De-Constructivism

Dear Readers,

I tried it - I tried hosting a Constructive Discussion. And what happened? Two responses. Hardly what I would call DISCUSSION, Readers!

Council member Marc Elrich wrote: "I think Tom's main point is about being proactive rather than reactive. I think that having us bring a design forward that starts with the needs for parking, access, bus spaces and a park and then looks at what development is possible is a good way to go. I have raised this with some of the principle folks involved in fighting the current proposal and that there's an interest in looking at it."

This is good a good way to approach the entire subject of "how to deal with development." Start with the needs of the community and design to meet them. We have to be careful, however, not to get into the indiscriminate inclusiveness that some say plagued the Center Center (known to the more bureaucratic-minded as the Takoma Park Community Center Sam Abbott Citizens Center) .

The planning should be done, it seems to me, by professionals who know how to filter the laundry list of "needs" expressed by various citizens and interest groups, take into consideration all the factors such as access to public transport, traffic, economic viability, future population and development growth, environmental concerns, and so forth, and design something holistic, to use the crunchy-granola term (but then, granolapark is sooo crunchy granola). And by that I mean there should be a citywide plan. There seems to have been some attempt along those lines with the Carroll Ave. street-improvements, but otherwise the city just deals with each development project as it pops up. For instance there are two development plans in the works for each end of the Laurel Avenue/Carroll Avenue block, which abut, but are virtually uncoordinated.

I'm sure it would cost money, and likely scotch the current developer's plans, but wouldn't the sensible action be to hire a (radical, visionary, green-thinking, public-transport-friendly, automobile-hostile, development-scuttling, crunchy-granola) city-planning professional to develop guidelines for the entire Old Towne area, or for that matter the entire city? Can the city do that? It doesn't have zoning authority, after all.

If you do it right, a contemporary functional design can be aesthetically pleasing, by the way. Unfortunately, too many planners in this town try to make new architecture blend in with existing buildings by having them built with faux "period" details. This results in, for instance, a modern-era block with faux art-deco designs tacked onto it (Laurel Ave. in Old Towne and Flower Ave.), or a contemporary big brick box with a faux mansard roof glued on top (the Center Center). This is regardless of the fact that there are no authentic mansard roofs within sight.

The way to "blend in" new architecture is to build something in the same (or complementary) style, color, or material as the surrounding buildings - in the Center Center's case a late-Modern brick school, brick 30s-modern apartment buildings, and brick-steel-and-glass high-rise apartment buildings. The mansard roof supposedly refers to a historical hotel that was in some other location.

Sorry, but this strikes me as pretentious. It's like a soccer-mom who discovers a link to aristocracy in her family tree and takes to wearing tiaras.

Oh, wait, we're being Constructive this week, aren't we? OK, ignore all that. I'll just say that planners and residents should open their hearts to contemporary design. A good architect can come up with an original building design that fits into a community without making a pathetic copy of existing architecture.

Happy New Year, dear Readers! See you in 2006!

- Gilbert

PS. I've heard complaints that this blog doesn't offer adequate opportunity for a dialog. It's not MY idea, it's the way this blog site is designed. If someone were to point out a better FREE blog site which allows for better dialog, please e-mail me off-blog at: granolapark@yahoo.com

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