Pruitt-Igoe / Korean High-Rise Apartments (아파트)

Every day, I see stunning views of Seoul from my apartment on the 17th floor.

I can see the 63 Building, the Han River, Bukhansan, and even Namsan Tower.

I live in a high-rise apartment in Seoul.  I'm a bit disconnected from the ground, and my location is isolated from anything commercial, so I have to walk quite far to do anything.  Anywhere else in the city, I could walk out my door and into a 7-11 in under a minute.  But I live in an "a-pa-tuh."

These high-rise buildings are totally removed from the life of the street, and primarily filled with real-estate speculating families.  They buy a unit in an 아파트 hoping to later sell it when the whole building gets demolished and replaced by the government.  It's a weird game that, IMHO, poisons the mayoral election process.

The horrible thing about Seoul at the moment is that the city's zoning codes more or less push for more and more of these.  The low-rise buildings that make up the bulk of the city's geography, life, and culture are slowly being reduced in favor of these soulless buildings.  There's nothing wrong with tall buildings, but these tall buildings are ugly, lack imagination, and aren't that nice to live in.

Now, I'm not one of those people that say, "Living high up in the air disconnects people from the ground."  I just think it disconnects people from activity.  It is hard to justify going to the corner store to get a snack if you have to wait for an elevator and then walk for 10 minutes just to get out of your all residential district.  My building has 27 floors, why can't the first 3 be full of retail?  A small grocery store would certainly be successful, my building holds hundreds of people.  There is a store held in common between the towers, but it isn't that close.

There's a wonderful wooded neighborhood somewhat close to my apartment that's being condemned for demolition and yet more high-rise clones.  Renderings are all over town in advertisements on buses and trains.  They're all more or less the same apartments with different subway stops.

When I first came to Korea back in 2006 (before I spent a year and a half living in Singapore's high-rise public housing) the apartment buildings were the first piece of culture shock when I left the airport.  Wow, they've got projects too.  Maybe those are prisons...  My world-view was turned on its head.  Those buildings are for the upper middle class. 

Not in St. Louis. 

American's tried big high-rise apartments in the 50s.

We did it differently though.  We made them housing for poor people.  We put them up in the tall buildings in an isolated field, and then we forgot about them.  Look at all that land.  Imagine walking to the grocery store from there.

Naturally, concentrating people in poverty and failing to recognize a dozen or so social conditions, lead to what Americans usually define as "the projects."

Pruitt-Igoe, as the project was called, was such a miserable failure that it completely changed the way american architects and urban planners saw the world.  From this we get Jane Jacob's "Eyes on the Street" idea.  These great empty buildings of inward looking people left the enclosed hallways and stairwells abandoned and unsafe.  There were no eyes to defend the common space.  Hooligans felt free to do as they wished.  Everyone hid, and nobody saw anything.  Muggings, violent crime, drug running, and more become common place.  After about 20 years, we bulldozed it all to the ground. 

Some of the foundations are still there.  Gateway Middle School was built on the site and trees over took the grounds.  In the old picture we can see that the area around used to be densely populated.  These days, the vacant lots abound.  Paul Mckee's Northside Project hopes to make use of some of this land. 

St. Louis killed modern architecture.  Pruitt-Igoe was the end of it.

So why did Korea and so many other asian nations plod ahead designing yet more of these monsters?

Valerie Gelezeau, a French professor of Geography, asked just that question.  You can find her presentation at the Korea Society in podcast form.  It is dated, 4/26/2007.  The talk was titled, "How Did Korea become a Land of Apartments?"  She breaks it down far better than I can.

As any Korean will tell you, there are just so many people in Seoul that buildings must be built taller.  This doesn't quite explain why they have to be built in little parks offset from the street with sports and rec facilities but no small shops.

I'm going to be thinking about this and editing over time.  I think this will be a two part entry.  I'd like to add an article on Singapore's HDBs, which are different creatures.  Likewise, St. James Town in Toronto and similar neighborhoods around the world are quite notable.  Check back on this article over time and there should be changes made.

Props to Curious Feet for posting this video first, skip two minutes into it,

St. Louis Parking Garages / Parking Garages Elsewhere

Park and Ride.  This is the North Hanley Metrolink Station.  It isn't intended for pedestrian traffic, and isn't transit-oriented development.  I don't drive, so I've never been there.  A station on our public transit line is not worth visiting if you don't drive.  Isn't that strange? 

North Hanley Station occupies some good real estate though.  It sits between the airport and a major university.  It's the obvious place to put up airport hotels, office buildings for logistic companies, perhaps an expanded partnership between the university and the airport.  South Korea is banking on the land adjoining their main airport on Yeongjong Island.  This land at North Hanley may one day need to be used for more than parking.  More developments may mean more parking needs too.  The answer?  Bigger and better parking garages.

In downtown St. Louis.  There are many parking garages, and most are half-empty.   A few years back, Webster University knocked over the historic Century Building to build yet one more parking facility so their students wouldn't have to walk an extra block.  Half the major structures downtown are parking garages,

The city's major sports teams are downtown.  If a stadium holding 70,000 people is to be filled up for a game, then about 50,000 cars need to be parked somewhere.  Some are parked downtown.  Some are parked out at the Hanley Park and Ride Lot.

Imagine the Cardinals, Blues, and Rams all playing on the same night.  How would you find a parking space?  America's Center holds regular conferences, Market Street has parades, and the Arch Grounds get the VP Fair?  Downtown has been built and designed into the position of needing huge parking capacity for intermittant surges.  At all other times, it is a ghost town.

For a city like NYC, driving in manhattan is a crazy idea.  What urban planner would put a stadium there?  NYC's Giants Stadium is way out in New Jersey where cars can park more easily.

Giants Stadium can hold 78,741.  Busch Stadium holds 43,975.  The Edward Jones Dome holds 66,965.  The Kiel Center holds 19,250.  St. Louis has smaller stadiums, but they're surrounding parking situation is drastically different.

There's an interesting post here comparing Busch Stadium to Miller Park in Milwaukee.  Do note the difference in parking. 

St. Louis has built its downtown into a driving destination, so parking issues must be resolved or more historic buildings will be demolished.

In thinking about parking garages, there are a few rules that might be considered.

1.  They can't take up too much space.  They're garages and not lots because space is an issue.

2.  They don't need windows, so the facade options are nigh limitless.  There's no excuse for an ugly garage.

3.  They shouldn't be time-consuming.  Driving around in them for 10 minutes is no good.  Getting out and being stuck in them looking for an elevator is no good either.

4.  If people walk in them, then they should be safe and clean.  Often they suffer from horrible indoor air quality.  The car should be kept safe too..

Now, looking beyond St. Louis to nearby Chicago

almost 1800 parking spots for 900 residences.

1.  These two corncobs take up only about 3 acres of land.

2.  These buildings are iconic and interesting.  They lend an instant sense of placeness.

3.  If you park up towards the top, you drive around and around forever.  Getting out of the car will give you a nice view of the city though.

4.  The cars here are kept pretty safe.  The drivers just get out and take the elevator to their homes above.  There's plenty of fresh air too.

This seems like a good design.  It fails the 3rd rule though.  It is just much easier to park on the street than to go around in circles looking for a parking spot inside a garage.  There must be an easier way.

Ah, here we are in Seoul, South Korea.  One parking space can hold about a dozen cars.

1.  It takes up the space of about two parking spots.

2.  It lends a certain cyber-punk quality to the landscape.  Perhaps some people find it ugly.

3.  Park, get out, walk away. 

4.  The car is safe, only you can get it back down.

This isn't a new concept.

South Korea and Japan have taken this to new heights though.

I hate to say it, but these towers lack imagination.  Cars going up in the air are ugly and birds take roost, so a cover is called for.  What kind of cover is this though?  Unsightly!  Do something creative.

St. Louis used to have a municipal water system reliant upon huge water pipes looming randomly throughout the city.  Three still remain and serve as city landmarks.

Because the pipes were ugly, a facade was placed over them.  Now they're iconic sources of pride.  East Asian car elevators are covered with unimaginative facades.  Putting some decorative elements on the outside could of great value to the surrounding city.  I have no problem imagining the Compton Tower scaled up and full of cars.  It'd be a simple feat. 

The other option, if the citizenry doesn't want to see towers all over the place, would be to simplely sink the towers. 

For downtown St. Louis, capacity could be greatly improved by digging up Market Street and sinking about twenty big cylinders in the road like the one in this image.  On the street's surface, things would look normal, but thousands of cars could be parked underneath.  Just pull into a parking spot, get out, and let your car safely disappear beneath the street. 

A lot of people don't like the cylinder approach.  The shaft in the middle is a bunch of wasted space.  Other options exist.

If we could get all the cars off the streets and the garages out of our view, there would surely be more room in the city for parks, walking, and biking.

Biking?

Washington DC just made a bold move for bike friendliness. 

Really, this isn't new at all.  Most Japanese cities are covered with bike depots like this.  Still it is a big move for the US.

This bike station is important for DC's bike sharing system. 

A bike sharing system relies upon bike depots across the city having bikes and open slots.  Every citizen gets a card and pin number linked to their bank account.  They swipe the card, put in their pin number, a bike unlocks, and they ride around for as long as they like paying a $1 or so for every hour after the free first half-hour.  To avoid fines, riders are encouraged to just park their bike and get a different one.

With this system, there is no need for bike facilities on buses and subway trains.  Turn in the bike before you get on the train or bus, and get a new one when you reach your destination. 

With this system, nobody worries about bike locks and theft, because the bike share program will supply a bike and take care of it.  

The only problem, is that bikes get damaged from time to time.  Seats are stolen.  Stations are exposed.  Stations take up huge amounts of room too.  Surely there's a way to protect the bikes and clear up side-walk space.

Wahhh!!!  amazing.

Oh, Japan is on this too.  9400 bikes in one station...  gulp.

Videos!

Now obviously a huge facility is only necessary in Japan.  In a normal city, a simple corner of a building would be fine.  It would take up the surface space of a couple big vending machines, and could be integrated into a building's foundation. 

With a bike sharing system, there would be a great advantage to such a bike garage.  Bikes are locked up and safe at all times.  Broken or damaged bikes could be pulled out internally.  A repair shop could be added to the bottom of the shaft.

Another bike sharing problem, which Barcelona has had trouble with, and the reason they have bikes moving all over the city on vans, is usage patterns.  Some stations are always drained of bikes, and others are always full of bikes.  In Barcelona, the bike racks at the beach are always full.  When people get to the beach, they can't park their bike for lack of space.  If they just park it just anywhere, the late fees will begin to add up.  Bike riders are forced to ride around in circles looking for a rack with an open slot for their bike.  This is why vans are always pulling bikes from the beach to free up slots.

With a massive, sunken bike station that holds 9400 bikes... that wouldn't be much of a problem.  Peak times could be offset.  A van would still be needed, but only every other day instead of every hour.

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This entry has a reference to Compton Tower.

St. Louis Central Library / Fukuoka Public Library

When I travel, I always start by finding the tallest building in town, and going right to the top with a map to orient myself.  On a recent trip to Japan, I the tallest vantage was to be had in the Fukuoka Tower.  I looked out and saw this,

There was an interesting building there,

I went back down to the steet level and walked along the pedestrian mall towards it.  Looking back, I saw the tower.

The building turned out to be the public library,

Those strange wing-like things on the buildings edges reminded me a bit of open books. 

A loosely open book reveals individual pages.  The public art gives a sense of huge pages sticking up from the hedges.  These pages make something of a zig-zag pattern when you look at them.  In fact, the public plaza out in front seemed to have many zig-zagged planters inviting people to sit in the little nooks they formed.

Inside the library, there were many more zig-zag created nooks to be found,

Most of these nooks had people reading and sleeping.  I tried to only photograph the empty ones out of politeness.

Though these pictures all seem pretty empty, the Fukuoka Public Library was actually very full of life.  There were quite a few people.  There was a computer room, several reading rooms, an inner courtyard, an open periodicals lounge, art-deco doors, a huge foyer, and all the other things you'd expect to find in a public library.

It was very new, and perhaps a bit small.  The shiny new wood furnishings don't quite compare with the historic elements in the St. Louis Central Library of my homeland.

There is a striking difference though.  The library in Fukuoka was very open to foot traffic in front.  It had a lovely plaza with public art. 

The St. Louis Central Library, though incredible inside, is a bit of a remote island on the outside.

The historic architecture is certainly inviting, but these three people must jaywalk to get there.

Fukuoka's pedestrian mall is quite short.  It just connects the library and museum to the tower. 

This pedestrian mall crosses only one road, and it isn't scary at all.  In St. Louis, many many roads must be crossed.

The St. Louis Central Library occupies an interesting part of the Gateway Mall.  Under the Gateway Mall Master Plan, the mall is broken into 'rooms.'  The Library's room is quite nice looking in the picture above, but the size of the streets intimidates me.  These green islands in a sea of concrete are not well connected at all.  What can be done?  Sink all the roads and put bridges over them?  Just close them off to cars? 

There seems to be plenty of room for a plaza in front of the library.

South Grand has researched a test run for pedestrian bulb-outs and reduced lanes.  The results are good.  Grab some big flowerpots and concrete medians, drop em in front of the library, and measure traffic flow.  Is there a big difference?  It would be a start.

Here's a fun video for people interested in knowing more about the St. Louis Central Library.

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This post relates to the St. Louis Gateway Mall

Highway 70 / Cheonggyecheon

Seoul had a huge highway.  They pulled it out, and now have a beautiful urban stream.  The New York Times raved about it a while back.  Read HERE.

 

In some parts of the stream, you can even see parts of the old highway as in the picture above.

St. Louis is building a bridge.  Highways 70 will cross the river north of downtown.

This sunken highway is no longer needed.

If the whole section of I-70 that is left over is dug out, we could turn this,

into this,

HOK has already given us a rendering for what improved overpasses would look like,

Access ramps could be added to these.  Removing the park in front of the Old Court House and creating a grand staircase/ramp there would also be desirable.  A new grand entrance to the already sunken Museum of Westward Expansion could also be created in the corridor as well

Again this,

into this,

If the I-70 corridor is no longer used in the downtown area, digging a small canal along it's length might not be that hard to do. It is very close to the river. Such a canal would lend itself easily to the Greenway District's River Ring concept. It could provide a bike connection into downtown from the riverfront trail, connect the arch grounds to the gateway mall, clean the waters of the mississippi with added wetland space, help reduce the severity of seasonal floods, attract people to downtown, and make one of the coolest city parks in North America.

A sewer department in Indiana believes a canal is the best way to clean up stormwater runoff.  They base their ideas off the canals in Indianapolis  and San Antonio.


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This article relates to the Gateway Mall, highways, the Arch Grounds and the Mississippi River.

Mississippi Tributaries / Han Tributaries

I grew up south of Arnold, Missouri.  Zoom in on Arnold with Google maps, you'll be amazed by what you see.

I lived on a hill in Barnhart during the great flood of 93.  That's the year I learned what Hepatitis A was.  A lot of people lost their homes.  Why there are still homes next to the river... I cannot explain. 

This year, I live close to a place that looks like this,

This is very different.  Let's pan back a bit.

Now we see a couple of Seoul's major streams.  At the top is Cheonggyecheon.

It flows into the Jungnangcheon.

The bridge shown above connects the Han River Park across the Jungnangcheon at Seoul Forest, which can be seen in the first google maps shot above.  The other day, we rode our bikes across it and noticed salmon jumping up the waterfall...  Seoul has salmon it seems...  We saw them jumping about in the shallows too.

Back to the tributaries though, there is my favorite place on earth, Yangjaecheon.

Yangjaecheon flows into the Tancheon,

I hope these images convey something.  These streams are beautiful.  They are heavily used for recreation.  When they flood only a few bike paths are lost.  Most of them have extra paths at higher elevations.  Paths get higher as the distance from the water increases.  Other than Cheonggyecheon (which is more of a public fountain anyway) buildings are constructed far from the actual water.

It is also important to see that in many cases grasses and other water purifying plants grow in the water and help clean it as it flows.

Children did that,

These streams are bicycle highways with all sorts of interesting features along them.  They connect the city's parks and neighborhoods.  Because they all flow to the Han River, their bike paths all connect to the bike paths in the Han River Park.  Due to the great volume of park users, bicycle riders and pedestrians are increasingly being given separate paths.  65% of injuries are bikes smashing into pedestrians.  The paths are very crowded at times. 

The Han River is then a bicycle commuter's dream.  If you can get there, you can get almost anywhere. 

Now, does anybody know where this is?

It must be in Seoul, right?  No, look again.  There's a fence by the river, like people are afraid of their children drowning.  There's a sharp ramp up from the water with significantly less room for overflowing water.  The water is brown and muddy.  The people are white.  Where could this be?

Ah, right, that's the River des Peres. 

St. Louis has a long way to go, but we're on the right track,

The Great Rivers Greenway District's River Ring has incredible potential.  It has become my greatest ambition for St. Louis.  I really hope the improvements never stop.  Imagine bird corridors and raccoon sanctuaries that double as a transit network.

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This article is part of a larger topic comparing the Mississippi to the Han.