Balconies bring quality to urban life

 A plant adorned balcony provides outdoor place, access to food and improves the ambiance of a dense urban environment.

The gardening time of year has arrived once again and I'm missing out because, living in a 80 unit mixed-use and transit accessible unit, I don't have private outdoor space for plants. This has me thinking about solutions for a high-density urban lifestyle.  And in walkable urban neighborhoods details matter. I am sure you like the taste of fresh, local foods and appreciate other people living in apartments and condos (because it preserves the sub/ex-urban settings). If you're like me, you enjoy the pleasure of a walkable urban environment and enjoy private, outdoor space ... with life.  

Density with taste 

Even if an urban lifestyle isn't for you, quality urban places can become destinations and add to the economic structure of a city. Plus, we already build high density dwellings and if we are going to invest and construct these types of developments they may as well not be shit. 

Balconies adorn the façade of buildings facing La Rambla in  Barcelona, Spain. 

Steve Jobs said in a 1995 TV interview, "It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things humans have done and then try to bring those things in to what you are doing." Picasso had a saying, "Good artists copy; great artists steal. I have always been shameless about stealing great ideas."

One place worth stealing from is Spain. One of the most memorable streets I have visited in my life is La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain - a city with a population count around that of Portland, OR. Spain also wrote the Laws of the Indies, which dictated urban form when building new cities in the Americas that centered around the public sphere.

Thinking back to my time at La Rambla - I remember the liveliness,  artisan commerce, feeling of security, connection with the culture ... and the balconies. Specifically, I remember looking up to a woman  tending her bird on her third floor balcony and placing myself up there in my mind. Balconies play a notable role on La Rambla and are one (of many) aspects of that celebrated street - and throughout Spain.

Through observation, it's evident that balconies can provide an extra element of fulfillment.  If windows are the "eyes" of a building, then balconies can serve the purpose of the eyelashes. Just as eyelashes help keep the dust out of our eyes, balconies help keep the dust off public spaces. They are useful along with mixed-use to serve areas with high levels of pedestrian traffic, including plazas, sidewalks and other urban places to help create a feeling of walkability.

Growing food out your window (or door)

Local food is all the craze and gardening is hip again, including an Michelle Obama's organic garden at the White House. Some have enjoyed it their entire lives.

Balcony garden on what looks like a fire escape.

Those living in urban apartments, find it hard to find places to garden. Sure, there are community gardens, but it's just not the same. This is especially true for those who moved to urban areas, who habitually had a yard in the past.

Yardless gardening requires a place to grow and some likely modifications to your style. You'll probably have to switch to container gardening and worm vermiculture instead of composting, but having the space of a balcony can facilitate the innate nature one can feel to grow their own food. 

Balconies serve multiple purposes

You don't really appreciate six square feet of outdoor space until you have none.  At this in my life, during this time of year - living in a pre-WWII and mixed-use downtown development - I would greatly appreciate even two square feet of space outside my window. I'm sure others would as well - for plants, standing, sitting.  It'd be a great place for a little garden with some space to stand tend the plants while providing "eyes on the street."

Adding just a small amount of square footage outside my 320 square foot apartment would greatly add to utilitarian and monetary value of the apartment, but just as importantly it would add to the complexity and transparency of the pedestrian experience and urban design quality.  In English, that means it would make a place more interesting and understandable.

Creating quality urban habitat 

In land-use code implementation, zoning can dictate the use.  Other metheds, like Form Based Codes, minimum setback requirements and parking minimums, prescribe the form or look of the building and neighborhood. These regulatory structures provide an implementation tool for turning a vision into reality.  On possible tool for adding what I think of as "eye lashes" on the windows could potentially be a Balcony Overlay Zone (BOZ).

Think of a public square with outdoor restaurant seating.  Think Europe.  Adorned along the human- scale buildings are balconies.  BOZs can be used with other tools, perhaps Transit-Oriented Development,  for activating private outdoor space that adds interest to the urban environment and provides a place for sitting, watching and growing food.

For those who can not wait 

Some people are going so far, craving the balconies as a place for getting in touch with nature, they have created their own solutions. If you do not want to wait for a change in codes and market forces before you start using the space outside your window, here are some videos of some creative solutions for growing food out your window.  

After watching these videos, I was so inspired that I came up with a design similar to the top video from France, the Volet végétal.  But, alas, I live in a historic building with outdoor seating below and the management company did not think it was as good of an idea as me.  So, to carry you forth in utilizing space outside your window, here are some inspiring videos:

Learning from fire to create public space

People are social creatures.  We inherently know this through our own experience and its self-evidence.  I like to think this trait extends back to our pre-historic times - back when we all lived in gatherer / hunter tribes. We needed protection and connection from each other and the community always had a social spot. Fire is, perhaps, one of our strongest connections to the past. You feel it while sitting around a camp fire with friends or at a bonfire.

Anybody who has gone camping, or spent time outdoors, knows the value of a great camp fire. It's where all of the action is ..., especially after dark.  We eat food around the campfire, [if you're in Montana] drink beer, converse and enjoy the bond of pure "being". Raw enjoyment without technological distractions.

In an urban setting of today's modern society, people still crave that social place. Public space. If a public space doesn't have people, it can become foreboding.  I like to think of public space as the fire of society. Quality public space can make a city great! And we can learn from the campfire on how to design great public space.

Characteristics of a quality fire and public space

Fire draws groups of people. Public space works best with people. If fire draws people to it and we want public space to attract people, what can we learn from fire to help create quality place? What characteristics does fire have that attracts people to it (from a social standpoint)? I will outline some of the characteristic of a campire, below, and draw parallels through the lens of wanting to create quality public space. 

1. Security - Fires create both a sense of securing and true safety. We should keep this in mind and strive for the same when creating public spaces.  

2. Democracy / Equality - A campfire is something that is equal to everybody.  Whether someone is rich or poor a campire is equal.  A rich person doesn't want a bigger campfire no more than a soon-to-be rich person does. All of the money in the world can't buy a good fire.  It takes friend, family and acquaintances. [Most] all are welcome around the campfire. 

3. Inviting - A good campfire, as with quality urban space, is inviting. 

4. Romantic lighting - While I'm sure lighting is thought about to every detail (at least I'd hope so), romantic lighting often goes aside for security lighting.  Campfires create a low, flickering light. Walking around parts of Paris, a person senses the value of romantic lighting.  Perhaps, more attention should be paid to ambiance of the light while providing security.  Maybe gas lights would provide a more attractive light than electric.  This could be something to think about, especially when food is served nearby. 

5. Food connection - Sitting around a good fire often involves, at some point, either fresh food or cold drinks.  Quality public space should include food.  You'd want it to be sensitive to the different needs of parks, plazas, sidewalks or transit - but food brings people together.  There is not doubt about that.  Plazas work best when surround by permeable edges.  Little is more permeable than a restaurant.  Portland uses transit at Pioneer Courthouse Square for permeability.  And it works.  But it'd be better with more food around the edges.  Busy bus stops and nearly every train stop could use a small food stand.  Parks could use small concession stands, vending machines, and/ or drinking water. Sidewalks are perfect for food carts.   

Restaurants surround one of my favorite public spaces in the world at the Vrijthof in the Dutch city of Maastricht.   

6. Stimulates multiple senses - Fire stimulates all sense.  It provides light, crackles, warms and provides opportunities to taste delicious food. Parks, plazas, sidewalks and transit can stimulate the senses in some of the same ways - though probably without the crackle.   

7. Smoke - Not usually the best part of a fire and you, generally, want to get away from it.  However, it does provide an aspect of the fire which is true of all wonderful things: they must have a yang for their yin. We could do something similar, though less offensive, in public place. It could be simulated with shade or squirrels.   Perhaps even actual smoke from cooking (w/o meat as to not offend vegetarians and others with the smell).  Maybe have a FOLF course in a shared park.  That'd provide "smoke" for other users.  This is the case in the best park in my hometown of Billings, MT and it, mostly, works (though they could use more signage because it doesn't work so well when people have wedding photos taken in the middle of the fairway to the 2nd hole. The point is to consider smoke when examining fire. 

8. Sitting options - It frequently amazes me how few options people have for sitting in vast portions of the public spaces throughout the city - especially along sidewalks. As William Whyte told about in his documentary, seating is crucial.  He particularly liked moveable seats.  Fires most often offer moveable seating.  A place to rest your bones is crucial within a quality urban habitat for homo sapiens. This is especially true for the elderly and disabled and, especially, at transit stops. Have places to sit invites people "to be" and people watch. Be out in the community.  Sitting. Watching. 

9. Needs maintenance - A quality fire needs upkeep or it will burn out.  It's the same with public space. 

10. Extinguishable - I have a theory that roads are like rivers (especially high velocity, high speed auto-dominated streets).  As water puts out a fire, urban highways make a place much less pleasant a place to stroll with your lover and kiss. High velocity roads put out the fire of public space (as can other things).  

11. Activities -  Us planners call it "programming".  Many great fires have no programmed activities or activities, at all.  And, I'd argue, the best fires (and public spaces) are the ones that need no programs at all.  But many great fires have ghost stories, smores or drinking games.  Many wonderful public spaces, also, have programmed activities like concerns, festivals or carnivals.  These can work very well, but the best public space does not need programmed activities to fill it up.  However, in both the case of fire and urban place, it can provide ritual which pulls the community together. 

Programming provides activities at Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, OR. 

12. Can burn a person - With the good comes that bad.  Always.  When fire is not handled with care it can burn you.  It's the same with public space.  If left deteriorating and neglected, public space can turn into a place of crime and disorder. If attention to detail within the urban context is ignored, these places can become "blank horrors".  Handle with care.

13. Purposefully built - Fires serve many purposes. Sometimes they're for cooking.  Other times for heating or providing light.  At times you just want to hang out by a campfire with friends.  Public space works best when there are multiple reasons for people to visit it. If you wanted and activated urban place, we should try to cover as many reasons as possible for people to visit the space as a destination. 

14. Permeabile / Interactive - This relationship depends on an ongoing relationship with your surroundings in which information is constantly received from the environment in a way that reveals more signals to a levels of security and connectedness.  Fires illuminate and people can poke them with sticks (or kegs of beer). Public space should illuminate the community by connecting people with people and the cities that past generations built. Permeability can be a simple as seeing a tree on the other side of a wall or as complex as a public market in El Salvador.  

15. Has a "zone" - The closer you get to a fire, the brighter and warmer it becomes. Fires radiate and create a zone of light and heat.  You can feel it when you get closer.  Quality public spaces should do the same.  Some of the greatest open squares in the world build as you get closer to them, others seem to come out of nowhere and create a rapid shift to a new zone.  The point is that the public space is only as good as everything around it.  

Moving forward to activate public places 

Now that we've drawn the parallels and seen how we can learn from fire to create quality public places, the next logical step is to compare with something you know and see what aspects of a great campfire can be added to activate and improve the space.

This is something that can be championed by a citizen, professional or politicians and at any scale.  A person who lives in the neighborhood can decide to put out a bench for pedestrians to sit on.  If you have a hotdog stand, maybe you can sell some veggie dogs at the park (though you'll probably need a permit).  Professionals can consider campfires in every planned detail of a city - including sidewalks, transit / TODs (transit-oriented developments), public buildings, plazas, parks and other decisions about urban growth.  As one prominent politician from Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa, said, "You can judge the quality of a project by asking if it makes it a better place to walk, to talk, to do business, to play ... to kiss." 

If we are going to create cities and public space that will engage citizens and create pride in the community, it will take all of us and should engage people from diverse backgrounds.  This falls directly in line with the democratic characteristic of quality campfires.  I learned in a class in Europe that one word repeatedly comes up with the word democracy: pluralism. This can include multiple dimensions of public place from planning to practice.

You can have an entire community gather wood or just a small team, but someone needs to create the spark to get it going. The real campfire happens when people are around it.  

Top ten reasons to plan cities for people (not cars)

Over the past 80+ years city form took on an entirely new shape. The modern - Le Corbusier style - towers, office parks, freeways, and separated uses have dominated the landscape. The automobile has slowly usurped other users from the roads.  

However, the trajectory of urban design is beginning to move away from auto-oriented developments and back to people-oriented communities. The influence of urbanists like Jan Gehl and the transformation of Northern Europe has made its way into the conversations in cities. In the US, New York City has begun to re-engineer their streets to be more hospitable to human beings and Portland is known for helping launch the concept in the United States. However, cities should do much more and people should take top priority above all else. Here are the top ten reasons why:

1. Community -- cities oriented towards people reallocate the common space towards a public space for people to use. This invites a social atmosphere where you can run into an old friend in the street, or make a new one. Humans are social creatures who like people watching and interacting with their community. Designing cities around people, in every aspect, create conditions best suited for the human condition and provide areas that reinforce community.

2. Equity -- Children. Elderly. Disabled. Poor. Otherwise disenfranchised. Cities are not made for these people. Instead, cities have been designed for (and by) the upper middle-class. Turning the common space into a public space opens the access to everyone! I like to think about how a city does or does not work for someone who can not drive. In regards to just transit, lack of transportation to work is one of the biggest inhibitors to pulling people out of extreme poverty. Cities that work well for the most vulnerable citizens tend to work well for everybody.

3. Diversity -- Above all, one of the important aspects of a city is diversity and the options that come with the diversity. This includes diversity of people, buildings, organizations, businesses, etc. As an all encompassing term, diversity drives the city. Planning cities for people adds to the diversity in architecture at the ground level, uses in neighborhoods, uses of streets, number of people outside and - generally - more parks (and, thus, more diversity of parks) and trees. Plus, people of all financial backgrounds are more likely to be outside and meet as equals. 

4. Health -- People-oriented cities encourage citizens to be outside and walk.  I remember my study abroad experience in Maastricht, NL, and we walked or road our bicycles around the city nearly every day. There, the bicycle networks connect between towns and into the countryside.  However, one never feels alone.  There is a sense of security and destination in the regional design that gets everybody out. The more people are outside, walking or bicycling, the less they are sitting in their cars.  Walking is healthy.  Additionally, there are fewer wide automobile travel lanes - which are shown to have the highest rates of
fatal crashes for all users. I apologize for the
picture; I couldn't help myself. 

5. Economy --  Every year we take all of our accumulated wealth and shovel it as fast as we can to the middle east.  On top of that, city coffers all over the country are squeezed.  The new infrastructure for suburbia proves expensive to build and maintain. People-centered-cities have fewer miles of road (per person) and less area to cover with safety services. Also, the diversity of people cities diversifies the wealth through more smaller shops.  Also, there are fewer car crashes which cost. Portland, for example, found that car crashes cost the regional economy $958 million per year.  Plus, homes in people-cities will filter down the economic chain slower. 

6. Sustainability -- Cities planned around people are inherently sustainable in design.  It's possible to build "green" buildings all over the city and still have long distances between buildings and more asphalt than parks. It's a good to build LEED certified buildings but, taken out of the urban context and environment, can lead to negative consequences.  For example, Red Lodge Ales Brewing Company (love the beer) - in Montana - moved from a location downtown to the very edge of town to build a "sustainable" LEED certified building.  This new location is less sustainable because of the removed walkability. When cities are for
people, they are inherently more sustainable. 

7. Safety -- Each year over 30,000 people are killed in automobile-related crashes in the United States alone.  There has been a primary concern about time spent traveling and much less focused on a true increase in safety.  Statistics seem to matter when it's someone you know. Ever since the 1920s, we've known that speed is the cause of deaths.  However, we build things farther apart and people want to get their quickly. Therefor, we build wider roads and that propagate higher speeds. Building cities around people narrows the space between, increases pedestrian safety and creates safer conditions for motorists. The picture is 
of a young woman's ghost bike who was killed
in downtown Portland after being struck by a 
truck. 

8. Beauty -- This is entirely subjective, but when people are slowed down they have time to enjoy the architecture.  If people are speeding by in their cars, there is no reason to care about the architecture of a building. Think about the Modern architecture era and all of blank walls and places devoid of humanism.  Now, think about the older styles -- charm.  Additionally, people cities are generally much more compact and spend less money on roads, sewer, etc and have more money for things like parks, statues and beautification. 

9. Dignity -- Most people in the United States don't own cars.  It's probably higher in other parts of the world.  Yet, in an auto-oriented society, those without cars are often looked down upon as second-class citizens. It's degrading waiting long periods of time for a bus and watching cars zoom by. For younger and older citizens, having a people oriented city gives them independence and dignity - thus rising the dignity of the city. Planning for people (not cars) also gives dignity to the human condition and form. 

10. Connection -- Cities for people build connections with other people of current, past, and future generations.  Due to a high attention required to make cities work for people, they give us more of a chance to connect with the city (sitting, walking, being outside) and encourage an atmosphere of building things worth caring about. Building cities for people builds, something that's been missing, our connectedness with space and time. These cities build things for multiple generations and account for the history of past generations. 

11. WE ARE PEOPLE!!!!! 

Our Forgotten Connection with Time

Humans have lived for thousands of years and, yet, in our current culture we have forgotten about our connection with time.  People are connected through relationships, space and TIME.  We are connected to the people who came before us and we're connected with those who will come after us. Somehow, we don't seem to acknowledge this time aspect in many decisions that are made with regards to cities and the built environment.

 View from above the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Looking back just over 100 years at one of the most exciting times for urban planning, the City Beautiful movement - which took its inspiration from Haussmann's Paris - worked to create a society with order, civil engagement and social integration through placing world-class public space at the top of the agenda. During this time they created parks, monuments and civic buildings that we still appreciate today.  One of the crowning achievements from this era is the National Mall in Washington, DC, where tens of thousands of citizens meet for civic engagement.  The decisions made at that time are strongly connected with time. What do the decisions made today say about our perceived connection with time? How will our decisions impact future generations?  How do they relate to the past?

I can't tell you the last time a monument of epic proportion was constructed in one of America's cities.  Or in nearly any city to tell you the truth.  Can you think of one? When was the last time that we thought, "this is going to stand for many years and future generations will be connected with us through this space?"

Focus on the "NOW!"

Many of the decisions made, today, are made with weighing the costs and benefits - perhaps over the next 20 years for a major project. Generations in the past had the options to develop land in a way similar to what we call urban sprawl, but they resisted.  They did not spread out because they understood that once this land is developed, it will be very difficult to return it to the previous state. Now, we cover these valuable lands in suburban "snout houses" that probably won't be around in 200 years.

Instead of thinking about our actions as connected to our collective past(s) and to the future, there seems to be this overwhelming consensus idea that our form of society will not be around in 100 years.  That should be a sign.  But, instead, we use it as an excuse to build suburbs, shift public resources to private interests and over-consume nearly every resource on the planet.  I'm not even going to delve into petrol-chemicals.

Typical Suburban "Snout Houses"

 

Connection to the Past

We have forgotten our past, at least everything before WWII. Native Americans struggle to hold on to their past, but the dominant culture does its best to squash that memory.  African-Americans try to hold on to their past and remember, but the racial histories are something we don't like to discuss.  Is this why we forgotten our past and are so eager to think about the now?  Is it racism?

No matter the cause of our eager desire to quell our connection with past and the importance of history (it was once now!), in denouncing the importance we do ourselves a disservice in our civics and spiritual peace. We must remember the past, embrace it and learn from it. After all, the post-Depression reforms could have helped prevent our current recession if we'd remembered the lessons and not repealed Glass-Steagall during the '90s. In urban planning, as I mention in this blog post, we have a lot to learn from the pre-modern era. 

A Bright Spot

Sign welcoming you to the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness in Montana

The environmental movement offers a bright spot.  I'm not talking about sustainability and corporate green-washing (though some are good), but the movement that gave rise to the wilderness.  Being from Billings, MT, I appreciate the Beartooth Mountains.  I appreciate their beauty, wonder and natural state.  Getting out there in nature is one of the most calming and clarifying things and individual can do.

When I think about these mountains, and all wilderness areas, I am reminded that they will be preserved for future generations.  As long as the protections aren't watered down, generations 200 years from now will appreciate them in the same was we've been able. We'd do well for ourselves to consider these very long-term aspects as we move forward in our civilization.

It's time to make the connections!

Enrique Peñalosa: Planning Cities for People

Influential urban thinker, Enrique Peñalosa, delivers to a May 2012 crowd at the Gerding Theatre in Portland, OR. 

Here is a video from a project I worked on over this past spring, as the Co-Chair of the PSU Urban Planning Club, to bring Enrique Peñalosa to Portland for a lecture.  He's known as the former Mayor of Bogotá and an influential urban thinker.  He appears in the film Urbanized, which ranked #2 in my top ten list of urban documentaries. 

He did two events while in Portland. One at Metro regional government and another for the public at Portland Center Stage. They went over really well.  I didn't want to blog about it right after because I already posted a video with him in the last post and I wanted some space in between. I just thought you all might be interested in the video. 

Here is the video:

Some things I learned from Enrique while spending three days with him:

1. Stop and smell the flowers

2. Dream big and keep the vision 

3. Get involved in politics and network

4. Write

5. Don't be afraid to push for what you truly believe in. 

Car friendly OR people friendly cites: can't do both.

Car Friendly
We've all tried to cross an über busy street, while walking, near the Wal-Mart(s) in town or can imagine it. The street is screaming with traffic (mostly single occupancy private vehicles) and it seems the only way you can crossis to walk to the stop light (if there is one near) and / or running across the wide street in a life-threatened dash. There may be a sidewalk and there may not - in any case walking is an after thought, if a thought at all, to the designers. You can almost feel like you're breaking the law and waiting for the police to stop you and ask what you're doing ... Dude! Where's my car?

People Friendly
On the other side of things, you may be in a quant little district or downtown area - perhaps sitting outside enjoying a refreshing drink with friends - and you decide to leave. It's easier to get across the street; perhaps there are curb extensions and other traffic calming installments. It's certainly an easier and a much more pleasant place to walk. If you're lucky, perhaps the street is completely closed to people inside of automobiles. You feel at home and a part of the community. If you were in a car, you would want to park it and get out. It's a place for people outside of cars!

Can't Have Both
That's where Enrique Peñalosa comes into the equation. He made a name for himself as the mayor of Bogota, Columbia in the early 2000s. He removed parking, took away lanes for automobiles, installed bus rapid transit, and created a car free day that takes place one time per year - on a week day. This guy makes a lot of sense to me. His basic argument is that we can build cities for cars, or we can build them for people, but we can not do both (think of the two examples above). We must first decide what we want and whether we want a city like Houston or Amsterdam. We must then have the VISION and COURAGE to follow through with that vision.

Watch an interview: