{"id":492,"date":"2011-08-22T08:42:34","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T14:42:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=492"},"modified":"2012-09-29T06:48:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-29T12:48:00","slug":"developing-9th-and-colorado-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=492","title":{"rendered":"Will the Development at 9th and Colorado be Kid-Friendly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District Board was scheduled to meet last week to receive an update from the 9th<\/sup> and Colorado developer and architect, but when I showed up at the designated place no one was there except another confused would-be attendee.\u00a0 Apparently we both missed the memo cancelling or moving the meeting. However, The Denver Post<\/em> ran a story<\/a> about the planned development on Wednesday the 17th<\/sup> that basically reports what we posted here<\/a> last month.\u00a0 Accompanying the story is the following conceptual rendering of the project’s Bellaire Street entry:<\/p>\n

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9th and Colorado (Sembler Co.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Three Post<\/em> readers commented on the article. One was hoping, obviously tongue-in-cheek, for a \u201cbig roller coaster and water slides through the old hospital\u201d, but then offered a more sober hope that a place will be created \u201cfor teens to gather and have fun.\u201d\u00a0 Another reader speculated that the development will \u201creflect new urbanism and be slick and sophisticated.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s probably a sure bet, in which case teens and other young folk might be out of luck.\u00a0 Although New Urbanism prides itself on family-friendliness\u2014witness the many parks, playing fields, and outdoor amenities at the Stapleton<\/a> development in Denver\u2014there\u2019s no guarantee that this will happen.\u00a0 The New Urban retrofit at Belmar<\/a> in Lakewood (a Denver suburb), for example, caters to young urban professionals and adult consumers.\u00a0 The Belmar Plaza is intentionally designed to be skateboard unfriendly (although there was nothing that would have precluded constructing something for kids adjacent to, and inter-visible with, the plaza), and the sign detailing the limits on use of the Belmar Square clearly signals that this is closely monitored and regulated space.<\/p>\n

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Belmar Square Limits of Use Sign (D. Saitta)<\/p><\/div>\n

Ninth and Colorado is certainly small as infill projects go and it obviously can\u2019t cater to every need.\u00a0 But two important people\u2014City Councilwoman Jeanne Robb and Mary Nell Wolff, Chairwoman of the CBHD Board\u2014have expressed desires that the development will \u201cblend into the neighborhood\u201d (Robb) and \u201callow the neighborhoods and the property to work together again\u201d (Wolff).\u00a0 If that sentiment is shared by the developer, architect, and merchants then thought should be given to kids. \u00a0Kids haven\u2019t yet appeared in any of the project’s conceptual renderings, including the one above. \u00a0Bringing them into the picture and the conversation would also be in keeping with a vision of the Inclusive City<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a small literature dealing with kids and urban design that can inform infill development that’s sensitive to the youth demographic of surrounding neighborhoods.\u00a0 Much of the current work plays off of\u00a0Enrique Pe\u00f1alosa<\/a>‘s\u00a0idea that all urban planning should start with children; that they are an \u201cindicator species\u201d for evaluating the livability of a city. Pe\u00f1alosa\u00a0is the former mayor of Bogota who initiated, among other things, the ciclov\u00edas<\/a>\u00a0described in our last post. Extending\u00a0Pe\u00f1alosa’s\u00a0argument,\u00a0Lisa Weston<\/a> specifies that the target audience or \u201cprototypical citizen\u201d for building cities is 11-15 year olds.\u00a0 The rationale is as follows.\u00a0 Environmental psychologists and neuropsychiatrists suggest that the human brain is developing its spatial knowledge and competencies between 11-15 years of age. This is also the age at which kids are independent enough to interact with the urban environment in ways that hone these skills and competencies. \u00a0To maximize such interaction kids must have greater freedom to navigate urban space. A city that challenges and incentivizes kids to develop their spatial competencies by moving around also addresses America\u2019s child obesity problem and the reality that kids made overweight by a sedentary existence usually become overweight adults.\u00a0 Where kids are free to move and learn they also gain in self-esteem, which can improve their social interaction skills.<\/p>\n

As noted above, New Urbanism very often produces built environments that encourage the development of spatial competency by virtue of its emphasis on compact, dense, walkable, and mixed use communities allowing easy access to a variety of public amenities like parks and playgrounds. \u00a0Variety should also characterize neighborhood architecture. This is arguably a more elusive goal given that New Urbanism tends to trade in a very traditional, small town America architectural style<\/a> that, though appealing to a large chunk of the American middle-class, is for many critics becoming far too commonplace on the American landscape. \u00a0If identifying and naming landmarks is important for cultivating powers of spatial thinking (as Weston seems to suggest), then architectural diversity beyond that offered up by the New Urbanism might better serve the cause of childhood cognitive development.<\/p>\n

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New Urbanist Architecture: Highlands’ Garden Village, Denver<\/p><\/div>\n

Many other aspects of the built environment can also serve this cause. Researchers say that apartment houses no taller than four stories incentivize a child\u2019s interaction with their friends. \u00a0Any greater distance between floors or between floor and street gives kids excuses to stay inside and play video games.\u00a0 Rooftop play areas and the kinds of qualities that would be at home in Latino Urbanism<\/a>\u2014courtyards, shared backyards, and wide sidewalks\u2014further benefit cognitive and social development. Interactive pieces of public art and water features are always huge attractors for kids. \u00a0Multifunctional street furniture like gazebos accommodate sitting and a variety of other activities that allow self and small group expression. \u00a0Failing that, there are always bushwaffles<\/a>\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Finally, a pedestrian bridge over Colorado at 9th Avenue–if not precluded by the General Development Plan or some other legal or logistical obstacle–would neatly thread the new infill development into the adjacent Congress Park neighborhood and, indeed, offer a straight shot westward into the eponymous park via the connecting 9th Avenue.\u00a0 This one feature alone would greatly expand the size of the urban environment through which children of appropriate age can independently move and learn.<\/p>\n

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Congress Park Neighborhood<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Boulevard Healthcare District Board was scheduled to meet last week to receive an update from the 9th and Colorado developer and architect, but when I showed up at the designated place no one was there except another confused […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9th-and-colorado"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-7W","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=492"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2070,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/492\/revisions\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}