Agenda - 05-16-1995 - V-B - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

34 Overall Design 15 adaptable,they claim,and our communities are formed around interest groups and work,rather than by any sense of place or group of individuals.Our center seems to be more abstract, less grounded in place, and our social forms are more disconnected from home and neighborhood. Simultaneously, planning ideology has been polarized between urban and suburban forms. Some have advocated a rigorous return to traditional city forms and an almost pre-indus- trial culture,while others have praised the evolution of the suburban megalopolis as the inevitable and desirable expression of our new technologies and hyper- individualized culture.However rationalized, these new forms seem to have a restless and hollow feel,reinforcing our mobile state and perhaps the instabil- ity of our families. Moving at a speed that allows generic symbols to be recognized, we cannot wonder that the humanmade environment seems trite and overstated. GROWTH AND PRESERVATION In proposing the Pedestrian Pocket,the practical comes first: that land,energy, and resources would be saved,that traffic would be reduced,that homes would Balancing and clustering lobs, be more affordable.-that children and elderly would have more access" that housing,shopping,recreation and childcare,the Pedestrian working_people would not be burdened with long commutes.The social conse- Pocket uses 1/16 the land area of quences are less quantitative,but perhaps equally compelling.They have to do typical suburban development with the quality of our shared world,our commons. Open space and precious agricultural land could be preserved,along with a region's The traditional commons,which once centered our communities with convivial growth. gathering and meeting places,is increasingly displaced by corridors of mobility and the private domain. Our shared public space is given over to the car and A_ lightrta le lkina a its accommodation,while our private world becomes bloated and isolated. As comfortable walkinst distance of all development connects the private world grows in breadth, the public world becomes more remote .several Pockets with local towns and cities to provide an -alternative to freeway con sge Lion. AL !?: cam,� • ► � � Diverse open space + �r �� M, would be provided In the Pedestrian Pocket; r private yards for the families;open space for a group of hours;central s �I parks to be used by all; 9 courtyards and a"main street' 4 1, , shopping area around the �� P station at the center. Walking paths connect the whole site without crossing any streets.