From Strong Towns — Historic buildings get newer, greener lease on life

The story of Peggy and Tom Brennan who recently renovated and opened two unique buildings in downtown Detroit: the Green Garage, a business incubator and coworking space, andEl Moore, a residential apartment building and urban lodge. Find out how these businesses got started and where they're headed now. Read more: Historic Buildings Get Newer, Greener Lease on Life — Strong Towns

Historic Buildings get Newer, Greener Lease on Life #Detroit #CNU24 https://t.co/pxufZeJCgf pic.twitter.com/dazKN0J2D9

— Strong Towns (@StrongTowns) June 8, 2016

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From The Wall Street Journal — Classic New York Streetscapes, Then and Now

It is an essential paradox of New York City that its streetscapes seem both ageless and ever-evolving. Photographer Berenice Abbott captured that vibrant contradiction in the 1930s when she created her landmark series “Changing New York,” more than 300 black-and-white images of the metropolis shot with a large-format camera while she was working under the auspices of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration. Her visual time capsule documents everything from soaring skyscrapers to neighbourhood storefronts, churches, tenements, warehouses and bridges.

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What makes New York is how we recycle buildings. 

— Mitchell Moss, professor of urban policy and planning at New York University

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The New York Public Library recently released free, high-resolution scans of the “Changing New York” portfolio, prompting one Wall Street Journal photographer to reshoot more than a dozen of Abbott’s images of Manhattan and Brooklyn. They reveal how much, and in some cases, how little, New York City has changed. Read more: Classic New York Streetscapes, Then and Now - WSJ

Background / Vancouver — An artist's view of the city, October 30, 1972

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

@AmExperiencePBS American Experience: The World that Moses Built

American Experience: The World that Moses Built Part 1 - YouTube

The (amazing) density of Barcelona Eixample @cnunextgen

Post by CNU NextGen: The Next Generation of New Urbanists.

New York 1915 (colourized). @jen_keesmaat

New York 1915 (colourized). Note the size of the street trees, the width of the sidewalks, the architectural detail. pic.twitter.com/Q3jWTtMLSF

— jennifer keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) October 12, 2014

Patrick Condon in The Tyee – Vancouver's 'Spot Zoning' Is Corrupting Its Soul

Photo by hradcanska 

Why is Vancouver a place where developments increasingly spark conflicts, where frustrated developers must gamble millions of dollars on projects before knowing if they will meet city approval, and where developer money floods the political system? Is that just the way modern cities operate, or is there something unusual about Vancouver? 

Read more: The Tyee – Vancouver's 'Spot Zoning' Is Corrupting Its Soul

@emilymbadger in The Washington Post — An Economic Defense of Old Buildings

Jane Jacobs, a woman akin to the patron saint of urban planners, first argued 50 years ago that healthy neighborhoods need old buildings. Aging, creaky, faded, "charming" buildings. Retired couples and young families need the cheap rent they promise. Small businesses need the cramped offices they contain. Streets need the diversity created not just when different people coexist, but when buildings of varying vintage do, too. "Cities need old buildings so badly," Jacobs wrote in her classic "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," "it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.” More here: An economic defense of old buildings

From Shorpy — Saginaw, Michigan circa 1908

Post by Shorpy Higginbotham.

The last of the Horse Drawn Carriages, side by side with an electric tram in New York, 1917. By The Brown Brothers. pic.twitter.com/eiaH51pFhx

— Historical Pics (@HistoricalPics) February 26, 2014

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

Post by Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours.

Check out the Lower East Side of yesterday.. http://t.co/E36CAi6hTY #LES #EastVillage #NYC pic.twitter.com/z0eXc80ogP

— LESNYC (@LESNYC) January 18, 2014

Post by The Sidewalk Ballet.

From Vancouver Heritage Foundation — House Style Encyclopedia

An interactive encyclopedia of traditional house styles and their architectural components — House Style Encyclopedia | Table

Slow, Steady Progress on SketchUp

 

Photo: Hudson Bay Company, Granville St Vancouver 1935. 3D model drawn in Google SketchUp match-photo. Small breakthroughs in inferencing, arrays and components. There's been great value in getting hopelessly lost then starting over.

Nanaimo South Downtown Waterfront Initiative

The South Downtown Waterfront Initiative is a long term planning project in Nanaimo, led by the South Downtown Waterfront Committee. This process involves developing visions and opportunities for this complex and challenging property that extend 20 to 30 years into the future. 

Read more: Nanaimo South Downtown Waterfront Initiative: HOME

See also: Wellcox Railyards 

From WSJ.com — Architect Arthur Erickson's Imperiled Future

Arthur Erickson, a native son of Vancouver and one of Canada's most famous architects, died in 2009 at 84. Now his foundation is struggling to keep his house from dying with him.

Mr. Erickson's tiny modernist home, just 900 square feet with one small loft for a bedroom, is a living artifact of Mr. Erickson's process, reflecting the interplay of nature and structure that marked his long career. The property, which sits on a corner lot in Vancouver's Point Grey neighborhood, is bunkered from the street by a wood fence and cedar hedges that feel thick enough to stop a bus. Inside the home looks onto a two-lot garden that has two reflecting ponds and looming Douglas fir trees. Read more: Architect Arthur Erickson's Imperiled Future - WSJ.com

The Ongoing Effort to Reclaim a Walkway from a Driveway

The car rules in Nanaimo. From the grandest high speed thru-way to the smallest pedestrian pathway. I have been pointing out to the Island Corridor Foundation and the Heritage Planner at the City and anyone who'll listen (including my poor long suffering wife who has to hear me go on about this stuff) that our newly restored Train Station features a "walk"-way that connects to the Rail Corridor Trail. Car access is not restricted so of course people with business at the Station (including a great Irish Pub style restaurant) park in this area. I have finally received clarification  that the problem is in fact merely semantics. The folks who park here are apparently in fact "accessing" the Train Station building. This is a permitted use, parking is not. What we have I'm told is an "access driveway".  Here's examples of an email thread where logic and the English language itself are put under considerable strain:

It's Just a Small Sign. But...

It's just a sign. This is what it says:

PRIVATE DRIVEWAY
NO PUBLIC ACCESS OR PARKING

This is where it is: the sparkling newly restored heritage train station in my downtown neighbourhood. 

Seems simple enough. Driveway is for the private use of who I'm not sure and the general public is to stay away from this area. But beneath the simplicity some large questions and concerns emerge.

Brief background: the E&N Train Station has sat derelict, damaged by fire, for years until a number of public initiatives combined to oversee its restoration. The station is owned by the Island Corridor Foundation.  The foundation is made up of municipalities and First Nations along the rail line between Victoria and the Comox Valley and across to Port Alberni. Their ambitious goal is to raise the $100+ million it will take to repair the rail bed and trestles and restore passenger rail service to the Island. The last "dayliner" cars were removed a year ago. 

To understand my concerns about one little sign, it's necessary to have a sense of this particular neighbourhood and its unique characteristics. Unlike other much less densely populated neighbourhoods in Nanaimo, it's not designed around the needs of our automobiles. It's a medium density inner city neighbourhood that is more diverse across demographic categories than its surrounding more suburban 'hoods. It is walkable and I like to point out that with the exception of a Keg restaurant its lively healthy shopping streets don't include a single franchise or a national chain. These are owner operated shops. Merchants and investors many of whom also live in the neighbourhood.

Here's my first inquiry to the owners of the train station, the Island Corridor Foundation:

Subject: Nanaimo station

Date: 1 November, 2012 3:25:02 PM PDT

To: Islandrail@shaw.ca

Cc: info@ypnanaimo.com, corry@dnbia.ca

I've followed with much interest your work on the rail corridor and in particular the resurrection of the Selby St station. (I live directly across the street and it's a terrific contribution to this neighbourhood and city. I was able involve my neighbourhood association in support of the project and worked with the Downtown BIA folks on their involvement as well.) 

This morning I was glad to see parking has been removed from the terrace that extends from Selby to the rear of the site. However a new sign that's been posted really took me back. It seems to send such an unfortunate and I'm sure unintentional message. It identifies the site as private property. While I understand it is owned by the Island Corridor Foundation, I consider it an accomplishment of public entities working together. It is in every way but perhaps a narrow legal one public space. That the sign announces "No Public Access" mystifies me and I wonder if you could offer some explanation. I imagine there might be legal issues at the heart of this but there must be a solution superior to the one that tells people to stay away.

Thanks for giving this some attention when you have a minute.

Frank Murphy

www.thesidewalkballet.com

…and the response I received:

Hi Frank,

There have been some concerns with the daycare next door so we are trying to make things safer. Once the trail is complete we will look at changing the language on the sign.

Sincerely,

Jenn K. George

Office Administrator

Island Corridor Foundation

Office: 250-754-7254

Cell: 250-701-8381

islandrail@shaw.ca

...and a follow-up on Nov 6:

Subject: Re: Nanaimo station

Date: 6 November, 2012 4:28:44 PM PST

To: "Island Corridor Foundation"

Cc: ChrisChris.Sholberg@nanaimo.ca, info@ypnanaimo.com, corry@dnbia.ca

Thanks for getting back to me Jenn. I guess to understand your answer I'd have to know the nature of the daycare's concerns and how the sign addresses them and also how the completion of the trail impacts the language on the sign. Anyway if you could supply some more background that would be great but in the meantime good for you for registering the concerns of the daycare. I hope you'll also register this concern from the neighbourhood that the language on the sign sends a negative and disappointing message.

Frank

The daycare mentioned is part of the new Immigrant Welcome Centre. Both the Centre and the Station restoration and the Irish Pub-style restaurant it includes, are very welcome and positive additions to my neighbourhood. In adjusting to their new neighbourhood apparently the Immigrant Welcoming Centre has expressed some worries that rise from people crossing this terrace. The use of this space for parking has become, not surprisingly problematic. The response has been this sign and I want to make the case that in sending a cold and off-putting message to the new neighbourhood that the Train Station is of course wanting to fit in to, it sends a very negative message and doesn't provide solutions to the perceived problems. 

I want to suggest a better solution:

The area in question is not for parking cars. I attended City of Nanaimo Design Advisory Panel meetings early in the process and questioned why there was need for access along here at all and learned it was considered essential for emergency and maintenance vehicles. I heard no reference to supplying parking stalls in this space. There's been such delightful attention to heritage detail in this project it seems all the more a shame to default any available square footage to parking cars. I was unable to attend later DAP meetings but I'd be very surprised to learn that the landscaping plan included a parking lot or a "driveway". It's understood that the area is not for public parking. Now consider that it of course is also not for private parking. Has the area been leased for private use? I and I think the City would be surprised and would object. 

Solution to the parking related issues: recognize that this space was never intended to park cars. The sign is not needed at all. What is needed is simply adjustable bollards across the Selby Street entrance. Full access for emergency and maintenance vehicles and ease of access for wheelchairs and bikes. Badly needed open public space is added to the Station's new neighbourhood that sends the message: we're happy to be here.

The other issue concerns the daycare part of the Immigrant Welcome Centre. I would be very concerned and would want to do anything I could to help if I thought that they are in the slightest uncomfortable in my neighbourhood. One of the very best characteristics of a diverse, dynamic inner city neighourhood is our comfortable sidewalk level interaction with each other. We don't as Toronto Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat tells her daughter when they talk about walking to school "...as a family we won't enter the world based on fear." Let's confront the concerns of the IWC and bring any and all resources to bear aleviate any concerns they may have and make sure they know they're very welcome in this Old City neighbourhood.

From the Downtown Urban Design Plan and Guidelines:

Define train station with adjacent buildings to minimum front setback. Install distinctive paving onSelby Street and provide new landscaping and trees around existing station.