Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Tyson's was laid-out for the automobile. I'm all for adding sidewalks, pedestrian safety devices etc but the billions$ (?) in infrastructure that have accumulated over the decades don't allow for a classically urban walkable space that is people oriented, practical and architecturally "organic" within the hermeneutic of urbanism (at the least the type that is most admired and proven over centuries
Other than the streets themselves, what infrastructure in Tysons would prevent a walkable urban space? The streets do represent a sunk cost, but the county seems willing to rebuild the street network ANYWAY, and given the potential value of the real estate at higher densities, I think the ROI on that will be positive.
Do you mean the feeder highways? of course those will stay. But most traditional downtowns have feeder highways as well. With HOT Lanes, etc those feeder highways can be leveraged as transit infrastructure. Even more dramatically, the dulles toll road is going to be leveraged into a heavy rail transit line.
I don't see why we couldn't build a pedestrian bridge over the feeder roads, too. Especially if the bridge is a wide and substantial structure. Have it stretch from the 2nd or 3rd floor of one building across everything--all the way to the 2nd or 3rd floor of another building.
I once fretted about buildings and architecture but realized its a lost cause in most parts of this country. Its secondary anyhow (much like the clothes on our backs - hardly the Man, these threads) to how we relate to each other ie the urban dynamic. Successful urbanism needs to develop organically but one needs to start off on the right foot - not continue, re-dress, put lipstick on the failed model. We are a young country so maybe in a few hundred years we'll stop living in the barnyard and build ourselves a nice manor house with gardens and a courtyard and a few novelties with absolutely no consideration for ROI and where the only thing leverage-able is a see-saw. I sympathize with the sentiments in this thread, retreating to the built environment that was once a given in its civilizing qualities, be it NYC or the smallest village. So much has been compromised in the last half century, time is accelerating - how post-post-post ironical can one be before everything implodes into a foamy slick of relativism? I reckon we may be living NOW in the shiny ruins of a normal society, stoned on consumerist grog, a few sober folk guarding their coals for the harsh winter a-brewing.
Charette, I believe, refers to the old french custom of collecting the architecture students final drawings onto a cart - the student sometimes hitching a ride to pencil in the last details. Ehhhhhh - I'm kinda suspicious of the modern practice - I think it comes down to "this is what it is (in soothing rhetoric, of course) but YOU get to pick the color!
[END OF BITTER APOCALYPTIC RANT. Study architecture, practice law]
I ACTUALLY did this project in my fourth year architecture school studio back in the '80s. The crits ripped it to shreds. Tyson's is not suitable for pedestrians, never was and never will be. Sorry to be such a downer.
I wonder if the point of the lesson was to experience criticism? After all, every important building in history has been ripped to shreds by critics so maybe they wanted their students to learn how to deal with it. I really hope you weren't given an assignment where the ultimate point was to learn "this project is impossible." That's a horrible thing to teach young people, and usually not true.
At any rate, this isn't a serious planning session. So, even if you think your plan is totally implausible, it would be fun to see it. Or, if you want to show a more serious side, you can show us your sketch and then point out the reasons it's implausible.
Bumping this thread in the hopes that Tysons Engineer will add his ideas for a grand pedestrian bridge.
Yes, this was a silly thread, and I don't want to hijack the silliness--but IMO it would be interesting to see some serious suggestions. I really do think a grand pedestrian bridge would be a smart project because it would serve as a tourist attraction for an area that really doesn't have one.
So I actually have an interview planned with the head designer for the Macerich project (you may have seen the glass templates on the property where la madeleine used to be).
Basically in my research they are planning this very thing to be incorporated into the west park bridge region. Their concept is a wide pedestrian plaza that connects metro to Tysons I with retail, hotel, and residence all along Westpark bridge and the existing loop road for Tysons I. This would essentially turn this part of 123 into a tunnel WHICH I THINK IS AWESOME!
Unfortunately outside of this bridge, none of the other bridges make sense to design this way, and they will mostly look like the standard air conditioned walkway you see at most metro stations, with a new materials update to look hip and new.
The Macerich plaza bridge is one that I am extremely interested in as well, mostly because it solves the issue of 123 cross for the huge residential projects that will be happening between Macerich and Lerner (both building 20-30 story buildings for residential/hotel) in 2013.
I'll post a link in this thread once I get more info from the interview.
Its already a popular location. Went by last night, many people sitting out for the weekly movies on the grass. The corn hole/ping pong/other activities are also very popular. Once shake shack opens I could see this being the night time center for young families and others alike. Would be very nice if someone put a nice bar up there with a good patio as well, for those of us who enjoy our cornhole in the traditional college format :P
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
