Nostalgia Is No Substitute For Place

An architecture critic comments on the psudo placemaking that commonly occurs with Disneyesque New Urbanist plans.

1 minute read

May 30, 2002, 8:00 AM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera

St. Paul, MN's new master plan for its West Side Flats area calls for the creation of a mixed use "urban village" in the spirit of New Urbanism. "However, the plan is flawed by its tendency to produce either very bland buildings or a nostalgic and highly scenographic architecture that can only be described as Disneyesque. Instead of creating real places, St. Paul seems more and more to be creating images of places, in which ultra-modern structures hide behind pseudo-historic facades."

Thanks to Christian Peralta

Read the full story: St. Paul needs real places, not just images of places

Wednesday, May 29, 2002 in St. Paul Pioneer Press

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