Urban Renewal

Community and Nostalgia in Urban Revitalisation: a critique of urban village and creative class strategies as remedies for social ‘problems’

by Nicholas Gill

Bon Pastor, Barcellona: Dalla Resistenza al "Rinnovamento"

by Stefano Portelli

Published online on "Officina della Storia", 28/1/2010.

Brief history of Barcelona's Bon Pastor neighborhood, built in 1929 on the shore of the Besós river to give shelter to... more Brief history of Barcelona's Bon Pastor neighborhood, built in 1929 on the shore of the Besós river to give shelter to immigrants and former shanty town dwellers, and actually being demolished as a consequence of Barcelona's urban renewal process.

Repensar Bonpastor: una intervención multidisciplinaria independiente en un barrio afectado por la transformación urbanística

by Stefano Portelli

Published in Periferia, revista de recerca i formació en antropologia, n.12, june 2010

“Repensar Bonpastor – a Competition of ideas for a participative and zero-eviction urban renewal of a popular... more “Repensar Bonpastor – a Competition of ideas for a participative and zero-eviction urban renewal of a popular neighbourhood in Barcelona”, promoted by the International Alliance of Inhabitants and organized by an independent group of technicians from Barcelona, received 45 proposals from all over the world. The
article explains how the local struggles of the neighbours of the “casas baratas de Bon Pastor” succeeded in gathering applied anthropology, international solidarity, oral history, social architecture, political activism, into a shared attempt to find a new way of “making the city”: where inhabitants are the leading actors of the transformations, and technicians (especially anthropologists) guarantee respect towards the meanings and value that the city represents to its inhabitants.

Keywords: urban renewal, public anthropology, social architecture, community
activism.

Renewal Through Retail? The Impact of Corporate Retail Investment in South Los Angeles

by Richard Bowman

Data analysis and writeup role

Is the Beltline Bad for Atlanta?

by Alex Sayf Cummings

Progressives across the United States have applauded the proposed development of a new ring of light rail, parks, and... more Progressives across the United States have applauded the proposed development of a new ring of light rail, parks, and bike and walking trails around Atlanta's in-town neighborhoods, a project called the Beltline.  Conservatives and suburbanites have, predictably, opposed the measure, continuing a long history of opposition to public transit in the South that is intimately tied up with issues of class and race.  Yet opposition to the project from the Left, particularly among black activists, has been very little noticed.  Georgia State historian Alex Sayf Cummings examines criticisms of the program in terms of equity and justice ahead of a July 31 funding referendum.

Social Housing Renewal and the Private Sector: Tenant participation as an invited space

by Dallas Rogers

5th Australasian Housing Researchers’ Conference
17-­19th November 2010,
University of Auckland, New Zealand

This paper argues that place-based participation strategies, deployed by housing authorities as components of public... more This paper argues that place-based participation strategies, deployed by housing authorities as components of public housing estate redevelopment projects, are increasingly positioned within market-centric, technocratic and neo-communitarian (deFilippis, 2007) understandings of urban governance. This neoliberal understanding creates certain ‘conditions of possibility’ (Foucault,1969) that shape and constrain the participation and consultation strategies deployed by housing authorities. These place-based participation strategies render invisible the ideological effects of neoliberalism, the market and the workings of capital by seeking to build a ‘consensus seeking community’ based on a functionalist approach to community building. To better understand these participation strategies a spatio-temporal research tool is put forward drawing on Cornwall’s (2004) spatial metaphor of invited space. The research tool is deployed in this paper to investigate a public housing estate redevelopment project by public-private partnership in southwest Sydney. It calls into question participation strategies that consult public housing tenants within, and not about, place-based neoliberal redevelopment projects, suggesting this focus leaves aside broader questions of markets, capital and politics (deFilippis et al., 2006). The paper concludes by arguing if neoliberalism and market logic are going to continue to inform urban governance and policy, then public housing tenants should also have the opportunity to question and inform the ideological underpinnings of this urban logic (Shragge, 2003).

Operazione Euromediterranée

by Silvia Mete

Social Dimensions of Urban Restructuring: Urban Gardening, Residents' Participation, Gardening Exhibitions

by Martin Klamt

Steine statt Blumen Forschungsprojekt: Bundesgartenschauen und Stadtplanung

by Martin Klamt

Dortmund – a Story of Change

by tino buchholz

Kunzmann, Klaus/ Tata, Lars/ Buchholz, Tino (2003): Dortmund – a Story of Change. C.R.I.T.I.C.A.L. working paper. Faculty of Spatial Planning. Dept. Of Spatial Planning in Europe. Dortmund.

Art and Artists: People and Public Space How does the collaboration of artists with communities affect the creation of public space?

by Sally Medlyn

This dissertation was awarded Master of Civic Design with Distinction 2006 by the University of Liverpool

This dissertation investigates how collaboration between artists and communities affects the creation of public space.... more This dissertation investigates how collaboration between artists and communities affects the creation of public space. It is based on evidence from case studies of the creation of urban parks in Glasgow and Birmingham.
The dissertation is arranged in seven chapters. Chapter 1 sets the aim and objectives focussed in analysis of government policy and guidance on design, art and public participation in shaping public space and examination of the theory and practice of artists working with communities. Chapter 2 is a
critical review of existing literature on public art, communities and place making, government policy on public space and multi-disciplinary approaches to creating public space.
Chapter 3 outlines the definitions of public space, artist, local people and communities and built environment professionals used in the dissertation and identifies five research questions. Chapter 4 explains the rationale for and design of the multiple case study and qualitative research methodology.
Chapter 5 is a structured series of observations comparing and contrasting the approach and experience in each case study. In Chapter 6 the evidence of the case studies is analysed and interpreted. Five key issues influencing the creation of public space and collaboration between artists and communities are discussed.
The final chapter concludes that the collaboration of artists with communities can make a powerful contribution to the creation of public space through a socially engaged art practice in which communities are active agents in shaping public space.

Renewal of Raniganj bazaar area, Bardhaman

by Parthasarathi Mukhopadhyay

Authors: Pal, T. and Mukhopadhyay, P.; Published in: Proc., 5th AIPTC, Shelter sub-congress, Feb 19–20, 2005, FOSET, DST & NES-GoWB, and, DHE-GoWB, Kolkata, India, 18-23.

The CBD of an urban area is defined as a geographical area or a set of areas in which the social overhead capital is... more The CBD of an urban area is defined as a geographical area or a set of areas in which the social overhead capital is on an average older than that in the rest, and which, by definition, occupies the central location and provides mainly the commercial activities. The development of an urban area, therefore, is directly linked with the development of its CBD. In order to achieve multi-polar development of West Bengal, instead of its uni-polar Kolkata-oriented development, integrated development of different regional Head Quarters is essential. The town of Bardhaman is one of the most important towns of West Bengal, which has grown organically for almost last five hundred years. The nature of CBD being not so cohesive, it is difficult to identify any specific area as CBD. However, the area in and around the Raniganj Bazaar Area may be said to be serving the function of its CBD. This paper tries to identify the different problems that the Raniganj Bazaar Area is facing due to unplanned development which would help in undertaking Urban Renewal of the same in the due course.

La création d'une ambiance: el cas du Raval de Barcelona

by Caterina Borelli

Published in Jean-François Augoyard (ed), Faire une ambiance. Grenoble: A la croisée. Pp. 423-428

Title I and the Limited-equity Co-op, Corlears Hook Title I, Fort Greene Title I, Pratt Institute Title I, Seward Park Title I, Park Row Title I, Penn Station South Title I, Park Row Extension Title I

by Matthew Lasner

Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York, eds. Hilary Ballon and Kenneth T. Jackson (New York: Norton, 2007)

Imaginaris practicats. Remodelació urbanìstica i reconstrucció simbòlica en el barri del Raval, Barcelona

by Caterina Borelli

Published in Revista d’Etnologia de Catalunya, nº34, april 2009, pp.134-136.

Urban Conservation and Renewal in Beijing: the case of the Drum and Bell Tower Historic District

by Jingyao Wang

Paper presented in South of East Asia: Readdressing East Asian Architecture and Urbanism, East Asian Architectural Culture International Conference, National University of Singapore, 12-14 May, 2011.

Key Words: Urban Conservation, Urban Renewal, Urban Governance, Drum and Bell Towers, Beijing

Abstract: This paper gives a thorough exploration of the urban transformation and development process of Drum and Bell... more Abstract: This paper gives a thorough exploration of the urban transformation and development process of Drum and Bell Tower district ― a significant historic rich district located in the inner city of Beijing ― from the 1980s to 2010 in a chronological manner. And it provides an examination of the involvements of stakeholders focusing on the role played by different government agencies. The urban renewal of Drum and Bell Towers area proves that (1) a piece-meal housing regeneration scheme coordinated by the government is feasible for the regeneration of historical significant areas with high real estate potential; (2) a government-led redevelopment with clear plan and infrastructural improvements is able to attract private investments in historical regeneration schemes and precipitate redevelopment.

London 2012: espacio de excepción

by Isaac Marrero-Guillamón

Urban Renewal

by Benjamin Flowers

The Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture. R. Stephen Sennott, ed. (New York: Routledge, 2004).

The Garden Valley: Remembering Visions and Values in 1950s Cleveland with Allan Jacobs

by Bradley Flamm

Appeared in the Berkeley Planning Journal, Volume 18, 2005, pages 101-118.

Authored by Bradley Flamm.

In the summer of 1954 a young graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s city planning program was asked to design... more In the summer of 1954 a young graduate from the University of Pennsylvania’s city planning program was asked to design a public housing complex in the heart of Cleveland, Ohio. Ambitions were high; the Garden Valley, as the project was christened, was to be a modern, clean, mixed-use, racially and economically integrated community that would be a “model neighborhood for all of Cleveland.” The ambitions belied the setting, for the project was planned for a decidedly inauspicious location: Kingsbury Run, a dangerous, disreputable, polluted gully that had been the site of the dirtiest industrial facilities, Depression-era shantytowns, and an infamous series of murders. The young planner was Allan Jacobs, now a figure of great renown in city planning for his public, academic, writing, and consulting careers. Jacobs is currently professor emeritus in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Based on his work developing an overall plan for the Kingsbury Run site, hundreds of new publicly and privately owned apartment units would be constructed in a garden-like setting, providing housing for thousands of low- and middle-income Clevelanders. Yet within just two years of the first units’ construction the Garden Valley was already considered rundown and undesirable, a reputation that would grow and deepen with time, a reputation the area has struggled with ever since. How is it that an auspicious combination of good intentions, significant resources, and uncommon talent was not enough to ensure the success of the project? Did the original conceptual design and the dominant values that influenced it play a role in setting the stage for the difficulties to come? This article, based largely on a series of conversations with Allan Jacobs, explores these questions by telling the story of his first summer of professional design work in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.

The Manhattanville Project: Urban Renewal on the Capitalist Agenda

by Alexandra Hain

For decades, Columbia University (CU) has been devising the “Manhattanville project”, a plan to expand its... more
For decades, Columbia University (CU) has been devising the “Manhattanville project”, a plan to expand its campus into the 17 acres of West Harlem, New York, spanning from 125th to 133rd street and from Broadway to Twelfth avenue. The $6.3 billion will be completed in two phases, the first to be completed by 20151 and the second by 20302. Research indicates that the project is a large contributor to the gentrification of Harlem that is improving the neglected neighborhood in order to  promote the inception of wealthies citizens. While the project is anticipated to develop the Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights neighborhood by improving employment, infrastructure and safety much of the community is fearful that they will be driven out of their neighborhood to make room for the new campus and/ or because of the unaffordable cost of living that will ensue.
According to the Association of American Universities (1998), the role of universities is to “provide extensive public service.... helping improve the quality of life in their communities, often in support of the most disadvantaged residents”.While Colombia University has boasted that an expansion would transform its campus into a “publicly accessible center for academic and civic life, woven into the fabric of the community” (PlanNYC, 2009), the community has continuously opposed the project. Undoubtedly, the expansion will have some benefits for the West Harlem populace however will they be an intended result or rather a positive side-effect of the efforts made for the improvement of the university? Furthermore, as the debate between the community and the university unfolds at the forefront of the “Manhattanville project”, what role does the city play and what political biases are consequently steering the development in a direction which mostly favors the university’s goals and overwhelmingly neglects the needs and interests of the neighboring community?
This paper will address these questions by examining the influence of capitalism on urban development. Specifically I will analyze the underlying relationships between the university, the governmental structures of the city, and the community members of West Harlem in order to illustrate what the costs and benefits of the Manhattanville project are and who they are affecting.  the urban poor is either included or excluded through the process of gentrification.
The Gentrification of West Harlem