A Tale of Two Conferences
As placemakers gathered in Seattle, some of the biggest names in urban theory convened in New York to fiercely debate the future of cities.
By Shin-pei Tsay
As the Placemaking meeting kicked off in Seattle in late February, a virtual Who's Who of well-known urban thinkers convened in New York City to discuss the future of communities at the Urban Age Conference. Organized by the London School of Economics Cities Programme and the Alfred Hauhaussen Society for International Dialogue, the conference was intended to foster discussion about how cities work and what can be done to improve them, but it also showed the deep divisions within the architecture and planning professions today.
Thankfully there are visions of thinking about and creating great places that can rise above all the polemics.
Heated exchanges erupted a number of times, as participants offered widely contradictory views on the nature and future of communities in the 21st Century. Encouragingly, several high-profile speakers at the conference underlined the necessity of public participation in charting a course for our cities and the importance of serving communities' needs as the ultimate goal. At the same time, however, many influential "experts" expressed unabashed contempt for that viewpoint.
Theoreticians and practitioners, architects and community organizers, city managers and civic advocates often found themselves speaking past each other at the event, and were at a loss as to understand why they had all been invited to come together. Was the goal to build closer links between theory and practice? The divergence of opinion yielded some fascinating quotes, revealing the beliefs and biases that abound in the profession:
"Jane Jacobs was the first real brave attempt to understand how cities work."
-- Michael Sorkin, architect and author
"It is a shame that Jane Jacobs' work has disconnected the study of cities from cities...she has created an era of hyper-nostalgia which gets in the way of progress."
-- Rem Koolhaas, Dutch urban theorist and architect
"When we ask, neighborhoods are what matter most to New Yorkers, and that is what we are trying to keep."
-- Amanda Burden
New York City Planning Commissioner
"Neighborhoods prevent the imagination of architecture."
-- Hashim Sarkis
Professor of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design
"Community organizing is the only way that we now have city planning trying to come up with innovative solutions."
-- Ron Schiffman
Director, Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development
"Public participation is what prevents city government from getting anything done."
-- Esther Fuchs
Deputy Mayor, New York City
Thankfully there are visions of thinking about and creating great places that can rise above all the polemics. As Enrique Peñalosa, the former Mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, pointed at the conference, there is no single idea of what progress means and to narrowly define it by the values of the developed world would be a mistake. He described how during his tenure as mayor, the city took some of the new thinking about improving urban life seriously and applied it on the streets of Bogota. While some in the audience sneered at this agenda, which Peñalosa boldly calls "creating happiness," those that listened with an open mind may have taken away the most valuable insight of the whole Urban Age conference -- a greater vision for our shared places.
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