Maine Architecture

Downeast Architect

2012-01-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

When we 'downeasters' think of architecture we usually thinkof different styles such as “shingle style”, or “50’s modern”. Artists areoften taught that in order to reach their ultimate potential, they must findtheir muse leading he or she to develop their own voice, or style, and fame andfortune will soon follow. But ‘style’ denotes a method and look which mustsuppress the individuality of the client and the particular circumstances.

As a Maine architect I have come to discover that notions ofstyle can limit our buildings to functioning as misplaced postcards instead ofcelebrations of family and community.

We may create great buildings without catering to ourpreconceptions. These buildings may involve linking the various client needs inways particular to them. I see architecture as a vehicle for the client toreach their ultimate potential and inner peace. And in Maine, that means myself-actualization may not be part of the puzzle. Nor will it be necessarilytrue that a client will make requests based on their need to achieve theirultimate potential.

In the harsh climate and harsh economy of our state wequickly develop interpersonal relationships that work to sustain our lives.Inner peace in Maine comes from a warm fire and good conversation. A Yankeementality delves into areas where the 20^th century notion of,“avant-garde”, has limited use and conversely, notions of historical style cancause us to miss the forest for the trees. Our serenity is more complex andpsychologically based than a goal such as, “always new”, or, “always old”, canresolve.

When I played basketball at Orono High School in Maine every playerhad different strengths and weaknesses. And these changed during the course ofeven one game. As coaches we use the phrase, “smart choice”, when talking toour players about the hundreds of decisions they make every game. The sameholds true in architecture.

Every client is different. Here are some examples ofbuildings for folks here in Maine, many within a few blocks of each other,who’s needs turn out to be more than just the image of Yankee regionalism wepicture in our minds:

Kids Hugging Mom Addition/Renovation:

The Willard Beach area of South Portland consists of smallhouses on small lots on small streets. One couple came to me requesting anaddition to their hip roofed, vinyl sided 2-story cube of a house. The sunnyside of the house was in back so we oriented all our new work to capture thissun. Included in this was renovating the existing house to replace an almostnon-existent kitchen with a sun filled useful one. Thus, pieces were added tothe back and sides, some on piers to save a gorgeous willow tree. These newpieces took the form of simple gabled forms in the New England tradition. Theidea of the addition acting like children hugging their mother who was holdingup the fort, so to speak, would make a happy place. These angled forms andspaces solved the psychological need for more relaxing places to balance outthe overall house. There is no style to the house, only the realization ofpractical needs such as light and space as well as psychological needs such as,‘friendly’.

Maison Haus:

Another couple with 2 young children had relocated from NYCand bought a lot close to Willard Beach. After investigating the possibility ofsaving any part of the small, dilapidated cottage on the lot, we decided itwould be more economical to tear it down and build a new house. The owners, whowere European, wanted a clean open modern home but to have a gable-roofedexterior, double hung windows and faded wood siding to evoke barn qualities.The result is simple, minimalist, within budget, and without any identifiable‘style’.

D.I.Y. House:

This next project was also located in the Willard Beach areaand involves a young couple building the house themselves. After analyzingtheir site, I made study models to determine the best use of the lot. Theresult is a series of boxes, two of which are mostly built now, which create and focusviews on 3 very different outdoor spaces. The front yard is spatially connectedto the living room; the courtyard is spatially connected to the dining table;and the woods out back are practically part of the kitchen. Their desire for anenvironmentally friendly home resulted in our use of non-toxic materials, superinsulation, a wood stove, and a full roof deck designed to handle plantingvegetables and lounging. As one of them felt symptoms of SAD, we used largepicture windows to fill each space with natural light. The siding ishand-troweled stucco, an affordable sustainable material, and the details areboat-like as the client is a boat builder/ inventor. I was fortunate toactually build the house with the owners. Functional and psychological needsare met within very tight budget. The result is particular to the client andthe site.

Shingle Style Garage:

In counterpoint to that project, I was commissioned todesign a garage for a couple who needed to store their vehicles and boats aswell as have a home office space and play room. Here there existing house wasshingle style of sorts and they had a strong psychological need for a garagewhich would be visually compatible with the existing house. In this case Icreated a shingle style garage to meet their psychological needs and it blendsin very nicely. So, I am not advocating a deliberate avoidance of any style,but merely that each project is unique and no formula should be used toobfuscate this uniqueness.

Airport Fire Station:

For instance, I designed a fire station while employed byHarriman Associates (Erik Greven, principal in charge) that could only fit onit’s site. That site was midpoint of the runway at Bangor InternationalAirport. The most important requirement was a three-minute response time toeither end of the runway. All requirements regarding number and type ofparticular fire trucks, sleeping, etc. guided all design decisions. However,the ‘look’ of the building is a reflection of the surrounding large airplanes.This fire station would not fit in a town center. And a village fire stationwould seem very out of place beside the runway.

In conclusion, in Maine we can build with our own Yankeesensibility as our guide. Each building decision can be about the link betweenthe buildings and the town and the users and less about a particular style.This pragmatism along with our sometimes unexpressed psychological needs canhelp keep Maine, Maine.

Koolhaas 3 In 1 Promotes Upper Middle Class Values Worldwide.

2011-06-20T12:26:00.000-07:00

Rem Koolhaas' recent lecture "3 in 1" http://vimeo.com/25071414 walks through a brief history of the firm OMA as created and promoted by himself. He walks through his history beginning with a brash upper middle class desire to stand out as a young man by focusing on perceived big picture issues rather than soup kitchen ones and ending with a desire to leave the starchitect era by creating signatureless work.

The beginning of the slide show reminds me of those photos of some dadaist dandy's in their 3 piece suits making fun of the world while attempting to start the next attention grabbing art movement. Sometimes great ideas come out, sometimes not. I like the way he puts dollar amounts next to his books to better explain how to survive while experimenting without actually having to sit in an architects office for years and learn how to put all the pieces together, codes, etc. He divides his career into segments from starving artist to starchitect and beyond. This is a nice tool for an audience of architects to understand the trajectory of a 'successful' career. An attempt to answer the ever present question from students and colleagues, "How did he do that?". It's a nice format and diffuses the idea of the starchitect making pronouncements from upon high. There's a great picture of Libeskind sporting a giant gloating smile in front of a model of the proposed buildings rising from the ashes of immense death and destruction as an example of the starchitect.

In Koolhaas' era, writing supplemented his lifestyle and talk did indeed lead to commissions along with diagrammatic but beautiful paintings by colleagues. The dandy's life moved merrily along and eventual starchitect status bestowed. In addition to a success story Koolhaas takes opportunities to insert justifications for his work. By using a format of A leads to B leads to C, he can assert that his perceived desire to turn the world into a giant shopping mall is simply not true and quite the contrary as a matter of fact. A statement like this can come after a statement of fact about history and be followed by a statement of fact about technology and all in a linear description of his chronological existence and so all statements are then perceived by the audience as historical facts merely illuminated. Clever but not necessarily illuminating.

But the point is not to illuminate, rather to set the stage for confirmation as a leader on the world's stage to be followed towards progress. It's a great video to watch because it's fun to follow the steps so to speak. And as any upper middle class schoolboy knows, a sense of wit, humor and detachment are most important.

Management he argues, as it relates to maximizing profits, is currently blockaded in architecture offices by a medieval compensatory system where fees are fixed to construction costs rather than quality of product. Therefore time spent increasing the quality of the design are dollars picked from the architects pocket.

The huge CCTV building in Beijing he presents as a contextual marvel because you can see it from a small old house in an old cozy neighborhood and from a big highway with other tall buildings....?? Not sure how that works but no matter because some workers on the building loved working on it and felt proud of themselves for all the work they did like most people do when they spend a lot of time and effort on something. Again, not sure what Koolhaas is saying but it's for sure a huge building and not woven into anything particularly.

So anyway, now he's trying to jump to the front of the next post-starchitect or more realistic or marxistically put, post-economic meltdown trend which naturally is to be wholly pragmatic and therefore cut the fat and build with more basic issues like utility, firmness, sustainability. Koolhaas ever the stylist decides this means to build with generic features rather than idiosyncratic ones. So he is out to create an architecture in his office of generic pieces. This is somewhat reminiscent of Venturi's math building if I remember and truthfully, Gehry takes chunks of generic fabric and plays surrealist with them as well but this is more chunks of SOM stuff- sort of Meisian knockoff fabric. Of course, many architects over the years have been creating subtle works so this announcement is more of a fashion statement.

There is a warning regarding preservation movement as a marketing leviathan to be tamed now and a bit about artists desires to create huge crypto-fascist works........ yeah, artists not architects- just checking to be sure I wrote that correctly. As artists have huge spaces to work with whether they want them or not.

I like this lecture and Koolhaas' effort to keep architecture fun, relevant (by creating a think tank AMO offshoot that is doing good work on energy use) and discussed. His upper middle class schoolboy values create sparkling interest. They fall flat of course when they stray outside such as flights into slum cities. Now we need lively discussions from those working in giant slums as to what sort of complexity theory interventions may lead to universal sanitation, earthquake proof DIY structures, etc. And what is an architecture of reduced style anyway? What is mission of architecture from a place of little style? Who will lecture on this? Bernard Rudolfsky was a treasure trove of information. Is architecture about more manual labor to create more fulfilled families due to employed fathers. Or is architecture for a few higher IQ engineers to work on and to create the materials in robotic factories? Why is not every new building celebrated as another piece in a puzzle of wonderful public spatial experience already in progress?? We need about 9 more architects from 9 totally different backgrounds to add to this lecture and get a read on the potential of next steps.

In the end I see an eventual shift from object to field of course and hopefully an end to the desire to ignore great examples of human scaled public space labeling it as unfashionable or irrelevant when to do so merely describes human bodies as unfashionable or irrelevant.

Nothing could be more absurd.

Engaging Community for a Sustainable Future

2011-06-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

GPCOG held a forum on how to engage the greater Portland community in creating a more sustainable future. Ori Brafman explained his thesis behind his book "The Starfish and The Spider"- a great take on top down versus laterally constructed organizations. A spider dies when it's head is cut off but a starfish grows another leg and starfish. Craigs List is a starfish organization with no real central head. Certainly many are trying to cash in on Gladwell''s formula for success but this idea was well stated and informative.

CH2M Hill firm members presented a methodology for gathering information and sharing it to arrive at solutions which are not predetermined and pull ideas from all. Essentially there is always an internal tension between the goal oriented process and the creativity required for great solutions. By splitting up and allowing small groups to identify the problems, the ideal outcomes and then look for solutions, the process is decentralized. By allowing participants to throw ideas out and then modify them as they hear other ideas, each person learns and adapts in real time and solutions emerge with collective authors.

Kudos to GPCOG for a terrific morning!

Starchitects abuse power gap.

2011-03-10T08:08:00.000-08:00

Here's a nice story about the profession across the pond and representative of our architectural culture as well.

http://archrecord.construction.com/yb/ar/article.aspx?story_id=156512127

We churn out students who know little of construction and we have name architects who abuse their power position by using young "interns" or, really beginner architects or students as free labor.

I know someone I went to school with in London who was a trust fund kid and he worked for Zaha Hadid for years for free. He now is an upper level member of her office but the equation was stacked in favor of the wealthy as far as access to her office and she could avoid paying others as well because of opportunity when some kind of salary would be more humane.

Let's keep the profession professional.

Box Modern

2010-11-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

There is a great gallery show of modern architecture (highlight's are Scogin/ Elam's constructivist and Shim/Sutcliffe's craftsmanship and Forbe's 80's shaker modern work) built in Maine with lots of models downtown (Storefront for Architecture Maine 443 Congress St. through 13th Nov.) which most of you know but just wanted to show appreciation to Carol Wilson for putting it together. When I came back from London in the mid 90's Carol and I were pretty much the only architects in Maine doing modern architecture and now this American version of 50's through 70's style has come back mostly in a plain box form. Maine like any rural conservative place has not fully embraced mid century modern but there are nice practical yankee-like aspects to this style that do fit well with us. Here is a fire station I did in the late 90's while working for Harriman Associates fresh from London and I had the then late 90's style of box modern in mind in this appropriate location on the runway at Bangor International Airport. Note the Corbusian strip window, roof deck enclosed by walls, minimalism, etc.:

Missing Pieces

2010-11-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

I just finished Alain de Botton's book, "The Architecture of Happiness". Meant for a general audience, the books reads in a smooth arc and touches nicely on most of the current themes concerning our interactions with the built environment. I especially like de Botton's- a philosopher by trade- focus on the way our choices are predicated somewhat on our unfilled desires and our projected insecurities. Also, the streetspace is handled nicely and examples throughout the book are illustrative despite his amateur status regarding this subject. I highly recommend it.

He has also now created a program of building 5 vacation homes for rent by talented architects in England: 'He said his purpose was "to help people get over the dichotomy that modernism equals awful and antiquated equals great".' (from this link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/09/alain-de-botton-modernist-houses )

Here is link to rental site: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/09/alain-de-botton-modernist-houses

Belleau Waterfront Article Leads to PSA Roundtable on Form-Based Code

2010-09-01T20:31:00.000-07:00

In order to educate the general public regarding Portland's waterfront urban fabric DNA so that citizen's could make informed choices regarding same, I wrote an article in the Sunday paper:

http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/Portlands-piers-are-streets.html

This article advocated form-based code approach to building massing with waterfront use integrated. The article was well received by the architecture community according to a member of the Portland Society of Architects (PSA) Advocacy Committee but many had not heard this term- 'form-based code' (FBC). He encouraged the PSA to hold a meeting to discuss form-based code to explain it and to figure out if this is something they should support in Portland. Form-based code is common fair in planning circles but not necessarily so with architects.

Many architects and others attended and after city planner Alex Jaegerman discussed the city's current piecemeal use of form-based codes in Bayside and elsewhere and his ongoing education in this area, and two other non-architect professionals discussed their bits of experience, I was asked to address the architects from an architects point of view. I explained how urban planning, architecture and form-based code are all part of an architects education and methodology already. Many were eager to learn and I used the example of set theory to show the pieces that make up a FBC approach to planning are already in an architects toolkit but have not been placed in a set and labeled FBC yet by them.

Making sure buildings align with sidewalks and not set back so that street walls are created is just one traditional architectural gesture used in a form-based code that used to be standard in urban areas. It just made common economic sense. In the Bayside area we now have new buildings which meet the sidewalk edge and thus begin to create a streetspace. The new Walgreen's on Marginal Way departs from this rule, established in the Bayside plan, because it is grandfathered due to adding on to an existing building. This one exception along with the pre-plan DHS building setback from the street destroys the urban fabric in that area. The area will be half strip mall and half urban street for a very long time. Unfortunately, the ubiquitous worship of vehicle circulation in American planning of last 70 years even in more dense urban areas has kept working with building form instead of parking space from our lives. Our city planners are trying their hardest but we need to back them up and advocate for eliminating exceptions.

While other professions such as land use policy planners studying in USM's very good program who handle policy issues and landscape architects who work with trees and paving to create outdoor space are certainly able to execute many planning tasks, it is the architects who must ultimately step up and make sure our cities and towns are vibrant in terms of the relationships between buildings in the urban centers. It is up to us to bring this point of view to our clients when working on single buildings as well as urban plans.

Architects like Camille Sitte, Aldo Rossi, Leon Krier and Andres Duany/ Liz Plater-Zyberk have led the way. Local architects can make a contribution as well.

Citizen Architect

2010-07-31T09:47:00.000-07:00

I recently saw the new movie, "Citizen Architect", a documentary about Samuel Mockbee's Auburn University based Rural Studio. Mockbee makes a powerful case for architecture's ability to make great buildings and places for the very poor and not just the very rich. The free design, labor and materials provided by the studio are certainly the reason free houses for very poor are possible but a closer look reveals many reasons to feel hopeful about ourselves and our work.

First of all, great buildings can be produced using discarded material because the act of architectural design is powerful enough to make a small, cheap building as good as one with all the money in the world. This supports the act of design as one of great importance to ourselves.

Next, in the movie the cerebral architect Peter Eisenman dismisses the poor as ignorant of what can be good for them and then shows incredibly bad stale, non-tactile, cheap looking, inhuman, forced artificially complex, corporate crap architecture as an example of great work. This instantly brings the dichotomy between building for humans and building as mental masturbation in to focus. One is human based and the other is discorporate.

We are shown the young students and sometimes teachers getting giddy about helping the poor and the dark skin/ light skin guilt and condescension may come to mind. However the core idea that our infantile capitalism has somehow blocked our ability to jump in and do great work for everyone including ourselves is apparent. How exactly is it that we cannot manage to create an endless stream of community buildings and homes? Are we afraid of barter or barred from using found materials? Do we just have a lack of talented architects?

I suspect we would have many more wonderful places if there were a Rural Studio in every county.

Can Your Kids Walk To Practice?

2010-07-15T13:50:00.000-07:00

Can your kids walk to soccer practice? If they can't then you may be the victim of poor planning. A properly planned town would have neighborhoods with playing fields that are a 5 minute walk for your children. These fields should be extensive enough to handle the day to day practice schedules of your children. If not, you are forced by poor planning to burn fossil fuel, avoid the exercise of walking, rearrange your work schedule, baby your growing and maturing kids, and avoid creating local green space and the budget for it's maintenance.

How about community gardens? Can you walk to yours and can you get to one within a 5 minute walk?

It's yours and my life and we deserve proper community space.

Congress Square redesign

2010-05-13T08:20:00.000-07:00

Last night the city of Portland held a meeting to gather public input regarding redesigning Congress Square. Congress Square currently is a sunken empty tar covered space filled often with vagrants. This situation is not unique to Portland and follows closely the history of Copley Square in Boston. In the sixties, Sasaki Associates won a competition to design Copley Square and responded with the trendy sunken plaza with angles and steps. Back at turn of last century, the plaza had been home to all of Boston's cultural stars such as MIT, Trinity Church, Museum of Natural History, Library, etc. Some of these institutions left and the 60's design was supposed to make this a jewel to celebrate the great location. Here's a shot of a proposal for Copley in mid 1800's:

Unfortunately, the sunken plaza became a great place for vagrants and drug dealers. Sound familiar? So Boston held another competition in the early 80's to redesign Copley Square and the result is a very successful flat park with a big lawn, trees, benches, lighting and a signature fountain.

Copley Square also hosts a farmer's market:

Portland can learn a lesson from Boston in this regard.

Proposals suggested at the workshop last night included: Andy Graham's wonderful idea of a winter garden, useable year round to be with plants; a suggestion of a major water feature and a major sculpture; a suggestion of a flat plane filled with large trees with their branches removed up to a fairly high height as seen in St. Petersburg, Russia; and to make the place nice enough that restaurants would put tables there or street vendors would set up.

All were in favor of making sure some kind of authority would care for the upkeep and cleanliness of the space as the Portland Downtown District does for Tommy's Park.

By eliminating the sunken plaza and making a flat-like surface at level of Congress St. sidewalk and putting in plenty of trees, we can only succeed.

Subtle Interventions In East Bayside Neighborhood

2010-04-07T09:27:00.001-07:00

I was fortunate enough to help out during last weeks workshop on moving the East Bayside neighborhood of Portland toward a more sustainable future. The Muskie School of Public Service led by Alan Holt with the support of the city of Portland and the East Bayside Neighborhood Association applied for and received a highly desirable grant from the American Institute of Architects. Only 6 or so places a year receive this award which consists of sending a team of national experts in various specialties to a place for a few days to develop a vision and report to make a place more sustainable from a sociological, town planning, and environmental viewpoint.

The Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) arrived on a Monday night and left on Friday morning. The team met with neighborhood leaders and residents, had a 225 person multicultural meal, worked hard on concepts and strategies, fleshed those out in drawings and positions and presented a preliminary powerpoint report at the Portland High School auditorium on Thursday night.

The team focused on interventions which are completely practical and can be accomplished quickly without years of bureaucracy or high costs. This meant leaving a remade Franklin Arterial out of the equation as a far in future reality to make suggestions such as pedestrian crossing bermed up path with crossing warning lights over Franklin where kids already cross often. Something as simple as extending the curbs at intersections where parallel parking is not allowed anyway makes a HUGE difference as the crossing distance becomes 10 feet shorter and vehicles slow to turn the intended proper radius. Street trees also make a huge difference.

Other members of the SDAT team were experts in community relations and they presented ways of developing inter-resident relations and youth development which challenged people to step out of their comfort zone and interact. Youth who are given short tasks to allow them to take ownership of the neighborhood mature rather than remain outsiders. Another aspect of inter-relations is working from a 'cloud' model of forming groups around common interests that draw from uncommon cultural groupings rather than a 'clock' model that uses fixed parts to move in a linear fashion.

For info: http://www.eastbayside.org/

In some ways this is our future- one that forgoes the urge for grand gestures from above for small interventions that grow from within.

The Other Portland

2010-04-01T14:35:00.000-07:00

Last night The Trust For Public Land presented a movie about the other Portland (Oregon) and it's urban growth boundary. Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avNmiHnSXns

Even the most progressive planning can run into hurdles as Portland did when their land owners outside the boundary led and passed a referendum to get rid of the boundary and let them maximize their profit on their land.

The key is to build in mechanisms when drafting growth boundaries which automatically diffuses tensions which build up from time to time. Just like catastrophe theory, when grains of sand are allowed to build up, a tiny avalanche eventually happens.

Portland Piers Are Streets

2010-03-20T10:23:00.000-07:00

Recently the city of Portland Maine held an information gathering public workshop focused on the desire of central waterfront pier owners to alter the marine-only code requirements of their property. As noted in my earlier posts, a form based code based on the history of Portland can solve our use oriented questions.

The history of the city provides us with the necessary information to move forward. Portland began as a series of piers or streets out into the water that extended up to a perpendicular street along the ridge of the peninsula (Congress St.). Fore street ran along the waterfront but when the railroad from Montreal crossed all of the piers towards the city, the water areas between the railroad and Fore St. were filled in. Much of the delicate fabric of many buildings conducting business along the streets that began on the land and then became piers were slowly erased as industrialization fed highway transportation of goods.

The key to development of our piers is to keep a building height of 2 to 4 stories which fits with our Old Port and to maintain a street down the middle of each pier. If the city can cooperate with the pier owners to cover liability or swap tax break for city ownership of the street in middle of piers, the city will flourish forever.

Use can be handled as waterfront at first level and other above. Buildings along Commercial Street can be the size of 100 Commercial St. building and the same depth of that to enhance the Commercial St. hallway-like street experience with visual corridors down each street out through the piers to the end of the pier.

Sometimes common sense can help our city grow in a way that benefits all.

New Portland Vet Bridge Needs Wide People Lane

2010-02-23T07:40:00.000-08:00

The new design for replacing the Veteran's Memorial Bridge presented last night at city hall was very thoughtful when dealing with the flow of vehicles. However, the bike and pedestrian path is tacked on as an afterthought and appears a bit convoluted. The designers put the path on the south side of the bridge because if the put it on the north side, they would have had to do environmental impact submittals that would have driven their bid up, possibly leading to losing.

We are still operating under the old gas-forever auto paradigm instead of the new holistic cities paradigm. Right now the bridge has carefully crafted a big 'A' poppa bear path for cars but a little 'Z' path for people walking, jogging, or biking to work, etc. The new bridge needs to have a big 'A' path for cars and an equal (not equal width but almost equal importance) partner 'B' path for pedestrians and bicycles. In places like Copenhagen enormous numbers of people bike to work at little cost. Reed and Reed need to present the bridge as a link in a bicycle & pedestrian trails network as well as road network. Bicycles will be the next big commuting story in this country.

And again, it's easy to forget that walking IS transportation.

Moses parts the urban fabric

2010-01-02T12:18:00.000-08:00

I just finished reading Anthony Flint's excellent account of the battle between Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses for the urban fabric of NYC. Post war America saw the existing urban fabric of cities as stale garbage compared to the huge infrastructure going up based on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation and the utopian life the commuting world would bring. The impulse to "clean" up areas of "decay" is a natural instinct but of course, we ended up destroying large pieces of neighborhood fabric and making gettos of under and around elevated expressway areas.

Thanks to people like Jacobs who saw the world from a human perspective, communities banded together to save the human based streetscape as a working prototype thousands of years old. Moses, who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, built many models where he could look down from the detached view of an airplane and admire the sweeping forms of concrete and tar slithering through the city, raised high above the ordinary human on foot. Riding in a chauffeur driven limo since he was a boy, his view of a better world was one in which he yielded ultimate power and could use his superior education and personality to help the simple little people who knew nothing. Feeling superior was natural for him and he never failed to feed his ego to the point where real harm to society began to take place.

Jacobs owned a home she liked and wanted her neighborhood to stay personable and friendly and bubbling with activity based on the movement of the human body through space and the one to one conversations possible in these circumstances. Her view was one of a mother with a home in a humanistic environment enmeshed in the people around her. She was very assertive and this helped propel her to the foreground of community leadership. She formed the perfect foil to Moses' assertive bureaucrat.

Now that we are looking for new infrastructure projects to revitalize our cities it is important to stop categorizing forces into pro-neighborhood and pro-development. We must simply acknowledge that we are happiest in human environments that are safe and allow us the maximum interaction with others and to grow old in our homes, and thus, walk to everything. And that we need to continue to build and modify and tear down things to make a more wonderful series of neighborhoods.

There is no rule that says we have to build more than 4 stories high or have any elevators. There is no rule that says we can't tear down some buildings to make a nice park or community space.

When we put ourselves as humans above ourselves as consumers, we all win.

The Roseto Stone

2009-12-10T06:56:00.000-08:00

I just read Gladwell's 'Outliers' and loved it. I like the part about the town of Roseto, a town in Pennsylvania where everyone had come from the Italian town of Roseto. In 1950's the healthiest people in country lived there even though they were chubby, ate fat instead of olive oil, and smoked. After looking at every conceivable reason (genes, diet, work,

etc.) they stumbled on answer..........'Community'! Once again we find that what we want to call 'holistic', or now find a way to call, 'sustainable', are just ways for us to avoid the word, 'community'. Community means a thriving organism of people involved in and sustaining all aspects of

life.

I don't mean to be all Confuscius-like with the emphasis on collective over individual as I am not implying sacrifice of individual for community. Rather, it is the simple daily interactions between community members and the need to obtain food and shelter which, if examined, are linked to ecology, mental health, physical health, town planning, etc.

Here's to Roseto! (top pic is Roseto, Italy; bottom is Roseto, Penn.)

Leon Krier lecture at Brown.

2009-12-04T11:44:00.001-08:00

Great talk last night at Brown by the man who spawned new urbanism, or traditional town planning world wide, Leon Krier. He has been promoting human scaled common sense planning for over 30 years. His diagrams are always a model of clarity and purpose, helping us see the path to environments we can live comfortably in. The irony is his common sense, practical, planning suggestions are thousands of years old in the making and so self-evident; and yet, now we are calling traditional town planning 'sustainable' and this is what grabs the nation's attention.

It's time to stop classifying our lives into pieces just as we broke up use into different zones and just look at life as a journey of minds and bodies through space and time, with endings and beginnings constantly flowing. We don't need to use the name, 'sustainable'. We can just use the word, 'LIFE'.

Form-based code puts power in public's hands

2009-11-20T12:05:00.000-08:00

The Congress for New Urbanism, New England chapter recently held a council on form-based codes. Several examples of municipalities implementing a form-based code were presented. Now, form-based code just means that the growth and eventual physical space and atmosphere of a place is thought about and prescribed in a code format. Instead of the post war zoning of placing all the businesses in one spot and houses in another and all the workshops in another, the old fashioned Main street we all love is described in drawings and zoning law.

The best way to look at this is to imagine that you have no say in what your town will look like and feel like. Instead, that over time, your town is just a mess of boxes and parking lots, a place you and your children no longer like. That is the current zoning model we have.

When a town takes the time to draw a map describing their goal of the most wonderful town possible, everyone wins. This plan would show where they want tree lined sidewalks with stores and offices and apartments; where they want tree lined streets with houses; where and how many parks they want; how to place elementary schools so that most children can walk to school and similarly with sports fields so that children can all walk to a field and play after school.

A form-based code describes how the street will look and how tall the buildings are to make this plan develop over time. The use of the spaces is less important as the place itself. It is an empowering tool and must be presented as such- not a scary change. The amount of freedom increases to the public, not decreases as we all will take charge of our future.

Don't let the government and out-of-towners let your town turn into a sprawling hell. Take charge and demand a form-based code!

Post-utopian planning entertainment...

2009-11-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

Here's a music video by architects in Finland with summary of current state of post-utopian planning: http://vimeo.com/6621826

Damariscotta Charrette

2009-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Damariscotta for engaging planner Bill Dennis to do a planning exercise with citizen input. The results (to be posted on town site soon) will provide the town with direction to move into the future, directing growth in such a way as to make a more pedestrian friendly and village-like town such as exists now. This is crucial to the state's keeping Maine, Maine.

New Masterpiece for Maine

2009-09-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

The new addition to Temple Bet Ha'am in South Portland by Shim-Sutcliffe Architects of Toronto is a great example of how architecture of high quality can create a sense of calm and beauty no matter where. This addition is in South Portland just off route one in a non-descript large treeless lot attached to an old school building yet the spiritual space and structure take over with the reflecting pool to make life for all who experience it better.

A simple concept of an ark-like space, well executed with space and light and natural materials, this place is welcoming and delicate while using a large form to evoke a Burkean sublime.

The greater the effort to make better places, the greater the reward. Buildings ARE our environment. This is the way life should be.

Close Encounters of the Real Kind

2009-08-24T12:55:00.000-07:00

Whenever we walk through space, we encounter objects and degrees of enclosure which we then negotiate both physically and mentally. When my kids are playing video games they are negotiating space (sports space) as discorporate players in simulated 3 dimensions on a 2 dimensional screen.

When municipalities focus on property tax revenues instead of form when buildings are proposed, we get a 2 dimensional result: money. Instead, with a form based code coupled with an experiential goal, we get real 3 dimensional results which all can appreciate. Real experience can be replicated by returning to the town square or covered walk. Real spatial delight can be discussed with each generation and new events can be negotiated whilst traversing a real spatial experience.

Lack of community spatial design in public space leads to retreating to the couch and the monitor where we can find more delight than outside. When we have no playing fields we shall all play simulation games.

So, it's up to us: Are we REAL players? Or just Pretenders.

Leviathan

2009-06-29T06:21:00.000-07:00

Those of us who love our state are constantly reminded just how fragile our visual experience here is. For every delicate landscape and properly scaled building, there are a hundred new interventions of such brutality as to momentarily displace our geographical internal compass.

For every new shop downtown of 3,000 square feet, a new GIANT BOX WITH HUGE PARKING LOT goes up swiping away 300,000 square feet. For every gorgeous waterfront home designed by a thoughtful talented architect, a half dozen GIANT McMANSIONS with fake gables and ABSOLUTELY NO RELATIONSHIP TO THE SITE go up on the water. These bland developments treat buildings as post cards with no soul or any trace of local personality. These homes look like A HAPPY MEAL DESIGN taken from a book and plopped down on the beach. Just as the same design is replicated a thousand times in New Jersey developments by giant malls and across the country, we in Maine who pride ourselves on local culture are stepped on like so many ants in the way of thoughtlessness.

Such was the case as I recently drove to the beach at Pine Point in Scarborough to my usual spot and passed the large corner parcel directly in front of the end of Pine Point Road. This parcel had stood empty for years but finally giant disgusting bland thoughtless generic "houses" were going up and offered for 2 million dollars or so each.

Eventually, we will live in a unique geography which exists under a completely bland generic built environment over it. Eventually we will become not Mainers but Anywhere-ers. Our kids will have no connection to the land or any spec of culture.

Eventually the Leviathan of out-of-state number crunchers will destroy our sense of place.

For me, that section of Pine Point is forever destroyed.

Paris from within or above?

2009-06-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

The recent proposals for tackling Paris' urban blighted suburbs requested by Sarkozy reveal the lingering dualism in today's urban design. The success of Haussmann gave Le Corbusier intellectual permission to propose Plan Voisin and led to the destruction of large swaths of delicate urban fabric all over the world. This can be called, "planning from above". This kind of planning takes a neoplatonic view of civilization; one in which big brother knows best and can organize life into neat sets which usually do not overlap. It is top down.

The new old fashioned planning method can be described as, "planning from within". This kind of planning uses the self organizing principles of hill towns and other village layouts to create places that arise from users actual movements. The set theory involved here is multiple

overlapping and always changing. It's taoistic in accepting an existing flow. It is bottom up.

The proposals for Paris are straddled between these two approaches. On the one had we see a new urbanist before and after sketch showing how reinstalling village fabric can restore an area:

On the other hand we have a new raised monorail to bypass the world below on the way to Tomorrowland like Robert Moses would love:

Then too, we have sinking rail lines and covering them with parks to restore links between neighborhoods by foot, which is restorative and looks at connecting. Also, there is a proposal to use the canals as places to invest so as to create places just as beautiful as those in the old city such that people will want to be in these new beautiful spots and wonderful living areas will grow from this.

Then again we're back to models with towers- just can't stop these from appearing:

And then, another green leafy urban new urbanist like sketch from the Rogers' office (long way from 70's for sure):

It appears as though the tide has turned against endless consumption though as sound practices such as establishing an urban limit as cities like Portland OR have done was proposed for Paris around the suburbs. As mentioned, removing industrial scars in the fabric and paying attention to neighborhoods and how they work- both proven strategies- were present.

The answer seems to be a dash of this and a dash of that with focus on enabling citizens to grow and adapt and change whilst every new piece creates a greater whole. The old city is a product of a bit of massive destruction of buildings for large boulevards that we enjoy. The setting of city limits is top down and limiting in a way but can free up the filling in with more attention to quality and infrastructure limits. The restoration of pedestrian play areas and movement can bring people out of their fortresses and cars to experience life more fully.

It's clear that the old city started as a few nice buildings and squares and a lot of slums which are now millionaire housing. This means it's all about creating great spaces for people to walk through and they will be filled with poor and then rich and new spaces can be created. It is only the constant attention to linking great existing spaces with new great spaces that will ensure a greater environment with the passage of time. Paris is this in the old center and can be this from inside out forever!

The End of Utopia

2009-05-27T10:28:00.000-07:00

I participated in the public workshop for the potential reworking of the Franklin Arterial in Portland last month along with other architects, planners and community members. The city did a wonderful job of organizing a slide show depicting the way the street was before being ripped apart and destroyed to get a mini highway installed. The general consensus among all was to knit the streets that once flowed across Franklin back together and to bring back the wonderful city fabric that once existed whilst allowing smooth high volume traffic to get from 295 to Congress.

As we and others across the country stitch up the wounds caused by 60's urban renewal we must act not with nostalgia after a time that was rough and not ideal. Nor, must we hasten toward a new utopia which will never arrive. It is the molding of idealism in each of our minds in the form of projected wish fulfillment which must be addressed as mature citizens. Utopia is a violent concept which skips reality for a neoplatonic construct- always denigrating us all. We must let go of the urge for grand gestures.

Each of us is a small animal moving through space gathering food, protecting our families, and seeking shelter. From this beginning, sustainable questions can be dealt with while creating space and light.

The end of utopia is the beginning of infinity

Form-based code puts power in public's hands

2009-04-28T10:07:00.000-07:00

The city of Portland recently held a community design workshop to get ideas for how the public would like the Maine State Pier developed. While many great ideas came forward, I suspect an underlying issue is the lack of a form based code for our city.

A form based code might simply state that in the area of the Maine State Pier perhaps all building on Commercial Street would front the sidewalk with no setback and a height of 4-6 stories like 100 Commercial Street such that no elevator would be necessary. A form based code might also add that public access to all pier edges and ends is mandatory; that all buildings on piers be a 4 story maximum; that all piers have public streets down the middle; and that all streets perpendicular to Commercial continue across to the water with potentially future piers built for them (India Street).

In this way, the city can be filled with buildings as developers see opportunity and all public access and enjoyment is pre-guaranteed. Most important, that no matter what use, the city ends up more interesting and wonderful as time goes on.

The final piece to the puzzle is to keep public ownership of the land/piers owned now, so that the building values are never tied to the land and it's value- a great way to keep marine related uses able to afford such prime spots.

We can still specify a particular spot for future public opera house or aquarium but a form based code would really provide a blueprint for such a great city without getting bogged down in each square foot.

Kunstler's Odds

2009-04-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

J. H. Kunstler gave an energetic, fun, keynote lecture full of predictions at the Gas Light restaurant in Portsmouth April 2nd as part of CNU NE Sustainable Urbanism Summit.

Mr. Kunstler began by pointing our that peak oil has occurred and we will have to make due with fewer barrels while demand grows. Because of this, there will be no more boom and bust cycles of 3-7% growth and we can no longer service our debt. Oil producing countries- most of which have nationalized oil- will keep more to themselves. Places like Mexico will lose the money generated by it's 2nd largest oil field which could potentially lead to revolution.

He sees 2 trends of thought emerging among those concerned: One group envisions technical solutions to everything (the internet geeks). Another group sees organizing as a means of solving the problems (the volunteers). Kunstler says neither group understands the complexity of the problem.

With industrial food production dependent on oil for machines and transport, the key to survival will be growing our own food locally.

Walmart is currently the largest grocery store chain and as all the big box stores go under, their strategy is to close all huge stores and keep only the megastores open. They want to be the last big box standing. But the model they use to operate is NOT sustainable and they will go down soon as well.

99% of all development is suburban sprawl and builders are just waiting for the cycle to come back so they can continue to sprawl but it's not coming back- it's OVER. Kunstler convincingly shows us how the suburban commercial strip was the biggest WASTE of human potential. All that effort could have gone into creating wonderful urban environments.

Kunstler's big point is that: WISHING WILL NOT WORK! We are now a society of gamblers and all want something for nothing. We will now have to make due with less. We will be in a contracting society as the economy contracts and our urban areas contract. We will have to spend less and live in urban walking environments. We will have to do business differently, build smaller schools, rebuild the railroad system and boat transport system (use trucks only for last leg of journey).

The middle class will be pissed off about losing the easy way of life.

Car centered cities like Phoenix will disappear and older pedestrian founded cities like those in northeast will grow. More rental units and more 6 story walk ups. No more new urbanist mega developments on green field sites, it's all in-fill from now on.

Finally, he quotes the, "Law of perverse outcomes: people get what they deserve, not what they expect.", and urges us face reality- NO WISHING.

Global warming

2009-03-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

A recent NYTimes article on scientist Freeman Dyson's questioning the urgency surrounding global warming may cause some to back off any commitment to lowering our carbon footprint but the issue of sustainability is much more far reaching than just quantity of CO2.

Sustainability has been around since the beginning of time with early man discovering farming as a way to sustain life. Our dependence on foreign imports of energy clearly disengages us from our local environment. The Industrial Revolution solved many problems of production but has disengaged us from who we are in the places that we live. We have come to expect all of our needs to be created and sent to our front door.

Now we are industrial voyeurs, accepting visual entertainment as a substitute for engagement with our neighbors. We go to the gym to attempt to reclaim our bodies as part of our selves instead of walking, gardening, etc. as natural ways of using our bodies in the natural course of feeding and entertaining ourselves. High School graduates cannot fix the cars they will be driving everyday of their lives. They cannot grow their own food. We are all trained to do one specialist task for a paycheck and heaven help us if we ever had to make our own food and energy supply.

The big picture is that the Industrial Revolution is over. The information era is certainly important from a political, war-and-peace standpoint, but it's time to live within our means and within our neighborhoods.

Parking

2009-03-10T09:55:00.000-07:00

Parking, parking, parking. When building in town, parking seems to be the most important factor. When architect Louis Kahn did a proposal for redesigning Philadelphia, he put big parking garages at the perimeter so those in the city could enjoy moving about by foot. Here in Portland, we have an urban fabric conducive to walking but we cannot escape the necessity of finding parking spaces for all who enter the peninsula to work or play. How should we deal with this conundrum?

Experts have shown that if you build it they will come when it comes to increasing highway width. This means that if you increase the width of a highway this will allow people to get somewhere on that highway quicker which will make more people build houses and offices to take advantage of that increase in efficiency causing the highway to quickly become jammed again and require yet more lanes.

The bottom line is that people adjust to the available transportation. An engineer told me that in Portsmouth the urban fabric is dense enough (like Portland's peninsula) that fewer parking spaces are required as people can walk to multiple errands from one parking space.

When I lived in Boston I did not own a car. When we examine our parking space needs in the city we should not prevent our streets from becoming pedestrian friendly by letting parking spaces overrule maintaining a continuous building infill street frontage. There must be a balance where folks who arrive to work can do so with some ease but buildings are allowed to strengthen our wonderful pre-auto pedestrian city.

Eyes On The Prize

2009-02-26T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just received this cute video by the Cohen Bros. on misrepresentation of "clean coal technology": http://action.thisisreality.org/cleancoalclean. As mentioned in an earlier post, we have a lot of information now on how to build more sustainably but the big picture is to shut down polluting energy sources. While it's good to use recyclable materials and drive a high mpg car, we should focus on not using energy from coal plants; not use oil for heating; and to walk, or drive a car which does not use oil. These simple steps will vastly change our carbon footprint. And these changes are first steps towards a sustainable planet.

Now catching and eliminating existing green house gases- that's a challenge we need to work on while the previous mentioned steps are implemented.

Walking

2009-02-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

We are creatures of habit. When we get too used to using our cars to get everywhere we forget how easy it is to walk. I can walk to work- it's about 12 minutes if no ice. Often I'll take the car just to give myself options if I need to run errands- say the supermarket. The other day I walked to work and then back to do some dad stuff and then walked back to work and later home. I realized how I had an impulse to want the car and as I walked home the second time that day it hit me how ridiculous I had become. Walking was quick and healthy. I used to walk at a very brisk pace home from my part time job in Quincy Market years ago to the far end of Boylston St. in Boston and did that almost every day.

We forget so easily the utterly human nature of walking when we spend SO much time driving. Unless we place ourselves in a potential walking situation we will continue to leave this aspect of a normal human existence out of our lives and miss the normality it brings to our bodies and minds.

We are meant to walk a lot.

Assumptions

2009-02-01T09:53:00.001-08:00

I've noticed a trend amongst us all to question the established ways of doing business. A recent NYTimes column by David Brooks (What Life Asks of Us) mentioned Harvard's wish to have students question the established ways of approaching problems. Brooks followed with an argument for institutions as sort of tradesmen who pass on valuable practical skills and wove an argument for conservatism vs. individualism (liberalism in his view) which I found fault with. I posted a comment suggesting that since Socrates, to ask questions was the conservative, institutional way to educate and that the cult of the individual was a completely separate matter (comment #200).

I believe it is a great time for us to question whether we need long mortgages; whether we need large houses; whether we need to import our building supplies and whether we need to build with the usual materials. Do we need a boiler or oil at all (No)? Do we need to live too far to walk to school and work?

In my previous post, 'Sustainable Plato', I argued for a hybrid life that combines living with the earth in a natural, pre-industrial manner, while taking advantage of the great inventions of the present.

It's time to make good on this idea and build earth friendly, technically savvy structures and towns.

Independent Wind Power

2009-01-23T07:05:00.000-08:00

Last night former governor Angus King gave a talk on wind power in Maine at the Freeport Community Building. This talk was one of a few sponsored by Wolfe Neck Farm on renewable energy in Maine. The talks are supported by Royal River Natural Foods.

T. Boone Pickens may be the most famous entrepreneur in this country to bring large scale wind power projects to our attention as a way to do good while making lots of money but close to home we have our own well known advocate, Angus King. The title of his talk was, "The Future of Wind Power in Maine". King started a new company, Independent Wind (www.independentwind.com) to tackle implementing large scale wind power projects in our neck of the woods.

He began his talk with some statistics on Maine's energy use- here is a summary of the talk:

1. Usually we think of how to improve the efficiency of our electricity use but our total energy use breaks down as 10% electricity, 40% heat and 50% vehicles. And 55% of the electricity we use here comes from natural gas. Thus, he shows us how little difference slight improvements in efficiencies regarding our current electric use (replacing bulbs, etc.) though important, makes a very small dent in our dependence on fossil fuels.

2. Since 80% of our homes in Maine are heated with oil- the highest in the country- and basically 100% of our autos use oil, we are currently in a dangerous situation, depending on outside sources of energy not to mention contributing to global warming. He points out that the country of Singapore until recently obtained all their fresh water through a pipe from another country (Malaysia). They decided this was a national security risk and invested in desalination plants with the result that they are now water independent. We should follow their example with our energy policy.

3. It is a big mistake, King says, to think our oil price crisis is over. If you look at the big picture the trend is up because countries like China and India are only going to consume more and more energy. A good way to look at energy use globally is to use the measurement, millions-of-BTU's-per person-per-year. Using this measurement we get: US=340; China=52; India=14; Sub Saharan Africa=8. Since economic growth and energy use is essentially a one-to-one correlation, energy use in developing countries will go up. Just to get an idea of the populations of places like China, King told us a friend of his who lives in one of China's lesser known cities said there were 80,000 students in just one grade in his city.

4. When oil prices in Maine go too far up the state becomes uninhabitable. A good way to understand this is that nationally, for every $1 the price of gas goes up, $1.2 billion dollars comes out of our spending on other things and goes into gas (since Maine homes are 80% heated with oil, we get devastated). Essentially we dodged not just a bullet but a howitzer this winter because if the price of gas had stayed at $4 (thus heating oil very high too), people would have died here (unable to afford to heat their homes).

5. For King, a good way to look at our precarious situation is to look at our purchase of house insurance. Though the risk is very low, most people purchase this insurance. Our risk of oil price going up is very high but we have no insurance to deal with this (thus he has implied a complete state of denial on our collective part probably leftover from the days gone of cheap oil. Just to add my own caveat, I think many of us make it a priority to have a wood stove whenever possible).

6. Thus, a list of ideals for energy would include: local source; big source; non-polluting; doesn't burn stuff (coal, gas, oil); and stimulates the economy. Wind power meets this check list. Wind power is a great solution now. Nuclear creates waste which we don't deal with. Hydro he thinks is mostly done (this is a point probably very worth disputing and later crops up as a good example of clean energy).

7. Wind power can be divided into on-shore (or shallow water) and off-shore. On-shore is doable in 2-3 year time frame with permitting, etc. Off-shore is not ready to go yet as needs platforms, etc. to handle the deep water but is what we need to think about now as well.

8. Wind power is not a complete solution, probably 20% of our energy needs maximum. Norway for example is 90% hydropower (water). He sees wind power as best solution implementable right now.

9. Impact of wind power on environment: makes sound that can bother you if 3,000 feet or closer to windmill (1/2- 1 mile away you won't hear it very often); shadow flicker will occur as sun passes through blades if 1/2 mile or so away or closer. Thus not a free lunch but pretty darn good. Visual impact of turbines seen from a distance some see as negative, others like them. He thinks we should identify mountain sites now that are agreeable to people so that end of it is already in place.

10. Efficiency of turbines is they move about 80% of the time but full power probably only 30% of the time. Output of windmill is cube of the wind speed is good way to consider it.

11. King described the Gulf of Maine as the Saudi Arabia of wind with potential to produce 250,000 megawatts of energy. All of New England uses 30,000 megawatts now.

12. We should think of wind as not just environmentally sound but as REPLACING OIL! (independence= national security).

13. King believes we should get ready now and pre-permit off-shore wind farms so that we can build them when the technology of the platforms, etc. necessary for deep water installation arrives we can quickly get them built.

24. The electric grid we use now in Maine was implemented after the great blackout of 1965 and therefore obsolete. We desperately need to upgrade our grid now.

Questions followed and here are a few topics:

1. One attendee thought that wind farms had a devastating visual impact using the Roxbury Pond windmill project up in Lincoln Maine as an example where he had a camp. He wondered why we should not better spend our efforts on the two energy problems, heating and autos (of course, if we have electric cars and passive homes electricity is very relevant). He offered the website www.windaction.org as a resource for his opinion.

2. Another man pointed out that the state has put the top third of the state in a non-expedited zone so permitting is harder and why is that. King said getting permits for wind farms is very time consuming and generally costs millions of dollars and that projects in the lower two thirds still require a lot of time. He thinks the state should revisit this zoning and the whole approach to wind projects (I do not have this opinion in my notes so I am going on memory and that this is implied in his talk).

3. I asked if state legislators should consider telling municipalities that they must get a large percentage of their energy from non-fossil sources and leave it up to them how they do it. I mentioned that Gary Lawrence of Arup's office in a lecture last week suggested not dictating through legislation what to use for energy reduction or water use reduction (what kind of windows or insulation, etc.), only that a building had to meet certain performance goals and that would allow developers to be inventive. Thus towns could purchase energy from a wind farm or hydro (dam or tidal turbines) or solar farm or even make each home have a windmill or whatever they decide. Mr. King did not quite understand my question due to my bungling delivery but did say that big projects are more efficient and that the state needs a big amount of non-oil energy.

4. Someone pointed out that Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey are already working on permitting process for wind farms.

All in all a very inspiring and informational talk by the former governor. We are lucky to have someone doing what needs to be done rather than putting out reports.

Back to Reality

2009-01-21T07:35:00.000-08:00

Our new president spoke to us directly regarding investing in things that work in his address yesterday. As yankees we are of the same mindset and thus, uniquely poised to lead. We Mainers can show the nation how it's done by using our architects and planners to lessen our dependence on oil by creating zero energy buildings and sustainable communities. As a people, we understand the practicalities of living in harsh climatic conditions. We already conceive and execute solutions to our need for heat, food and shelter on a daily basis. Now is the time to take our collective knowledge of farming, passive energy saving inventions and compact neighborhoods and invest in creating a sustainable Maine. A Maine where the vagaries of the economy have minimal impact on our ability to grow our own food, heat our buildings, and make useful items for sale.

A Maine mindset is just what President Obama is calling for and we're ready!

Gary Lawrence on Sustainability and Portland

2009-01-16T05:49:00.000-08:00

Last night the Portland Society of Architects hosted a seminar on "The Political Business of Sustainability" with a talk by Gary Lawrence, former planning director for Seattle and current head of planning at Arup Associates. The PMA was packed. There was a 5 member panel of Portland professionals and a moderator to discuss how Portland could become more sustainable.

I would like to just focus on Mr. Lawrence's talk and highlight some of his wonderful insights:

1. People in a community such as Portland's must develop a, "collective intentionality". They need to have an agreed upon set of goals to work towards. We can drift towards the future or we can try to head towards a future we want despite the inherent uncertainty of the future.

2. He does not like to use the term, "quality of life", because it is an averaging term. Each person in a mixed neighborhood can have a very different quality of life than the next so we should not let ourselves gravitate towards our and our friends perception of our quality of life and induct that to the whole community.

3. We need to start the community conversation not with technical discussions about 'sustainability', but simply ask ourselves this question: "If things (job losses, etc.) get bad, what are the elements that would make someone stay here instead of moving?". This immediately puts focus on what we really care about.

4. Most people's time perception runs from grandparents to grandchildren so good to think about what we want to be different 10 years from now. Then ask what we need to be different 2 years from now to achieve the 10 year goal.

5. Sustainability is all about choices so all about politics. All politician's want to be re-elected so if you want them to advance sustainability goals you then are obliged to make it safer for those politicians to help you- not riskier. You must show those officials that you can help them get re-elected if they advance your goals.

6. Current approach to problem solving in most community is the whack-a-mole one where you attack one problem at a time when it comes up. Sustainability is to attack more than one at a time.

7. When head of planning at Seattle he had his staff of 140 hold hands all at once and say, "I don't know, what do you think?"!

8. Always gather community input in as many ways as possible. People have different learning styles (oral, visual, emotional) and do not all do well receiving information in one way. When deciding against a suggestion, back it up with logic. People want to know they have been listened to for real.

9. Words planners use have emotional effects on people. Need to discuss the emotional effects of planning decisions. Women carry a huge burden of fear when living in an urban environment. It takes a lot more energy and is a LOT more stressful for a woman to live in an urban environment than a man. Most planning has been done by men without thoughts of women and children's emotional needs.

10. People may say they want things to be the way they were, "restorative nostalgia", but they really only want those aspects of the past they like, not the whole package good and bad. This is called, "reflective nostalgia".

11. We must harness avarice in the name of sustainability by figuring out how to let investors make money while making life better- sustainable.

12. In order to move from talk to action three fulcrum points: Environmental justice (increase in infant asthma in poor areas do to auto smog); Community leaders need to be present to support pro-sustainable meetings (he had Bill Gates, Nintendo and Boeing CEO's at meetings in Seattle); No sustainability without quality education system because economic success relies on well educated workforce which is dependent on environmental health of kids.

13. Finally, we need to say, "what we know; what we know we don't know; what we don't know we don't know." This means a community must be constantly scanning the horizon always assuming you 'don't know' so we are always trying to find things out and altering our plans to take into account this always new information.

Many Town Square Jewels Here

2009-01-15T06:31:00.000-08:00

I was substitute coaching yesterday, on the bus headed west from Portland, chatting away with the other coach, both of us marveling at the view of the low mountains to our right when we went through a town center briefly. I was on the right side of the bus facing the other coach sitting on the left side . I was busy talking and focused on the subject, sensing a few buildings close together, so, a main street and suddenly- Woh!

I just saw a snow covered town square! I exclaimed my excitement and then asked the driver where we were as I had not paid attention and he said, "Cornish". Cornish?

That's right, I don't know as I've driven 25 west so not sure I've been by that square before. It's always a joy to see there are places still proudly displaying their heritage of attention to the human citizen moving on foot through the cozy space of the community.

There are many places like this in Maine and we can all learn from these living examples to move forward in our attempts to take back the way of life we know is within our grasps.

Out with the new- In with the old.

2009-01-13T05:28:00.000-08:00

Allison Arieff's column in the Times ("What Will Save the Suburbs") yesterday asked the question- what do we do with these abandoned suburban/exurban developments that have gone bust? Here in Maine we have bits and pieces of this (not at the scale of a southwestern flat, warm, no basement sprawl) like newly built Topsham mega strip mall area catering to our drive to a big box needs as well as pockets of housing developments in southern Maine which stand empty or with one or two houses on the cul-de-sac to nowhere.

The simple answer is to set up a program which provides HUGE incentives to anyone willing to take the abandoned house with it's 10 yr. lifecycle and tear it down, recycle the materials, donate the land to the town as permanently preserved, and build a new row house inside a designated town center.

This way we preserve our open land- what makes Maine, Maine- and cap spending on infrastructure saving our municipalities and ourselves taxes and energy!

Sustainable Plato

2009-01-08T10:22:00.000-08:00

Plato held that there are 'ideal forms' of all objects that exist. Therefore, there is a 'perfect' dog or a 'perfect' human for which nature provides only approximate examples.

When we look at ourselves from a racial perspective we use Aristotelean logic by creating categories we call 'race'. Our natural instincts sense 'other' when we come upon those who appear different from ourselves. Any language which involves racial terminology heightens this impulse. We are then caught in a cycle of separating ourselves from those around us.

In a world with long established racial prejudices the slender blond white woman is held in print media as the most often shown ideal woman in the USA. Women who do not fit this 'ideal' are forced consciously or unconsciously to desire to change themselves to emulate this perceived 'ideal'.

Similarly, the white, slender, muscular, wealthy man, with perhaps, a British accent, is presented as the ideal man in this country. Features which deviate from this perceived ideal cause unwanted anxiety at some level.

Since the Queen of England acquired pekingese dogs during the British invasion of China, dogs have become mostly pets, and in a breeding-for-looks frenzy, the dog show was born with it's 'ideal' dog for each breed. But the single ideal dog of Plato's imagination would be one which did not fit any of these breed categories as it would have the most functional features of all of them.

And 'functional' features would depend on climate and best-way-to-catch available prey.

The Industrial Revolution took us away from the climate based agricultural life- a hard life- but one centered on the tangible reality underfoot. This Industrial Revolution eventually created affordable goods. Unfortunately it also separated us from our own food production and turned us into slaves for owners instead of the small business farmers/owners we had been. We then desired to be top of the food chain in the Industrial Revolution- the British wealthy aristocrat- as Britain was the most powerful nation during this period. And this became the desired 'ideal' human- very racially, economically, and socially particular and separated from the consequences of their actions. Soon, what I call, "trickle-down aristocracy" was rampant and everyone wanted a house on a big-as-possible lot, with a pet dog, membership in socially exclusive clubs, and the chance to look down on others.

Hopefully we are finally moving beyond the post-Victorian worship of aristocracy and it is not necessary to anglicize our names or desire to be like a certain 'ideal'. When even the very top of the world-wide social hierarchy, the British royal family, finds it necessary to anglicize it's name from a German one to an English one, the ridiculousness of it all becomes apparent.

But, the Industrial Revolution grew from the Enlightenment which replaced the mysticism of past and led to the scientific method which led to advances in medicine, technology, etc. Now that we have the method to solve problems rationally we can attack our climate crisis. And we can rationally reconnect to the ground underfoot.

This means living a hybrid life- one in which we are both old-school earth friendly in our daily lives and taking advantage of the scientific method to invent life-improving technology. A life in which our surface and social hierarchy characteristics are replaced by our life characteristics- the way we live- the way we successfully blend with our fellow humans and the earth's systems.

Paradoxically, Plato's 'ideal human' may be thought of as a mixture of all races; a perfect blending of all Darwinian climate-resistant and hunting/gathering traits capable of inventing functional objects and making peace with others. How's that for a thought experiment!

Frank Zappa once said, "Jazz is not dead. It just smells funny."

Maybe the Enlightenment is not dead- it just smells funny.

Solutions Were Here All Along

2009-01-02T08:29:00.000-08:00

It's always amazing when we are presented with a crisis (such as global warming) and we begin to look at ways we can cut down (on our use of heating oil) in one area in order to make a tiny difference and suddenly we find out we never needed that oil in the first place!

That's right folks; you don't need a furnace. By super-insulating your home and using a ground circulating air to air heat exchanger we can keep our buildings at a constant temperature using the heat generated by lights, etc. in the building. This passive (not using manufactured energy) system is ours to take advantage of.

I was fortunate enough years ago, to have worked for one of the country's leading passive energy sustainable focused architects in the country and Maine's leading expert, Bill Sepe of Rockport, Maine. He has been super-insulating and using solarium's and circulating the heated air and other passive techniques in ALL of his buildings since the 70's. Now that we have confirmed we have a global warming crisis, it's time to turn to experts like Bill to help us move forward.

Turns out the answers and experts were here all along.

A Great Gift To Ourselves

2008-12-24T11:31:00.000-08:00

It's always enlightening to me when the solstice rolls around and we celebrate various holidays that we all share a common theme in our desires. We all turn our thoughts to home, family and community. And the images we desire and replicate in our plays, greeting cards, toys for our kids, movies, etc., are all those of well designed pedestrian communities.

We are attracted to cozy fireplaces; Victorian street images of street lamps, brick sidewalks, brick and wood buildings; narrow streets with shop windows and street vendors; friends walking up to us on the street and giving us a happy greeting- on the street- the image is not in a parking lot or mall. All of our true desires of a warm friendly community come out this time of year.

We may live on a cul-de-sac in suburbia with a bit of a walk from house to house but when it comes time to tune into a movie or show which makes us feel good we always gravitate to the old pedestrian town/city. All our toy towns are like that. Our kids don't want a little toy town of parking lots and expressways. It's curious just how we all agree on what we really want but just how little we realize we can have that. We don't buy greeting cards with nice paintings of strip malls even though that is how we live- what we have agreed on.

Psychologists and philosophers of old have proposed a shared consciousness or 'a priori' set of desires. It doesn't take a lot of thought to understand the natural desire of all to protect and promote our families and friends and communities in which we feel accepted- that's Darwinian. But that these desires are best met through creating cozy villages and cities is for some reason a larger step.

Where's Waldo? He's in a vibrant crowd of people!

It may be after taking care of our children and relations and friends and homeless, there is a great gift we can give ourselves as members of a local community. This is the creation of a town or city master plan based on the way we want to experience our towns. The desire to be in a cozy Maine village doesn't mean we have to go away from our own towns to another picturesque town and stay at an inn. It just takes a little planning.

And that may be the greatest gift to ourselves.

Happy Holidays to All!

New Urbanism in Maine

2008-12-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

I just attended a New Urbanism workshop here in Maine. Our practice site was a small town in Maine and 20 or so participants all came up with unique ideas to the sketch problem. Within the rules of thumb there were an infinite number of possibilities and a few things stand out as quite pertinent to our state's situation.

1. The better we can concentrate building to the smallest area as in traditional villages (as in pre-industrial Europe), the more money we save. Now this is key to our situation as town's need a big carrot to help them get citizen's on board regarding creating a master plan which benefits all. The more buildings are concentrated in the town center, the less money spent on infrastructure. The less money spent on infrastructure the less money spent on energy. The less money spent on energy the less damage to our planet. And the more we concentrate our buildings in the town center the more our municipal spending can go towards high quality sidewalks, trees and plazas rather than spreading our funds over a vast area with minimal place creating.

2. The more we concentrate building to the town center the safer our lives become for kids and retirees. If you are a kid and run around and play and visit your friends you are being watched out for all the time in a packed neighborhood. If you are a kid and are walking to your friends and crossing pedestrian friendly streets you are physically safer than biking down a highway or walking down a road with no sidewalks. And you don't need a ride from mom or dad to play. Retirees do better and are more independent if they do not have to drive to everything.

3. Subtle shifts in our roads make drivers slow down. By shifting residential streets at intersections a bit from directly across from each other we make through traffic less speedy. Same applies to bending roads a tiny bit here and there. The medieval town with it's roads from old cow paths are more interesting and safer than the perfect grid.

4. The more we concentrate buildings in a small area the more beautiful and productive the surrounding landscape is. Farmers are allowed to make a profit if there land is zoned so as not to allow a development or taxed very high if development is outside the designated town center so land is used more efficiently, again, saving everyone money. And community gardens are a must as we all attempt to feed our families in times that can be very bad or very good economically thereby stabilizing our children's lives.

5. The more concentrated buildings are in town centers, the less parking we need to build and the more money we save. This seems counterintuitive but one of our instructors, a traffic engineer, pointed out that in Portsmouth, because everything is concentrated, people only need to park once and walk around to everything. Therefore, they do not need to find a space at multiple spots in town to get to all the places they are going. This is important information for planners and citizens.

In conclusion, master planning for our towns is key to living a cheaper, safer, more interesting, more beautiful and more stable life for all!

To Jumpstart Livelihoods, Create A True Marketplace

2008-10-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

(this blog is a reprint of an article I wrote for the Maine Sunday Telegram some years ago)

What do you do when you have nothing: no job, money, higher education or particular skills?

You can attempt to get a low-wage job- say in fast food- or look for handouts. And while many of us have a career or two, many other Mainers lead simpler lives, lives that are productive and engaging, but which the shoe called career never quite fit.

These days, high school graduates are under enormous pressure to pick a career and go to college to learn it. In America, we are expected to take out huge loans and then have some vague notion of our intended profession at the end.

But when we go for our first job interview, we have no experience and at 21 we are like 10-year-olds.

For most American families, there is no daily life for children around working adults, which would help to educate and inform young people about the working world around them, and cultivate their interests for the future.

American life- middle class life- depends almost exclusively on an academic path to choosing a career, leaving a whole underclass and middle class of people to fend for themselves.

Instead of career choice in the form of textbooks, we need to offer children daily exposure to careers and the American workplace. And not just through field trips.

We offer community college as a great opportunity to learn web design or some other vocation, but with an assumption that there is money available to start an enterprise.

Where do we go to start making money to eat and cover other basic needs?

Marketplaces have traditionally served this function. In the third world, they are places of commerce. In European cities, there are many marketplaces, such as Portabello Road in London (watch Disney's "Beadknobs And Broomsticks"), in which a person can attempt to make money from imagination with little capital.

Without these marketplaces we have no mechanism to start the process of success from scratch.

I propose that Portland make a big space for a marketplace, say six to ten times the size of Monument Square. A location within walking distance to the Old Port is key, but marketplaces can be in any area. They do not call for precious sites like the Old Port.

I have been to many markets in Europe, which you come upon by walking through the streets. These are dynamic places. Indoor markets, such as Fanueil Hall in Boston or the GUM in Moscow are one or two levels up from the starter stall of the street market. Frankly, they don't count as marketplaces in the traditional sense.

They are more like malls, and that is why the wonderful Portland Public Market (since closed a few years after this article was published) does not work as a market but more as a mall with restaurants and outlet stalls. This market has done great things by placing a public place in an area in need.

I lived in London for a short time and used to go to the Camden Market in the Camden Town section of the city on Saturdays. There, all kinds of products were for sale, and you could always find something someone made or resold that you needed.

It might be a sweater, socks, jewelry, books, or things completely invented by creative people, who all looked different from each other and had different temperaments and attitudes.

It is no secret that clothing designers go to marketplaces to discover the next trend.

When I walk into a marketplace I always feel I am in the beating heart of life itself. A thriving human life, unpredictable and yet continuously celebrating human existence.

A marketplace is the perfect petri dish for enterprise to grow. It is a seemingly chaotic system based on simple rules of stall and product that achieves remarkable success because it is always changing and adapting.

The relatively new science called, "complexity", used by economists, shows us that a healthy macrosystem such as an economy can only be achieved through a large number of very small changing events.

Success at the marketplace micro level can lead to opening a shop on Congress Street with a good chance at success.

Without a micro success, macro successes are reserved for the gifted business person or the person with startup capital he can afford to lose.

The marketplace is not just for those without money. A person from a household with some means may want to stay at home and knit sweaters that she can sell at a stall, her children by her side.

Our education and career systems train us to go to school every day and learn how to focus for long periods of time in order to pick a career and then go to work from 9 to 5 and behave within very strict, "norms".

But people are all very different from one another and one person's normal is not necessarily another's. Employers expect a person to show up at a certain time and behave a certain way. Marketplaces are performance based. They allow for quirks in behavior and changing patterns of sales techniques.

Our fixation on careers bypasses the most critical component of free enterprise: the mechanism to start from scratch with no established path of study.

Creating a marketplace is like handing everyone a fishing pole instead of handing out fish.

Covered Walkways

2008-10-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

When the Romans built their military based towns they included a mandate that building owners must build a covered walk in front of their building on the street side. When all the land in a block had been filled with buildings, and covered walks were there, one could walk down the sidewalk in the shade.

Here in Maine a similar law would help create wonderful spaces and protect us from the snow and rain, to say nothing about less shoveling! In Stockholm's Gamla Stan historic district, there are some wonderful nordic classicism buildings with covered walkways which make strolling in winter a pleasure.

If you like Exchange Street in Portland or Main Street in Bangor, imagine them with continuous covered walkways!

Neighborhoods and Shopping

2008-09-23T15:59:00.000-07:00

In my recent Maine Sunday Telegram 'Insight' section article (9/21/08) I talked about towns locating schools, libraries, post offices, ball fields, parks, etc. in neighborhoods based on a 10 minute walk. We all mourn the loss of Main Street and it's shops but our lives are more than just shopping and we can create neighborhoods with the non-shopping municipal buildings we use. If each neighborhood has a post office stall, gym, elementary school, library, ball fields, park- all in buildings shared by all and organized around the green space then people can walk the non-shopping part of their lives. We may have to drive to work or to a large grocery store or other large store for some items but much of our time is spent with our children and neighbors.

It's important for us to let go of, 'Wal-mart killed Main Street', and take a second look at the amazing places we can create to live in using items that are in our control. Most everyone I know wants to live in a cozy walkable neighborhood with municipal facilities.

Real 'Green'.

2008-09-20T08:57:00.000-07:00

In the rush to get on the 'green' bandwagon, many are unclear regarding what effort pays the greatest dividend. The biggest concern to the planet is the use of coal fired generation plants as I understand it. This means any effort to reduce the amount of energy we derive from coal fired plants goes directly to reducing green house gasses. The most common explanation of this idea is that buying a used car is better for the environment than buying a Prius. Meaning that the amount of energy used to make the new parts and assembly of the Prius is more than the amount of energy wasted in the higher gas mileage of a used car. In building this means reusing building materials is very important. Also important is reducing the amount of electricity a building uses. Super insulating reduces oil dependency and therefore the emissions from burning oil and the dependency on foreign oil countries whimsy. But, reducing the amount of electricity used through low energy lights and appliances and using solar panels and wind generation is critical.

Let's keep our eye on the target and focus on reducing coal fired plants and oil usage.

Children In The City

2008-09-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

Many families do not feel it is safe enough for children to live in the city. Sensational stories sell papers and when anything bad happens to one of our planet's children we are instantly told. Thus, as many have mentioned recently, we do not let our children roam free to play in neighborhoods and time is too structured for them in many places.

Just as traffic is carefully designed to move from slow streets to faster and faster ones, safety can be designed in the city in similar fashion. City planners can designate a hierarchy of street safety with well lit, officer on each corner streets giving way to streets well lit with officer viewable stations at strategic places to streets with storefront glass and well lit to only well lit.

There is no reason why we cannot approach child's safety with the same intensity and engineer-like methodology as the attention traffic gets. This is the first step to establishing a sustainable compact neighborhoods way of life here in Maine.

Streets Are Rooms

2008-09-17T05:49:00.000-07:00

The first step toward creating pedestrian friendly spaces is to treat each street as if it was a room in a house. By first, making sure all buildings have walls tight to the sidewalks, these buildings will form walls on either side of the street. The street then becomes an outdoor room. Whether the neighborhood is low rent or high rent, the outdoor space can be beautiful through city efforts.

On designated shopping streets, the first floors should have glass with shops or businesses visible. This makes for safe streets and active one's. One long blank first floor on a street can ruin the feeling of an area.

Lights and wide sidewalks of brick and trees creating shade and buffer for childs safety can all be done by the city.

In Portland, new buildings in the Bayside neighborhood have and have not been placed tight to the sidewalks. The DSS building sets back behind a parking lot in a suburban layout, destroying any hope for Marginal way to feel like a room there. The new university housing however, forms a wonderful outdoor street space and has a nice bus stop of glass in front. This simple rule can have dramatic positive results.

Streets are public space and have much potential for safety, and the pursuit of happiness!

Location, location.

2008-09-16T09:56:00.000-07:00

Now that the price of oil has finally changed the way we perceive distance, urban planning in Maine may get the attention it deserves. We place sports fields and town amenities according to how much time the largest number of users take to get there by car. Now, perhaps we can locate these services per how long a walk they are for the most users. This will lead to compact neighborhoods and greater sustainability for our beloved state. Let's embrace the challenge!