Tag: city building

• Poke the box, dammit

  Last night before bed I decided to buy a book on my Kindle (iPad app) that I’ve been meaning to read for awhile. It’s called Poke the Box and it’s by Seth Godin. It’s a short read and it’s meant to be that way. You could easily read it in one sitting.

  The book is about taking initiative. Taking action. And drawing your own map. It’s about not being scared of failure and realizing that failures are how you learn. It’s about poking the box, which is a computer programming reference. Programmers learn by poking the box (computer) and seeing what works and what doesn’t work.

  As I read through the book I’m reminded of something that venture capitalist Ben Horowitz wrote a few months ago on his blog:

  “Every employee in a company depends on the CEO to make fast, high quality decisions. Often any decision, even the wrong decision, is better than no decision.”

  Both Godin and Horowitz are, in a way, talking about the same thing: You have to keep moving. Make decisions. Start stuff. And stop worrying so much about being wrong, because it’s virtually impossible to know how things will eventually play out in the future.

  A perfect example of this is Starbucks.

  The first Starbucks in Seattle didn’t sell brewed coffee. It sold beans. And had it continued along this path, it certainly wouldn’t have become the brand that it is today. In fact, it may have failed completely. It wasn’t until Howard Schultz saw what they had started and combined it with what he had learned in Italy, that the Starbucks experience of today was born.

  The important thing is that somebody (Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl and Gordon Bowker) took the initiative to start and build a Starbucks. It didn’t matter that they got the recipe wrong, they poked the box and it ultimately lead to something magical.

  The same reluctance to poke the box can also be found in city building.

  Here in Toronto we spend a significant amount of time debating and vacillating around transit decisions (as well as many other things). Should we build LRT? Or should we build subway? What should we replace the Scarborough Rapid Transit line with?

  But we’ve fallen into analysis paralysis.

  The original Transit City Plan was announced on March 16th, 2007. It’s now 2014. And transit still sucks. Imagine if we started and finished, say, 2 kilometers of rapid transit each and every year. Forget worrying if it’s LRT, subway or a horse drawn space ship. We just kept moving.

  Something tells me that we’d be better off, even if we did make a few mistakes along the way.

  2014.01.23

• The story behind the name “Architect This City”

  I was having drinks with an old friend a couple of weeks ago and I told her about my blog. She immediately asked me what it was called. At the time, it was just called “Cities.” And truthfully, I hadn’t given the title much thought. I just knew that I wanted to take a multi-disciplinary approach to examining cities.

  After that night I started thinking more about the idea of a proper title for my blog and I came to the conclusion that I did need something more creative. I should have a stronger brand and identity. So I experimented with a few names and, as you’ve probably noticed, I settled on “Architect This City.”

  Now that I’ve been using the name for a few weeks, I thought I would share my thinking behind it.

  I wanted the name to convey 3 things. (1) I wanted it to be clear that this blog was about cities. (2) I wanted it to be something personal to me. (3) And I wanted to somehow demonstrate that this blog isn’t a siloed look at any one particular discipline, such as architecture, planning or real estate. It’s more than that.

  Given my background in architecture and the fact that “city” is in the name, I think that objectives 1 and 2 made it through. But what I hope is also clear from the name is that the term “architect” is supposed to refer to something much broader than just building design. It’s about the underlying systems, processes and structures of our cities—which could tie into the real estate market, our governance structures or some new technological innovation. Cities are complex and there are many “architects.”

  Finally, I wanted the name to be a directive—a call to action. I wanted it to be a reminder that cities don’t just build themselves. They require careful thought, planning and deliberation. And that’s fundamentally what this blog is all about: city building.

  What do you think about the new name? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below.

  2013.12.20

• Building height isn’t everything

  We need to stop fixating so much on building height. I think some people believe that there’s a perfect correlation between building height and offensiveness. But in fact, I’ve been offended many a times by fairly squat buildings.

  Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that height is an important part of urban design. But I’m starting to feel like we’re over emphasizing the importance of height and under estimating the myriad of other factors that constitute great architecture and city building.

  Massing is one. And the ground floor is another. Buildings that give nothing back to the street can be a real drain on a city, which is why if you’re trying to build a livable and exciting place where people want to be, you need to get the ground floor right.

  It’s important because as a pedestrian, it almost doesn’t matter what the building looks like 500 feet up in the air (unless of course you’re completely bathed in shadow). What matters is what you see right in front of you. The stuff happening on the street.

  What I worry about is not all the tall buildings we’re building in Toronto, it’s what we’re doing, or not doing, for our main streets. In some cases, a new development can be a welcome addition to a neighbourhood because it fills in what was previously a void (either physical or psychological).

  But in other cases it can be harmful, particularly if we’re destroying small scale retail and replacing it with something that sucks, or worse – nothing at all. So I would encourage you all – real estate folk and citizens – to think more about the ground floor the next time you evaluate a project. It’s an important one.

  2013.09.06