A Sign of the Times
November 28th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
As I have become more interested in economics, I have paid much more attention to the business section of the newspaper. The news of economic downturn grows darker and darker every day, and I am almost certain that nobody has any idea of how to fix the situation. This is shaping up to be a doomsday scenario with frightening speed.
It all started with a burst of a housing bubble in the United States, which most people thought was inconsequential at the time. Foreclosure rates soared, and soon the big banks started to come crashing down. When will it end? It is hard to say, but these two articles show a startling sign of the times.
Wal-Mart worker killed in bargain-hunting stampede
“I really can’t focus on gifts,” she said. “I have to focus more on helping [my relatives] pay their bills. It’s hard,” she said of being a single mom on a small income. “I’ve always filled the tree. But you have to be honest. This year, I’ll do the best I can.”
Forty thousand show up for free harvest
Joe and Chris Miller’s fields were picked so clean Saturday that a second day of gleaning — the ancient practice of picking up leftover food in farm fields — was canceled Sunday.
“Overwhelmed is putting it mildly,” Chris Miller said. “People obviously need food.”
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My Visit to Hong Kong: Part 1
October 7th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
Famous view of Hong Kong
from The Peak
A bridge near Lantau Island
A few weeks ago, I embarked on a trip halfway around the world to visit the city of Hong Kong, which is a major world city. It was especially significant because my girlfriend Seychelle and her family are from there. It was a great experience, and it has definitely changed my views about how cities should be planned.
Hong Kong is rarely what you imagined, and nothing like you see in the pictures. It is extremely, almost inconceivably, different from anything you’ve ever seen in North America or Europe. It is simply the ultimate urban machine.
My first experiences of the city was rather surreal. We took a bus from the airport, traveling through many different environments. The first was the highway between the mountains and coast of Lantau Island, which is relatively undeveloped compared to Hong Kong Island. You can refer to the map below if you’re not sure where it is.
Map of Hong Kong: View Larger Map
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Bigger Isn’t Always Better
July 16th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
La Bon Marché in Paris
Eaton’s in Toronto
Macy’s in New York
Large format retail has existed in various forms since the concept first emerged in the 1850′s, when Le Bon Marché opened in Paris. It was four storeys high and one of the largest shopping centres in the world at the time. In time, famed department stores like Macy’s in New York, or Eaton’s in Toronto acted as magnets for tens of thousands of shoppers.
All three have several things in common: they are all more than one storey high, Macy’s and Eaton’s being almost ten storeys. They all take up just a single city block. For example, Macy’s flagship store fits around 100,000 square metres of retail space into just 3 acres. The Walmart mentioned later in this article has 21,000 sq. m on 18 acres.
They all have stunning architectural detail, such as beautiful stonework, windows, and cornices. They all face directly onto the street, which is lined with windows to display merchandise and covered with awnings.
The entire experience is filled with detail and colour. These are places you would not mind just sitting on a bench and watching the people walk by along the sidewalk, and the traffic whizzing by on the street. Now this is big done well. Yes, big can be good, as I have shown above. Read on for why many modern developments are big, and bad.
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Defining Human Scale
July 10th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
In order to build an enjoyable environment on a human scale, we first need to know what people enjoy, and then what they need. This combination of two variables, esthetics and functionality, is important. Even the most conceptually unique space won’t be used by normal people if it is not functional. Similarly, people will not want to spend time in an extremely spartan space that is only about function.
A building in Seattle demonstrates human
scale in its built form.
The city of Seattle has a series of design guidelines, including a section detailing how make a place human-friendly. Basically, the details are most important. Greenery to provide shade, details in building and window mouldings, awnings, and good lighting, all contribute to making a space appealing. However, all these features work together to make sure that a space does not appear too large. Awnings and moldings act as an imaginary outdoor ceiling, and trees contribute to this.
My previous blog talked about how commercial big box stores, with their giant parking lots, are just about the worst example of human scale planning in our everyday lives. How can they be better?
The fact is, the Big Box is simply too big. Before any of the detailing mentioned above can be incorporated, that box needs to be broken up into smaller, more realistically sized portions that are stacked on top of each other to a minimum of two storeys. That doesn’t mean they have to be tiny, but they shouldn’t be much deeper than a typical building in a city’s downtown. That means an average depth about 40 metres (130 feet). The Walmart store alone in your average Walmart supercentre is over 100m (330ft) deep, not to mention around 170m wide!
Reducing the horizontal size of these developments is the first step toward human scale design. Check back next time for a look at the environmental and economic reasons why modern shopping centres are way too big.
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A Summary of Mass Transportation Types
July 4th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
November 16, 2007. By Jeremy Krygsman.
Toronto is replacing its streetcars. The classic Red Rocket streetcar design has been in use for the past three decades and is much loved, but it has become unpractical for the demands of the modern city of Toronto. They are becoming unreliable, and their comparatively small size is making them impractical to run during rush hour because of congestion. They are getting old and out of date, and insufficient for today’s needs. The story of Toronto’s streetcars is the story that repeats itself over and over again in any city’s book of transportation issues. A road which was satisfactory ten years ago becomes a crowded mess today, or bus routes that once served a small Ontario city are now overstretched because of rapid suburban growth. How can we fix these problems, not only for today but looking toward the future as well? Transportation management, be it mass transit, highways, or simple roads, are one of the great challenges of modern city planning.
Mass Transit
Of the several central transportation issues facing cities today, mass transit has increasingly become top priority, possibly even more important than roads themselves. Governments strive to find the balance between many different factors that can make or break any mass transit system. These include ridership, routing, transport type, and of course the actual cost of the service. If it is done right though, mass transit can be one of the city’s most important assets. Mass transit can take many forms, from busses to rapid transit railways. This section will analyze all aspects of several different types of mass transit, including all four of the above listed factors.
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Gas Prices, and Building on a Human Scale
July 3rd, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
Starting with Hurricane Katrina’s ravaging of New Orleans three years ago in 2005, gas prices have continued their steady summer climb. Oil prices hit $145 U.S. Dollars a barrel today, which really has not come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, the price of oil barely makes the news anymore.
What does fill the headlines, however, are regular announcements of manufacturing plant closures, airline cutbacks, and the like. Here in Ontario the auto industry, which is an economic mainstay, exports over 90% of its product south of the border to the United States. Needless to say, people in the U.S. currently don’t have a very large appetite for automobiles right now. At the same time, the U.S. housing/mortgage crisis, which was at first expected to quickly dissipate, has continued with vigour, forcing many out of their sprawling suburban homes.
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Welcome to A Digital City
June 3rd, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
Hi, I’m Jeremy Krygsman. I’m starting this blog to act as my outlet for all that I learn related to the profession of city planning. I’m currently finished my first year at the University of Waterloo’s School of Planning, and loving every minute of it. I have lots of ideas, from big to small (mostly big though!), which I would love to see come to fruition – and the first step is toward that is to develop them in detail and show them to the world! I hope my readers will find my ideas interesting, thought provoking, and practical.
They tell you, when you go to university, that you can change the world. This is the beginning of my attempt at doing just that!
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Developing an Official Plan
March 18th, 2008, by Jeremy Krygsman
1 Introduction
Preparing a city’s Official Plan is a difficult job by any measure. It requires a thorough knowledge of many different attributes, ranging from public opinion to economics to demographics. To discover these attributes, several different methods of research need to be used simultaneously. They need to be compiled and developed into a plan that adheres to the regulations of several higher powers and spawns many lower plans and policies. This paper describes that process in the context of the city of Waterloo, Ontario. It will describe what an Official Plan is and how much power it has. It will then outline the steps needed to complete an official plan, including research methods and the planning process.
2 Research
Research for this paper was conducted using many resources, including Statistics Canada, Ontario and Waterloo government planning documents, news articles, and reliable web sites. Additionally, lecture notes from University of Waterloo Professor Mark Seasons and the textbook Planning Canadian Communities by Gerald Hodge and David Gordon (2007) were used frequently. All of this research was secondary, because it is simply too time consuming to compile primary information. The most valuable information came from those closest to the source, especially government documents such as the Ontario Planning Act.
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Redesigning the Arts Quad
December 6th, 2007, by Jeremy Krygsman
During this first year design project, I learned a lot about the basic concepts of design, and developed my skills in 3d Studio Max significantly. The Arts Quad is one of the few large open spaces left on the University of Waterloo’s main campus, and it was our task to redesign it to create a great place for its students.
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