Kian Goh - Just Urban Design: The Struggle for a Public City

Urban and Industrial Environments

Series editor: Robert Gottlieb, Henry R. Luce Professor of Urban and Environmental Policy, Occidental College

For a complete list of books published in this series, please see the .

JUST URBAN DESIGN

THE STRUGGLE FOR A PUBLIC CITY

EDITED BY KIAN GOH, ANASTASIA LOUKAITOU-SIDERIS, AND VINIT MUKHIJA

FOREWORD BY LAWRENCE J. VALE

THE MIT PRESSCAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTSLONDON, ENGLAND

2022 Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This work is subject to a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND license. Subject to such license, all rights are reserved.

The MIT Press would like to thank the anonymous peer reviewers who provided comments on drafts of this book. The generous work of academic experts is essential for establishing the authority and quality of our publications. We acknowledge with gratitude the contributions of these otherwise uncredited readers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Goh, Kian, editor. | Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia, 1958 editor. | Mukhija, Vinit, 1967 editor. | Vale, Lawrence J., 1959 writer of foreword.

Title: Just urban design : the struggle for a public city / edited by Kian Goh, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, and Vinit Mukhija ; foreword by Lawrence J. Vale.

Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2022] | Series: Urban and industrial environments | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021060539 (print) | LCCN 2021060540 (ebook) | ISBN 9780262544276 (paperback) | ISBN 9780262371070 (epub) | ISBN 9780262371087 (pdf)

Subjects: LCSH: City planningSocial aspects. | Communication in city planning. | Social policy.

Classification: LCC HT166 .J87 2022 (print) | LCC HT166 (ebook) | DDC 307.1/216dc23/eng/20220106

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060539

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021060540

d_r0

publication supported by a grant from

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

as part of the Urban Haven Project

To our students

1. Lawrence J. Vale
2. Kian Goh, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, and Vinit Mukhija
3. Christopher Giamarino, Kian Goh, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, and Vinit Mukhija
4. Setha Low
5. Michael Rios
6. Diane E. Davis
7. Vinit Mukhija
8. Alison B. Hirsch
9. Rebecca Choi
10. Jeffrey Hou
11. Chelina Odbert
12. Rachel Berney
13. Kian Goh
14. Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman
15. Francesca Piazzoni and Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris
16. Matthew Jordan-Miller Kenyatta
17. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris
18. Kian Goh, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, and Vinit Mukhija

List of Figures

1. Crowd on the grass in Prospect Park.Source: Setha Low.
2. Open street, Manhattans Upper West Side.Source: Setha Low.
3. Older women sitting on wheelchairs in Manhattans Upper West Side.Source: Setha Low.
4. Palestinians protesting the exclusionary nature of the new light-rail in Jerusalem, July 2, 2015.Source: Faiz Abu Rmeleh/ActiveStills.
5. A mural in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank depicting George Floyd, who was killed by a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.Source: Yumna Patel/Mondoweiss.
6. Shankill Road postconflict mural in Belfast.Source: PxHere.
7. Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia, reclaimed by BLM protesters at the center of what is now being called Marcus-Davis Peters Circle.Source: Brian Palmer for Reveal.
8. Shallow basements for storage and protection from the frost line characterize Vancouvers detached single-family houses.Source: Vinit Mukhija.
9. An opinion survey and public information meeting announcement from 1990 for changing the zoning to allow secondary suites in Vancouver.Source: City of Vancouver (1990b). Renfrew/Collingwood: Secondary Suites Neighborhood Survey. Vancouver Planning Department.
10. Infill of a single-family-zoned lot with a laneway house in Vancouver.Source: Vinit Mukhija.
11. The northwest corner of Florence and Normandie Avenues, Los Angeles, California, October 1993.Source: Joel Sternfeld.
12. Sinking vehicular circulation to reclaim the site as the domain of the people. Its aerial imageability is intended to reference decades of overhead surveillance as well as helicopter journalism on April 29, 1992.Source: Jonathan Froines.
13. The thickened frontages of the storefront churches create churchyards by introducing an undulation to the street that breaks the grid, slows traffic, and narrows Florence Avenue.Source: Jonathan Froines.
14. Composite scheme, pictured both as an everyday space and a space of events, brings together many of the aims of the individual scenarios.Source: Yao Yao.
15. Informal vending along the fence of 8500 block of Vermont Avenue, 2015.Source: Alison Hirsch.
16. Activating the marginsfor the Vermont and Manchester site.Source: Nan Cheng.
17. Vermont and Manchester from a thriving commercial site to the spatial voids that remained in 1992 to a multiuse public space reminiscent of the past while providing investment and amenities for the future.Source: Jade Orr and Rachel Ison.
18. Page fromThe New City: Architecture and Urban Renewalcatalog showing the HwR proposal.Source: The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
19. HwR proposal circulation plan diagram on the left, and section drawings on the right. Circulation diagram shows areas for electric buses, automobiles, railroad access, and parking. Section drawings show the architects strategy for constructing the vault over the railroad tracks, and their vision for building housing above the vault that takes advantage of the air rights around it.Source: The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA/Art Resource, NY.
20. Organizational chart inThe Threatened Cityreport shows the Council on Urban Design (toward the top in gray box) placed at the same level of decision-making as the mayor, while the Urban Design Force (left, gray box) occupies its position as part of the city planning department, giving urban designers new powers in municipal governance.