Wolfside: Landscape Urbanism and Shelby Farms

A very interesting and unnoted fact about the Shelby Farms Park Master Plan: James Corner, the architect chosen to make it real, is a key theorist of the growing and increasingly controversial Landscape Urbanism movement.

I know next to nothing about Landscape Urbanism (because I haven't read their key work which includes Corner's essay "Terra Fluxus") except that they and those other ascendant urbanists, the New Urbanists, don't like each other's ideas and have set themselves up in Enemy Urbanist camps. The LUers want "to prioritize the natural ecology of a site over the built environment" in explicit opposition to the NUer's emphasis on the city's built form. The other charges that LUrbanists have surrendered to suburban sprawl and NUrbanists have gone nostalgic about city living.

(Meanwhile back here in Memphis, the differences are nothing compared to the condemned-abandoned-megamall-parking lot that separates both from Memphis' default camp, the AntUrbanists. The AntUrbanists destroy both our natural and built environment with equal apathy.)

At this point, Landscape Urbanism has few finished projects. In my strong opinion, the successful metamorphosis of the massive, formless and sprawl-adjacent Shelby Farms Park would emphatically demonstrate that Landscape Urbanism is worthy of greatness.

Shelby Farms should be the Seaside of Landscape Urbanism.

Greenlined!

Mark the County Commission's approving the purchase of the Greenline by taking a Google Earth based trip from Midtown to Cordova,



Or if you want to explore it yourself (without getting up), check out the route in Google Maps, or play with it in Google Earth.

3 observations:

1. the organization called the Greater Memphis Greenline seems marginalized in the recent progress. They have rated nary a mention in the most recent stories. Meanwhile, Shelby Farms is all over the story, as fundraiser and manager, after little mention before (other than as eastern terminus). Something is missing here. Perhaps, as the deal with CSX came closer, the quasinonymous purchase group called Memphis Community Connector gave their funds to Shelby Farms who in turn donated them to Shelby County. But why is Greater Memphis Greenline, after being the apparent public face for so long, now barely mentioned? Doesn't matter as far as Greenlining goes, of course, but the true story would help the next citizen activist push the boulder up and over the hill.
   


2. Fewer and fewer articles refer to it as "the Greenline". Recent stories have called it a walking trail or the CSX trail. On top of that, I've heard rumors that Shelby Farms will rename it. While I'm neutral about the last issue (if it is an issue), I'm not neutral about this (if it is an issue). Greenline is a great simple name. Greenline.
   


3. Shelby Farms' stewardessship could mean the Wolf River Bridge is repaired much more quickly, which would be a very good thing.
   
   
   
   
   
   Crossing the Wolf is the Greenline's premier "wow!" moment.
   

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Strokes

On the day we learn that Memphis is the most sedentary city in the country, I think we need to stare at some pictures on a screen.

This is a view of the Walnut Grove bridge over the Wolf River before construction began on its replacement.


Count the lanes.

And here's a rendering of the replacement.

Count the lanes.

4 to 10. 10!

This is the most excessive example of automobile overcapacity EVER. It's grotesque on its own merits, but more so considering that the City Engineer has fought "squeezing" a bike lane on his monument to obesity.

This is not news, but I hadn't seen the renderings until today. Here's some more information on the project, plus a template for a letter you can send local officials to show your support for bike lanes.

Shelby Farms begins Design Competition

I saw on the CEOs for Cities blog that the Shelby Farms Conservancy has issued a Request for Qualifications for an Innovative Design Competition.

Up to five finalists will be selected from among the respondents to the RFQ and invited to participate in a 15-week planning and design process. The results of this design process will be presented to the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy Board and also to the public through an exhibit and on an interactive Web site. This design review is intended to generate creative and varied concepts to help design an outstanding Shelby Farms Park for Memphis.
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At the conclusion of this process, the Shelby Farms Park Conservancy may select one or more of the participants to continue, or choose to retain none of them.

The deadline for the RFQ is Wednesday, October 10th, 2007, 12:00 Noon.

For those who want to cut to the case, download the RFQ. Also, this post's geo-tags will take you close to the center of the park.