Forgotten No. 5

Fred Smith recently laid out an excellent list of core public responsibilities that Memphis should focus on:

1. Public safety
   
   
2. Education
   
   
3. Efficiency
   
   
4. Economic Development

I got one more:

5. Physical Form -- the built, cultivated and natural form of Memphis.

Beyond the effect it has on Mr. Smith's 4 areas (for instance, sprawl's effect on safety and efficiency, blight and banality's effect on safety and development), I simply believe our streets should radiate Memphis' humble greatness.

Green Space

I received an email recently from the Natural Resources Defense Council announcing their program called Picturing Smart Growth. It's a series of smart growth visualizations in 70 different communities, showing the path from the not so bright present to a much smarter future.

One of their featured scenarios is in Memphis, and specifically, a street around the corner from Stax and Soulsville (College Street? The actual street isn't listed.)

The first transition, from the present


to the first phase,


is what really caught my eye.

The trees not only beautify the street but alter it spatially, becoming architectural.

This spatial effect was confirmed for me by the great Suburban Nation

These trees are not intended merely to be decorative; rather they are included to create spatial definition when the buildings fail to do so. The trees narrow the space and provide a natural vault that contributes to the pedestrian's sense of enclosure and comfort.

So Memphis, space and cash poor but tree and land rich, could move inexpensively toward a smart, built future by planting trees as the official "Phase I" of all our neighborhood rebuilding. Even if they're just regularly spaced seedlings, the young trees will be placeholders for the space that will emerge beneath their vault.

Plus an ordered, ritual planting could provide a very immediate, on-the-ground beginning to charrette implementation. A simple, tangible, visible groundbreaking.

5 Un/der/used Outdoor Spaces in Memphis

Memphis' urban outdoors has to be more than a smoky space between car and building.

I offer 5 heavily underused outdoor spaces in downtown and midtown that could be that more, places you'd want to stop and places you'd want to walk by (just so you could look at those who stopped). These places and others like them could be social anchors for our city's new street life.

As you can see in the photos, they are underused to the point of unused. They have the stuff to attract (including shade because outdoors should also be more than a spring and fall), but they need people, and the uses that attract people.

This is my imagining a social life for each of these spaces.

1. Civic Center
   
   I hadn't originally considered Memphis' official public place for this, but when I asked for recommendations, several people pointed it out. A subsequent visit on a beautiful sunny day brought me around to the possibilities. Memphis' great trees are growing up here and softening this modernist, concrete plaza, which actually contains multiple spaces, including the center fountains,
   
   
   
   
   
   the wall fountains
   
   
   
   
   
   and the magnolia-shaded gallery around City Hall.
   
   
   
   
   
   Realm: Public
   
   Pros: public space with increasingly mature trees, activity from public buildings, fountains that children love.
   
   
   
   Cons: cold modernism, hot concrete, single use.
   
   Challenges: No use-mixing during business hours, no use at all after office hours. And it's big. Of the 5 spaces, the most problematic.
   
   Possibilities: small vendors and markets catering to workers, tourists and residents. Mixed private uses, including housing, to provide mixed, around the clock uses.
   


2. Cossitt Library Fountain Area
   
   
   
   
   
   A low space defined by the walls of the original Cossitt Library walls and the newer modernist library.
   
   Realm: Public
   
   Pros: shaded from the east by highrises, from the west by the library and beautiful trees; visible from Front Street but separated by wall and sunken location; a fountain (although not operating now); soon to have lots of law students, faculty and staff walking by. Maybe art lovers too.
   
   Cons: the Cossitt has become a vector of speculative fever, which has perhaps led to poor maintenance, which has led to public disdain (which isn't helped by a 50 year old demolition that knocked out the stunning original Romanesque library).
   
   Challenges: to do anything small and simple when we just know that the site is worth at least a bazillion and a half dollars.
   
   Possibilities: with the fountain fixed, a breakfast/lunch/coffee area especially geared towards law students, and later a watering hole for visitors of the Memphis Art Park.
   


3. Chicago Pizza Factory patio
   
   A nice patio directly fronting Madison.
   
   
   Realm: Private, but public street and sidewalk adjacent and visible.
   
   
   Pros: great shade; directly on and visible from Madison; possible spillover from nearby restaurants, like Huey's, Molly's and the Blue Monkey.
   
   Cons: uncertainty about Overton Square's future, the major anchor to the east; vacant shops to the west; itself vacant for a long time.
   
   Challenges: opening a business in an area that has been very spotty for nearly a decade and counting.
   
   Possibilities: a restaurant where the patio is a centerpiece, for itself and reborn street life on Madison. Maybe there's hope.
   


4. Magnolia Room Patio
   
   
   
   
   At corner of Monroe and Florence in Overton Square, it's a sidewalk facing court, shaded and protected by a beautiful magnolia. This might actually be an operating business but the court doesn't appear to have a persistent life.
   
   
   
   
   
   Realm: Private, but public street and sidewalk adjacent and visible.
   
   Pro: a cool building and patio, which is shaded from the magnolia and the building itself. active neighboring businesses, including Mr. Lincoln's Costume Shop and TheatreWorks.
   
   Cons: location directly across from the world's ugliest parking lot; uncertainty about Overton Square development.
   
   Possibilities: always on patio providing and receiving street energy for adjacent businesses and, who knows, a vital Overton Square rebirth.



5. Abe Goodman Golf House porch in Overton Park
   
   Patio of a beautiful Tudor club house
   
   
   
   
   
   overlooking the Overton Park golf course, the greensward, the Old Forest and the walkers, bikers, artists, music, dog and nature lovers passing by on their way to enjoy all of the above.
   
   
   
   
   
   Realm: Public
   
   
   
   
   
   Pros: awning already there, shaded in the west by magnolias, already has a concession area.
   
   Cons: I don't see any.
   
   
   
   
   
   Challenges: Just doing it. Of all 5 spaces, this seems to me to be the easiest, lowest cost to transform (if we don't get distracted by grandness).
   
   Possibilities: Upgrade and extend the concession for more than golfers and more than tee times.
   

Because they are already fulfilling their public purpose, the public spaces can (and should) experiment with smaller ideas and smaller entrepeneurs. The private owners don't necessarily have that much leeway. Either way, I wouldn't think any would require massive renovations to be successful outdoor spaces.