UEP Retrofitting Suburbs Fall Course Description

Transcription

1 UEP Retrofitting Suburbs Fall 2015 Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Instructor: Christine Cousineau Wednesdays, 9:00 am 11:30 am Location: Brown House, 97 Talbot Ave Course Description What do we do in response to suburban sprawl? We are by now familiar with sprawl s evils, and know that mixed-use density linked to transit is a more sustainable form of development. But while we infill and redevelop urban sites, and build transit-oriented development in urban areas, car-dependent low-density suburbs continue to grow and take up a vastly greater land area than cities and towns. At the same time, major demographic and economic shifts are reversing the traditional image of white, affluent suburbs and minority, lower-income inner-city neighborhoods. Cities with hot real estate markets are gentrifying from the center out, displacing poorer households to communities further and further away, with less or no public transit, fewer social services, and no sense of community. Suburbs can be improved by increasing the density and mix of land uses, building transportation options and offering affordable housing choices. These interventions allow more people of different incomes, ages and ethnicities to live and work in the suburbs. They foster stronger social interactions and community building, while increasing municipal revenue for better public services. For public health and the environment, more compact and transit-served suburbs, reduce vehicle miles travelled and gas emissions (mitigating the impacts of climate change), preserve and create green open space, conserve and replenish water resources, and improve residents health and quality of life. Failed shopping centers represent immediate opportunities for repurpose and redevelopment. Creating civic and commercial centers in residential subdivisions where none existed, making streets walkable and bikable, and introducing different housing types, are other avenues. Intervening in existing town centers to increase the mix and density of commercial uses, pedestrianize streetscapes, and allow housing above retail and accessory units in residential zones are other approaches currently being used by many municipalities. The course looks at retrofitting strategies, and presents a planning assignment for Vinnin Square, a shopping area at the confluence of Swampscott, Marblehead and Salem, MA, where students propose some of the approaches learned. Objectives Distinguish among varying components of suburbs the challenges and opportunities they present to their communities and to planners. Learn different strategies to improve suburbs, the goals to achieve, and the assumptions underlying these goals. Apply some of the methods learned through a planning exercise for a suburban commercial area in a town on the North Shore. Requirements Keep current with readings. Post your observations on the readings, and comments on other students observations, by Tuesdays at 7 pm, on the course s Trunk site at Forums. Write one short paper. Complete and present a planning assignment. Depending on class size, this can be done in groups of two or three students. 1

2 Grading Class participation: 10%. Observations: 25%. Short paper: 25%. Planning assignment: 40%. Instructor Christine Cousineau office: Professors Row, Room 205 cell: Office Hours Office hours can be scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays, between 10am and 6 pm, at 72 Professors Row or at the Campus Center. Other days and locations can also be arranged. 2

3 One-page course outline Lectures Assignments Sept 9 Sept 16 Sept 23 Introduction, course overview, readings, assignments. Suburbs: A Short History Why the need to retrofit suburbs? What types, what parts, for whose benefit? Definitions. Suburbs and Sprawl. Components and consequences of suburban sprawl environments Strategies Sprawl repair analysis and techniques; policy approaches Paper assigned Sept 30 Presentation of planning assignment: Paper due Vinnin Square, Swampscott/Marblehead/Salem, MA Planning proposal explained Pete Kane, Planner, Swampscott. Meet at Panera s, 433 Paradise Road, Swampscott, at 9 am. Oct 7 Oct 14 Creating centers nodes, civic space, third places, active open space. Increasing the mix and diversity of uses. Increasing transportation choices. Case studies: Mashpee Commons, Cape Cod, MA; Belmar, Lakewood, CO Oct 21 Student presentations. Planning proposal due 3

4 Readings for each class, and assignments Sept 9 Introduction, course overview, readings, assignments. Suburbs: A Short History Sept 16 9 am -10:10 am Paper assigned Why the need to retrofit suburbs? What types, what parts, for whose benefit? Ehrenhalt, Alan The Great Inversion Prologue, pp Dunham-Jones, Ellen and June Williamson Retrofitting Suburbia Preface and Introduction, pp. xiii-xxx Part One The Argument, pp Williamson, June Designing Suburban Futures Preface, Foreword and Introduction, pp. pp. x-xviii 10:20 am-11:30 am Definitions. Suburbs and Sprawl. Designing Suburban Futures, Vision, pp Jackson, Kenneth T Crabgrass Frontier Ch. 6 The Time of the Trolley, pp Ch. 7 Affordable Homes for the Common Man, pp Fishman, Fishman, Robert Bourgeois Utopias Ch. 5 The Classic Suburb: The Railroad Suburbs of Philadelphia, pp Ch. 6 Los Angeles: Suburban Metropolis, pp Sept 23 9 am 10:10 am Components and consequences of suburban sprawl environments. Duany, Andres, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, and Jeff Speck Suburban Nation. The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. Ch. 1 What is Sprawl, and Why? Pp. pp Williamson, Thad Sprawl, Justice and Citizenship: the Civic Costs of the American Way of Life. Ch. 2 Counting Costs and Benefits. Is Sprawl Efficient? pp Ch. 7 You Can t March on a Strip Mall, pp Ch. 8 Sprawl, the Environment and Climate Change, pp

5 10:20 am 11:30 am Strategies: sprawl repair model and techniques Designing Suburban Futures Better Suburban Futures, pp Sprawl, Justice and Citizenship Ch. 9 Reforming Sprawl, and Beyond Tachieva, Galina Sprawl Repair Manual. Ch. 1 From Sprawl to Complete Communities, pp Ch. 2 The Sprawl Repair Method, pp Set 30 Pete Kane, Planner, Town of Swampscott Paper due Need for retrofitting Vinnin Square, in Swampscott, Marblehead and Salem Opportunities and challenges Meet at Panera Bread, 433 Paradise Rd, Swampscott, at 9 am Planning assignment explained Reading: MPO report on Vinnin Square: Swampscott-Marblehead Livable Community Workshop Oct 7 9 am -10:10 am Creating centers nodes, civic space, third places, active open space. Retrofitting Suburbia Ch. 4 Retrofitting Social Life Along Commercial Strips, pp Sprawl Repair Manual Shopping Center, pp Shopping Mall, pp Commercial Strip, pp :20 am- 11:30 am Increasing the mix and diversity of uses. Retrofitting Suburbia Ch. 6 From Regional Malls to New Downtowns through Mixed-Use and Public Space, pp Sprawl Repair Manual Business Park, pp Oct 14 9 am 10:10 am Increasing transportation choices. Sprawl Repair Manual Connect and repair thoroughfares Single-family and multi-family subdivisions, p ; p. 99 5

6 Rationalize parking, p. 100 Ch. 5 Repair of Thoroughfares and Parking, pp :20 am 11:30 am Case Studies: Mashpee Commons, Cape Cod, Belmar, Lakewood, CO. The Great Inversion Ch. 9 Urbanizing the Suburbs, pp Retrofitting Suburbia Ch. 5 Strips Case Study: Mashpee Commons, Cape Cod, pp Ch. 8 Mall Case Study: Belmar, Lakewood, CO, pp Oct 21 Student presentations Planning proposal due 6

7 Bibliography Boxed books are main sources for the course Arendt, Randall Envisioning Better Communities: Seeing More Options, Making Wiser Choices. Chicago, IL: APA Planners Press and ULI. Campoli, Julie Made for Walking. Density and Neighborhood Form. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. and Alex MacLean Visualizing Density. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Christensen, Julia Big Box Reuse. Cambridge, MA: MIT University Press. Condon, Patrick Seven Rules for Sustainable Communities. Design Strategies for the Post-Carbon World. Washington, DC: Island Press. Congress for the New Urbanism Malls into Main Streets: an In-Depth Guide to Transforming Malls into Communities. Chicago: Congress for the New Urbanism. Dead Dittmar, Hank, and Gloria Ohland, eds The New Transit Town: Best Practices in Transit-Oriented Development. Washington, DC: Island Press. Duany, Andres, Jeff Speck, and Mike Lydon The Smart Growth Manual. New York, NY: McGraw Hill., Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and Jeff Speck Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream. New York, NY: North Point Press, div of Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Dunham-Jones, Ellen, and June Williamson. 2011(updated edition). Retrofitting Suburbia. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Ehrenhalt, Alan The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Fishman, Robert Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia. New York: Basic Books. Fogelson, Robert Bourgeois Nightmares: Suburbia, New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Gillman, Oliver The Limitless City: A Primer on the Urban Sprawl Debate. Washington: Island Press. Hall, Kenneth and Gerald Porterfield Community by Design: New Urbanism for Suburbs and Small Communities. McGraw Hill. Hayden, Dolores Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth, New York, NY: Vintage Books A Field Guide to Sprawl. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. 7

8 Jackson, Kenneth T Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States. New York, NY: University Press. Oxford Krier, Leon The Architecture of Community. Washington, DC: Island Press. Kunstler, James Howard Home from Nowhere: Remaking our Everyday World for the 21 st Century. New York, NY: Touchstone, div of Simon & Schuster The Geography of Nowhere: The Rise and Decline of America s Manmade Landscape. New York, NY: Free Press, div of Simon & Schuster. Lane, Kending Community Character. Principles for Planning and Design. Washington: Island Press. Lang, Robert Boomburbs: The Rise of America s Accidental Cities. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. Lukez, Paul. Suburban Transformations. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press, Rusk, David. Cities without Suburbs. Washington, DC: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, Smiley, David Sprawl and Public Space: Redressing the Mall. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. Sobel, Lee S., and Steven Bodzin Greyfields into Goldfields: Dead Malls Become Living Chicago, IL: Congress for New Urbanism. Neighborhoods. Speck, Jeff Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux. Steuteville, Robert, and Philip Langdon New Urbanism Best Practices Guide. 4 th ed. New York, NY: New Urban News Publication. Stilgoe, John Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. Tachieva, Galina Sprawl Repair Manual. Washington, DC: Island Press. Wasik, John The Cul-de-Sac Syndrome: Turning Around the Unsustainable American Dream. New York, NY: Bloomberg Press. Williamson, June Designing Suburban Futures. New Models from Build a Better Burb. Washington, DC: Island Press. Williamson, Thad Sprawl, Justice and Citizenship: the Civic Costs of the American Way of Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 8