A Little More Conversation

Great point! First of all, I'm glad to hear that people are supporting Bing's decision to consolidate city services. It bothers me when people say that this decision is "abandoning" most of the city, when I feel it's doing to opposite. These areas were abandoned a long time ago. We need to consolidate in order to have the money to expand in the future.

If any good came out of the Dateline special it got people in the city riled up and TALKING about it. Way to see the silver lining - I'm actually a little less aggravated now!

AND TIME MUST NOT STOP IT!

What is most interesting to me as an architect is that durning the 20's and 30's you had to hire an architect for any house that was beyond a certain square footage limit.

Those houses are the ones that are standing and still look great and have defined great communities.

Most people don't understand why? Simply put architects were governing the development.

There really is some great stuff out there. And they will last for many years except for ones that have been abandoned.

Now after WWII the builders started pushing up the square footage requirements and that culminated in the late 80's where virtually all limits were abandoned.

And that is why Birmingham now is seeing some absolutely grotesque monster builder's houses.

John Engler saw to it that the Architects were put asunder and Robert Bobb is doing something similar on the schools with two architects on each job.

Methinks that a cost accountant needs to step in here to check out what is happening.

An accountant has brought in 2 architects on each school job? Hmmm. Veddy Interesting. And his architect says that he has done the design and the new architect must "draw up" his design. What are they going to do, locate the downspouts?

So the beautiful areas with architect designed houses still stand and here we get to see 2 architects doing each job.

Now in the late 1890's when architects were drawing up those beautiful houses that are awfully unwieldy but still very beautiful, their product is being destroyed by the huge conversation for demolition in Detroit.

I think that I'll suggest to Kenny II that he think about becoming a demolition contractor. That is where the money is going to be.

Too bad that Dave does not have nor understand that having a fine Architect-Planner on hand would be of great service to him and to the future of the City.

He simply does not have one.

So much for learned professions.

Bill

With substantial federal dollars, "right sizing" has the potential to reduce the costs of delivering city services, stabilizing some neighborhoods, and clearing some land for future development. It does not, however, stop the "bleeding" or the loss of middle class residents. In my view, at the top of the mayor's agenda should be policies designed to make the City attractive to its few remaining middle class residents and others who might think of relocating here. (1) The homestead millage of 65.6 mills is not competitive, results in excessive property taxes for middle class homeowners, and puts a cap on home values; (2) The income tax for those who work in the city is a disincentive to employment and residency; (3) Homeowners and auto insurance rates are higher in the city; (4) Transportation costs are higher because shopping for food and other items requires travel to the suburbs; (5) Homeowners must often spend additional sums for security including alarm systems; (6) the parents of children may pay extra to send their children to private or parochial schools. (7) The City should also think about ways to keep its middle class retirees from relocating upon retirement, and leaving the city along with their dollars. A sizable proportion of the wealth of Detroit is tied up in pension wealth.

Good point, Time! Actually the time may be right for a sweeping change of the type that Mayor Bing is proposing in his "dowsizing" efforts. I think most "Detroiters" want to see the city succeed and really do at long last see the connection between ts success and the health of the entire region. The real question is how to proceed and on that I have a few thoughts.

There are many concepts being floated about these days that could possibly all be brought together and benefit Detroit and the entire country. A simple idea would be to take a portion of the city which is now largely empty and ,using Federal stimulus money, construct a kind of demonstartion project to put all those ideas into practice.

Wouldn't it be a great thing if a new "village" of sorts was designed and built using the New Urbanist planning principles of a walkable, mixed use district with a mix of housing typopes to accommodate all age groups, all income levels, all lifestyle choices? That neighborhood could contain small single family houses for those people displaced by downsizing (maybe in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity), Larger, market rate houses for those able to afford a conventional mortgage obligation, townhouses for empty nester or professional types, lofts for younger Urbanistas, and maybe live/work type houses for artists and other entrepreneurs. The planners shouls also work with the DPS to design schools and be funded under the proposed $500 million that they plan to spend. A neighborhood city hall and/or police station and fire station should also be included along with appropriate recreational spaces as part of the overall plan of the city to redistribute services to denser areas.

All of these buildings could and should be designed and built using the newest and best "green" technologies and systems which would clearly demonstrate how well these can be integrated into new construction. That would surely pique the interest of the current administration in Washington who has made new technology a cornerstone of its agenda. In that contexxt, perhaps a federal or state funded retraining program could be established in the "village" in one of our abandoned factory buildings to train workers to build the solar panels and other equipment that would be used to build the buildings. Likewise, the Detroit Building Trades Council could be brought into the mix to establish a building trades program to train young workers in a skill that they then could put to work in the construction process.

Now such a huge undertaking would require large sums of money but it is my understanding that one of the complaints about the President's stimulus package is that it isn't being spent fast enough but I'm fairly certain that if a plan such as this was presented to themthey would nearly trip over themselves to start writing the checks.

OK, so now how could such a thing be managed?. It would take the skill of someone familiar with public administration who has been talking the talk for several years about new technologies, retooling Michigan, "green jobs" and who has empathy for the city of Detroit and an inside track to the Obama administration and is available. Can anyone guess who I'm thinking of? She doesn't want to be a Supreme Court Justice anyway so why not Gov. Granholm?

OK, so how could such a thing be implemented? First, retain Andres Duany, the fines New Urbanist planner in America. to come in and do one of his one or two week design charrettes and create a plan. Mayor Bing could call together all the potential participants and stakeholders....developers, contractors, building trades unionsDPS, police, DFD, potential displacced homeowners, et. al. in a "summit" to get a buy-in and get committments to participate. Get Gov. Granholm to take the plans and the comittments to The President and make the pitch for the money. In the meantime, teams of architects and planners could be working on drawings for individual projects while city engineers are coordinating infrastructure needs and re-designs based on the master plan. There are literally hundreds of qualified professionals who right now are unemployed just waiting to get to work.

This is a BIG idea but Detroit and Michigan needs big ideas and bold leadership if it is to meet te challenges we face. A demonstration project of this scope and this magnitude which brings together all the current thinking and ideas into one place at one time is not only possible but necessary. NOW is the time!

Napper1 nice idealism but in your third paragraph you refer to planners.

What planners are you talking about?

Huuunnnnh?

Detroit has none. Bing employs none. The City council has none.

The City does not have a planner.

Now, Habitat For Humanity is the classic case of well intentioned people performing pathetically. They have no architects at all in their organization and that is why they are putting up copies of the kind of houses that we are now having to tear down.... the sharecropper look.

Now Duany and his wife are Architects and they tried to generate a historic look to their developments. What's that move that Jim Carey was in that was a parody of their work and intention... scary eh?

The City needs a planner with an architectural background. Will it get one.

Don't bet on it.

Bill

Bill, you are sadly misinformed. Duauny has never advocated a "look" historic or otherwiise. The design codes that he developes for his towns are general in nature and leave it up to the designers to develope a style. Unfortunately for most that means something marketable and mundane. Since much of his work has been done in the South, that means a traditional result.
More to the point is the fact that "style" and architectural fashion have little to do with creating a true urban environment. Architects are stylists who have little or no understanding of urbanity or creating meaningful urban spaces ....the sapces BETWEEN their egoistic expressions. Planners like Duany do, in fact "get it" and are all about truly understanding social context, space, and urban life. Duany left the cutting edge firm of Architectonica in Miami because he found little satisfaction for himself and his clients in the high fashion crap that they were and still are producing.
Take the time to Google New Urbanism and read the Charter of the Congress on New Urbanism and you'll see it has nothing whatever to do with style, traditional or otherwise.
As for your claim that the City has no real planners, you are again misinformed. Charlei Blessing is long gone and there exists a telented group of planners and thinkers who have yet to be given the chance to show their talent. They are forced to work in an environment of government bureacracy and shallow thinking with limited budgets for politicians with little or no vision. They need to be allowed to break out of those shackles and be given the opportunity to move this city forward. Mayor Bing's downsizing startegy could be that opportunity IF a big enough view of the thing is undertaken and a real effort is made to make it work. We need to stop taking the samll view or a look backward at the way things have been in the past. Cynicism and negativity have never solved anything. We've got the talent in this town to do it and do it right....if we have the will.

Again, I find myself supporting napper1's ideas. Just to expand on the "village" proposal, all of the now vacant or proposed acreage soon to be leveled could be converted into individual villages very similar in concept to Plymouth, MI.

Plymouth is a small (approx 9000), beautiful town with a central town square surrounded by restuarants, coffee houses, a variety of shops, and a movie theater. In the summer, outdoor concerts are held in the town square. In the winter, there is an ice sculpture festival. Because of it's small size, residents become very involved with their community.

Detroit is large enough to enclose several of these small, self sustaining villages. The "Mayor" of each village would also be a member of the Detroit City Council thereby supporting the idea of council members elected by District vs At Large as we now have.

There is an excellent book by Sarah Susanka "The Not So Big House" which briefly outlines a construction method called Panelization. I'm sure this is just another word for Modular Construction which I believe has been around for quite some time. The primary advantage of this method is that the major components of a house - walls, floors, stair cases, roof are built in a factory and then assembled on site. The structure is not subject to weather during construction, quality is improved and scrap is reduced. Structures can be built very quickly.

The opportunities for industry and job creation for Detroit using Panelization are abundant. We have vacant factories waiting to be used and workers begging for work. Our clever architects and engineers could design wall modules - a blank wall, a window wall, a door wall, all complete with insulation, electrical wiring and dry walled which could be assembled in a variety of ways over a variety of floor plans. Bathrooms and kitchens which require plumbing could be assembled as complete modules and trucked to the building site. There is also the business opportunity to export these modules to other cities in Michigan or even out of state.

In addition to the modular factories, there is need for site and foundation preparation, demolition and recycling, trucking, landscaping etc. If the money is available through the Federal Stimulus plan, what are we waiting for?

Jeff, you got it! There are numerous ways to bring together the idea of downizing, rebuilding Detroit, "green" jobs, new industries, and good town planning to make Detroit a place...a real PLACE, not just another housing project. I used the term village to conjur up the idea of a smaller , neighborhood sized concept of something like 8-10,000 people in an area of about a mile square. Whetehr it stands alone and isolated or is adjacent to already developed areas is not important so much as it is designed to have an identity and a sense of place.

What brought this about in my mind was the flyover shot of Detroit on the Dateline show which showed an abandoned factory of some type surrounded by block after block of empty lots but with streets, sewers, public lighting, curbs, paving, etc. just sitting there waiting to be filled in with new construction. In any other place developers would have to spend millions to construct all this before they can turn the first shovel of dirt for building construction. What a golden opportunity to rebuild a neighborhood, a district, a "village", and a city! A factory building like the one depicted would make a prime candidate for lofts or retail or both in any other city and if surrounded by a mix of housing types and prices could form the heart of a new "village".

The New Urbanists have developed a model called Traditional Neighborhood Design (TND) which shows how a mix of uses can be brought together to create a sense of place. It's actually not "new" in the sense that it is really just a reminder of how we used to build cities before we decided to separate everything into categories and connect them all by freeways and arterial roads. Google it and you'll see what Detroit could be and actually once was.

I suggested Habitat for Humanity in my original post because the people who are probably going to be asked to be relocated in the downsizing move are those least able to afford to move....why else would they still be there? Habitat has done some panelized homes though not in Michigan but if a project with a significant enough scope and purpose was proposed they might go for it. Their program could help eliminate some of the built in political problems associated with relocating folks Likewise with the idea of bringing into it new energiy technologies and the potential to create new jobs. We need to stop compartmentalizing stuff and put them into the same mix and a project of this scope could do that and demonstrate for the country that these ideas are good and they work. The idea of panelized construction is one of those good ideas.

What better place than Detroit to do such a thing? Dateline may have done us a favor by showing off our worst side. It can't just end there....there has to be an answer to how to fix it.

Quote:

"If two suburbanites care enough about Detroit to talk about it over their high-priced lattes, then something good is brewing."

I shouldn't even have to point out the problem with this statement.

Nice blog,keep it up.

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