The New York Times > Home & Garden > Design Notebook: Defining Sprawl: From A to Z
Not many of you (with one notable exception) share my interest in building patterns. Coming from a developer family, I am not easily swayed by teary-eyed rememberences of things past in real estate terms. Whether that is a genetic or learned failure is open to debate.
In any case, Dolores Hayden, Yale professor, is trying to define sprawl in colloquial ways: banana (build absolutely nothing anywhere near).
Although she is much, much more influenced by philosophical currents that are really best kept safely in the comparative lit department, such as the political aspects of building patterns, her book may yet prove to be entertaining. I'm skeptical of reading too much into her academic discourse because behind every statement of politics for theorists of her ilk, lies class and power suppositions that resemble nothing so much as religious belief.
Try arguing about power structures with a post-modernist. You'll see.
I don't expect too many posts on this one, but maybe I'll be surprised.
Oh, and if anyone wants to be a guest contributor, send me something. You can cite it as a publication for your cv...
The New York Times > Home & Garden > Design Notebook: Defining Sprawl: From A to Z
3 Comments:
I think we can all agree that there is a big discrepancy between the American private space and the American public space. Our private spaces are about the best in the world, our public spaces need improvement, they need to be held to a higher standard.
Personally, I think that the environmentalist movement has achieved its biggest goals and that it is time for a new national cause.
My only worry in regards to people like Dolores Hayden is that they’ll take an attractive and simple science, like town planning (who doesn’t like SIM city?), and give it a repellent air of ideology and political-divisiveness. This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. No one is to blame, it is just time for a higher standard. And acronyms like “BANANA” and “TOAD” are going to irritate a lot of people. I’m irritated. And they’ll alienate. We don’t need another specialized, academically-owned vocabulary, with scientific-sounding language to talk about our houses, our neighborhoods, our public spaces.
8:38 AM
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10:13 AM
I agree with the comment below that higher standards are important for changing the state of the public spaces in this country. The disagreement seems tp revolve around what exactly higher standards are.
Where are examples of high quality public spaces that have few critics and widespread appeal? Central Park? (Could it be built again? Is that the type of project requiring the courage to ask for higher standards that is at issue here?)
10:13 AM
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