the best of 2012...

CCTV Tower by OMA, completed in May; Photo: Iwan BaanBecause "Best of" lists are what you do at the end of the year...

The Royal Town Planning Institute's Highlights of 2012 includes a podcast of the Nathaniel Lichfield Lecture delivered by Mitchell Silver, President of the American Planning Association.This is required listening for every urban planner out there. It's so good, I'm saving you the trouble of looking for it: just click here.

Architizer's The Year in Architecture: Best Buildings Of 2012 is a great round up of the year in building design.

BLDGBLOG's Books Received 2012 is a good reading list focussing on landscape, spatial science and the built environment generally.

If podcasts and books are too much for you, just follow Planetizen's Top Twitter Feeds 2012 on planning, design and development because 140 characters cannot be that much effort.

Wishing you a healthy and productive 2013.

city parklets

I was amused and jollied the other day to see the Christmas tree set up on Reid Street, outside Gibbons. The department store has commandeered a car parking space and erected a Christmas tree, decorations and all.

I believe it's great for a couple of reasons. First, every time there is talk of pedestrianising lower Reid Street, business owners are understandably concerned that the loss of street parking will result in a loss of customers. After all, this is a community that thinks the walk from Bull's Head Car Park on the north side of the city to Front Street on the south side is akin to a mini version of the End-to-End trek. Never mind that distances in Hamilton are measured in yards not miles. While the Christmas tree results in the loss of only one parking space, it adds immeasurable sparkle to the season. Kudos to Gibbons for doing it!

Second, the pedestrianisation discussion is more than 20 years old now, so shouldn't we try to move things along? A slow but determined occupation of car parking spaces might help demonstrate that Bermudians can walk and we do love to shop. The Gibbons Christmas tree would be even more wonderful, for example, if the store had taken over two spaces, installed some benches for weary shoppers and - voila! - created a parklet. Further down the street the Chatterbox Cafe could place benches and small tables in front of its shop too.

Maybe, instead of assuming all cars will be removed at once - clearly a disturbing prospect for some - we could build up to it? Make lower Reid Street vehicle-free for just the weekend to start? Design and install a series of parklets so that shoppers and businesses can envision the future? We can see how that works and then try a little more for a little longer. 

The possibilities are quite wide ranging but we should either get on with it or stop talking about it.

placemaking: a quick primer

It seems much of this blog is becoming devoted to the concept and principles of placemaking. That wasn't the intention when I started but the steady drift is noticeable as I review past posts.

Somewhat isolated on this island in the Atlantic wilderness, I look for articles that can better explain the concept than my fumbling attempts. I actually found a short film by Eric Becker entitled Placemaking & Seattle, which is highlighted in the article Saving Seattle's Neighbourhood Authenticity Through Better Buildings at The Atlantic Cities. It is very good.

Please sit back, relax, view and learn. 

Placemaking & Seattle from eric becker on Vimeo.