Computer punch card, originally uploaded by Mirandala

Big Media Matt makes comments about low quality US data:

Every once in a while I toy with the thesis that someone ought to make a big deal about the fact that a lot of the standard statistical data about the United States that we track is of a kind of low quality. One noteworthy example is the poverty rate formula, which is basically nonsense.

There are three legs which make up the iron-triangle of good research data:

1. High quality data,
2. Easily accessible data, and
3. Extensible data in usable formats

The amount of work I put into finding the correct, and congruent, data for my Comparative Analysis of NYC & Washington DC’s Area, Population, Density & Average Income was enormous. While different governmental agencies such as the Office of Management and Budget create standards upon which different agencies collect and report data, finding that data was quite an undertaking. At least there is Fedstats.gov, which as quite the collection of data sets which most are downloadable in multiple formats.
It would be very helpful if the State and Local municipalities followed the US Government’s lead on this and open up their data sets.

David Alpert’s discussion of transit-oriented mixed-use cites a very interesting land use statistic by Christopher Leinberger, who states that the minimum FAR to support walkable urbanity is 0.8:

What does “walkable urbanity” look like?
Christopher Leinberger: It starts at an FAR of around 0.8–five times denser than classic suburban development. If you go a bit denser, you get places like Reston Town Center near D.C. The bulk of Reston is a typical master-planned, cul-de-sac suburb, but they left a 300-acre greenfield site for something special. Mobil, which owned Reston at the time, created this very urbane place, with highrises right up to the sidewalk, retail on the ground floor, fountains, and an ice-skating rink. It’s a phenomenal success–5,000 housing units to date, with rental rates and housing prices that are 50 percent higher than the drivable Reston market, because people can walk everywhere. Of course, some might argue that it’s a suburban version of a real downtown.

Reston Town Center – by RTKL
The above plan of Reston Town Center give us some scale of what is required for walkable urbanity. Living in a walkable neighborhood just doesn’t make sense for those training for Olympic Powerwalking. Without even talking about $5 gasoline, having the option to walk to the store for quick errands without having to get into your car is a life-altering situation. This is the very definition of freedom of mobility.
So I wanted to compare Leinberger’s minimum for walkable urbanity to my hometown, Westerville, Ohio, which gives us this diagram:

Which, in execution, produces the scattered sprawl below:

Street after street of detached single-family houses with unused front-yards and low FAR. Not that these weren’t (or aren’t) lovely places to grow up, but from experience these neighborhoods were dead. Compare the above to Uptown Westerville, which is the original crossroads settlement with much higher FAR, and is the most desirable area to live in Westerville. But it isn’t just the FAR which creates the major difference between the two neighborhoods, the front yard setback requirements create either a Suburban feel – 30′-0″ setback – or a more urban feel – 10 – 15′-0″ setback.
Just take a look at the revised diagram below:


Not only is Uptown Westerville denser, but also is universally loved and desired throughout Westerville. It is where you went on first dates, where you got ice cream, where you went to buy cute gifts for your mom on Mother’s Day. But for some reason Westerville restricts this type of development, when it should expanded.

• New WTO Rules Could Threaten City Planning & commentary from Overhead Wire
• Nationwide Universal Metrocard?
• The 1925 “Hollywood Subway”
• Purple Line Foes Offer No Ideas, And No Names – country club creates fake “grass roots” organization in order to sink transit
• Hoefler & Frere-Jones: Type in Three Dimensions
• On the World Trade Stuntman: Man on Wire, Petit in NYC
• Floor-by-Floor Demolition Blows Minds, Saves Environment

Pump Jack, originally uploaded by Jim Frazier

Left without voice or energy, I am still at home recuperating, but I can’t help but comment on what is on television right now. It is no secret that we are in the golden age of reality television, tapping into stranger and stranger areas of reality (Greatest American Dog – really?).
The newest theme which sticks out can be described as, Real Men, Real Jobs reality series, which, to date, consist of:

• Dirty Jobs – the Ur-show – Discovery Channel
• Deadliest Catch – Discovery Channel
• Ice Road Truckers – History Channel
• Ax Men – History Channel
• Black Gold – TruTV

All are interesting to watch, even if the “competitions” between different companies are contrived. What makes them interesting is that these activities are hidden from our daily, modern, lives. It is a bit unsettling that all focus on material extraction, but it does make for good television.
The greater question: when will there be an architect show? (can’t you just see how interesting redlines would be??)

Beverage Manifesto, originally uploaded by frank-c

• Broadway get 2 new lanes of sidewalk (horrible, car-friendly headline from NY Times)
• Train in Vain
• A busy day for NCPC – see the revised plan
• Renzo Piano Supports Changes to Times Tower
• Rapid Bus – on upgrading both the bus itself and the path the bus rides on
• Gehry’s Serpentine Pavilion
• Herzog & de Meuron’s new NYC Tower

• This isn’t England – on graphics designer’s changing the size of England on published maps
• Steve amp; Barry’s to File for Chapter 11 and US retail property 2nd-qtr worst in 30 yrs
• The Option of Urbanism
• Class 02: Ubiquitous Computing
• Roads do not pay for themselves
• For Transit Map Nerds only: Washington Metro System Schematic
• Transparently slanted Post article pits suburbanites against the city. OK: so the Mayor enacts regulations for his tax-paying constituents to the detriment of non-taxpaying non-constituents. Where’s the beef?

Snijpunt_Huis_Didden_L1010944, originally uploaded by JagerJanssen architecten BNA

Winy Maas’ of MVRDV new project, Didden Village is in this weekend’s NY Times Magazine, Sky Lark:

MVRDV’s signature “obsession” — the word Maas uses for it — is density: the idea of using urban space intensely to create a sustainable future. Worldwide, MVRDV has implemented this in massive social housing developments like Silodam in Amsterdam and Mirador in Madrid. Why, then, would he want to take on their little project? But for Maas it was the kind of thought experiment he loved. “Before we even finished our sentence, he had started drawing,” van de Kamp recalls.
The result, Didden Village, is literally a blue-sky solution to the Didden family’s problem. It is an architectural palimpsest, a new structure added to an old one, in line with MVRDV’s mission to make existing spaces work harder. The “village” consists of three bedrooms built on the roof: a big room for the parents and two smaller, semi-detached ones for the two boys, each a distinct houselike shape and separated symbolically by what Maas describes as “a main street.” The whole represents both the connections between the family members and their need to go their own ways.

• Sky Lark
• Didden Village Flickr Tag
• See also Silodam by MVRDV

Photographer Joe McNally attempts to photograph changing of the Empire State Building’s aircraft beacon for National Geographic’s special, Power of Light.

• What you notice about Shanghai if you’ve been in Beijing for a while
• Density in Unlikely Spots
• On Economic Costs
• Opposition to rail-based transit
• Must watch PBS special: Public Art of NYC
• Two from BLDGBLOG: Chinese Air Bars & Agent of Change
• Beijing – Forbidden Cities