Great Streets in Section Online!
I was just looking through one of my favorite blogs, Archidose (a great spot to get a daily dose of architecture), which turned me onto another amazing website. As a huge fan of Great Streets (one of my favorite tomes and a bible for any urban planner/landscape architect), I was so excited archidose found and shared StreetSections.com. Sometimes designers/planners tend to get lost in plan view and forget about the most important view, the section. I can’t tell you how many planning board meetings I suffered through where shady developers NEVER showed the 9′ high septic system or the 50′ retaining wall in section. It seemed so innocuous to the untrained eye as a big green spot/narrow stone sliver in plan - when represented in section with a scale figure next to it one can see how awful the design was.
Street Sections is an online charette that is hoping to showcase 1,000 street designs. Walter Hood, those of us who have seen your work and/or heard you speak know that you can do this with your eyes closed. Boston, please work hard on the new streets above the big dig and remember to honor Olmsted’s Emerald Necklace legacy. Peachtree Street Planners in Atlanta, keep up on all the planning for a more better, safer, more efficient grand boulevard complete with streetcars. Keep checking streetsections for more inspiration!
Above is an example of a section and photograph of Brugge Belgium, submitted by Peter Harmatuck to StreetSections.com.
Studying plan and section of favorite great streets like the Champs Elysees inspired Hood Design’s Poplar Street Improvement Project in Macon Georgia. Walter Hood has mastered the art of meeting current community needs with beautiful street design. He accomplishes this through understanding the site, context, needs (social, safety, infrastructure, traffic, etc.) and what makes historical precedents succeed. He calls this project “a typological hybrid of Street / Yard / Infrastructure.”
Champs Elysees…
photo from ParisDigest.com
…inspires Walter Hood’s Design for Poplar Street in Macon Georgia…
photo from wjhooddesign.com
What’s your favorite street? A standout for me is (are? technically there are five but I’m talking about the main drag) Las Ramblas in Barcelona. Of course I have to give a shout-out to Main Street in Hingham Massachusetts. Don’t forget that something as narrow as a Venetian alley counts. Let’s hear them!
First image: I can’t for the life of me recall where I picked this up - I started this post a few weeks ago, and my internet crashed, and I forgot about it. If anyone knows, please let me know so that I can credit it properly. It thought it was from Great Streets, but now I can’t find it in there!
