- Email: [email protected]
Urban waterfront development
Book reviews
research agendas on the relationship between structural forces and local responses. Luger’s paper on federal tax incentives a; industrial and urban policy leads o-7 Part 3, on federal policy. His is a so id contribution to the collection, eramining how the local level often b:ars the brunt of short-sighted federal industrial policy. Papers by Wilmot h and Wolff on reindustrialization arc illuminating, though in some ways redundant.
Local policy The fin;ll section on local policy begins with a lraper by Luria and Russell on disinvestment and re-industrialization in Detrctit. While the paper is certainly polemical, their strategy for a rational economrc development policy for Detroit is exciting and their position is well-argued. Hill’s paper, also on Detroit, m,rkes a nice companion to the previou one. He devotes attention to examim ing the controversy surrounding prim ate re-industrialization plans and public conversion strategies, arguing the necessity of spelling out the con,plex relationships that exist between all levels of government and the economy. Goldsmith’s paper on enterprise zones investigates the importance of community action groups and institutions in challenging the changing political an,l economic context of big business and big government decisions. As with most of the papers in the collection, it underlines the value of reco!;nizing local reactions and strategie,i to larger structural forces. Harrison and Bluestone’s paper is an early and abbreviated version of their recent bl)ok on plant closures in the USA. ’
Economic democracy The final paper by Tabb is an editorial piece on economic democracy. His suggestion is that, given the massive transformations occurring in the US political economy, we must seriously consider decentralizing planning and encouraging popular participation at all levels in the reorienting of goals and means. Though his argument is
CITIES August
1985
indeed compelling, it is difficult to imagine, in light of the recent Presidential election and the resurgence of conservative voting, how popular his ‘populist’ agenda would be. It is always difficult to review in any depth an edited collection, particularly one with so many contributions. It is hackneyed and of very little value to say that the volume is wide-ranging and uneven: that is the unavoidable nature of the edited text. While SunbeltlSnowbelt is both of these, it has transcended them as traditional weaknesses of its genre. Most of the papers are internally coherent and provocative. As a collection, the book succeeds in presenting critically important insights on urban and regional decline and development. Though its
title suggest somewhat more attention than it delivers to the industrial growth and expansion of the South, SunbeltlSnowbelt provides a rich and telling empirical and theoretical investigation into the mechanisms behind economic decline in the North. In doing so it goes a long way toward enhancing our understanding of the usually narrowly conceived sunbelt/ snowbelt controversy.
Institute
Sallie A. Marston, of Behavioral Science and Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
‘B. Bluestone
and B. Harrison, The De-
industrialization of America, Basic Books, New York, 1982.
Waterfront revitalization URBAN WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT by Douglas M. Wrenn, in association with John A. Casazza and J. Eric Smart Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, 1983,219pp
It is interesting to note that the need to renew 19th century docklands is by no means confined to the near derelict parts of London and Liverpool. Probably the most notable achievements in the revitalization of waterfront areas in the latter part of the 20th century are to be found in the USA. Most planning trends, whether in retail systems, transportation engineering or commercial development, seem to originate in the USA some 10-1.5 years before similar trends occur in Western Europe. Waterfront developments are no exception and the notable Quincy Market redevelopment in Boston (though not strictly speaking waterfront development) had an obvious design influence on the subsequent Covent Garden Shopping Centre in London. This book written by Douglas Wrenn in association with John Casazza and Eric Smart for the Urban Land Institute in Washington is a model
survey of US achievements. The study is not merely an account of built projects but also includes a historical survey of the original role of waterfronts in both inland and coastal ports. Geographic location with an analysis of water resources, land resources and climatic effect, is assessed together with the effect of government legislation at federal state and local level. Perhaps more importantly, the authors recognize the importance of the urban context, a factor which has been sadly lacking in the plethora of widely differing proposals by developers in the London Docklands. As a handbook, the publication is useful in identifying development opportunities, recognizing site limitations and institutional constraints, as well as describing how the US development process actually works. The methodical systems used by the US planners, in seeking the best possible development within the urban context, extends from Project Planning and Initiation, through Project Analysis, Preferred Development Programmes and finance and leasing arrangements. It is a little depressing to consider that many UK planners charged with the same task take a much looser and more pragmatic approach, with the result that the visual coherence and unity which is so
275
Book
reviewslPublicutio,ls
apparent in the US developments is not noticeable in developments carried out thus far in the UK. It is true that there are exceptions, such as the Covent Garden redevelopment which would appear to have been inspired by the Boston precedent; but the results to date in the Isle of Dogs promise a mixture of unrelated commercial, industrial and housing development. The opportunity of a century to redevelop a major port of London as a dazzling example of urban design (which does not mean that it need necessarily be commercially unattractive) appears to have been lost. One wonders, from the many examples in this book, what the Americans might have made of such an opportunity. Certainly, it appears that the US entrepreneurs and planners choose their architects and designers with far greater care than their UK counterparts. I suggest that for this reason alone, Urban Waterfront Development should be mandatory reading for those engaged in similar projects in the UK. Liverpool and London are, realistically the only centres where opportunities for urban waterfront development can potentially take place on the same scale as the US examples illustrated in this book. There are, of course, other declining ports in need of renewal, such as Hull. but the Docklands Development Corporations set up in London and Liverpool were intended to emulate the achievements of earlier New Town Development Corporations. In Liverpool the success of the International Garden Festival is overshadowed by the fact that no financial framework was created to continue the life of a most attractive public park once the Festival ended in earlv autumn last vear. Though some of the major pavilions will remain, most of the gardens, and more particularly the highly entertaining narrow gauge railway used to transnort visitors across the Dark. will be torn up and dismantled. It seems that it is this lack of foresight which hinders the possibility of the UK docklands reaching the level of achievement of the US counterparts. In London the rapid development of the Isle of Dogs, particularly with light industrial and commercial buildings 2
276
appears to have been carried out in a rather haphazard way, and if development has followed a plan there is little evidence of it. Instead, there is a visual chaos which I am certain would be rejected by to the architects and developers of Union Wharf. Boston, or the Embarcadero in San Diego, or Inner Harbour, Baltimore, which are so attractively presented in this book. The Isle of Dogs contains the Enterprise Zone where the Development Corporation can achieve high environmental design standards. The next major area in the London Docklands to be developed will probably be the Royal Docks. This is a far vaster area than the Isle of Dogs and does not have the advantage (or disadvantage, depending on your political standpoint) of containing an enterprise zone, and is therefore subject to conventional planning controls. All the more reason therefore for the production of a proper plan indicating a rational and programmed development of the public realm (the movement systems, infrastructure, pedestrian networks and public parks and spaces) rather than the production of another glossy publicity brochure whose recommendations to date appear to be largely ignored by the multiplicity of developers. There is no reason why the Royal Docks could not become as commercially viable and as visually attractive as any of the 12 US case studies illustrated in this book. The London Docklands Development Corporation seems to reject the idea of citizen participation, often resulting in confrontation with the various and vociferous community action groups in East London. It is thus ironical that the concluding chapter of
Douglas Wrenn’s admirable book is devoted to development issues, including not only analysis of appropriate uses and the question of public access, but also the need for citizen participation in achieving a satisfactory final result. The USA is currently seen as the pinnacle of capitalist venture and achievement, yet the authors do not underestimate the need for participation. They say ‘. Citizen participation is necessary to ensure that public sector values are not sacrificed in order to accommodate private development. The public and private sectors must work together to create a manageable community involvement process that respects both public objectives and private property rights’. On their very last page they say ‘Major waterfront redevelopment programs such as the Inner Harbor in Baltimore require several years to plan and implement. For such an undertaking to be successful, there must be a strong public sector commitment to carry the program through to completion The amenity of the water’s edge will not compensate for poor judgement and bad management in developing urban waterfront sites. In fact, the difficulties of shoreline development will only be exacerbated by incompetent development efforts’. Thatcher’s Britain, which admires US achievement so much, should wake up and realize that public investment, planning, design and commitment is needed just as much as the injection of private capital. This excellent book proves the point. David Gosling Department of Architecture University of Sheffield, UK
i
Publications The Apple Sliced by Vernon Boggs, Gerald Handel. Sylvia Fava and contributors (Bergin and Garvcy, South Hadlcy. MA, USA, 19X3. 351 pp. f29.95 hardback. f14.95 paperback) Argenfinu: Volume I
Stdtriccrl
Economics Mernorcrndum; The Muin Report, Volume 2 Appendix (World Bank,
Washington, DC; UK distributor, Microinfo. PO Box 3, Newman Lane, Alton, Ilants, GUY 2PG. 19X5. 409 pp)
Built
in
The
USA:
American
Buildings
from Airports fo Zoos edited by Diane Maddex (The Preservation Press, Washington, DC, 1985, 189 pp, $8.95)
China Policy
und the World: in the Post-Mao
Chinese Foreign Era edited by
Samuel S. Kim (UK distributor, Bowker Publishing Co, Epping, Essex, UK, 1985, 356 pp, f50.25 hardback, f20.00 paperback)
CITIES August
1985
research agendas on the relationship between structural forces and local responses. Luger’s paper on federal tax incentives a; industrial and urban policy leads o-7 Part 3, on federal policy. His is a so id contribution to the collection, eramining how the local level often b:ars the brunt of short-sighted federal industrial policy. Papers by Wilmot h and Wolff on reindustrialization arc illuminating, though in some ways redundant.
Local policy The fin;ll section on local policy begins with a lraper by Luria and Russell on disinvestment and re-industrialization in Detrctit. While the paper is certainly polemical, their strategy for a rational economrc development policy for Detroit is exciting and their position is well-argued. Hill’s paper, also on Detroit, m,rkes a nice companion to the previou one. He devotes attention to examim ing the controversy surrounding prim ate re-industrialization plans and public conversion strategies, arguing the necessity of spelling out the con,plex relationships that exist between all levels of government and the economy. Goldsmith’s paper on enterprise zones investigates the importance of community action groups and institutions in challenging the changing political an,l economic context of big business and big government decisions. As with most of the papers in the collection, it underlines the value of reco!;nizing local reactions and strategie,i to larger structural forces. Harrison and Bluestone’s paper is an early and abbreviated version of their recent bl)ok on plant closures in the USA. ’
Economic democracy The final paper by Tabb is an editorial piece on economic democracy. His suggestion is that, given the massive transformations occurring in the US political economy, we must seriously consider decentralizing planning and encouraging popular participation at all levels in the reorienting of goals and means. Though his argument is
CITIES August
1985
indeed compelling, it is difficult to imagine, in light of the recent Presidential election and the resurgence of conservative voting, how popular his ‘populist’ agenda would be. It is always difficult to review in any depth an edited collection, particularly one with so many contributions. It is hackneyed and of very little value to say that the volume is wide-ranging and uneven: that is the unavoidable nature of the edited text. While SunbeltlSnowbelt is both of these, it has transcended them as traditional weaknesses of its genre. Most of the papers are internally coherent and provocative. As a collection, the book succeeds in presenting critically important insights on urban and regional decline and development. Though its
title suggest somewhat more attention than it delivers to the industrial growth and expansion of the South, SunbeltlSnowbelt provides a rich and telling empirical and theoretical investigation into the mechanisms behind economic decline in the North. In doing so it goes a long way toward enhancing our understanding of the usually narrowly conceived sunbelt/ snowbelt controversy.
Institute
Sallie A. Marston, of Behavioral Science and Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA
‘B. Bluestone
and B. Harrison, The De-
industrialization of America, Basic Books, New York, 1982.
Waterfront revitalization URBAN WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT by Douglas M. Wrenn, in association with John A. Casazza and J. Eric Smart Urban Land Institute, Washington, DC, 1983,219pp
It is interesting to note that the need to renew 19th century docklands is by no means confined to the near derelict parts of London and Liverpool. Probably the most notable achievements in the revitalization of waterfront areas in the latter part of the 20th century are to be found in the USA. Most planning trends, whether in retail systems, transportation engineering or commercial development, seem to originate in the USA some 10-1.5 years before similar trends occur in Western Europe. Waterfront developments are no exception and the notable Quincy Market redevelopment in Boston (though not strictly speaking waterfront development) had an obvious design influence on the subsequent Covent Garden Shopping Centre in London. This book written by Douglas Wrenn in association with John Casazza and Eric Smart for the Urban Land Institute in Washington is a model
survey of US achievements. The study is not merely an account of built projects but also includes a historical survey of the original role of waterfronts in both inland and coastal ports. Geographic location with an analysis of water resources, land resources and climatic effect, is assessed together with the effect of government legislation at federal state and local level. Perhaps more importantly, the authors recognize the importance of the urban context, a factor which has been sadly lacking in the plethora of widely differing proposals by developers in the London Docklands. As a handbook, the publication is useful in identifying development opportunities, recognizing site limitations and institutional constraints, as well as describing how the US development process actually works. The methodical systems used by the US planners, in seeking the best possible development within the urban context, extends from Project Planning and Initiation, through Project Analysis, Preferred Development Programmes and finance and leasing arrangements. It is a little depressing to consider that many UK planners charged with the same task take a much looser and more pragmatic approach, with the result that the visual coherence and unity which is so
275
Book
reviewslPublicutio,ls
apparent in the US developments is not noticeable in developments carried out thus far in the UK. It is true that there are exceptions, such as the Covent Garden redevelopment which would appear to have been inspired by the Boston precedent; but the results to date in the Isle of Dogs promise a mixture of unrelated commercial, industrial and housing development. The opportunity of a century to redevelop a major port of London as a dazzling example of urban design (which does not mean that it need necessarily be commercially unattractive) appears to have been lost. One wonders, from the many examples in this book, what the Americans might have made of such an opportunity. Certainly, it appears that the US entrepreneurs and planners choose their architects and designers with far greater care than their UK counterparts. I suggest that for this reason alone, Urban Waterfront Development should be mandatory reading for those engaged in similar projects in the UK. Liverpool and London are, realistically the only centres where opportunities for urban waterfront development can potentially take place on the same scale as the US examples illustrated in this book. There are, of course, other declining ports in need of renewal, such as Hull. but the Docklands Development Corporations set up in London and Liverpool were intended to emulate the achievements of earlier New Town Development Corporations. In Liverpool the success of the International Garden Festival is overshadowed by the fact that no financial framework was created to continue the life of a most attractive public park once the Festival ended in earlv autumn last vear. Though some of the major pavilions will remain, most of the gardens, and more particularly the highly entertaining narrow gauge railway used to transnort visitors across the Dark. will be torn up and dismantled. It seems that it is this lack of foresight which hinders the possibility of the UK docklands reaching the level of achievement of the US counterparts. In London the rapid development of the Isle of Dogs, particularly with light industrial and commercial buildings 2
276
appears to have been carried out in a rather haphazard way, and if development has followed a plan there is little evidence of it. Instead, there is a visual chaos which I am certain would be rejected by to the architects and developers of Union Wharf. Boston, or the Embarcadero in San Diego, or Inner Harbour, Baltimore, which are so attractively presented in this book. The Isle of Dogs contains the Enterprise Zone where the Development Corporation can achieve high environmental design standards. The next major area in the London Docklands to be developed will probably be the Royal Docks. This is a far vaster area than the Isle of Dogs and does not have the advantage (or disadvantage, depending on your political standpoint) of containing an enterprise zone, and is therefore subject to conventional planning controls. All the more reason therefore for the production of a proper plan indicating a rational and programmed development of the public realm (the movement systems, infrastructure, pedestrian networks and public parks and spaces) rather than the production of another glossy publicity brochure whose recommendations to date appear to be largely ignored by the multiplicity of developers. There is no reason why the Royal Docks could not become as commercially viable and as visually attractive as any of the 12 US case studies illustrated in this book. The London Docklands Development Corporation seems to reject the idea of citizen participation, often resulting in confrontation with the various and vociferous community action groups in East London. It is thus ironical that the concluding chapter of
Douglas Wrenn’s admirable book is devoted to development issues, including not only analysis of appropriate uses and the question of public access, but also the need for citizen participation in achieving a satisfactory final result. The USA is currently seen as the pinnacle of capitalist venture and achievement, yet the authors do not underestimate the need for participation. They say ‘. Citizen participation is necessary to ensure that public sector values are not sacrificed in order to accommodate private development. The public and private sectors must work together to create a manageable community involvement process that respects both public objectives and private property rights’. On their very last page they say ‘Major waterfront redevelopment programs such as the Inner Harbor in Baltimore require several years to plan and implement. For such an undertaking to be successful, there must be a strong public sector commitment to carry the program through to completion The amenity of the water’s edge will not compensate for poor judgement and bad management in developing urban waterfront sites. In fact, the difficulties of shoreline development will only be exacerbated by incompetent development efforts’. Thatcher’s Britain, which admires US achievement so much, should wake up and realize that public investment, planning, design and commitment is needed just as much as the injection of private capital. This excellent book proves the point. David Gosling Department of Architecture University of Sheffield, UK
i
Publications The Apple Sliced by Vernon Boggs, Gerald Handel. Sylvia Fava and contributors (Bergin and Garvcy, South Hadlcy. MA, USA, 19X3. 351 pp. f29.95 hardback. f14.95 paperback) Argenfinu: Volume I
Stdtriccrl
Economics Mernorcrndum; The Muin Report, Volume 2 Appendix (World Bank,
Washington, DC; UK distributor, Microinfo. PO Box 3, Newman Lane, Alton, Ilants, GUY 2PG. 19X5. 409 pp)
Built
in
The
USA:
American
Buildings
from Airports fo Zoos edited by Diane Maddex (The Preservation Press, Washington, DC, 1985, 189 pp, $8.95)
China Policy
und the World: in the Post-Mao
Chinese Foreign Era edited by
Samuel S. Kim (UK distributor, Bowker Publishing Co, Epping, Essex, UK, 1985, 356 pp, f50.25 hardback, f20.00 paperback)
CITIES August
1985