[ed. See also: Architecture vs. the People]
I took the image below outside my apartment on the 1400 block of McAllister Street between Scott and Pierce.
It’s a pretty ordinary street in San Francisco. The buildings are primarily three-story Victorians divided into flats. The other properties consist of two corner apartment buildings, an assisted living facility, and a surface parking lot. (...)
Remember that San Francisco is suffering through an affordability crisis caused in large part by a massive housing deficit. We need space for a lot more units than we have, and no one wants to build up.
Let’s pause here briefly and ponder a question: What type of places make a city great? To answer that it’s helpful to think about the difference between “Places” and “Non-Places”. Nathan Lewis defines them:
Places are areas where things happen. This includes:
Non-Places are areas of the city where nothing happens. This includes:
Looks pretty nice, right? Now let’s say we wanted to emulate a similar traditional pattern here in San Francisco in order to maximize the amount of “Place” in our neighborhoods. We have the space to do it — but it would require us to stop parking and driving on so much of it.
I took the image below outside my apartment on the 1400 block of McAllister Street between Scott and Pierce.
It’s a pretty ordinary street in San Francisco. The buildings are primarily three-story Victorians divided into flats. The other properties consist of two corner apartment buildings, an assisted living facility, and a surface parking lot. (...)
Remember that San Francisco is suffering through an affordability crisis caused in large part by a massive housing deficit. We need space for a lot more units than we have, and no one wants to build up.
Let’s pause here briefly and ponder a question: What type of places make a city great? To answer that it’s helpful to think about the difference between “Places” and “Non-Places”. Nathan Lewis defines them:
Places are areas where things happen. This includes:
- Houses
- Offices
- Factories
- Warehouses
- Beaches
- Marinas
- Parks
- Museums
- Restaurants
- Shops
- Theaters
- Schools
- Hotels
- Sports fields
- Train stations
- Plazas/central squares
- Gardens/yards/courtyards
Non-Places are areas of the city where nothing happens. This includes:
- Parking lots
- Useless greenery (not a park, but landscaping where nobody goes)
- Roadways and other transportation infrastructure
- Areas around buildings which are not “destinations,” and often have no real purpose
Looks pretty nice, right? Now let’s say we wanted to emulate a similar traditional pattern here in San Francisco in order to maximize the amount of “Place” in our neighborhoods. We have the space to do it — but it would require us to stop parking and driving on so much of it.
by Steve Dombek, Narrow Streets SF | Read more:
Images: Steve Dombek, Metro Centric and Michael Vito on Flickr
