Refer also to: Dollars are Democrats, Highest and Best Use- A Guiding Philosphy for Neo-Urbanist Designers Or Why Nimby'ites are Wrong to Oppose Higher Densities and Mixed Use and Catalysts For Urban Growth and Development- Promoting the Health of Cities

Introduction to Architecture and Urban Design- Modernist Urban Design and Spatial Apartheid

Notes for Students

1. 'Modernist' here refers to the 'City Beautiful' movement- the early 20th Century attempt to provide 'the little cabin in the woods' or 'the castle in the glen' for the masses.
2. It was a rational reaction to the concentration of tenements in NYC circa 1900.
3. There was a huge horse population, horse dung problem and a high accident rate between horse drawn transportation and pedestrians. There was excess density, substandard housing, lack of building, health and fire codes, tuberculosis and disease; this caused an anti-reaction to urban living.
4. Reaction carried too far in the 'City Beautiful' Movement and suburbanization (little cabin in the woods). Zoners and nimby'ites then segregate all uses and differentiate by income class and urban geography.
5. Inappropriate segregation of uses.
6. Absence of civic art in urban design.
7. Architects are producing designs and urban spaces lacking in charm, soul, density, affordable housing, public transportation and other amenities.
8. In Kanata, clotheslines contravene city by-laws.
9. Riverdale is an imaginary town where Archie, Vernonica, Jughead and Betty live and where kids can live next to the Pizza Pit. This is where my kids want to live when they grow up!
10. Kanata Lakes is a subdivision where it is 1.6 kilometres to the nearest shop from our home. Might as well be the moon from the point of view of little kids.
11. Taxes (development charges) on small homes, 'granny flats' and duplexes make it impossible to build affordable housing.
12. Zoning by-laws create spatial apartheid and a new form of segregation- segregation by income. 19th Century towns tended to mix folks from different income streams together so that teachers, gardeners, police officers, fire fighters could live close to or in the neighborhoods where they were expected to work. Folks could learn from proximity of one income class to another.
13. Property owners react negatively to almost any change in land use because of two primal motivations- greed and fear. They are fearful that any changes (eg., densification of the neighborhood) will lead to a decrease in their property values even though densification can lead to increases in value provided there is no breakdown in social order.
14. The reaction to modernist urban deign is neo urbanism.
15. New urbanists will win says Jane Jacobs.
16. New urbanism is the return to 19th century model of town design based on civic art and consensus and mixed use.
17. New urbanism is the search for catalysts and 'faery dust' to bring decrepit urban centres back to life.
18. Catalysts are- deregulation of zoning rules, zero side yard and front yard setbacks, basements, first and second storeys expressing themselves to the street: the 'window-on-the-world' opening of buildings to the street at grade, theatre of the street urban life, mixing of lofts, offices, shops, apartments, homes, theatres, entertainment districts and so forth, mixing of uses provided they meet health, building and fire codes (everything permitted except what is expressly forbidden instead of traditional zoning where everything is forbidden except what is expressly permitted). Anti-catalysts include- racism, crime, neglact, 'broken windows', trash, litter, suburban flight, lack of mass people mover (subway, light rail), single use zoning, horizontal workflow of tech companies (building out instead of up), density deficit, new economy industries, high tech high schools, jobs for youths, empowering young people, getting them to buy in, high school for the arts, educated immigrants changing the demographic profile, ...
19. Value can only be created where social order prevails.
20. Mayor Guiliani implements 'Broken Windows Syndrome' solution in NYC.
21. Police on the beat and out of their cars.
22. The spaces of the public room and quasi private/public spaces are treated with respect- graffiti removed, lamps repaired, fences mended, …
23. No tolerance for small acts that debase the public room. This alarms civil liberties advocates.
24. De-regulation allows organic growth of a city. Best cities are walking cities with mixed use- Paris, London, Tokyo, Sydney.
25. Other catalysts- property tax abatement, special federal tax jurisdiction (tariff-free zone, enterprise zone), abolition of development charges (eg., Mayor Holzman, Ottawa), sales tax holidays on building materials, civic presence (library), return to market gardening and farming in urban areas, urban forests and forest views, parks, theatre districts, entertainment districts, commons, fairgrounds, … the kernel around which the urban area will regenerate.
26. Virtually all economic growth since the discovery of agricultural cultivation has derived from the synergy that comes with the development of villages, towns and cities, says Jane Jacobs. City-state ecomomies are driving the national and global economy. Pre-conditions for economic take-off (to paraphrase Walt Rostow) of city-states include: rule of law, education, web enabled, high speed, broadband communications infrastructure, good government, absence of cronyism, civic order, meritocracy, mixed use, access to capital and public markets, adequate land inventory for growth, upward mobility, environmental protection, adequate and safe municipal services, affordable housing, sanctity of contracts, encouragement of the arts and culture, adequate density, strong branding and marketing of city to its residents and visitors, recreation facilities and quality of life issues, mass people mover, privatization and commercialization of services where appropriate to de-politicise decision making and improve efficiency.
27. Villages came about first because of security needs then synergy was derived from the application of specialization (Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage)- Ugh hunts antelopes, Nrd makes flint knives and Zll produces textiles (sewn animal skins). Trade between families results from their proximity in villages and later on between villages. There is a huge increase in well being from specialization and exploitation of comparative advantage.
28. Villages are first organized on the basis of protection. Then they become hierarchical and they are based on the FOB principal- 'Friends of the Boss' get the best locations.
29. Today, FOB means friends with the mayor, police chief, fire chief, …
30. Zoning creates artificial scarcity of land.
31. Beneficiaries are established (often large) land owners and sitting owners. Suivez l'argent. First time home buyers and renters are worse off.
32. Kanata prohibits work in the home with two or more employees.
33. Each am homeowners leave the suburb and bne (break and enter) specialists move in.
34. Kanata has huge rate of bne and vandalism- there is nothing for kids to do.
35. Work at home reduces travel time, increases block safety. It is better for the environment, makes double use of very expensive capital investments in homes and urban infrastructure.
36. Offices will still be needed for tribal gatherings, synergy, team work.
37. Cyberspace will have some impact here when people 'goggle' in to the metaverse (read Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash).
38. The development industry is constantly in conflict with public authority because so much is now prohibited by zoning by-laws and regulations.
39. Urban sprawl is what results from segregation of uses.
40. Everything requires a car trip to get to and from origins and destinations.
41. Land use should be determined by the highest and best use for each site. This is the DAD rule of land development- Dollars are Democrats. The DAD rule is the worst possible rule except for all the others, to paraphrase Winston Churchill.
42. Rules used for determining land use include hierarchical rules (village chief, first officers or nobility, townspeople, expendables), religious hierarchy, FOB (Friends of the Boss, eg., friends of police chief, mayor, fire chief, governor and so forth, get preferential treatment).
43. Urban sprawl results from the application of zoning rules and segregation of uses.
44. This spreads out all uses by separating offices from big box retailers from homes from schools from civic presence.
45. Urban sprawl and city growth are not synonymous.
46. They are often confused but growth at the fringe of a city can involve mixed use design and the application of new urbanist principles.
47. Urban growth is essential to produce innovation using a greenfield approach.
48. When governments act to prevent urban growth, they are aiming for the wrong target. Japan tried this by restricting the conversion of farmland to urban uses resulting in an explosion of land prices, a real estate bubble at the end of the 1980s, distortion in the entire Japanese economy and an implosion of that economy in the 1990s which continues to this day.
49. Urban growth is essential to a healthy economy.
50. Let the highest and best use rule apply- farmland is not a sacred trust and should be treated as any other economic input.
51. If the price of farmland rises because of scarcity and an increase in farm gate prices then the result will be the reuse of some urban lands for agriculture- the process will reverse. This is starting in some US cities where the price of urban land has become negative (eg., Detroit, South Bronx, South Central L.A.) and is actually being recycled as farmland.
52. The housing lifecycle is: the BIG house becomes a shared house (extended family), then it mutates to apartments, duplexes, triplexes before becoming a rooming house. Then a gentrification process takes place where it becomes a BIG house again either through renovation or teardown. The latter assumes that social order prevails.
53. There can be no value created in an urban context unless social order prevails (the Broken Windows Syndrome).
54. Land rents increase with increasing density despite what nimby'ites think - they are simply wrong.
55. This is the most fundamental curve in urban design.
56. Nimby-ites are wrong to reject density out of hand. Provided social order is maintained, adding in-home apartments or granny flats increase land rents and increase land values.
57. Construction of a large office building next to a residential area, for example, should increase the number of potential customers who want to purchase or rent those homes to be closer to work, all else being equal.
58. Land rents can be negative where social order has broken down. That is, the cost of maintaining the property and paying property taxes is greater than the annual rents possible in that location.
59. Deregulation of zoning rules should allow a city to densify.
60. North American cities are suffering from a density deficit- the City Beautiful movement has gone too far.
61. The ONLY way to revitalize North American cities is to bring people to live downtown.
62. Land that is vacant is worth more than land with a building on it because once a building is built, it forecloses on all future options for building on that site. This is similar to what happens when you buy an automobile- when it is driven off the dealer's lot, it loses 30% of its value because you have decided on all the options (eg., colour). A new purchaser will buy it from you but only at a reduced price because it represents a whole range of options that you have chosen instead of the future owner, even if it is only a day old.
63. The internet is needed to support an architectural practice including: design drawings, scheduling, billing and construction certification. What is going to happen to the profession in the era of the web- demands on architects in the bizarre world of municipal approvals and in the land of nimby'itis (not-in-my-back-yard syndrome) are up and fee-for-services is down. Why pay an architect $6,000 to design a new home when 100s of designs and working drawings are available over the web for $350?
64. The web is blowing everything to bits, to paraphrase a recent book title. If as a profession, we don't 'get the web', we're toast. Architects must learn that their practices are subject to the same rules as other entrepreneurs- their compensation is tied to the value they create and their productivity. They need to market their services and extend the 'franchise' in order to escape the vise that the profession is currently in. Architects must learn the difference between a J.O.B. and entrepreneurialist culture- an entrepreneur tries to create lasting value that is independent of the founder or individual practioner.
65. The web could be a huge boon to achitects. Architects will place their knowledge and portfolios on their personal web sites- all their Intellectual Property will be there and they must find ways to exploit their IP. The web may allow architects to sell their designs many times over- to use and reuse whole designs and parts of their work for many clients and customers. They can retain ownership and copyright of their IP and they may still be receiving royalties from their body of work even when they are relaxing on a beach. Architects have to figure out how to do this in order to counter current trends in the profession.
66. Architects must learn to justify their designs not only on the basis of costs but also on the basis of benefits. Over-reliance on costs means that architects are constantly being forced to cut- budgest and their fees too. If we can show that our designs increase benefits (whether measured in revenue dollars or, say, an increased visitor count for a museum), then we can generate increased value for our clients and customers and ourselves.
67. Robert Kaplan in his work, 'An Empire Wilderness', maintains that global economic and technological influences are undermining the nation-state.
68. While economic progress is related to healthy city-states, throwing away the nation-state would be a mistake.
69. This would represent the triumph of narrow, parochial, regionalist and ethnic interests over the sharing of risk and pooling of resources. Meaningful progress on glabal policies on polution, social policy, trade policy, peace keeping, science policy, disease prevention and much more will be retarded.

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