CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY Spring, 2000
MAXINE GOODMAN LEVIN COLLEGE OF URBAN AFFAIRS
DEPARTMENT OF URBAN STUDIES

UST 420 - URBAN DESIGN SEMINAR
MEETING TIME: Saturdays only, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
except field trips start at 8:00 am
MEETING ROOM: tba
INSTRUCTOR: Dr. Virginia Benson
OFFICE LOCATION AND HOURS: UB 106, Monday and Friday, 2:00 PM-3:00 PM or by appointment
OFFICE PHONE: 687-2164

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. To introduce basic concepts of urban design that have historic precedents in European and American cities through a review of urban design literature;

2. To demonstrate how those concepts apply to contemporary American cities, with emphasis on cities of the Great Lakes region such as Cleveland;

3. To relate urban design to public policies in the areas of physical planning and development including such issues as zoning, historic preservation standards, transportation policies and particularly urban design guidelines for specific districts of the American city.

4. To demonstrate, through class projects, how to evaluate the effectiveness of urban design in meeting the needs of the public while maintaining economic feasibility.

METHODS

In order to achieve the above objectives, the class will have lectures by the principal instructor, visiting lecturers, readings in the urban design field, films that present visual analysis of urban design and site visits with evaluations of development projects including collection of data for a final reports and class discussions in which students present their findings. The course is called a seminar because students are expected to gather information and share it with the rest of their colleagues. The student is responsible for all information imparted in class including lectures by the instructor, visiting speakers or on film.

Site visits will include one-day field trips to Erie, PA.,(Bayfront) and Toledo (Portside) and an overnight trip to Pittsburgh (Station Square and Downtown Sites). These trips will occur on alternate Saturdays during the semester and arrangements will be discussed in class to make the opportunity as convenient as possible for the student. Cost of the trips is minimal; the Levin College provides transportation but some students may wish to drive and will be reimbursed for gasoline and tolls if they keep their receipts; lunch cost is the responsibility of the student. The Pittsburgh overnight stay hotel expenses will be provided by the Levin College.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

There will be a take-home midterm exam which will cover material assigned in the class, including that on film, course lectures and textbook material. In addition, there will be one term paper submitted by students in the Urban Design Seminar.

The paper is a report on the results of the three field surveys of waterfront developments.

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**This course is expected to fulfill the University writing requirement and, therefore, satisfactory writing skills on the take-home exam and the term paper must be demonstrated to pass the course.

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This paper will summarize the analysis of three waterfront developments (with possible applications to Cleveland) according to criteria described by William Whyte in his film and book entitled Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Although the paper will focus on each student's choice of a particular aspect of Whyte's criteria, it is expected that the whole development will be placed into a political, economic and social context by discussion of characteristics of the individual city. Students may work together to gather material for their papers but each student will submit his or her own paper.

The term paper will be at least 10 pages, typed, double-spaced.

The first draft must be submitted, corrected and handed back to the student to be resubmitted in final draft form.

Students are expected to present the results of their research, together with slides illustrating design elements, to the class on the final day.

READINGS

The text for this course is Urban Design by Jon Lang (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1994.) For those who wish to pursue the study of urban design and to enhance material offered in class sessions, the following books are also recommended:

Bacon, Edmund. The Design of Cities (New York: Viking Press, 1967). This book covers the material found in the film series if students wish to review it.

Barnett, Jonathan. Urban Design As Public Policy (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974). This is Barnett's initial study that introduces urban design. Both this book and the following are out of print but available in local libraries.

_________________. Introduction to Urban Design (New York: Harper and Row, 1982). Focus is on three design trends: citizen participation, historic preservation and environmental issues.

------------------. The Elusive City: Five Centuries of Design, Ambition and Miscalculation. (New York: Harper & Row, 1986.) Barnett provides an overview of urban design history and its failure to meet expectations of designers.

Boyer, Christine. Dreaming The Rational City (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986). A thorough and sensitive review of the history of city planning and design.

Cutler and Cutler. Recycling Cities for People: The Urban Design Process (Boston, Mass.: CBI Publishing Co., Inc., 1982)

Contains material on a variety of scholars of urban design and includes methods of integrating design with the real estate development process.

Downs, Roger and David Stea. Image and Environment (Chicago: Aldine Pub. Co., 1970) Though now somewhat dated, this book was an excellent introduction to the field of environmental perception.

Garreau, Joel. Edge City: Life on the New Frontier. (New York: Doubleday, Inc., 1991) A suburban perspective that focuses on the growth of highway-spawned centers which the author predicts will supplant classical central-place city structures. An excellent admonition about the unexpected consequences of public policy decisions in the design of cities.

Gosling, David and Barry Maitland. Concepts of Urban Design (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984).

Howard, Ebenezer. Garden Cities of Tomorrow (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1965) A nineteenth-century classic that, though a very small book, has had a tremendous impact on physical planning and urban design in the utopian genre.

Jacobs, Jane. The Death and Life of Great American Cities (New York, 1961) An excellent re-visit to basic attractions of cities that have survived in spite of the urban crisis.

Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1960) Another very small but powerful treatise on "reading" the city. Lynchian "language" of urban design is so unquestioned and pervasive that one must be literate in his terminology to understand the field at all.

Mumford, Lewis. From the Ground Up (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1956) A third very small paperback, focusing mainly on New York City, from an author who is prolific in the history and critique of urban design.

Whyte, William H. Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (Washington, D.C.: The Conservation Foundation, 1980) This book elaborates on the film of the same name and serves as a good resource for the "evaluation of waterfront design" paper. Whyte assesses the bonus provision of plaza spaces in New York City and sets up criteria for evaluating their success as public spaces.

______, William H. City: Rediscovering the Center (New York: Doubleday, 1988) An extensive elaboration on the topic of social life of small urban spaces. Whyte also looks at recent trends in suburbanization of corporations, the rise of "semi-cities" and the case for gentrification of the central city.

COURSE OUTLINE

Week One - April 1 (meet at 9:00 am)

Syllabus, Assignments.

Introduction to the field of urban design.

Films on Design of Cities by Edmund Bacon: Rome, Paris, London

Lunch Break

Presentation of the William Whyte film "Social Life of Small Urban Spaces" upon which the waterfront development paper assignment is based. Following the films, the paper assigned will be discussed. All field trips will be planned at this time in an attempt to accommodate student's schedules.

Week Two - April 8 (meet at 8:00 am at Urban Affairs Bldg.)

Field trip to Toledo to study Portside waterfront development.

Handouts- information on Toledo and Portside will be provided.

Week Three – April 15 - (Meet at 9: 00 am at Urban Affairs Bldg.)

Debrief Toledo trip. Discussion of waterfront developments in general: public uses, economic aspects, environmental concerns. Slide presentation of American and Canadian waterfront developments.

Lunch Break

A slide presentation and description of the development of Cleveland's two waterfronts (Flats and lakefront) will be given.

Take-home Midterm Exam will be provided at this time. Please hand it in at the beginning of the next class.

Week Four – April 22 (meet at 8:00 am at the Urban Affairs Bldg.)

Hand in take-home midterm exams.

Field trip to Erie, Pa. to study the Erie Bayfront Urban Design Plans and development, relationship to Presque Isle State Park.

Week Five – April 29 (meet at 9:00 am)

Field trip to Pittsburgh to study Station Square waterfront development. This will be an overnight, returning Sunday afternoon. Hotel arrangements will be made; students are responsible for their meals. The class will study Station Square development, reviewing the latest new plans for this project. A tour of downtown Pittsburgh highlighting downtown housing, historic preservation and public transportation.

Week Six – May 6 (meet at 9:00 am sharp)

A.M. -P.M. All presentations of waterfront studies (with slides) to class.

Final papers must be handed in at this time.

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