Urban "Weenies" (downtown, schools, transportation, architect)

[Cloudship]

Walt Disney, when designing his parks, talked about the "Weenie" - something that drew guests in, made them want to explore deeper into the park. I am thinking how to apply that to urban neighborhoods.

You can make a neighborhood look inviting, you can provide good connections, you can make it safe, but in teh end, you still need to give people a reason to want to go there. This happens a lot in downtowns - you can do all the urban renewal you want, but to get a place to really thrivce, you need something that is going ot generate enough urban traffic (not road traffic) on its own to kickstart a place. What are some ideas that work?

I am big on Bookstores. Barnes and Noble doesn't seem to be strong in this area, but places like Powell's and the Tattered Cover and the Harvard Coop do. Mind you they struggle with profitability, but they offer a boon to a city and cities should I think work top keep them alive.

[munchitup]

Originally Posted by Cloudship

Walt Disney, when designing his parks, talked about the "Weenie" - something that drew guests in, made them want to explore deeper into the park. I am thinking how to apply that to urban neighborhoods.

You can make a neighborhood look inviting, you can provide good connections, you can make it safe, but in teh end, you still need to give people a reason to want to go there. This happens a lot in downtowns - you can do all the urban renewal you want, but to get a place to really thrivce, you need something that is going ot generate enough urban traffic (not road traffic) on its own to kickstart a place. What are some ideas that work?

I am big on Bookstores. Barnes and Noble doesn't seem to be strong in this area, but places like Powell's and the Tattered Cover and the Harvard Coop do. Mind you they struggle with profitability, but they offer a boon to a city and cities should I think work top keep them alive.

The Last Bookstore in Downtown Los Angeles is considered a pretty big draw, and I believe it does struggle with profitability. Not sure how big of an attraction it is (I've never been) but I've heard it is pretty incredible and in a historic old building.

THE LAST BOOKSTORE

[Escort Rider]

LOL. When I first saw the thread title I had a very erroneous idea of its meaning, so I'm glad the OP explained himself! Interesting that the second post in the thread (#2 above) deals with the only downtown I know personally in other than a very superficial way, namely Los Angeles. Certainly the addition of Walt Disney Concert Hall ten years ago (one of the world's best acoustically) was an urban "weenie" in the sense of the OP. That is what has drawn me to downtown Los Angeles over the past several years - in fact I attended a concert there last night. I feel fortunate to live about 10 miles from Disney Hall.

Now having said that, I am wondering why it is important to draw people to downtown areas? What is so special about downtown areas, as opposed to any other areas, that makes them somehow "worthy"?

[urbanlife78]

I was thinking this thread was gonna be about hot dogs.

[ciceropolo]

Originally Posted by Cloudship

Walt Disney, when designing his parks, talked about the "Weenie" - something that drew guests in, made them want to explore deeper into the park. I am thinking how to apply that to urban neighborhoods.

You can make a neighborhood look inviting, you can provide good connections, you can make it safe, but in teh end, you still need to give people a reason to want to go there. This happens a lot in downtowns - you can do all the urban renewal you want, but to get a place to really thrivce, you need something that is going ot generate enough urban traffic (not road traffic) on its own to kickstart a place. What are some ideas that work?

I am big on Bookstores. Barnes and Noble doesn't seem to be strong in this area, but places like Powell's and the Tattered Cover and the Harvard Coop do. Mind you they struggle with profitability, but they offer a boon to a city and cities should I think work top keep them alive.

Made me think of idea for a new TV Show "Dachsunds In The City" OK, back to being serious.

Most urban neighborhoods in order to become a 'destination location' - possess an 'Urban weenie' in Disney parlance - usually, have to create an image or concentration of establishments, or program an environment to do so, outside of the few historic things that people will go to for any of a myriad of reasons; religious treks to holy sites on down to the other end of spectrum such as entertainment venues of various sorts; athletic / academic from low end - high end.

These can form organically or be planned from conception, and are usually seen in arts districts were the low COL / Rent draws the artistic crowd. Or in instances where large scale development at some point in time designated an area for specific commercial uses for ease of population assembly by functional usage.

From strictly a design perspective, what Disney did was to emphasize high visual concentration via architectural details and variety in pedestrian scale spaces which, in turn, enable a person to continue on like a mouse in a maze being constantly visually stimulated by the variety, grandiosity and colors within a physical framework that makes the person feel like they are stumbling upon a new discovery in built visual environment. Retailers and Casinos study this same spatial relationship but for different reasons (drawing one in and making one delighted in being captive) to various levels of success.

It can be exemplified in some large cities by how the towers of a CBD skyline is aligned with neighboring areas. In that, it mimics the visual 'gravity' in built environment form. This is why even cities with small scale (traditional New England towns to southwestern cities built around the local place of worship) and the ancient Greeks and Italians would design community, institutional buildings often as central spires / spaces to assemble for commerce / worship / traditional order etc.... It simply makes the most logistic sense.

Hence, many cities (planned or not planned) have certain institutional buildings like Libraries, Schools, Post Offices, Rail Stations (transportation nodes), Government buildings, Religious buildings, Large assembly entertainment (Theaters, Stadia etc..) and large green spaces as central organizing elements. i.e. 'natural urban weenies' due to: function, velocity of traffic, need to assemble etc...

So for ideas, simply follow the past, humanity has organized along these various social, commercial functions, and their like, since the rise of civilizations. Perhaps the next will be a SpacePort location.