Neo Urbanists at War with Landscape Urbanists

By Bruce Firestone | Uncategorized

Jan 03

British urbanist,
writer, editor, and cartoonist Rob Cowan says that new urbanists and landscape ones are more like feuding tribes of professionals.

Harvard Graduate School of Design professor Alex Krieger calls the work new urbanists are doing, “superficial beautification,” essentially sprawl in drag.

Meanwhile, urban and building designer Michael Mehalfy says that landscape urbanists are creating, “sprawl in a pretty green dress.”

Both sides are joined in this incessant squabbling by others including tactical urbanists as well as ecological neo-structural
urbanists, according to Cowan.

image

In the August 2013 Plandemonium

video shown below, Mr Cowan says:

Don’t show us your labels, show us what you’ve
built, show us who lives there, and how they live, and how far they have to
travel, show us how much carbon they create, and how safe they feel on the
streets at night, and how much they enjoy life. Don’t preach at us.  Don’t tell us, show us… (what works).” 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMNjWXPARIw?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque&w=540&h=304]

Well said.

@ profbruce @ quantum_entity

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Bruce is an entrepreneur/real estate broker/developer/coach/urban guru/keynote speaker/Sens founder/novelist/columnist/peerless husband/dad.

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