Abstracts – Monday, June 9, 2014 – International Making Cities Livable

Richard Jackson will address the thorny issue of health inequality as it relates to the built environment. Poor neighborhoods are associated with lower levels of physical and mental health, and increased levels of crime. The problems are often exacerbated, if not caused by aspects of the built environment – land use, transportation planning, urban design, architecture and the design of public spaces. Dr. Jackson will identify how single function zoning that separates functions of everyday life, requiring trips to be made by car; schools located far from their communities; dangerous traffic, unsafe streets and lack of bike lanes, food- and park-deserts disproportionately impact poor neighborhoods. He will stress the urgency to act immediately to change planning practices and promote healthy places to stop the downward spiral of health issues in poor neighborhoods and reinstate these population groups as healthy and productive members of society.

Shaping the Healthy City for All – Suzanne H. Crowhurst Lennard, Portland, OR

Dr. Crowhurst Lennard will clarify the two value systems that guide city development, and how differently they shape urban form and affect population health. She will discuss how the design of the built environment can contribute to the positive health and well-being of neighborhoods, and affect different population groups. A compact, human-scale, mixed-use urban fabric can bring shops, schools, services and many jobs within walking/baking distance of home, facilitating a healthier lifestyle. It also makes possible a public transit system for longer journeys and access to cultural resources. Architectural design (form, scale, façade design) can make the public realm hospitable, facilitate social life on the street, increase personal health and well-being, and deter crime. The design of streets can facilitate active living, child development and independence and counteract social isolation among elders. The design of public gathering places (squares) can facilitate community and bolster the “social immune system”. Dr. Lennard will emphasize the need to assess every planning, urban design, architecture and urban space design decision as to its impact on health and well-being.

Building a Healthy City Center: Carmel, IN – Mayor James Brainard, Carmel, IN

Mayor James Brainard will discuss how the transportation planning, bike and pedestrian routes, and design of new urban fabric, urban places and green spaces are improving the health and well-being of Carmel’s population. Mayor Brainard has spearheaded significant beautification, greenspace, and economic development projects, including the development of the new human-scale traditional, mixed-use Old Town Arts & Design District at Carmel’s historic center, and creation of a true downtown, known as Carmel City Center, which focuses on the new Regional Performing Arts Center. He has implemented numerous environmental initiatives, such as the construction of more than 80 roundabout intersections, calming traffic and reducing vehicle emissions.

Making Bristol Healthy for All – Mayor George Ferguson, Bristol, UK

Mayor Ferguson will talk about the initiatives he is launching and promoting aimed at making Bristol a healthier city for all. “George’s Ideas Lab,” is a website for citizens to submit their ideas for improving the city. He implemented Make Sundays Special whereby downtown Bristol is closed to cars on Sundays and the streets are filled instead with markets, entertainers, and children’s activities. He launched “Vision for Bristol,” an ambitious agenda with programs to improve health, education, transportation (walking, biking, and public transport), placemaking, public participation and citizen empowerment, and promoting sustainability internationally. He plans to rebuild a large swath of human-scale mixed-use urban fabric in the city center, create a new Barcelona-style boulevard, and 'out-Copenhagen Copenhagen'. Bristol has been named the European Green Capital for 2015.

HAPPY CITY – Charles Montgomery, Vancouver, BC, CANADA

Charles Montgomery’s recent book, Happy City (2013) examines the intersection between urban design and the emerging science of happiness. Incorporating recent findings from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, urban planning, and social experimentation, the book makes the case that by retrofitting our cities for happiness we can tackle the urgent challenges of a rapidly urbanizing and environmentally challenged world. Montgomery emphasizes “… cities must be regarded as more than engines of wealth; they must be viewed as systems that should be shaped to improve human well-being.” He concludes “Most of all, [the city] should enable us to build and strengthen the bonds between friends, families, and strangers that give life meaning, bonds that represent the city’s greatest achievement and opportunity.”

Concurrent Sessions

Advancing a National Walking Movement – Scott Bricker, Portland, OR

Walking is one of the earliest defining human traits, evolving over 4 million years ago and despite decades of engineering, marketing and development efforts to make walking obsolete, a new American consciousness about walking is emerging. This consciousness has sparked grassroots groups across the country to push for safe walking environments and begin changing the development patterns that put automobile travel at the center of our lives.

This paper provides a snapshot of the growing movement and speculates on some of the key forces behind the increase interests in walking and walkability. The paper also highlights national walking opportunities that have the potential to significantly alter who and how much we walk, including such actions as proposed US Surgeon General’s Call to Action on Walking.

It might be best to start by asking why an interest in walking, a rather primitive form of mobility, when we live in an age where great technological and scientific advances happen almost daily.

Perhaps the most important reason is that the human body is made to walk. There is almost nothing that we can do for our own personal health that creates more benefit than walking. Walking is the most accessible and widely available free intervention to increase physical activity and baseline health. As such, health coalitions are one of the fastest growing allies. Others include municipal leaders and small businesses.

Nature’s Mode: Reframing Walkability as Transportation – Rick Phillips, Emeryville, CA

In previous IMCL presentations and papers, the author has explored the phenomenon of “walkability” at many scales, distinguishing the vital role of walking in any comprehensive network of multimodal transportation. Papers have featured Salt Lake City’s innovative Downtown Transportation Master Plan – a plan based on principles of walkability and Smart Growth, speculated on the possible scale and extent of “walkable regions”, and looked at walkability in traditional suburbia, seeing positive signs in hot, auto-centric Phoenix, Arizona.

In all of these examples, walkability is the one constant – in the realm of public transportation, every journey without exception begins and ends on foot, or by some other means of human-powered locomotion. While embracing its value, we tend to think of walking as a way to get to and from public transportation, but not as transportation itself. What if we considered walking as a transportation mode, equivalent to bus, trolley, train, or car? What would then be possible?

Reframing walkability as public transportation is the subject of this paper. The exploration takes two directions: technical – grounding walkability in the classic modal distinctions of “vehicle”, “path”, and “trip”; and political – building a case that enfolding walkability within public transportation is essential to generating the commitments and investments necessary to ensure walkability’s long-term sustainability.

There is something vital at stake here! We take for granted investing in highways and, increasingly, in multimodal transportation. The same cannot be said for walkability, at least not yet. Reframing is all about context. In causing transformation, context is decisive.

Promoting Health Equity through Community Based Participatory Research – Eileen M. Brennan, Portland, OR

As part of an effort to promote social sustainability in the Portland Metropolitan area, community members, research faculty and students have established the Community Partnership for Health and Equity (CPHE). The partnership has focused on the transformation of communities through initiatives that build capacity and increase access to resources (Sen, 1999; 2009). This presentation will discuss the current efforts of CPHE to enhance health equity for residents of Cornelius, Oregon using a Community Based Participatory Research approach (Wallerstein & Duran, 2010) in collaboration with Virginia Garcia Wellness Center. Responding to community priorities, co-learning projects are shaping health promotion interventions through community input gathered in English and Spanish. Residents living on low incomes have participated in focus groups using popular education methods and research team members have held intensive interviews with health care providers, community leaders, and community members. Using a grounded theory approach to analyze transcripts, we have identified key aspects of health equity improvement for the community: the holistic view of health held by residents, their need for additional access to healthy food, the acceptability of community gardening as a health promotion activity, and their openness to having community health workers provide learning opportunities though popular education. Lessons learned from this process and recommendations regarding the use of community based participatory methods to build community capacity will be discussed.

“Through Their Eyes” – Intergenerational Projects to Generate Community Participation and Make Neighborhoods Healthy for All – Paula Gardner, St. Catharines, ON, CANADA

Using a service learning approach, the purpose of these projects is to partner university students studying public health with older adults in their communities in order to examine “through their eyes” the age-friendliness of their shared neighborhoods.

Students are matched with older adults through local senior’s organizations and seniors homes. Using the “go along” interview (a qualitative method that combines in-depth interviewing with participant observation) these ‘intergenerational teams’ work collaboratively to assess the age-friendliness of local neighborhoods. Data is co-produced and includes photographs, audio recordings and field notes. In accordance with service learning principles, students are additionally required to reflect on their experiences in three key areas: Personal growth, civic engagement, and academic enhancement.

Findings from the research teams are creatively reported on a project website. At the end of the term students and seniors host a knowledge translation event to discuss their findings, share their experiences and present their final products (e.g., video, photo essay) to university administrators, community partner organizations and municipal policy makers.

In this presentation examples of these projects will be shared, how-to processes including obtaining ethics and funding for this kind of work discussed, and ways in which “Through Their Eyes” projects facilitate community participation, and promote healthy communities for all identified.

Building Academia-Community-Government Partnerships for Civic Engagement and Sustainability – Dayana Salazar and Hilary Nixon, San Jose, CA

In this article we will document CommUniverCity, a unique community-higher education-government partnership that engages underserved, largely immigrant neighborhoods to collaborate with San José State University (SJSU) faculty and students in addressing community development priorities identified by residents of the neighborhoods. Each year students, faculty and residents invest more than 35,000 hours in service to the community. While sustainability and social justice lie at the heart of all CommUniverCity’s projects, we will highlight Growing Sustainably, a project that engages residents of all ages, SJSU faculty and students, community based organizations and local government staff in collaborative efforts to create a self-sustaining neighborhood food system in low-income neighborhoods in central San José, California. Community residents and SJSU students engage in education workshops on organic gardening and healthy food preparation. They also participate in gleans (“piscas”) to collect an average of 500 pounds of surplus fruits and vegetables per month and distribute them to families in need in the neighborhood, and an annual community fair with workshops and activities focused on growing and consuming healthy food. CommUniverCity has also led successful efforts to change land use policies in order to facilitate food production in urban lands in San José, the 10th largest city in the U.S.

We will conclude with a discussion on the potential to replicate this partnership model in other locales where government, higher education and grassroots groups are interested in adopting a multi-sector collaborative approach to community engagement and sustainability.

The Last Tram Stop – Peter Sarlos, New South Wales, AUSTRALIA

Lane Cove is a suburb of Sydney that developed during the late 19th and early 20th century. The heart of the suburb developed around former tram terminal that was surrounded by a retail strip mall with schools, community facilities and churches adjacent. The end of tram services in 1958 coupled with the development of an arterial road network fractured the Lane Cove community undermining the sustainability of the centre resulting in the gradual decay of the retail and commercial infrastructure.

Community action in the early 1980’s resulted in the gifting of a bandstand by notable local residents to be located in a street plaza stimulating the 1st suburban street plaza in Sydney. Over time from its 1st iteration in the early 1980’s the plaza has developed into a vibrant the community centre enjoyed by a representative cross section of the whole of the community. It has become the self-sustaining economic, social and community centre for the suburban village providing retail, commercial and service hub for the community it serves. It operates in this manner from early morning into the late evening, used by different groups – on the way to work and school, mothers with toddlers, seniors, children, family dinners – progressively throughout the day supported by regular civic and community activities.

What are the secrets of its success?

Why is it one of the most successful of street plazas?

What can we learn from the facts of its growth and its sustainability?

This paper tries to answer these questions.

Prototypes of Commercial Activity and the Public Realm? – Elke Schlack Fuhrman, Santiago, CHILE

The market place is the arquetype of public space and commercial exchange. It is a place that along the history of the European culture was shared by buyers and shopkeeper, who initially were strangers to each other. Bahrdt (1969, 1979) reflects about this condition of open social network and the given opportunity that people establish relationships that transcend the mere market activity. In the city we find diverse types of commercial activity: they are se destined to different publics, configure diverse social dynamics and differentiate by the way they transcend the mere function of commercial exchange and adopt more than that: social and political functions (Wehrheim 2007).

The research presented in this paper finds that commercial streets and squares could be more or less vital for public life depending on the way they are administrated, by whom they are owned and which design decisions they take about the usability of the place. Through three case studies, a self-organized traditional market place, a communitarian commercial place in down town and the centrally planned shopping centre the study reflects if and how these places facilitate social interaction.

This endeavor about urban space design is funded by the Chilean National Council for Science and Technology and refers to local expressions of urban spaces. Thus, it focuses on physical characteristics of space, programmatic aspects and the symbolic means of certain physical and programmatic decisions that was taken by their owners and operators that also are means as global prototypes of commercial activities in urban spaces.

Room to Breathe: Parks, Plazas, and People of Shanghai – David Sachs, Manhattan, KS

This paper is based on observations from a 6-month stay in Shanghai in 2008. I spent much of my free time wandering in and photographing Shanghai’s public spaces. I was intrigued and mesmerized by what I saw. I was particularly drawn to public parks and plazas where I could see the drama of life play out in full view.

The paper will provide a vividly illustrated overview of the city’s ever growing collection of open spaces, and will offer a testament to the value of these spaces to the people of the rapidly expanding metropolis. It will provide a brief overview of the growth and evolution of spaces studied. Some of the spaces date back many centuries, and have histories that are deeply intertwined with the tumultuous events that have defined the city, others are of recent origin, and are part of a deliberate effort to accommodate a diverse and rapidly growing population.

The bulk of the presentation will illustrate the various ways the spaces are being used. The spaces serve different types of people, at all stages of life, engaged in a wide variety of activities. Some of the activities have been anticipated and programmed by the planners of the spaces, others are more spontaneous and illustrate a creative and unexpected appropriation of the public realm. What will become clear is that, for a variety of reasons, the city’s public spaces play an important role in the daily lives of the people of Shanghai.

Creating Neighborhood Health: Integrating Play Street, Singing Home Zone, and Dancing Square – Felia Srinaga, Jakarta, INDONESIA

The rapid development of the city, often neglect the city center. Many large cities, particularly in Southeast Asia experienced degradation of old part of the city, including Jakarta. The buildings become dirty, the streets are neglected and the density of the buildings no longer leaves room to breathe. While the development in a satellite or a new town or suburban has experienced sprawl growth to pursue the progress of the city.

In Jakarta, the problem is there are many vibrant urban “kampong”, but in contrast the economic and environmental health are deteriorated. Following the progress of urban development in Jakarta, some areas in central developed without leaving their own identity, but some are lost or even leaving them with poor and unhealthy conditions. Then again, the development of single function zoning or super-block at new town create auto-dominated zone that lacking of pedestrian, streetscape and opened-public places for people to socialize, play and retreat. The development of healthy neighborhood are not only in physical and economical, but also the socio-cultural and the diversity of land use.

This paper will discuss how to improve settlement both in old central and new town of Jakarta. By looking at two best precedents – lively and sustainable high density neighborhood – in Seoul and Gamcheon culture village, Busan at Korea, we can see how sprawl of Jakarta can be reshaped. Both central urban and suburban of Jakarta can be created into healthy, lively, walkable and sociable mix-used environments that forces playing street, singing home zones and dancing square.

Urban Vibrancy – Antonio Gomez-Palacio, Toronto, CANADA

Cities, campuses, neighbourhoods, developments, continue to strive for an elusive vision of ‘animation’ and ‘vibrancy’ as a both an indicator and trigger of success. Yet, most fail in this attempt. Why? What is the secret sauce behind the vision?

Urban Vibrancy describes the unique animated places in our cities and towns where people come together and engage each other. These places function as the ‘heart and soul’ of the community, and witness the overlap of day-to-day activities – such as working, shopping, playing, eating, and studying – at different times of the day, week, and year.

Urban Vibrancy is achieved differently in every context, and is a product of its cultural, social, economic, political, and physical environment. It can be observed in many different types and combinations of urban spaces: exterior (i.e. streets, squares, parks), interior (i.e. shops, schools, community centres), big (large plazas), and small (alleyways).

Urban Vibrancy is an essential component of placemaking and city-building. It plays a central role in the development, creation, and maintenance of successful and resilient social, cultural, environmental, and economic initiatives.

Using national examples, the session will explore the essential ingredients of designing/planning for Urban Vibrancy, including:… achieving a critical population … walkable … a focus of planned AND spontaneous activity … diverse … welcoming and safe … creative and authentic.

Two-Way Street Conversion: Evidence of Increased Livability in Louisville – John Gilderbloom, Louisville, KY

Over the last 100 years street design in the US has focused on auto mobility. Cars have become the predominant mode of transportation being designed to facilitate rapid movement. While recent moves toward ‘complete streets’ policy throughout the country have allowed for more dollars to flow toward bicycle and pedestrian oriented projects, many streets are still plagued by unsafe conditions. This is especially the case for multi-lane one-way streets, which some studies show as creating unsafe crossing conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. This study evaluates the changes to street dynamics after a two/three way-way street conversion in Louisville, KY. We find that traffic flow increased after implementation of the two-way flow, but traffic accidents decreased, property values increased, small business climate improved and, most surprisingly a decrease in crime. We also see other ancillary benefits such as increases in property values above the norm and reduced crime. This provides support for expanded thinking about how two-way street conversions have the ability to reshape cities and promote mobility, safety and economic resilience. Our greatest urban thinkers from Jane Jacobs to Andres Duany have recognized the destructiveness of the multi-lane one-way street. Yet beyond theory, we are unaware of any studies that ever been done a detailed empirical examination of what happens when multi-lane one-way streets are converted to calmer two-way.

Making Cities LAST – Jassen Callender, Jackson, MS

Sustainable urban development and ecologically responsible inhabitation are largely conceived as synonyms and generally acknowledged as meaningful aspirations. Yet there is little consensus as to what constitutes either. This paper will elucidate a metric of ‘ecologically responsible inhabitation’ based on its most essential components: Lifecycle, Aesthetics, Scales, and Technologies.

Lifecycle is perhaps the easiest to understand but is necessary to acknowledge because it appears to run counter to the recycling and temporary/touch-the-ground-lightly rhetoric so much in vogue. Every recycling or installation-deinstallation-reinstallation cycle consumes resources. While we cannot hope to build buildings and other infrastructure that will last forever, we can aim to reduce the frequency of the cycles of consumption.

Aesthetics is more difficult to understand than lifecyle but arguably more important. Aesthetics are not simply visual principles or proportions; it is the category of values we accord seemingly non-instrumental sensory pleasures. These are not self-indulgences. Auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory pleasures serve duel functions that foster sustainability – inspiring people to maintain their built environment and to gather in dense communities.

Scales (intentionally plural) refers to interrelated issues of land use, material and mobility economies, and density.

Technologies, finally, are useful to the extent these allow us to maximize the resilience afforded by intelligent decisions regarding lifecycle, aesthetics, and scales without undermining any of these core components. Technologies that will last, attached to buildings and infrastructure with significant lifespan, designed to enrich sensual experience, and planned to minimize waste of the land, offer us the chance of developing ecologically responsible inhabitation.

Background Architecture: Weaving Meaningful Threads into the Urban Fabric – Kyle Campbell, Cincinnati, OH

Urban America is ubiquitously bland, a series of carbon-copy cities with a few distinguishing landmarks. Good architecture exists, but context, innovation and thoughtfulness are reserved only for signature, foreground buildings. While these foreground buildings serve to distinguish a place, the greater urban fabric serves to define a place. This realm, which shall be called background architecture, carries much of our identity upon its shoulders. It represents our homes, our favorite cafes and our go-to shops. Yet, the background is relegated to developers who design based upon business models of efficiency and profit margins. Universally applied, these models result in universally dull cities, which is why one could scarcely tell the difference between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky. Nikolaus Pevsner wrote, “A bicycle shed is a building; Lincoln Cathedral is a piece of architecture.” Background buildings, particularly in the urban realm, are not bicycle sheds, but they are designed as such. They certainly should not be Lincoln Cathedrals, but as bicycle sheds they are not serving society. Rather, they should be composed, responsive to context and contribute to defining a sense of place. Pevsner’s dichotomy drives globalized design and results in standalone architectural islands within a sea of bicycle sheds. This paper focuses on design principles leading to meaningful threads of urban fabric between the bicycle shed and Lincoln Cathedral. Such architecture has the power to transform Pevsner’s quote to read: “A bicycle shed is a building; a background building is a piece of architecture; Lincoln Cathedral is a masterpiece.”

Columbus, IN: Continuing to Create a Better Community with Innovative Modern Architecture – Steven R. Risting, Indianapolis, IN

Columbus, a small Indiana city, is world renowned for its modern architecture, created by some of the world’s most prominent architects in the youth of their careers, including Eero Saarinen, Harry Weese, Robert Venturi, Kevin Roche, Gunnar Birkerts, I.M. Pei, and Richard Meier.

Inspired by the leadership of J. Irwin Miller, other community leaders and the unique Cummins Foundation Architecture Program, Columbus embraced the idea of designing modern buildings with young upcoming architects to create the best community of its size, to recruit and retain the best and brightest employees, and create better places to LIVE, WORK, PLAY, LEARN and WORSHIP.

As a practicing architect, I have had the opportunity to create or collaborate on several innovative designs for this community, especially a part of the recent downtown redevelopment initiative accomplished with a significant public-private partnership. I have also organized a national AIA Committee on Design conference in Columbus, completed a book on the modern architecture and art of Columbus, and continue to actively participate on the board of the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives.

This paper and presentation will focus on the value and strategy that innovative modern architectural design approach that has contributed to continue to make Columbus, Indiana a better community, and challenge other communities to do something similar.

Evidence-Based Public Health Impacts of the Built Environment – Glen Johnson, Bronx, NY

If the lack of safe residential walkability increases car-dependence, does this translate to increased risk of serious injury as an occupant in a motor vehicle traffic accident? In a highly walkable urban environment, does inequitable access to healthy food sources increase dietary health risks? The intuitive response to questions like these is typically “Yes, there is an association.” However, there is typically very limited or no quantitative evidence to actually support these claims.

A rich source of evidence can be created by combining GIS-based measurements of walkability with either administrative or clinical health databases. The appropriate combination of biostatistics and geospatial statistics can then be applied to objectively derive quantitative evidence to help support or refute public health impacts of different aspects of the built environment.

Evidence will be presented from eleven years of New York State records for both deaths and non-lethal hospital discharges, which shows the risk of serious injury to children (28 days to 18 years old) as occupants of a motor vehicle involved in a traffic accident increases in a statistically significant association with decreasing walkability of the child’s residential area.

Evidence will also be presented from a clinical database of a large New York City hospital that shows statistically increased risk of maternal anemia for low-income pregnant women in the Bronx who live more than a quarter mile of street network distance from a healthy food source. Other obstetric outcomes that do not reveal this relationship will also be shared.

Healthy Urban Planning through Intersectoral Action: Introduction to Concepts and Examples from Four WHO Case Studies – Suvi Huikuri, Kobe, JAPAN

Urbanization has contributed to the increase of noncommunicable diseases and health inequities worldwide. People living densely in a restricted area can limit municipal capacity to offer health promoting environments to the inhabitants such as possibilities for physical activity and access to services, healthy food and clean air. Healthy urban planning highlights the incorporation of several sectors of society in the process of designing and implementing healthy public policies in a local level. This paper examines multisectoral mechanisms for urban planning, public health and other sectors to work together to promote healthy urban environments. The paper analyses three urban planning interventions which aim to promote healthy living environment in cities through using intersectoral approaches. The studies are conducted between 2011-2013 in cities of Newari (Nepal), Jinchang (China) and Seongbuk (Korea). The paper identifies adopted intersectoral policy arrangements, such as committees, mandates and joint budgets, and analyses them using World Health Organization’s guidelines on Health in All Policies and intersectoral action for health. Results show that intersectoral cooperation facilitated achieving the planned urban planning outcomes. Moreover, in all examined cases, the use of intersectoral mechanisms eased the collaboration of sectors. Based on locally conducted interviews, the urban planning interventions increased the liveability of the cities, which has a potential to decrease the prevalence of noncommunicable diseases in the future. A conclusion can be made that intersectoral cooperation is an effective approach for local level policy-makers to create synergies between sectors and to facilitate the creation of healthier and more livable cities.

Design Recommendations to Mitigate Bicycle-Auto Incidents in the Urbana-Champaign Illinois Area – Alex Norr and Grace Kyung, Champaign, IL

A comprehensive analysis of existing bicycle routes, associated street design, safety measures, and recommendations for bicycle-oriented intersections and corridors for the Champaign-Urbana, Illinois area. The study area consists of the University District surrounding the University of Illinois and the tangent cities of Urbana and Champaign. Cooperation and input from the Champaign County Regional Planning Commission and the University of Illinois Facilities and Services are utilized to match perceived need with empirical data. Five years of bicycle ridership and route data combined with five years of congruent bicycle accident data are studied to identify routes most frequently traveled, routes with a higher probability of bicycle-auto accidents, past infrastructure improvement, and associated increased safety as evidenced by lower accident count. Finally, design standards are recommend for intersections and corridors providing access to the University District and other significant routes without the University District. Results are used to inform decision makers of potential safety concerns and innovative street and intersection design aimed to mitigate future injury to bicyclists.

Narrowing the Gap: Correlation between Street Width and Pedestrian Safety – Casey Gorrell, Brookville, KS

The country of the United States has developed into an auto-dominated society that decreases accessibility for pedestrians and has led to a bleak cityscape of wide, barrier-like streets. While many studies exist on the correlation between street width and vehicular safety, and vehicular speed and pedestrian safety, little information is available on the correlation between street width and pedestrian safety.

The correlation study between street width and pedestrian safety will provide justification to implement the Complete Streets Design Standards on Bluemont Avenue in Manhattan, Kansas. Bluemont Avenue is a primary vehicular connection between the east and west sides of Manhattan. Currently classified as an arterial, the design of Bluemont Avenue resembles a collector street due to its urban environment context. Future construction plans propose widening the street further to accommodate a center turning lane along the entire length of Bluemont Avenue.

By studying the correlation between street width and pedestrian safety, it is anticipated that narrow streets will correlate to higher safety. By analyzing the existing research completed by the author, a correlation has been found that will be strengthened by the more comprehensive study proposed here.

Using the evidence provided by the NYC street study and design alternatives produced for Bluemont Avenue, the researcher will begin the conversation for the city of Manhattan to begin looking at streets not as vehicular arteries, but arteries for all modes of transit.

Real Estate Site Selection Model for Incremental Suburban Redevelopment – Nicholas Knodt, Charlottesville, VA

Real estate development and financing practices are inexorably linked to the unhealthy evolution America’s auto-dependent suburbs. In conjunction with an inflexible and obsolete regulatory system, these practices perpetuate low-density, greenfield development eating away at a healthy agricultural and forested edge. This paper explores the role real estate site-selection, valuation, and financing plays in the incremental redevelopment of today’s existing suburban territory. It advocates for a focus on five typologies of sites for redevelopment in conjunction with the development of a site selection model to help real estate developers successfully focus their limited resources. What is the process of deciding which territories should be the focus of redevelopment? How can the design discipline become a greater asset in this decision process?

Through a series of case studies and design exercises the five typologies of suburban redevelopments include: the agricultural edge, foreclosure redevelopment, suburban hubs, infrastructural reuse, and the expansions of the city center. They all explore how providing a stronger set of tools for the site selection of redevelopment projects will encourage a new way of expanding a city that encourages an understanding of the existing landscape, existing forms of mobility and metropolitan links, an analysis of densities and mixtures of program, and the impact of creation.

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