09: On Lost Opportunities

12/09/22 • 16 min

Our cities are full of ghost projects. Lost opportunities. Potentialities that could have prioritized safe streets or public health. Transit station with homes for cars, instead of a neighborhood for people. Streets that prioritize speeding cars, instead of safety and sustainable mobility.

But the reality of our cities, at least in the U.S. – is that we don’t realize those opportunities.

Often, these ghost projects were eliminated or watered down to preserve single family zoning or parking.

We waste these opportunities - opportunities to make our cities better, more equitable, healthier... And we do it largely to preserve a deeply unsustainable and inequitable status quo.

And so...
I see ghost projects.
I see dead districts.
They haunt my dreams.
They’re... everywhere.
Further reading...
Schumacher Quartier - the mass timber, social housing ecodistrict underway outside Berlin's Tegel Airport and the Urban Tech Republic. Fort Lawton Redevelopment Plan (pdf), via the City of Seattle.
The Case for Guerilla Crosswalks, by David Zipper, via Bloomberg.
Envisioning a Car-Free Aurora Avenue, Mike Eliason's piece on a visionary transformation of a local highway, via the Urbanist.
Mercer Island and Bellevue Squander Housing Opportunities Near East Link, Stephven Fesler's piece on lost opportunities to address our regional housing shortage around transit stations in wealthy areas.
Tactical Urbanism Guides.
Ein Masterplan fuer Hamburgs Magistralen, the city of Hamburg's Bauforum on re-envisioning its arterials (Magistralen) as urban living rooms.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

But the reality of our cities, at least in the U.S. – is that we don’t realize those opportunities.

Often, these ghost projects were eliminated or watered down to preserve single family zoning or parking.

We waste these opportunities - opportunities to make our cities better, more equitable, healthier... And we do it largely to preserve a deeply unsustainable and inequitable status quo.

Previous Episode

08: housing and single parents

Several of our friends and colleagues are currently going through divorces and other changes in their family household structure. Many of them were homeowners. However, Seattle - as many other cities in the US, has a pretty severe housing shortage. There are very limited options for housing that is affordable for single parents or those co-parenting... Let alone housing specifically designed for single parents. Over the last year, I have had numerous discussions like this – by and large parents with younger children – who, until their divorce, had been homeowners and housing secure. In the process of getting divorced, they found themselves on the other side of housing precarity. Some even being technically homeless.
Today, on the Livable Low-Carbon City podcast – we’ll be talking about some housing solutions for single parents that I think cities should be prioritizing, so that they have a good economic and social mix of residents.
Further reading...
Gender in Mainstreaming Urban Development, via the City of Berlin.
Apfelbaum, an innovative housing project centered on radical inclusivity and accessibility in Vienna. via IBA Wien.
Affordable Housing for Single Parents (German), via MeinBezirk.at.
Baugruppen, via Larch Lab.
Bring on the Clusterwohnungen, Mike Eliason's piece on cluster apartments, via the Urbanist.
Mehr Als Wohnen, Zuerich from cooperative to community. via Architektur Aktuell.
Mit den Augen der Anderen (Through the eyes of others), a (stunning) short film highlighting life in Mehr Als Wohnen.
These single-mom friends joked about buying a house together. On a whim, they did it, via the Washington Post.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.

Next Episode

10: Re-compaction with Aufstockungen

Aufstockungen is the German term for vertical additions. These are rooftop additions common throughout European cities - where many structures were built with concrete, block, or stone.
Vertical additions offer a really interesting path towards re-compacting (densifying) existing neighborhoods in an incredibly sustainable manner.
They preserve more affordable, existing housing.
They reduce sprawl.
They allow the incorporation of new housing without sealing new surfaces - thereby reducing the urban heat island effect, and allowing more area for mitigating storm inundations and flooding.
It is also an approach that can be utilized to add to a number of different building types - not just housing, but schools, offices, institutions, etc.
Further reading...
Aufstockungen: Innovative Density, Mike Eliason's 2014 piece on vertical additions, via the Urbanist. Viel ungenutztes Potenzial: Dachgeschoßwohnungen am Gemeindebau (Untapped potential: Attic apartments in municipal buildings), Der Standard article on the potential for vertical additions and attic housing in Vienna's municipal housing.
Wohnraumpotenziale in urbanen Lagen: Aufstockung und Umnutzungvon
Nichtwohngebäuden, (pdf) TU Darmstadt study on the potential for new housing via vertical additions and office conversions, in the cores of German cities
Sauerbruch + Hutton's mass timber addition to an existing DDR Plattenbau, for the Berlin Metropolitan school, via Baunetz.
AO Architekten's mass timber addition to the HTL in Graz, Austria, via Detail.
Lastly, to stay up to date with what Michael Eliason is doing at Larch Lab, be sure to sign up for newsletter updates.