Sometimes details matter

I came across this wonderful blog post this morning about lovely details that support dynamic placemaking.  He included simple things like window boxes, art, decorative doors, little gardens, fountains, seating, courtyards, pocket parks and historic preservation.

Withers-Maguire House, Ocoee, FL

I will take issue with his argument that only authentic historic architecture is valuable--For us here in Central Florida, we don't really have anything substantially authentic other than the beautiful cracker houses and white victorian homes that are so well suited to our climate.  What we do have is people from all over the world who bring their architectural traditions here--and I love that.

From a community standpoint, I would add Farmer's markets and local festivals as time oriented placemaking.

Pedestrian Scale Land Use Mix

If you want pedestrian interaction, your land use mix has to balance at the scale of the pedestrian. 

Great Stroller/ADA detail around stairs in Stockholm

Obvious?  Yes. 

Ignored?  Absolutely. 

This does not bode well for the suburbs I love.

Areas that have succeeded in their bicycle and pedestrian systems (i.e. people use them) have land uses that are mixed within 1/4 to 1/2 mile scale, because that is all the casual user will casually walk.  Add in a bag or two of groceries and a stroller or a toddler and even 1/4 mile seems like a long way.  Employment mixing might stretch a bit farther but not much.  Recreation walks have been known to stretch to as much as a mile, but you're pushing it.  And, by the way, this means walk distance, not crow's fly distance--which can be a problem in the land of  subdivision walls and gates. 

Many communities prescribe land use mix in their LDR's and Comp Plans and then wonder why people don't walk.  Good land use mix can substantially reduce the length of your vehicle trip (not bad), but you won't get people out of their cars without draconian parking limitations combined with genuine proximity. 

As I was mulling this over, what came to mind is that although I live within 2/3 of a mile of a thriving downtown area that is connected to me through a true, traditional neighborhood, I almost never bike to it, much less walk to it.  Occasionally, on a warm spring day I might pull out the bike for a fun trip with the kids to the ice cream shop, but that's really only once or twice a year despite the fact that my area has some of the nicest bikable streets, paths and sidewalks anywhere.

How about you?  Do you walk any farther?  When?  How do you design for this?  I'd love to get some insights...

Pedestrian detail to love!!

One of the most difficult issues with suburban walking is the dreaded subdivision wall.  It makes any walking task a real chore.  The answer is to add pedestrian walkways through the wall at a walkable scale, but that means setting up walkways between houses--which is not likely to go over well for buyer or owner.  As I was driving around the other day, I saw one such walkway and I love the way the homeowners handled it. Here's the view from the residential side:

From the community side it's just as cool--inviting, yet subtle:

The trees add some shade and point the way to the walkway.  I might have preferred the trees on both sides of the sidewalk, but it's hard to be picky when someone finally gets it right. 

I don't know the history of this connection, but it appears that both fences were constructed by the homeowners for their individual lot, though at first I wasn't sure whether those were private fences or communty fences.  That brings up an important point:  This is easy to do for a developer.  All he would need to do is extend the community fence along both sides of the walkway.  This is an area that is close to a walkable downtown area and within the local school's walk-zone.  I'm sure this pathway gets used regularly by more than just school children walking to school.