« Gehry vs. Kent, the "lame excuses" to Fallows, and the unmentioned example of Gehry and Atlantic Yards | Main | It came from the Blogosphere... »
July 15, 2009
Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card, cont'd
Blogger Michael D.D. White has been putting Atlantic Yards to the Jane Jacobs test. Thus far, Atlantic Yards isn't getting a passing grade — today's marks pretty much meet expectations:
Jane Jacobs Atlantic Yards Report Card #21: Avoidance of Harmful Gigantic Outdoor Advertising? NO
Jane Jacobs was unusually tolerant of what ought to be permitted in an urban environment but goes out of her way to say that except in very unusual situations very large billboards and signage is destructive because they are visually disorganizing to streets, and overly dominating. The Atlantic Yards proposal involves illuminated (changeable and perhaps animated) electronic signage of up to 150 feet,- That is billboards 15 stories tall- and to accomplish putting these signs in the middle of historic brownstone neighborhoods would override local regulations which would normally, in such an area, be stricter than usual to prevent such signage. No sports facility in the city has similarly huge signage.
Jane Jacobs pointed out that there were enterprises or uses which she referred to as `exploding’ the street that were not, in themselves wrong, but which were harmful if they were operating at too large a scale, with too much disproportionately large street frontage. The disproportionately large street frontages at Ratner’s Atlantic Centers are examples of such street exploders and bode ill for Atlantic Yards. Security problems at Metrotech have created similar problems at that location which have gone unaddressed. But even if the ground floor space at Atlantic Yards is leased to retail operators that use smaller street frontages in a break from past Ratner practices, the effect of the street being broken up will occur because the buildings in Atlantic Yards are spaced apart so that they will not have continuous uninterrupted streets.
Jane Jacobs describes a problem of the too successful city where diversity is lost when supplanted by crowded uses like banks or insurance companies that lack diversity. Though each is economically successful in its own right, Jacobs feels a dull monotony takes over with the crowding.... This has application to Atlantic Yards mainly in that buildings that could have been converted and enlisted for such “staunch” uses, perhaps as schools or libraries, are being torn down instead.
Posted by lumi at July 15, 2009 5:24 AM