2 ms·

The problem is when the park exists just as negative space between the buildings, as a way to provide seperation. Towers surrounding a park, like Central Park

The problem is when the park exists just as negative space between the buildings, as a way to provide seperation. Towers surrounding a park, like Central Park in New York (or any decent size park in Manhattan) works well. Towers as a city wall like Grant Park in Chicago also work well. In both cases the park is a focal point of the urban form which puts all attention on the communal area it represents. The purpose of "towers in a park" was to break up the urban form, and have density without urbanism. One big problem they were trying to avoid is rooms where the "view" out the window was of a ventilation shaft between buildings. They wanted towers with "no such thing as a bad view" by positioning them in a staggered layout and with substantial setbacks. This creates a bunch of awkward negative spaces in the layout and the architect just stamps "park" on all the vacant areas. The result might be good views from inside the buildings but the no-man's-land between them becomes an alienating place with broken sight lines and blind corners. Toss in a criminal element and you end up with some really unpleasant spaces.

thatcat 2y ago
was this ever actually tried?
- wahern 2y ago
  Yes, in just about every large city across the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, especially in cities, and newer parts of older cities, that were developed since the 1950s. It still influences contemporary architecture and city layout, though today maybe it's less deliberate (i.e. artistic, conceptual) and more a consequence of car culture and not wanting to crowd tall skyscrapers. So you just turn all the empty space between skyscrapers into "park", which almost invariably becomes desolate green space. It's the status quo even though the original concept has become largely discredited (or at least lacking for advocates) among the urban planning crowd and, to a lesser extent, architects (the effect frames their buildings as monoliths, easier to be admired as signature pieces). It originates with Le Corbusier and his Radiant City concept from the 1930s. See https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ville-radieuse-le-corbusiers-functionalist-plan-utopian-radiant-city/ https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ville-radieuse-le-cor.... The influences quickly spread through Europe and North America before exploding everywhere post WWII. There are several Wikipedia pages about Le Corbusiers, including https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Radieuse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Radieuse but in a simple search I couldn't find one that gives a good overview of how influential it actually was. A lot academic urban planning literature discusses it. OTOH, the idea of less crowding long predated Le Corbusiers, and his vision may have been inevitable, but it was Le Corbusiers who packaged it up into a comprehensive concept, which helped the practice to spread much more rapidly and uniformly around the world.
  - thatcat 2y ago
    oh i see, those are quite lame. i guess i was imagining a fully contained skyscraper city surrounded by national park area with trees and mountains.
- jordanb 2y ago
  One of many examples https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftile.loc.gov%2Fstorage-services%2Fservice%2Fpnp%2Fvrg%2F01900%2F01969v.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=b1ba63bcec0685109ef1882d6cc93d626637631262abf7a4c087e7add47f489c&ipo=images https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...

thatcat 2y ago

was this ever actually tried?

wahern 2y ago
Yes, in just about every large city across the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas, especially in cities, and newer parts of older cities, that were developed since the 1950s. It still influences contemporary architecture and city layout, though today maybe it's less deliberate (i.e. artistic, conceptual) and more a consequence of car culture and not wanting to crowd tall skyscrapers. So you just turn all the empty space between skyscrapers into "park", which almost invariably becomes desolate green space. It's the status quo even though the original concept has become largely discredited (or at least lacking for advocates) among the urban planning crowd and, to a lesser extent, architects (the effect frames their buildings as monoliths, easier to be admired as signature pieces). It originates with Le Corbusier and his Radiant City concept from the 1930s. See https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ville-radieuse-le-corbusiers-functionalist-plan-utopian-radiant-city/ https://99percentinvisible.org/article/ville-radieuse-le-cor.... The influences quickly spread through Europe and North America before exploding everywhere post WWII. There are several Wikipedia pages about Le Corbusiers, including https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Radieuse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ville_Radieuse but in a simple search I couldn't find one that gives a good overview of how influential it actually was. A lot academic urban planning literature discusses it. OTOH, the idea of less crowding long predated Le Corbusiers, and his vision may have been inevitable, but it was Le Corbusiers who packaged it up into a comprehensive concept, which helped the practice to spread much more rapidly and uniformly around the world.
- thatcat 2y ago
  oh i see, those are quite lame. i guess i was imagining a fully contained skyscraper city surrounded by national park area with trees and mountains.
jordanb 2y ago
One of many examples https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftile.loc.gov%2Fstorage-services%2Fservice%2Fpnp%2Fvrg%2F01900%2F01969v.jpg&f=1&nofb=1&ipt=b1ba63bcec0685109ef1882d6cc93d626637631262abf7a4c087e7add47f489c&ipo=images https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...