LA 1401 - Final

The Destruction and Renewal of the Historic Metropolis - Tung

Explores the complex global history of urban preservation. Examines hoe a conservation ethic awakened in various cultures a response to the devastating impacts of war, modernization, and economic indifference.

Tung analyzes 20 different cities to understand why some architectural heritages survived while others were lost:

• Warsaw, Poland: Tung details the heroic efforts of citizens who hid architectural drawings from Nazi "Destruction Squads" to rebuild their city after the war.

• Singapore: He observes the "blind rush" toward modernization and the subsequent realization of the need for cultural preservation.

• Amsterdam, Netherlands: The book traces modern preservation roots back to "medieval communal water boards".

• China and Japan: Tung notes a different approach to conservation that focuses on maintaining the "original aesthetic" and spiritual essence rather than just the original physical materials.

• Cairo and Venice: He addresses the modern challenges of failing infrastructure and the pressures of tourism vs. historical preservation.

Open Rivers: On the Uncompromising Hand: Remembering Spirit Island

Explores the historical destruction of the sacred Dakota site of Spirit Island for industrial development. The essay documents this colonial erasure and links to the author’s public art installation that visualized the island’s absence at the Upper St. Anthony Falls Lock.

Hill’s Folly: James J Hill and the Stone Arch Bridge

A title given by skeptics during its construction (1881–1883) who doubted the necessity and safety of building such a massive stone structure rather than a conventional iron one. Commissioned by railroad tycoon James J. Hill for his St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway, the bridge ultimately proved to be an engineering marvel and a vital link for the city's economic boom.

Credits doubted it curved design and $650,000 price tag.

500-1,000 men worked around the clock, using electric lights and hand-excavated piers to complete the 23-arch structure.

Citizen Jane: Battle for the City

Chronicles the high-stakes clash between visionary activist Jane Jacobs and “Master Builder” Robert Moses in mid-20th century New York.

The “David vs. Goliath” Struggle": Details Jacob’s fight to save historic neighborhood like Greenwich Village, SoHo, and Little Italy from Moses’ plans for massive expressways and high-rise housing projects.

Competing Visions: It contrasts Moses’ top-down approach, which prioritized automobiles and clearance of “slums:, with Jacobs’ belief in the “ballet of the sidewalk” and organic, community-led urban ecosystems.

Key Victories: Featured battles include the successful effects to block the Lower Manhattan Expressway (LOMEX) and the fight to save Washington Square Park from being split by a road.

Social Life of Small Urban Spaces - William H. Whyte

Whyte’s "nonchalant" and "meditative" narration explains why some spaces thrive while others remain empty "dead zones":

• Sittable Space: His most famous conclusion was that "people tend to sit where there are places to sit". He strongly advocated for moveable chairs over fixed benches to allow for social flexibility.

• Triangulation: He coined this term to describe how a third element—such as a street performer, a sculpture, or a food vendor—acts as a catalyst to bring strangers together in conversation.

• The Power of Food: Whyte noted that food vendors are a primary draw for people, often serving as the "anchor" of a successful public space.

• Sun and Water: He debunked the idea that sun was the only factor in sitting patterns, though it remained important. He also highlighted the psychological "white noise" of water features like those in Paley Park.

Lasting Impact

The film was instrumental in changing New York City’s zoning codes in 1975, requiring developers to include specific amenities like seating and easy street access in exchange for "plaza bonuses".

The Experience of Place: Connectedness - Hiss

Argues that human well-being and identity are deeply linked to the surrounding environment through kinship, partnership, and community-companionability. Highlights “simultaneous perception” and a “continuum of experience” as essential to how people perceive and interact with, rather than just occupy, space.

Simultaneous Perception

• A "sixth sense" that allows individuals to experience their surroundings and internal reactions simultaneously. This inherited, "diffuse awareness" contrasts with narrow, pinpoint focus by creating a calm, expansive state of relaxed alertness that connects people to their environment, such as when experiencing the vastness of Grand Central Terminal.

What is Public Space? - K. Miller

Public space is not a fixed entity, but a '“tenuous condition” and a “hybrid of actual physical places and active public spheres”. Miller argues that public spaces are constantly shaped by competing forces, including laws, economics, and design, which often render the presumed democratic nature of these areas temporary or absent.

From the Social Life of Small Urban Spaces: Essential - Whyte

Posits that successful public spaces rely on key elements, primarily that people are most attracted to other people. Essential factors for vibrant, well-used spaces include accessible seating, street connectivity, sunlight, food, water, trees, and “triangulation”.

Fast-Tracking Culture and Landscape” H.W.S. Cleveland and the Garden in the Midwest -Lance M. Neckar

Examines how landscape architect Cleveland applied Eastern transcendentalist and aesthetic theories to the rapidly expanding cities of the American Midwest.

• The "Wants of the West": Neckar explores Cleveland's belief that Midwestern cities, developing rapidly along rail lines, needed immediate "fast-tracking" of cultural landscapes to prevent them from becoming chaotic and unrefined.

• Economic Pragmatism: Cleveland argued that investing in parks and parkways early was an economic necessity. He pointed to the rising land values around New York's Central Park as proof that preservation and beautification attract residents and capital.

• Emersonian Roots: The essay traces Cleveland's "organic" design approach back to his Unitarian roots and the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. This philosophy prioritized preserving natural features—like river banks and waterfalls—over artificial, "needless" ornamentation.

• The Minneapolis Grand Rounds: A significant portion of the work discusses Cleveland's 1883 proposal, "Suggestions for a System of Parks and Parkways," which envisioned the interconnected loop of green space that still defines Minneapolis today.

Minnesota Common Ground: Linear Landscapes (1995)

Highlights the Minneapolis Grand Rounds as a deliberate, continuous network connecting urban life through green space. The work emphasizes how Cleveland's design utilized natural, linear features like the Mississippi River and the Chain of Lakes to create public, experiential parkways.

Parks for the People - PBS

1. Parks for the People (Twin Cities PBS)

This local documentary, produced by Twin Cities PBS (TPT), focuses on the origins and evolution of the park systems in Minneapolis and St. Paul.

• Core Theme: It explores how a landscape that was once largely treeless prairie was transformed into a one-of-a-kind urban park system.

• Highlights: The film highlights the role of the Minneapolis Grand Rounds and the impact of trees and lake preservation on community building.

Being Surrounded by Green Space in Childhood May Improve Mental Health of Adults - NPR

Indicates that growing up in green spaces can reduce the risk of adult mental health disorders by up to 55%. The study, tracking nearly one million people, found that increased childhood exposure to nature offers long-term protective benefits for mental well-being.

The Importance of Greenspace for Mental Health - PMC

Indicates that urban green spaces are vital for mental health, contributing to reduced stress, lower levels of depression, and improved attention restoration. These benefits are driven by environmental improvements, increased opportunities for physical activity, and enhanced social cohesion, with, for instance, green exercise reducing poor mental health risks by 6% for each extra weekly use.

Denatured Visions: Landscape and Culture in the Twentieth Century - Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe

The book explores the "denaturing" of the modern world—how industrialization and urbanization severed the traditional link between human culture and the natural landscape.

• The Search for Meaning: Jellicoe’s essay, titled "The Search for a Lost Paradise," argues that modern landscape architecture must go beyond mere aesthetics or utility. He believes it should tap into the "collective unconscious" to restore a spiritual and psychological connection to nature.

• Landscape as Art: Jellicoe treats the landscape as a "total work of art," integrating history, philosophy, and Jungian psychology. He discusses how designers can use symbols and subconscious associations to make urban spaces feel "natural" again.

• The "Jellicoe Vision": He reflects on his own major projects, such as the Sutton Place gardens and the Kennedy Memorial at Runnymede, as attempts to reconcile modern man with his ancient, primal relationship to the earth.

Why Public Art Matter - Americans for the Arts: Public Art Network Council

Outlines how public art functions as a vital tool for economic vitality, social cohesion, public health, and cultural legacy. The brief positions public art as essential for community identity, fostering dialogue, and fostering safer, more vibrant environments.

Explained: World’s Water Crisis

Examines the growing global threat of water scarcity and the high stakes of managing this finite resource.

• The "Day Zero" Threat: The documentary highlights cities like Cape Town, which nearly became the first major modern city to run out of fresh water. Other cities cited as being at risk in the coming decades include London, São Paulo, Tokyo, and Mexico City.

• Scarcity vs. Availability: While 70% of Earth is water, only less than 1% is liquid freshwater available for human use.

• Drivers of Crisis: The film identifies several key factors straining supply:

  • Agriculture and Industry: These sectors account for roughly 90% of freshwater use.

  • Dietary Choices: It famously points out that a single quarter-pound hamburger requires approximately 460 gallons of water to produce.

  • Climate Change: Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns make existing water supplies more erratic.

• Water Inequity: It explores the tension between treating water as a commodity that must be priced fairly to encourage conservation versus a human right that should be universally accessible.

Explore More: Water Quality

Examines the critical importance of freshwater resources and the multifaceted threats they face. The program emphasizes that while water is abundant of Earth, only about 1% is available as usable freshwater in rivers, lakes, and groundwater.

• Water Quality Basics: An introduction to the physical, chemical, and biological conditions that determine water health.

• Pollution Sources: Detailed looks at how urban runoff, manure, and agricultural practices contribute to pollutants like nitrates and pesticides in waterways.

• Hydrology: Exploration of the water cycle and how human interference, such as tiling and industrial use, impacts water flow and quality.

• Community Responses: Examples of local efforts to improve water quality, such as Remsen, Iowa converting cropland to native grasses to reduce nitrate levels.

Home Economics: Preserving Wildness - Wendell Berry

Challenges the conventional view that “wildness'“ is something only found in remote, untouched wilderness. Instead, he argues that preserving wildness is an essential part of maintaining a healthy, domestic human economy.

• Wildness vs. Wilderness: Berry argues that wildness is a self-sustaining force of nature that exists everywhere—including in our farm fields and backyards. He suggests that we cannot protect "wilderness" as a weekend getaway while destroying the "wildness" of our own local ecosystems through industrial greed.

• The "Local" Economy: The title Home Economics refers to his belief that a true economy should be based on the "management of the home." He posits that if we don't respect the wild, natural limits of the places where we live and work, we eventually bankrupt our own survival.

• Human Scale and Restraint: Berry advocates for a "proper" scale of human activity. He believes that the destruction of nature stems from a lack of humility; by assuming we can control everything, we lose the very biological health that sustains us.

• Connectivity: Similar to the themes in Tony Hiss's The Experience of Place, Berry emphasizes that humans are not separate from nature. A "preserved" forest is useless if the soil in the surrounding farmland is being washed away by poor management

• Agrarianism: Promoting the value of small-scale, sustainable farming.

• Conservation Ethic: Moving beyond "locking up" nature to "working with" nature.

• Environmental Philosophy: Influencing modern movements like regenerative agriculture and "slow" living.

Rachel Carson and the Origin of Scientific Environmentalism - BBVA

Carson transformed environmentalism into a scientific movement by utilizing her background as a marine biologist to expose the dangers of chemical misuse in Silent Springs. Her work popularized the ecological concept of biomagnification and established the precautionary principle as a foundation for environmental policy, leading to the creation of the EPA.

Wetlands - MN Department of Natural Resources

Manages and protects the state’s original wetlands acreage. These ecosystems are essential for flood control, water purification, and supporting 43% of the U.S.’s threatened or endangered species.

The DNR classifies Minnesota's wetlands into eight primary types based on their Circular 39 system, ranging from seasonally flooded basins to deep marshes:

• Type 1: Seasonally Flooded Basins – Shallow depressions that hold water briefly in spring or after heavy rains.

• Type 2: Wet Meadows – Saturated soils dominated by grasses and sedges, typically without standing water.

• Type 3: Shallow Marshes – Often waterlogged with 6+ inches of water; common habitats for cattails and smartweeds.

• Type 4: Deep Marshes – Inundated with 6 inches to 3 feet of water, supporting wild rice and bulrushes.

• Type 5: Shallow Open Water – Ponds and reservoirs under 10 feet deep, managed under the DNR's Shallow Lakes Program.

• Type 6: Shrub Swamps – Waterlogged areas featuring alder, willow, and dogwood.

• Type 7: Wooded Swamps – Forested wetlands with tamarack, black ash, and northern white cedar.

• Type 8: Bogs – Unique peatlands with a "spongy" moss covering, found extensively in Northcentral Minnesota.

Regulation and Protection

Wetlands in Minnesota are protected by a "no net loss" policy to ensure that any drained or filled wetlands are replaced with restored or created ones.

• Public Waters Permit Program: The DNR directly regulates activities in "public waters" wetlands.

• Wetland Conservation Act (WCA): Administered by local governments with oversight from the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), this act regulates most other wetlands.

• Calcareous Fens: These rare, groundwater-fed wetlands receive the highest level of protection and are exclusively regulated by the DNR.

Master Plan Recommendations: Natural Resources

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) utilizes its Natural Areas Plan and Ecological System Plan to transition park management toward restoring native biodiversity, enhancing resilience, and expanding managed habitats by 120 acres by 2026. Key strategies include controlling invasive species, expanding the urban tree canopy, improving water quality through enhanced stormwater management, and increasing ecological restoration along the Mississippi River.

Case Study #11: Stormwater Retention Ponds: Maintenance vs. Efficiency

Demonstrates that maintaining a 21-day residence time in retention ponds is crucial for achieving 55% nutrient removal efficiency. The study highlights that sediment reduction significantly decreases this efficiency, making regular dredging essential for long-term stormwater management.

Using the Place Creation Myth to Develop Design Guidelines for Sacred Space (A Peculiar Method) - Mike Brill

Proposes that effective spaces must evoke the creation myth, using elements like the "center" and "boundary" to bring order from chaos. His "peculiar method" translates these mythic archetypes into design principles for creating emotionally resonant, "sacred" environments in both religious and public contexts.

Spiritual Path, Sacred Place: Myth, Ritual, and Meaning in Architecture - Thomas Barrie

Explores how architecture serves as a physical map of spiritual journeys. He argues that sacred spaces are not just static buildings but are designed to facilitate a transformative experience through movement and symbolism.

Barrie breaks down the "path-place" relationship into several core elements:

• The Path (Procession): He emphasizes that the journey to and through a space is as important as the destination. This "sacred path" often symbolizes the soul’s journey or an initiation rite, using architectural sequences to transition the visitor from the profane world to the sacred.

• The Place (Center): The "place" represents the axis mundi or the center of the world. It is the destination where the divine and human realms meet.

• Myth and Ritual: Barrie argues that sacred architecture is "myth made stone." The design reflects the cosmology of the culture that built it, providing a setting where rituals can reenact foundational myths.

• Architectural Elements: He identifies specific tools architects use to create meaning, such as:

  • Boundary and Threshold: Walls, gates, and doorways that mark the separation of spaces.

  • Orientation: Aligning buildings with celestial bodies or geographic markers.

  • Light and Geometry: Using mathematical order and light to evoke a sense of the divine.

The Geography of Nowhere: Yesterday’s Tomorrow - Kunstler

Argues that mid-20th-century visions of a high-tech, car-centric future directly engineered modern American suburban sprawl. It details how the 1939 World's Fair's "Futurama" exhibit sold this dystopian, automobile-focused lifestyle to the public, transforming it from a designed dream into a chaotic reality. This chapter bridges earlier historical analysis with later discussions on the loss of traditional, human-scale community planning, highlighting this shift as a deliberate choice rather than an accident.

Tomorrowland Never Dies - Bruce Handy

The article explores the cultural and aesthetic evolution of Tomorrowland, the futuristic-themed land at Disney's theme parks.

The Loss of Optimism: Handy examines how mid-20th-century visions of a "technological utopia" (such as vacations on the moon) eventually gave way to a messier, more "jaundiced" reality.

• Retrofuturism: The piece discusses Disney's shift toward "yesterday's heroic tomorrow"—a style known as retrofuturism—as a way to make an emotional connection with visitors through nostalgia rather than trying to predict an actual, rapidly changing future.

• Cultural Shifts: Handy reflects on why the public’s appetite for looking forward has dulled, suggesting that real-life technological progress (like microwave ovens and cell phones) often feels prosaic compared to the grand dreams of the 1950s.

Three Models for the Future of Practice - Thomas Fisher

Argues that architects must evolve beyond traditional design to include roles as strategic, public health, and research specialists to remain relevant. He advocates for managing both "visible systems" and "invisible systems" like economics and public health to foster a more resilient society. Read more about the changing landscape of architectural practice via.

Simultaneous Perception

Subconscious process of navigation and interpretation, with a multiplicity of senses challenged at once, “utter watchfulness”, an almost 6th sense, helping us to recognize larger patterns of organization relationships.

Mental Mapping, Cognitive Mapping

In behavioral geography, a mental map is a person’s point-of-view perception of their area of interaction.

Wayfinding - “The Image of the City” - Kevin Lynch

Paths: the routes people travel (streets, sidewalks, trails).

Edges: the boundaries people perceive (walls, buildings, shorelines).

Districts: the sectors of a city that embody some character or identity.

Nodes: the focal points created by intersecting elements.

Landmarks: the easily identifiable objects that create reference points.

Paths

Architect: uses the lens of physical structure, thinking of a path as an outdoor hall with windows and doors into adjacent rooms.

Ecologist: sees it as a landscape corridor for movement of soil, water, air, and humans or other creatures.

Mathematician: thinks of it as a segment in a network of lines, axes, nodes, loops, and the shape of spaces formed between them.

Psychologist: thinks of them as ways to satisfy needs, means to ends, and the fields in which the human psyche operates.

Bennet Plan - The Plan of Minneapolis - 1917

Informed by the Beaux-Arts - Chicago Columbia Exhibition - The White City - The City Beautiful Reform Movement.

The plan was to address the Mississippi Rivers banks, transportation infrastructure, location of public buildings (municipal, art, administrative).

Results were axial parkways lined with exemplary neo-classical buildings who affect demonstrated civic pride and monumental grandeur.

Avenue of the Arts - Six Broad Objectives

Highlight the arts.

Celebrate diversity.

Connect civic buildings and spaces.

Create a signature street.

Complement neighborhoods.

Facilitate partnerships in meetings these objectives.

Avenue of the Arts

Become a multi-use corridor, serving office workers, commuters and tourists, while emphasizing the arts and culture of Minneapolis.

Provide an identity for historic brownstone apartment buildings and modern corporate towers alike, connecting divers sectors of the city.

Encompasses a three-mile segment of Third Avenue from the Mississippi River to MIA. A major downtown transit street, Third Avenue also passes the Convention Center before crossing 94 and entering a historic residential neighborhood.

Avenue of the Arts - Connection and Context

Classically styled streetscape elements in neutral material provide continuity through diverse neighborhoods.

Intersection treatments and themed kiosks were developed to link the various districts.

To strengthen the connection across I-94 and encourage walking between districts, an artist designed bridge was proposed by the Master Plan and is now under construction.

In downtown 10-13’ wide raised medians are proposed for trees, shrubs and sculpture.

Dozens of opportunities for art installations and performance on public and private property are planned for.

Kiosks publicize local performance and gallery art.

Facades of buildings and roofs of bus shelters become urban canvasses for projected paintings, contemporary and classical.

The 1917 Plan of Minneapolis

Originally proposed a grand boulevard connection from the city’s riverfront to the newly built MIA.

In the 21st century, Avenue of the Arts will realize and expand upon this goal by creating an innovative new urban corridor that celebrates the many forms of art and culture alive in the city of Minneapolis.

This unique arts-based streetscape, in turn, becomes the catalyst for much-needed urban connection and renewal.

Sense of Place

A strong identity and character that is deeply felt by local inhabitants and by many visitors. It may be derived from the natural environment, but is more often made up of a mic of natural and cultural features in the landscape, and generally includes the people that occupy the place - attachment, uniqueness, distinct identity, landmarks.

Placelessness

Landscape that have no special relationship to the places in which they are located - they could by anywhere - standardization, generic, lacking distinction and intuitive connectedness.

Place of Movement and Threads of Connectivity

Navigation, linear conduits, streets, sidewalks, paths.

Places for Stopping

Destination, community focal point, gathering, seating, recreation, civic demonstration, commerce, ceremonial.

Place Interconnectivity

Orientation, successional experience.

Wayfinding

The criteria determine the navigability of a space:

• Whether the navigator can discover or infer his present location

• Whether a route to the destination can be found

• How well the navigator can accumulate wayfinding experience in the space.

Principle of Effective Wayfinding

Create an identity at each location, different from all others.

Use landmarks to provide orientation cues and memorable locations.

Create well-structured paths.

Create regions of differing visual character.

Don’t give the user too many choices in navigation.

Provide signs at decision points to help wayfinding decisions.

Use sight lines to dhow what’s ahead.

Urban Green

Historically the town green is an open place (marketplace) in a city, village, settlement.

• Uniquely a place for livestock (protection) grassland, water feature.

• Notably a central communal place for civic meeting and gathering.

• Can be a place for civic institutions with unique anchors: church, prison, school, parade ground, burial grounds.

New Haven CT - First planned city in the U.S. 1638

Size determined by the number of people believed to be spared in the second coming of Christ 144,000.

16 acres 4,000-5,000 people are buried here

Private land for public benefit.

Tiananmen Square Beijing, China 1651

The Tiananmen Gate ("Gate of Heavenly Peace"), a gate in the wall of the Imperial City, was built in 1415 during the Ming dynasty. In the 17th century, fighting between Li Zicheng’s rebel forces and the forces of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty caused heavy damage to, or even destroyed, the gate. Tiananmen Square was designed and built in 1651, and has since been enlarged by four times its original size in the 1950s.

Ties Square NY, NY 1600-present

Times Square functions as a town square, but is not geometrically a square; it is closer in shape to a bowtie, with two triangles emanating roughly north and south from 45th Street, where Seventh Avenue intersects Broadway. Broadway runs diagonally, crossing through the horizontal and vertical street grid of Manhattan laid down by the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811, and that intersection creates the "bowtie" shape of Times Square

St. Peter’s Square, Vatican City

The open space which lies before the basilica was redesigned by Gian Lorenzo Bernini from 1656 to 1667, under the direction of Pope Alexander VII, as an appropriate forecourt, designed "so that the greatest number of people could see the Pope give his blessing, either from the middle of the façade of the church or from a window in the Vatican Palace"

Trafalgar Square London, UK 1840

Trafalgar Square (celebrating success the Battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleonic Wars) of is owned by the King in Right of the Crown and managed by the Greater London Authority, while Westminster City Council owns the roads around the square, including the pedestrianised area of the North Terrace. The square contains a large central area with roadways on three sides and a terrace to the north, in front of the National Gallery The roads around the square form part of the A4, a major road running west of the City of London. The square was formerly surrounded by a one-way traffic system, but works completed in 2003 reduced the width of the roads and closed the northern side to traffic. Centrally marked by a column topped by Horatio Nelson