Last week Andres Duany suggested that there was a disciplinary coup underway at GSD. The venerable Urban Design program was to be/had been eliminated or replaced replaced by Landscape Urbanism. Alex Krieger of the GSD has now responded. Krieger writes that perhaps Duany is really bothered by more parochial concerns.
Last week Andres Duany suggested that there was a disciplinary coup underway at GSD. The venerable Urban Design program was to be/had been eliminated or replaced replaced by Landscape Urbanism. Alex Krieger of the GSD has now responded. Krieger writes that perhaps Duany is really bothered by more parochial concerns.
He writes: I suspect Andres’ postulating a nefarious ‘coup’ at Harvard, in which Urban Design is erased in favor of something called Ecological Urbanism, is actually a cover for a personal worry that the term Landscape Urbanism will soon supplant New Urbanism amongst the purveyors of design sloganeering.
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Yes. “Landscape Urbanism was specifically meant to provide an intellectual and practical alternative to the hegemony of the New Urbanism.”
Here is a segment from a text I have written and read at a panel with Bryan Finoki and Geoff Manaugh last September on Future of Urbanism.
"We are not here to debate terminology or come up with phrases such as, triple new urbanism, post-urbanism, super-urbanism, fresh food urbanism, narcissistic urbanism, tomato farm urbanism, fast urbanism (although I like this one) hyper-city-super-freaky-extra-urbanism... there.. you can’t beat that.."
I brought this up for exact reasons to lampoon for what is going on in these type of territorialist discussions.. These people are like capricious bitches.
@Orhan Ayyuce, Where is the "like" button?
In graduate school, all the way back in 2005, there were classes offered at called Landscape Urbanism. Unfortunately, curiosity got the best of me and I registered for the studio. It was the biggest waste of time.
pardon the grammar.....correction.
"In graduate school, all the way back in 2005, there were classes offered called Landscape Urbanism. Unfortunately, curiosity got the best of me and I registered for the studio. It was the biggest waste of time."
blast from the past:
21Ronin - "way back in 2005"?
actually, "there were classes offered called Landscape Urbanism" in like 2000, if not '98 or '99.
Side note: anybody know where to get ahold of this "unpublished essay" called Tire in the Park? Is "unpublished essay" the current term of art for "ranty email"?
New Urbanism as a theory, a clique, movement, doctrine, whatever you want to call it has not achieved anything of significance in the decades it has been active since Duany Plater-Zybrek and company first broke ground at Seaside, FL during the 80's. Meaning that they have never really proposed anything that really addresses alternatives to the sprawl society we have in the states. The main focus of their work is to rewrite zoning codes into the most restrictive and totalitarian way possible to control every single built element in the victim city for years to come. Thankfully the government in the City of Miami who had hired these totalitarians to rewrite the whole zoning code of Miami for future growth fell apart and budget cuts have forced the plan to the shelves, and hopefully to the dustbin forever. Thiers is actually an insidious attack on personal liberty individuality and everything the city and urbanism are about.
There is not one 'real urban' project of note among any of their disciples or graduates from their program at University of Miami. In fact Seaside was a huge environmental pillaging of beautiful unspoiled coast just so a bunch of WASP-y elitists can pretend they live in grovers corners USA. It is a 'head in the sand' solution for the wealthy and that’s it. Their most recent work at the 'Three Fillies Farm' in Miami was another ecological travesty, taking unspoiled farmland in the heart of Miami and make it into some WASP-y version of the Bahamas or whatever quasi Latin American Colonial pastiche was in vogue that year.
A more apt description of their work would be "New Sub-Urbanism".
LOL, 765! In those terms, I compose an "unpublished essay" every morning in the shower!
Also, Krieger's response was a fun read, and I agree with his assertion that this whole "swirling" debate is fun to watch, too. I'm just glad that, as a lowly practitioner, I don't have a dog in this fight!
@squaresville - I think, to be fair, New Urbanism has had a more positive measurable effect through its influence than through its signature projects. Seaside and Celebration and many of the others may be questionable from a land use perspective, but important as case studies to apply principles to other, more complex and less photogenic projects.
@Donna - we all have horses in the race!
@squaresville-- I'd actually consider "Landscape Urbanism" to be the "New Suburbanism."
There's two main differences between New Urbanism and Landscape Urbanism.
Landscape Urbanism accepts that the market forces present (demand, preference and actual use) are the unchangeable fact. Rather than create the framework (legal policy, i.e. land use codes) to change that, Landscape Urbanism addresses the problem of the city through massive infrastructural projects.
New Urbanism accepts that cultural preferences present (preference, 'traditionalism' and actual use) are the unchangeable fact. Rather than change cultural norms directly, New Urbanism addresses the problem of the city through massive infrastructural projects to reorganize market forces.
But when it comes down to either-- the fact is that both of them require significant amounts of public funding to achieve their desired goals. If New Urbanism cannot be afforded, neither can Landscape Urbanism.
The only real difference between the two is that Landscape Urbanism proposes to be heavily subsidized through private business interests.
It should take note that in New Urbanists projects, private business interests often corrupt the whole intent of New Urbanist projects through manipulation of the idea of public spaces and eliminating 'unsavory' choices.
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