John Portman- bet on cities as others were fleeing (Atlanta: homes, living)

[cqholt]

Neofuturist architect John Portman bet on cities just as people fled them - Curbed
While many of Portman's buildings have no sidewalk interaction and are blank walls, he did invest in urban cores while others were following the middle class to the suburbs.

[fieldm]

Atlanta legend imo

[ATLTJL]

If Portman had been able to fully realize his dream of buildings with grand atriums all connected with sky bridges and a Jetsons-esque futuristic landscape, I think we'd be better off. Street level stuff is fine, but I'd rather have everything connected with indoor walkways with shops, like in Las Vegas! At least in the urban core, I think you should be able to get from anywhere to anywhere without ever having to step outside.

I love the way he incorporated indoor water features in his original designs!

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If Portman had been able to fully realize his dream of buildings with grand atriums all connected with sky bridges and a Jetsons-esque futuristic landscape, I think we'd be better off. Street level stuff is fine, but I'd rather have everything connected with indoor walkways with shops, like in Las Vegas! At least in the urban core, I think you should be able to get from anywhere to anywhere without ever having to step outside.

I love the way he incorporated indoor water features in his original designs!

Must be afraid of sweating.

[fieldm]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If Portman had been able to fully realize his dream of buildings with grand atriums all connected with sky bridges and a Jetsons-esque futuristic landscape, I think we'd be better off. Street level stuff is fine, but I'd rather have everything connected with indoor walkways with shops, like in Las Vegas! At least in the urban core, I think you should be able to get from anywhere to anywhere without ever having to step outside.

I love the way he incorporated indoor water features in his original designs!

At least he has more goals than to just build Kroger developments across Atlanta

[ATLTJL]

Must be afraid of sweating.

Yup, I don't like it. Nor do I appreciate it when a sweaty person comes into a meeting and stinks up the room.

I also don't like getting rained on.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

If Portman had been able to fully realize his dream of buildings with grand atriums all connected with sky bridges and a Jetsons-esque futuristic landscape, I think we'd be better off. Street level stuff is fine, but I'd rather have everything connected with indoor walkways with shops, like in Las Vegas! At least in the urban core, I think you should be able to get from anywhere to anywhere without ever having to step outside.

I love the way he incorporated indoor water features in his original designs!

His Atlanta and Sea Island homes have water features as well. The living and dining areas are on a 'lily pad' floating above the water; my mother was playing bridge there once when a woman slid her chair back to excuse herself and fell in!

[arjay57]

I've never completely understood the gripes about Peachtree center. It seems very pedestrian friendly to me.

[Iconographer]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I've never completely understood the gripes about Peachtree center. It seems very pedestrian friendly to me.

I always found the central area rather dark and confining. I'd have preferred a larger plaza area like Rockefeller Center.

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by arjay57

I've never completely understood the gripes about Peachtree center. It seems very pedestrian friendly to me.

Peachtree Center is pretty alright, but that's despite Portman's vision, not really because of it. Step a block away, and you loose nearly all the storefronts, commercial entrances, and residencies in favor of utility access, garage portals, and just blank walls. That surrounds and takes up quite a few blocks in the area.

While others might not care much about street life, it is just about the best indicator of how a city is doing. If you have an active, vibrant street-life, then your city is more than likely doing just fine, even prospering.

Constantly being stuck inside is not really good for us in general, and what had happened with downtown was that the whole 'connected internal city' thing only really catered to the commuters coming into the city, then leaving. They didn't have to live with it, just work with it, and so there weren't any issues. The life of downtown, though, was generally lost.

People didn't want to live there, because any building that wasn't connected to the sky/system required walking through vacant / empty / blank streets to get to.

Well, when you don't have people living there, and your primary population is leaving at 5, there's just not much business to be made outside of working hours. That's compared to somewhere with good street-life, where people live and work and play and, perhaps most importantly, spend money at all hours of the day (or at least a significantly larger portion of the hours).