America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention? (Creating the North American Landscape)

America's New Downtowns Revitalization or Reinvention?

Larry R Ford John Hopkins, University Press, 2003.

This book by Larry Ford, Professor of Geography at San Diego State University, is part of a series of books entitled ‘Creating the North American Landscape’.

The main purpose of this book is the comparison and evaluation of American downtowns and he selected as ‘typical’ American places 16 downtowns of metropolitan areas, between one and three million people. These are Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland, Minneapolis, San Diego, Phoenix, St Louis, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Denver, Portland, Indianapolis, San Antonio, Columbus, Charlotte and Providence ranging from 3.2 million population to 1.1 million.

The author then designates ten Downtown Variables, which are the Physical site, Street morphology, Civic space, Office/skyline, Retail anchors, Hotels/Convention facilities, Major attractions, Historic districts, Residential activity and variety, and lastly Transit options. He then states his personal preferences which include “places where things are close together and people can easily walk to a variety of attractions…”

He questions the nostalgia of downtown, which he calls ‘myths’, that sentimentalise the old downtowns at the expense of the contemporary scene.

He examines the historic influences that shaped urban USA during the 1850 – 2000 period. These include European antecedents, although Ford notes that American cities tended to be street-oriented rather than place-oriented which made them more linear than older European cities. During the early decades of the 20th century steel and mechanical technology promoted the construction of ever-higher skyscrapers, thus giving North American cities their main characteristics as we know them today.

US cities lack the permanent cultural symbols that give stability to central cities elsewhere that give an enduring urban sense of place. However, more recently, there has been a widespread movement to improve the downtown environment, in particular recapturing waterfronts. Also mass-transit using light rail has become popular, in places such as Portland, San Diego, Baltimore, Denver and Cleveland. At last there seems to be some genuine realism about how much excessive car travel has damaged American cities.

Chapter 3 is probably the most interesting in this book, since it covers site characteristics, street morphology and civic space.

The revitalisation of Pittsburgh, after a period of economic and demographic decline, was the first big city to attempt to remake its image, by publicising the beauty of its physical setting. In the early 1970s Portland removed its controversial riverside highway, thus creating the attractive Willamette riverfront, giving excellent connections with the downtown cove via the Tom McCall Waterfront Park.

Variations on the grid are illustrated, comparing plans of all 16 cities. Some cities like Salt Lake City have wide streets and huge blocks, while others such as Portland have narrow streets and small blocks. Unsurprisingly, Portland has become the model most planners want to emulate.

Perhaps, the most controversial issue in the design and revitalisation of American downtowns is the access to good public space. Sadly, in most American cities the division between private and public space is hard and sharp. The growth of ‘for profit’ attractive commercial spaces has become the norm, leaving so-called public spaces to decline and used mainly by the poor and down-and-out. Evidently, US designers argue that the best way to revitalise the downtown is to make sure that it is a comfortable place for the middle class and that requires ‘keeping the bums away’. Inevitably homelessness is also another major problem facing many US cities.

In his assessment of the chosen 16 cities, he shows his admiration for large groups of high buildings. Seattle has 23 buildings over 400 feet tall, with one 1,000 feet above the waterfront. Personally, I find the so-called ‘modernist’ towers in downtown Denver that form a financial canyon, extremely daunting (as indeed are many other similar American downtown areas). The book is very fully illustrated with black and white photographs. In the 19th century several American cities built attractive shopping arcades, but since most department stores ceased to be locally owned many major shopping malls moved out of downtown to affluent suburban locations. By the 1990s, nearly all major American downtowns had one or more modern mega hotels with 500 to 1,000 rooms, dominated by chains such as Hyatt and Hilton. Seattle has 39 hotels, whereas Phoenix has only four.

Sports arenas are moving back into downtown locations, and the resurrection of historic areas and buildings, together with new cultural facilities has brought new life into many run-down downtown locations. Doubtless the enthusiasm for historic preservation arising in the mid 1960s was a reaction to the anonymous character of many new developments. Also more recently there has been a return to residential living in downtown areas, which has been mainly beneficial.

There remains the major problem of the negative impact freeways have a downtown character, when excessive space has to be given to both moving and stationary motor vehicles. An example being the Alaskan Way viaduct between downtown Seattle and the waterfront. Parking lots often take up more space than any other land use. All this makes walking a bleak experience; so perhaps it’s not surprising that many American shoppers do not want to walk more than 600 yards.

In his rating system of the 16 chosen cities, Seattle and Portland score the most points and it’s worth noting that both are located in the Pacific North West of the USA. However, this rating system although useful is assessing cities on a comparative basis is surely somewhat ‘mechanistic’ and in danger of missing out the more intangible elements that make up Urban Design. In other words; cities with a soul as well as only physical attributes. At first glance, it seems that nearly all these cities are very similar at least to European eyes, but there are differences, largely influenced by site characteristics and location.

The scale and texture of the cities varies considerably – for example Portland appears to have a much more human scale than Atlanta, in particular the Northern downtown part of that city consisting of giant and interconnected convention hotels.

In conclusion it’s difficult not to feel that this book has been written mainly for North Americans. It may be of less interest to other readers, unless they are particularly interested in America’s middle ranking downtowns which this book covers in a very thorough and professional manner.

(This review was first published in Urban Design Quarterly 90, Spring 2004 and is reproduced with the Editor's kind permission)