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Posted by Michael Bulatovich on March 11, 2008, 10:41 am
Warm Worm wrote:
> ++ wrote:
>>
>>
>> Michael Bulatovich wrote:
>>
>>> Warm Worm wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>> This is a shot I took a couple of days ago, of the construction of
>>>> the Skytrain downtown sub-section beneath Granville street. You
>>>> might notice what appears to be one of the tunnel-boring machines
>>>> still in the left tunnel, along with three cute little
>>>> construction workers-- including one in the other tunnel and one
>>>> hiding in the forklift: http://www.sfu.ca/~rmacinty/subdig.jpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> Cool. What's the wider orthogonal section in front? A passing layby?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> This image is from my window overlooking English Bay. Might anyone
>>>> know what those things are? Ventilation fans? The tug seems to be
>>>> headed in the direction where there is a small forest of
>>>> construction-cranes-- possibly for the upcoming Olympics:
>>>> http://www.sfu.ca/~rmacinty/seacargo.jpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> I think someone's sunk your battleship :.. (
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> Ken, if you're reading this, did you catch the lunar eclipse about
>>>> 2 weeks ago? I did, and later, in the wee hours of the morning,
>>>> decided to take a quick capture of the full moonset:
>>>> http://www.sfu.ca/~rmacinty/moonset.jpg
>>>>
>>>
>>> I took in a presentation by your head of urban design last year,
>>> talking about various issues. One that really caught my attention
>>> was what they were requiring for pedestrian-friendly streetfronts-
>>> overhangs of certain dimensions, retail door spacings, signage etc.
>>> in the downtown. If you're dragging the camera around anyway and you
>>> remember this, can you bang off some shots of this recent work?
>>> (Don't have to be as pretty as the last ones.)
>>>
>>>
>>
>> If you have any specifications for this pedestrian friendly design
>> guideline (s?) please email me with them or a link to themas I would
>> love to see them for an upcoming project.
>>
>>> I, for my part, will try to do the same on our now-forming railway
>>> lands streetscapes near the dome, after the snow melts a bit. The
>>> guy responsible for it has left, and those remaining in the
>>> department are privately admitting that thay've dropped the ball
>>> pretty badly when it comes to the pedestrian context there.
>>>
>>> Our guys look to New York and Chicago massing issues, and done OK
>>> with it, but you'd have to add Vancouver now too. There's still
>>> lots of railway lands left to go (about half) so it's not too late
>>> to get it right for pedestrians. In the mean time we can take bets
>>> on how long before there is a public charette on what to do about
>>> the ground plane in the first half....it's pretty bad.
>>>
>>>
>>
>> Every single shadow study falls short of a state of the art. The
>> cities are not comparable in many scale respects.
>
> What are shadow studies, and vis-a-vis state-of-the-art and scale?
>
> I might have mentioned this on here before, but why is it that a lot
> of "inward-looking-use" architecture seems to be situated right on the
> waterfronts-- areas that would otherwise be put to better advantage
> for their views?
>
> For examples, in Halifax and Vancouver (Sydney's Opera House?), they
> have their casino and trade/convention centre, respectively, right on
> the waterfronts.
>
> There just seems to be a kind of counter-intuitiveness and/or
> inward-looking way, as to how a lot of urban waterfronts are
> designed/developed.
>
> (BTW, in Vancouver, they have 2 Stadiums and a mall/cinema along with
> many residential highrises and assorted retail outlets, in a narrow
> "peninsular bottleneck".)
I think this has to do with land use history and the scale of redevelopment
planning, not some lack of vision per se. Urban waterfronts were too
valuable to be preserved for 'views'. These areas are usually reclaimed from
derelict former commercial areas in these port cities. The lands are often
reclaimed or toxic. There's often infrastructure like railways or highways
adjacent, etc. forming barriers to access. There's also often a long period
of transition, when some of the former uses persist legally on adjacent
lands limiting the commercial viability of some types of redevelopment. You
have to take a long view and be patient, or put in power a totalitarian
strongman with a new interest in urban destruc...er...I mean ...design. I've
got someone in mind ; )
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