EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
Designing Cities
Gary Hack, University of Pennsylvania
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Megacities and Megaregions Notes taken on January 8, 2016 by Edward Tanguay |
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Kansas City is a typical U.S. city and can stand for what has happened and is happening in other places
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river boats on the Missouri River
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wagons carrying settlers Westward leaving from Westport along the Santa Fe trail
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railroad
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connected to west coast
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local street railways were built which enabled urban extensions
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mostly south of the city center
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new residential districts had landscaped streets and parks
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the Country Club district
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some could be reached by public transit
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most of the extended development on the map could only be reached by car
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by 1950, three of four households owned cars
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at that time, the most automobile dependent country in the world
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growth that followed street car tended to be along the line
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growth in the suburbs began around railway stations
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after the auto became more ubiquitous, roads were built anywhere
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spread over the Kansas state line to southwest
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intended for middle and upper-income people
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partly fueled by desegregating the Kansas City school system
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there was no busing over the state line
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what happened in Kansas City was comparable to what happened in other U.S. cities
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they were splitting into two parts: old city from 1950 and new suburban city
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"The Fractured Metropolis"
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in most other countries, the old centers remained dominant
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1. the old city: pre-1950 city
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the original downtown was now at the periphery of the more affluent new city
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many of the old neighborhoods had emptied out
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at the time, it looked like everybody in the old cities were in deep trouble
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everyone who had a choice were migrating to the new, affluent suburbs
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had most of the new office buildings, best shopping, restaurants, and entertainment
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2. the new city: suburban growth
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developed retail and office centers of its own
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more spread out than the old central city
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e.g. College Boulevard in Overland Park, Kansas
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until 1970s was a far out suburb of Kansas City
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some former intersections in suburbs with only one gas station can now have millions of square feet of office space and retail
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edge cities
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Tyson's Corner, Virginia has 46 million square feet of office space and retail
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by comparison, downtown Dallas has 33 million square feet of office space and retail
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Tyson's Corner is a prototype of an edge city
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The Perimeter Center, Atlanta
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in far north corner of Atlanta
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Galleria District, Uptown Houston
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used to be residential suburbs
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Westwood District, Los Angeles
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Bloomington, Minnesota
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upscale residential area has become office center
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The Mall of America
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largest shopping center in the United States
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Clayton, Missouri
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once an affluent suburb of St. Louis
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connected back to St. Louis by metro link
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1990s the new urban city kept on spreading to the point that it became dysfunctional for its residents
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traffic congestion
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long commutes to work
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turned mothers with children into chauffeurs
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shopping trips which required driving from one destination to another
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the old 1950s city
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with compact business center
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old, walkable neighborhoods, started to look good in comparison
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rise in real estate values for walkable neighborhoods and suburbs
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meanwhile the new suburban cities kept spreading out and became more and more dysfunctional and unsustainable
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South Side Chicago
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Scottsdale, Arizona
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part of new city related to Phoenix
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San Jose, California
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freeways and endless suburban development
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corrective to dependence on automobiles and sprawling development they create
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transit system to connect centers of new city to traditional business center
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e.g. between Tyson Center to Washington Metro system
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Megalopolis = Big City
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1961 Jean Gottmann
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cities that were close together and connected by rail and highways
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in subsequent decades, these megacities became metaregions
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Northeast
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Great Lakes
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Florida
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Piedmont Atlantic
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Gulf Coast
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Texas Triangle
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Arizona Sun Corridor
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Front Range
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Northern California
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Southern California
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by 2050 it is projected that 70% of the population will be living in these regions
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Europe
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night views with lights reveal analogous pattern of city regions
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Benelux countries
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Northern Italy
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China
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Beijing: 20 million
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Tianjing: 12 million
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cities are growing together
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Japan
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much of Japan can be seen as a continuous city
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pulled together by well-established high-speed transport
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South Korea
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similarly urbanized
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world
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night satellite view shows energy use
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sprawling cities are dominate living areas
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by 2050, 3 billion more people
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most of this grown in the city regions
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many cities at coastlines
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in danger if sea levels rise