{"id":878,"date":"2011-12-12T18:04:51","date_gmt":"2011-12-13T01:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=878"},"modified":"2013-06-28T10:14:09","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T16:14:09","slug":"new-urbanism-in-comparative-and-intercultural-perspective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/?p=878","title":{"rendered":"New Urbanism in Comparative and Intercultural Perspective"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denver is well-known nationally as a city dedicated to New Urbanist development.\u00a0 Several projects in the city\u2014most notably Belmar<\/a>, Stapleton<\/a>, and Highlands Garden Village (HGV)<\/a>\u2014have received lots of prominent press<\/a> and some significant praise<\/a>.\u00a0 The Congress for the New Urbanism<\/a> has visited Denver twice, most recently in 2009.<\/p>\n

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Denver\u2019s New Urbanist projects have had a number of years to mature. \u00a0Accordingly, I sent students in my Culture and The City<\/a> course to compare and contrast two of them.\u00a0 Specifically, their task was to (1) discuss how each project conforms to New Urbanist goals and ideals; (2) critically evaluate their prospects for success in light of current ideas about urban ecological and cultural sustainability; and (3) identify the development that they would most like to live in, and explain why.<\/p>\n

The class was an interdisciplinary and international extravaganza.\u00a0 I had majors from across the Arts and Sciences, plus six foreign exchange students from Italy, Britain, and the Czech Republic.\u00a0 Rounding out the class were one Hispanic-American student and an African student from Liberia. Of the 28 enrollees 5 were Sustainability minors<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0Four were anthropology graduate students working in the field of museum and heritage studies.<\/p>\n

I previously reported the lessons learned from assignments that asked the students to play the BMW-Guggenheim Lab\u2019s\u00a0Urbanology<\/a> game and analyze \u00a0Civic Center Park<\/a>.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t very well let them get away without dissecting the urban phenomenon for which Denver is arguably most famous. The assignment takes on added interest in light of Christopher Leinberger\u2019s<\/a> recent New York Times<\/em> piece suggesting that the \u201cMillennial\u201d generation of current college students is increasingly being drawn to compact, walkable cities like those promoted by New Urbanism (for some reader responses, go here<\/a>).\u00a0 Thus, the assignment was an opportunity to learn what kind<\/em> of New Urbanist development most interested a group of international Millennials.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Students were required to visit Belmar \u00a0because it has been comprehensively described by Dunham-Jones and Williamson in chapter 8 of <\/a>Retrofitting Suburbia<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 They could choose one other project, either Highland Gardens Village, Stapleton, or The Streets at SouthGlenn<\/a>. Next year I will likely give students carte blanche to compare any two projects of their choosing, with Central Platte Valley<\/a>, Curtis Park<\/a>, and Lowry<\/a> also thrown into the mix.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In addition to the Belmar reading students were assigned The Charter of New Urbanism<\/a>, an excerpt from chapter 7 of Phil Wood and Charles Landry\u2019s\u00a0The Intercultural City<\/a><\/em>,\u00a0 Jeb Brugmann\u2019s chapter on \u00a0\u201cBuilding Local Culture: Reclaiming the Streets of Gr\u00e0cia District, Barcelona\u201d in his Welcome to the Urban Revolution<\/a><\/em>, and Mike Davis\u2019s chapter on \u201cFortress LA\u201d in City of Quartz<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0They could also dip into a previously assigned classic from Jane \u00a0Jacobs<\/a>. I steered them to some concepts in this body of work that struck me as especially relevant.\u00a0 Foremost among these was Wood and Landry\u2019s notion of \u201ccultural literacy\u201d and how the \u201cbasic building blocks of the city\u201d\u2014street frontages, building heights, set-backs, public space, etc.\u2014look different when viewed through \u201cintercultural eyes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 I wanted students to consider the extent to which New Urban projects exemplified the Barcelona urbanist\u2019s particular concept of espai public<\/em>\u2014defined as a distinctive \u201cthird territory of streets and squares where private interests and public uses are vitally interwoven.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0Davis\u2019 book<\/a> is a veritable cornucopia of useful and provocative concepts.\u00a0 I wanted students to attend to his notions of \u201cspatial apartheid\u201d and the \u201carchisemiotics\u201d of built form–the latter broadly understood to cover the meanings conveyed by a project\u2019s architecture, advertising images associated with the project, and other features of the designed environment.<\/p>\n

The vast majority of students chose to compare Belmar and HGV. \u00a0Their analyses made for interesting reading.\u00a0 There was a strong convergence of opinion as regards the virtues of these projects.\u00a0 All students appreciated their commitments to building green and especially Belmar\u2019s investment in harvesting solar and wind power. Belmar\u2019s public square and restaurant patios\u2014combined with the \u201cBig Windows\u201d of retail spaces that maximized the intervisibility of private and public space\u2014were identified as the best examples of New Urban espai public<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0A smaller number of\u00a0students appreciated the significance of Belmar\u2019s Block 7 Arts and Design district\u00a0while expressing<\/p>\n

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Retail Space, Patio, and Street at Belmar<\/p><\/div>\n

concern that there wasn\u2019t more public\u00a0art on Belmar\u2019s streets (as promised by its development plan). \u00a0The Community Garden at HGV drew a lot of favorable\u00a0comment. Europeans in particular liked the way that HGV\u2019s winding roads\u00a0and pathways broke up the older street grid. Americans and Europeans alike appreciated the preservation of historical structures dating to the site\u2019s use as Elitch\u00a0Gardens Amusement Park: the old 1891 Theatre building and the 1926 Carousel Pavilion. \u00a0The former is destined to become performing arts center and the latter\u00a0is already serving as a site of<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Community Garden at Highlands Garden Village<\/p><\/div>\n

various community events such as concerts and farmer\u2019s markets. \u00a0One graduate student who analyzed The Streets at SouthGlenn identified its branch of the Arapahoe Public Library as best exemplifying the \u201cspaces of day-to-day exchange\u201d that Wood and Landry have found to be among the most popular for intercultural populations in Britain.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Library (right) and Pedestrian Promenade at The Streets at SouthGlenn<\/p><\/div>\n

Despite these virtues students were unsparing in their criticism.\u00a0 Belmar was often described as a \u201cpackaged\u201d experience, with students using words like “commercial”, “artificial”, “inauthentic”, and “branded” to make their case.\u00a0 Some likened Belmar to an \u201coutdoor mall\u201d and the kind of downtown that\u2019s more befitting an alpine ski resort than a Denver suburb that\u2019s looking to become more urbane. One graduate student \u00a0wondered if Belmar\u2019s Lily Pad Lane\u2014a pedestrian path with rainforest motif and piped-in nature sounds\u2014was inconsistent with the commitment to build a \u201creal\u201d downtown for Lakewood. \u00a0A similar sentiment was expressed with respect to the music that\u2019s piped into The Streets of Southglenn\u2014the feeling being that these should be chaotic, cacophonous spaces rather than clinical ones akin to the old indoor shopping malls that they’ve replaced.\u00a0 A British student remarked that Belmar\u2019s \u201cHigh Street\u201d was curiously empty on a lovely Saturday afternoon in autumn. American and European students alike commented that, at the time of their weekend visits, there was more activity in Belmar’s \u00a0\u201cBig Box\u201d store parking lots than on its streets.\u00a0 Indeed, for all students the Big Boxes compromised the scale and intimacy of the Belmar and SouthGlenn developments.<\/p>\n

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Lily Pad Lane, Belmar<\/p><\/div>\n

Students noted that investments in ethnic and cultural diversity \u00a0at Belmar were lacking aside from the annual Festival Italiano<\/a> and the sprinkling of ethnic restaurants.\u00a0 No one mentioned it, but Wood and Landry\u2019s use of the term \u201ccultural cross-dressing\u201d to refer to these (superficial) indicators of interculturalism would have been appropriate.\u00a0 One student was struck by the police presence at Belmar, contrasting it with the \u201ceyes on the street\u201d that would be the most important security feature of Jacobs\u2019s \u201ctwo-shift\u201d city.\u00a0 Several perceptive comments were made about the semiotics of built space at both Belmar and SouthGlenn.\u00a0 Retail advertising in both places is targeted to white people, especially young, middle-class women. One student noted that the array of medical services available at HGV (where dedicated housing for seniors is one component of the residential complex) signaled not only something about generational makeup \u00a0but also the class and discretionary income of residents (e.g., a chiropractor\u2019s office). \u00a0“Neighborhood Watch<\/a>” signs at HGV did not escape notice.<\/p>\n

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Advertisement at The Streets at Southglenn<\/p><\/div>\n

A large number of students focused on the Charter for New Urbanism\u2019s call for developments that seamlessly connect to their surroundings. \u00a0\u00a0Most students didn\u2019t see it.\u00a0 \u00a0At Belmar the broad, six lane avenues that \u00a0border the project to the north and west were seen to function as de facto \u201cgates\u201d \u00a0separating it from the adjacent (and largely Hispanic) neighborhoods. HGV was seen to blend a little<\/p>\n

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Alameda Avenue, Belmar’s Northern Boundary (Belmar is to the right)<\/p><\/div>\n

bit more into its context, but students still commented on how even here the project edges are a bit jarring. \u00a0One European student who visited HGV, Belmar, and Stapleton commented\u00a0that the trip to these places by public transport (from their flat at the university) took about three times as long as by car.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

View to the Northeast Edge of Highlands Garden Village<\/p><\/div>\n

The other\u00a0Charter ideal that drew comments was housing. \u00a0Many students noted the diversity of housing options available at both Belmar and HGV. \u00a0Affordability, however, was seen to be \u00a0another matter.\u00a0 Some students provided comparative data suggesting that housing prices were likely prohibitive for people who weren’t urban professionals, and questioned whether people working at retail businesses in these projects could also afford to live there (a key New Urbanist ambition). \u00a0One student sought an answer by interviewing a (non-white) person working at a Belmar Information Desk. This woman had been a resident at one time, but now lives elsewhere.\u00a0 Interestingly, she reported that Belmar is being increasingly occupied by aging Baby Boomers and college-attending Millennials. This observation is consistent with the realtor survey data reported by Leinberger in his New York Times<\/em> piece.<\/p>\n

Student preferences for the development in which they\u2019d most like to live were interesting and, to some extent, surprising. American student opinion was decidedly mixed, favoring Belmar by 58% to 42%.\u00a0 \u00a0The case for Belmar turns on it being viewed as a livelier place, with access to a greater variety of activities and services.\u00a0 American Millennials \u00a0also preferred Belmar\u2019s modernist architectural aesthetic over the more traditional pitched roof and front porch aesthetic of HGV.\u00a0 Conversely, European Millennials favored HGV over Belmar by a decisive 80% to 20%.\u00a0\u00a0 Key to the European students\u2019 evaluation was HGV\u2019s location and surroundings. \u00a0Although HGV has an older demographic young Europeans liked the easier bus access to Denver\u2019s downtown, the project\u2019s fit with other parts of the renewed Highlands area<\/a>, and the overall greater feel of community. Some liked the pastel colors and \u201cfolk\u201d character of \u00a0HGV architecture that reminded them of small towns in Europe.\u00a0 One liked HGV because the Carousel Pavilion reminded her of the gazebos to be found in many city centers in the Czech Republic. Apropos the \u201cwider context\u201d consideration, one British student very perceptively said of Belmar that \u201cI don\u2019t feel that the local area understands it well enough to welcome it properly\u201d and that it lacks an identity (the subtle attempts to \u201cbrand\u201d itself reported by Dunham-Jones and Williamson notwithstanding). Finally, my four graduate students expressed four different preferences (opting for Belmar, The Streets at Southglenn, HGV, and Stapleton, respectively).\u00a0 \u00a0My Hispanic American student reluctantly threw in with Belmar.\u00a0 My Liberian student refused to make a choice, as he was put off by both alternatives (I\u2019ll be posting something about African Urbanism very soon).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Theatre Viewed from the Carousel Pavilion at Highlands Garden Village<\/p><\/div>\n

The main lesson of this exercise is that Denver\u2019s New Urbanism is decidedly mixed in its appeal to a diverse group of Millennials. \u00a0The European result suggests that New Urbanism is on the right track in terms of appealing to at least Western<\/em>\u00a0Anglo and Continental<\/em> intercultural tastes and values. \u00a0It also enjoys some success in meeting its goal of fostering community. Attracting diversity is another matter altogether.\u00a0 Denver\u2019s New Urban projects still signal–to Americans, Europeans, and ethnic \u201cOthers\u201d alike–homogeneity and exclusivity.\u00a0 This gives one pause to wonder whether New Urbanism can really succeed in accomplishing, at the same time and within the same program, its diversity and community goals.\u00a0 Wood and Landry challenge architects and planners interested in intercultural city-building to either structure space so that different cultures might see and use it in a variety of ways, or create more open-ended spaces to which a broad variety of intercultural \u201cOthers\u201d can adapt (perhaps along the lines of an entropic<\/a> urbanism). \u00a0Some students wish to challenge New Urbanism in the same way. \u00a0Alternatively, one student questioned whether New Urbanism is capable of producing an intercultural city at all. \u00a0As she put it, perhaps an intercultural city already exists in the urban fabric and just needs some poking and prodding\u2014using\u00a0other varieties of urbanism<\/a>\u00a0as a guide\u2014to draw it out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Denver is well-known nationally as a city dedicated to New Urbanist development.\u00a0 Several projects in the city\u2014most notably Belmar, Stapleton, and Highlands Garden Village (HGV)\u2014have received lots of prominent press and some significant praise.\u00a0 The Congress for the New Urbanism […]<\/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":[6,8,18,16,10,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-denver-urbanism","category-general","category-intercultural-city","category-new-urbanism","category-sustainability","category-urban-studies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1H2bI-ea","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878","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=878"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2860,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/878\/revisions\/2860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.interculturalurbanism.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}