News & Events

September 2005

Calthorpian Geography

"At some point we have to recognize that we're no longer pioneers on a frontier."
~ Peter Calthorpe ~

Peter Calthorpe used to be a radical, a prodigy, a phenomenon. Somewhere between the founding of his urban design firm in 1983 and his presentation in Ann Arbor last month to launch the revamp of their downtown, Calthorpe became the spokesman for the mainstream. Unlike many, however, it was not Calthorpe who changed so much as the country. There's hardly a planners' school in America that isn't teaching The New Urbanism now, a set of principles that Calthorpe has espoused for decades. Most of Calthorpe's work has been on the west side of the country, but the new Ann Arbor project gives him a chance to showcase his strategy for urban revitalization - and all of us a chance to evaluate these principles in action.

Calthorpe has launched his Ann Arbor project with an aggressive series of public lectures and workshops. Several hundred people participated in the first of these, sharing their own visions of a revamped downtown. This deliberate reliance on citizen participation is one of the key elements to successful redevelopment, as we have discovered through the Redevelopment Ready Communities program. Not unexpectedly the initial concepts ranged from a completely green and wild swath through the downtown to a towering high-tech urban core. What Calthorpe is seeking to understand is the core values of the community, not the exact design. With these articulated and agreed to (as much as that can happen in any very diverse city) the real work of designing the community can move forward.

The end game for Calthorpe's program will likely reflect the principles of urban design that have become an international hallmark for him, among them

• Walkability : most things should be within a 10 minute walk from home or work; neighborhoods are designed with pedestrians in mind with buildings close to the street, houses with porches and designs that de-prioritize the automobile.
• Diversity, Density, Mixed-use and Mixed Housing : people of differing cultures, ages, and classes living and working in closer proximity - not crowded together, but accessible to each other.
• Traditional Neighborhood Structures : Cities should have discernable centers and edges with clearly delineated public spaces that are prioritized in the community plan; density increases as one moves toward the center of town; natural features are well-integrated with the human environment.
• Smart Transportation : a city should accommodate movement by automobile and the public transit system without compromising walkability; at its heart the transportation system is efficient and affordable.

All together these add up to high quality of life. Today's businesses are searching for communities that embody these principles because they are home to creative talent and satisfied families.

The Suburbs Alliance communities are uniquely poised to take advantage of this Calthorpian model as we begin to attract more New Urbanist redevelopers. We can reshape our own downtowns and new neighborhoods to place higher value on the things that create a sense of place, rather than just filling the space. The Ann Arbor experience offers us a special opportunity to evaluate this process in a real-world setting and to test its applicability to our own communities.

The geography of the Michigan city is ready to be restructured. We can take the lead in transforming our region's suburban context - and rekindling a passion for cities and the awesome opportunities they have always presented.