Bad Buildings Destroy Good Cities

There is a lot of attention given to the planning and zoning side of cites: density, configuration, use-mix, etc. While this is important, it almost always neglects the building stock itself. While there are places like Las Vegas and Seaside that follow a form-based code, this is usually a Christopher Alexander inspired thing dealing with either screening or style – what’s under the stucco rarely matters. The how and what of the actual building construction is almost always left to the model building code. Here it’s worth noting that the intent of the model codes is simple: don’t kill anyone. That’s really about it. There are some energy provisions, and a few other stipulations that have built up over the years, but the vast majority of code issues deal with fire spread, smoke spread, personnel evacuation, collapse under wind, collapse in earthquake, and this kind of thing. These they do well. That is not, however, enough to build a city.

My concern is this: Many of these “urban” places I see springing up (whether economically and functionally urban or not,) are only skin deep. Living densely requires a whole different mindset than their initiators will admit. Noise, odor, vibration, and security require thick construction when people are packed together (especially in these days of the subwoofer.) Large projects cannot be maintained and renovated piecemeal like houses and garden apartments, so they must be built with a longer service life to stay viable for more than a few years. Cheaply built “urbanism” today will become an absolutely horrible place to be if its’ paper-thin walls begin to fall apart in a few years, and a single larger project gone bad can blight an entire sector of the city. I fear if the general public is sold a bill of goods masquerading as a dense city, without the infrastructure and housing stock that made real places like Greenwich Village or Lincoln Square viable, there will be both an horrible anti-density backlash and prohibiting price spikes in the few (ancient) real urban areas left.

Beauty is more than skin deep; you can hear and feel it too.