How can the Hague meeting two million square feet of additional living space? That was the question on March 5 in theaters on Spui was made. A debate, following the successful photo exhibition living in The Hague, had to give an answer. The invited speakers had their opinion. The executive sat with head nodding.

“Living in The Hague” is a cartoon created by the nomadic house that seeks a complete picture of the Hague housing situation. Now, after realizing the three-VINEX locations: Wateringseveld, and Ypenburg Leidschenveen, a clear picture which emerges from the deficiencies of the fourth policy paper, seized the opportunity the current demand for housing in an intelligent way to deal with.

Spectacle Architect Winy Maas of MVRDV launched the debate with a series of ideas about urban development. Cantilevered balconies in all directions he comply with the demand for the polder home-with-the-garden. Romantic images of a steel structure on park walks of 8 to 50 square meters high were his words. Yes, why not? Good ideas loose again as the dust from the correct address, laughter of course. But since you experience that really made living space? A plan that has nothing to do with housing but where MVRDV have missed the boat is the design for the Ministry of Agriculture. Agriculture must ‘sexier “, which can with a central park-like paste on the tail of the Utrecht jobs. A beautiful, realistic proposal. Unfortunately playing the new ball by the Architect to the architect who just it does not participate in the procurement, Cees Dam. What is important here now hidden behind? The plan Mecanoo for Agriculture was not bad.

Eric Vreedenburgh Archipelago architects of air shall be bound to attend. Alloy pigeon houses on the roofs landscape. A series of images of their Hague and Scheveningen dakwoningen data and a list made his proposal downright realistic. Whether this is a good buy Archipelago has not yet realized a project answered. Yet remain on the sidewalk and social get the rich candy boxes on the gutter.

Their Leon Atelier Pro hides its architectural prefer. As a prototype model for this ostrich puts the home of his own office in. So much space, half buried and barely visible: Pro’s statement against the sensational architecture? In a series of images and graphics Their took the audience on a journey to hidden places. The Hague 27 linear kilometers of water would still be filled with at least 1500 houseboats? Not considered that to mean precisely the water for other urban hides. Their Leon also states that lost the industrial areas like the Binckhorst a green residential oasis can be. In other words, living on the KPN in the backyard of the Citroën Dealer. Of course you can also kill the Westland City glasses verdiepinkje a lift or two and a suburb the size of all the Hague realize. Your tomatoes are already cultivated on rock wool and voila, the entire infrastructure gift!

Urban Jan de Graaf said then that the serious and credible center of The Hague is a dormitory town. With a plethora of offices and ministries, which use an average of fifteen percent actually have, this area is the most lifeless and empty of all Dutch city centers. He seeks in his image without arguments to other uses of this space. New combinations of living and working according to him the city adventurous and efficient. The Hague to monoculture, as it is to other European cities to measure more on the social changes and new trends.

The debate contained a number of brief questions to Henk Westra city architect Martin Schmitt, already on the threshold of the emergency exit was on the way to a meeting with the Architect (LNV dissatisfaction?). After he had strategically bile spewed on one aspect of each proposal, he nonchalantly that he is working towards it. As things go against him, he is the relationship between Spui and Parliament Buildings, “let the council decide now the government coalition”. The idea of living above shops empty-there is -90% in the last twenty years several times on the table of B & W pushed. And the above ideas of the four readers are not breaking new ground. What’s happening in The Hague that the will is there, but the plans remain idea? The whole Hague utopia lies in multiples to yellowing in the bureaucratic la; opportunities for the taking. But what does one? It encapsulates what rural suburbs and puts it in a broadloom carpet of bricks and pavers, the safe way.

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A 1929 proposal by the Larkin Company to establish a “Larkin Square” at the corner of Seneca and Swan streets was shelved by a reticent Common Council and assailed by the Socialist council president Frank C. Perkins as a corporate give-away that “smelled to the heavens.”

The public square proposal would have seen Van Rensselaer Street cut through Seneca Street to Swan Street to relieve traffic congestion (yes, there was traffic congestion!), setting aside a triangular plot of cleared land for a public space honoring the company’s late founder, John D. Larkin.

The Larkin Company at the time was running the Larkin Department Store and the Larkin Food Market at full tilt, filling the entire ground floor of its massive factory complex at 701 Seneca Street with a shopping wonderland for discount foods and household goods. The company desired to create the square to rationalize traffic flow that had been bottled up as a result of the store’s opening and to establish an attractive gateway at the front lawn of the Larkin District.

While the Socialist council president, first elected in a sweeping victory for the left wing party in the council elections of 1919, was incensed by what he viewed as a gift to capitalists, most of the Council simply did not want to pay the hefty price for private property that stood in the way of the anticipated improvements. The Council, rankled by the cost of the proposed square and refusing to pay what a judge deemed fair market value for the property, was inclined to nix the square proposal despite widespread support in the neighborhood to implement it.

According to a Buffalo Courier Express article of June 3, 1930, the plan “was vigorously attacked at yesterday’s meeting by Councilman Jacob L. Davis, who said it would not benefit the general public, but only one property owner. He left no doubt in the minds of his colleagues that he meant the Larkin Company.”

While other members of the council believed the improvement was necessary to relieve traffic congestion, the proposal appeared all but dead when a reduced price for the property was offered by the Council and rejected by the owners. The Larkin Square proposal was ultimately shelved by the Council Finance Committee in 1930, and the plans were quickly forgotten.

Ironically, the historic retail buildings that would have been cleared to make way for the square are now demolished anyway. A new fire hall built for Engine No. 9 in the 1950s was constructed on part of the footprint of the square over where Van Rensselaer Street would have come through. But a couple thousand square feet of the square site remain, leaving open the possibility that, at some point, the intersection of Swan, Seneca, and Emslie streets could yet have a Larkin Square.

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Under the prosaic title “Infrastructure as a showcase for the ingenuity” was the Dutch Architecture Institute (NAI) its second Major Projects debate. The stakes were clear: “The infrastructure can play a leading role in organizing the rest of the country.” What should have been a fierce debate among politicians, critics and designers turned into a private chat between developers and officials. Nieuw Amerongen Frido of reports.

Construction of the Betuwelijn

The discussion has already crippled by the initial absence of the two speakers. Michelle Provoost critic (author of Asphalt) let sickness turn up and Minister of Transport Tineke Netelenbos was absent because of construction fraud investigations. She had a duty of confidentiality.

Netelenbos was still virtually present. Her custom and partly censored story was read and commented by van Schaik, project leader at Rijkswaterstaat. He was not always agree with Netelenbos. So he told it her appreciation for the French Grand Projects, but the lack of comparable Dutch projects he fervently denied, referring to the 19th century Dutch tradition of canals, polders and stations. Van Schaik agree that RWS had directed the design has lost the last decades. A rapid improvement he foresees no. In the integrated approach of the A12 motorway Rijkswaterstaat must start all over again. “There is still trying to analyze the design task is”

Joost Schrijnen of the board space and mobility, South Holland province, finds a second introductory speaker in recent years architects infrastructure contracts storm. “What do civil engineers themselves?” he asks. “Nothing!” The TU Delft is no attention to the civil design and the players have no interest. If it fails to establish a connection between spatial designers and civil engineers, then all effort useless and design changes nothing. ” He joins Van Schaik Netherlands in the art of making disappeared. “We must learn this art all over again. And in a society where infrastructure is not autonomous, it will not be an easy task. “

Links: Körmeling designs on the A12 (from: Taste 05, photo: Janine Writer). Right: Mobility Aesthetics, proposal Mecanoo architects.

Problems in education and the authorities, unclear and fragmented responsibilities, and a decreasing autonomy, the speakers do not hopeful picture for the future of infrastructure design. The other panelists did not make it better. Paul van der Ree, architect in Holland Rail Consult, tells of his difficult task as the creator of the HSL Zuid. “Coming up with a consistent design for the entire route has not been easy. But economic and political arguments, dilutes as a concept ever. ” He says. “The tunnel under the Green Heart was for him the last bloodletting. “From an ambiguous route design is no longer. Remaining are few delights, including the bridge over the Moerdijk van Benthem Crouwel Architekten. ”
Also increasingly used “Design and construct” contract method (where the government the project to the constructing Party) impedes a good design according to the panelists because usually the economic motives prevail.

The absence of the reply of political outsiders and creates a sort of old-boys-currant atmosphere. John Körmeling defends his ‘social’ eight-lane highway, open to all traffic. ‘Racing left and right foot step “and Rein Jansma Zwarts & Jansma Architects know of a solution to the proliferation of noise barriers to counter:” Give all assignments to our office “The facts remains with pins and exchange, a fundamental discussion on the use of Infrastructure is hard to find.

Proposal for three Mecanoo snelwegtracees.

From the audience prick Aaron Betsky, director of NAI, the balloon of crippling unity:”All the panelists are, unconsciously, one aspect of all in agreement: The desire for big and clear. Why anyone looking for less unambiguous, but more varied solutions? ”
Most panelists not to seek such a solution. Their gaze is focused on the greatness of the French project, but without the associated powerful driver. Whether and how this can then in Holland with its ambiguous cultural consulting responsibilities, it segmented bodies and its emphasis on economic considerations, no one could answer. Maybe Betsky’s suggestion to seek variety in the design to be played by teams in the next debate on Thursday, March 28 to defend their views.

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The Buffalo & Attica Railroad, Buffalo’s first eastbound rail line, was built in 1843. Amazingly, the original right-of-way of the Buffalo & Attica, laid out over 166 years ago, is still in use for rail transportation today.

Opening to passenger and freight traffic on January 8, 1843, the Buffalo & Attica Road completed the last link in a chain that connected Buffalo to New York City for the first time by rail. Bypassing the Erie Canal only 18 years after the canal’s completion, the rail lines promised a trip to New York in 25 hours, far quicker than the 6 days it would take on canal boats pulled by mules named Sal. The Buffalo & Attica Road, the embryo of a system of iron highways that would eventually connect Buffalo to the farthest reaches of the continent, created a new sense of possibility about what the city could become. Ten years later, the Buffalo & Attica was absorbed into the New York Central Railroad, the rail empire whose growth wed Buffalo to an industrial future.

By 1900, dozens of rail spurs converged at this point, roughly where Exchange and Hamburg streets intersect. The Hydraulics became one of few places in the country where firms like the Larkin Company could conveniently ship millions of bars of soap to homes across America and F. N. Burt could roll out 99% of the cigarette boxes produced in the country. Without the extensive rail network, the emergence of the Hydraulics as a center for large-scale manufacturing would not have come to pass.

Today, this rail infrastructure is far reduced from its peak size and scope from around 1920, evidence of the decline of Buffalo’s industrial economy and the falling out of favor of rail transportation nationwide. Check out the 1894 City Atlas. A veritable moat of rail spurs once boxed in the district from every angle, flooding the area with industrial commerce. No more!

Still, the rail lines of the Hydraulics are heavily trafficked. Buffalo is still home to one of largest rail networks in America. Trains pass underneath the Hamburg and Seneca viaducts all day and all night. The Buffalo & Attica line that was a financial bonanza in 1843, and set the stage for Buffalo’s rise as an industrial center, continues to be used by freight and passenger trains in the 21st century. Consider how much has changed in Buffalo and America over the course of 166 years. That the original use of this corridor persists is a pretty notable thing!

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Gas prices have risen and fallen, but the emphasis on transit use and walkability remains on the increase. Cities are a focus again, as Americans rediscover the authenticity and close contact of traditional neighborhoods. A reaction against suburban homogeneity and corporate standardization are making older urban areas, with their variety and local character, more attractive for private investment. Many realms of economic and social decision-making seem to be undergoing a shift, impacting where and how people live and do business. All of it seems to bode well for cities like Buffalo.

American cities seem to have some exciting developments in store, yet wrenches dangle over the proverbial machine. Global economies change quickly, but big government and big business tend not to do so, raising some big questions that hang over 2009. In current economic conditions, will there be a greater aversion to nonconventional projects (i.e. mixed-use, adaptive reuse, walkable, urban) and a renewed love affair with conventional sprawl? Will infrastructure stimulus funding pave new highways, but forgo opportunities to rebuild public transit and rehabilitate urban spaces? Will America miss a unique chance to invest in cities and strengthen conditions for global competitiveness?

The Hydraulics is still, to a great degree, in a severe hangover from post-industrial trends in American life. Seventy-five years of emphasis on automotive convenience, suburban expansion, and degradation of public spaces and the built environment, have not been kind to the neighborhood. But a changing direction in Buffalo, ahead of the curve of many struggling deindustrializing cities, includes a shift in thinking about the economic value of the neighborhood, a trend validated by cultural shifts in America nationally, which, one can only hope, will also be validated by American policy in the coming year.

Who knows what the future brings, but it’s always fun to ponder. In the meantime, here’s to 2009! May it be filled with historical anecdotes!

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