rail lines commuters commons cranes containers
infrastructure suburbia by department of unusual certainties
civic frontiers: using the Long Island Rail Road
Civic Frontiers – Moving Immovable Space In the past decade several architectural competitions have been held under the banner of ‘fixing the suburbs’. It seems that North America’s iconic crabgrass frontier has been declared a failure. With the impending threat of peak oil, decentralised and migratory living has been deemed untenable, ending the epic suburban experiment that defined North America in the twentieth century. Where do we go from here? What new form shall twentieth- first century urbanism take on? How can the characteristic tension between social contracts and individuality, frontier mentality and need for some sort of central organisation, that has so defined American living, take on a new sustainable form in the next century? These are exciting questions, so it is heartbreaking to see that although urban design as a profession and body of knowledge has grown exponentially in the last fifty years, innovative idea competitions are yielding such conservative results. Fifty years of urban design research, and the best we can come up with are perimeter blocks and sidewalk cafes. Density Fetishism and Rescuing Suburbia Perhaps these competitions are rigged from the outset. One such competition, Build A Better Burb, was released in May of 2010, and focused on the commuter suburbs of Long Island. Implicit in the competition results was densification, reviving the traditional main street, and maximising the use of commuter rail. An island-wide land-use survey revealed that there was 8,300 acres of developable land in the form of vacant parcels and parking lots that were within a comfortable walking distance of the 156 commuter rail stations. All of this seemed to suggest that the competition curators were really looking for variations on singular concept – the Transit-Oriented Development – a New Urbanist concept that pits mid-to-high density residential development around transit hubs, heavily garnered with ground-floor retail. New Urbanists have been riffing on this concept for twenty years now – represented in soft-toned watercolours and hand- drawings that recall a pastiche of pre-WWII America, mid-rise European perimeter blocks and Vancouver-via-Hong Kong-style skinny towers. Central to their argument is that density and ground-floor retail will create the dynamism and street life that people secretly desire, and a patronising position that suburbia is something that needs to be rescued and repaired by making it more urban.
Traditionally, the train station has been a hub of commercial and public activity. The Long Island model removes public space and commercial activity from the station area, creating longer drives and separated islands of retail and services. Can we use the energy of LIRR ridership to re-activate downtown public space?
Long Island commuter stations: Amityville, Freeport, Hempstead and Hicksville The Long Island Rail Road is the busiest commuter rail network in North America. It serves over 81 million passengers each year. Despite this, most of Long Island is suburban. Shopping malls and cars are the preferred choice. Downtowns and the areas around train stations are neglected. The Long Island Index estimates that there are 8,300 acres of vacant land and/or parking lots located within walking distance (half-mile) from a LIRR train station.This means 8,300 acres of potential downtown development which would support more transit use and revitalised downtowns.
On Site review 24
60
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator