Best City Planning

[toxicpiano 125]

So I know a lot of people know their worst city planning nominations, but where do you think the best city planning has occurred (It can be recent or ancient )

Personally Vancouver, BC is a very good candidate. Wikipedia has a nice explanation why:

Vancouverism is an urban planning and architectural technique pioneered in Vancouver, Canada. It is characterized by mixed-use developments, typically with a medium-height, commercial base and narrow, high-rise residential towers to accommodate high populations and to preserve view corridors.^[1][2][3] With a large residential population living in the city centre, no expressways connecting the core to the suburbs, and significant reliance on mass public transit, Vancouver is somewhat unique among large North American cities. In part, these reasons contribute to the fact that it is consistently ranked among the most livable cities in the world.^[4] Other cities have begun to take note of the principles of Vancouverism and have begun to incorporate this approach in their own planning directions.^[1]

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[_Atticus 10]

I think Washington, D.C., has a wonderful city plan. L'Enfant really knew what he was doing. Another aspect of DC city planning that I like is the height restriction. It gives one a sense of order, and also make the monuments more prominent in the city skyline. The overall plan may not be very human, but it is certainly very monumental.

-Pingangster

P.S: My decision was not biased by the fact that I live 15 minutes from DC

[koreanjhee 0]

I've definitely been reading into Vancouverism and have seen that same post,

IMO I believe that Vancouverism would be the way to go, especially as an example to America.

Unfortunately, most American cities are simply not up to the task, due to years and decades of sprawl development that is unsustainable and uncontrolled. For example, to my city of Jacksonville, which I would love to see some aspects of Vancouverism being implemented, Vancouverism is the item on the top shelf, unattainable and forgotten about. I could never see mass transit, mixed use medium density, and no expressways without destroying the precedent infrastructure and starting all over again. (oh gawd, my only wish is to see my 35 minute commute to school every morning at 6:30 disappear)

[Mithrik 562]

I am already trying to implement something like Vancouverism into my new region, My urban zones are quiet compact (less than a square 1km) and have more than 7000 population. And that only with the low density.

At the moment the only downside is the enormous farms that bring half of the jobs. But as they get bigger it will get solved.

About real life, I think is a really good idea something like that. But unfortunately much cities don't have any "need" to apply it, because may have a lot of flat land around so that gives sprawl a bigger advantage.

[Ironic-Veneer 1]

Well, from a technical standpoint, pretty much no North American cities need to apply Vancouverism; relatively flat, developable land is abundant around most cities in the U.S. and Canada. However, cities sprawling out over the whole continent would essentially destroy any sense of community they have and be enormously inefficient in terms of land use and transportation.

[x493x 446]

Interesting thing about Vancouver, there are two viaducts running through the SE of the city by the stadiums. These were supposed to become a highway that travelled through the city to but it never got finished. That would've really changed Vancouver for the worse I think. Now they're thinking of demolishing the viaducts because they are kinda pointless now.

[hamsterTK 93]

[opinion dump]

"Vancouverism" has proper applications. Podium towers are a wonderful solution for reviving downtowns because you get both the activity and population of a skyscraper, and the street energy of a traditional urban environment. The whole city and region of Vancouver is far from perfect however.

Its hard to say what place really exemplifies great planning or urban governance, but I can think of certain outward successes. LA and Denver are doing big things with transportation despite traditionally being car cities and are growing upward despite long being more sprawling.

It sucks that these days there is the perfect storm of budget deficits and anti-tax conservatism destroying many civic initiatives, and while I cant think of any places that are actively doing anything positive, I can imagine that the places which are destroying their local schools, transit, and police are going to seriously suffer as those things sink in.

  Edited May 3, 2011 by hamsterTK  

[willemvanoranje 0]

I am a fan of Curitiba, considering the neatness and effectiveness they maintained era in which all large cities in Brazil drowned in urbanization, while showing the highest relative growth figures for 2-3 decades. New innovation is needed soon, however, since the old master plan has reached its limits.