Shaping The City: Three Local Design Debates
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2012-07-26/shaping-city-three-local-design-debates
From lighted signs to building heights to power lines, one person's emblem of economic prosperity is another person's eyesore. Kojo and architect Roger Lewis explore three local design proposals that could alter the cityscape.
Guests
Roger Lewis
Architect; Columnist, "Shaping the City," Washington Post; and Professor Emeritus of Architecture, University of Maryland College Park
Comments
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I already hate how corporate Rosslyn is, and this will just make it worst. Most of Rosslyn doesn't feel like a community, it just feels like a lot of tall glass and concrete smashed together. It has no character or neighborhood flavor. Maybe i will feel differently after the jazz festival but for a native DC'er who has lived and enjoyed the small business nature and community feel of H St NE & Columbia Heights, I can assure you Arlington is NOT a city (just less suburban than then rest of NOVA) and it has no character. Corporatizing it more with more "Boeing" and other signage will make it worst. If I hadn't fallen in love with my best friend a wonderful man I would go back to living in the REAL city--DC in a minute!
I live in Chevy Chase Hills, a residential neighborhood directly impacted by the proposed Chevy Chase Lake development along the Purple Line.
We just learned that the Montgomery County Planning Board is pushing for zoning to be changed to allow for building heights to be doubled to 70 feet directly behind our backyards, which would completely block the light, views, and privacy we now enjoy.
This plan seems highly influenced by developers without taking residents' concerns into account. I’m not opposed to increased heights along Connecticut Avenue and the commercial part of the neighborhood, but when it ventures into the residential neighborhoods, it is simply bad urban design.
Kojo,
I have a degree in urban planning and I practiced for many years. While Mr. Lewis is a distinguished professor emeritus, I don't find his discussions to be especially enlightening, nor does he appear to be aware of many of the more creative and exciting things going on in architecture/urban planning.
I was especially disappointed in his remarks on height limitations. There are historical reasons for height limitations, including such things as avoiding creating urban canyons which block sunlight, trap air and pollution, and create massive buildings which destroy the scale and sense of place of a city. Studies also show that people, residents, often have a better sense of well being in places with lower sky lines. When you go to Paris, what is the part of the city that is most attractive? Not the downtown with the high rise office buildings. He could have touched on these and so much more, and it would have made the show more interesting..
There are many creative architects and urban planners out there who have different views from Mr. Lewis, and it might behoove you to have some of them on your show. Some have more of what I call a "design with nature" view, others have more of a neighborhood view... it goes on. You get the picture.
Please get some new folks who have something different to offer. This part of your show has gotten a bit stale.