The Revitalist

Tour Montparnasse , the tall brown building in
the background, towers over Paris' low height
boulevards. Photo taken from Eiffel Tower.The Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, is running for re-election and is pushing again an old idea of his: removing the height restrictions on new buildings in Paris. The restrictions were put in place in the 1970's after the 59-story Tour Montparnasse was built and largely reviled by the public. Currently new buildings are limited to 37 meters in most areas and 18 meters in some select neighborhoods. While this preserves Paris's 19th century scale and the lovely long views of those Haussmann boulevards, the mayor is concerned that the limits are keeping Paris from the 21st century. He wants to see tall, mixed-use buildings that will create more housing and commercial space for struggling areas of the city.

He even went so far as to have several architectural firms draw plans of a few buildings, all taller than the 37m limit, like the "Phare" (see below) designed by Thom Mayne to be part of La Defense.

The swooping Phare tower (center) is a very au courant design reminiscent of London's "gherkin."

Sir Norman Foster's tower at 30 St Mary Axe, aka "The Gherkin."

Now that we have just finished the major shopping season of the year (perhaps some of you are still plumbing the depths of the after-Christmas sales), it seems like a good time to reflect on the good, old American shopping mall. The Economist has a rather chatty history of the mall's birth, death and rebirth as a "lifestyle center" (via Planetizen). The mall helped to shape the culture of the suburbs, which has defined more than one generation of Americans. But as traditional indoor malls decline and open air lifestyle centers replace them (as happened right around the corner from me at North Hills in Raleigh), don't you wonder how the suburban experience overall will change? Will it change at all? The lifestyle center crowd would, I think, like to argue that their creations offer a more "authentic" urban experience, but that's a whole other conversation. Think back over your holiday shopping experience, was it very different shopping in at an outdoor mall versus an indoor one?

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

Now it's time to turn our thoughts to 2008. For Bostonians, the new year will mark the end of an era – no more Big Dig. Officially, the contract between the Mass Turnpike Authority and Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff expires on December 31st. The 7.5 mile corridor running through downtown Boston at a cost of over $14 Billion has been going on in planning or construction since the Dukakis administration. I didn't know Boston before the Big Dig started construction, much less before the Central Artery was built, and I imagine that the project is defining of the city for lots of other people too. I suppose that 2008 will focus on the Greenway and how it reconnects the downtown with the waterfront. I can imagine how spring will bring new lushness to the Greenway and a whole new vision for downtown life. 

Protesters breaking down the gates at City Hall.

Even before Hurricane Katrina, HUD had taken control of the housing authority in New Orleans and had planned to demolish several of the city's housing projects to make way for mixed income housing – much to the dismay of residents and the architecture critic of the New York Times. Following the big storm, the condition of some of the buildings was significantly deteriorated, leading to an even greater push for demolition. Yesterday, the New Orleans City Council voted to approve the demo of three complexes. Angry residents showed up at City Hall to protest, and the police were waiting for them. The confrontation escalated to protesters breaking through the locked gates to the building and police responding with pepper spray and tasers. Fifteen people were arrested, and the Council voted for demo anyway. Here's hoping that 2008 brings better things for N.O.

The New Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, one of the oldies on the Strip, was imploded last month to make way for a recreation of New York's Plaza Hotel. The Frontier was built in 1942, remodeled several times, owned by Steve Wynn and Howard Hughes at various times, hosted Elvis Presley's first Vegas concert in 1956 and The Supremes' last one (with Diana) in 1970.

If the Rat Pack cool mystique of the 1950's and 60's is one of the big draws to Vegas, then why isn't there more interest in saving some of the original casinos? Surely someone could come up with an Ocean's Eleven themed hotel and make money off it, even if it is one-third the size of the mega-resorts they build now. Why don't they recreate The Sands instead?

The nation's first suburb is going green. The hamlet of Levittown, NY on Long Island, one of the very first planned suburbs (1947), is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. NY's Nassau County is kicking off the Green Levittown program to get residents of this iconic community to green their houses and hopefully raise awareness across the state and country of energy efficient options available for owners of existing homes. The county estimates that 30-40% of the vintage 1947 original boilers are still operating in the neighborhood. Newer, more efficient boilers will use 300 fewer gallons of fuel per year, a savings of $900-1,200. The county has teamed up with a coalition of utilities, home improvement and financial services companies to help subsidize the costs for the residents.

Physics works! The human pendulum demonstration.

Here's another one for the "The Web Is a Wonderful Thing" file: an eccentric physics professor at MIT has become an internet star via iTunes U. His enthusiastic and creative in class demonstrations (see pendulum demo above) are a natural crossover to the online world. So, if you've got a little free time, check out Prof. Lewin's physics lectures and expand your mind.

On a more related note, there are all kinds of lectures available on iTunes U for free, including a lecture series entitled City Visions: Past and Future from MIT's Urban Studies and Planning department. 

The Greenwich 2,200 square footer and it's 8.800 sq ft replacement.

According to the National Trust, the New York metro area is now the teardown epicenter of the nation. The NY Times article highlights several examples, including a 1947, 2,200 sq ft house on 2 acres in Greenwich, CT that sold for almost $1.8M, having last sold in 1999 for $550,000. The owner had thought about tearing down himself but decided to save himself the hassel and "take the money and run." The new house on the lot is 8,800 sq ft, 5 bedrooms, 5 full and 2.5 half baths, a 4-car garage, and expected to be on the market for $5.9M. With that kind of money to be made (both for the seller and the builder), how could you expect a different outcome? There just aren't enough people out there who love the 1950's ranch. The Trust has a Teardowns Resource Guide, if you are wondering what you and your community could do about this issue.

There has been talk lately about how little time the presidential candidates spend talking about "urban issues." In an effort to get some of these big tent topics on the agenda, there is MayorTV.com, a joint project from The Nation and The Drum Major Institute. They interviewed mayors from ten cities around the country and asked them what they thought the candidates ought to be talking about. The cities are Boston, Rochester, Buffalo, Baltimore, Atlanta, Miami, Minneapolis, Denver, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. Boston's Menino says that candidates should focus on education, economic development, housing and public safety – common topics across the board. And as he points out, if the nation's cities are doing well, the country as a whole is as well.

Notre Dame's new lighting scheme, simple and dramatic.

Toronto's Globe and Mail has an interview with the man behind the lighting concepts for most of Paris' most famous architectural treasures, including the most recently lit, Notre Dame Cathedral (via Planetizen). As the Chief Engineer for Doctrine, Expertise and Technical Control for Paris, François Jousse has lit the City of Lights, from simple street lights to complex schemes like the Cathedral. Being Paris, each project had to proceed through a complex web of bureaucratic approvals, but the Cathedral lighting also had to satisfy the Archdiocese who uses the church. The designers had originally wanted to light the famous rose window from the interior so that passersby could see it glow, but the Church objected. Lighting from inside would effectively reverse the image, with theological implications. Mr. Jousse's solution was to project a replica of the image (as seen from the interior) onto the exterior of the window. The interview is amusing, especially if you find the particularities of the French entertaining, and it reminds you of the impact that projects like this can have on the city. Thankfully, Boston has Light Boston to remind us of the gems of our city.