Boxes, Blocks and Urban Space
The grid is perhaps the simplest of urban forms, in use since the earliest times of city life. Though challenged by new designs and new forms of growth over the past several decades, the grid continues to find resonance with contemporary urbanists. The timeless utility of the grid is that it fosters rational and coherent design, providing an underlying order for both the formal and haphazard circumstances of urban life.
The New York City grid dates from 1811 and was presented ostensibly as a tool to coordinate real estate development in the growing city. Manhattan is inextricably tied to it. And because of this city's density and architectural richness, the effects of the grid on the casual observer can be dramatic. The experience of looking down one of the major avenues - Lexington will do - is a transforming event, one defined by the visual impact of the horizontal and the vertical. We see the avenue stretching out before us while we are hemmed in by the canyon of buildings. Or to experience the irregular form that emerges where Broadway interrupts the grid, its diagonal creating some of New York's most distinctive spaces, without disrupting the functionality of the aggregate network.
From this simplicity of right angles and straight lines emerges a variety of tools that planners, architects and designers can utilize to practice their craft. Individual buildings, boxes, that are fitted together to build blocks, then neighborhoods, are forced to coexist and even rely upon one another. The intricacy of each level effects the other. Housing that acknowledges the street and is woven into each block fulfills both aesthetic and social functions. Parks and open spaces are easily inserted into the grid pattern. Washington Square Park is one of the finest examples of urban open space, defined by the grid but also lending it vitality and freshness. Through manipulation of the grid, functional and social open space can take on a variety of configurations. Portions of individual blocks can be closed off, either temporarily or permanently.
These spaces give a focus to the surrounding buildings and offer relief from the high residential density in many New York neighborhoods. Auto traffic flow, pedestrian traffic and commerce are regulated and enhanced by the functioning grid. Jane Jacobs assessment of life in the West Village still holds - the street ballet as she describes it - of passerbys, residents and shopowners, that lends both economic and social vitality to urban life. Infill development on individual lots in depressed residential neighborhoods can help restore safety and dignity to communities that have suffered the effects of urban decline. Both the functionality and the creativity of design that the grid offers has yet to be exhausted.
In contrast, spaces that have been denied the variety and social interaction of intimate blocks can become anonymous and lifeless. Washington Square Towers, though only two blocks from Washington Square park, exudes an atmosphere of indifference to its surroundings. This towers in a park design, relying on consolidated superblocks, has effectively turned away from the street. The resulting open space has little connection to the area, and is indeed only available for those who reside there. Foot traffic is along the surrounding streets is nearly absent, retail non-existent. The drop in energy and activity from the nearby blocks is striking. This dichotomy in form and function demonstrates the push and pull of the forces that determine urban form - markets and real estate values, design innovations, and accidents of urban life.
For all of its simplicity and utility, the grid as creator and definer of space has unfortunately been lost in many contemporary plans and designs. Perhaps coincidentally, cities have been on a staggering decline. There are, of course, dozens of reasons for urban decline and the almost unimaginable conditions with which our nation's cities must grapple. From a planner's perspective, reversing the course of urban decay is an unparalleled challenge and one that is exacerbated by our inability to curb habits and ideologies that gained their stronghold in the 1950s and '60s. The cumulative impact of excessive highway building, stand alone high-rises, suburban sprawl and single-use zoning continues to reveal itself within our society. Both architects and planners need to reorient themselves to traditional urban space - boxes and blocks - as a more efficient and humane way of creating livable, vibrant, and transforming environments. For the planner, the challenge lies in coordinating cars, mass transit and pedestrians into a conciliatory grouping rather than placing one in a supreme position over the others. It also means rethinking zoning and land-use decisions that impact directly the location and form of development. It may too involve efforts of creative financing and use of resources to promote equity and stability.
Architects, planners, urban designers and preservationists have distinct identities and specific goals within their respective professions. But clearly their parts produce a whole and the theme of Boxes, Blocks and Urban Space makes this clear. Obviously, urban form exists as it does through a combination of plans and accidents. The grid facilitates these accidents, but their impact remains beyond our complete control. But by grappling with the political, economic and social forces that impact form, we can hopefully shape cities in a meaningful way. Reforming the means and processes in which we think about, develop and build urban space is a project which can generate interest across these professional lines.