The Forum for Urban Design organized a panel discussion last week, entitled, "Urban Designing: The Global City's Financial Core". I really enjoyed the questions/themes of the evening, so I jotted a number of them down on the back of the program.
- Have certain elements of "good urban design" become such a standard that they cannot be improved upon, or should we be challenging these concepts and elements?
- Is "urban design" inherantly democratic? Or, from a practitioner's point of view, how democratic can/should a global city make urban design?
- How important is design in making a great city? Is it the most important factor?
- Are cities playing the architecture card ("starchitecture") too often? Is this good urban design?
- Does good (building) architecture often overwhelm the idea of good (landscape) architecture in urban design?
- How does one measure success of urban design? Is it public use? Is it economic activity?
Participants in the discussion included:
- Amanda Burden, Commissioner, New York City Department of Planning
- Cheong-Chua Koon Hean, Chief Executive Officer, Urban Development Authority, Singapore
- Robert Freedman, Director, Urban Design, City of Toronto
- Peter Rees, City Planning Officer, London
- Brent Toderian, Director of Planning, Vancouver
- Kairos Shen, City Planner, Boston Redevelopment Authority
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June 11th, 2007 at 9:35 am
Brent Toderian, Director of Planning for the City of Vancouver has posted some of his notes from the discussion (and others) on Planetizen.
World Urbanists Take Manhattan: Lessons Learned and Left (Planetizen.com)
June 13th, 2007 at 4:19 am
onetenchelsea discusses these topics, with regard to the new The Institute of Contemporary Arts in Boston. link: Inside/Outside
His photos of the ICA are here: The Institute of Contemporary Arts - Boston A Photographic Essay
February 6th, 2008 at 12:08 am
The transcript from the session Urban Designing: The Global City's Financial Core" is online here (the session at the Museum for Modern Art is about halfway down the page)