KunstlerCast 247– JHK Yaks with New Urbanist Andres Duany
Celebrating the 20thth anniversary of the publication of The Geography of Nowhere (and release for the first time of an E-book edition), JHK yaks with New Urbanist Andres Duany about the campaign to create more walkable communities and places worth caring about. Duany came to the USA as a child from Cuba in the late 1950s. He got his architecture degrees from Princeton and Yale. He formed the firm DPZ in Miami with his wife Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk and together they produced the most iconic projects of the New Urbanism (Seaside, Florida, and many others) as well as leading a movement to challenge and reform the suburban fiasco and all its governing regulations.
The KunstlerCast music is “Adam and Ali’s Waltz” from the recording Waiting to Fly by Mike and Ali Vass.
Please send questions and comments to letters@kunstler.com.
Why am I the first to comment on this WONDERFUL interview!?
I particularly enjoyed Duany’s personal insight into our ever changing local, national and global architectural scene. His compassion for all people really comes through and that’s what makes good designs.
On the other hand, I feel the whole bike lane model is absurd. I was into it for a while as a poor 20 something, it has serious limitations. There’s a Carolina manufacturer addressing the limitations due to weather, safety and health; however, it still makes no sense to have a battery that requires 8 hours to recharge and only goes 20 mph (what if you have the average 30 mile commute?). This serves a very small minority of people and in the end it costs as much if not more than an economy car using 5$/gal gasoline.
Walk into any Wal-mart as the test case for battery operated short range transport. They can’t keep enough charged up due to our increasingly elderly and/or obese generation. It’s easier to work with open minded, young, healthy people as opposed to the geriatric and disabled that demand CODES to negotiate obstacles to daily civic life. Look at the numbers for the 21st century that show most people will be living in permanent dwellings and office buildings due to their age and health condition (elderly wave) along with necessity to retreat from the increasingly sever weather an hostile society. The 21st century young and middle aged adult will, in my opinion, be mobile, going from job to job, chasing the ever decreasing money supply due to energy costs. They will not be having babies and settling down until well into their 50s or 60s.
What and when is the event in Detroit Duany was mentioning at the end of the podcast?
Jim,
Best bumper sticker take for Andres Dunay podcast. “THE SYSTEM MAKES US STUPID!”
Found this old post about Detroit on the Congress for the New Urbanism website:
http://www.cnu.org/cnu-salons/2007/05/buzz-growing-motown%E2%80%99s-downtown-population-grows-learn-more-cnu-xvs-detroit-sessio
Nothing about Detroit on the Events page.
I’m not a nostalgic person; therefore, the idea of going back to recapture the pullulating city or town is ludicrous. Downtowns require capital to provide the services that sustain occupancy. Society continues to move onward and outward with no regard for communal troth. We do not live in a system that promotes altruism in towns nor can we make that a permanent feature of a town. Towns exist in order to conduct the most efficient and lucrative business. Everything else in the town is designed to support the functionality of trades (infrastructure, courts, housing, schools, etc.) Once a person trades whatever it is they have to offer, it goes out into the world and will be analyzed and replicated. Detroit, along with every other city and town, needs to get over its past history of leading in concepts and constructs and focus more on the present realities. Like Duany said, CNU has become a conventional organization in order to communicate their ideas to the city or town in which they can be the most effective.