Why did we stop building through-streets?

[TheRatmeister]

Architectural details aside, Nordhavn, in particular, looks a lot like Assembly Square or the proposals for Suffolk Downs and Dot Bay City. I actually think we need to try for more than 350 units on 500,000 square feet, though.

I think you could aim for maybe 400-500, more than that would be pushing it in terms of livability I think.

 

[FK4]

I’m enjoying all of these examples people are putting forth to refute the notion that we just need to carpet everything in the metropolitan area with more housing. It’s making me think of “towers in the park“, which, although perhaps the specifics of Corbusier’s proposal were wrong, really has elements that are not unreasonable approaches. From a quality of life perspective, I think you’d get much greater benefits having clusters of density amidst clusters of green. Corbusier’s error is he wanted the towers too spaced apart and the green overly landscaped, but the examples upthread all show it need not be like that.

 

[TheRatmeister]

Corbusier’s error is he wanted the towers too spaced apart and the green overly landscaped, but the examples upthread all show it need not be like that.

You have to be careful with any design like this because it tends to create a lack of ownership towards the green space. It then becomes the responsibility of someone who doesn't care all that much, a government or landlord usually, and so it's a lawn because that's easy and boring. Creating a sense of public and private ownership of green space is crucial to ensuring that it remains vibrant and well used. This is actually a good use case for an HOA, an organization that can organize and maintain such a space supported by individual homeowners.

 

[FK4]

You have to be careful with any design like this because it tends to create a lack of ownership towards the green space. It then becomes the responsibility of someone who doesn't care all that much, a government or landlord usually, and so it's a lawn because that's easy and boring. Creating a sense of public and private ownership of green space is crucial to ensuring that it remains vibrant and well used. This is actually a good use case for an HOA, an organization that can organize and maintain such a space supported by individual homeowners.

Agree. That’s why we have all these privately owned, shitty parks. In many instances it would be better to have larger spaces, or spaces allowed to be more wild and less sanitized, and/or agricultural zones (for the latter, at the fringes of the city)