anturban

I propose that we stop calling energy-killing, car-addicted, city-uglification

suburban

and start branding this destruction

anturban.

Use anturban to describe the intentional voids left where place and nature once existed and use suburban to neutrally describe settlements that exist on the fringes of major urban centers.

While modern suburbs may be mostly anturban in layout (because they've been built during the last 60 years, anturbanism's Pyritean Age), they don't have to be, or remain, that way.

And many urban areas far from the suburbs have devolved into the anturban during the same 60 years (see the horrendous east side of Memphis' Medical Center).

It's better if we can insult dysfunction without insulting our fellow citizens.

An Unhappy Med City: No Pedestrians

A few weeks ago I wrote about HappyMedCity and Memphis' hopes to build a thriving medical district.

The UT Basic/Clinical Research Sciences Building, at the corner of Madison and Manassas is part of the new construction going into the rebuilt Medical District.

Visually, I like it. I also like that it filled an empty lot, and that it has a almost urban setback (although I never get the berms -- the berms! -- those 4 feet borders of boring, useless grass)

But as I've looked closer at the building, I've noticed that it has no entrances/exits on Manassas or Madison. All customer entrances appear to face the private drives or parking lots on the side or back. There are no public, street-facing entrances.

It's within walking distance of other medical buildings and directly across from a nice park*, but the building penalizes walking, rewards driving. And it's a half-block of uselessness for pedestrian passersby.

This visualization for the soon-to-be-adjacent Hope Lodge shows a similar problem.

No openings to Union. You do see some people sitting outside on the right, so maybe the builders are thinking about this. In the meantime, we do see the phantom walkers of classic architectural illustration, poor suckers walking down the street looking for an entrance, or a reason to keep walking.

So while I salute the filling of these brownfields with nice buildings, I believe if Memphis is serious about re/building an fun, energetic, vital, safe medical district, we have to build actively for pedestrians too. Otherwise, we might build a attractive, empty, unsafe, dead medical district -- the same as we have now but prettier.

Build to the HappyMedCity standard.



* The University of Tennessee has been negotiating with Memphis to take over Forrest Park's management. One of the reasons stated is for the University to handle security for the park. Of course, one way to do this is by stationing security officers in the park. A less obvious, but more sustainable, economical way is to have the buildings and businesses along the park's edge seed its active use and steady cross-traffic, discouraging criminals and encouraging law abiders by its vitality.

Beyond mundane crime prevention, if a worker were to actually witness a crime in the park from this building, it would take them 10 minutes to get out and around to the aid of a victim. If the buildings along the park aren't designed for pedestrians, they could end up being beautiful skyboxes from which to watch the ballet of the criminal, the homeless and the law.

The Face of Med City

As Daniel Connolly's Sunday CA piece Building a Medical City concludes, the Medical Center definitely gives "an opportunity here to completely change the face of the city".

Right now the Medical Center's face looks like this:


Will a change look like this?


The Medical Center overlay gives hope that it won't. But is the overlay enough, especially if juiced organizations and individuals cling (and build) to the same 50-year old anti-urban vision of Memphis, i.e., a scatter of disconnected places, the many gaps filled with car trips and desperate PR?

For those clinging, and those who've let go, the article has an illustration that imagines differently, of a new face, of a vibrant street life without the scars of surface parking -- happymedcity.


It's a cartoon, but it can be a guide. Everything we build in the Medical District should be imagined, built and judged to the happymedcity standard.