemeral city" is
suffering from the inevitable trickle-down effect, where action leads to
mimicry instead of innovation. I wish this reality only existed as a video
game. (Then we could gather up all of the bad ideas and throw them into the
night sky creating an astrology for all to regard.)

Apr 29, 05 4:48 pm  · 
 · 

I think florida's point is that there is NO point in mimicry of the cool and happening cities cause the things that attract the so-called creative class are not that easy to create by policy or built form. So the second and third tier cities will have to work f*cking hard to catch up if that is their aim. Or they can find their own thing and focus on that, which makes more sense to me. The fake gay towns are a joke, just about as dumb as New Urbanism.

Florida isn't offering a new urban typology. He's just saying the reasons for success of various places are perhaps not what we thought they were til now.

Apr 29, 05 7:50 pm  · 
 · 
imagebytekid

I think that if we appropriate a concept from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy in reference to grasshopper's post we might achieve something.
That is not taking the ideas away but taking the people with bad ideas away.
We'll put then up in a nice comfy spaceship and send the nowhere, which ends up being earth- pre man.

May 3, 05 11:59 pm  · 
 · 

I think this thread has gone the direction of setting up a straw-man conversation. As jump said, small cities probably do best to 'find their own thing and focus on that' (though I think this is already happening). Playing catch-up is just misguided. I understand the goals of mayors and chambers of commerce, but would WE really want our smaller, more unique, regional cities to be enough like SF, Chicago, NY, etc. to 'compete'?

In Louisville we've got plenty of young professionals, nomadic rich, and tourists to complement the size of our city. We also still have a variety of thriving neighborhood cultures, some based on ethnicity, some based on location in the city, others based on proximity to small scale industry, churches, preservation districts. And we've got things others don't: a city-wide parks system by the Olmsteds, the Falls of the Ohio, Maker's Mark, the Kentucky Derby (this week!), etc.

Mason's posting of the second excerpt is helpful:

"A great city is more about clean and workable neighborhoods, thriving business districts, and functioning schools than massive cultural buildings or hipster lofts. Architects may prefer to design stunning museums or luxury high-rises, but they would do better to focus on middle-class housing, places for artisanal industry, family-friendly public spaces, and houses of worship both large and small."

So Louisville's a great city after all...

May 4, 05 7:26 am  · 
 · 

An image of the Barry Le Va exhibition just at the Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art is on the cover of this month's Art in America. I found Le Va's work and approach especially interesting because he began his college education studying architecture, but after a year switched over to studying art/sculpture. His knowledge and dexterity of/in draftsmanship remains an integral component of his operations. It's indeed interesting to see how draftsmanship even often <i>informs</i> his work.It's like the architect in Le Va is much more than just ephemerally there. There's a worthwhile article--"Refiguring Barry Le Va"--by Nancy Princenthal inside the magazine as well.

Also in Art in America May 2005 is "Dalí in Duchamp-Land" by Charles Stuckey, which clearly demonstrates that the relationship between Dalí and Duchamp is also more than just ephemeral. Imagine that, Philadelphia as Duchamp-Land--a virtual tour begins here and ends here--a great place to play hooky.

Just a reminder, the azaleas are presently in full bloom again at the Japanese House.

May 4, 05 10:29 am  · 
 · 
imagebytekid

Can we use a term rather than ephemeral Rita?
Dali in Duchamp- Land sounds great though...
(imagines a city of goose necked giant urinals, bottle stands, cracked glass and good conversation:)

May 4, 05 9:44 pm  · 
 · 

That is so creatively funny! Alas, will Disney or Las Vegas ever come to reenact that? "Time is fleeting. Madness takes its toll."

May 5, 05 10:03 am  · 
 · 
e909
"Fix your eye on the enemy's collapse, and chase him, attacking so that you do not let him recover. You must do this. The chasing attack is with a strong spirit. You must utterly cut the enemy down so that he does not recover his position. You must understand utterly how to cut down the enemy."

Really, that sounds like Larry Ellison, but
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Everything+can+collapse%2E+Houses%2C+bodies%2C+and+enemies+collapse

May 17, 05 8:05 pm  · 
 · 
e909

teh exploding topic
http://www.theboxtank.com/walmartbox/2005/05/

May 17, 05 8:07 pm  · 
 · 
e909

i thought it was the contractors and RE Agents who were pushing the "hipster [pseudo] lofts" in SF (late 90's at least).

I've never noticed a shortage of houses of worship both large and small. Most appear unederutilized during weekdays, except teh few that have adjoining child care or school.

May 17, 05 8:48 pm  · 
 · 
e909
places like Cleveland and Philadelphia will never be able to complete on a global scale with the likes of San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, and Paris for the dollars of young professionals, the nomadic rich, and tourists

"compete"? don't those old cities often have port areas? baltimore's is semi-famous.

how many visitors to st louis's arch are/aren't enough?

so no one should pay money for a single engine cessna, because it will never "compete" with an airbus?

May 17, 05 8:53 pm  · 
 · 
e909
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/05/08/INGFACJGS51.DTL&type=printable

The ephemeral city / San Francisco has lost its middle class, become a 'theme park for restaurants,' and is the playground of the nomadic rich and restless leeches living off them


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/10/EDGP7CLHBQ1.DTL
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/05/12/DDG0MCN1RE1.DTL
The city isn't Disneyland -- that's just goofy


here:
http://archinect.com/links/detail.php?id=18949_0_26_0_C
Archinect : Links : Joel Kotkin

May 17, 05 8:54 pm  · 
 · 
e909

it appears jk may label many cities as examples of a tourism city never to be emulated, yet elsewhere label them as examples of that nasty 'ephemeral[ism]'.
http://www.joelkotkin.com/Commentary/SDUT%20San%20Diego%20the%20Ephemeral%20city.htm
JoelKotkin.com - San Diego, the 'Ephemeral city'

publish or perish!

May 17, 05 8:58 pm  · 
 · 
e909

btw, re: success of the gay diaspora.
it worked for a few cities, because the most energetic migrated to where conditions are good. (just as the most energetic Chinese, Mexicans, etc migrated to some US cities, Singapore, etc) Once many cities try to attract 'the best and brightest' (of any niche), the 'the best and brightest' become dilute.

So, JK is correct in general, in that each early bird city caught their worm. (niche windfall) :-)
I doubt any of those cities planned or invited their now-famous niche success, because successes have only been recognized (defined) in hindsight.

May 17, 05 9:09 pm  · 
 · 
e909
The question we need to ask is, "Should places like [name of depressed, post-industrial, mid-west city] be saved at all?"

And what does "saving" places like [name of depressed, post-industrial, mid-west city] actually mean?

May 17, 05 9:12 pm  · 
 · 
e909
Metropism

... Metropie, metropia; metropy. Metrorrhagie, metrorrhagia. Metyrapon, metyrapone.
Metz* Zählkammer, Metz's cell counter ...
www.hexal.de/subdomains/ englisch-woerterbuch-medizin/index.php?sprache=D&letter=M

May 17, 05 9:20 pm  · 
 · 

Block this user


Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?

Archinect


This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.

  • ×Search in: