Disqus - Latest Comments for stevemouzon

Re: Housing ideas for people “on the spectrum.”

stevemouzon — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 08:58:05 -0000

Delighted to see this, Rob! As someone who grew up somewhere on the Spectrum, this is personal. And what a helpful document! Good work, Union Studio! I did a similar project several years ago: https://originalgreen.org/r... This page focuses mostly on the design, whereas Union Studio's document is much more explicit on the underlying principles.

Re: On Thanksgiving, it matters where you walk

stevemouzon — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 09:03:51 -0000

Thanks so much for posting this, Rob! And I'm not sure I ever knew your full story described here. As for me, I'll be walking off the turkey flying places on 30-A again. Can't get enough of seeing places from Altitude 400!

Re: Bird's eye view of Jackson Square

stevemouzon — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 19:19:02 -0000

I have my FAA permit, and actually live in the flight path of our regional airport, so I have to get a 2-day permit even if I just want to shoot my house from above. Fortunately, getting the permit is seamless and almost instantaneous. Thanks for the tip on the urban canyon situation; I wasn't aware of that!

Re: Bird's eye view of Jackson Square

stevemouzon — Fri, 05 Aug 2022 18:55:34 -0000

The Mavic 3 is the only drone I've ever flown, so this may be the same for all drones, but it's such a luxury to be able to line things up almost perfectly, like getting the steeple centered on the street beyond. And if I recall correctly, I didn't need to adjust any geometry in Photoshop; just put the drone in the right place in the sky. One drawback: it's best to be out of direct sunlight when fine-tuning the drone placement, otherwise it's hard to see the image on my phone, which the controller uses for its video panel.

Re: What could planners do if zoning disappeared?

stevemouzon — Thu, 14 Jul 2022 17:07:33 -0000

Here's the problem, Sean: While I agree with yours and Rob's calm and reasoned explanations, this image from the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Portland is iconic of what any such effort would face. While on the one hand echoing the most inclusive of sentiments, the very same people will fiercely fight any rezoning. If this is what happens in Portland, imagine the challenge in a deep-red place. I really don't think a lot of polemicists understand the facts on the ground. And yes, I follow Nolan Gray on Twitter, so this isn't a reaction to the unknown. The bottom line is that an aspiration without the tactical approach to actually accomplish it in real-world conditions is just a wish. Aspirations are good; implementation is far better.

https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: What could planners do if zoning disappeared?

stevemouzon — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 21:45:33 -0000

“The first priority for planning in a post-zoning world should be opening up those affluent neighborhoods and suburbs that have historically used zoning to exclude the less affluent...” Does anyone else see the problem with this? Forcibly opening up affluent suburbs sounds like a powerful recipe for serious conflict. What's a real-world approach that might actually work?

Re: Accessory Commercial Units Create Walkable Communities

stevemouzon — Thu, 02 Jun 2022 20:48:34 -0000

My uncle lived on a quiet residential street when I was growing up with a tiny grocery just across the street. It wasn't much more than a garage, actually... and a one-car garage at that. Just sold basic necessities, and most of the customers just walked from nearby. It was quite cool... until the city shut it down when they changed the zoning code. First pic is grocery straight-on; second one shows the house behind. https://uploads.disquscdn.c... https://uploads.disquscdn.c...

Re: A new urban employment powerhouse

stevemouzon — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 05:54:42 -0000

A key problem is prevailing market advice about how many rooftops it takes to support just a corner store... last I heard, it was somewhere around 500. But a developer shouldn't wait until they get 500 rooftops before attracting businesses, because that means they're aspiring to be just good enough that the only people who want to do business there are those who can walk. If so, Seaside, with 489 homes, would not yet have a single business, 40 years after its founding. Let that sink in. Instead, Seaside is good enough that it's a regional destination. And that's what Providence has done: they set their bar at being best-in-region.

Re: Contemporary Vernacular: A style for everyday city life

stevemouzon — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 22:33:50 -0000

This has nothing to do with anything vernacular. It is shameful to pretend otherwise. This is soulless building attempting to legitimize itself with terms of humanity, while it is a shill for corporate profits. Shame on all who promote this spreadsheet soulless crap! Rob, I don't think we've ever met, but how do you really justify foisting soullessness upon cities where these things are built? Seriously?

Re: The chameleon of urban architecture

stevemouzon — Fri, 21 Jan 2022 22:26:13 -0000

I'd given up on this discussion, but just one question: Rob, are you shameless about showing a 7-story building out somewhere in a park?

Re: Website Builder Comparison Tool

stevemouzon — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 15:52:55 -0000

FWIW, I settled on RapidWeaver, which is an excellent Mac-based site-builder with some of the characteristics of WordPress but is WYSIWYG, thereby shortening the learning curve substantially.

Re: In praise of ‘Boxy Buildings’

stevemouzon — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 15:53:55 -0000

Good summary on several counts, Joshua... thanks!

Re: In praise of ‘Boxy Buildings’

stevemouzon — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 15:53:21 -0000

Exactly, Rob. In the early years of the podium buildings, when architects who had first gotten down into detail with them had a panel at CNU (Austin, maybe?), I had great hope that we might soon crack the code of good large buildings at the scale of Paris, which hadn't really been done much in the NU at that time, as Atlantic Station was an anomaly on several counts. But then the architecture devolved into what it is today: random patches of meaningless materials having nothing to do with what each material wants to be, hearkening back to Louis Kahn's question about the brick. In Ransom Note buildings, brick is senselessly applied to surfaces as if it weighs not an ounce more than wallpaper, and no element or material has any meaning as architectural elements; it's nothing more than graphic design.

Re: In praise of ‘Boxy Buildings’

stevemouzon — Fri, 19 Nov 2021 15:41:35 -0000

Rob, I have no doubt that podium buildings can be dressed in pretty much any style, but if this article is, as it says, "In praise of "boxy buildings," why were you praising only the Ransom Note Style? And the idea that Ransom Note architecture is some kind of vernacular? That's nonsense, unless you define vernacular as meaning "just ordinary buildings." True vernacular architecture is the language of the people, which means that there's a connection between the people and the architecture. Ransom Note is the language of architects, pure and simple, designed to get large projects approved without inflaming too many NIMBYs. How many regular folk, not acquainted with design in some way, have ever said "I really love that building" about a Ransom Note job? Nationwide, the number might not be zero, but it's vanishingly close. And if the New Urbanism is about building places people love, then how are we to do that using unlovable architecture?

Re: In praise of ‘Boxy Buildings’

stevemouzon — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 15:32:36 -0000

Yeah, but they're NOT being dressed in a variety of skins; they're ALL being done in the Ransom Note Style (John Anderson's term)! This style was first called Developer Modern because it's a watered-down Modernism developers know isn't offensive enough to draw out industrial-strength NIMBYs. But it's boring enough that these banal boxes are sucking the soul out of the places where they're built. Try this test: have you ever heard someone other than the architects, the developers, and their accountants and bankers say "I love these buildings?" No, didn't think so. Yes, they share some metrics with great buildings in Paris, but they do not share ONE SHRED of their character. So don't take us for fools by trying to make the case that a few shared metrics can bridge the chasm between the soulful and the soulless.

Re: Fighting to save a troubled city

stevemouzon — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 17:45:23 -0000

The story of Greensboro should also be told. It was a near-ghost-town when Rural Studio first showed up in Newbern, and it has been the beneficiary of much of its energy, including several of its buildings. HERO Housing is headquartered here, and there are so many other good stories. Any other New Urbanists familiar with Greensboro?

Re: Fifty reasons to love urbanism

stevemouzon — Tue, 03 Aug 2021 09:22:25 -0000

Rob, this is an outstanding document. I can't think of a New Urbanist who wouldn't find it useful. I suspect even the founders might benefit in some way.

Re: eVolo Competition Winner Grows a Skyscraper

stevemouzon — Tue, 11 May 2021 20:31:27 -0000

Not at all!

Re: eVolo Competition Winner Grows a Skyscraper

stevemouzon — Tue, 11 May 2021 15:32:08 -0000

Fascinating stuff, Lloyd! And actually, the "kids these days" comment Marianna was responding to was from an old guy too ancient in his thinking to ever learn any of the digital tools. On the one hand, I have long railed against Gizmo Green. On the other hand, when I need tech, I want the best tech I can afford... my policy is "I want the tools I use to be better than me" because if I fail, I can learn and grow, but if the tool fails, there's nothing I can do except get a better tool.

Re: Not New Urbanism, nor a ‘small town’

stevemouzon — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 14:40:09 -0000

New Urbanism is known in two ways: the first is in the hijacking of the name as you describe here. But I've discovered another one in reconnecting with Alabama friends since moving back here: When I'm with lifelong friends, I rarely talk shop, so most of them have no idea what I do beyond the fact that I'm an architect. So it has been really fascinating to listen to conversations about this really cool new way of building places where everything is walkable, you can walk to the grocery, etc. I don't think any of them even know the tern "New Urbanism," so it would mean nothing to them. But as they describe NU places by their characteristics, it's clear that pretty much all of them are really enamored with those characteristics. So I'd say let the fakers hijack the name; they cannot hijack the characteristics, which are the things that people respond to anyway, not the name.

Re: Guiding principles of the 15-minute city

stevemouzon — Mon, 22 Feb 2021 22:08:51 -0000

Few things are more important right now for the NU than properly framing this gift from others. It is a powerful idea that could change urbanism for as long as the Perry diagram did, or it could be just 15 months of fame, then onto the next thing. As the most durable group interested in sustainable urbanism, I feel like it's on us to help make this idea more durable.

Re: The 15-minute neighborhood gets its 15 minutes of fame

stevemouzon — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 20:29:01 -0000

I'm hoping that it's more than 15 minutes of fame. The 5-minute walk has hung like an albatross about the necks of the New Urbanists since 1980, and dating back to Perry. If you follow ULI standards, the chances of growing a place with enough rooftops to support businesses with everyone's daily needs in our lifetimes is vanishingly small. But the 15-minute city? That's 9 times as powerful. The 20-minute city? Which is the life Wanda and I live each day in Tuscaloosa? That's 16 times as powerful. This is one of the best paradigm shifts we as a movement have ever considered. And compound that basic metric with single-crew workplaces, and we can jumpstart a couple generations into the future in terms of serviceable places.

Re: Bring Back the Front Porch

stevemouzon — Sun, 10 Jan 2021 13:17:46 -0000

So they've been there for 2,000 years but they can't be sustained. Okaaaaaaayy!

Re: Bring Back the Front Porch

stevemouzon — Sat, 09 Jan 2021 10:41:29 -0000

In tighter quarters where a full porch wouldn't work, stoops can serve a similar purpose. The key is that in order to feel comfortable sitting outside their home near a sidewalk where strangers may walk by, most people need to have a certain relationship between their eye level and the eye level of those walking by. Basically, the closer they are, the higher they need to be to feel comfortable. I researched this for years, and it's remarkably consistent. That's why some of the best stoops in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are several steps above the sidewalk.

Re: Bring Back the Front Porch

stevemouzon — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 10:45:24 -0000

Bryon, this just simply is not true. Porches have existed for thousands of years, back to antiquity. The portion of the history of porches when autos have existed is a small blip on their entire timeline, which is about the same blip during which single family zoning has existed. As for this street, Jeanette and Maria are spot-on.