Planning Commissioners Journal

Affordable Modern Prefab

Is it possible to design & build a distinctive looking modern prefabricated house? Take a look at this short video about Alchemy Architect's weeHouse being installed in various sites and configurations. For more detailed information about the weeHouse.

Early in the video there's a reference to the Lustron House, an early post-World War II effort to develop attractive manufactured homes. We found an interesting 15 minute video about the history of the Lustron and efforts to preserve one Lustron house.

For more on the signficance of the Lustron, take a look also at planning historian Laurence Gerckens' short piece "The Unfulfilled Promise of High Tech Housing" (and accompanying sidebar by Beth Orenstein with more on the Lustron) -- this was one section of our special issue, The Promise of America: Ten Successes and Ten Failures that Shaped the 20th Century American City (available to order & download).

Reports from Leg 2 of "Circle The USA"

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

I'm back from the second segment of my planned "Circle the USA" travels, covering Detroit; Troy and Flint, Michigan; and Elkhart County and northwestern Indiana.

 

I've filed the following reports. Take a look, and sign up for our Circle the USA blog feed and/or email updates.

 

-- When Rouge Turned Green

-- Preservation or Demolition?

-- Campus Martius Park in Downtown Detroit

-- A Suburb Plans for Change

-- Not Giving Up on Flint, I

-- Not Giving Up on Flint, II

-- Good or Bad Signs in Indiana?

-- A Main Street Succeeds in Tough Times

-- Planning for 46 Miles of Lakeshore

My next segment will include several days in the Chicago area, followed by stops in Kankakee County, Illinois; Dubuque, Iowa; and southern Wisconsin.

 

Again, check out our Circle the USA web site where announcements and reports will be posted.

Saving Fenway Park

From PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz:

Being from Vermont you'll have to excuse our personal interest in the Boston Red Sox. But we think you'll find the following Red Sox story worth hearing about -- especially in light of the article on charrettes just published in our Summer issue:

“For ten days [in August 2000], an air of controlled chaos characterized Room L308 in the Library Building at Simmons College in Boston. Chalkboards were crammed full of random, late-night-inspired ideas written in a vaguely decipherable scrawl. Reference books, rolls of trace paper, markers, and miscellaneous drafting tools piled high on a ragtag collection of worktables. Clumps of wires and cords stretched across the room to power laptop computers, CAD stations, printers and copiers. Empty Coke bottles unceremoniously scattered the floor. Amongst it all, clusters of casually dressed professionals and curious visitors feverishly debated the intricacies of traffic counts, aisle widths, and historic preservation standards above the combined din of ringing cell phones and a borrowed boom box pumping out strains of Elvis Costello and the Attractions.”

-- From Design Symposium A Rousing Success! Summary Report by Jeffrey Harris of Save Fenway Park.

Charrettes gather professionals, community leaders, and passionate citizens under one roof for one purpose. When done properly they harness imagination, balanced by fact and reason, and the results can be surprising. While many charrettes are organized by planning officials or development interests, this is the story of how community advocates used the charrette process to reframe one very important development discussion, and challenged public officials to see things differently.

From the earliest whispers that the Boston Red Sox were planning to build a new ballpark, the Save Fenway Park (SFP) volunteers understood clearly the threat to the historic park.

The Red Sox organization had a comprehensive vision which included not only a brand new facility, but the major redevelopment of the surrounding neighborhood. With support from the Mayor’s Office (and a big advertising budget) it appeared that the deal was done, and Fenway Park would become yet another piece of Red Sox history.

But the SFP team was not out yet. The Fenway Community Development Corporation (FCDC) had been working for several years on its “Urban Village Plan” which envisioned new affordable housing and a more attractive environment for retail and other commercial uses along an under-developed section of the main thoroughfare through the neighborhood. The location and footprint of the beloved Fenway Park, and its associated uses, loomed large in this planning.

Both SFP and the FCDC were frustrated with the “public” planning process charted by the Boston Redevelopment Authority (and the Red Sox organization) as the city deliberated the re-zoning of the neighborhood to accommodate the demands of the team. The neighborhood groups felt that the process was geared only toward the development of a new stadium, and had not sufficiently considered the possibility that keeping the existing stadium could, in fact, be a better option.

Want to buy a bridge? And I'm not talking about the Brooklyn Bridge!

I was thumbing through my local paper's classfied ads a few days ago, and came across something that caught my eye: Historic Bridge Available.

That's right. Our Agency of Transportation here in Vermont (known as "VTrans") has a bridge it wants to sell you. Actually, they're not even selling it -- they'll give it to you free!

It's a "historically significant" 122 foot-long metal truss bridge across the White River in Stockbridge, Vermont (see photos below). Unfortunately, it needs to be replaced.

About ten years ago, VTrans completed a comprehensive study of which of Vermont's many historic bridges were worth preserving. It looked at factors such as the bridge's structural condition, hydraulics, traffic loads, historic significance, and cost.

Some bridges have been put to new use, often as bike and pedestrian facilties. Others remain in place for vehicular use. But still others -- such as Bridge No. 130 -- fall into the "documentation and demolition" category.

According to Catherine Quinn, a historic preservation specialist with VTrans, "we are required to make historic bridges that are slated for demolition available for reuse to a responsible entity, hence the advertisement in the newspaper for Bridge No. 130 in Stockbridge."

Like an Anchor Store for Downtown

Just came across this story about plans for a downtown theater re-opening in Carbondale, Illinois (from the November 14 issue of The Daily Egyptian newspaper):

I was especially struck by the Councilman's remark (quoted above) that "the theatre would be like an anchor store for downtown Carbondale."

Reading this reminded me of what I heard during my cross-country trip this Summer: that theaters and arts centers are vital components of strong downtowns and main streets.

See my post "Hulda's Theatre" on the remarkable theatre restoration completed in the small Indiana city of North Vernon, and  "Behind the Curtains," about the ambitious rennovation still underway in Emporia, Kansas.

Theater restoration projects don't just bring economic benefits to downtown -- in small towns and cities they can help build community through the cooperative efforts needed to accomplish the project. Restoring old theaters (which have often sat vacant) typically requires a major committment from dozens of local residents volunteering their time -- and from local businesses contributing equipment and services. In Emporia, for example, area businesses donated much of the heating, air conditioning, and plumbing-related equipment and services.

Note: if you've been involved in a theater restoration project in your community, let us know about it. Either email us, or post a comment below.

I'm excerpting from a portion of Carbondale Mayor Cole's remarks about the theater in the continuation of this post. At the bottom of the continuation of this post, you can also download a complimentary copy of an article I authored, "Preservation Takes Center Stage," from a special back issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal