David Gouverneur, urban designer and Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at PennDesign, says mending the urban fabric of his city is a bit like acupressure: you put the pressure in certain key places to mend the whole.
Gouverneur was interviewed in Next American City. He talks about the role of urban design, the importance of place and the problems caused by Philadelpia's grid:
"The poor areas in Philadelphia now are the regions that lack economic drive. Neighborhood fabric has eroded, there are increased levels of vacancy, and the grid is full of holes. I think of it like dental work that's losing teeth."
"When it comes to creating new centralities and reinvigorating a space, I think of applying design interventions like systems of acupressure – in isolated pressure points. This means investing your resources, and community and institutional efforts on specific places that you think are most likely to 'succeed.'"
FULL STORY: “An Ideal City Doesn’t Exist”: An Interview with David Gouverneur
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Placer County
Mayors' Institute on City Design
City of Sunnyvale
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning (AAP), the Department of City and Regional Planning (CRP)
Lehigh Valley Planning Commission
City of Portland, ME
Baton Rouge Area Foundation